A/N: Thanks to my editors which I would be at a loss for words if I went without them. Also for Adam jumping on my case to actually put the final finishing touches on this chapter. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I wanted to end it. With that, enjoy.
Chapter Two
The Spartans Turnout
As Chris opened the doors he walked into a large room with a big rectangular table in the middle with various chairs placed around the sides. It was the pale gray that was all through the building itself but it felt strange somehow. The room was that of a typical conference room except it was located deep within the ONI building which meant that it had many security features that other rooms couldn't even compare with. Chris sat down at one end of the table and spread out the info that was in the folder, studying the contents. As he started looking over the documents once more the door at the far end of the room opened to reveal a nervous looking marine. "Sir, I'm Private Griffin. The Spartans are here to meet with you. You want them to come in one at a time or all at once?" The ex-Spartan thought about it for a second and then responded, "Send them all in." Chris though to himself that he might as well see how they interact with each other. The private rushed from the room, and a few moments later the door opened up again to reveal a line of soldiers in basic Navy uniform. Chris gathered his papers and put them back in the folder as he stood up. "At ease guys, and take a seat."
As they walked in Chris took a quick glimpse at each one, and they did the same in return. None of them actually took a seat but then again Spartans were uncomfortable sitting. "Well we're here, might as well get to know each other; and because I am the commanding officer, I guess I'll go first." He cleared his throat and spoke in a clear, strong voice. "My name is Chief Petty Officer Christopher Johndro. To my friends I'm Chris, but in combat I'm known as Insane. I am currently working with ONI as an intelligence unit. I was a Spartan and have experience in fighting the Covenant, well…what's left of it. My job was to give our side some advantage by providing tactical data on each species of the Covenant as well as our other enemies such as the insurrectionist. That's all in the past though, and now I am in command of you. Unfortunately, command has said that we need to prove ourselves before we get out into the field, and there is only one way to do that: we train. But first, I would like to get to know each of you a little better. I do have all of your records and medical history but that's not I what I want from you. I want something personal; something that's yours, something that's not in your files."
Chris stopped talking, and after a few moments with no volunteers he took a random file from the folder. "Petty Officer First Class Joshua Soucy, you go first."
The Spartans looked at one of their own as he sighed. He was about six feet tall and looked to have a pretty average built. He had dirty blond hair and brown eyes, and when he spoke his voice was a little raspy. "Sir, I am Petty Officer First Class Joshua Soucy, call sign Soucy. And I'm the best lock specialist you have out of the group here." He paused for a moment. "Sir, could I speak freely?"
"By all means, Soucy."
"We've been training for a while, sir. Just what exactly do we have in store for us?"
Chris straightened in his seat "Well it doesn't even say in the files I have here in front of me, so if you don't know and I don't know, then I guess we'll just have to put on one hell of a show to find out what brass has in store for us."
Soucy smiled a bit, "Good point."
As Soucy quieted down another spoke up, the lone female of the group; she seemed to be nothing but trouble. "Sir, I'll go next if you don't mind."
At this point, Chris was tired of all the formalities. "Fine, but no more 'sir's from any of you, I want to see the real versions of you guys. I need that in order to figure out how we're gonna work as a team."
The female shifted her feet to get more comfortable than the typical stance of a soldier. She actually looked tougher then some of the males in the room but under the skin Chris could tell she had a soft side. Either way, it was obvious that she was proud of who she was and what she was doing. "Fair enough, I am Petty Officer Second Class Amanda Biondi. Yeah, I'm the only female of the group, but nobody rags on me harder then the asshole sitting right over there." She points to one of the others.
"Bitch." The man she pointed to was very blunt.
"Asshole" Amanda snorted.
Chris looks to the others, "Are they always like this?"
The "asshole" she pointed to spoke up. He was about 5'10", had brown hair and this weird greenish-blue eye color. "Only when officers are around," He paused if only for a second, then added a sir. He spoke with a dronish tone, "I am Petty Officer Second Class Adam Madrussan. I'm your sniper; I work well in a team but even better when I'm alone. And, I don't like to take shit from anybody."
Chris laughed and some of the other Spartans laughed along with him. Adam didn't look too pleased. "What's so damn funny?" Chris settled down just a bit and replied, "Well, to be honest, you keep that fucking attitude up and you'll be taking shit for a long time coming, asshole."
Adam let out a sigh but Chris was the one to speak up. "Guys, we don't really have all that much time to be screwing around right now. Let's get serious, finish the intros, and get brass in here to tell us what we're doing. I'm just as anxious as you guys are to be honest. Your turn." With that he pointed to one of the four left at random. He was tall, and probably the skinniest of the group. He had blue eyes and long blonde hair, non-regulation, but nothing was really typical of this group of military soldiers. The way he presented himself left an impression of eerie darkness.
"I'm Ben Stroud. Same rank as most of us here. I like privacy so I'm just going to pass the torch to Zack. I'm not into 'sharing' info."
"Why me? You know what? Whatever... I'm Zack. Call sign Tuba. Don't ask how I got it, you'll just find out eventually. I'm somewhat of a scientist and I love to tinker with my personal weapons. I'm also you're heavy weapons guy." Zack was about 5'10, had brown hair, blue eyes and every time Chris looked into them he seemed to be deep in thought.
"Well being that we don't have enough time to argue, I'll let you slide this time Stroud. But don't expect me to be so kind next time I ask you of a simple task." With that the Chief Petty Officer acknowledged the only two Spartans that had yet to speak. "Next?"
"I hate going last so I'll go." This one looked to be the strongest of the group. At 6'1" he looked to be around 190 pounds and most if not all of it had to be muscle. With brown hair and blue eyes, he continued on, "I'm Aaron, call sign Merc. I'm a lock specialist. As for you wanting something personal, I think I'll actually bite and give up a little something." He shifted his view if only for a moment as he paused. "The only reason I'm here is because of the fact that my parents didn't want me. The Navy found me and threw me into the Spartan-IV program when it started."
Chris kept a steady gaze on Aaron as he sat down. While he didn't necessarily have anyone in his life to depend on, he would have to get used to the fact that he did now. It would probably be the hardest security blanket to overcome besides Ben's utter annoyance with everything around him. But if Ben did his job correct then there was no real problem there. Aaron would have to get used to having people watch his back; a hard, but necessary challenge to overcome.
"Alright, I guess I'm last." The final Spartan in the room looked over to Chris and started to speak. "I'm Justin, call sign Nightmare. It's for a reason but you'll find out about it by looking through my file, I'm sure." He was cocky. Not necessarily a good trait, but there were worse ones. "Either way, I'm good at close combat. But I'm best at capturing targets. Killing is too easy for me." At the sound of this Ben snorted. "Anyway, something personal is defiantly already in my file and I don't really feel like sharing with the others; even if they probably already heard rumors about it when we were kids.
Chris straightened in his chair. The new Spartans were still standing, but he understood their twitching. It was something he has lost while being out of action for about year. Chris hit the intercom button on the table and summoned Private Griffin into the room once more. "Tell the higher-ups we're ready for them," With that the Private walked back out of the room. "Honestly guys, I have no idea what we're in store for. Let's just sit it out and find out exactly why we're here."
A few more minutes passed by the private came back into the room yet again. Surprisingly enough, nobody appeared to be following him. "Well where are they?" Chris asked with a hint of impatience. The Private scanned around the table and handed Chris what appeared to be a data pad. Chris plugged it into the table and a hologram light up the room from the center of the table. It was the figure of an older man with wrinkles all around his face, someone unknown to any of them. He looked to be in his 60s. "Spartans, I am Admiral Stephen White. We need the squad ready to kick some ass and we need them fast. The training course we have set up for you is a test to see just how stealthy you all can be using your certain specialty to your advantage, seeing that all of you have one. The only one of you who isn't participating is Johndro. We've seen him in action and we want to see you. All of you stay in this room; we'll call you out one by one into the training room next door and get you guys suited up. Johndro, report to us by way of the hallway that the private came in through. He will be there to take you up to the observation deck. Everyone else, relax, you'll be kicking some ass shortly." With that the feed cut off.
Chris got up from the table and went for the door. "Give 'em hell, guys." And with that, he was gone.
A/N: Obviously some action coming up shortly. The next couple chapters are probably going to be smaller then this but Chapter 3 should be a nice size depending on how I do it. So with that let's hope I don't take so long to write the next chapter again. And thanks to Adam and Aaron for a great job editing. Thank guys.