I snap my eyes open. The door to the Cryo-Chamber opened and I took a deep breath before stepping out.

An alarm was going off but I ignored it as I stretched myself, stiff from the freeze. I tugged on my brownish/red ponytail while rubbing my brown eyes. At my own pace, which is rather fast during this, I strap on my armor and place my weapons on their magnetic holsters.

"Allie? ETA only three minutes." "Thanks Cali." I stat to my AI partner as I take hold of my helmet. I never liked these ones. The closed visor ones were much better, protected you more. "Just get it over with." "I know. I know." I mutter, slipping the helmet on.

Finally I step outside into the wooded area. I look around, nothing showing on my radar. "Cali?" "ETA two minutes. Simulation is Oddball. Eliminate enemies and acquire target." "How many teams?" "Just two. Gamma Squad and Hastati Squad."

I scoffed. I've run into Gamma Squad once. Idiots thought they were hilarious. Not.

I look up at the trees before picking one and climbing up. "Hastati Squad huh? Think you can run diagnostics?" "No problem. Give me five." I smirk, finally reaching a good part of the tree and say, "Seconds or minutes?" "Too late! Done!" "So?"

"Nothing to special about the team. Got a kid whose mom is with ONI. Tech kid. Girl who lost both parents to Insurrectionists. Kid whose mom is in the UNSC as a Colonel and his brother was an ODST before his team got wiped out. Their battle scores aren't that good at all."

Spotting several red and orange dots on my radar, I silently jump to the next tree closest to me. "So we've got a bunch of cocky jokers, and some newbies. Pretty much just a basic warm up for the day. You wanna do me a favor and-" "Hack into their coms? Already done."

With that said, I heard several static noises before different voices came through my coms. Continuing to jump from tree to tree I come into an area that is between the two teams. Cali appears in the corner of my glasses, "You think they'll run this way?"

I look around slowly, "They have to. Hastati is corning themselves." A sound came over the coms. "Sully!" "We have to leave him!" "Lasky what the hell!" Status popped up on my visor now. Casualty: Sullivan. Hmm, already.

Suddenly one of the orange dots ran out in between the divided six red dots, before disappearing. Casualty: Lasky. "Hastati Squad leader on the field. Exercise paused." The computer AI said.

I smirked, as did Cali. "A battleground-" "-Never pauses." I finished, quickly jumping to another tree and another until I was above three cadets of the Gamma Squad. Over the com I heard the Hastati Squad leader say, "Shoulder your weapon, cadet. Your little escapade kept Hastati Squad from achieving its objective. Again." "Exercise continuing." The computer AI said.

I smirked, for as soon as it said that I jumped down onto the three cadets. Pinning one to the ground I pulled out my Magnum and shot three stun rounds. One for each cadet. Standing up I run over to the other three, and once I was close enough I crouched towards them so they wouldn't see me. Coming up behind them I brought my Magnum up and placed a shot into each of their backs.

Now there was just the rest of Hastati Squad, and it didn't take long to finish them. Just some controlled bursts from the Assault Rifle and they were down. "Game over. Exercise complete. Freelancer Cadet, Alli Shepard wins." I shouldered my weapons as all the cadets stood up and just stared at me.

"What? Never seen a Freelancer Cadet before? Hm, I guess not."

"Finally, after your five o'clock battleground simulation you can return to your bunk." "So basically Cali, what your telling me is this: Continue to do what you do everyday, every week and every month." "Yep!" I sighed as Cali laughed at me.

Suddenly I heard someone yelling, or better yet lecturing. "Let me remind you cadets: This academy bears the name of the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo. Because he represents honor, valor, allegiance."

I rolled my eyes and went to stand behind General Black, arms crossed as Cali mutters, "I can name better people who represent those three and so much more. I should, I'm an AI."

"General Corbulo was to take his own life in the name of the empire. Corbulo did not hesitate nor question. He loyally obeyed, screaming "Axios!" as he fell upon his own sword. Axios. I AM WORTHY. But I'm afraid, cadets, today you have proven to be anything but. We are at war with insurrectionists. Terrorists who would like nothing more than to see all of us dead. Had this been an actual Firefight the rebels would have likely killed every member of Hastati Squad. Every single one of you at this academy was sent here because your parents are the upper echelon of the United Nations Space Command. Because all of you are its future, and I expect you to act like it."

With that said an idea popped into my head and Cali smirked, "Brain wave activity has increased. Alli has a plan~" "And a very fun one at that."

Carefully I sneaked over to General Black's 'precious' Warthog and knelled into the front seat. Opening a panel I took out my combat knife and spliced a couple of wires, smirking.

"Axios!" "Axios!" I quickly turn my head to see General Black and his goons coming. With one more spark the motor started and Black froze in his tracks. Sitting up with a silly grin on my face I raised an arm and yelled saying, "Success!" "Shepard! What are you doing in my Warthog!?"

I smirked at him before pressing on the gas and shouting, "Axiopisti!" "Shepard!" Black yelled as he chased after me as I drove his Warthog toward the academy. Corbulo Academy of Military Science: Circinius-IV.

Cali and I both smile widely as we sing and enter the academy, Black and his goons still running after us, "Pray for the day that the lies don't find you. Pray that the end isn't right behind you~"

I hid in a bush as a bunch of officers ran past me, actually searching for me. As soon as I had made it inside the academy I hightailed it away from the Warthog to find a place to lay low. That is Black's Warthog and he let's EVERYONE know way or another.

As the officers passed around a corner I quickly darted into a building. "Uh, Alli?" Cali whispered.

I slowly look behind me from peeking around the corner to see a bunch of cadets staring at me. I recognized some of the faces from the simulations I'd done today. I stood up straight and puffed my chest out saying, "What are you all staring at!?" With that they all scattered back to what they had been doing.

I smirked before hearing yelling coming from outside the room. I quickly walked down the hall before darting into a room I thought was empty, and hid behind the corner. The sound of disappearing footsteps made me silently sigh before hearing something behind me.

Turning around I find the Lasky kid watching a vid. It showed a guy that looked just like him only slightly older. He was showing off a flaming skull tattoo with the letters ODST at the bottom of it.

Lasky laughed a little as the man said, "It's still a little raw. But we got a big drop on an innie stronghold next week, wanted to get it done before then. Anyways—" "That your brother?"

Lasky quickly paused the video and turned to stare at me. I smile sadly as I walk over to his bed and sit on it, "I'm sorry. I'm sure you miss him. Especially if you're always viewing vids of him." He looked shock for a moment before I rubbed my head and held out my wrist.

On it was a small computer device and from the screen Cali popped up saying, "I sorta looked at your teams files. During the simulation objective earlier." He slowly pointed to Cali and said, "Is that…an AI?" "Yep, sure is! This is Cali, she's my personal AI 'assistant'. Other than that she's a good friend of mine." "Have been for a while." "Yea it has been a long time hasn't it… Anyway, my names Alli. Alli Shepard."

"Thomas Lasky…You're the one the computer said won the game. Freelancer cadet?" "Mmhm. Training to be a top operative, solider, spy, etc. Whatever the UNSC wants me to be on a mission. Freelancers usually work alone but we'll work with teams sometimes." "How many are you?" "Eh, I'd say just a few." "It's a give or take between 100 and 150." "Right, thanks Cali."

Lasky stared at us for a minute before asking, "So, if you're such a respected cadet…Why are you in here?" "Ah! Now see that's the funny part. Respected amongst some, yes. Others, not so much." "Including a certain General Black." "Wait, so that was you who hotwired his Warthog?" "I've had a couple times to practice it."

"What did you yell when you drove off?" "Axiopisti? It's another Greek word, of course. It means 'he who is trustworthy'. Much better than worthy if you ask me." Lasky scoffed but nodded none the less.

Suddenly a girl with dark hair, Chyler Silva, entered the room, "So you haven't been court marshaled yet?" I smirk at her joke before standing up and stretching, saying, "Well, it's getting late. Better head back to my bunker before curfew. Maybe I'll see your team later. Bye Lasky." I wave goodbye and quickly walk out and back to the Freelancer bunkers.

There are few of us so they spread us across the planets, for security reasons. We can be almost as strong as the legendary Spartans. It's a lot of work though and we're not fitted with all those fancy augmentations.

I walk into the bunker to see four other Freelancer cadets. There's Johanna Leyland, she's a freshman and even though the term's almost over she's still a little nervous. Matt and Lewis Cameron are two juniors and a little reckless, but good soldiers. Finally there's Nick Griffin, another senior. He's a little uptight and strict but he pulls through when it counts.

Walking past each of their rooms I can see what they're up to. Jo is sending another vid message to her family. Matt and Lewis were in Matt's room arm wrestling while Nick was reading with his AI, Manni. Cali pops up and waves enthusiastically, "HI!" I see both of them cringe as I smirk and lean against the door frame.

"Reading up on Inni attacks again, are we?" I said as he turned to look at me before turning back. "Invaded a whole colony and killed thousands of innocents. If we're here training, then who the hell is supposed to help those people before it's too late?"

"If we weren't here training, then how well do you think we'd stand up against those guys? Even with our past experience?"

He sighs in defeat before leaning back over his shoulder to look at me, saying, "And how did simulation go this evening?" "Perfect. Got both teams within ten to fifteen minutes of start." "Mm-hm. And did you actually wait when the simulation was paused? Or did you disregard the rules and continue on?"

"Come on Nick." I groan as I roll my eyes. "You know very well that's against the rules. It's also not fair for the opposing side."

"Right, right. I'll just tell the enemy that as well once our teams run out of ammo. 'Oh, no! Pause! Everybody pause please! We have run out of ammo! We're just gonna go back to checkpoint to pick some up, give us about five minutes!' Yeah I can see how well it'll work out now."

"It is now twenty-one hundred. Lights out and doors locked." The campus AI stated. I gave Nick one last stare down before standing straight and heading to my room.

I entered just as my door shut and the lights went out. Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair before taking Cali off my arm and plugging her into the computer. She quickly materialized and smiled slightly as I tucked myself into bed.

"Be ready for anything tomorrow. You never know what the instructors will throw at you." "Right. Wake me up before they come banging." "As always."

Here's the first official chapter! You've met the rest of Alli's team and learned they're Freelancer cadets! There's two Red vs Blue reference. Can you guess which song they were singing? I do not own Halo or Red vs Blue or Forward Unto Dawn. Only my characters!