Vanguard
Chapter 27
"Downgrade"
[Slipstream Space, UNSC Vanguard, S-Deck]
During the Vanguard's jump to open space away from Ukio, Ahsoka and James were making their way down to S-Deck while Jorge headed off to the cafeteria to eat. The walk was silent for the two, they've been getting more peace and quiet with each passing step, the togruta was light and virtually silent while the SPARTAN's footsteps came down with heavy metallic thuds.
It wasn't long before Tano broke the silence "What was life like becoming a SPARTAN?"
Longarm shares a glance with her before answering "It wasn't the easiest time of my life I'll be honest. Seventy five of us were called to become the protectors of Earth and all her colonies, or so Doctor Halsey would say it."
"Doctor Halsey? Who's that?" she asks.
"Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey was the mastermind behind the SPARTAN-ll Project and the MJOLNIR Program; many would say she's the smartest human to ever live in history. She's the person that made us who we are today."
"A band of super soldiers meant to help humanity survive the Covenant?"
"Not exactly, the SPARTANs were originally created to deal with human insurrections on outer colony worlds on the brim of human space. The cost for an all-out conventional war would be too much even for the UNSC, we were the next best thing. By the time we made first contact with the Covenant over a colony world called Harvest we hit them with everything we had, troops, ships, even parts of our nuclear arsenal but they were just too advanced and too many. We were the last line of defense. We were practically unbeatable, immortal in the eyes of our enemies. We were branded as demons to the Covenant while humanity saw us as their last guardians standing between them and extinction. Eventually a saying was made for us."
"What was it?"
"SPARTANs never die . . . they just go missing in action."
This gave Ahsoka a new insight to the pure effectiveness of the SPARTANs, in her eyes they might as well have been gods of the battlefield, able to turn the tide at a moment's notice and inflict breathtaking casualty ratings on a massive scale. Clone troopers now looked like children next to these top of the line soldiers, ARC troopers might have a chance against them but only at the slightest. If the Republic had these class of soldiers then they would've won the war months after it had started. She was lucky to have such a powerful force on her side.
"So what were the other SPARTANs like? Other than Jorge?" she asks.
"I'm really not sure . . . they all held on together like they were family, they were nice, compassionate, always looked out for one another. They worked as a team just like Mendez wanted them to be."
"Mendez?"
"Where Doctor Halsey had us augmented and equipped to become SPARTANs, Officer Franklin Mendez trained and molded us into the perfect soldier, he taught how to fight and kill but he also taught us what's right from wrong. Some of us looked up to him as a father figure despite the disciplinary beatings we get for misconduct."
"Some kind of father figure" she remarks after hearing about the beatings.
"That's life in the UNSC. But time passed on and he began to respect us as fellow soldiers."
"So the other SPARTANs, you knew them right?"
"Of course I did, aside from Jorge there was some that were at least kind to me in a way. The most notable one was Kelly-087 or 'Rabbit' as we called her."
"Why Rabbit?" Tano asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Let's answer the question with another question: How fast can you run?"
Ahsoka wasn't sure where he was going with this "Pretty fast, why?"
"Not fast enough, Kelly is undisputedly the fastest human to ever live. No other SPARTAN could ever catch if she didn't want them to. Not to mention she can put anyone of us down in a heartbeat without a problem."
"Wow, what was she like?"
"Other than being lighting fast? She was sweet for the most part, to be honest I sort of had a thing for her despite regulations, I guess the feeling sort of faded away after the augmentations."
"Wait you liked her? That's cute" she said with a grin.
"May have been her English accent or something . . . but yeah she was great at what she did."
The two walked silently for the moment, James remembered Kelly back in their younger days while Ahsoka wondered what it would be like if she ever met this well-known SPARTAN.
Then she asks "Who else was there?"
"Well . . ." he started "There was Frederic-104, a straight forward kind of guy, Naomi-010, she loved to watch the stars roll on by, there was plenty more of them that I can list out but there was one guy who stood out from the rest, one that everyone saw as their leader, John-117."
"117? What was he like?"
"A natural born leader, one who looked after his own fellow soldiers and be the first into a combat zone and the last to come out of it. He took care of everyone regardless of their position among the SPARTANs. The only problem was that he and I never saw eye to eye."
"What happened?"
"If you hadn't notice after so long I have tendencies to go lone wolf on certain operations, feeling that I can perform better on my own without anyone to slow me down. John on the other hand firmly believed that we will all be much more effective if we worked as a team, which is true in most cases, but not me. Occasionally we argue about our view of effectiveness and almost on every occasion it turns into a scuffle, we trade blows until we either give up or our drill instructors had to come in and break it up with humbler batons or their own fists. Half the time the bastard gets lucky and wins, there was one time where I won a fight but I think he'd let me win."
"You know John is right, if we work together then we're better."
James had to chuckle "You're only saying that because you and I make a great team, and now with Jorge we've become even better."
"I'm right aren't I?"
"Yeah . . . I suppose you are. Here we are . . ."
The two arrived at the bulkhead hatch and entered through to the armor RIG station, the room was lifeless but they came here for a reason. Longarm motions Ahsoka to the monitor screens while he himself stepped onto the RIG and spread his arms out.
Tano found a blinking green icon labeled [INITIATE PROCEDURE] and lightly presses her fingers against it, the icon expanded and displayed [INITIALIZING] with Percival stating over the intercom "Removing MJOLNIR Mk. V Power Armor, one moment."
The mechanical arms extended out from the ring, each reaching out to grab a certain component of the SPARTAN's armor, and began to systematically remove each component from his body, beginning with the helmet and arms with delicate touches, then they moved onto the chest and waist where the damaged chest piece was unresponsive to the arms' attempts to remove it which resulted in the piece to be further dismantled to the point where it fell off the body hitting the ground with a loud metallic clang. The arms then moved down to his legs and one by one they removed every last piece of titanium alloy from his body, now revealing a black body suit that conformed around his body structure.
The togruta watched as the six foot SPARTAN step out of the RIG and feel his cut across his chest, then he began to undress prompting her to look away.
James noticed her not looking and states "You don't have to be in here while I undress you know."
"I know . . ." she replies as she stares at the walls.
"You can look now, I'm still dressed."
Ahsoka hesitated to turn around until she sighs and takes a look, she finds James to be nearly nude save for a specially made pair of black coverings for his groin area. His legs, arms, and chest all shared something in common, massive muscular buildup, pale complexion, and numerous long scars that looked like they've been stitched together, the only thing that seemed to comfort her were his bright blue eyes.
Longarm then began to flex his muscles, stretching his limbs and neck stating "It's been a while since I've been out of that armor . . ." before proceeding to make his way over to the terminals where Ahsoka stood silently.
She carefully examined James's chest, noticing all of these scars that was caused long ago but the most notable mark of all was the freshest one, the one caused by Shev 'Vadamee's sword that had sliced through the SPARTAN's armor and left it there, the slash mark on his chest seemed to have burned through the outermost layer of skin and cauterized the wound before it could have caused any serious damage.
"Did it hurt?" she asks referring to the slash.
Longarm was now standing at the terminals with his back turned to her when he answered "I've had worse . . . but if you wanted to know, then yeah . . . it sort of did."
While the SPARTAN pressed several icons on the screen, accessing the ship's storage units for what he was searching for, Ahsoka couldn't help but stare at all of these markings that populated his broad back. She was standing so close to him she could reach out and touch them with her own hand. And that was when curiosity took over.
She slowly reached out with her right hand, her fingers etching ever so closer to the unsuspecting man's backside, and softly placed it against his back. She felt the SPARTAN's body tense, he didn't bother to turn around or say anything but instead he remained still and silent, the sudden jump caused her to retract her hand but after seeing him calm down she places her warm hand on his cold back once more and began to feel each scar carefully.
She asked as her finger tips glides across his back to each different mark "Did 'these' hurt?"
James remained silent, feeling her warm touch against his back, and finally spoke "The augmentation procedures was the SPARTANs' most difficult challenge yet . . . many of us died through the process, more were crippled and washed out of service. Only thirty five of us survived that day . . ."
She didn't want to say anything as she continued to feel every inch of his pale skin for every scar, each with a story of its own, she had to ask "Was it really worth it?"
He finally felt like he needed to break protocol, to let her understand what he and every other SPARTAN had gone through, but something in his mind held him back "In order to protect humanity from harm, we . . . had to do what was required, even if it costed our own lives."
The overwhelming sadness and anger was swelling up inside of him and she felt it as well, but she believed her soft touch was the only thing keeping him from going over the edge, but it was time and she withdrew her hand and offered "I can go, let you have a moment to yourself . . ."
He didn't respond which cued her to begin walking away until his voice called out to her "No."
She turns to him, finding him looking straight back at her, and he spoke "You can stay if you want, I believe I almost found what I'm looking for" before he turns back to the terminal, swiping away at the touch screens.
She came back over to his side, not trying to think about his scars, and watched the screen pass through every item in the ship's database until it came onto a suit of armor much similar to James's damaged suit.
She read the label and asks "Another set of power armor?"
"Yep" he replies as he presses the icon labeled [REQUISITION].
It wasn't long until a supply pod was rolled into the room via management rail and came down in front of the RIG, Longarm steps over to the capsule and punches in an eight-digit code into the keypad. The pod cracks open with a hiss and opens up revealing a large bulky suit of armor painted in olive green. Ahsoka steps forth and examined the armor, realizing it had seen better days with its cuts and scratches, and quickly spots the helmet, more round than the angular Mk. V EOD helmet she was used to seeing and featured an open gold-plated visor plate rather than the narrow slit black visor.
Percival was forced to ask "Is that the Mk. lV?"
"Yes it is . . ." James answers.
The RIG's mechanical arms reached in the capsule and began dissecting every piece of it, removing the green armored shell from the black bodysuit allowing the SPARTAN to take it and begin dressing himself once more. Once James was back in his old bodysuit he nods his head towards the terminal, prompting Tano to head back over and initialize the armoring process, and stepped back into the RIG with his arms out.
She asks "You have to downgrade yourself to a Mk. lV? What's so special about it?"
"The MJOLNIR Mk. lV Powered Assault Armor was Catherine Halsey's brainchild that she worked on alongside the SPARTAN Program, from what I was told she had several versions of the armor, all of them were too cumbersome and had to be tethered to a stationary power generator which ultimately failed, until she created this. After overcoming some technical complications the Mk. lV was the first successful armor system to be fielded, there was just one catch."
"And that is?"
"The armor enhances the wearer's speed and reflexes via a neural link, unfortunately the suit itself moves faster than the average human can think, thus causing sudden and violent movements that causes the man to react to his own pain. In brief note, the suit killed men via pain-induced spasms, breaking and shattering bone until the user is dead. Fortunately during the augmentations we were granted an upgrade to our neural interfaces, making us more compatible with the armor. In short, the Mk. lV was tailored made for SPARTAN-lls."
The mechanical arms kicked into gear, carefully latching pieces together onto his body as if it were a jigsaw puzzle starting with the arms and legs, each piece of the armor mechanically locked itself with the bodysuit and accompanying fragments of armor with mechanical clicks and whirs. Tano watched as the SPARTAN's body was overcome with green from the toe up, the arms then went for the chest carrying the hefty torso pieces by placing the frontal chest and rear torso segments against his body in sort of a sandwich fashion where they interlocked with themselves and latched themselves to his body.
James was allowed to step off the RIG, now adorned in his MJOLNIR Mk. lV Powered Assault Armor that he hasn't worn for so long, and began to flex his muscles missing the nostalgic feeling of wearing this armor once more, "Still fits like a glove . . ." he mentions as he balls up a fist with his right hand.
Ahsoka carefully examined every aspect of his armor, this version was considerably bulkier than the Mk. V with the green titanium alloy plating virtually covering his entire body save for a few black spots that showed his inner bodysuit, his shoulder pauldrons were uneven with the right shoulder holding a large piece in place while the left featured a much smaller shoulder guard, and his chest plate was as broad as his actual chest and that was when she noticed the number [121] labeled in bold white on his left pec.
One of the arms then extended out part ways towards Ahsoka, holding the roundish helmet out to her, with Percival stating "Here, you might like the honor."
The young togruta hesitated for a brief moment before she steps towards the arm and firmly grasp the helmet before the arm released its grip, the helmet then placed its full weight in her hands nearly making her drop it until she held it up once more. The helmet was definitely heavier than the Mk. V she held when James was hospitalized after his fight with her former master. She then walks over and stands in front of James, who was looking down at her from his new towering seven and a half foot height, and he gently bows his head over letting her slide the helmet over his head. That was when she realized that while the Mk. V made a SPARTAN look intimidating enough, the Mk. lV made them look like a hulking walking tank. She was looking at a super soldier in his primal form . . .
The helmet's HUD systems came online displaying shield strength, motion tracker, and biological data of the user's body. Everything was in order and now the only thing he needed to do was to perform a test run.
The SPARTAN then flexed his arms one last time before resting his left hand on her shoulders "Let's go see Jorge" he said with a grin.
[Fifteen minutes later, Cafeteria]
Jorge-052 was enjoying the silence alone as he ate his meal Percival prepared him, he was sitting in a booth next to a window watching the blue spectral light of Slipspace as it passed by, when he heard a distant door hiss open and looked over to see Ahsoka and Longarm donning his old Mk. lV.
He lets out a laugh "Haha, I figured you might still have that relic lying around."
"Yeah . . ." James replies "Never thought I had to use it again after so long."
The big man steps out from his seat and asks with a grin "Ma'am do you know how much that armor costs?"
Tano took another look at James and guessed "Eh . . . not much I'm guessing."
Longarm however corrects her "This armor costs just a little more than this ship."
"Wow really!?"
"Mhm."
Jorge asks "So are you up for a little sparring in a moment?"
"That's what I'm here for" James replies "We'll be in the training bay."
"Right then. I'll be there in a few."
[Twenty minutes later, Training Bay]
SPARTAN James was doing his routine boxing session with Ahsoka watching him from the benches, the room was silent save for the heavy blows the soldier was dealing to the worn out bag.
Ahsoka sat there silently with her head resting in her hands on her knees watching the SPARTAN 'Really must suck to be that bag right now . . .' she thought to herself with boredom. Though she had to admit the last month with James had been one heck of a trip for her since she left the Order, then again another part of her missed her time at the temple with her master and her friends. But after the fiasco with the temple bombing, she still couldn't really trust in them as much as she wanted to, these SPARTANs and their AI were her new friends now.
That was just shortly before she hears the door hiss open and saw Jorge all armored up walking in, his helmet was firmly placed on replacing his grizzled face with the orange visor. He gives an acknowledging nod to her as he strode past and faced his closest friend, James takes one glance at his companion and delivers one last right handed blow to the bag before stepping away to face his opponent. Ahsoka sat up for once, anticipating a good fight in the next few moments, and paid close attention.
The two ironclad soldiers were feet from each other, sizing one another up for a fight as if they were bitter rivals, until Jorge asks "Let's make this interesting . . ."
"I'm listening" James replies standing firm.
"How about a friendly wager, loser gets ship repair duty for the next month."
"And the winner?" Longarm asks.
"Um . . ." Jorge answers half-heartedly, with most of the crew gone he ran out of barter ideas until his eyes came to a stop on Ahsoka and answers jokingly "Winner gets a date with that young lady over there."
However Tano hears the wager and rebukes him "What?! Not happening Jorge!"
The togruta's sudden uproar caused the two SPARTANs to let out a friendly chuckle before James playfully punches his friend's chest "It's a deal big man."
"Alright let's get to it then shall we?" Jorge asks as he raised his fists and entered his combat stance.
The other SPARTAN took several steps back and entered his stance.
The two stood idly for a moment, anticipating each other's move, before James makes the first strike stepping forward throwing a hard right jab for Jorge's chest. However the big man expected this and grasped his friend's fist with his own just before throwing a right underhand hook that collided with Longarm's lower torso, the SPARTAN grunted before shooting up his right knee that slammed into his friend's lower torso as well. Jorge staggered backwards a couple of steps, allowing James to quickly close the gap and deliver a hard high kick, his green metallic boot smashing against the towering SPARTAN's chest causing him to reel back further. Longarm was going to continue his streak with a fast right uppercut but Jorge swiftly recovered from his hits and quickly caught the flying fist with his left hand before sending a heavy blow across James's helmet with his right.
Ahsoka watched with awe, each SPARTAN was dealing blows that would break bones and kill a man, dodging fast strikes whenever possible with heighten reflexes and speed or effectively stop an attack dead in their tracks with their own hands, this was something only a Jedi or a well-trained martial artist could ever achieve, and she was amazed.
Jorge deals another hammer arm, slamming down on Longarm's head forcing him to fall to a knee before he comes back up with his two fists cupped together slinging it right into the underside of the giant's helmet. The hit was devastating, knocking the helmet clean off and causing Jorge to stagger back before securing his footing just as James was closing in for another attack. But instead of blocking or evading, the big man reaches out and forcibly grabs his friend by his right upper arm and upper left thigh raising him high above the ground before slamming his back against the hard floor. James gasped for the moment, having the oxygen knocked out of him was painful, but he was able to stand back up and begin delivering blow after blow with his fists, sending out hooks, jabs, and uppercuts in rapid succession that racked the giant's body. Jorge took every hit, each coming hard after the other, until he grasped James's helmet between his two hands and pulled him down while throwing his knee up, the two collided like a head on car accident and the smaller SPARTAN reeled back dazed before getting his bearings moments after.
Longarm quickly charges in and shoulder barges his friend in the chest followed up with a right hook, but Jorge quickly grasps his hand and shoots out his right fist but James in turn caught it forcing the two into a locked shoving match. Neither SPARTAN-ll wanted to back down until Jorge retracts his right hand and grabs James by the throat before lifting him into the air and throw him down onto the ground. James quickly gets back up and decides on one last effort, he charges towards the big man once more this time he tackles his friend's legs before getting a grip around his left leg and wait and lift the eight foot one ton super soldier off the ground causing the two the topple over onto the ground with a loud crashing sound. Jorge came down hard on his back while James painstakingly got back to his feet, only to receive a lightning fast metal boot to the chest completely knocking the wind out of him and sending him falling backwards onto the floor as well, breathless.
The two tried to get back up but neither could, that was when Ahsoka approached them and looked down at the two SPARTANs "So . . . who won?"
Both super soldiers pointed at one another and answered simultaneously with exhaustion "He did . . ."
"Good, you both get maintenance duty" she beams before she begins to walk away.
But James manages to sit up and stop her "Whoa-ho-ho wait a second there" she stops and turns to look at him "You owe both of us a date" he adds with a amused grin behind his helmet.
Tano rolled her eyes and shook her head before heading out the training bay, letting James stand back up and pull Jorge up to his feet who then comments "Well . . . it was worth a shot."
Longarm chuckled as he fetched his friend's helmet and returns it to him before stating "I'm going to head over to the range, make sure the ballistics software is in working order."
"Alright then, I suppose I'll head up to the bridge and see if Percival found anything about the Holonet."
On that note the two SPARTANs headed out the bulkhead hatch and parted ways, Jorge making his way to the bridge while James headed off to deck eleven.
[Two hours later, Deck eleven]
Ahsoka was coming by the doorway to the gun range when she heard muffled gunfire echo from behind the hatch, after getting some rest after watching the two soldiers spar she decided to go for a walk around the destroyer, and decided to head on in. The hatch slid open letting her find Longarm standing in a booth wielding a BR55 Battle Rifle, a standardized variant that lacked the longer heavy barrel seen on some models and instead sported the more compact barrel that was favored for close quarters or interior fighting, firing away at enemy targets that continuously appeared from the floor, walls, and ceilings.
The SPARTAN-ll downs a drone target from the ceiling when Ahsoka taps on his left shoulder pad, causing him to look back, and ask "How's the armor Longarm?"
James looks back at his ammo counter, displaying zeros, and sets the rifle down before stating "I'm getting a nostalgic feeling from it."
She watches him eject the empty magazine from the rifle's stock and insert a new one as she states "Percy finally got connected to the Holonet, you should've seen his reaction when he saw all that information."
"Like a kid at a candy store I'm assuming?"
"Pretty much."
The soldier presses the rifle against his shoulder and resumes firing, each three-round burst striking each target with lethal efficiency, until the magazine was empty once more just before the former Jedi asks "Hey James?"
Realizing that she called him by his real name, James knew this was something important, "Yeah?" he answers.
She presses her back against the side of the booth and asks "I know you probably don't like to talk about your parents and I totally understand it but . . . did you ever forgive them for what they did, what you saw that day?"
James sets the rifle down and turns to her "This is relevant how?"
"It's just an honest question . . ."
He sighs "In all honesty, I don't know. When I first found them like that I couldn't decide if I wanted to be angry at them or break down crying. Being a SPARTAN meant you have to emotionally composed, not allowing emotion to cloud our judgment or get in the way, that's what makes us soldiers."
"You say that like normal people and soldiers are two different things. Just like the Jedi we could feel emotion but we had to restrain ourselves from acting on them, else we lose our way. Like I did . . ."
He leans his back against the other side of the booth across from her and crossed his arms "You acted on experience, something in your mind told you that something was wrong and you had to act on it. You never really told me what happened, what made you leave the Order."
Ahsoka felt hesitant to tell him, but she learned to trust him enough to let him know "Well . . . my master and I were leading the assault on Cato Neimodia when Yoda contacted us and told us to come back to the Jedi Temple after it was bombed. We were supposed to go and find whoever was responsible and eventually found the wife of the bomber that killed himself, after arresting her and sent her to the local base for questioning, she wanted to talk to me. I went and heard what she had to say, but-" she stops herself.
The SPARTAN continued "But?"
"But suddenly she was being choked . . . at the time I didn't know who was doing it but everyone saw me with her on the security footage, it looked like I killed her. The troopers came and arrested me for a murder I didn't commit, I knew I was framed. Eventually I escaped, knowing I needed to find out who really did this and bring them to justice."
James continued to listen attentively to her story "After a while I ran into Ventress who was about to collect a bounty on me, but instead she decided to help me find out who the suspect was until we came to a warehouse where we part ways. Soon enough I was attacked by who I thought was Asajj but I was beaten and stunned by the troopers that found me alongside crates of explosives that was stashed there. When I came to I being transported to the court chambers where I was going to be sentenced . . ." her voice trails off from there.
He noticed she was starting to choke up as if she was reliving that moment in her life, he carefully reached out and placed his right gloved hand on her shoulder, she continues albeit heartbroken "I was about to be sentenced when my master came . . . with one of my closest friends escorted by temple guards . . . she was the one who bombed the temple- and she tried to frame me for it . . . all because she believed the Jedi were losing their way because of the war."
Longarm withdrew his hand and looked down into Tano's blue eyes that were on the verge of shedding tears "From then I knew I couldn't trust the Order anymore . . . how could I trust people if I couldn't trust my best friend?"
"I honestly don't know Ahsoka, time changes and so does the people. But normally trust is something that is earned, and so far you've earned my trust as well as Percival's and Jorge's which speaks volumes coming from a SPARTAN, especially a lone wolf like me."
The young togruta gave a small smile as she tries to dry her eyes, he continues "Where the Order may have lost faith in you, we haven't. You can count on us to watch your back, no matter the circumstance."
Ahsoka was overwhelming with pride and joy "Thank you . . ." she spoke softly before she rests her hand on his chest plate, James made no motion to her but instead quickly swiped across his visor in a pattern of a smile with his two fingers.
"What was that?" she asks with a grin.
"A signal we SPARTANs use, aptly called the 'Spartan Smile', it's something we use to express emotion, relief, greetings, or respect."
"Which one was that for?"
"Emotion, I'm real proud to know that you've gotten that off your chest . . . and that you trust an extra-galactic being enough to tell them so."
She grants him a warm smile before looking downrange and ask "Want to see who could shoot the most targets?"
James in response grabs his own M6G 2552 Model Magnum from the table in front of him and answer "You're on."
She grins and steps off into her own booth where she readies her M6C by flipping off the safety and chamber the first round, she then hears his voice "Percival, run simulation Alpha three-three-five."
"Of course" the AI responded kindly.
The alien targets slowly retracts to their hidden positions as the two contestants prepared their weapons and their aim, Percival then states "You will both be granted your own set of targets, Ahsoka Tano will engage targets highlighted red while SPARTAN James handles blue targets within a thirty second timeframe, you will be accounted for your kills and accuracy during the exercise. Are you ready?"
Both answered at once "Yes."
"Good, simulation begins in three . . . two . . . one . . ."
At that moment the first pair of targets, one blue and one red, appeared in front of the two and they began squeezing off rounds one after another. Whenever a target was struck it would withdraw to its former position while a new target would appear elsewhere almost immediately after. One after another a gunshot echoes through the range and another target falls, eight rounds in and Longarm was forced to reload his weapon while Ahsoka was able to put four more targets down before having to reload. Shell casings littered the floor around their feet but that didn't stop them from effectively acquire each target and send a 12.7mm round spiraling downrange towards their intended target.
"Fifteen seconds" the AI states.
The SPARTAN had to eject his third empty magazine in exchange for a fourth while Ahsoka continued to dispense lead downrange until needing to reload as well.
"Five seconds."
The two were on their fourth mags when the final set of targets presented themselves, each contester was unrelenting effectively putting down every target the moment the appeared. That was when the bell sounded signaling the end of the simulation.
"Fire exercise has ended. Ahsoka Tano, your accuracy rating was placed at ninety one point eight percent while your kill count is thirty eight. Impressive."
The young former Jedi felt proud but now it was time for her opponent's results "SPARTAN James, as expected your accuracy is ninety six point seven percent while your kill count is thirty three."
"Ha! I win!" Tano chirps proudly.
James gives her a slow applause "Good shooting, I knew giving you that pistol was a good call."
The AI then asks "With that little contest out of the way, perhaps you two would like to join Jorge on the bridge? See what we found on the Holonet?"
Longarm was holstering his magnum answering "Yeah Percival, we'll be right there. C'mon Ahsoka."
"Coming" she calls back as she holstered her own weapon.
After that the two began making their way up to the command bridge, hopefully to find out what they will be doing next.
Please leave your thoughts and comments. Thank you.
