AN: Here we go, Chapter 1 of Boot.
Also, just a fun note - the star Epsilon Eridani is Type K2V, this means that the star has an orange color compared to Sol which is a Type-G2V which means it's a yellow sun. Furthermore, Reach doesn't have a 24-hour day, it has a 27 hour day instead - furthermore Reach has a 390-day year.
This chapter was heavily based on Chapter Four of the novel The Fall of Reach - that novel details the backstory of the Master Chief. It's retold here but from Sophia's perspective and with changes thrown in to account for Reach's 27-hour day and the fact that Epsilon Eridani is a Type-K2V.
SECTION 1 - Boot
0530 Hours, September 24, 2517 (Military Calendar)
0330 Hours, September 24, 2517 (Reach Local Calendar)
Epsilon Eridani System, Reach Military Complex
Planet Reach
Sophia was enjoying quite a pleasant if odd dream, she seemed to be wearing a mask of some description and was talking to this giant whose name escaped her in silver and blue armor that seemed to be elegant in its simplicity. She was standing on the roof of some building and looking out over a cityscape. The name of the city she was looking over was on the tip of her tongue and yet for some reason, she couldn't think of it. The air was cool and crisp, the scent of the ocean tickled her nose and then the man moved, his armor working silently.
He said something, and she answered, moving after him and jogging along the rooftop. The man leaped across a gap, and she followed almost effortlessly, a brief sensation that she couldn't put her finger on coming over her, and then she was next to him. Panting, she looked out over the city again, a broad bay was visible now with boats coming and going, their navigation lights glowing like shining beacons. In the far distance was what looked like a tall building jutting out of the water, partially encased in a glittering dome. She took in the scene as she looked around, it was simply beautiful.
The man turned to look at her, and she got a good look at the man's helmet, the face was obscured yet the mouth was visible. He looked her over and seemed to nod appreciatively. He opened his mouth to speak and instead of what she was expecting, her ears were greeted with an absolutely thunderous "Wake up, trainee!"
Sophia jolted awake and looked around for a moment, her eyes then drank in an absolutely intimidating man with absolutely remorseless eyes that seemed far too bright glaring at her with an unfailingly stern look. Held in his hands was a silver baton of some kind, the man flicked it and it sparked menacingly. She couldn't help it, she screamed in surprise and scrambled out of bed. She didn't want to get shocked, thank you very much. Another voice cut through the din, and she looked towards the speaker, an absolute mountain of a man who was looming over a kid who had fallen out of bed. "I said up, boot! You know which way up, is?" as he brandished a baton that also sparked menacingly, the kid he was looming over backed up.
Sophia briefly looked around and realized that there were dozens of kids and adults waking them up, shouts and the odd scream filling the air. The second man's voice cut through the din again. "I am Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez." he thundered, his voice rumbling like an earthquake. "These men around you are your instructors. You will do exactly as we tell at all times."
Sophia was about to ask what they were going to be doing when Mendez pointed towards the back of the building. "Showers are aft. You will all wash and then return here to dress!" Sophia was about to take off when she saw a man pull out of a Foot Locker, a matching pair of gray sweats and black boots. She was tempted to look closer but decided against it, she didn't want to find out if those batons could actually shock her. She ran back towards the showers, expecting a typical communal shower.
What she found as she sprinted into the washing area wasn't typical showers. There weren't rows of shower heads in a typical communal arrangement. Instead, there was a conveyor belt that ran into a tunnel, she could see water and soap spraying from jets. She quickly stripped off her night shirt and then scampered onto the belt. It didn't even give under her weight as it groaned into life, she quickly washed using the soapy lukewarm water that the jets were using and then screeched in surprise when she made it to the second stage of the shower and was blasted with icy water. She was in the process of shivering complete with chattering teeth with her hair clinging to scalp like a soaked towel when she was run through the dryer section of the "shower"; fan propelled hot air washed over her skin like the world's largest hand dryer, she was dry in seconds - even her hair which normally took forever to dry - was dried out by the end.
Running back out of the shower area, the instructor who had woken her up grabbed her before she stopped at the wrong bed. Chastised, she hurried over to the bed she had slept at. Her mind spinning a thousand miles a minute as she pulled on underwear, thick socks, the sweats, and then donned black combat boots that after a moment conformed to her feet perfectly like a second skin. Her newly donned boots had just barely hit the floor when Mendez's voice boomed at them again, telling them to head outside at triple time. Given how the instructors started running, Sophia followed at a sprint.
Her breath fogged in the morning air, the sky was black - which meant it was still dark with illumination being provided by harsh fluorescent spotlights. The grassy strip that the instructors stopped at didn't even have dew on it yet. Sophia's mind reeled as she tried to figure out what the hell happened to her. She shouldn't be here, she should be at home, but where even was home? Her mind was a jumbled mess that she couldn't fully figure out. A roar like thunder got her attention and she swept her head upwards and caught a glimpse of two dark shadows with forward swept wings and four engines burning streaking overhead, the roar of their engines echoing off the twin row of barrack buildings. A series of metallic crackles sounded in the distance.
What was next in this? She really didn't know what to expect now, and she looked at Mendez for instructions which came a moment later. "You will make five equal length rows, fifteen trainees in each!" the man barked, his voice firm and commanding. Sophia milled about getting into a row, she happened to glance at the kid next to her, his sweater had been stenciled and it said John something.
"Straighten those rows! You know how to count to fifteen trainee? Take three steps back!" Mendez snarled and John backed up. Sophia managed a snicker under her breath at that. Seems like someone hadn't been paying attention, the cold air helped her mind wake up. She didn't know where she was, she didn't know who her family was or where they even were. But, the strange woman last night had given a speech about how she would defend Earth and her colonies. She didn't think that Earth had colonies, but she liked the thought of being a defender of humanity. If humanity needed her then she would try to rise to that challenge.
"Jumping jacks!" Mendez shouted. "Count off to one hundred! Ready? Go!"
Sophia was struck dumb for a moment, one hundred jumping jacks? Without any sort of warm up? What the hell? Mendez didn't wait, he just started doing them effortlessly. She groaned, knowing that her limbs would be howling in agony within a few minutes but didn't protest. Considering how one kid hesitated and got whacked with a baton, and she definitely heard an electrical discharge and not wanting to get whacked herself started doing them. For some strange reason, while she hadn't done that many jumping jacks in her life, she felt like she had still done a significant number of them before in a single setting.
As she did her jumping jacks though, there was something about the way Mendez moved that tickled her. He seemed almost…too fluid in his motions. It was hard to explain, but that is what she could think of, there was an economy of motion and a fluidness that didn't quite seem like it was normal. Still, as she did them, her arms and legs eventually began to burn from the prolonged exertion and sweat coated her brow and began to trickle down her back despite the chill in the morning air. Despite that, she kept jumping as Mendez continued counting off.
"Ninety-eight…. Ninety-nine… One Hundred!" Mendez boomed, then the man paused. He wasn't breathing hard in the slightest, but regardless who took in a deep breath. His dark eyes swept over them and he nodded. "Sit-ups!" he called as he dropped onto the grass.
Sophia followed his motion, as did everyone else around her. Her arms and legs ached and throbbed as she laid down on the cold grass. Just like before, a hundred reps and Sophia deep down wasn't stupid enough to ask how big the facility they were at was, running that twice followed by 200 sit-ups would be ugly. She couldn't see Mendez anymore due to this, but her abdomen started to burn, which oddly didn't feel right, she felt like she could and had done more sit ups. As she worked away the sit ups, she thought more in-depth about what had been said. That strange woman who had spoken last night said that she couldn't return to her family, she thought about her family and had to suppress a shudder at some of the people in it and things that had happened. But there were bright spots, a little girl maybe six years old flickered into her mind, however, the girl's name escaped her.
"One hundred!" The call-out caught Sophia off guard, she hadn't been expecting to hear it. Had she managed to completely zone out? She shook herself, that wasn't like her, usually. But she couldn't help but wonder what was next in her training.
What followed was Deep Squats, just like the jumping jacks and sit-ups they did one hundred reps. Something told Sophia that it would likely be easier if they did five sets of twenty reps each instead of a single set of a hundred reps. After the Deep Squats came Knee Bends, just like before, there were one hundred reps. Mendez was moving like a machine, treating them like they were machines. Her muscles burned, and her limbs shook as they moved onto the next part of their physical training, which was leg lifts. Exhaustion seeped into her bones, but she didn't want to get introduced to that baton if it could shock her - even as they moved from Knee Bends to Leg Lifts. Thus, she pressed on, but sluggishness filled her bones and her limbs slowly, painfully responded.
"Rest." Mendez called and Sophia flopped onto her back, panting hard. She had done exercise, but nothing like that before. Sweat slid down her brow, cheeks, and back pooling on the grass through her sweats which were absolutely soaked.
Sophia slowly sat up and looked around at the other kids, she didn't recognize any of them. Nobody from her school was here, she didn't see any familiar faces in the slightest. None of them caused even the slightest wrinkling of recognition in her mind. She heard something getting wheeled across pavement and saw trainers wheeling carts over that seemed to be laden down with water bottles. It was an exaggeration to say that the carts got practically mobbed by thirsty kids, but it wasn't much of one.
The water was warm and slightly salty in taste, but it was so goddamned good, it soothed her dry throat and reinvigorated her. She quickly drained the rest of the water bottle and then walked over to a cart that very clearly had a trash can in it. She was about to walk back over to where she had been laying down to finish cooling off from her work out, when she heard Mendez again.
"A good start, trainees," the man-mountain boomed, looking them over with dark unfeeling eyes. Sophia gulped lightly at what would probably happen next. "Now we run, on your feet!" Sophia groaned at those words, just how long would they be running? She didn't dare to voice that question though as Mendez began, she was pretty sure that was a trot, at least for him. For Sophia, it would be a run, which with the trainers brandishing silver batons and closing in to herd the kids into a group, she broke into a run, taking off after Mendez.
Like he had previously, the man worked like a machine. He led them through a complex of bunkers that were half-cylinder shaped that had a gravel path connecting them all. They ran by a low bulky structure that was made of cinder blocks and had low menacing turrets with two machine guns and two racks of rockets covering the entrance. From there, Mendez led them down a winding path until they were running alongside a great flowing river that had to be close to a mile across. The rumbling of the water as it flowed was a soothing balm that helped her calm down from the morning's events as she tried to get centered from everything that had occurred in the morning. Mendez then led them over a stone bridge, a sign said Big Horn River identifying the great mighty river that flowed through this great valley. Sophia couldn't help but admit that it was beautiful, actually. From there, they ran down a sidewalk path, rough concrete, Sophia had to admit that her combat boots were actually really damn comfortable, and then the trees faded away, and they were running along a path that was next to a runway.
As they ran parallel to it, a roar like thunder got Sophia's attention and she watched as this enormous thing, big and huge - like over a hundred feet long and at least seventy feet wide began to lumber down the runway, its enormous engines glowing. "Holy" Sophia whispered under her breath, wanting to slow to a jog in order to better watch the heavily armed goliath. The enormous craft was blocky and vaguely brick shaped with two enormous twin turrets forward, slowly at first but with startling swiftness, the craft gained speed and then gamely leaped into the air and climbed into indigo skies. The kids around her shouted and pointed at the craft over the deafening roar of its strange engines which didn't sound like any engine she knew of that propelled it out of sight with surprising quickness.
Her stomach growled, her legs were howling in pain from the extensive, prolonged exertion as her mind whirled. She was trying to figure out why she was here. But she couldn't figure it out, even as Mendez moved without a care in the world.
Mendez continued leading them on their run, they ran past the runway, across more concrete, and eventually he shifted his route. Leading them onto a path that wasn't made of concrete but instead was made of smooth gray and tan flagstones. The hammering of hundreds of feet echoed down the path as the Chief Petty Officer led them into a courtyard. In the center of the courtyard loomed a flagpole that bore a flag she didn't know that had a blue field with dozens if not hundreds of stars upon it, in a canton in the upper left-hand corner was Earth - that looked like the symbol for the United Nations.
She peered at the horizon, the sun was rising, the sky was painted in an incredible tapestry of colors that was incredibly brilliant and a bolt of metaphorical lightning lanced through her. The sky was different, the colors were brighter than what she remembered, there was just a sensation that sunrise gave her, it wasn't right. It wasn't right and there was something off about it.
Ahead loomed a building with a rock facade above the doors were the words Naval Officers Academy and Sophia groaned in dismay. Great, she had just been worked off her ass by a machine of a Chief Petty Officer, and now it was time for a fucking school day. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. But then something caught and held her attention, a strange woman made of light that stood on the top step that led into the academy. She wore a white sheet that wrapped around her body and sandals with what looked like a stone tablet in her hands, she looked old to her. But something at the same time just didn't feel right, like she was looking at something which belonged yet didn't.
"Shit, that's an AI." someone muttered next to her, Sophia looked and saw a stocky olive-skinned girl with raven colored hair whose sweater read. Grace-093. The presence of a number caused her to glance down at her own sweater, and she saw that it had, stenciled on it, Sophia-102. Why didn't it have her last name of Hess?
The strange, see-through woman whose mere existence made Sophia feel off, spoke in a silken, resonant voice. "Excellent work, Chief Petty Officer Mendez." she greeted and turned to face them. "Welcome. My name is Déjà and I will be your teacher. Please come in. Morning classes are about to start."
Sophia couldn't help it, a groan escaped her. Classes? Really? After she worked her ass off with all of these goddamned exercises? She wasn't the only one who groaned or grumbled. Déjà turned and began to walk inside the academy. "Of course, if you wish to skip your lessons, you may continue your morning calisthenics with Chief Mendez."
That was quite an incentive to actually attend the courses that were going to be taught. Sophia found herself booking it up the stairs and into the academy. Cool air from the air-conditioning units washed over her, goosebumps perked up on her skin, they were led into a classroom and Déjà appeared inside immediately as they filed in. Which was something that was rather off-putting. Sophia noticed that the room they were in didn't resemble any sort of classroom at all that she was aware of, it was shaped like a miniature auditorium actually with each of the tiers having multiple desks with spots for two people, and she voiced why the classroom was shaped like this.
Déjà gave a kind smile. "Because Trainee-102, this room is a lecture hall. Meant to hold hundreds of students while a professor lectures them. Now, obviously, there aren't hundreds of you, but these rooms have some unique features that ordinary classrooms do not have, like holotanks on every desk." she explained.
"What's a holotank?" someone who was in front of her asked.
"A holotank, Trainee-069, is a device that allows the projection of a Hologram. For an AI like myself, this allows me to manifest as many avatars as I like, theoretically, as long as there's a holotank, I can manifest an avatar anywhere in this facility." The AI replied and Sophia couldn't help but feel a sense of complete wonderment at that.
"That's a little unnerving." Another voice behind her said, Sophia turned her head and saw a girl with dark brown hair and emerald eyes. Her sweater had stenciled on it Linda-058.
"Not really." Sophia found herself saying. "It's actually quite logical when you seriously think about it. An AI is just a really smart computer, she would have the ability to manifest an avatar without using that much power. So it makes sense that she could manifest multiple avatars."
"Indeed Trainee-102." Déjà replied.
"Déjà, if you don't mind me asking, how many calculations per second can you do?" Another boy asked.
Déjà gave a kind smile. "Why Trainee-029, I can manage a sustained fifteen quintillion calculations per second with an indefinite high of twenty-five quintillion calculations per second, my six-hour limit is two hundred fifty quintillion calculations per second."
Sophia's mind froze trying to contemplate something that powerful. She could tell from the surrounding expressions that the other kids were also trying to contemplate something that powerful. That number was enormous, it actually hurt trying to picture what fifteen quintillion even was.
"What are we learning about today?" Someone asked and Sophia, who had still been trying to wrap her mind around how powerful Déjà was, computing power wise, stopped thinking about that. She turned to look at the AI curious.
"Today," the AI began "in addition to beginning middle school academics; we'll be learning about the ancient legacy that you'll be inheriting. Have a seat and we'll begin."
Several hours later as Sophia was walking out of the academy she found herself deep in conversation. "A thousand Greeks held off god knows how many Persians for nearly a full day. Hot damn." Grace said.
"No kidding, and the Phalanx definitely didn't look pleasant to fight against. All of those men fighting in a block like that? With swords in the first row and spears in the following rows." Sophia said, shaking her head.
"I am just impressed that they could actually fake retreating, particularly after Déjà explained just how hard it is for the UNSC to pull off and that they pulled it off several times in a phalanx." Grace replied and Sophia nodded - Phalanxes were enormous blocks of men and weren't exactly the most agile of formations. Pulling back without the whole thing falling apart was impressive, actually faking a retreat, even more so.
"Listen up, trainees! We're now going to the playground, it's only a short run! Fall in!" Chief Mendez said and Sophia cursed under her breath as the man took off at a trot, the kids running after him.
Sophia ran, her legs pumping as Mendez led them on the route that had mile markers. But she couldn't wait to actually have a moment to sit on a swing and think about the day's past events. Of course, what was promised to be a short-run, going by the markers turned out to be two miles, maybe by Mendez's standards, two miles was short. It wasn't short by her standards, but then again, who the hell knew.
Then Mendez led them off the main path and down a side path, and then they reached a dirt field, standing in the center of it was unlike any kind of "Playground" that Sophia had ever seen. It was a forest of poles, each being probably twenty meters tall. Latticed between the poles like a giant spider web were cargo nets and bridges that swayed in the air and crisscrossed one another. It was as if someone had taken a maze and made it three-dimensional in the sky. There were slide-poles and climbing ropes, suspended platforms, swings, and buckets attached to rope and pulley systems that maybe could support a person. Something briefly sparkled in the sun and caught her attention, on another pole some thirty meters in the air was a gleaming brass bell - next to a silver slide pole.
What was the goal here, did it pertain to that bell? Sophia wondered as she looked at the playground. Mendez had them form three lines and then outlined that each member in their row would be their team. Sophia looked to her left and saw that Grace was standing next to her. She looked to her right and saw a tall lanky white boy with Anton-044 stenciled on his sweater. Anton immediately put her on edge, whites weren't to be trusted since she was black.
"Today's game is called 'Ring the Bell', there are many ways to get to the bell." Mendez said, looking over the various teams. "I leave it up to each team to find their own path. When every member of your team has rung the bell, you are to get ground side double time back here." he said as he scratched a line in the dirt with his baton.
"Tell Grace, I see a path." Anton said and Sophia startled in surprise. How the hell had Anton been able to figure that out? Still, she looked at Grace and said "Anton sees a path."
Grace looked at her. "Really? How?"
Sophia glanced at Anton; she didn't trust him and more than that, she didn't like working with other people. "How can you see that path?" she asked.
"Always been good at mazes. This one is just more difficult than most." he said with a smile.
Mendez's voice cut through the air again. "You win dinner, Trainee-117. Tonight, dinner is roast turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, brownies, and vanilla ice cream."
Sophia froze at the mention of that, that honestly sounded good. Like Thanksgiving but several months early. She loved turkey and the rest of that meal sounded absolutely delicious and judging by the murmur that erupted around her, the children agreed. "But," Mendez continued. "For every winner, there must be a loser. The last team to finish goes without dinner."
She groaned and looked at the others who were eyeing each other wearily. "Don't look at me like that." Grace said and Sophia startled. "We're on the same team, remember? If we work together and trust Anton, then we get dinner."
"And if Anton's wrong?" Sophia asked.
"Make ready!" Mendez's voice cut through the conversation, Sophia tensed, ready to run.
"Then we will take revenge on him tomorrow." Grace explained.
"Oy! I'm standing right here." Anton butted in.
"Deal!" Sophia said.
"Go!" Mendez shouted.
Sophia took off like a coiled spring, her eyes keeping a gaze on Anton. The boy was fast, but he wasn't as fast as the girl who took off like a damn missile off the line. All that mattered was keeping him in her sights, and they would have this in the bag. What followed was an absolute whirlwind of climbing nets, ladders, platforms, including a bridge that decided to flip and dump five kids in a pool of water. Sophia's legs and arms ached and howled with the heavy exertion she was putting them through, again, as she followed her teammate through the labyrinthine aerial maze that was the playground until suddenly, without warning, the bell was in front of her.
She rang it three times, the bell's notes were flat but loud. Grinning, she grabbed onto the slide pole and slid to the bottom, then sprinted across the line. Mendez nodded as he tapped something on a tablet. Already cooling off in the sand was a kid whose sweater said John-117 and Anton was nearby as well.
Sophia looked back towards the playground just as Grace dashed across the line in the sand, she was panting hard when she got to Sophia and Anton. "Damn bastard shoved me out of the way right before I got to the course." she growled, shooting John an ugly look.
"Hey now, don't your emotions get the better of you." Anton said and Grace exhaled.
"Sorry, just wanted to get on the podium, you know?" Grace grumbled.
"On the contrary, Team Seven." Mendez's voice said from where he was standing, tablet in one hand and stylus in another. "That was some good teamwork."
"Thank you sir!" Sophia, Grace, and Anton chorused in unison.
"So, what do you say? Friends?" Anton asked.
"Sure!" Grace said and Sophia shrugged. "I'm in." she said nervously. She wasn't sure what it was like to have friends, but if Anton and Grace were offering - then she wouldn't mind that. The kids trickled as the trainers went around handing out bottles of water, Sophia eagerly drank hers as her limbs burned pleasantly from the heavy exertion. The last two kids ran towards the finish line, one of them was extremely tall, not Mendez tall, but close - his sweater said Samuel-034, right behind him came the girl who took off like a missile at the start, she had hair dyed blue and her sweater read Kelly-087. Those two shot glares at John who seemingly shrugged, uh-oh, seemed like someone forgot about what teamwork was.
"Good job everyone." Mendez said. "Let's get back to the Academy for a shower followed by lunch then evening classes."
A general groan went through the assembled children, Sophia included, why? More classes after all of this.
"After that, it's dinner for everyone." Those words brought forth a cheer. "Except team three."
"But I was first." John protested. "I won," he said.
"There's no 'I' in team." Grace muttered next to Sophia.
"And you did come in first. But your team came in last." Mendez said, and then he looked at us with those incredibly stern eyes of his. "Remember this, trainees: you don't win unless your team wins. One person winning at the expense of the group means that you still lose."
Sophia nodded, that made sense. She still wasn't sure of the concept of teamwork, but that aspect made as much sense as anything. Mendez then called for them to fall in, instead of taking off at a run though, he only walked.
"Chief?" Grace asked nervously.
"Yes Trainee-093?" he asked.
"Why are we walking instead of running?" She asked and Sophia couldn't help but admit that she was curious about that.
"To allow you to properly cool off." Mendez said and that was that. They walked back to the Academy, showered, had lunch, then had additional courses that were more decidedly military in nature. Then, they ran back to the chow hall, enjoyed dinner, and then went to the barracks. Sophia wasn't sure how to feel about what her life would be like given this, but frankly she was exhausted. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.