Across several star system, ships carrying the future of humanity converge to one place, humanities first real home after after leaving Earth, Reach.
After the creation of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, Humanity expanded beyond Earth into the stars, before this they had been bound to Earth, Luna and Mars. Now they could spread out to new star systems and claim new land for Humanity.
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Halsey glanced at the time, and adjusted her clothes once more. She quickly buried any feelings of regret or remorse she may have carried, what she was going to do would save humanity, she was sure of it.
"Doctor, they are here, they are ready." Deja Halsey's personal A.I said as she appeared in hologram from, ready to assist.
"Send them in."
Small voices filled the auditorium as handlers brought in the children, all 150 of them, confused and afraid. "Take a seat, all of you." She said as she singled out the two who had exceeded her expectations thus far, John and Shawn.
"Per Naval Code: 45812, you are hereby conscripted into UNSC special project code-named: ORION-II, also known as SPARTAN II."
The children were confused and afraid, but still sat still and listened to the woman on the stage. Shawn however was less afraid and more geeking out.
Despite the terror of being ripped away in the middle on the night and taken by the military, there was a bit of nostalgia in hearing Halsey give the same speech she gave during his favorite Halo book, The Fall of Reach.
"Your parents are gone, the planet Reach is your new home. Your fellow trainees are your new family. Each of you has been hand-selected and called to serve, your bodies are already faster and stronger than other children, and we are going to make them even better."
She paused and nodded to a man who stepped forward.
"Chief Petty Officer Mendez, escort the children to the mess hall, feed them, get them to bed." "Trainees, fall out!"
The rest of the day was a blur as Shawn still struggled to come to terms with the fact he was a Spartan candidate, once they finally let them sleep he had vivid dream of his past life, his current parents, as well as a giant celestial ring, bringing destruction to all life in the galaxy.
"WAKE UP TRAINEE!" Shawn snapped away, not knowing what was going on as the baton crackled in front of him. "I SAID UP, DO YOU KNOW WHICH WAY UP IS?!" The handler yelled at him as Shawn threw himself out of bed and followed the other children.
"What's happening?!" A girl next to him asked as she and another boy chased after him, "I don't know, just go!" A boy in front yelled as he took off.
"Lets just follow them, they're all going this way." He said as the boy next to him nodded, "I'm Sam, what's your name?" He knew that name! Sam was the first Spartan to die after augmentation.
Stuck trying to rationalize him talking to him he just blurted out his name as the girl next to him introduced herself, "I'm Kelly." Sam comforted her and the still shocked Shawn as they caught up with the rest of the trainees.
Once they were all formed up, Chief Mendez introduced himself as they started their physical training.
"Trainees, I am Chief Mendez. I am your commanding officer. Everyday, dawn till dusk, you will do exactly what I say, when I say, how I say. Am I clear trainees?"
"Sir, yes Sir!"
What followed was days of brutal training as Chief Mendez and his men broke them physically, true to his word they were busy from dawn until dusk.
Coming from two lives of civilian luxury, Shawn struggled more than the others at first as his mindset had yet to change, but when he sat in the mess hall, thinking about what he KNEW was coming, he decided that it was time to start filling in the shoes of the Master Chief, even if he was still a snotty nosed kid.
By the end of the week, they were all exhausted, even with his second wind after realizing that things were only going to get worse, Shawn and the other trainees were close to collapse.
Whether by design or not, today was the first day that Halsey's A.I, Deja, would be teaching them.
"Come in, class is about to start." She beckoned them in as she stood over them in hologram form.
Despite pushing them to the max physically, Halsey didn't want the children to be dumb brutes, though ONI would love having simpletons to shove around. She preferred to give the children all the tools they would need to excel, their greatest tool would be their minds.
War strategy, theoretic tactics, Sun Tzu. Nothing in the sprawling history of conflict was overlooked.
One of the first lessons that really stuck with the trainees was that of the Spartans of Thermopylae, and how they faced impossible odds to give the rest of Greece a chance against the Persians. That was Shawn's favorite lesson since he'd really enjoyed reading about the ancient Spartans, and how their sacrifice inspired others to fight back.
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Today Chief Mendez had taken them out onto the obstacle course, so far they had only seen the thing but today they would get to use it. Seeing it sprawled out Shawn knew that today was the day the everything would change for John.
So far he'd had little contact with him, Sam and Kell had made good friends, but he'd been stuck for the most part working with his own team, all just as quiet as him. It's not that he didn't want to talk to them, he just didn't know how, plus with all the things Chief Mendez had them doing, he didn't have a lot of time to make friends.
"Todays mission is, ring the bell! When every member of your team has run the bell, cross this line!" John raised his hand as Shawn felt sorry for what he was about to go through, almost.
"Question trainee?" "What do we win, sir?" Mendez looked surprised anyone would even ask but decided to make things interesting, "You win dinner 117. Last team to finish goes without dinner."
The trainee's didn't like the sound of that, seeing an opportunity to stand out, Shawn went to the other three kids in his team and told them the plan.
"Make ready, go!"
Hidden away, Halsey and a recent unwanted addition to her team watched the trainees work their way through the obstacle course.
As always she watched John with fascination as he preformed stellarly, but her associate was watching another.
"Tell me about that one." He said pointing to Shawn. "Ah yes, 118. Just as 117 he has exceeded parameters more than expected, he struggled at first to adapt to this new environment but has since pulled ahead." She glanced at his file before turning away from the screen.
"So why are you here, forgive me for being blunt, but ORION-II was supposed to be mine." Halsey demanded as the man chuckled, not at all bothered.
"There are things that even you don't know Doctor, but I'll indulge you this once." He pulled out a tablet, a model she had never seen before, more sleek than what ONI had provided her.
He pressed a few things and suddenly the room went dark as the screen showed a blue error screen. "What?! How did you break into the system?" She swore before trying to take it back as the screen changed to a star map, one of the milky way galaxy.
"Human space occupies very little, an impossibly small fraction compared to the rest of the galaxy." He said as a small section of the map turned blue, with the UNSC insignia smack in the middle.
"I am aware that humanity has yet to spread very far, what does that have to do with my Spartans?" She demanded as he smiled and pressed a key.
Another color appeared, dark purple, a jagged line through the galaxy that was much larger than human space, and much closer than she liked. "What's this?" She asked, though she had a good idea.
"Recently, a secret division of ONI has started intercepting communications from what we believe is another civilization. Before you ask, yes I can tell you, but I won't, not yet." He said interrupting her before she could speak.
"The most I can tell you is that other than the two of us, only two other people know that I even exist, so don't bother looking because you will be killed, Spartan-II can continue without you."
That killed her next train of thought since she had to be there for augmentation, she had to know if she had been right. He continued.
"For now, we have not made any form of contact with this new race, the most we can do is listen and prepare, we believe first contact will take place here, on the planet Harvest."
She sat there thinking of the ramifications of what he'd just told her, before this, the Spartans were going to be ONI's ultimate weapon against the insurrectionist that have been getting more violent as of late, but now it seems that they had another calling.
"Other than that, all you need to know is that I will be taking one of your Spartans, and giving them further training on top of your established program." "You can't have John!" She said with no hesitation, the rest were expendable, but him? She would never give him up.
He laughed at that, shaking his head. "I don't want him, I want 118, Shawn." Halsey went over the mental file she had of him, exceptional, just like John. "Fine, but he will be in his own fireteam, I don't want him discouraging the others."
The man smiled as he lifted the lockdown he had placed on the room they were in, just in time to see Fred punching John in the face for losing them dinner, "Perfect, that works just fine."