halo, induction, a short story

 

                        Halo: induction

(Prequel to Halo: Glassing Halo)

 

        Kelly-056 groaned. Blast doors to the internal military base opened, revealing a darkly lit interior. A number of the top brass sat on the chairs opposite her. She watched as the helmet view screen played her progress through the Covenant ranks. One by one, they were shot down. A rocket launcher streaked past her ears and impacted in the middle of a couple of Grunts. They fled. Some of their backpacks filled with methane exploded. The blue ichors spattered the ground, as the methane ignited. Explosively. A Huragok engineer floated helplessly, as the tidal wave of troops overcame it, and swept it away. Kelly’s mission replay played on, and the brass kept extremely quiet. The battle rifle fired once and the armor piercing round spiked through a Hunter’s body armor, fragments sparking off. The Hunter’s body armor was already riddled with bullet holes. It didn’t seem to be going down though, the fuel rod guns firing. The Spartans were too closely grouped together, and they scattered, diving in all directions. Then the EMP generated by the blasts kicked in, and the static of the camera filled the room. Abruptly, the brass switched off the camera. The oldest man in the room, a heavily medaled man, took a long drag on a pipe. It glowed red in the dark, and cast an eerie light on the man’s chin, highlighting the chunk of a nose missing.

 

        “Spartan oh five six. It’s nice to see you again. How many missions have you gone on since the last time I saw you.” The man said, exhaling a cloud of smoke. Kelly winced at her code name. The man walked around the table, animatedly discussing the repercussions from the other Spartans, the consequences. Finally, when the man spoke again, it was not with good news. “Kelly. Call the other Spartans into the room. It will seem that you are in for a demotion, for disobeying a direct order that could have saved the lives of your marine counterparts.”

 

        Fred was sitting outside the office in Mark V MJOLNIR armor. The pitted skin was painful to look at, and the scars were being worked on by nanotech. Already, they were closing up the tiny cracks in his armor, and getting rid of the shot scars on the iridescent blue armor. He stood up, and followed Linda out into the corridor. The green armor flashed as Kelly attached all the pieces of her armor together. They marched into the room. It was a sad sight. They were once so many, now reduced to a bare skeleton crew, fighting day and night to save the galaxy. “Fred. Spartan 057. You should be charged and court marshaled. But based on your achievements, you are to train the next wave of Super Soldiers. The Spartan IVs. They were carefully chosen. You, Kelly, Linda, and Komiya -” at this, an AI appeared, and bowed, Japanese like to the three behemoths that towered over the console. Then, she waved at them. Fred recalled what the master chief had done. He banged the table where the AI chip would be. It flickered out of existence. “-will train these Spartans to be just like you.”

 

        A man watched his child be dragged away. The child just placidly stared at the stranger that had taken him away. He was confused, he had just gotten to the refugee planet, and now, he was being taken away, after a hurried farewell from his father, and a stop outside of a crediting machine. Leo stared in disbelief as the men dressed in weird clothes ushered him into the room. It was full of children just like him. They were about his age, and almost all of them were near tears. Luckily, none of the nine year olds cried. Leo hated crying. A weirdly tall lady had stepped onto stage. It was weird, watching the gracefully silent lady step on stage. “Children!” She called. “Are you tired? Are you hungry? Are you simply lost?” some of the children nodded. The lady’s voice grew sterner. “You are going to be strong. Nobody is to cry. Nobody is to leave their seat either.” A couple of kids who had gotten out of their seat now returned back.

 

        A man, with the hair graying at the temples, also stepped onto the stage. His eyes were emerald, and they bore into the crowd. They didn’t flinch for even a second. They all were too tired. The trip in cryo space caused them to zone out while they were in their chairs. A couple of them who had dozed off, snapped back to life, as their foreheads hit the chairs in front of them. “ you will be Spartans. you will train. You will fight. You will kill Covenant. You will protect your families.” And the last statement was met with a roar. Not as loud as an Elite’s, but still heart moving.

Reviews

[Undying Glory]

it's pretty cool, i must say. a good write. nice description i must say, and i like the ending...a good battle cry. very nice and keep it up