Halo: Spartan III

Raevynn watched Abbra's face carefully, noticing the change in her expressions. For the first time in her entire life she felt as a mother would feel watching her child suffer. Abrra had suddenly made Raevynn realise that she couldn't afford to grieve over what was lost. She had plenty to take care of right here, and they needed each other more than ever.

Watching Abbra reminded Raevynn of when she was small. One of her fading memories of when her father explained to the family that grandma had passed away. Nothing her father said made the pain go away, but he did find away to ease it, and now it was Raevynn's turn.

The squad leader wrapped her arms around Abbra and held her there. Raevynn wasn't sure who needed the hug more, but seeing Abbra cry would be too much.

As Raevynn held Abbra, she heard a rattling cough from the other end of the table. She looked up to see Jacob, and for the first time all day she smiled.

Jacob turned to see Rae smile and hiding the pain as best he could returned a smile to let her know everything was fine.

He looked next Rae to see Abbra barely ho9lding back tears. She would be alright. Jacob reached down and took a drink of his juice. He was happy everything was going better.

"um where is Rayden?"

Wise looked around curiously, kinda hard not to notice a 7 ft. kid out of all these people next thing you know he trips, and as he stumbles in the air he keeps knocking his tray up trying to keep it straight but then some other kid trips over him by accident and its the lunch room accident all over again except this time his tray hit him in the face and the other kid's steak from his tray fell down one of the women trainer's shirt.

(lucky steak disgust)

((This scene takes place about a week after the mission on the Choragus. The hacker, Banken, found out a little information about the Spartan-III project--the other one, that is. The "disposable Spartan" project from Ghosts of Onyx. And they think that's what you're a part of.))

Banken finished typing in the handwritten memo Yi had given him, and handed the paper back to her. "Burn this now. We cannot afford to wait even a few minutes." he warned her.

"Do you really think they could act that fast? What about all the security measures you've put in place?" she asked as she lit a match and touched it to the paper. They were meeting in a back alley in a city on Coral, and Banken had entered the memo on a prepaid chatter, to be sent as a text message. The device had obviously been tampered with--tape held the covers on.

"Electronic security measures are never perfectly secure. If they were, I would not have a job. AIs process information thousands of times faster than humans. Your computers are probably being watched, and they have been trying to watch mine. Perhaps they have managed to break through. This is very dangerous."

"No more dangerous than what we're supposed to do. And we can't let them do this. You saw with your own eyes, Tor, they were children."

"The tags confirmed that. But children or not, we are placing all of Blue Team in danger by sending this. Do you really intend to check that they have complied?" Banken asked.

"Yes. Not with the entire team, though. We can't risk that. You and I are the only ones who know for sure what happened on the Choragus."

"Everyone suspects. I am sure Vintorez requested reassignment because of that mission. Ydrionis said it was lucky that we were nearby to assist. But you and I are the only ones who have seen the files."

"Then you and I are the only ones who will go."

Banken considered this for a moment, and then pressed a button on the cell phone, sending the message. Then he dropped it onto the ground and smashed it with his foot, and swept it into a nearby sewer. "That sounds even more dangerous, but I am willing to go when your deadline is up.

Abbra's breath caught in her throat as she sobbed and coughed. Sputtering she could think of what to say. A few single tears slipped out of her eyes, which were turning a sky blue due to the excess moisture.

Every part of her was filled with the bitterness of loss and fear, and the pain on her leg couldn't compare to the pain she felt now. This was the worse thing to deal with, no matter what. She wrapped her arms around Rae's waists and pulled her tight, because now she was certain she was all she had.

The medication didn't numb any part of her now, and raw emotion tingled through her body. She wanted to ask how, when? But her tounge, along with every part of her seemed to be frozen in shock. "Raevynn." She whimpered. "Thank God I have you."

ooc; Made alot of typos in that post. ;~;
Damn.

Raevynn nearly let herself tear up a bit as Abbra tightened her grip. She could hear muffled noises coming from the girl, but instead of crying she gently moved loose pieces of Abbras hair out of her face and behind her ears.

"Dont worry Abbra. You'll always have me." She replied in a soft voice. Raevynn then took the girls shoulders and carefully pulled her away, straightening her up a bit so she was sitting in her chair normally. "I know this is hard, but we have to be strong now. I just know this life is going to be full of pains like this. We need to keep going."

A loud crash distracted Raevynn's eyes and she turned in time to see Wise getting himself into some trouble. He was just the person they needed to talk to. He wasn't the most professional, but his personality did have a way of taking your mind off of things.

Raevynn motioned Wise over, hoping he's double time it before the trainers got to him.

Abbra nodded and wiped her eyes, wondering if she was embarassing herself. With the back of her hands she wiped of the narrow streaks where tears had been, thankful her face hadn't taken on a red shade yet. She ran a hand through the blonde mop and sighed. Shaking she didn't want to make a scene, although she looked up at Ray.

She wasn't just another spartan, she was family now. And the only person she really had. A ratting sigh escaped her lips as she sat up and ignored her leg; which was screaming in protest.

What a day. Thank God they wern't all like this. Her eyes wondered up to Wise. She reconized his face, but she'd never talked to him. So you can amagin Abbra's embarrasment as she tryed to hide her tear stained eyes.

Jacob could see Abbra crying. He felt so bad since he had gone through the same thing the night before. It's amazing Jacob thought how people find the strength to move on past events though as Abbra begin to wipe the tears away. Jacob did it through his faith.
Abbra did it through Rae. Rae did it through being needed.

Jacob looked over and saw Wise coming over after causing another mess. Jacob assumed acting the fool was how Wise dealt with everything.

"Great here we go again"

Wise slowly looked up out of his right eye since his other one was covered with gatorade, he first saw Raevynn motioning over and someone else he has yet to meet, then even worse... the lady trainer yelling and taking the steak from her bra. Wise stumbled as he hopped up and accidently knocked some other kid's tray over and next thing you know, its another food fight some many kids and food flying around the place made it easier for wise ot slip under a table and crawl by as the trainers tryied to sort out the problem. He knew he was in for a rude awakening tomorrow but he was already at max punishment anyway after the steak thing. after crawling a couple of toubles he rolled over and took a shot of mash potatoes to the face right infront of Raevynn, Jacob, and the new girl.

"Yes ma'm"

He began wiping the mash potatoes of his face ignoring the fact that he was standing wide open in the middle of a cross-fire.

How could you be doing this? Somebody you care for died. A part of her told her that, but the sound of laughter poured from her mouth as she watched Wise. She shook her head, finding it humorus at what he just started until she almost got hit by a clump of peach cobbler. SLipping under the table she chose to not engage in the activity.

Abbra couldn't believe Wise was just standing in te midst of it. But hell, if he wanted to spend forever in the shower scrubbing himself clean, she didn't exactly care.

"is she o-"

Wise was cut off again by another thorw off mash potatoes to his eye, the bad part is this time this one had the chunky type of gravy on it. He dived under the table with Abbra wiped his face... again... and held up his hand to shake abbra's then noticed he had a hand full of mash potatoes. before he was really getting the chance to greet her he was yanked from under the table by the trainer and she looked really, really, really pissed. she held him up in the air so close to her he could smell her breath through her clenched teeth and was close to laughing due to her psychotic look on her face.

"Thats quite a haircut you got there."

"Shutupho. I'm on my way to get it fixed anyways."

Rayden walked down the hallway with a frown on his face, making his way to the base's barber and ignroing the various jeering remarks about his hair.

"You'd think people would be afraid to make fun of me, what with my size and all. Eh."

Rayden stopp walking and entered a door on his right, with the words "Barber" on the door.

))G2g, damn it. ((

(lemme guess 5-O is out there? in that case... run nigga run! run like the popo is chasing you!)

Abbra lifted her hand to her mouth to supress giggles as she watched Wise, his name was clearly unfit. Or so it seemed, maybe he was just clumsy. She drew her legs in and made room for him under the temporary shelter. When he offered her his hand, she deicded not to take it. "you might want to wipe that off." She advised curtly, trying not to seem rude.

But the playfull expression changed as she watched the adult snatch Wise. She wished him the best, but damn was he ever in trouble.

Raevynn peered underneath the table and laughed as Wise tried to properly introduce himself to Abbra. Food was flying in every which direction, but luckily none of it had hit her yet. She was beginning to worry when a chicken leg smacked into the table right in front of her.

To Raevynn's surprise, the mess hall's doors flew open, and a booming voice silenced the ongoing food fight. "That's enough of this!" Roared Mendez. Everything seemed to freeze, even time itself. "You all have quite the busy schedule tomorrow. Clean up this mess and then triple time it back to your bunks!" He finished, then trudged back the way he came. He looked like he was in a hurry.

Abbra was glad she was under the table, out of the sight of Mendez. Frankly, he scared the hell out of her, and reminded her that Axel was gone. As if she needed reminding, but she wasn't about to give herself time to cry. Her dad used to tell her that no child of his would cry; and that's the only shred of memory she had of him.

Hoisting herself back up she looked at the floor, what a job. Meat and vegtables and dessert was everywhere. Abbra almost infact slipped on whipped cream. She rolled her eyes and walked over to Rae. "What a mess." She grumbled.

The Lieutenant stepped into the room midway through the foodfight. If what was happening surprised him, he had incredible control, because his expression didn't alter in the least. The same cold, emotionless, and serious face he always wore. You could take it as oddly comforting, terrifying, or menacing all at the same time.

In an almost methodical fashion, he looked around the room, until his eyes fixed on Raevynn. He started toward her, occasionally twisting slightly to avoid the odd projectile, but his movement never faltered. Somehow, he made it to her table completely clean. In an almost invisible fashion, he slipped a small Datapad to her feet. "That contains everything I could find about Axel. He was murdered, or assasinated, depending on how you want to put it." He made no effort to hide his information from the Spartans at least near him. "If you want to talk to me, I'll be here for another thirty six hours. Then I'm gone, hopefully I'll be back with your soldier."

The Lt. Stood still as Mendez entered the room, so far showing no emotion as he usually did. However, once Mendez turned, a sudden burs of movement from his direction came followed by someone's half eaten apple sailing through the air in a perfect arc, to meet the back of the CPO's head. The Lt cocked one eyebrow, smiling slightly. "Being a kid's always fun..." He muttered to himself, before swiftly leaving the room.

((Of course I realize that most of this isn't true, and is mostly based on faulty and misunderstood information. I didn't say that my characters know everything–they struggle to know the little they do. But I figured it could have some interesting consequences for you all.))

United Nations Space Command Priority Transmission 009671P-65
Encryption Code:Red
Public Key:file /nonexistent/
From: Jane Doe
To: Colonel James Ackerson, ONI, Section 3
Cc: Rear Admiral Anthony Rich, ONI, Section 3; Captain William Gibson, ONI, Section 3
Subject: Spartan-III project
Classification: ERROR: code 051

/start file/
Ackerson,

You've always been ethically challenged, but your latest exploit is a level far lower than you've managed to go before. I'm referring, of course, to your Spartan-III project. While it might seem like a necessary measure when described the way you undoubtedly would like it, "A higher-volume, more resource-efficient version of the Spartan-II project, to eliminate strategic targets in high-risk missions", it's really nothing more than sacrificing children to the Covenant without the benefit of even the most basic equipment.

I say that because the crew of the Choragus reported that over seventy soldiers, labeled as Spartans, came aboard to repel both Covenant and rebel attacking forces last month. The few crew members who saw these "Spartans" saw what appeared to be children, equipped with basic UNSC weapons, lacking even helmets, who seem to have taken serious losses before completing their mission, and clearing the Choragus of both rebels and Covenant.

"Spartans" without MJOLNIR, shields, or even complete sets of armor, fielded against not only well-equipped rebels but also the Covenant? Sent to defend the Choragus, which had nothing more valuable aboard than some standard UNSC equipment? "Spartans" with an average age of twelve years old? If not for the latter, perhaps it could be explained that they were volunteers, developing new tactics, or that they were caught outside their armor and valiantly agreed to defend the Choragus anyway. But you know that no one will believe that sending group of seventy twelve-year-olds to fight the Covenant is anything less than a war crime–a crime against Humanity, no less. They'll hang you and burn the rope when they're done, Ackerson.

They will, that is, if these facts became widely known. I don't intend to make that happen, because it wouldn't help anyone, least of all those children. You'd simply eliminate them as failed test subjects–you and I both know that. And if you try that, I'll kill you myself, and drag your body around Camp Perseverance for those very children to see. They're under observation, so don't even think about it.

As I said, I have no intention of revealing your intentions, provided that you equip them properly. They're Spartans, as their performance illustrates–even a company of ODST could have failed, faced with what they met on the Choragus. Spartans have MJOLNIR armor and full access to any UNSC weapons they request. Spartans have the full support of the UNSC military. If you treat them as Spartans, then I'll let your program continue unnoticed. You've taken everything from these children, and it can't be given back, but allowing them to become Spartans in the fullest sense of the word is at least a partial repayment.

I WILL be watching, Ackerson. You have six months.
/end file/

(thx SW)

The trainer looked angrily back and forth between Mendez and Wise and she threw him as hard as she could just in any direction, this time Wise wasn't to clumsy with his landing as he flipped his body back and landed perfectly still. The lady turned back and made a throat slitting gesture at him, Wise instead smiled back and gave her a thumbs up which only agnered her more.