Chapter (4) Training and My New Classmates (1)

September 22, 2517

Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex, Military Reservation 01478-B

20:15 hours

[Author's note: I will be changing the font for action sounds like 𝘽𝙖𝙣𝙜. Let me know if you hate it or not]

(Alpha Pov)

*𝙝𝙪𝙛𝙛*

*𝙝𝙪𝙛𝙛*

*𝙝𝙪𝙛𝙛*

"Pick up the pace zero-one-seven! You have ten minutes to finish this last mile otherwise you are sleeping outside tonight!" the sadist thirty meters ahead of me yelled back as he continued his ridiculous pace.

' How long have we been running again?' was the only question I had running through my mind. I couldn't remember exactly seeing as I had no physical way of telling besides the fact that I am certain the sun was up when we started but now it is dark as fuck in this forest.

I shook my head, snapping myself out of my thoughts. There is only one mile left and I think this is the last exercise before bed. Once done a hot shower and a 'Midnight snack' awaits me. Most importantly, however, I will not give that man the satisfaction of being able to force me to sleep outside due to my own weakness.

A couple more minutes went by and I had finally reached the finish. I collapsed on the ground panting and rolled to my back just focusing on breathing. Chief Mendez walked over and looked down at me with only a small amount of sweat dripping from his forehead. He of course wasn't panting and was confirming my suspicions that he was a nigh indestructible robot made to mimic humans and train me and the others coming.

(Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez)

He then looked down at his wrist checking the time on his watch, "Not half bad zero-one-seven, you finished that last mile in nine minutes," he then crossed his hands over his chest covering the white UNSC logo on his pt uniform, "Now get up, you have only 30 mins to ride back, shower, change, and get to bed,"

Grumbling to myself I picked up my broken body and with my sore legs waddled to the transport vehicle. I grabbed the steep bars and pulled myself into the open back canopy while the Chief Petty Officer hopped into the front passenger seat and an assistant instructor started the engine and began the drive.

The drive was short through a thoroughly dug-out and maintained dirt road. During the ride, no one said anything and the only sounds heard were the roar of the engine and the chirping of crickets. I was thankful for that because I was still sore and didn't feel like conversing. Mostly due to the fresh wound I got on my hip that continued to cause my hip to remain in a constant state of agony, and my mind to be eternally annoyed. Though I did enjoy feeling the wind and air cool me down as it rushed by my freshly shaven head.

Once back at the barracks I got off and began making my way to the main entrance. Dinner was at 1700 so all that was left for me to do was shower and head to bed in the empty room that housed 75 bunks with one being occupied by me. However, before I got halfway to the entrance the Chief called out to me.

"Trainee get a good night's sleep, tomorrow will be a long day. You will be meeting the rest of the candidates for this program," he paused and I nodded to his words. It wasn't the first time he told me about the rest of my class arriving, but I wasn't going to call him out on it, "You will also be meeting the rest of the instructors so I hope we do not have a repeat of the incident that happened on Monday. Am I clear Trainee?".

I felt my jaws tightening and my fists becoming clenched, 'There's no way this motherfucker thinks I am going to let that shit slide again,' I calmed myself enough before I responded to him.

After a moment of composing myself, I turned around and looked Chief Mendez in his eyes, "With all due respect I say this with full knowledge that I may get more 'remedial training' or some other punishment, but if I am woken up by a cattle prod or taser again I swear on my very soul I will fucking kill whatever dumbass happens to be holding the thing," I spoke clearly and concisely to get my point across. My eyes never wavered from looking at the chief's, I made it very clear that I was as serious as a heart attack.

As you have heard, on Monday I was stuck with a cattle prod on my hip by a newbie fresh instructor and was given 'remedial training'. The fact that I was a little late waking up was not what caused me to get punished. What did get me 3 days of extra training was the actions I took following the Newbie's action. I, albeit in a grumpy mood due to the fact I had just been effectively branded, threw him in an arm bar that I had learned from Lieutenant Keyes before he left on the 16th. The result was me breaking his arm at the elbow and then proceeding to try and paint the floor of the barracks with the face of said newbie while getting tased and being pulled off of him by other instructors.

By the end of the confrontation, the piece of fresh meat had lost a couple of teeth and had a bludgeoned face to go along with his broken arm. As a consequence I was given 'remedial training' meaning I had now lost warm meals and any free time I might have been given, I also lost the brief reprieve of Déjà's classroom lessons. Instead, I was given MREs and a cup of water for meals and was training officially 16 hours a day with only 3 twenty-minute meal periods. Though the Chief made sure to give me hell for it I do not regret my decision and would happily do it again.

(Artificial Smart A.I. Déjà)

Maintaining my position with determination I did not waver at the fierce glare the Chief gave me. After what felt like an hour he nodded, "Noted trainee," he spoke two simple words and then drove off towards his residence. His reaction made my eyebrows shoot up, I believed that I was going to get night training.

"Was he.. Impressed?" I wondered aloud before shrugging and heading inside.

My shower took about ten minutes which I mostly used to absorb as much heat as possible before bed and scrub the dirt that had clung to me during the o-course. Once done I changed into my pajamas and began walking to the empty bunk room. I sat down on my bunk labeled [S-017] and reached into a hidden compartment I had made late in my first week.

The compartment was really just a hollowed-out portion in the mattress with the entrance being a slit on the side away from the entrance to the room. I had used a mixture of my teeth and fingernails which led to some pain but it was all worth it in the end. I had a hiding place for my smuggled treasure, reaching into the hiding spot I pulled out my precious.

A box of (somewhat) stale crackers

I had managed to find a heist route that was damn near foolproof. During the first day, I realized that the food here was terrible which led me to begin scheming alternative ways of getting sustenance. This led me to watch patrol routes in the corridors for each instructor, for the most part, they were all extremely thorough and alert, but there was one that would decide to take a nap around 23:20 every Wednesday so far. I had struck the 2nd week at that time and struck again yesterday securing spoils. Though each time I was only able to collect one box of crackers I am hoping with the arrival of my classmates I may be able to upscale my operations.

Speaking of, I was excited and was looking forward to meeting my 74 new classmates that were just like me according to what Catherine said. Honestly, it was a baffling number. I had never even met 1 person like me and around my age, but now I am supposed to have over 70? It's pretty unbelievable but I doubt both the Chief and Catherine would lie about that.

Laying on my back over my bed I continued snacking on my crackers and continued wondering about what tomorrow might bring. I stopped and rehid my snack in the compartment once I heard footsteps approaching the door. The door opened and in walked an instructor, "Lights out zero-one-seven," with that said the lights were turned out and I turned over to go to bed.

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(3rd Pov)

As Alpha began to drift off to sleep in the barracks, Dr. Catherine Halsey finished the remaining paperwork regarding Lieutenant Jacob Keyes' reassignment. Though the Lieutenant had already left there still remained the official report regarding his actions for ONI. She had been putting it off for nearly a week claiming that it was due to the work required for collecting the candidates.

While part of her claim was true and ONI even accepted that answer, it wasn't the entire truth. The other half was that she was reluctant to reassign the trusty Lieutenant. Truth be told she had rather enjoyed the Lieutenant's company during their observations. The Lieutenant was intelligent, a great tactician, and above all a decent man, which led to him beginning to feel as if something was amiss with so many observations.

'His intuition serves him well,' Halsey thought as she finished signing the final form officially requesting a reassignment to the UNSC Magellan for the Lieutenant. Making him commissioned as a full Lieutenant in the UNSC Navy, 'Now ONI won't go digging into him and the rest of the UNSC won't be looking into us,' she sighed as she concluded her thoughts while feeling a tinge of sadness at the parting of the Lieutenant after so many months.

*𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬*

*𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬*

Annoyed at the newest visitor she rubbed her eyes and looked at the time displayed on her computer [12:56] it read, "Come in" She decided to go ahead and see who the visitor is so she could finally catch up on some much-needed rest. After the words left her mouth she was slightly surprised to see Franklin Mendez, the man she had scouted to lead the program's training, appearing in her office so late. The Chief Petty Officer walked in and took a seat in the first chair and leaned back before speaking.

"Good evening doctor, how are you?" he spoke with a somewhat matter-of-fact tone. At the same time, he had pulled off his patrol cap and began scratching the back of his head.

Deciding that any small talk was useless Catherine responded, "Chief Mendez please cut to the chase," as she spoke she became startled to find that her coffee levels within her mug were running dangerously low.

The marine sighed before pulling out a datapad, "This is my official report regarding the progress of candidate Sierra zero-one-seven, 'Alpha', so far as you requested," he spoke while passing the report across the desk to Catherine.

Catherine then slowly began reading the report and as time went on she became more delighted by what was said. In Mendez's own words, Alpha was "crushing" every task handed to him. Even though he had only begun training a few weeks ago he had already exceeded most physical benchmarks laid out for the Spartan-II class. These benchmarks were supposed to be tested after the second month of training.

'Interesting,' Catherine pondered, 'Is it his pre-existing physical capabilities that have caused him to surpass the predictions for the class as a whole? Or could it be his genetic factors that have amplified his growth more than what was previously hypothesized? Perhaps it is a combination of both where his previous capabilities acted as a foundation, and that with the addition of training and proper nutrition, he is flourishing,'

*𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘮*

Snapping the doctor out of her thoughts Mendez cleared his throat and reached over to retrieve his datapad, "If that is all doctor then I will be leaving. Candidate zero-one-seven still has a nearly full day of training ahead of him and I still have some weekly training plans to finish ironing out after the rest of the class is finished being inducted," he said before turning to leave the office.

"Hold on Frank, before you go I would like to hear your thoughts on candidate zero-one-seven," Catherine asked with curiosity gleaming in her eyes. She asked this knowing full well that the lead instructor probably withheld his own opinion from fully being expressed in the report. Working with ONI had a habit of making anyone not in its higher ranks be less 'talkative' to say the least.

The man sighed and thought for a moment being careful to what words he chose to express his opinion to the fullest, "Candidate zero-one-seven is a freak of nature to be sure. Most marines would be nowhere near his level even had they been training for triple the time he has, not to mention the fact that he is only six years old. Personality wise however he has been difficult, to say the least," he took a small pause in his speech.

The Chief raised one palm, "On one hand he has been shown to be nearly fearless, last week he was to run the obstacle course. As you may know, any kid should be terrified of it on the first go through, it has ten-meter tall towers candidates have to climb then slide down using their body on a rope anchored to the ground. It has close to 8 meters worth of razor wire where candidates have to quite literally drag their face through the mud in order to not have their flesh ripped off, and many other similarly hard obstacles. But Alpha didn't even hesitate when going through the entire thing after I showed him the correct way. I was obviously impressed by his act but didn't show any reaction to his accomplishment and only asked how he felt, to which he responded with, 'Fine, but I would feel a whole lot better had I not been jabbed with a cattle prod'," he finished then raised his other palm.

"Which leads us to the other side of his personality, Alpha is extremely aggressive, violent, and stubborn from what I have witnessed so far. You were already briefed on what he did to Beckman, and he only follows most of my orders out of obligation. No matter what punishment I give him he continually refuses to say the words sir, ma'am, or any other term of respect. I have made him dig holes, paint rocks, cut grass with scissors, and any other tedious exercise under the sun, yet he simply won't do as I order him to in that regard," Catherine frowned outwardly at what she heard but internally was indifferent seeing his actions as nothing major. She was much more interested in the fact that he was excelling in training, but nonetheless, let the chief instructor of the program finish his thoughts.

"With all of that being said, it is in my opinion that he will cause trouble for both himself and the program as we proceed," Franklin finished only to see Catherine with the same frown on her face and a newly raised eyebrow, "Please explain," she hurriedly asked the man.

The Chief Petty Officer sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time, "What I mean is that his personality and physical condition will put him completely at odds with the goals of the program. A core tenant of this program is to support and foster cooperation as a team, because 'we' will always be stronger than 'me'," he emphasized the words 'we' and 'me' by incorporating a small pause after each word, "Alpha will most likely see his classmates as liabilities rather than teammates once he figures out that he will probably win every one-on-one engagement against them. After that happens I don't think I will need to explain to you what will happen. Now I could be wrong about my theory, but I am extremely skeptical that Alpha will be able to be cohesive with the others in the class,"

Catherine looked down and thought about what the instructor had said. She already knew of Alpha's 'eccentricities' and figured he may be a little bit of a handful to manage. It was alarming however that he had already begun to make the lead instructor she had assigned specifically to train the Spartan-IIs to have become unapproving of his candidacy, 'If he doesn't produce the desired results ONI will come and he will be 'discarded' from the program,' she knew that his 'discarding' won't be the end of it as well. They would find some use for him, and they would then begin to question the validity of her project if she decided to drop him for some other reason. Vice Admiral Parangosky was already on her case for her actions when it came to the actual 'kidnapping' of the children, and she was the only person in the entire UNSC she did not want to make angry.

Catherine slightly shook her head, it was still too early to make any final decisions. Alpha had only begun training less than a month ago and hadn't even been introduced to the other Spartan candidates. She believed that Mendez was overthinking the problem that hadn't even begun to appear. Even if the problem came to pass she would be extremely reluctant to give up her 'adopted son' and one of her spartans. Especially with how capable he was showing himself to be, plus she had secretly begun to like his bold personality.

"I see," she paused, "Very well then Chief Mendez your thoughts are duly noted. You are free to return to your housing unit, I suggest you get some sleep," Franklin nodded and left taking Catherine's advice to get to bed ASAP. Not long after he left Catherine had finished her work and also retired to get her much-needed rest.

…

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September 23, 2517

Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex, Military Reservation 01478-B

04:43 hours

(Alpha Pov)

"O-course ... physical training (sand)... classroom lessons… today ends at 17:00 huh?" I spoke aloud to no one in particular. I sighed thankful that today would actually be ending fairly early, but knowing it would be another challenge.

With that in mind, I began my jog to the concrete slab that Mendez nicknamed 'the grinder' for early morning physical training. I ran through the night on the dirt trail that had been expertly maintained just like the rest and it made sure the dirt was soft and difficult to run on. The trail to the grinder was only a mile but the length was just enough to get your hamstrings and quads sore, making it much more fun when Mendez decided it was time to switch from push-ups to star jumps or to lunges.

I was in high spirits this morning. Every morning after waking up or being woken up I had thirty minutes to get dressed, wash up, find out the first location on the schedule via the data board, and get to that location. It's pretty annoying trying to cram all of that into such a short time period but I always get the job done.

For the rest of the run, I turned off my thoughts and enjoyed the last moments of peace I had before training. The forest around me was quiet and the only sounds were my own caused by breathing and my feet hitting the ground. It was also quite cool which felt good as I had begun to start sweating. Eventually, I arrived at my destination and stood at my designated position, and waited for Mendez to arrive.

Not even five minutes went by before he was in front of me looking down at me, "Trainee assume push-up position,"

'Awesome, more fucking push-ups,' I thought as I got into position already wishing the day would hurry up and end.

…

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"Just ahead is the amphitheater cadet. There you will finally be able to meet the rest of your class. They will be arriving shortly," I was informed by some random instructor who had guided me through the building.

I nodded not speaking a word as I was far too tired and annoyed to even utter a sentence, not that I could with the amount of sand that had gone down my throat had made it feel like sandpaper. I then walked through the open doorway and made my way to the right near the entrance. I plopped down onto one of the bench-like seats and leaned back hoping to take a quick nap. Not that I would be able to, besides the fact that I was still shivering from the cold water that I had just been submerged in which was still soaking my clothes. I also had been told to immediately roll around in the sand to make myself look like a "Sugar Cookie" in one instructor's words before being told to do more exercises. To make a long story short I was cold and had begun to have sores and blisters due to chaffing.

Catherine was also in this room speaking to her A.I. while looking at a bunch of screens.

I couldn't make out what she was saying clearly, but the noise generated was just loud enough to keep me up. Nonetheless, I decided to rest my eyes for the time being-

"How was today Alpha?" I jolted forward, snapping my eyes open and jumping up into the stance Jacob taught me… Only to see Catherine looking at me inquisitively with her A.I., Déjà, following closely behind.

'I swear she just fucking teleported,' There was no way she got up here so quickly… this must be one of those supernatural abilities women have that tv spoke about. Before I got sucked into my hypothesis on weird shit that women can apparently do I responded to her by gesturing with my right hand that it was 'so-so'.

"So it was one of those days?" she asked in understanding. This had not been the first time I had finished a day of training and was less talkative during her examinations. To be honest I would rather her just shut up and let me be, but that never happens. Though it was refreshing to have one conversation that did not involve yelling or punishments or exercises.

I simply gave her a wry nod in hopes that she would cease her attempts at conversation. To which she did and returned down the stairs and made her way onto the stage of the amphitheater. After a moment of silence as she did what I assumed to be a final check on a computer she spoke aloud to her assistant, "Alright Déjà bring them in," This time I heard her words clearly.

After only a moment the right rear door opened and in walked Mendez with my new classmates. They all were wearing the same training uniform, a black tank top with their number, a pair of dark green pants, and black combat boots. Strangely most if not all were confused and seemed worried as they looked around the vast amphitheater. The group minus Mendez made their way and began to fill out the front half of the seating space with a couple seemingly seeking out the row I was on.

"What happened? How did I get here?" asked a girl with blonde hair worriedly to my left across the aisle.

"I don't know," responded a boy with black hair beside her.

Looking left and right I was a bit curious at the numbers of my classmates. To my left was a girl with a newly shaven blonde head. Her uniform had the number [141] painted in white just like mine to the left of my chest. To my right was a boy with the same shaven hairstyle but his hair was black like mine. His number was [104], as I looked he seemed to see my curiosity and spoke up, "Hi I am Fred, you seem to know what we are doing here. Do you mind me asking what that is?" he asked with a friendly smile and tone.

I raised an eyebrow at his words, 'Is this guy serious?' I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Looking around I saw some others including one-four-one paying attention to what my response would be, 'These guys are weird,' I concluded.

Looking at one-zero-four or 'Fred' I simply pointed to Catherine on stage as she began to clear her voice, "Hello please take a seat all of you," she announced with her hands on her hips, and the rest of the kids still standing took a seat.

Catherine took a long look at the filled auditorium, she wore the same light blue t-shirt and darker blue pants along with the white lab coat that I had always seen her in during the past couple of weeks, "Per Naval Code 45812 you are all hereby conscripted into UNSC Special Project codenamed Orion-II, also known as Spartan-II,"

'So that's the name of this program? Sounds cool,' I thought nodding in appreciation to Catherine's naming sense. Just like with my own name, she did a good job with this one.

Suddenly her voice changed from a light informative tone to a more heavy and cold sound as she continued the apparent explanation of the program, "Your parents are gone, the planet Reach is your new home, and 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 after her conclusion before looking to her left at Mendez standing behind her at attention, "Chief Petty Officer Mendez, escort the children to the mess hall. Feed them. Get them to bed,"

Immediately Mendez turned and shouted at the crowd, "Trainees! Fall out!" all the kids seemed a little frightened by his yell and stood up straight without hesitation from his command. Meanwhile, I took my time standing up, mostly because my legs felt like bricks after being still for so long, "Alpha! You will be at the front of the line. Lead them to the mess hall and make sure everyone is accounted for, otherwise, you are sleeping outside again tonight!"

"Just great there are almost a hundred others, and now I am supposed to be a babysitter? Am I not just doing your job for you at this point?" I mumbled under my breath. I made my way down the steps feeling over a hundred eyes staring at me and began walking to the exit of the amphitheater. As I made my way through the door and started walking I came to realize, 'Those bastards aren't following me,' containing my annoyance I turned around and walked back through the door I just came through.

Catherine on the stage was hiding an amused smile while Mendez was not finding the situation to be very humorous. My eye twitched seeing both of their reactions, but I pulled my vision away from them and looked at the crowd of my new classmates. They all seemed confused at my actions and simply stood there watching me

Clenching my fist and swallowing some saliva to wet my throat I spoke, "Well? What are you all waiting for???" I asked in a very annoyed tone while motioning with my head toward the doorway I was standing by.

They finally got the hint after me speaking up and began making their way down to the doorway. I started giving each of them a number based on what position they came through the door, and told them to remember their number and that if they forgot then me and whoever forgot their number were going to have a big fucking problem.

I am tired, hungry, cold, wet, and sandy, now would be the worst time to piss me off.

================================================================

Yo here is the chapter as promised.

So here I wanted to show that Alpha is by no means perfect and definitely has several character flaws that will hold him back somewhat. Mostly in regards to getting recognition (Though he wouldn't give to shits about that).

If right now he comes off as annoying or a bit of a dick then good that's how I kinda want him to be. If you hate him as he is now don't worry he will get better, as they say pride comes before a fall and he is going to get a reality check that having team mates makes things a whole hell of a lot easier.

Anyway this begins our little training arc before the war and stuff. I will do my best to where it is actually enjoyable and not super boring. If you have any suggestions or just want to drop your thoughts feel free.

I am thinking on making a discord because a few people ask so look out for that announcement maybe later this week if I decide to do it (Don't be expecting to much. I honestly don't know what to do with discords for things like this).

Oh yeah I also dropped this on fanfic.net so if you want to read it there you can

And that is about it I hope you all have a blessed day and I will See You Star Side.