Chapter (10) Wilderness Expedition (2)

Wilderness Training Preserve

Viery Territory, Reach

July 12, 2519

(Alpha Pov)

"You are each going to be handed a piece of a map of the area below. The mission is simple: you will each be individually deployed and use your piece of the puzzle to navigate to the extraction point. The last trainee to make it to extraction will be left behind," Mendez paused, "And it is a 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 long walk home," he finished stating grimly

He then looked at John, "117 you will be first," he informed. John in turn stood up and saluted him and acknowledged the Instructor's words in his black undersuit-like uniform. When we put it on I thought we looked like ninjas, and John agreed.

John then sat back down beside me in the drop ship and began to observe the surroundings outside the window like the rest of us in Blue team. I couldn't help but smirk imagining what Mendez's face may look like when all 73 of us came strolling in at the same time.

Looking out the window I was greeted with the scene of a cold taiga. Snow fell unceasingly, and yet the ground was filled with tall trees and a surprising abundance of plant life. Pressing my hand to the glass only led me to gain goosebumps just thinking about how cold it must be walking what appeared to be at least calf-deep snow.

"Psst. Hey, look! The river," John whispered to me breaking me out of my thoughts

Looking at where he pressed his finger on the glass I caught a glimpse of the river. It appeared to have been thoroughly iced over but it could easily provide a good fishing spot for local predators. Seeing how the area was completely devoid of any signs of civilization I wanted to inform John that it was maybe not the best idea, but I ended up stopping myself.

Firstly it appeared that there were no other notable landmarks that were as easy to group up at. The river was long and winding and could easily be crossed due to it being frozen, and it wouldn't be hard to locate with the compass seeing as it was as easy as going North or South depending on where you were deployed. Secondly… I slightly want to wrestle a bear.

"Hey Alpha you good? What do you think of meeting at the river," John once again pulled me from my thoughts.

"Huh? Oh yeah, it's a good plan. The river is long enough and easily locatable, the only real danger is the possibility of predators but they should be hibernating at this time of year," I said, agreeing with his plan, but also warning him of possible dangers.

"117 you're up!" Mendez called out from down the troop bay.

"Alright that's me, make sure you pass around the message," John said while standing up

"Aye Aye Boss," I said with a smirk and gave him a half-hearted salute. To which John grinned at my actions before walking down and out of the deployment ramp.

…

..

.

"Man it's fucking cold," I said with my teeth chattering.

We were trained to be resistant to pain and to ignore any obstruction that would stop us from completing our mission. The training worked, for me I simply had to trick my mind into embracing the suck, and the first step of my process was to bitch a little about how much it sucked. Once that was out of my system I could proceed as normal even with a broken rib.

I pulled my map piece out of my pocket to view it, Mendez had forbidden us from doing so during the flight. I pulled out the small piece of paper analyzing the topography and any other natural landmarks that might give me any clue as to where I am currently at. Finally, after a couple of minutes of observing the map, I came to a conclusion.

"This is fucking useless," I said throwing the piece into the snow. That clown decided to give me the most vague portion of the map, which quite literally only displayed a fuck ton of trees. Well, jokes on him, the comedy club is at least a couple hundred miles south and the river can't be but three miles north.

Reaching into my other pocket I began to pull out the other item given to me, 'Watch the compass will be broken,' I commented internally. Luckily I was wrong and the compass seemed to be functioning correctly. After taking a moment to confirm my heading I began walking into the tree line that surrounded the landing zone.

As I strolled through the treeline I stayed alert. Just because most of the predators were hibernating for winter doesn't mean that all of them were asleep. I listened intently for any misplaced sound, but all I heard was the trudging of my feet through the slush and the occasional bird chirping from high among the trees.

I looked around and couldn't help but breathe fresh air at the new scenery. For over two years I had stayed in a metal and stone facility surrounded by weaponry and a newly structured life. Though I don't dislike that part, in fact, I feel almost as though I was quite literally made for it.

The ability to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, is a luxury that I enjoy. Which is strange, to say the least, my list of favorite things in the world mostly consists of guns and explosives, 'Meh who cares' I thought to myself as I continued walking admiring the scenery.

*Hoot*

*Hoot*

*Hoot*

*sigh*, "Come on, that was a terrible attempt at mimicking an owl," I called out to the surrounding trees.

"Really? I thought it was pretty good," suddenly Daisy spoke aloud sitting on top of a tree branch just out of my peripheral vision. She wore the same black undersuit as me and everyone in the class, and her golden blonde hair was similarly still in a buzz cut. Her face looked a little disappointed by the fact that her owl call had failed to trick me.

"No it was actually pretty good," I said, admitting to the lie earlier. Daisy seemed to be in disbelief at my confession so I decided to explain, "Your owl call was a pretty smart play. Owls, unlike a good portion of other birds, don't migrate. Combine that with the fact they are nocturnal and it is currently night, you would go almost completely unnoticed by anyone else," I said to which Daisy tried to interrupt but I held my hand up to let myself continue talking.

"However, in this territory in Reach, there are no owls, due to them being exterminated by the local Fox and Hawk population back in 2493. The only reason I know that is because I did some research on the wilderness areas located on Reach," I said holding up a finger designating my first point before raising a second, "And Secondly your call came too conveniently. I paid attention to my surroundings and didn't hear any owls before, therefore it would be unlikely to coincidentally hear one now by a clearing," I said concluding my statement.

Daisy looked at me with her mouth agape and seemed to have become completely speechless. Slowly her facial expression morphed into a funny-looking pout, "I didn't know you were a huge nerd," she said with an ounce of frustration.

"I call it being prepared. Now are you going to continue your owl routine on that branch, or are you going to hop down and walk with me to the river?" I asked, placing my hand on my hip and cocking my head to the side.

Daisy rolled her eyes and shoved herself off the branch and nailed the landing on the twelve-foot drop. She walked over to me and I couldn't help but be reminded that she truly was one of the smallest in the class. Even now after everyone had shown significant growth in height she still only came up to just slightly above my shoulders. Don't get me wrong, she had grown significantly as well, it's just that she had somehow stayed in the same height range. That combined with the expressions she made any time I teased her about it made me vow to never allow her to live it down.

We began walking through the snow side by side as it continued to rain sleet. We remained silent for a couple of steps until Daisy decided to break the ice and begin a talk, "So…how did you know we would be in a snowy forest?" she asked with a slightly confused expression.

I just turned and smiled at her, "That's the thing," I stopped, "I didn't,"

Her confusion turned to disbelief, "Please tell me you didn't research all of the environments present on Reach," she said practically begging it not to be true.

"No, there was no need to. Linda, Fred, and I were able to narrow down a list of possible biomes two weeks ago. From there we were able to comb through the top results based on what would be needed for a survival training expedition, and a Snowy Taiga/Tundra was near the top of the list," I explained

Daisy snorted, "I know I said it earlier, but you are a huge nerd," she said jokingly while shaking her head.

"Yeah, yeah hate to burst your bubble, but it was actually Linda doing most of the research. I helped her as much as I could, but still was scarce because of my remedial training caused by my injury," I said, causing Daisy's eye twitch, which I barely caught out of the corner of my eye, "What's wrong? You look extra pissed suddenly," I asked raising an eyebrow

She tensed up for a moment before relaxing, "It's nothing," she said while regaining her previous expression. Seeing that whatever annoyed her had passed I just shrugged and an awkward silence seemed to have crept between us as we continued walking towards the river.

I began to feel how boring it was to walk in silence and decided it was my turn to bring up a new subject, "How's the situation over at gold team?" I said breaking the silence

"Same shit honestly," she said with a smile, "Josh was pissed because Grace made us get in trouble due to fucking up the timer during an underwater demolition exercise," she then stopped and adopted a serious expression turning to me, "But get this the reason the timer broke was that she pulled a wire out of its terminal because she somehow got into the armory and decided to add C12 to the explosion,"

It was my turn to be struck with pure disbelief, "Bullshit, there's no way that is what actually happened," I said, shaking my head in a refusal of her words. Daisy just kept nodding saying it was all true, "Grace does know that a 4x4x4 inch cube of C12 is enough to level a five-story building right?" I asked in fear of the local pyromaniac

"She does now. Mendez smoked us for days because of that stunt and Grace lost lunch for a week because of it," Daisy said while raising her hands in a 'what can you do' gesture.

I couldn't help but chuckle, "Yeah that sounds like her. During the basic explosives class a couple of months back she almost blew both of us up. Luckily I fucked up the trigger, so it only partially detonated," I admitted which made Daisy laugh in return.

We continued talking as we walked through the winter wonderland until we finally reached the frozen body of water. Once I confirmed the river was frozen enough to stand on top of, I turned towards Daisy, "Alright you go east for 5000 paces and I will go West for 5000 as well. Since my direction is going down stream I am willing to bet I will link up with the main group. If that happens, and you reach your 5,000 steps with no group in sight, turn around and head back in my direction. If the inverse happens then vice versa I will head your way,"

Daisy nodded with my words and began to turn to walk off but I caught her before she could get out of reach. I grabbed her by the wrist startling her, and made her turn to face me, "Lastly whenever either of us finds the main group we will wait for the other to make it because we never leave anyone behind right?" I asked

Daisy's expression had become dazed as she gazed at my eyes that peered into her own with a stern and serious expression, "...right," she finally muttered after a moment. I deemed her response satisfactory and smiled while letting her go and turning to walk away.

But as I got a couple steps away I couldn't help but turn around as my smile slowly morphed into a sly grin. Daisy still stood in her daze so I decided to motivate her to get to walking, "Better get going, knowing you with those small legs it will take you twice as long to walk 5000 paces than it will be for me," And before Daisy could respond I trekked down the river 

quickly out of sight, and all the while a smile never left my face.

======================================================================Fun fact: Did you know that originally there were to be 300 Spartan-IIs? Sadly, the Spartan-II project had its budget cut in half, which is why Spartan operating numbers only went up to 150 as there were only 150 candidates screened. Unfortunately, Halsey's bad luck did not end there because the funding was reduced once more to leave only 75 candidates to actually begin training. (Author's note: I think I am going to drop one of these each chapter to help bridge some of the Lore divide. Don't worry though they'll be at least somewhat interesting.)

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

…

..

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*crunch*

*crunch*

*crunch*

I had been walking for close to 3000 paces if my count was correct. All throughout the only sounds accompanying me in my journey was the crunch of fresh snow as I continued to walk on the bank.

I maintained a guarded approach constantly scanning my surroundings for friendlies and possible threats. To be honest, it was strange, I had scarcely seen any animals during my long walk…that was…weird…very weird.

*crack*

I heard the snapping of a twig between 20-30 feet to my right over the bank and near the tree line. I swiveled my body towards the sound and my arms rose to an offensive posture, fist balled in one hand, my survival knife in the other.

"Olly Olly!" I called out as my eyes began to focus on an approaching shadow

"Oxen Free!" I heard a familiar voice answer. It was John and I slowly began to have a visual confirmation as the moonlight slowly illuminated his features as he walked in my direction.

Once he had gotten within 10 feet I could make out his disappointed facial expression, "Man, I thought I had you this time," he said as he walked to face me.

"Are you still on that?" I asked shaking my head in disbelief

"Yeah! I am actually!" he said with enthusiasm, "You almost made me pee myself when you popped out from around that corner,"

I laughed as I recalled my earlier prank on John, "I think I almost peed myself laughing," I wiped a tear from my eye, "That has to mean we are even right?"

"Like Hell!" he fiercely spoke in refusal. We both couldn't help but laugh at his words.

After our short exchange, we took a minute to catch our breath and calm down. We slowly began talking as we started down the river in the same direction. This time besides the crunching sound of snow beneath our feet and the echoing chattering of our conversations, nothing gave off any resonance of their existence.

"Seeing as you are alone, I am guessing you haven't run into anyone yet, right?" I asked John

"Negative," he shook his head before turning to me, "What about you?"

"I ran into Daisy a while back. We made a plan for gathering up whoever we could find," I said before explaining our plan to John. He asked why we didn't just use our maps to determine the direction of the river closest to the pick-up point, to which I explained how terrible our maps were, causing him to laugh at our misfortune.

"What about your map?" I asked causing John to pull a slip of paper from his pocket. I walked closer and peered down scanning the piece of the map.

A few minutes went by as we both looked at it before-

"What the fuck!" I said in exasperation, "I get a fuck ton of trees and you get the entire fucking river!?" John began hysterically laughing at my reaction

He was the one wiping a tear from his eye this time as he patted me on the back, "Cheer up, you linked up with me so now you know where we are going," he said in an attempt to make me feel better, or to rub it in, I honestly couldn't tell.

"I swear you took all my fucking luck," I mumbled causing John to begin chuckling again, 'Not that I had much to begin with,' I internally thought

I let John finish his laughing and after a minute he stopped, "Alright let's get moving, Luckily you were already heading in the right direction," John said motioning for us to go ahead and move along.

Our solitary walk gained more companions, not even 200 meters. The first to join our merry band was ironically our remaining teammates. We greeted each other and John and I explained the plan at the moment. Fred, Kelly, and Linda agreed collectively with our plan and we proceeded down the river with now five of us moving together. It didn't take long before our group grew larger and we changed from moving downriver to staying put and waiting in place for others.

…

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(3rd Pov)

5 hours had passed and finally, all teams had their full roster accounted for. 73, eight to eleven-year-old children stood in a snow-blanketed field. The field though unremarkable by most measures was thankfully, for the children, large enough and barren enough to fit the entirety of the Spartan-II program's candidates comfortably. 

The children stood scattered, around the outer ring of the clearing closest to the forest that surrounded it, but there was a small concentration in the center. In the center the unofficial leaders and most well-known candidates stood in a circle, some crouched down, while others stood, however, they all looked at the puzzle-pieced map they had made.

"Is this all the pieces?" asked a freakishly tall boy with Hazel eyes.

"These are all the pieces we gathered from our respective teams," a boy with dark brown hair and the designation 029 said before adopting an accusatory look and staring at a dark-haired boy who was currently snacking on freshly picked blueberries, "All are accounted for except someone's…." he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What are you trying to say, Joshua?" 017 asked with a particularly sharp glint in his eyes.

"Cool it you two," a girl with a dark complexion and brown hair said before bending down and grabbing a handful of blueberries for herself.

"Whatever," the black-haired boy shrugged his shoulders. He dusted his hands off indicating he was down with his meal and stood up

"Getting back on track, according to the map we got at least a day-long hike ahead of us," Candidate 104 pointed out. There was a collective sigh at the prospect of walking in close to a foot of snow for a day.

"We better get started," 117 spoke with his arms crossed over his chest, "We will walk in two single-file lines, if it starts snowing we will hold hands so that no one gets lost. Does anyone have any problems with this plan?"

No one voiced any concerns against the young boy, John's plan, a few shook their heads to display their lack of disapproval, "Sounds like a plan," the boy, Alpha, responded, patting John on his shoulder, "I am surprised, did you think of it yourself? Or was this Linda's plan again?" he asked in a mischievous tone.

"That was one time!" John said in exasperation, to which the crowd shared a good laugh with Alpha.

"Alright let's move," the Hazel-eyed boy, Kurt said, breaking up the last remaining bits of laughter.

…

..

.

The two groups began their journey shortly after Kurt broke up the leading group. The team leaders returned to their respective fire teams and informed them of the plan going forward. From there they split into two mostly even lines and trekked for a couple of hours through the forest parallel with the other group.

The children marched with rosy noses and pink cheeks caused by the bitter cold. Numb feet were a common occurrence after walking for so long, and shoving one's hands into their pockets to maintain warmth was a prerequisite to continue walking. Snot ran down some's noses, while coughing was evident in others.

But even with all of these ailments, through all of the constant suffering and pain experienced by each and every member of the expedition. Not a word of complaint was uttered. No soul was willing to quit. Many had thoughts of doing literally anything else including Mendez's remedial training, and every candidate desired to hurry up and finish.

However, they were Spartans.

Words such as quit had lost meaning to them a very long time ago. To them, they were a chosen few who had the ability to help reunite humanity. At first, they might not have had a choice, but now they had a duty. They had a purpose, for better or for worse they all had accepted that fact by now.

…

..

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(Alpha Pov)

"Why am I on point again? You know I am quite literally one of the shittiest when it comes to land nav," I asked, making a confused expression towards John.

"We are pulling shifts with who takes point," John began to explain, "Since we have already pulled rear duty, and we are now on point. We can relax for the rest of the march somewhere in the middle,"

"Huh, I guess you are right," I said, agreeing with John's point of view.

After our short conversation, we fell silent and continued our walk through the snowy biome. Our group weaved through the surrounding vegetation, marking trees to make sure we did not travel in a circle. Every now and then we would send a runner to the other team of our classmates to relay information. Fred was easily one of the best scouts and was also one of the most reliable in the class, so we ended up delegating him that mission. He didn't complain and simply accepted John's request.

"Hey, do you see that?" John called me out of my thoughts. I looked ahead, narrowing my eyes to focus better on what he pointed to.

"Is-Is that a light?" I asked with uncertainty looking back at John with a raised eyebrow.

"I think so," John said before the light of realization beamed into his expression, "Fred!" he whispered in exclamation to our friend standing behind us.

Fred perked up and came forward to better hear what John had to say, "Fred I need you to haul ass and get to team B and tell them to drop to the ground. Then I need you to lead them back here, crawl the entire time," John said gravely.

While John was filling in Fred I turned back to the long line that made up team A, "Everyone down!" I whispered with urgency while motioning to fall to the ground. 

A moment later Fred ran while crouched toward team B and John fell to the ground beside me, "Nice work, are you thinking what I am thinking?" he asked, looking at me with suspicion directed at the light.

"A random light, in the dead of night, in the middle of the woods, in a restricted UNSC training area, that just so happens to appear while we are training," I said listing out the string of coincidences, "Nothing strange happening here obviously," I finished nodding as the sarcasm flew out of my mouth.

"Let's go take a look," I said pointing to a tree that would provide a vantage point and good concealment. John nodded and after a short explanation to Jerome and Margaret, we began our low crawl to the tree.

Upon reaching the tree we both caught sight of an Albatross-class Dropship landed and disembarked by a couple of unmarked soldiers, armed. The ship's searchlights were on and were bright, to the point I couldn't look directly at them without tears welling up from the strain in my eyes. John seemed to be having the same problem and held a hand up in the direction of the light, but maintained a line of sight on the soldiers standing around talking.

"Those aren't regulation uniforms… and they got guns," I said before turning to look at John, "What do you think?"

"Insurrectionists," he said with a narrowed glare pointed at the men.

I turned back and had a similarly pissed-off expression, "That's what I figured," I agreed with his observations. We stayed for a couple more minutes to make sure we weren't missing anything out of the ordinary before we slowly crawled back to the main group.

Once back at the now overly crowded area, we informed everyone that we were far enough back that they could crouch and remain hidden. From there both me and John informed our class of our findings, and once we had finished it was almost unanimously decided we would fight the militia men just ahead of us.

Now we couldn't just rush them, they were most likely trained and armed decently. Because of that, we thought up a plan as a group. It took a moment before we really had an idea, but once Kelly remembered the wolves from a lesson earlier this week, we realized what we needed to do.

Which leads to where I am now.

In a tree.

Freezing my ass off.

"Hey Jai how are you doing?" I said looking in the direction of a tree about ten feet away from me.

"I am doing great Alpha. You know for me personally on the ground it was simply too warm, and I am glad that we are up here now with all this wind," Jai said informatively with a wry smile.

"As was I Jai. I really thought the march was too easy, and I am now ecstatic that we are being given more adversity," I said, nodding along in an exaggerated motion.

"Shh you two, here comes Kelly. Get ready to jump" Daisy the lookout for the plan called out from a tree a bit farther away from both of us.

I looked down and at first, couldn't spot Kelly, but as I began to notice the approaching light that I assumed to be from the flashlight of one of our soon-to-be victims. Then I saw the shadow it was following, the black mass was light and nimble like watching a rabbit run from a fox, but I knew Kelly wasn't running with everything she had. At best it was a light jog, she was surely holding herself back so our assailant would be tired when he got to our trap, and wouldn't lose sight of her and get lost.

Then the pair finally made it to their goal. Laying in a small clearing was Linda, putting on the greatest acting performance in the 26th century, "Help! I sprained my ankle! I don't think I can walk," she cried out into the darkness.

The three of us in the tree couldn't help but snicker as we saw the man begin to approach what he believed to be a helpless and hurt child, which couldn't be further from the truth, "Oh, I will help ya," he said between intermittent wheezing as he slowed his pace to approach Linda slowly.

*CRACK*

Before the man could cross the boundary line we had determined for Linda's safe space he was struck in the temple with a rock. Even I couldn't help but wince at the sight of it because of the speed it was thrown, "Yeesh that one hurt," Jai said, making a pained expression while Daisy nodded along with a sorrow-filled face.

"What the hell Mitch! Is one girl too much for you to handle?" Our attention snapped to two figures approaching our kill zone. They wore the same unmarked uniforms and had a slow stride as one of them began to call out for their comrade who was currently lying unconscious in the snow.

"You two are up," Daisy said behind us as we began to prepare ourselves. We waited with anticipation as the pair called out a few more times looking for their friend.

My hands twitched in anticipation as I became more and more excited, and finally, the pair were just about to get into range. I shared one last look with Jai, and we both nodded that it was time.

Almost simultaneously we leapt down to the pair of men. I crashed into my target and felt the sudden pain from the hit caused by my fall and abrupt stop. The man fell forward but caught himself before he could fully hit the ground and landed on his hands and knees.

Without a second thought, I wrapped my legs into a figure four leg lock around the man's waist and snaked my right arm around his neck. Once my arm was sufficiently wrapped around his neck I placed my hand into the elbow of my left arm and snuck the hand of that arm onto the back of his head. From there I squeezed with all my strength in my right arm while shoving the back of his head down with my left.

[Author's note: For those who don't know. He is performing a rear naked choke.]

The man's eyes looked as if they would pop out of his head. His face became blood red as he strained trying to pry my arm off from around his neck. In a sudden burst of strength, he flung himself onto his back in an attempt to crush me. The impact did hurt, but I had trained in this position to not let go even if I was in danger.

The man's grunts slowly became wheezes as his methodical pulling and grabbing turned to frantic attacks as he scratched at my arm. By this point, his strength had lessened and I rolled him over still maintaining my choke and now was holding his upper torso up as I continued to choke him out.

My stance was firm as his body slowly became limp hanging in my arms as I ratcheted up the pressure and tried to pop his head like a pimple, "Alpha stop!" I heard a yell break me out of focus.

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"You can't kill him," the figure of John said, slightly hidden in the forest.

"Why not?" I asked, still confused, "He's an insurrectionist. If you haven't noticed, they are kinda the bad guys, and we are to kill the bad guys, remember?" I wondered if John was just messing with me.

"Yeah but we'll need the intel in him," John pointed out, "And we can't get that from him if he's a corpse, as the Chief said, 'Dead man tell no tales,"

"Fine! You are right," I said, throwing the limp victim to the ground after releasing it from the jaws of death.

"Is he alive?" asked Kelly with concern of the damaged goods.

I bent down and placed two fingers on the artery in his neck, "Yep, he still has a pulse," I said, confirming that we would at least have one individual to interrogate.

"Good enough for me," Fred said as he, along with Linda began dragging the man towards the Albatross. The others had already begun to crowd around the dropship and were carrying the other troops hog-tied with zip ties.

I continued to watch for a moment and couldn't help, but think about how far we had come. It had only been two years since I had met this new "family" and yet we were already this efficient. They had all come pretty far, from crying and whining on the first day to knocking heads without being armed. Though with that being said… I am still the top dog-

"You coming Alpha?" John asked, snapping out of my reminiscing. He had already begun walking to the drop ship as I remained standing still.

"Yeah," I said sporting a trademark smirk. And with that, we made our way into the vehicle completing our wilderness exercise, while having no casualties and acquiring some bonuses. All in all-

"Mission success," I called out upon entering the crowded passenger cabin.

…

..

.

(3rd POV)

"What have they done this time?" Franklin Mendez asked as he massaged his temples.

Currently, the man along with a team of other marines stood armed behind newly erected barriers surrounding landing zone 7. Every man stood anxious and prepared to annihilate any sign of hostility, all except for Mendez and the woman who stood beside him. Together the two seemed almost nonchalant about the situation at hand, bringing only bafflement to the cohort around them.

"I have to admit, the goal of this wilderness survival training was to promote teamwork and friendship, but I never expected them to do something so….well them really," Catherine Halsey responded, as she had her arms crossed over her chest and finger on her lips as she spoke.

Catherine's assessment wasn't incorrect, no one in the entirety of the UNSC could have expected that a group of children would steal a UNSC Albatross while also kidnapping its crew while they were doing routine work. Though shocked by this development inwardly Catherine was delighted that they had accomplished such an act, while Franklin felt a strange strand of pride in the news.

"There they are! Eyes up front and stay on guard!" the head of the security division at the compound called out to the surrounding troops.

Slowly the bus-sized craft had made its approach and landed in front of the barricades with its rear cargo door facing them. The group outside stood slightly nervous at the prospect that perhaps they had been lied to and perhaps Insurrectionists had discovered the program's candidacy, and this was some type of trap. The bangs of metal heard from inside the ship did not give much of a relief to the forces waiting with bated breath.

Eventually, the rear cargo door opened, and it kicked dust into the air only reflecting a dark shadow inside the cloud. The sound of rounds being chambered and footsteps opposite their direction were the only things to fill the air.

"Identify yourself!" called out the Security officer

By now the cloud had begun to clear and the sight of a dark-haired boy with green eyes carrying a bound and gagged soldier over his shoulder, "Damn I honestly thought we would get a party over our achievement, not a massacre," the boy called out while making an intrigued expression towards the weapons pointed at him.

The boy continued to walk until he was little more than a few steps away from the chief instructor. Once in front of him, he tossed the beaten and silenced man to the ground in between him and his teacher. He expressed the same amount of effort one would when throwing a suitcase in his action.

He then stood at a lazy gesture of attention. His back was not fully straight and without a sharpness in his salute as he greeted his commanding officer, "Alpha, Sierra Zero-One-Seven reporting back for duty," he said with a matter-of-fact tone.

"Mind telling me what this man is doing here Zero-One-Seven?" Franklin asked in a tired tone with his hand crossed over his chest.

Alpha thought for a moment scrunching his face up before it seemed as if an idea had just popped into his head, "Actually sir I believe John would explain that better than me," he spoke with sincerity.

"Then get him out here recruit," Mendez's eye had begun to twitch showing that he had begun to grow tired of Alpha's antics already. Alpha seeing that his instructor's patience had begun to wear thin quickly called out for the entirety of his class, to which they promptly began to exit the spacecraft.

The group lined up at attention within their teams with the two subjects of contention, Alpha and John, standing in front. The remaining two hostages were placed on top of the other one making a dog pile in front of Mendez, which only served to further annoy the man.

Before John could answer Mendez's original query the man had finally had enough, "You two," he pointed at Alpha and John, "My office in twenty minutes, don't even think about being late," he said grimly before sauntering off.

"I will meet the both of you at his office, but before that, Alpha," Halsey said before calling attention to the dark-haired boy, "Out of curiosity, why did you come out alone to begin with?"

The boy shrugged, "I figured that out of everyone inside I had the highest chance to survive being shot," he said nonchalantly, "That's also why I brought this guy out with me," he kicked the bottom of the human pile.

"Wait, why did you bring him out, Alpha?" John asked, confused at his friend's actions.

"He was the best meat shield inside," Alpha answered without hesitation before walking off. Leaving both John and Catherine equally surprised at his response.

Before long John shrugged, "Well.. that's Alpha for you," he said with a wry smile.

"Yes, that is in character for him. He can be…strangely practical at times," Catherine spoke with words that carried a certain endearment internally for her.

"I will meet you later ma'am," John said, saluting the doctor before following after Alpha.

Catherine stood for a moment thinking as she watched the pair link up and begin talking together as they walked. No one could know what she was thinking, but before long she too left the landing zone.

…

..

.

"Would one of you Neanderthals mind telling me why I have three UNSC soldiers hogtied and bloodied laying in my med bay?" asked Franklin as he sat behind his desk with intrigue.

"Well, sir," John began to speak, "We found them in the forest, they had no designating signs on their uniforms and were armed. That combined with the fact that they were on restricted UNSC territory and just so happened to be encountered during our expedition made them incredibly suspicious. Therefore both of us figured that the most probable explanation was that they were Insurrectionists," John said straight-faced while gesturing between him and Alpha.

"And so you two decided to eliminate the threat, I see," Mendez said while he tapped his finger on his desk pondering something in his mind

"And about the stolen spacecraft those men were guarding," Catherine asked leaning over Mendez's desk.

"Actually we didn't steal it. I rigged the autopilot to simply retrace its steps," Alpha spoke up with his arms crossed over his chest, "And with the ship not only would we not have to all walk for a day through snow, but we guaranteed that everyone got home safely,"

"What do you mean cadet?" asked Mendez, narrowing his eyes.

"It's like what we were taught the other day about the Spartans at Thermopylae," John said quickly to clear up any misunderstandings, "Because we were told that the last to reach the rendezvous point would have to walk. We decided to come up with a plan so that everyone together would be able to make it home safely. Like how the Spartans fought together at the battle of Thermopylae,"

"In the real battle the Spartans were betrayed and slaughtered," Catherine pointed out

"But we had more choices unlike them," John countered

"The men you assaulted with rocks didn't," Mendez butted in.

"Maybe if they trained a bit harder then they would have," Alpha snorted

Mendez narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean by that cadet?"

"Come on Chief, these guys looked shady from any angle. Not to mention they were hostile to a kid that appeared in the middle of the forest, the red flags don't end there. Had they been insurrectionists, they wouldn't have let us give them another chance," Alpha articulated before patting John on the back, "That's why I believe given our circumstances John and I made the best decision, and if put in the position to do it over again I would,"

Both Catherine and Mendez listened intently as Alpha presented his position. After he had finished speaking the room was silent as the pair that headed the Spartan-II program sat thinking. Nearly a minute went by as John started to sweat, and Alpha started to feel a little uneasy internally.

"So doctor," Mendez broke the silence looking up and to the side from his seat at Catherine, "What should we do with these two?"

"I think a promotion is in order," Catherine responded as Mendez stood up. The glint in Mendez's eye showed that he shared the same opinion as Catherine, "How about Squad leader?"

John looked elated at Catherine's words, "U-Uhm well thank you, sir and ma'am," he spoke with uncertainty still a little shocked by this situation as he gripped Mendez's hand shaking it.

"Woah woah woah, I don't think that's a good idea for me," Alpha said, butting in, drawing attention from the other three in the room. Mendez's eyes narrowed quickly, and the same was true for Catherine but her eyes held something else within. John looked baffled for what seemed like the tenth time today," Ahem, what I mean to say is that if I was given the promotion I would just lose it due to the not saluting and stuff. Though I am thankful that you two would, uh- think so highly of me," Alpha quickly cleared the air lessening the narrowed eyes. Mendez showed understanding of Alpha's thoughts, and so did Catherines but yet again that same emotion inhabited her eyes.

"Also I will kill myself before I become a pencil pusher," Alpha tacked on at the end giving a nod that showed he completely agreed with the statement, "Instead of a promotion. I would like the Chief to teach me that boxing I have seen him doing in the fitness center," Alpha had decided to go on the attack, to both change the subject and get as many benefits as possible.

Mendez seemed to consider the opinion favorably, but before he could Alpha quickly added another reward, "And I would like the good doctor here to teach me that science medical stuff," he said pointing at Catherine. Though this caused Mendez to raise an eyebrow he decided to hear the doctor's response.

Catherine was perplexed, however, though her outward appearance was that of contemplation. Nowhere in Alpha's file did it show that he had even a hint of interest in anything medical. Even when he had broken his rib he only asked what he could do and how long it would take to heal.

Catherine ran over the different scenarios and thoughts that could be going through Alpha's mind before deciding to get more intel, "Why would you want to learn medicine?" Catherine asked with her hand on her chin.

"Well, I heard that the medics are the ones that go on practically every mission. Plus I realized having a broken rib was not fun so going forward it would be logical to master said skill in case my teammates or I are injured," Alpha said with his already prepared excuse.

"You realize that with the daily training of both of these skills you will have not only no free time but also another workload added to your day," Catherine informed the boy, "While I have no doubt you will excel in boxing, the study of medicine is an entirely different matter. It is a long and deep subject that you will have to sacrifice unbearable amounts of time to, and I will accept no quitters. So I will ask you, are you absolutely certain of your decision?" Catherine asked as all eyes fixed on Alpha watching to see if he would walk back his request or if he would set in course a series of actions that could change fate, not that they knew that fact.

"Affirmative," Alpha responded without a second thought. If Alpha had reservations before he never would have asked.

"Very well I expect great things from you," Catherine said to which Mendez nodded in agreement. Alpha too then shook both of their hands before returning to his place beside John.

"What is the highest rank one can attain, sir?" John, who had been silent for the past conversation decided to ask before he was dismissed.

"The highest rank one can attain as an enlisted man is Master Chief Petty Officer," Mendez said informatively.

"Then will get that," John said with a fierce light of determination in his eye.

"See to it that you will," Mendez said, nodding at John's commitment.

"But the both of you be prepared," Mendez said, switching to a stern aura, "The next mission will not be so easy. There will be casualties, so prepare yourselves for that eventuality," he said grimly

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

Hey guys long time no see!

This is the chapter took me forever to write because of work and school (That should be changing here soon though).

So this is the last chapter before a pretty long time skip. I know everyone has been eager to see the real meat and potatoes of Halo so we will be really getting into that pretty soon.

Anyway hopefully the wait was worth it and you enjoyed the chapter. If you have any questions drop them.

So have a blessed day and I will See You Star Side