Chapter One

"Holy Shit! I'm still alive!" exclaimed Church right after the EMP went off. He felt more complete then he had right before going into the Meta's head then he realized, he felt complete because he was, he was the full alpha again he had all his parts. Then it hit him the Meta must have used the dome shield it had protected him from the EMP but in the process had his armor shut off.

Soon Project Freelancer personal were flooding the room pointing their guns at the Meta as they took church and put him in a holding unit. They walked out of the building dragging the Meta along with them as they boarded a pelican it was a long flight

He heard one marine say "So this is the alpha eh George"

The marine in question just looked at him and said "of course what you expect it to be like a giant robot or something? Cause if you did you're a moron John"

"So what if I thought it was gonna be something cooler then just a chip you put in your head" replied John

At this point Church decided he would contribute to the conversation "So what if I am dickhead! Cause I'm still cooler then you fuckers"

Both marines would've fallen out of their seats if not for the bar preventing it. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!" Screamed George

"I'm the alpha dumbass" replied Church

"But but you can talk!" exclaimed John.

" why wouldn't I cockbite" Church said

After this the flight continued in silence until they docked at a space station above some inner colony. Two marines dressed similarly to George and John took alpha of the ship and took him to see the director

"Why hello alpha it is nice to see you again." The director said

" I wish I could say the same director" replied Church with malice

"Alpha if you stop the hostility I'm willing to make you a deal I will build you a new body, a human body, get you into the real marine corp and actual training if you testify in my defense at the trial" the director offered

"Fine but we are still not square" replied Church "fucker" Church said under his breath

"Now that is settled then" said the director "it will take up to five weeks for me to clone you a body so it doesn't die in a few months like a flash clone" said the director

End Flash back

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And that is how Church ended up wearing a marine recruit uniform in a pelican headed for earth still marveling at his new body.

"You act like you've never seen it before" said the marine next to Church

" what?" Said Church

"You act like you've never seen your body before, I'm Ben by the way Ben Martzke" said Ben sticking out his hand

"I'm Church er Leonard Church but you can just call me Church" he replied shaking Ben's hand

"Well Church it's nice to meet you, so you think you're gonna like the marines?" Ben asked

"I think I am" said Church "it's a hell of a lot better then that damned canyon" he muttered

"What?" Said Ben "it sounded like you said something?"

"It's nothing" replied Church

Soon Ben, Church and the other recruits got out of the pelican and filed into the training base's main building where they were immediately greeted by a marine in his late thirties. "Welcome to the UNSC training base know as north woods in the state of Wisconsin it is here that you will be trained to be true soldiers, true marines after which you all be sent out to your first active duty post or if you're good enough you will be sent to train as an ODST do I make myself clear." The marine clearly their drill sergeant asked

"yes sir" they said with little enthusiasm

" I said do I make myself clear" the sergeant said again

"YESSIR" they said with more enthusiasm

"Good you are dismissed go choose a bunk you will receive you battle dress uniforms or BDUs in five minutes" he said as he turned to walk away.

Church and Ben chose bunks next to each other. "So what did you think of the sergeant?" asked Ben

"Exactly what I expected" said Church

"I thought you'd say that, so what do you what to train as?" replied Ben

"I'm going to train as a sniper, what bout you?" Church answered

"Me I'm gonna train as an engineer dad owned a car repair place back home" said Ben as he began putting his stuff in his locker.

"you any good at fixing stuff?" Church asked

"of course I am" said Ben looking slightly insulted

"Ladies!" they were abruptly interrupted as the Sergeant walked in. "pack away your gear then head down to the mess for dinner" he said

"YESSIR!" They all said snapping to attention. "You know this isn't half bad" Thought Church as he was marching behind Ben toward the mess.

Church had a bowl of MRE chili for dinner that night. "Is it any good" Ben asked looking up from his own spaghetti and meat balls.

"Yeah it's way better then I thought it would be" Church answered

The next day Church woke up to the sound of his sergeant shouting "get up ladies rise and shine all the recruits grudgingly got up. Everything started to down hill when one recruit asked "when do we get our guns sir" the sergeant turned to look at him and said "what did you just say son"

"I asked when we get our guns sir" repeated the hapless recruit fear in his voice

"first off you will get your rifles now and you will stand out in front of the barracks with them in your hands for three hours every time one is dropped I and another 15 minutes to your PT" the sergeant decreed

And that is how Church ended up holding his rifle at arms length for four hours. After the grueling PT they went to the shooting range for fire arms practice.

In the first week Church was probably the worst soldier in the entire group But he still tried to compete with Ben even though Ben was probably the best soldier in the group. So Church started spending all his spare time practicing and reading books on strategy by the second week Church could compete with Ben and win and by the fourth week he was the best soldier and won nearly everything. By the time the 13th week rolled around and their training was starting to end their sergeant came into the room and Said "one week form now you will be competing against training group 9 in a game of capture the flag for this game you must designate a group leader this is to be your final field test" as he was saying this he was passing out pieces of paper. "On this slip of paper right who you believe should be the teams commander do you understand?"

"Yessir!" Came the chorus of voices.

"good" he said as he began to collets the pieces of paper. "your team leader is Private Leonard Church." the sergeant announced

"well might as well start planning" Church thought as they were dismissed.