Stranger In Their World

Chapter 20

SPARTAN Camp

AN: I'd say that at over two months, this has been the longest time I've gone without an update. Sorry about that. This really should have been out near the start of January, but some exams, having to complete a number of pieces of coursework and a minor case of writer's block meant that I wasn't able to write this chapter. I'd expect a similar time scale for the next update, so now I've set up a Tumblr account. Check it out if you're looking for updates on how the next chapter's going or to ask questions about the story. Link in profile.

27th December 2531

I sat in the back of the Pelican, watching the scenery go by. I was being taken to the Spartan-III training grounds on Reach. Really, they were just the expanded and re-purposed Spartan-II training grounds, but officially, they were now the property of Ackerson for the Spartan-III Program. I didn't care what it was called now anyway. If everything went according to plan, I wouldn't be here for too long. I really hoped Halsey was accurate in her guess for how long the decryption would take. I wasn't sure that I'd be able to fake working with Ackerson for too long.

Somehow, it was only now that the implications of my plan would be. If it worked, then the storylines that I had been depending on so far would be worthless. But I'd also have a chance to end the war years early. And if it failed, then humanity would be, to put it simply, fucked. This plan's success would mean that there would be no major upgrades for MJOLNIR, which would be bad news for the rest of the SPARTAN-IIs. It would be both impossible and risky to bring all the S-IIs in on this plan. So I knew that I was basically on my own. Just me, Dr. Halsey and whatever allies she could get to help her.

Soon enough, the Pelican moved in to land in a large hanger that looked over the large training grounds. My vague memories of the area from the brief time I'd spent there after I'd arrived were now almost completely useless. Barracks had sprang up all over the place to house the hundreds of candidates for the program. There was a large, one story building in the centre of the valley, presumably the mess hall. Scattered across the landscape were numerous other buildings, which I could only guess the purposes of.

As the Pelican settled into the hangar, I stood up and grasped the handle of the small bag that held my few essentials. It wasn't too much, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, a few changes of clothes. Fully loaded M6D pistol. As I was in my MJOLNIR armour, I could have easily had it attached to my leg armour. But this way, it would seem as if I was submitting to Ackerson. All the better for when my plan comes to fruition.

Speaking of Ackerson, I could see him sitting in a Warthog just a few metres away from the hanger. He waved at me, a stupid grin on his face. He was enjoying this. He probably thought I was humiliated. If that was the case, then I'd prove him wrong. Eventually.

"Welcome to the SPARTAN-III training camp!" he said with his dumb grin on his face.

I glared at him, my irritation plainly visible to him. "We both know I'm not here because I chose to come," I snapped. "Just let me get started and fuck off."

That didn't wipe the smile off his face. "Remember who knows what here," he said, reminding me why I had agreed to this job in the first place. "Get in, let me show you around." I didn't answer that, instead just walking to the passenger side of the Warthog and climbing in.

The resulting tour took about an hour, mainly because Ackerson insisted on showing me every single building in the camp. Every. Single. Building. Everything from the storage buildings to the medical centre. If I'd started the tour annoyed at Ackerson, I ended it wanting to kill him. I really don't like it when my time is wasted, and this extensive tour was the biggest waste of my time ever.

Eventually, the Warthog slowed to a halt outside the largest building in the camp. "And we're here!" Ackerson said. "The candidates are waiting for you inside. Say a few words to them, and then we'll start the training tomorrow." At this, he drove off, leaving me standing outside. I sighed, and walked into the building.

I stood in front of hundreds of children, all of them potential candidates for the SPARTAN-III Program. 418 children, to be exact. They came from a wide variety of worlds, had a wide array of characteristics. But they all had one thing in common. They had all lost their families to the Covenant. Each one of them had expressed a desire for revenge against those who had taken their loved ones from them. And this program was going to give them the chance to get that revenge. Or most of them anyway. Despite the fact that humanity was being threatened with extinction at the hands of the Covenant, bureaucracy reigned supreme. We'd need all the Spartans we could get, but ONI's accountants would only provide enough money to pay for the training of 300. 'It was all about the symbolism' they'd said, but the existence of the S-IIIs would never be revealed to the public. Probably. I planed to screw with canon so badly, that ONI might need to reveal both the S-IIs and the S-IIIs to keep humanity's morale up. It didn't really make much of a difference to me. If things went as planned, then the war would end much earlier. If things didn't go as planned, well, we're probably fucked. Hard. In the rear. With no lube. What I'm trying to say is that things would go horribly, horribly wrong.

I was standing here to give a brief speech to the candidates the day before their traning began. Thankfully, I'd been told about this before I arrived, so I had a few things planned. And I planned to start the speech with a bang.

"You are all pathetic." Insulting children. I had sunk low. "But soon, you will not be." I began to pace back and forth in front of them. "You have all been chosen as possible candidates for this program. But not all of you will make it. 418 of you are standing in front of me. Only 300 of you will get the chance to be like me. Only 300 of you will become Spartans." I paused to let that sink in. Most likely, none of them even knew what a Spartan was. But if it was the chance to become like me, then they would probably be ecstatic at the thought. "I won't lie to you," I continued. "This will be hard. I will find your physical limits and push you far past them. Only the very best of you will be worthy of the title of Spartan." I stopped pacing, turning to face them all. "You have one year to prove yourselves to me. At the end of that year, we will know who will be called Spartans, and who will be nothing. Training will start tomorrow." I turned my back to them and prepared to leave them. "Dismissed." I said coldly, and left the room.

I had intended to have a bit more in this chapter, but I figured that you'd waited long enough. I might add more to this chapter in the future, so keep an eye out for that.

One last thing. If you're paying attention, you'll have noticed that I recently removed the secondary genre, romance. Stranger In Their World will now be an Adventure/Sci-fi fic. I've had some time to think about where I want to go with this story, and I just can't figure out where the romance would fit in without it looking like it's just been shoved in there for the hell of it. I might add it back in later if I find a solution to this, but for now, its not happening.