Halo: Endurance

David's breath hitched and caught in his throat as his lie became exposed. He struggled to maintain his demeanor but nonetheless succeeded in not showing any outward change. He swallowed as he began to think to himself.

'What does she know?', 'Who is she?', and multiple other questions swam around his mind, but one stood out among the rest, "How do you know who I am?" he asked slowly.

Catherine, with a smug smirk, brought her wrist to her chest as she began to scroll down what appeared to be a digital text document, "Born to Adam and Rachel Graves on February 7th, 2511, on Luna. Has done exceptionally well ahead of others his age in all areas from athletics to scholastic endeavors, even named in the top 2000 bright minds of the future for this sector of colonies," she said inquisitively before her tone dropped into one of mystery, "And was considered dead as of last year, along with his two parents during an insurrection attack in Ardennes City," she concluded before looking at him with a rather expectant expression.

"It would seem that portion of the report was…exaggerated. Unless I am observing my first ghost. As for the answer to your question… my position allows me to have access to whatever information I request," she said, "Now I could go on, about what most likely happened for you to be here but I'd rather hear it from the boy himself," she said waving her hand for David to continue the story from there.

David sighed, it aggravated him to have to recount his experiences over the past, but it didn't seem he had much of a choice, "After my parents died I was alone. It wasn't like anyone came looking for me, heck I don't think anyone knew I even existed," he said scanning the floor for words, "There was no going back, so I did what I had to. I survived," he said, his eyes not looking up from the floor flickering as he finished his words.

Carefully choosing her words, Halsey began to reply, "And how was that?" she asked, curious about his response.

David's reply was silent, as he turned to look at her giving the look of 'You can Guess' with a wryly raised eyebrow. Whether or not she already knew, David wasn't going to just admit to being a thief among other things.

Halsey getting the message sat silently. Seeing this, David took the opportunity to ask the woman in front of him to elaborate on his earlier question, "And who are you? Where am I?"

Crossing her arms across her chest Catherine weighed her words as she decided what to hide and what to show, "I am Doctor Catherine Halsey, you may call me Catherine. As for where we are?" she said before moving to the window beside his bed and activating the electronic shades opening them to the outside, "We are currently inside of a Nature preserve several miles down stream from where you took your plunge,"

Silence settled in the room as the doctor continued to peer out the window while David at thinking to himself.

"Can I leave?" he asked unassuredly. He doubted she would just let him leave after she admitted to knowing of his local crime spree. His best chance was her being soft and letting him leave so that he could go back to the streets… where he belonged.

"No, I am afraid not," she said before pivoted and leaned against the window frame with her shoulder, "Besides the things you have engaged in during your time of being 'deceased' you are in no shape to go any where as of right now," she lifted a finger with each medical issue she began to list, "Dislocated right shoulder, minor concussion, several hairline fractures in bones throughout the body, and to top it all of a severe case of Malnutrituion. All things considered, I am not letting you go anywhere for at least 2-3 weeks."

David slightly grimaced at her ruling, but upon contemplating it, he had to admit he was putting no small amount of stress on his body. He nodded at her words, but his muscles tensed as his eyes wandered toward the door, an action that the doctor caught on to.

Glancing at her wrist once more, Catherine checked the time. "I have a little while before a meeting, so how about a game?" she asked, pulling a small chessboard from a drawer in the room. Sitting back in her chair, she placed the board on the edge of the bed and then began to set up the pieces. "Have you played before?" she questioned as she finished with the white side.

"Once or twice with my mom," he commented as he carefully watched the woman, 'Why is she doing this?' he asked, for some reason he felt more unsettled with her change from interrogating.

"Good, then I won't have to teach," she set setting the Black queen down in front of her finishing the set up, "Now since you are white you may start first. If you win then you are free to leave, if not then you will stay until you have my permission deal?" she presented with a calm expression.

"...Alright," it was the best deal he was going to get, David believed. And how good could she be anyway?

Hearing his answer, she smiled sweetly, but behind her smile, she wished him luck, 'I hope you are better than you let on, David. After all, I have only ever lost once,'

And so the game began…

…

..

.

Click

Stepping into the hall upon completion of the match, Catherine was pleased with her performance against the young boy, as shameless as it sounded.

The result of the game was an obvious victory for the doctor, and yet she would admit it wasn't an easy win. She had taken an early lead with positioning and claimed some key pieces, but as the game dragged on, David made a comeback, giving her a run for her money. In fact, it was quite impressive to see the silent retaliation, and if not for Halsey's work in the beginning, the match could have ended with a tie.

"I wonder, did he intentionally sit back and watch my strategy before deploying countermeasures, or was it something else?" Halsey she pondered as she made her way back to her lab.

In just a short time after interacting with the boy, Dr. Halsey had come to have a favorable impression of the boy. Perhaps it was his intelligence that reminded her of her own, or maybe it was the seen maturity that he held, which most kids lacked at his age. Whatever the reason may have been, Catherine enjoyed the time she had spent during their match, where she was able to speak more freely than at the beginning of their visit.

"Seems I'll be having a bit more fun during this vacation than I originally thought," Halsey spoke with a smile as the door to her lab opened with a key-card swipe

BING-BING-BING

Arriving just in time, Catherine's attention was immediately directed toward the large display screen on the wall of her make-shift lab. The screen displayed a blue background and 2 images outlined in white. One was the Office of Naval Intelligence's pyramid with the words Semper Vigilans underneath it. Beside the pyramid was an eagle with spread wings upward holding arrows in one talon and a thunderbolt in the other, on its chest read ONI SECTION 3. 

The most important detail, however, was the service number that served as 'caller identification'. It read '00834-19223-HS' in neat black characters.

'Michael,' Halsey immediately recognized the number honing in on the 'HS' at the end. She quickly moved to sit at her desk and pressed a button accepting the communication.

"Hello Catherine, I hope your 'vacation' is going well," popping onto the screen was a caucasian man in his early thirties with black hair and blue eyes sitting in view. Despite the man's young age, his appearance was weathered. Grey streaks were subtly popping up in his dark hair, accentuating his already sharp features. All of which were indications of the man being an experienced veteran. He wore a subdued black combat fatigue that had no mention of awards or medals, and only displayed his rank.

This man was none other than Vice Admiral Hieronymous "Harold" Michael Stanforth, a UNSC hero and member of the UNSC Security Council.

"The change of scenery has been nice, thank you, Vice Admiral," she said, giving a grateful nod, "Though it has not been without its surprises," she commented with a thoughtful expression.

"And what would those be?" Michael asked, intrigued with what the doctor had gotten into this time.

"I had a visitor to the preserve," Halsey said getting Stanforth to narrow his eyes, "But I have handled that issue, so there's no need to worry. However, I would like to ask for your help with a certain someone that has been stalking Orion's other facilities on Luna," she mentioned to which the man could only sigh.

"Let me guess, our army liaison has gotten interested in your project?" he asked with a tired voice, to which he got a knowing look. "I'll talk with Margaret about it, and that should solve the issue. He's gone a step too far this time."

"Thank you," the doctor said with genuine gratitude, "Now why have you decided to contact me, Michael?"

"I am calling to inform you that I have green-lit your request to personally observe potential candidates for the program," he said clearly before adding with a whispered grumble, "Against my better judgment,"

"However, my acceptance comes with a condition," he said, causing Catherine to stop her internal celebration before they even began, "For the duration of this field exercise, you must be accompanied by an escort until the completion of your journey."

Halsey's expression turned into a glare as she heard his words, "I don't need a babysitter, Admiral. I am perfectly fine handling this myself, and for my work, the fewer people involved, the better," she said, her voice firm.

"I understand that, doctor, but you must also understand that we are in a state of war," Michael spoke sternly, "I would rather risk the secrecy of this project than the life of the UNSC's brightest scientist. I won't argue with you, Catherine, either take my 'babysitter' or settle for watching videos of the candidates," as Michael finished, he sat back into his chair calmly watching her reaction.

Catherine was silent for a moment, displeasure clear on her face. A minute passed before she spoke again. "Fine," she sighed, "But I am choosing who's my attache," she asked begrudgingly.

"So be it. Send me your pick, and they will be on their way," Michael said before a audible ring came through the video, "Seems, this is where I must end our meeting. Stay safe," and within a moment the screen turned back to blue with the words Connection Terminated in the center.

Settling back into her chair Halsey took a moment to think aloud, "Orion's months away from commencing," the program could only be called her life's work something on par with Newton's work creating many of the base physical laws and mathematics, or the Shaw-Fujikawa slip space drive revealed in the twilight of the 23rd century.

Orion's goal was to produce the soldier of the future. Through rigorous genetic perfecting, and thorough augmentations to further enhance the body, add on years of extensive training, and you would have a perfect warrior. Many members in the active duty of the UNSC would jump at the chance, most, if not all, ODSTs wouldn't think twice to sign up for such an opportunity.

However, the project was impossibly restrictive in regard to the candidate parameters. A candidate needed to have already near-perfect genetics to even be considered for the program. Their bodies needed to be maleable to an absurd degree, they needed to be capable of adapting to extreme stress and inhuman changes within the bloodstream and systemic structures.

These reasons led to seeking out increasingly younger possible candidates until the settled-upon age of 6 was found to be the age group capable of producing the best results. In other words, 75 children were to be abducted and subsequently conscripted into the UNSC Navy. From there, they would be put through extensive training across any and all subjects from military history to quantum mechanics and everything in between. Afterward, they would be augmented and equipped with the second half of the program, an impenetrable shield, MJOLNIR.

And then, and only then, would those who had survived be given the ability to call themselves Spartans. Based on the supposed legendary warriors from the Battle of Thermopylae thousands of years earlier. With Mjolnir, they would be capable of bringing peace back to humanity and all of her territories…at least that was what Halsey hoped.

"75 in exchange for 250 billion," Catherine argued,"Logically, it is the best course of action. It maximizes lives saved, and lost," she told herself

Yet she couldn't stop the whispers, 'You are planning to steal 75 lives away from children….' they said, 'I wonder how many of those 75 will actually survive training?' they groaned in the back of her head, 'And of those that make it through the training how many will survive their augmentation procedure?'

Catherine had argued with these stray thoughts over and over again, but never quite managed to defeat them, 'I do this for the greater good. And though I must sacrifice some, it is for the sake of many. Victory has and always will require sacrifice, I am just limiting the sacrifice required,' she argued back, 'If I could take their place, I would in a heartbeat, but life rarely gives a choice.'

'Already viewing them as just a bunch of numbers,' she mocked herself, 'Isn't that why you have that vial in your hand?'

Looking down, Halsey's eyes settled on a small glass vial barely the size of her pinky. In it was a crimson fluid that swished from side to side with every movement of her hand. And though it was not labeled, it was obvious whose blood it was.

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