Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ VanDread - Halo ❯ Camp Genesis ( Chapter 6 )

VanDread - Halo

Disclaimer: Bungie owns Halo, GONZO owns VanDread…I own neither so I am just a writer after all.

Chapter 6

Camp Genesis

< >: Thoughts

**************

In the UNSC Section of the Nirvana…

The Spartan was busy running through the current inventory of weapons that the manufacturing facilities on the ship had been able to make, along with the newest stack of supplies, munitions, weapons, parts, and more. He was supposed to be seeing the brand new recruits that the Captain, Buzam, and Gascogne had selected to be his team members in both ship[ defense and ground combat operations for the coming battles with the aliens, that they all had dubbed the Harvesters, namely for this massive operation that they had begun.

Cortana had analyzed all the data that she had been given and determined that the Harvesters would no doubt have hit other planets such as the one they had just left only a day or two before and due to the dangers of this trip, the Captain had given him a time table to train the women under his command as best he could.

Suffice to say, the Spartan was less than pleased with the time table he had been given by the Captain. It took years to train UNSC Marines, Army and Navy, the procedures were tough and very much demanding on the recruits, and even he and his fellow Spartans had to train for nearly eight years in UNSC Marine tactics, maneuvers, strategy, formation, discipline, and more in order to be used to the life that they were about to step into. He was now going to have to train civilians to become soldiers, and that was not an easy thing…not to mention the fact that he a limited time table to do it all in.

The Spartan sighed as he finished his run through of the inventories and made his way to the planning hall and there, he would wait for the new recruits that would form the core force of the pirates' ground forces. On his back was his trade-mark MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle and an M6g Magnum Sidearm pistol, and sure enough, as he stood there, in came Cortana, Buzam, Magno, Gascogne…and his new batch of recruits.

Ever since he agreed to be the ground team leader, he had insisted that only women with considerable combat experience were to be part of the ground teams, as such, only those who were from the security teams made the majority of the teams, along with some of the women from the Register, and a small number from the Dread teams were selected by the Spartan, he made sure to inform the Captain that he wanted only the best of the best as we from her crew, he was not here to get people to train them into shape…they had to already be IN shape or they would be rejected and replaced when he saw them.

His methods might sound harsh, but the methods could very well lead to the survival of the teams and their victory in the battle-field or their loss…anything and everything can go wrong in the battle-field…and from his long years in the Wars, they usually do…and he could tell that as they all walked into the room, none of the women before him had ever in their lives tasted ground combat…making this project seem even more dubious than before. But he had to do it either way, and so he put that out of his mind and waited for the women to take their seats.

In the meantime, the women were not very happy with the fact that they were now going to be under the command of a man, even more so when they found out that their new commanding officer was none other than the Spartan himself. A good portion of them had heard about the time he had been the one to repel the Harvester forces that had attempted to board the ship when it was still being transformed by the Paeksis and many of them were not very comfortable with the fact that they would have to work with someone like this man before them, they had also seen him when he was not wearing the helmet and considered him to be like a ghost due to his ghostly pale white skin, and others considered him more machine than man…and therefore, it was not surprising that some of them were whispering among themselves on what the Spartan was, and when they took their seats, they looked at him with wary eyes.

As the Spartan scanned them all, he noted their looks at him and he put that all into account and considered it normal as he had been treated far worse back then in the past by the people who mistrusted him. The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were the worst, calling him and his fellow Spartans as freaks due to an incident where he had killed three ODSTs in a fight by himself and he was still fresh from his own augmentations on Reach, that branded them all as freaks then, but he put that aside as he focused on what he had to do.

As soon as the women were in their chairs, he saluted both Magno and Buzam as they came in front of their crew. While this was going on, the Spartan did a quick head count and found that he was going to have at least forty-two women under his command, just enough for at least six large-scale fire-teams in UNSC terms and could also form one platoon.

The UNSC Marines were deployed in various formations to accomplish missions, and the Fire Teams were the smallest they could get to and the most effective in special missions where too many people would attract unneeded attention from the enemy, along with incurring heavy and unneeded casualties and losses, along with the need for tactical flexibility.

He planned to train them in UNSC tactics and infantry doctrine in order to make them more capable in a ground fight, but for today, he was going to introduce them to the basic military operations they would have to be handling once they were on the surface of a planet. He had made a request that once a suitable world that could support human life was found, then he could begin training of the ground teams as quickly as he could.

Magno then spoke to the crew once they were now fully seated and had their attention squarely on her and Buzam, while Cortana and the Master Chief stood nearby.

“As all of you have no doubt found out, you have all been selected to become our group's teams for ground operations. These operations are to be undertaken when the operations are against the operational parameters of the Dreads and therefore will not be undertaken by Dread pilots. This means that Meia will not be you're commanding officer on such missions. The officers and I have already had a conference and discussed that matter and have placed the position of ground operations leader to the Master Chief…Spartan John-117.”

“The reason for this is that out of all the members of this ship, he has the skills, experience, training, and leadership talents to lead ground combat operations. This, along with his performance on the ground mission with the Vanguards a few days prior to this day has also served to assure us that he is the best officer for such operations. As you might have or have not learned, he is not from Tarak, so he does not see women as the enemy, but that is not an excuse to go against his orders when he is training you for you're new roles as a ground force for the ship. The floor is you're Master Chief.”

With that, the elderly Captain stepped aside and allowed the Spartan to face his new band of recruits, the Spartan was not the kind of man who wanted to be in the lime-light and decided to make his words brief and to the point. To him, the sooner he gets this done, the better off the ship will be.

“I will be training you all in UNSC Marine tactics and operational procedures once a training camp has been established. I will not lie to you about the dangers of ground combat operations, they are dangerous and death will be a constant companion for each and every last one of you, so you will have to be able to follow orders and to take the initiative once you are in the battle. I will form you into a fire team of seven team members each and you will have to learn how to fight as a team in order to accomplish you're missions and objectives with as much skill as possible…but make no mistake that you will have to undergo intense physical training before you will be allowed to be part of a fire team…only those who can prove themselves can be in the fire teams. Any questions?”

One woman raised her hand and stood up and she spoke with a slightly sullen tone.

“Are we supposed to use the Vanguards?”

The Spartan looked the woman and answered.

“If the situation calls for the need to pilot the Vanguards, then the answer is yes. However, the majority of you're operations will be in the use of UNSC weapons, equipment, and vehicles. You will be receiving instructions on their use soon enough once a planet is selected for the set-up of our training camp. For today you can take it easy, but as soon as a planet is sighted and it is suitable…then the training begins. Any other questions?”

**************

At the back…

“Oh man…the women are now going to under the Master Chief's command?”

Hibiki said as he looked at the numbers women who were currently asking the Spartan questions on their new roles and it amazed the young Tarak teen at how calm the Spartan was as some of the women began to ask questions that were not part of the discussion and no doubt had done so to test their new commanding officer.

His temper was getting hotter at the comments but he decided to emulate his mentor's calm and patience and restrained shouting at the women, and he didn't have to react as the Captain and the Commander along with Gascogne gave the women a fair warning on what they were saying to the Spartan, and the women relented. The Tarak teen however knew that if the women thought they were going to have it easy with the Spartan…then they had no idea just how wrong their perceptions of the Spartan were…he knew his was when he agreed to be under the Spartan's tutelage, but he learned quite a lot since then and sure enough, he had gotten used to the training and despite complaining at times of the physical pain he had…he admitted that the lessons really helped in toughening him up as a man.

“So I've heard, but the reasoning for the formation of the ground teams is pretty sound Hibiki and the Spartan is by far the most obvious candidate for the operations…don't tell me you don't approve?”

Duero asked his fellow Tarak teen as he and Bart were also in the room with the Vanguard pilot as they looked at the events. The Tarak medic was very much in approval at the formation of the ground teams and with the Spartan in the lead, he had no doubts about how effective the ground teams would be.

“Maybe I don't totally approve, but I know that it's really important for the ground teams, yet I still can't help but wonder if the Master Chief will be able to work with the women, they are not very easy to get along with.”

“True…but you know his answer to that very well Hibiki.”

Hibiki chuckled at that…

“That I do…”

“Mr. Alien!!!”

“Ah Geez, what now?!”

Hibiki turned and there came Dita carrying something in her hands and just as the redhead arrived, he looked at her latest item and it was yet another lunch box, only a bit larger than before…with that, his frown disappeared and was replaced with a smile as Dita handed him the box with her usual happy go lucky smile.

“Wow…thank you!”

“You're welcome Mr. Alien!!! I figured you could use some good breakfast today since you'll be training with Mr. Green Alien.”

Hibiki nodded and unwrapped the cloth-covered lunch box and dug into the food once more…much to Duero's curiosity and Bart's horror.

As the young Tarak Vanguard pilot ate the food at a rapid pace, Dita then noted the number of women in the UNSC section and was somewhat surprised to see her fellow pirates all the way here, usually it was only her, Mr. Alien, Cortana, Mr. Green Alien, the Captain, the Commander, and Buzam as well. She looked and spotted the elderly woman and her second in command as the Spartan answered a few more questions while the two officers, along with Cortana watch on.

“What's going here Mr. Alien?”

Hibiki managed to swallow the egg roll he was eating and swallow the rest of his food and answered the young Megele girl when he was sure that he won't choke on his food. The young man decided to eat his food well so as to enjoy the wonderful tastes that the food placed on his taste buds, as soon as he was sure that he won't choke, he answered the redhead's question.

“You're comrades are supposed to be part of the new ground operations team. The Master Chief's the one who's going to be the commander of the group.”

“Really?”

“Yep…this stuff is great food…don't you guys want some?”

Hibiki asked as he showed the large lunch box filled with food to both Duero and Bart. Both had very different reactions to the offer. Duero was the more polite in terms of reply to the question as he shook his head and smiled somewhat.

“I'm sorry, but I have some duties to perform in the Medical Bay, so I'll have to pass for today Hibiki.”

Bart on the other hand was still recalling the time he had nearly had his tongue burned into a lump of charred meat by the doctored fillet mignon that Barnette had tried to foist on Hibiki on the Vanguard mission several days before. And due to the fact that he was not aware of the fact that this meal was not made by Barnette, he quickly assumed that all food made by women were like the one he had tried.

“N-N-No thank you!!! I've…I've got to go and practice in the Navigation Well!!!”

With that, the blonde Tarak left the area and left behind the two who looked at him with some confusion as he seemed to be trying to run away from a massive monster that was nipping at his heels.

“Sheesh, they have no idea what they are missing.”

With that, Hibiki took in the rest of the food as Dita watched him once more with a blissfully happy expression. The Tarak teen knew that in a few hours from now, he would once more be sweating his body off in training with the Spartan, but he was going to enjoy it as best he could…though he was still annoyed by some of the things Dita did, namely calling him Mr. Alien all the time.

**************

Later…

“101...102…103…104…105…106…10 7…108…109…110.”

Hibiki was once more wearing only his Tarak body suit as he continued his pushups under the calm gaze of the Spartan, the young teen used to complain but after days to weeks of constant training, the young man was more or less getting used to the harsh but needed training the Spartan wanted from him.

The Spartan gazed at his young charge and decided that now was the right time to provide Hibiki a gift for his hard work, something that could help ensure that young man would be strong and alive in the various missions to come.

He and Cortana had watched Hibiki and decided to have something specially made for him and Cortana was very proud of the achievement, considering Hibiki's small frame and still short height. The Spartan also admitted that the gift was a bit much, but it was both meaningful and practical as well for the kinds of battles the young man would no doubt find himself in…though he would only be able to carry one type of weapon.

“Hibiki!”

The young Tarak lad stopped his pushups and ran up to the Spartan and saluted the Master Chief.

“Yes Master Chief?”

“I have something for you, come with me.”

The two went over to a nearby locker and the Spartan then took out a set of newly manufactured Marine Body Armor, the armor comprised of a chest and back plate vest, shoulder plates, elbow pads, upper arm pads, thigh pads, greaves, and knee pads as well. The armor was in the color of deep black in the same color scheme as Hibiki's Tarak body suit. He then faced Hibiki and gave him the set and told him what it was and who it was meant for.

“This is UNSC Marine Body Armor that I and Cortana made for you personally, it's made from special ceramics along with lightweight titanium alloy, so it can resist ballistics and some level of energy weapons fire. They weigh a bit but you're physical training should more than make up for that. Think of this as both a gift and a means of protection for you when you go out on a mission.” (*)

Hibiki was in awe as he looked at the body armor set that he had been given, and as soon as he began to place on the armor and strap himself in with all the parts, he was surprised to find a snug and comfortable fit on the armor to his body. The armor was a bit heavy, but he found that his training for the past few weeks certainly came in handy in dealing with the weight, and his trained muscles and stamina allowed him to move in the armor very well on his own with little difficulty. He looked at the Spartan and though he couldn't see through the golden polarized visor, he felt that the Spartan was smiling…just a bit at his nearly childish awe at his own personal set of body armor.

He then saluted the Spartan and spoke with pride as well.

“Thank you Master Chief!”

“Good, carry on with you're training.”

With that, the young man went back to his training, happy with the suit of protective armor and vowed to continue his training to make himself worthy of the gift the Master Chief and Cortana had made for him specifically. He decided to see if he could manage to complete his remaining four hundred ninety pushups with his new armor on. He knew that it was going be very tough on his body, but if he could do this before, then the armor would certainly be another way to test himself as a man of Tarak and being under the Spartan's wing.

**************

In the bridge…

“We're coming over the planet right now Captain.”

Magno and Buzam looked at the planet and were impressed at the sight. It seemed to resemble Earth in looks and topography. The captain then spoke to the bridge crew to monitor planetary conditions and to determine if the planet was habitable by human standards. Celtic, Belvedere, Ezra, and Amarone scanned the planet and as they did so, the information became available for the crew to look at, along with Cortana herself.

“The planet appears to have a very sustainable atmosphere for human beings Captain, there is a mix of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, the kind of mix needed to allow human life to exist, there are at least two large continents on the surface with connecting land bridges as well between them, and there appears to be mixture of environments as well. There seems to be no sign of human habitation on the surface of the planet Captain, no signs of habitation and construction on the continents.”

“Hmm…it is rather odd that such a world is not inhabited…Are there any signs at all of possible battles on the surface?”

“I'm afraid not Captain, this world appears to be totally intact and un-colonized.”

Buzam looked the world over and noted that the world would be perfect for the Spartan to begin the training for the ground teams. She knew that the time constraints that the Spartan had on his hands to train the women meant that the sooner the women could be trained, then they would be ready for the combat operations that needed them to be in the fore-front of the fighting.

“This world appears to be ideal for the training of the ground teams Captain, if it will be all right with Cortana and yourself, I could give authorization for the Master Chief to establish a training camp for the ground teams here on this world?”

The Ai and the elderly woman looked the world over and decided that with the time that they had, they would have little choice in the matter and both agreed.

“All right then, Cortana, tell the Master Chief that we have located a planet that will serve him as a training base for the ground

**************

The Spartan nodded as several Pelicans with ammunition/supply canisters were getting ready to depart, along with several other Pelicans that were carrying a variety of vehicles and had them all securely latched on the Pelicans, including the various variants of the M12 vehicle or known to all UNSC personnel as the Warthog. The Warthog got it's nickname due to the tusk like protrusions on the front of it's hood and near the tow winch line and was one of the most versatile vehicles in the UNSC arsenals and all the Marines he knew loved this vehicle. It had seats for both the driver and the passenger who rode shotgun for the vehicle, and the gunner was on the rear as well.

The Pelicans that carried the vehicles has the M12 Warthog LRV or the Light Reconnaissance Vehicle which was armed with the M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun on it's back, and while the M41 was used to hit aircraft, it proved to be very effective against infantry and even vehicles…making this variant the most versatile of the M12 series.

The second variant was the M12G1 Warthog LAAV, designed to replace the M12A1 Warthog LAAV that was armed with the 102mm SC-HE Rocket Turret. This variant was armed with a smaller version of the MAC Guns used on all UNSC ships, the faster firing M68 Gauss Cannon, which could do the same thing as the previous weapon system, but had a faster rate of fire, allowing it to be deadlier to infantry.

The next variant was also the M831 TT Warthog, which was not armed with any turret but had four side facing seats on the back and had a roll cage to protect the passengers on the rear…it relied on the passengers to provide it with offensive and defensive abilities as it lacked a turret weapons system. While that would seem a disadvantage to first timers, it nevertheless proved handy in transporting personnel quickly in and out of the battle zone.

The Pelicans also carried the M274 ULATV, or affectionately named the Mongoose. The vehicle was not armed with any form of defensive and offensive systems and was naturally dubbed as an engine on wheels and while it appeared useless, unwieldy and difficult to control, and slowing down in one in a fierce firefight was suicidal, it was perfect for speed and could carry two people, a driver and a passenger who could serve as a weapons specialist. He knew how useful the Mongoose was when he and the UNSC Marines used a group of them to take out a Scarab on the continent of East Africa.

And the last vehicle to be brought by the Pelicans was a small handful of the M808 Scorpion Battle Tank, also shortly known as the Scorpion and was the main battle tank for the UNSC. The high density tungsten round of the main 90mmm High Velocity Cannon could be deadly to any foe it was able to hit and the coaxial AP-T 7.62 machine gun made it deadly to infantry as well. The muzzle break on the main cannon allowed the recoil to be lesser so as to allow the tank to recover quickly, that and the armor and lesser reload time made this tank a needed part of the UNSC arsenals, though it was still vulnerable to anti-vehicle weapons, other vehicles and anti-tank infantry formation tactics.

The other Pelicans carried other supplies, including new crates of Marine Body Armor sets, fatigues, equipment and more, along with supplies such as rations, medical kits, stim-packs, dermacortic steroids, narcolytic metabolase, data crystal chips, camouflage cloaks, helmets and helmet recorder, security systems, emergency food preparation dispensers, replacement transmissions for the Warthogs, PG000E portable electricity generators, machine guns, along barrels of water, hydrogen and more. He also made sure that they had COM systems with them, namely SQUADCOM, FLEETCOM 7, TACCOM, SATCOM, and the ever present E-BAND. He also had Chatters, small portable PDAs brought in with the rest of the supplies, however, he made sure that they were all heavily encrypted to lessen the risk of enemy forces infiltrating their comm.-frequencies and giving away tactical data, along with the data-pads, along with a good stock of NAV Tracker Markers for exercises, recorder chips, and a newly modified IFF tag system that Cortana had made so as to negate the need for the women to be implanted with neural interface implants, and fiber optic probes, he also made sure to have Falcon Wing parachutes added to the supply lists.

He also included extra building materials into the supply lists, namely instacrete for building bunkers and underground facilities. The substance was easy to store and quick to shape and build…and dried quickly, he and included sections of high grade Titanium A Armor for more protection. He also included Spoofers to train the women on how to hack and bypass security doors and systems that were either locked down, damaged, or unable to function for any reason.

The training of demolition teams and specialists was a must so good stocks of Thermite Paste was included in the lists, along with a good amount of C-7 Foaming explosives, C-12 Shaped Charges in their normal forms and their damage pack form, M383C Linear Shaped Charge Demolition Kits, Napalm Grenades, Satchel Charges, Smoke Grenades, Fragmentation Grenades, Sonic Grenades, Thermite Carbon Cord he even took some dummy Lotus Anti-Tank mines. The mines were naturally much weaker and made to be none lethal for training purposes for the ground teams.

As soon as he was done with the lists, he was called by Cortana through a nearby holo-tank that showed in her new human sized form…Apparently when Cortana needed to talk to him but could not leave the bridge for any reason, she was able to move her AI form through the communications links to the UNSC section.

“Cortana?”

“I wanted to tell you that I've been rather busy with some new weapons based on the Covenant weapons schematics I had on hand when I was still in the Covenant Holy City, there wasn't much for me to do then, apart from evading the Gravemind. I can have the manufacturing plants make them as well, just in the same way I was able to make the Gravity hammer that I added into you're arsenals on that mission before.”

“That's good to hear, how long with it take?”

“A couple of weeks as far as I can figure…though I think it would be better that we keep those weapons in reserve for now…the women have their own laser rifles so they can use those until we can equip them with the new Covenant weapons, the sad part is I can't make any method to replace the batteries on some of the weapons, but I can make a recharger for them instead, until I come up with a better solution.”

The Spartan nodded and went to work as he boarded the Albatross Drop-Ship. Apart from the Pelicans, the Albatross was another drop-ship class used by the UNSC, but instead of dropping small teams of units as the Pelican does, the Albatross could carry UNSC forces, vehicles, and supplies en masse. He could have used the Albatross instead of a large group of Pelicans, but the Albatross could also serve as a forward Command Center and that was the reason he had this ship with him for this operation.

As the ship took off from the main hanger of the UNSC section of the Nirvana, he was informed of the deployment of the pirates' own shuttle to ferry the chosen recruits down to the surface of the planet. Cortana had been able to send out several new COMSATs for them to use while they were there. She also made sure to send out at least two Clarion Spy drones to keep an eye on things while the training was going on. The last thing the Spartan needed was the enemy showing just when he was busy training the recruits and get them in serious danger.

**************

On the Nirvana…

The crew were currently bidding their comrades good luck as they were now getting ready for their first days in training for the fire teams under the Spartan's command. Many of them still resented the idea of being forced to follow a man's orders, and some of them planned to give the Spartan the hard time, than the other way around. As they took whatever they could bring to help make their situations a lot more bearable. They boarded the shuttles and then the ship moved out.

As she watched her fellow crew members leave for the surface of the planet, Meia couldn't help but wonder how they would fare under the training of the Spartan, she recalled what she had seen nearly a few weeks ago after the ship had been boarded by the Harvesters and their ground forces, and what the Spartan had done to the alien forces. She couldn't help but feel even more frustrated that her position of pirate operations commander being cut in half, she was not going to go against the formation of a ground operations force, but the fact that she was not in command of the ground force made it a bit hard on her. She knew that considering what she had seen and heard about, the Spartan was by far the very best choice for such missions, but it was not going to be easy for her.

“Do you think they'll be all right with him being in command Meia?”

Meia turned to see Jura and Barnette, along with Dita as the three of them walked over to see the fleet of transports head off to the uninhabited planet below to set up a training camp. She shook her head and sighed as they looked at the Pelicans and the Albatross drop-ships that were already ahead of the Megele shuttle, and they knew that the Spartan would be in any of the transports as well.

“I don't know, but I don't think it will be easy.”

“You're right…but how will that Spartan be able to command the others?”

The blonde asked her Dread team leader as Barnette gave a snort.

“I know they'll be fine, they're pirates after all and women of Megele, they can handle what that man can throw at them.”

“You want to bet on that?”

The women turned and spotted Hibiki Tokai with his new body armor on as the young Tarak youth walked towards them. Dita smiled at Hibiki and rushed over to greet him and he merely nodded at the redhead's greetings, but did smile slightly at her as well. The Tarak youth then looked towards the small fleet leaving for the planet below and couldn't help but smirk a bit as he thought back about his first days with the Spartan and what he had learned under the Spartan for the past few weeks, and the gift he had been given for his efforts, and he was wearing already, proud of his gift from the Spartan and hoping to put it to good use in the days to come.

Dita looked at the black Marine Body Armor and wondered what it was.

“What is this Mr. Alien?”

“Something that the Master Chief made for me.”

Hibiki said with a bit of pride and Dita's eyes widened at the meaning of that.

“Is this really alien armor?!”

Hibiki couldn't help but groan a bit at that and replied.

“No it's not alien armor, it's Marine Body Armor, the Master Chief gave it as a gift, that's all, and I plan to use it well.”

The women sighed a bit and Barnette merely snorted and spoke to the young man.

“Our fellow pirates are not weak you know…they can handle what that man can dish out.”

Hibiki snorted and replied.

“I thought the same thing, but when I was training with the Master Chief, he had me lifting weights that ranged from 90 to 100 pounds for four hours each day, do 600 pushups in an hour each day and run twelve times around the training room before I could even eat or drink…and I've been doing that for a long number of weeks, ever since I moved in with him in the UNSC section. But you're commander Meia already knew that, she saw me doing the same things on my first day…isn't that right?”

The Tarak teen said with a look at Meia and the Megele girl knew the truth in that statement, having seen Hibiki undergo the said training before.

“I did see you do all that before, though only at the pushups.”

Hibiki nodded and looked at the planet below as the ships began to enter the atmosphere. The Tarak teen then smirked a bit and looked at the women before him and replied.

“At least now you have an idea of what you're fellow women are going to go through once they are under his command. And from what he told me about the women in his side in the UNSC, and it is that compared to the women in the UNSC Marines and the ODSTs, I think that you're fellow pirates will be in for one hell of a first few days.”

**************

On the surface…

The large open field area where the Pelicans were busy dropping off supplies and equipment was very much filled with grasslands and clumps of trees, a very ideal place for a settlement to be established. And it didn't take long for Cortana, who controlled all the Pelicans to release what was left of the supplies and vehicles, as soon as she, or rather her extensions were done with the ferrying of supplies, she went on to handle the rest of the remaining duties back on the ship. She however did leave a few of the Pelicans in the new base in order to be used in the training exercises that the Spartan would no doubt put the women through.

The Megele women were next to leave their shuttle as it dropped them off and headed back to the Nirvana, they then found themselves in the vast areas and smiled as they saw the woodlands, the mountains, and the hills as well…the place reminded them of Megele greatly, and they were in the mood to wander around a bit as there were several rivers nearby. However, their explorations were cut short as the Albatross landed and out came the Spartan will his weapons already in his hands. He then called them over and they arrived to face him and he gave them the first order of the day.

“Time to begin construction of you're shelters for tonight.”

“What?!”

The women were not liking the fact that there were no support construction robots which they used to build their shelters and were not in the mood to be sweating and doing a lot of physical labor. The Spartan was not liking this attitude in the very least. They were close to failing their very first test, and that was to discard their vanities and get the jobs done. In his time as a Spartan, he and his fellow Spartans were always told to get the jobs done before anything else, and he knew that to be true. This was an unknown world, and while there were no visible dangers, that hardly meant that there were none to begin with.

“Unless you want to be bare of any shelter for tonight, I suggest you get to assembling you're new residences today.”

The women realized quickly that the Spartan was not someone they could reason with and sullenly got to their work. Thankfully, the prefabricated components of the cubicles were easy enough to assemble and while they were sweating, the Spartan acted as security on the camp as the women set up the place. He watched them intently and corrected any of them if they made any mistakes with the Cubicle assembly. And it took a better part of the day for at least forty two rows of cubicles to be established, each row were at least on the side of the Albatross as the massive drop ship served as the main head-quarters of the newly established camp.

The women thought that they were done with the Cubicles and could now do what they wanted, but that was not the case as the Spartan then ordered them to get ready for some real construction work in their new camp as of right now…they were going to have to set up the walls, bunkers, the armories, the training yard, the landing pad, and the vehicle storage yards before the day was to end.

The women were even more stunned at that as the Spartans brought out the needed tools and the containers filled with instacrete. And despite their still loud protests, the Spartan's calm and serious gazes at them told them that negotiations were not going to work with him. He was their commander now and if they wanted to take a break, then they were going to have to earn it and soon. With that, they went to work and the Spartan made them work real hard.

The bunkers were naturally placed in regular intervals around the base and also had quick access to the entrances/exits to allow the women quick access to both the bunkers and the base itself, the women had to dig their way to the ground at least six to seven feet deep with stairs and filled the floor with instacrete and had sections of Titanium A Armor Plating on them to further make them stronger against possible attack.

The walls by far were the easiest to make and the Spartan made sure that the walls were at least five feet thick and at least fifteen feet high, and had stairs for the women to rush up to them just in case. The instacrete was impressive as it rapidly hardened and became very solid in only a matter of hours. As it did so, the Spartan and a handful of women placed sheets of Titanium A Armor plating into the rapidly drying instacrete to make them even more resistant to possible attacks. The walls were in the shape of an octagon with four entrances/exits and had indeed taken the better part of the morning and the women were very much tired and exhausted.

As soon as the walls were done and fully hardened, with the sections of Titanium A Armor plating fully integrated into the fully hard and dry instacrete, the Spartan then directed the construction of a training yard area with the supplies on instacrete and when that was done, he allowed the Megele recruits to have their lunch and the women ate their food ravenously while he had his own lunch from his rations of rice with beans, bacon, chicken loaf, and some protein bars. As he finished his meal and took a drink of cold water, he scanned the works on the walls and nodded as there were no mistakes so far in the construction process. As soon as the women had ate their fill, he told them to begin construction of the vehicle storage yards and they would have to dig a large bunker and there, the vehicles would be stored, they had to do so and it was natural that by the time they were able to put in the instacrete and make the massive storage hanger that housed several of the Warthogs, Mongooses and the Scorpions, they were already very tired and filthy, but the work was far from done.

They then had to construct the armories and when that was done, they had to haul all the needed gear and equipment into it, including the weapons, ammunition, explosives, medical supplies, barrels, and more…though the Spartan personally handled the C-12 Shaped Chargers due to their highly volatile nature and kept them in a very special armory. Once that was done, the landing pad was done for the shuttles and the Spartan handled placing the Pelicans in their respective locations for use. And they were then told to construct the mess hall for them to eat in, and lastly, they had to divert a large portion of the river's cool water and to put it in a massive constructed reservoir for use in the showers. By the time all this was done, the women were dead tired and covered in sweat and grime…and naturally, they were NOT happy with that.

The Spartan had done part in the construction work…due to his high grade strength, he handled the materials that were too heavy for the women to handle and with that, or were too dangerous such as the C-12 Shaped Charges and more of the dangerous explosives. He gave his last set of orders for today and that was the setup of lighting systems, portable power generators, and their base defenses that included motion sensors, IR scanners, IFF scanners, the AIE-486H Heavy Machine Guns were then placed at the bunkers by the Spartan and at the sides and angles of the walls to provide maximum cover and protection for the base, and the portable generators also provided power to the lights that were established all over the place to keep it lighted…along with other systems that would be needed, namely heaters, shower systems, and re-chargers as well.

By the time the camp was done, the women were about to collapse and had to work together to get into the mess halls and were finally able to eat their food and get their drinks. The Spartan could only watch as they gorged themselves on their food and drinks, and he merely waited for them to finish and when they were, he decided to get their attention.

“All right, the camp's already done so for tonight you all can get yourself cleaned up in the showers. Tomorrow, we are going to get down to the real training.”

The women hardly complained but groaned loudly as they were dead tired. They managed to haul themselves out of the mess hall that they had helped construct and make their way to the showers and took long cool baths to ease their muscles and as soon as they entered their cubicles and on their bunks, they quickly fell asleep and were now out cold. However, they began to think that after all the things they did today, nothing could rival the stuff they had to do.

They had no idea just how wrong they were…as the whole construction work they had just done was nothing more than a way for the Spartan to test them, and while he was slightly impressed, he was far from impressed as they still had to go through the basic physical training before they actually get down to the tough and serious basics.

**************

The next day…

The women were all sleeping and trying to get used to the exhaustion they felt, and thankfully the still early morning air was cool like the air-conditioned air back on the Nirvana, and the forest scent certainly made things a heck of a lot more tolerable for them. However they had no idea that a certain someone was about to give them their first taste of training and he planned to wake them up gently…

With a VERY special alarm clock…

John-117 nodded as he ran through his setup once more and found no slip-ups and decided to get the plan underway as he took out his MA5C IWC Assault Rifle and loaded it with blanks and took out a detonator…and pressed the trigger.

Near each cubicle a safe distance away and not in harmful range of each cubicle occupant was a special sonic grenade that he had primed to go off when he pressed the detonator. The Sonic Grenade was nonlethal in the sense that it didn't send out fragments and shrapnel, unlike the normal Fragmentation Grenade that the Spartans and the UNSC Armed Force were known for using, and were naturally used in training exercises by Drill Instructors, or DIs, and was a way to teach Marines to always keep their eyes open.

The results were explosive as the sonic booms went off and the women naturally woke up screaming and disoriented and rushed out of their cubicles still in their underwear. The women were totally not expecting this and were naturally milling around barely had enough time to react to the other sounds the Master Chief created as he activated alarm klaxons all over the place with flashing red lights all over the base and then he fired his Assault Rifle into the air. That, plus the incessant screaming from their comrades, the sounds of alarms, and the milling bodies had the women totally lost and they rushed towards the training yard as it was the only fully lighted area in the whole camp…

Chaos reigned supreme in the camp as the recruits milled towards the yard still dressed in their undies…

As soon as the women arrived, the wailing sirens stopped and they began to get their bearings straight. They then looked to see the Spartan looking at them with a very calm and emotionless look.

“That was sloppy.”

The women glared at the Spartan and they all shouted at him.

“ARE YOU INSANE?!?!?!?!”

“ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!?!?!”

“WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!?”

“WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!!?!?!?!”

The Spartan didn't react in the least and allowed the women to vent out their anger and when they were finally too tired to shout he merely replied back to them in the same calm and emotionless manner.

“This is merely you're first day…when you are in the battle-field on the ground, you do NOT have the luxury of uninterrupted sleep. You're enemies on the ground don't care about you're beauty sleep, they will do anything and everything to kill you…that includes finding ways to use you're time of falling asleep to their advantage. You keep one eye and one ear open at ALL times…because if you don't…you're next night of sleep could very well be you're last night in the land of the living…is that clear?”

The women were still not very happy with what had just happened and quite a number of them were considering quitting the program and going back to the Nirvana…but it seemed the Spartan already knew what they had in mind and replied calmly.

“If any of you want to leave and head back to the Nirvana, then you'll have to prove to me that you have what it takes to be in this outfit. You may have been selected by the Commander and the Captain for the ground teams, but as of today, I am the one you have to prove yourselves to…and if you do prove yourselves, then good. Besides that, the Pelicans and the Albatross have operation codes that only Cortana can unlock and she is up there on the Nirvana and only under my orders will she allow those ships to be space travel worthy. The only way you go back to the Nirvana is to prove yourselves to me…is that clear?”

The women were getting even more angry and decided to do their best to prove that they have what it took to take what this man could dish out at them. The Spartan could see that as well and decided that now that they were awake, he decided to give some time to get dressed into their fatigues, no way was he going to let them do all their training in their undergarments anyway, it would be awkward, distracting, and uncomfortable to begin with.

The women were not liking the idea of not getting dressed in their clothes and also for the lack of time putting their usual round of make-up on, but the Spartan was having none of it and told them firmly to get dressed in the proper military fatigues for the exercises. While he had nothing against them dressing up in their normal clothes, the clothes they had with them were not meant for combat and would become a dangerous way for enemy forces to spot them. The fatigues were better suited for this world and he had more than enough uniform fatigues in storage for their training in the various environments that he could tell this planet had on it.

The women looked at the woodland colored uniforms with some distaste, but since it was getting even colder outside, they had no choice and found that the clothes were very much comfortable enough and offered good protection from the cold air. As soon as they were fully dressed and were now back in the yard the Spartan began their training, and in no time flat, the women realized just how difficult an instructor the Spartan was.

The women were subjected to pushups, sit-ups, crunches, jumping jacks, weight lifting, running laps, relay races, obstacle courses and more for the duration of the early morning and suffice to say, even with the cool air, they were sweating once more and panting as well, so it was hardly surprising that some of the women were too tired to keep up. The Spartan noted that and told them to grab some water and when they were done to get back at it. He had awakened them at exactly 3:00 in the morning and he made sure to train them until 7:30 in the morning…when the sun came up, the women were covered head to toe in sweat and he decided that it was time for chow.

He told them to rest and grab breakfast and when they did, they found themselves getting food from the Emergency Food Preparation Stations that the Spartan had brought along. They had been disgusted with the idea that food would be nothing but bland meals, but to their surprise, the food was good in taste, textures, and warmth. UNSC Food Preparation was very good in the 26th Century that even their MREs were like gourmet meals at times and did very well to keep soldiers fully fed.

The Spartan took off his helmet and ate with the women, showing to them that while he was their commanding officer, he was still part of the unit and wasn't in the mood to take a desk job. The women noted that and they decided to keep this up and prove to the Spartan that they were strong and better.

The Spartan then started classes on UNSC Marine tactics, military strategy, unit cohesion, and Fire Team tactics, along with lessons in proper weapon usage and maintenance, vehicle usage and repairs, combat maneuvers, strategy, emergency first aid, field medical training and healing methods, base and team security, communications security and more. He made sure that the women each had a chatter unit and a data-pad to work with on these classes and just as he was strict towards Hibiki on the Tarak teen's days with him, he was strict to the women as well, anyone he caught trying to sleep was told to stand up for the duration of the classes until he said otherwise, and if the disturbance was a bit of a higher degree…they were forced to do sit-ups, pushups, and crunches until they were told otherwise by the Spartan.

Needless to say…the other women were not keen on getting the Spartan's attention directed at them and kept their attention solely on his lessons as he used a large holo-tank to showcase each lesson to them as they sat in a large semi-circular class room with chairs and a massive ceiling of instacrete above them.

By the end of the classes, they went back to physical training and conditioning for the rest of the day since the Spartan planned to test them in other ways as well. And he already knew of one exercise that stressed team work among teams very well…he should know…he had taken that same exercise with Sam and Kelly.

As the women continued to train under his orders, they watched as he began to set up and brand new obstacle course for them to try. And as soon as it was done, the Spartan told them to get back into afternoon classes and they did so.

As the classes continued, the Spartan made sure to check just in case some of the women got the bright idea of sleeping again and sure enough, a few of them were caught and had to either stand or do the exercises, but the Spartan wasn't going to kill them with excessive training as he allowed the women to rest periodically as well. They had their lunch and then continued their physical exercises and then the Spartan presented them with their newest test…

The very same one that he and the other Spartans had taken in their youth on Reach, and the one he had failed previously when he was still not into team work with his comrades at the time, Kelly and Sam. The obstacle course that he personally assembled comprised of ropes, beams, bridges, bars that rose up to the top where a bell was located. The only way to finish the course was to reach the top and ring the bell.

“All right ladies, front and center!!!!”

The women moved towards the Spartan and did so in still somewhat disorganized groups, though he quickly fixed that problem. As soon as everything was in order, the Spartan explained this new test for them all in a very simple fashion.

“The first team to ring the bell on top of this obstacles course gets to have a lavish meal, the team who is last….will not eat tonight. I will have the keys to the Mess hall and only the first team will have the lavish dinner, the rest can eat…except the last team. Now pair up in teams of three and get moving.”

The women quickly went to work and formed three women teams quickly scaled the obstacle course, but the Spartan certainly made it challenging as the day wore on as the pirates tried their very best to navigate the complex web of beams, ropes, and bridges, and it was not surprising that a considerable number of the three women teams to be struggling hard to make it to the top. Some of the women were going ahead of the others in their teams and the Spartan quickly took note of them and made sure to keep a sharp eye on them as they scaled the obstacle course. While others apparently got the idea and worked as a team to make it to the top of the structure.

As the day wore on, several of the women were able to ring the bell, but they had done so ahead of their fellow team members, that meant that out of the fourteen women teams that took the course, only four teams were going to be eating tonight as they had worked well as teams to reach the goal. The Spartan waited as the women completed the course and were now in front of him and they were very much exhausted for their first day, and he knew that as soon as he announced that only four teams were going to be allowed to eat their dinners, the others would be very angry at that.

And sure enough, a large number of the other ten teams were stunned and appalled at the announcement while the other four teams were surprised, as they were among the last to ring the bell. The Spartan took the four teams to the mess halls and allowed them to eat, and then faced the others as they were looking at him with stunned hatred, only one team however had the energy to stand up and face the Spartan and air out their grievances.

“How dare you?! We were among the first to ring the bell before the others, but we're the last to finish and get no food?! What kind of sick joke is this?!”

The other women took to that remark and they quickly got the energy to shout that the Spartan who was still unmoved by their words and even though some of them were too tired and attacking the Spartan when he was in full armor was very foolish, they tried to reach the Spartan and attack him, but the Spartan merely sidestepped their efforts and let them stew for a moment and spoke.

“The objective was to ring the bell as a team, which means that in order to win you have start as a team and you end as a team.”

The Spartan looked at the women with a calm and unshakable glare and spoke once more to them and made it clear to them that they had failed the obstacle course all because they had no concept of working as a team when it came to the missions they had to be in.

“You're team loses, you lose, you don't win until you're teams wins.”

Later, the women were dead beat tired and more than a large number of them were already going to sleep without any dinner tonight, and were left to think about what the Spartan had said and yet they were too tired to get ready for their next day. The Spartan let them rest as he planned the next batch of activities for them to take part in.

**************

The next day…

In one section of the lands outside of the camp, the women were hard at work…

“Do you see anything?”

One of the pirates asked as she carried her laser rifle in her hands as she and her fire team were currently hiding in a nearby embankment and were on field exercises for today as the Spartan had now passed them through their routine of early morning exercises once more and made sure to use another approach that had him using sonic and flash grenades to wake them up once more…further adding more woe to the women recruits who tried to sleep past the early time. The Spartan trained them from 3:00 to 8:00 and allowed them to have their break-fast and a few minutes of rest before they were once more in the classes and afterwards, he announced for them to get ready for field exercises, where they were going to put their lessons and knowledge to the test and he made it clear that they were going to have to recall everything in these exams.

“I don't know…all this foliage is really a mess.”

“The sweat's making me itch….”

“Hey, let's get moving already, there's not much happening out here.”

The women then moved out and they were in an open field of grass and bushes, the area looked serene, but that was not to last as the ground exploded around them, they were rendered deaf by the sounds of sonic grenades exploding and were sent into a panic and fell to the ground covering their ears and they were blinded by smoke grenades going off. As the sounds and the smoke died down, they were left stunned and disoriented on the ground and it took quite a bit before they were able to get their bearings.

“What happened?”

“I don't know…”

The others in the fire team were still moaning and groaning until they all looked to see the Spartan looking at them with his own MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle in his hands. The Spartan shook his head and looked at the fire team leader to called her team out of the embankment.

“You're out as a fire team leader for today.”

“Why?!” The woman asked as she got to her feet along with the others.

“You just led you're entire fire team into a mine field and got them all killed, and if there were survivors, the opposing force would have found them and either killed them all or took them prisoner, that's why.”

The women were being tested fiercely by the Spartan on how to operate in various environments and whatever conditions they found themselves in. And the women were going through a lot as they were told to wear Marine Body Armor for the duration of the exercises and they were not very comfortable with the idea of wearing the armor, which in their opinion was drab, ugly and heavy. But the Spartan was not budging on the matter and told them to wear it. And their exercises included crawling through the mud to avoid simulated weapons fire on top of their heads along with simulated artillery barrages as well, along with walking in cold hip deep waters with their weapons in their arms, moving through the woodlands in the thick and damp air around them, along with moving through thick underbrush as well, and jungles with lots of unwanted company of the insect persuasion.

Along with learning how to move through such places, the Spartan made it clear that they had to keep their eyes open as he simulated different ambushes and the outcomes as well. He made sure to have them set their laser weapons on stun and when he equipped them with UNSC weapons, he made sure that they were armed with blanks and laser pointers. The women were learning quickly that while the weapons of their home-world were more advanced than that of the Tarak military, they were far more delicate and needed considerable maintenance in such battlegrounds as the ones they were currently fighting in, and it was a danger for them to rely on them exclusively as the weapons began to malfunction. When they did, the Spartan gave them UNSC weapons.

And the women discovered that while the weapons were indeed only using projectiles, they were very well suited for the various environments they were currently in. The UNSC made sure that the weapons they had in their arsenals could operate in any environment that their forces found themselves in and made them highly resistant to moisture, sand, dust, mud, ice…everything that the battle-field could throw at them, and while they still needed maintenance, the weapons were easier to repair and maintain than their laser rifles. UNSC weapons were not as advanced as that of the Covenant, and truth be told, the Sangheili would rather die than use UNSC weapons as they considered them to be worthless and too barbaric and primitive. The Arbiter however, and several other Elites had learned that UNSC weapons were very effective in their own rights and when in the right hands, could even outpace their own weapons…which was why the Arbiter had issued UNSC weapons to his kin when they and the UNSC were mounting a desperate gambit assault to the Ark to stop the Prophet of Truth from activating the Ark and firing the Halo Rings.

When the women were taking breaks and eating their rations at lunch time and listening to the Spartan as he gave them lectures on field operations and combat doctrine, the Spartan made sure to show them in practical situations how each lesson would apply, and he made sure that when they did the same thing, they did it right, and he was a very strict person to them.

The Spartan also took the time to seek out who were better suited as the NCOs for the Fire Teams and made sure to observe them as they continued their exercises under his watch to make sure that only those who showed good potential were the ones that he would test well to make sure that they had what it took to lead their respective fire teams. He took a look at his data files an came up with the names of possible candidates for the NCOs.

Later, he then taught them how to operate in urban environments as he had used the stocks of instacrete to build ruins to simulate various towns and cities, along with installations and told the women that not all of their battles would be limited to the outside and there would be times that they would have to go into urban environments. The women learned how to move in and out of the simulated ruins and how to use the Fiber Optical Probes on their Body Armor to look at corners to avoid ambushed and to see if they were near the objectives as they were told to use their helmets and the HUDS to accomplish their missions. The Spartan taught them how to rescue others in such locations, how to find the best vantage points and how to use the locations to their advantage, how to set up and avoid ambushes in urban environments.

It was also here that he introduced them to the use of explosives in their demolition course, this was on how to use explosives for a variety of operations that needed them and he decided to give them a very important lesson with explosives as he took out a block of C-12 Shaped Charge and made it into a cube about 4x4x4 and when all the women were in position in front of a massive five story building made from instacrete, the Spartan began his lecture on the most dangerous of the UNSC non-nuclear explosives.

“This is C-12 Shaped Charge, this is by far the most volatile and most dangerous of the UNSC explosives you will be working with in the near future, this can be used as a weapon as well, but is primarily used in heavy demolitions work. You can use a cube such as this one to level a tall complex like the one I am about to blow up with this one cube.”

The women looked at the tiny cube and laughed out loud and one of them commented at the Spartan.

“How can that tiny cube destroy an entire building?!”

The Spartan merely shrugged and decided to go ahead with the demonstration and used the remote detonator to the cube and took it into the building and when he was done, he ordered the women back a good distance away and he then told them to watch as he would detonate the cube. The women snorted and were not going to believe that one tiny cube could blow up the building.

Their thoughts died a horrible death as the explosion ripped the building to shreds and forced them all to duck behind the walls of the urban training section area ruins as large to small chunks of destroyed instacrete were sent flying about. As soon as the explosion died down, the women looked and gulped loudly as the entire complex was not only blown to bits, but was totally flattened inside a deep crater.

The Spartan looked at their expressions and felt a slight shiver of satisfaction as he knew that the lesson was driven across

“You were saying? And just so you know, C-12 can be placed in medium sized backpacks that are called Damage Packs…two of those contain enough C-12 to rip apart three meters worth of Titanium A. You'll be working with those soon enough…for today, we get down to the other types of explosives.”

The rest of the day apart from their usual training and physical exercises were dedicated to learning the various ways UNSC explosives such as C-7 Foaming Explosive, M383C Demolition Kits, Satchel Charges, Thermite Carbon Cord, Smoke Grenades, Sonic Grenades, Napalm Grenades, and Fragmentation Grenades were used. The Spartan told them to never use nuclear based UNSC explosives, only he will deal with that.

As soon as they were back in Camp Genesis, the Spartan once more tested the women on the same obstacle course as last night and to his satisfaction only two teams were unable to finish, while the others did well. The women apparently were learning the value of team work for them to be a good force. The next day was going to be dedicated to the other methods of war for ground operations and that included the use of vehicles and heavy weapons. This also was the time that he would request the training of medical corpsmen in the fire teams and decided to make a call to the Nirvana soon.

As soon as they were done eating and cleaned up, the Spartan gave them a quick medical checkup as his Mark VI allowed him to monitor their vital signs well enough and he was satisfied that all of them were still healthy and in good physical condition.

**************

The next day…

The women were once more awakened at 3:00 by the Spartan and were once more back into training until 8:00, and that was when they grabbed their chow for breakfast and while they had not been able to use their makeup, they looked healthy enough and were slowly but surely getting used to the routine and managed to form up in an organized fashion despite the Spartan's use of blank rounds and artillery simulators. And while there were still those that complained about the activities, the women were adapting and were already showing an increase to their stamina, muscle mass, strength and reflexes, but not yet enough to satisfy the Spartan.

As soon as they were done with break-fast, the Spartan took them through their classes once more and like before, he made sure to keep an eye on anyone falling asleep in his classes and when there were none sleeping so far, he made sure to give them some time to rest before he had them suit up and get ready to train with the vehicles and took them to the vehicle storage yards and began to show the women just how to use the Warthogs, the Mongooses, and the Scorpions. He called Cortana and had her power up the Pelicans and he and the women helped secure the vehicles and they were air-lifted into the training area outside of the camp.

Once that was done, the Spartan wasted little time and showed the women how to drive the Warthogs and how use the Warthogs' versatility to the best of their natural ability and the women were naturally confused at driving the Warthogs as they had never used one like this before and they were still rather clumsy at the actions of driving. The women had to struggle very hard on how to use the Warthogs for the rest of the day and all the way up to lunch. They ate and when they finally got the hang of driving the Warthogs, they began to get better, though they were still very much novices compared to the way the Spartan used one when he showed them how to move with the Warthog at high speed around the course and to see the Warthog at high speed began to show to the women how versatile this vehicle was in the hands of experienced users such as their commander. As they began to try again, the Spartan then told them to use the Warthogs that had their turrets on and when the women on the turrets began to get better with the Gauss Cannon and the M41, the Spartan told them to try moving and shooting at the same time and the women thought that he had lost his mind, but as they were able to take out the targets he had erected, the women began to see how effective the vehicles were when moving and firing their main weapons at the very same time. M41 rounds smashed into the instacrete targets as the LRV type Warthogs did their rounds and left large lines of holes in them, and Gauss Rounds smashed chunks off the targets as the women slowly but surely began to get used to the techniques of driving and shooting at the same time.

They then worked with the Troop Transport Warthog and learned for to shoot from the passenger sides of all the Warthogs with some level of accuracy and then they were allowed to drive the Mongooses, though they had to be very careful of the speed and acceleration of the ATVs but had to admit that the speed was handy in certain situations. Then they tried the Scorpion was impressed by the sheer fire power of the UNSC Marines' MBT and it's own heavy armor and weapon systems for all out assault.

The Spartan then decided to see how the women would be able to operate using all the vehicles and allowed them to drive the Warthogs, the Mongoose and the MBTs, and he made sure to be there to administer any medical treatment to the injured. Thankfully there were no fatalities and critical injuries, but he knew better than to hope that it would last forever so he decided at in a few more days, the Tarak medic will be called upon to handle the medical cases here in the training of the women so they would not be injured at this state.

As soon as they were back at the Camp and were ready, he sent them into the same obstacle course and they did well for all of them to warrant dinner, and as soon as they were done eating he made sure to give them extra sleeping time as they cleaned themselves up and went to sleep. The Spartan made sure to call the Nirvana and get Duero down here to the base.

**************

The next day…

“Are you sure you wish to go as well?”

Duero asked Hibiki as the Tarak medic was getting ready to be joined by Magno and Buzam, along with Gascogne as the officers wanted to see just how the women were doing in their first few days. Naturally they were not alone as Barnette, Meia, Jura, and Dita came along to see the progress of the women under the Spartan's command.

The Tarak teen nodded with enthusiasm.

“Of course I am! Do you think I would miss this for the world?”

The others looked as the Tarak teen came onboard and was still garbed in his Marine Body Armor in the black scheme and he quickly took a seat in the Megele shuttle. The captain sighed and nodded for the pilot to get going to the surface. The Captain wondered how the women were doing under the Spartan's commands and so was Buzam, they still had their reservations on the matter but decided to see things for themselves.

Meia wanted to see just how well did the Spartan lead his teams into combat to see if he was indeed the right person to lead the ground teams. Jura wanted to see just how things were on the surface, Dita wanted to see how Mr. Green Alien was doing, Barnette, well she was going to see just how good a leader John-117 was as well.

Later, as they arrived at the sight of the Camp and were guided by Cortana who kept an eye on things on the bridge on the Nirvana to the surface on the landing pad…they were surprised to see the women doing their usual military exercises at the early morning and as the ship landed, the Spartan appeared, carrying his Assault Rifle and called the women over and all of them stopped their exercises, whether it was weight lifting, running, pushups, crunches, and the latest addition to the list, hand to hand combat, and rushed to the landing pad to greet the Captain.

As the elderly woman was greeted by the women under the Spartan's command, she noted how different they looked; they were tired and sweating and wore no make-up. Back on Megele, they would have been considered as plain or weird, but it seemed that they were getting used to it at least to a degree. She smiled at them and promised to look over their situations at a much later date as she greeted the Spartan.

“Nice to see you down here ma'am.”

John-117 said with a salute as the Captain greeted her as well. The Spartan then got back into business and called the women in to have breakfast and then to have their classes. The women under his command hustled to it, already aware of the punishments that awaited them if they tried to be either absent or sleeping in class. They ate their food in the mess hall and then when that was done, they trooped to the class for a review of their lessons from before and new ones on advanced vehicle combat maneuvers and vehicular urban combat. Along with urban combat maneuvers on foot and holding defensive positions.

The Spartan made sure to let the women take the day off from training for today, he knew that despite their coming cooperation, the women would no doubt have complaints about his methods to the Captain and the sooner those were aired out, the better off he was going to be so he could get back to training them for the soon to come ground missions. He then dismissed the class and told them to talk to the Captain inside the Albatross Hanger and let them have some time alone while he talked with Duero and asked the Tarak medic to begin training the women on first aid and medical corpsman training.

The women naturally complained to Magno about how harsh the Spartan was and how much they had to go through in order for them to even take a break. They followed his orders well enough, but he was very much completely different from anyone they knew…even Meia and Barnette were appalled by what they had heard about the Spartan's training methods.

“Captain…if he keeps this up, the ground teams will be too tired to keep fighting.”

“That's right! We can't let him keep this up, you should replace him!”

Magno noted that and knew that while Meia and Barnette meant well, they were unaware of why the Spartan was considered the best for this mission and she decided to tell them about the records that Cortana had shown them, but before she did so, she decided to speak in the Spartan's defense.

“I understand why you feel this way, all of you. But the Spartan is the leader of the ground operations forces and I have given him the authority to do what he can to teach you all how to fight on the ground.”

“But captain…”

“Let me finish…I have read all of his records and I have seen his records as well. He is by far the best officer to lead the ground teams without exception…many of you might not know this, but the Spartan is no ordinary foe to face, I can say with absolute certainty that compared to him, even the best commandos of our world of Megele would have little chance to take him head on by themselves…let alone the types of enemies he has fought with in his dimension for nearly 30 years.”

Magno then looked to Buzam and nodded as the Commander knew that it was time for the women under the Spartan's command to see their commanding officer in action against both the Flood and the Covenant. The elderly woman activated one of the viewing spheres that they used and sure enough, all of the Spartan's records and videos were shown, including the number of awards he had won over the years.

Seeing the Spartan's immense strength for themselves when they were on this planet made the women understand how capable he was, but to see him perform those tests that Duero had placed on him including his fighting ability, reflexes, speed, and running ability made them realize that he had actually been holding back all of his abilities for their sake…not to appear cool or superior, but for their own safety and well being. They realized that of the Spartan was going all out on them, they would have been beaten to the point of overwhelming physical exhaustion. They also learned of the augmentations he had been subjected to as a child and it was very unnerving for them all to hear about it, thankfully Hibiki and Dita were not in the room as they were hanging out with the Spartan. The women gulped as they were told about all the risks involved with the augmentation procedures and were amazed that the Spartan had survived them all without complications.

It was when they saw the records of every major battle the Spartan had been in that really got their attention.

Barnette, Jura, and Meia gulped as they saw the Covenant for the first time in their lives and saw just how dangerous these aliens were in the lines of combat as they watched through the eyes of the Spartan or rather the helmet recorders of the Spartan's Mjolnir Armor how deadly and powerful the aliens were, they watched as the Sangheili were seen, the Unggoy, Lekgolo, the Kig-Yar, the Yanme'e, and the Jiralhanae were waging war on the UNSC and how brutal these warriors were. They saw the Covenant burn worlds into glass and how their forces spared no one in their quest to exterminate humanity on the Master Chief's dimension. They saw how the Spartan fought with these races for nearly 30 years and won countless times, even in the face of overwhelming and horrifying odds to come out on top every time.

To know that the Spartan who was their commander right now had survived so many battles and pulled victory out from the jaws of death in all those battles for nearly 30 years made the women of the ground teams, including Meia, Jura, and Barnette realize that this man did know more about ground warfare than any of them and it showed them just why the Captain had selected him personally to be the ships' combat specialist and assigned him to the security teams, along with being the overall commander of the newly created ground forces. If he had been able to face off against such brutal foes for so long and earned the title of Demon among them for his many victories and the defeats of nearly legions of their forces by himself, then it was not surprising that he had won all those military awards.

The women even held their breath as they saw the Flood for the first time and saw just how vile and dangerous the parasitic race were as they consumed and corrupted all that they touched like a plague and what they did to living and dead creatures was enough to make the women nearly lose all the contents of their stomachs at the sight. The battles that the Spartan was in were truly the proof that silenced the complaints the women had about their commanding officer.

As the records ended, the Captain looked at the women who were stunned and then they looked to see the Spartan training Hibiki who showed his respect and awe of the Spartan openly as the young man followed the Spartan's advice on how to fight and looked at Dita who smiled at the Spartan and Hibiki, apparently even Duero decided to learn a thing or two from the Spartan as well. The Spartan showed Hibiki some moves in CQC or Close Quarters Combat that the young man was able to grasp and put into practice.

Magno then looked at her crew and replied.

“All of those records you all saw are real and living proof as to why the Spartan is the leader of the ground teams in the Nirvana. That youngster in the black armor used to be like you all, and he didn't like the Spartan, but after seeing the same records and deciding to learn from him, the young boy's changing because of that man. He knows warfare on the surface of planets and since you are under his command, then you will need to listen and show him respect, because considering that we are facing the Harvesters and we have no idea of what they will throw at us, you will learn quite a lot from him and his long years of experience.”

With that, the elderly woman, along with Gascogne and Buzam left the women to ponder her words and what they had seen from the records as they went to talk to the Spartan about extending the training for several more weeks before they moved on to their journey to return back to Tarak and Megele.

The ones chosen for the ground teams then began to talk to themselves about what they should do now.

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The next day…

John-117 looked at the women as they were already fully dressed in their uniforms and in proper formation. He had just gone out early to set up their alarm clock when the women were already awake and waiting for him in the training yard. He looked them over and noted that they were looking to be a lot more determined than he last recalled them to be. He decided to test them a bit and see their reactions to what he planned for them. Magno, Buzam, Gascogne, Hibiki, Jura, Meia, Dita, and Duero were given quarters in the Albatross as they decided to stay for a while to see the Spartan and his ground teams in action.

“A little early today aren't we?”

“Yes sir!”

The women replied in unison as they waited for the Spartan to speak, and the Spartan did speak to them in a very serious tone.

“Today you're captain has allowed me to train you for a few more weeks before we leave this camp and head back our way to Tarak and Megele. If any one of you are still not willing to continue, then tell me now and you can take the Megele shuttle back to the ship, I won't hold it against any of you, you've done enough for the past few days to show me you have what it takes, all you have to do is take one step backwards. If any of you wish to remain in the Fire Teams…know that the days you have just had are merely the beginning and more of the training will continue, I will push you to the limits of what you can do and then some…because you will need the training if you are to survive the battles that will come you're way…if any of you are willing to take this risk and continue training, then take one step…”

All the women took one step forward and showed to the Spartan that they were ready for whatever challenge he would put before them.

“…forward. Very well then, we begin now…all recruits fall in for training!”

“Yes sir!”

With that, the women got into their routine of exercises as Magno and Buzam looked on, the officers were awake and they couldn't help but smile as the women under Spartan's command showed that they were not going to back down and prove that they had what it took to be in the ground operations teams. Magno sighed and replied…

“Now we will see if they will be able to prove themselves.”

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To be continued…

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(*) - Hibiki's new personal body armor is in the same design as that of the UNSC Marines and in the color scheme of ODST Armor Body Suit.

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Author's notes:

Well, this wraps up this chapter for today and it will be just the beginning as the Master Chief will be able to train them even further in the coming chapters. The women are still newbies so don't expect them to have it easy in the battles to come.

And to prove that, the women are about to have their very first taste of battle on the next chapter which is a filler before we get down to the next chapter. That is correct, the ground teams are about to have their very first taste of ground combat and this will be at a very high profile of a target for the Harvesters. I won't say what sort of installation it is, but it is a deadly threat to the Nirvana and cannot be easily destroyed…except by ground assault and there will be very high resistance at the installation, but if they do not take it out, then the pirates will be doomed.

How will the pirates under the Spartan's command handle the mission that awaits them? We shall see in the next chapter.

Here's a trailer…

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In the UNSC section of the Nirvana…

As the Spartan finished his outline of the mission to the ground teams, he looked at them all as they were now fully suited up and wearing their Marine Body Armor. He knew that by all rights, they were still not ready, but the pirates had no choice, unless this installation was taken out, there would be no end to the dangers that will before the Nirvana and the others, but he made it clear to the females that what they were about to walk into was no longer an exercise…but was the real thing.

“Make no mistake about this, you will not be going down to a deserted planet, you will be going to a planet occupied by the enemy.”

The women and their NCOs listened in, knowing that considering the serious tone the Spartan spoke in, things were very serious.

“We have no idea how much of the Harvesters are down there to protect the installation, but considering the tactical and strategic value of the installation, you can expect the resistance to be high. And this time, you will be facing the enemy you have been training for the past two months to fight.”

He then loaded his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle with a fresh clip, but this time with live rounds, showing how serious this battle was going to be once they hit the ground to the women. And his next words made that painfully clear to them.

“The rounds and energy weapons fire that we will be encountering will not be set to stun, or blanks…but they are live and will kill on contact. This is no training exercise…this is the real thing.”

He then turned to the NCOs who would lead the fire teams and he spoke to them.

“The lives of your respective fire team members are in your hands, as you're lives are in theirs and each other. Do what you can to lead them to victory and survive, do not ever leave anyone behind, is that clear?”

“Yes sir!!!”

The Master Chief nodded as he gave the order to the Fire Teams, just as the Dreads and Hibiki's Vanguard were getting ready to fly alongside the Longsword Fighters under Cortana's control to provide covering support for the Albatross that they will be riding in.

“ALL FIRE TEAMS!!! GET READY TO GO PLANETSIDE!!!!”

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See you in Chapter 7 Baptism of Fire and Steel!