2 Chapter (2) Reflections and The Project

"... We are so fucked"

After stating the obvious conclusion of the circumstances of his now orphaned state. What the boy felt was not anxiety or fear at his position or the bleak future he had to face, but he felt rage and anger at the cruel fate forced upon him. Not only had he fought and bled for a country that he knew would never thank him. Not only had he even gone so far as to sacrifice his one and supposedly only life in order to complete the mission. Not only had he lost everything in the early stages of the third world war including his beloved parents and younger brother. He even had to find himself in a situation somehow worse than the one before his death.

'What the fuck! I die only to find myself in another fucking war. You can't be fucking serious this has to be some kind of joke or nightmare. I thought you were supposed to find peace and rest after dying, not an intergalactic war that will result in the massacring of countless species and will lay waste to countless worlds. Not only that but good grief I am now 0-2 for families living, what kind of shit luck is that! Can I not just have a normal peaceful life? Hell I would be fine with even a relatively peaceful short life instead of these unending conflicts that seem to be the pattern of things I find myself thrown into living through.'

Tightening his hands together as hard as he could into fists. To the point his fingernails dug into his skin causing pain to shoot through his palms. He began to clamp his jaw down on his teeth tightly grinding them together in his fit of rage. Wanting nothing more to tear apart anything in front of him no matter what it was in order to find some source of relief of the pain in his heart.

The sharp and constant pain he felt for the future he knew would occur made him want to inflict that same pain upon others. He wanted them to feel as he did, know what he knew, and despair as he was doing right now. From the upper levels of the United Nations Space Command to the farmers growing crops on nearly barren planets to even the damn aliens that were the source of these emotions. The boy only wanted them to simply hurt as he did even if he knew that there were many who were undeserving of his wrath.

After what seemed like hours his boiling and unbridled rage began to cool. His hate filled expression slowly began to become more downcast, and his hands began to fall slackly to the floor holding his upper body up while he was sitting on his ankles with his knees pointed forward. A tired and mournful expression began to creep onto his face and he uttered a question to whoever was responsible for the state he found himself in.

"What did I do to deserve this?"

…

..

.

As the boy was having what would amount to a existential crisis. An important gathering of personnel was taking place in a meeting room on another part of the ship. One that no one knew, but would decide the outcome of the very conflict they found themselves in.

"Colonel, according to our headcount we have roughly 200 unaccounted for children from Jericho VII. These children were either separated from their family during the covenant glassing or they are new orphans. What would you have us do with them sir?"

"Dr. Hunter begin administering the blood test for the recommended DNA templates. O.N.I has green-lit a sort of….extension to the first stage of my project, and these children could be the exact resources I can work with."

"Sir to all of the children? I don't understand what about the children who still have families? I understand that your project is of vital importance even with the O.N.I censors on the research files I have been given, but that doesn't mean we can just take away a family's child if we can still reunite them. It would be-"

"Enough Doctor. Do not start trying to take the moral high ground. In this day and age no one in the UNSC has the luxury of doing what is ethical and moral, or do I need to remind you of the state of the galaxy? We are not talking about some small scale Insurrection, but about a war that could decide the very survival of the human race. I will not have you jeopardizing my project's success with your petty arguments on your high horse. Begin checking all of the children for the appropriate genetic make-up and do not question my methods again until you have the key to us winning this war." said Ackerson matter-of-factly

"I understand I will begin testing the children for your project. Even though you still haven't told me much about it besides the subjects being children."

Sighing to herself Naomi Hunter accepts the task given to her while muttering the last part under her breath. Before going to begin preparing the materials needed for the extensive blood tests on the approximately 200 children situated in one of the ship's cargo holds.

She begins to think back to the short conversation she had with the man that had newly been appointed her superior, Colonel James Ackerson. A man she knew little about and knew even less about his top-secret project that she was being forced to work upon. Only knowing that the project needed children and aimed for newly orphaned children from worlds that were newly destroyed by the Covenant.

Ackerson, the man that was her boss, was an interesting person if she were to go by his mannerisms and speech pattern in her limited contact with him. He usually came off as a cold and calculating man usually being focused on guaranteeing mankind's survival through his new project. For the most part this was constant no matter what Naomi said to attempt to elicit a different reaction from him… That was until she mentioned the rare sightings of soldiers wearing heavier and more advanced armor that stood at abnormal heights for humans. She could still remember the Colonel's reaction even now a couple years later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Flashback)

"Good evening Colonel Ackerson I hope all is well. How are the children Colonel? I hope they are being looked after properly."

"Dr. Hunter the children are under sufficient care at the moment. That is none of your concern anyway. I am holding this meeting to check in on the progress of the chemicals for human augmentation that I asked you to begin working on."

"Ah those, well Colonel I have both good news and bad news on the status of that research. Which would you like to hear first, sir?"

"Give me the good news first Doctor."

"So far the most recent mixture seems to be a great success. The convicts injected with the serum showed an improvement of almost 300% to reaction times in stressful situations. A grand achievement if I do say so myself."

The doctor replied with a proud expression to the man on the screen in front of her. Showing how she felt about the accomplishment she had achieved almost solely by herself. Due to the complete lack of assistants and only being given half blackened out documents from other colleagues she had no way of interacting with besides the quarterly reports she sent out and received.

Soon the Colonel gave a curt nod without acknowledging the difficulty of such a task. Instead asking the next important question on his mind.

"And the bad news Doctor?"

Naomi's proud expression disappeared from her face and her usual formal appearance took its place. Though she did seem to be a bit annoyed by the Colonel's seemingly disregarding her work entirely.

"The bad news is that there were a variety of side effects from the augmentation in the convicts. From nervous system issues to damaged organs and muscles from attempting to react at such speeds."

She paused for a movement and brought her hand to her chin as she adopted a pondering expression as she slowly remembered a stand out side effect.

"One of the more interesting side effects that we observed was that after being considerably injured the inmates became exceptionally violent and began to ignore any and all pain. Before abruptly dying due to a combination of injuries sustained and over exertion due to their aggression."

Briefly narrowing his eyes, Ackerson states "I see. Take note of the compound and file this version of the serum to be researched further later, but begin neutralising the side effect. We do not need soldiers who will lose composure in combat."

"And what about the damage to the body presented in the tests? If I am being honest no adult human could withstand such an unnatural increase in physical abilities. Therefore it can't be used to improve the augmentations of the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper initiative. It would only be beneficial if it was given..to…children." the Doctor states before slowly giving the Colonel a suspicious look.

The Colonel sits and stays silent, choosing not to discourage Naomi's line of thinking. Leading to the Doctor Hunter to come to the obvious conclusion that the augmentation of children was most likely in line with Ackerson's goals.

Experimentation and augmentation on children. A highly unethical and down right evil moral action to any person and would cause outrage if leaked to the public even in the current climate of war. However, Naomi knew better than to do anything foolish like becoming a whistle blower on O.N.I's new little project. The consequences of doing such would at the very least be life imprisonment if not immediate execution, and there was nothing she would be able to do to stop it. Even if she did so Naomi was certain that any evidence of the matter would be buried no matter how many people had to go missing or however many homes were lit ablaze. Most importantly however Naomi understood the necessity of such a project.

The covenant as of 2531 had already glassed 6 human colonies and destroyed countless ships. According to reports in space no UNSC force ever stood a chance when fighting on an even battlefield. Only when fighting with a bare minimum 3-1 advantage could the UNSC forces ever hope to destroy the opposing covenant ship. This showing that humanity was well on its way to losing the war in space.

On the other hand the ground battles were much more evenly matched surprisingly. Though most battalions of soldiers would be nearly eradicated in every battle they would inflict similar losses upon the covenant enemies they were fighting. There were even rumors surrounding a force of space marines capable of turning entire ground battles in the UNSC's favor just by their appearance.

Curious, Naomi decided to ask the Colonel about said soldiers before closing the meeting. Seeing as he was on the Office of Naval Intelligence's security council. He must know something and must be able to say something to satiate her curiosity.

"Sir, have you heard of the reports of the new super soldiers? Apparently they are able to overturn entire battles and I was wondering if that was true." Naomi inquired

James Ackerson's face suddenly twisted into an annoyed and disgusted look before stating "No I have not, and do not bring up the topic again."

Surprised by the sudden repulsion at the mentioned topic. Naomi's eye widened before she forcefully calmed herself down to do her best to not show emotion in front of a man who could easily fire and imprison her with just his word alone.

"Very well then until next time Colonel." She stated calmly

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I decided to do a double chapter today seeing as it's the first day I have released chapters.

I kinda wanted this chapter to both give the main character some flaws because it would be boring as fuck to read about some emotionless do no wrong everything comes up peachy mc. Not only is that not realistic that type of mc has NO business being in Halo.

I also wanted to further express how shit the covenant war is going in the doctor's pov even though I gave a overview last chapter. I cannot show just how depressing the war was for humanity they only survived off of pure luck. That the Arbiter developed a coup against the prophets destroying most of the covenant's remaining fleets. Even then the prophet of truth along with the Forerunner dreadnaught smashed what was left of the earth defense force and began digging up the Forerunner portal to the Ark on Earth.

By the way did any one catch the reference to another video game in this chapter? Personally I think it shouldn't be to hard to find and in case you want to find it don't look to hard at things.

Also the scientist Naomi Hunter is an OC if you didn't notice I might turn her into something akin to Catherine Halsey but who knows.

Finally I want to a have a song of the day for each chapter just for fun so today's song of the day is "Bat Country" by Avenged Sevenfold.

Anyway have a good day.