Halo: Corporeal Delta

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Story Tagline
''Delta Company was never meant to be formed, the Human-Covenant War was practically over by 2552. A rogue ONI initiative took the remnants of the SPARTAN-III Program into their own hands and built a supersoldier program without ONI backing. It's a race against time and the Law to build the potential protectors of Mankind. This race that comes with grave consequences.''

Story Summary
''It's 2553, the Human-Covenant War is over. Earth has survived. Now Humanity rebuilds. Most survivors want to forget the last War’s horrors and look ahead toward a brighter future. Others hold on to their desperation and paranoia – determined to remain relevant in a Galaxy where Humanity is not on the retreat, but on the advance.''

''An internal coalition of agents and officers within the Office of Naval Intelligence were ordered to dissolve the SPARTAN-III Program and to bury their distaste for Humanity’s new alien neighbors. While some complied, a few defied the order and continued their work in secret; a group only is known to themselves as the “DELTA Initiative.” Awoken by the continued threats existing in Frontier space and new threats forming at home, the agents feel justified in continuing their Program in secret, even if they know the risks, including treason. With a new world and new assets, they push forward on borrowed time to develop a new batch of Spartan supersoldiers, Delta Company. ''

''Orphans who lost their parents to the Covenant onslaught converge and train on Argus V, told a lie that the War rages on. Recruits like Merlin-D032 must fight tooth and nail to succeed in this new, brutal environment. Every child joined Delta Company to become a Spartan, the real question remains, however, can they make the cut? And, at what cost?''

Chapter One: Demon Rain
“30 seconds!”

A chorus of affirmations responded by quoting the last countdown call. “30 seconds!”

Merlin-D032 fiddled with his black designated marksman rifle, checking the diagnostic lights, confirming that the projection sight was working. He confirmed that a round had been properly seeded and his gun's magazine was stocked.

Satisfied with the weapon, Merlin secured the rifle on its wall mount and took a long glance around his periphery.

Twenty or more teenagers dressed in armored exoskeletons poked and prodded at their weapons and armor, making final gear checks. There were still pre-teens around the armored crowd, young adults in their twelves and thirteens while there were already those fourteen and a rare few that were even older. There wasn’t a single adult in the room.

Open pods made of titanium and shock-absorbing ceramics lined the walls ready for the orbital descent. The deployment room was full of weapons and tactical displays ready for use and provided information on the crisis in development far down below. The overhead lights dyed the room with a blood red and cast long pale shadows in the dark.

Merlin looked across the room to the girl suited up in her black supersoldier armor with green trimmings. She was fiddling with her broad chest-piece, adapted from the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers; she was currently filling it with plastic vacuum-bags containing extra armor-piercing bullets. She secured three plastic bags inside the container then glanced up, making eye contact with Merlin. Her ODST visor was not polarized at that moment and Merlin could make out her sharp blue eyes and a frustrated grimace. Brown locks of hair could be seen at the edges of the ODST visor.

As teenagers began moving toward their designated drop pods, the girl polarized her helmet with its icy-blue glass and smacked the side of her helmet twice to gesture to her helmet radio. Merlin glanced down at his own black-colored helmet, its own ice-blue visor glared back at Merlin menacingly. He threw on the helmet as an intercom voice echoed through the room and the starship they were on.

“Second Wave. This is the final call, Spartans! Dropping in ten seconds.”

“Ten seconds!” The teenage crowd chanted in reply.

Merlin heard the hiss of his helmet sealing his armor completely. The sensation was followed by an audible-pop in his ear from the suit's radio receiver. Andra-D054’s voice followed soon after, she sounded apprehensive. Jumpy. Merlin watched her head bob at him from behind his visor as she spoke. “Final call? You ready for this?”

Merlin took a few moments to respond; he could see the drop time countdown on his helmet reach seven as he responded. “Gear is all good. Ready to give these Covenant bastards a taste of their own medicine.”

The exasperated, uncertain chuckle tripping off Andra’s lips sounded like suffocated breaths more than suppressed laughter. “You know these aren’t Covenant Merlin. That War ended years ago.”

The countdown timer flickered at three. Merlin replied. “I know. But it sounds simpler.”

The countdown timer hit one and the pods all slammed shut, bolting their hatches with a series of short clicks. Merlin caught one last glance at Andra through his pod window before the containers turned away from one another. Andra’s voice echoed in Merlin’s radio. “Can’t change the reality.”

Another audible pop crackled on the radio frequency as the rest of their unit joined the channel. Daniele-D003’s gruff, commanding voice silenced all other voices. “Alright. Zip it. Team Boson is dropping with the third cluster. We’ll be landing in the middle of a firefight, close quarters. Be ready to land under fire. No one falls unconscious during the descent, am I clear?”

Another chorus of affirmation came from the Spartans of Team Boson. “Affirmative!”

Coming to a halt, Merlin’s pod had performed a complete half-circle turn. He could see an endless black vacuum that touched the rounded, blue-edge of the planet’s atmosphere below. A series of small explosions erupted from behind Merlin, signifying that the first drop cluster had taken off, propelled downward by gravity. Merlin’s stomach lurched as uncertainty coursed through his veins. He heard Daniele address Andra specifically after a pause. “Especially you Andra. No fainting from G-forces.”

“Wait…” Andra whispered over the comms channel once again. The second drop cluster took off with another series of explosions.

“What!?! What did you—,” Andra’s raging volume was suddenly drowned out by explosions popping right above Merlin’s head. There were three quick beeps from the drop pod’s computer followed by a fourth long beep designating a launch. He felt a lurch in his stomach as the sensation of falling suddenly took hold. Merlin’s pod unlatched and he was sinking. Andra’s voice in the background continued to roll over the radio, now a long droning yell being swallowed into silence. “Umm….!”

The face camera displays in Merlin’s pod kicked in on his left and right. One displayed the ODST helmet of Andra-D054. Her yell was gone, replaced by the noises of violent wind and air particles whipping against the descending pods. The other display showed the HAZOP-type helmet worn by Team Boson’s medic, Roxanne-D107, though, she preferred being called Rox.

Harsh vibrations rolled through the bottom of Merlin’s drop-pod chair. He held his tongue to the back of his teeth to prevent it from being bitten off. Everything was shaking and thudding about. Even with the noise reduction equipment inside his helmet, Merlin could hear the directional thruster at the top of his pod igniting with a mighty roar. All the organs inside his abdomen shook making the teenager feel aware once again of his own mortality. His breakfast felt like a stone in his stomach, only adding to this sense of meta-awareness.

A red tint glowed at the edge of the windows on Merlin’s pod causing Merlin to feel like he was sweating. He gripped the pod’s control sticks harder as he realized he was sweating excessively. Merlin’s armor was keeping him cool but the temperature of the surrounding air and the pod itself were cooking as the vehicle descended further into the upper atmosphere at excessive speeds. Pods outside rushed past or got swallowed up by the sky as Merlin’s sped past them.

Just as the heat was beginning to actually itch at Merlin’s skin, the warmth evaporated and the cool sense of sweat disappeared as his suit absorbed the moisture. Merlin watched as Andra and Roxs' cameras stopped shaking, returning with sharper clarity. Andra glanced at her camera and whispered menacingly at Daniele. “Fuck you, Team Lead. It happened once, that’s it.”

Rox giggled at the response but said nothing. Merlin waited for a response from Dani but heard nothing. He shrugged at the thought, maybe he just didn’t have anything to say. Between the five members of Team Boson – the boys were being the quietest right now. Merlin, Dani, and Adryn had yet to express anything more than orders or small talk before the low-orbit drop.

Adryn-D111, the youngest member of the combat team, chipped in at that moment. “We all good?”

A chorus of “affirmatives” were once again spewed in response.

“We’ve passed through the upper atmosphere, we still got a bit more turbulence to pass through but you can see the thunderhead of the mushroom cloud below us right now,” Adryn called out, identifying a large bloom toward Team Boson’s western direction. Merlin could make it out through his pod’s windows; a giant mushroom cloud slowly spun outwards like an endlessly blooming flower or water spout. Against the planet’s star, Merlin could make out the distinctive stem shape of a stem below the cloud’s bloom as well. Pink lightning arced in irregular patterns within and on top of the mushroom top.

“Pretty…” Merlin muttered to himself as he descended past it.

Andra’s voice came out garbled as residual radioactive particles crashed against the pods and disrupted their communications array. “How-badly-will…systems be affected? What? Weapon...dee-ploy?”

“Give it a few seconds. The comms should compensate.” Adryn replied, a little too calm. His voice remained relatively crisp in Merlin’s ears.

“How bad will this affect our electronics? And what kind of weapon did they deploy?” Andra asked restating her questions. This time, her voice came out clear.

“I’d say it was a high-altitude deployment of a HAVOK-grade nuke, those are the most compact we have I think. Since we’re coming in at the waning of the explosion, most of the particles should have been cleared out. Our pods and our armor will negate any other residual effects we might encounter.” Adryn replied, displaying his textbook-level of familiarity with UNSC ordinance systems.

“So, we’re good then?” Merlin asked, seeking out simple confirmation.

“Should be,” Adryn replied in a heartbeat.

“UNSC Silent Night above us. People, pay your respects.” Daniele called out as a massive thunderclap echoed through the skies above. Crossing the blue skies of the colony world, a UNSC escort frigate was trailing smoke and fire.

It descended quickly at a diagonal angle with a trajectory miles off-course from Team Boson’s own drop zone. It was a screaming fireball, titanium and other ceramic metals were being ripped off its gun-like body as it zoomed out of sight into cloud cover, its wreckage trail was already miles long.

“What just happened?” Merlin heard himself ask. He remembers the Silent Night had been carrying Spartans at the start of the battle.

Daniele replied, “Shot down by a Covenant corvette. Most of the crew got out. It's on a controlled descent now." “Any potential for operation hazards?” Andra asked.

“None that I’ve been informed of. At most, it will layer us in a thick dust cloud. Anyone on the ground might be deterred by a small shockwave at most. We’re in the clear.” Daniele explained.

“Alright,” Andra replied, satisfied with the answer.

“We’re passing through the nuclear skirts now. Expect some heavy turbulence.” Adryn called out, warning of further danger.

Merlin was the first to notice said turbulence as he hit the skirts, the second layer of thin clouds rolling at the base of the mushroom cloud’s stem. There was a sudden onset of violent-shaking like being stuck in a soda can about to explode. Merlin’s armor and his restraints kept him from being thrown around but he swore he could feel his brain bouncing about on the inside of his skull. As quickly as the shaking started though, it ended. He looked out the window and saw he had passed the skirts, a rainy sky replaced the mushroom cloud and thunderclaps rumbled overhead. Below, Merlin could just barely make out the sight of a giant, seemingly endless forest.

The forest was the last thing Merlin was able to see before his whole world spun into an inky black. He could feel his body being dragged upwards by an unseen force, the drop pod's air-brake. He felt the blood in his veins sliding around with the quadrupling of G-forces applied to his sitting form. Merlin felt his suit constrict his body as it attempted to prevent the pooling of his blooding and the possibility of going unconscious. This was the final drop phase – the ground was coming fast as the drop pod released its air brake in the last few moments.

Merlin felt his eyes roll then everything was a dark haze. There was a lot of noise – the screaming wind. The nearing shouts and gunfire of battle. The whistling of passing projectiles. The crash of impact. Then nothing. His eyes were swimming for what felt like mere moments but the sounds outside the drop pod were moving too fast, it must have been minutes. Lots of hissing from burning plasma and cracks of gunfire. The radio was blaring with activity from incoherent screams and yells, clear signs of battle.

The voice of Andra-D054 crackling on the radio broke through the haze as Merlin attempted to move his head. "Merlin! Merlin?!"

His movements were imprecise and sluggish but his eyes refocused on the pod's window, the battlefield outside was completely covered in rain and dust, The glass was splattered and muddled with mud.

"I'm here..." Merlin muttered as he ripped his rifle from the wall of the pod. He unlocked his restraints and looked around, it looked like the automatic door release had been shot to shit. He noted the four red diagnostic lights on the door and glanced at them, Merlin's Heads-Up Display did the rest and fired a laser at each light turning them green. The door snapped off with a mighty hiss as it was thrown violently from the pod.

Merlin wobbled out onto the battlefield, still feeling sluggish. He couldn't hear the voices of his team on the radio anymore. He didn't know where they were. On instinct, Merlin winked his IFF status beacon with a yellow marker, identifying himself as "in distress."

Merlin received four status triggers from his team, full green. It seemed he took the worst hit. Andra's voice echoed distantly in Merlin's ear. "Hey, I'm heading your way now. Rox is inbound too."

Merlin just muttered a simple "affirmative" that he didn't even catch himself saying.

His swimming eyes haphazardly noticed a shadowy figure darting through the thick rain toward his position setting off warning signals in his head. Merlin's VISR combat analysis system surrounded the individual in a white outline as it bolted about through dust and rain. The white meant his suit couldn't identify it as friend or foe. A dangerous proposition. Merlin leveled his rifle to bear and whipped it around trying to get a bead on the unknown foe.

The thunder of gunfire was still fairly distant but Merlin could make out the neon-like discharge of plasma fire, even with this storm and the dust from the crashed UNSC frigate. Visibility had been reduced to less than twenty-five meters.

The shadow of the unknown individual slid into Merlin's peripheral again, this time, over the crashing rain, he could hear sharp footsteps of someone running. The shadow was starting to glow a dim red now too as it approached. It was sprinting. Merlin snapped to face the unknown, his rifle came up but Merlin's sluggish movements didn't let him get a proper shot off.

His VISR system pinged the enemy as a threat just as Merlin's first shot went wild and zipped out into the black rain. Three plasma bolts flew at Merlin in retaliation and forced him to dodge. His blood was now pumping into overdrive as hormones in Merlin's body activated his sluggish survival response.

Merlin pulled the trigger twice but both shots missed once again. A plasma shield exploded into its physical form on the unknown's right wrist. It was clearly a Jackal, a raptor-looking alien, now that Merlin was close enough to tell. It was still sprinting and charging him, it screamed an alien war-cry and struck out at Merlin firing its plasma pistol in rapid succession.

Merlin's elevated reaction time responded to compensate for the closing distance between the two fighters. Merlin threw his rifle aside to get both his hands up as the dinosaur-like alien with its leathery-brown skin slammed into Merlin with its energy shield as hard as it could.

Merlin's armor was a lot stronger than what the Jackal was expecting but in Merlin's reduced state, he flinched at the impact and was forced to backpedal. The Jackal took advantage of the strike and started to overload its plasma pistol, a submachine gun-sized alien weapon with a green ball of plasma forming at its emitter point.

Merlin went for the pistol, using his outstretched right arm and grabbed the Jackal's shield arm. He twisted it as hard as he could. The alien screamed at the sudden snapping of its joints. Quickly adapting to the loss of functionality in its wrist, it dropped the plasma pistol and used its left arm to bring up the weapon that had been glowing a dim-red moments earlier.

It was sharp, about sixty or so centimeters long, about the size of a machete, it was a small blade made of a pulsating alien material - it only took Merlin a split second to recognize the volatile alien crystal known as Blamite. He raised his entire right arm to avoid a stab aimed at his ribs. The blade cut close, shattered his shields and sending both Merlin's armor systems and mind into alarm mode as the suit beeped warnings at its user.

Merlin reacted quickly. He needed to end the fight now. Time seemed to slow down and the motion of his enemy was suddenly a little more traceable. If what Merlin remembered how one of his Spartan trainer's had described this sensation, it was called "Spartan Time," the moment where his flight-or-flight response started working in overtime where his perception of the world seemed to slow down. He remembered a muddled warning about being in this state for too long could harm the nervous system if he wasn't careful but this wasn't the time to worry about that.

Merlin's right arm reached out and shaped into a downward fist. It came down like a sledgehammer and smashed the Jackal's head into the ground. It's assault evaporated in seconds as it went head first into the mud. Merlin didn't stop, he was determined to end this fight as quickly as possible. This wasn't training anymore, this was battle and his life was on the line.

Merlin slammed his heavy titanium boot into the alien's armored back and pushed down, he heard the distance scream of the Jackal as its body was squeezed under the weight of Merlin's foot and its own combat harness. Merlin whipped out his M6C/SOCOM, a suppressed handgun and unloaded two bullets into the alien's head at point-blank range, execution-style.

It was over, or at least that was what Merlin had thought. His perception was still sped up but he heard the round too late.

Something heavy smashed into Merlin's shoulder and crackled with a metallic spark. The impact area was immediately sore and upon quick examination, Merlin's shoulder plate had been dented by a pistol round. Merlin's head whipped to the side to see a Human rebel fighter staring at him with his small-caliber pistol drawn and a pair of shocked, wide eyes.

Merlin paused and realized that those same eyes staring at him were the same as his own. This was a human, his blood. The pistol in the rebel's hands slackened for a second as enemies made eye contact.

The two stared and for a moment, the Battle and the storm were forgotten. Merlin could only imagine what his adversary was imagining but to Merlin, all he saw was a man - a father of children and lover of peace and family. A thunderclap overhead made Merlin wonder what the man was imagining - he could see himself, this cold armor and nothing else. A machine. That harsh, blue visor staring unfeeling back into those frightened eyes of a man caught in a crisis.

Merlin blinked and the haze was lifted, both his own concussed mind and this strange moment of peace. The man's gaze suddenly hardened and Merlin heard the slowing beep of his shields coming back online.

"You killed Crawl..." The man whispered, likely referring the dead alien, Merlin didn't know what the two's relationship had been but he assumed they'd at least been friends. The rebel's words were accented by a predatory sharpness that set Merlin on edge.

He knew they weren't coming back fast enough, the shield emitters would not harden fast enough to stop the bullet. Merlin's hands and body were moving, as fast as a blur, to bring his gun to bear. The man's movements were still sluggish but his pistol had been trained on Merlin the entire time; it was all on split-second reaction times now. Two cracks from separate pistols screamed as bullets rushed toward their intended targets. Merlin froze as he completed his shooter stance but his bullet had already left the barrel. His eyes noted the neat hole that had formed at the top of the man's head as his body went limp and crashed to the wet mud below him. Merlin looked down at himself, the enemy bullet had missed entirely. The Spartan let loose a breath he had been holding in anticipation and panic.

He survived, this time, however, he had just killed his first human being. He murdered one of his own, even if it was in self-defense and the man had been fighting on the opposing side. It felt hollow. Merlin stared down at the man's body as it continued to bleed out in the pouring rain.

Merlin barely noticed the approach of Andra and Rox. They slowed upon arrival, glancing around the remnants of the crime scene.

Andra's question didn't register with Merlin but he did hear it. "Merlin, you alright?"

Merlin continued to stare at the dead rebel that he just murdered, both out of survival and as conditioned by training, battle, and war. He just killed a human being. It didn't make him want to puke or take any drastic matters as if he broke some kind of sacred moral code. It just felt wrong to Merlin. He joined up to become a defender of Humanity, a SPARTAN-III operator. He joined to fight aliens and get revenge on the monsters who took his parents and killed billions. And yet, halfway through training - it was declared that the War had already been over for two years. The War they'd been preparing for had been a hollow truth with the goal of Spartans like Merlin to protect Humanity from much lesser threats, even threats of itself. Merlin had been told he might have to kill humans, however, the actual taking of life left him feeling a little broken - like all the things that he had come to understand about the world had been flipped upside down. It hadn't always been like this.