Spartan Royale: Chapter 1

As mentioned in my last comment, I had been working diligently on some Halo fan fiction until the unfortunate writers' strike forced me to stop progress in support of my fellow WGA members. Thankfully we've made a deal and are permitted to go back to work, so to celebrate here's the first chapter of my novel/screenplay.

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-Spartan II candidates-

SPARTAN-003: Holly
SPARTAN-004: Adam
SPARTAN-008: Li
SPARTAN-010: Jane
SPARTAN-015: James
SPARTAN-018: Robert
SPARTAN-019: Shane
SPARTAN-020: Tom
SPARTAN-029: Joshua
SPARTAN-030: Vinh
SPARTAN-034: Samuel
SPARTAN-039: Isaac
SPARTAN-043: William
SPARTAN-044: Anton
SPARTAN-045: Nicole
SPARTAN-051: Kurt
SPARTAN-058: Linda
SPARTAN-059: Malcolm
SPARTAN-062: Maria
SPARTAN-069: Olivia
SPARTAN-071: Mark
SPARTAN-074: Min
SPARTAN-087: Kelly
SPARTAN-088: Dante
SPARTAN-091: Lucy
SPARTAN-093: Grace
SPARTAN-099: Ash
SPARTAN-104: Fredric
SPARTAN-110: Cassandra
SPARTAN-117: John
SPARTAN-118: Randall
SPARTAN-119: Sheila

-Chapter 01-


1445 HOURS, FEDUARY 6, 2526 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
Aboard UNSC Frigate Thunderous Silence, Rrestricted space, planet reach


John (Spartan-117) woke up, groggy, confused, finding himself slouched over a school table desk, the same kind of desks he remembered back during his lectures with Dejà during his childhood with the other Spartans, in fact, the room around him seemed almost too reminiscent to the classroom. The only difference was that the classroom had a round, staircase-like leveling with the chairs grouped by 9 or 10.
He looked around, noticing that he was not alone. He noticed to the right of him William (Spartan-043), to the left Dante (Spartan-088) getting up. He looked around to see that all 31 other Spartans were all here, groggy, and just as confused and curious as he was.
John noticed a man standing behind the digital blackboard in front, waiting with hands folded behind him, dawned in Class-A UNSC army uniform. The man stood at around 6ft, slim, John noticed the rank of Colonel on the uniform.
To his left and right were two ODST troopers dawned in full body suit and helmet, both carrying fully loaded MA5B assault rifles.
"Good morning Spartans" the man said in a calm cool voice, "I hope you all slept well during Cryostasis."
John wondered who this man was; he had never seen him before during training, during his recovery of his enhancements on the ONI medical station.
"My men gave you all a double dose of the wake-up serum so you should be fully aware by now. We cannot have you dozing off now can we."
The Colonel turned and began writing on the touch screen blackboard using a thin chalk-like instrument.
"My name is Colonel James Altidore" he said after finishing underlining his name. He then fumbled with the chalk piece in his hand.
"Obviously you are all Spartans" he said looking around the room "And as of this moment I will be replacing your CO Mendez as head of the Spartan Program."
There was an uneasy silence around the room.
"Now I understand that ever since you're training on Reach has been a series of games" a sinister smile came across Altidore's face "Well I have a new game for you. As head chairmen of Section III, your new mission…"
John, Kelly, every Spartan in the room could not believe what he said next.
"…Is to kill each other."
There was a large gasp in the room fallowed by an even more uneasy silence. They began to whisper to one another, thinking the colonel was crazy.
John stood up, as leader of the Spartans and just as confused as his company. "Sir with respect could you repeat that?" he hesitated ending his sentence with 'sir'; He didn't think Altidore deserved such a title.
"Certainly" Altidore said, deciding to walk around to view all their shocked little faces. "What I said, I meant. The rules to my little game are simple. 32 Spartans are sent down to a remote area where they are to kill each other within a certain amount of time which ever way you wish until one remains." He cleared his throat before finishing "and the last one standing will be rewarded significantly with a lifelong pension, enough money to own your own fucking colony in the ass-end of space." He shrugged "Hell, not even Mendez, or even that egghead Halsey could afford such a prize."
Randall (Spartan-118) stood up, trying his best to restrain himself from lunging into the Colonel; he was only two desks away from the blackboard. "I bet CO Mendez would have something to say about this!" Randall Yelled. John knew he would, he knew they all would have got up and killed all of them if he knew how many he was facing, or how much firepower he was against.
"Stand down Spartan!" John called to him.
Altidore waited for him to sit down, cleared his throat "No, actually he brings me to another topic." He signaled over to the side door, which slid open.
Three ODST officers came out carrying a black body bag. John had seen what a full body bag looked like, back during the medical station. He could only guess at what was inside.
He froze, putting his thoughts in order; it didn't take long before guessing who was inside. He knew by now everyone figured what was inside, they just couldn't believe it.
"Come on, no one can kill the chief" He recalled saying back when he was a child back during a training exercise. After a while he knew that no one was spared by death, but he never thought he would end like this.
The body bag was thrown onto the teachers table, zipper facing up. The three ODST stood at attention, assault rifles in hand.
Altidore slowly unzipped the bag.
Johns braced himself, expecting the worst.
He froze, unable to react at what he saw, all the Spartans gasped and tried to cope, but john just sat back frozen.
The Spartans could not believe what they saw.
Mendez lay inside the body bag; his left eye hung out from his socket, shot above the right eye with a Battle Rifle.
"He was a tough nut to crack, believe me" He merely glanced at the body, shrugged and continued his rant "I tried negotiating and negotiating with him for hours and hours but after a while" he chuckled "I believe he…saw the light. No pun intended."
Collecting his thoughts, John stood up, "What did you do to Halsey!" John asked.
Altidore looked back at John. "Not addressing me as 'sir', or 'permission to speak freely sir'" he waved his finger at him "Not very wise, you could be court-"
"Don't give me that shit Colonel Altidore, once you killed Mendez you have no authority lecturing me about ethics and military standards." John snarled.
Altidore smiled "Good point." He walked over to John face-to-face with an ODST in the distance aiming his sights to John's forehead.
"You see this," the colonel barked, pointing at the insignia on his uniform "This rank makes you my bitch; this makes all the Spartans, even Mendez over there, Halsey, everyone in section III, all of you my bitches. You will know far well to respect your superiors."
They looked eye to eye now; John did not back down, he stood.
"This goes far beyond respecting superiors Colonel." John paused more of holding back the urge of ripping out his lungs right there "Now Dr. Halsey…What did you do to her… sir?"
Altidore walked away, shrugged, "I say that Damned Halsey can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, she was just as stubborn as Mendez was. But unlike Mendez I didn't have the heart to shoot her." He tilted his head back, almost lost in thought. He began to drum his fingers on the back of Mendez's head.
"No, no, I had much more special plans for her." He chuckled, he began to reminisce on the negotiation with Halsey, How she lied there naked handcuffed, bruised, his dirty sock in her mouth as he laid on top of her, enjoying her muffled screaming with his sock shoved in her mouth.
"You son of a bitch" John muttered under his breath.
"I would be well advised to mind your comments one-one-seven. They could cost you your life before the game begins." Altidore cracked a smile, hoping that John would test him.
"This is a load of horseshit!" One of the Spartans yelled. The class agreed and protested against Altidore.
"What the hell do you take us for?" Randall stood up, walked over to the stairs. The room became silent, all eyes and sights were on him.
"Someone's going to notice. Mendez, Section III, the UNSC, this is all completely against every military regulation in the book. You might as well throw all standards and practices out the window."
"Get to the fucking point one-one-eight" Altidore snarled.
"First off, how the hell are you going to have us kill one another, if anything you should be worried that were going to rush right back here and rip you're fucking balls off." Randall finished, the Spartans cheered him on, agreeing with what he said.
"Second off, when the UNSC finds out about this, especially the killing CO Mendez and Halsey, the next orders you'll give out will be the choice of your last meal!"
The Spartans cheered on, about to swarm down on Altidore and his squad.
The Colonel pulled out his M6C magnum and fired upward, silencing the classroom.
"You know that's a good question" Altidore pointed to him, he seemed more cheerful to reply than usual, showing a toothy smile.
He turned to the teachers table "Araquiel!" he ordered.
A holographic flame shot from the AI port on the right side of the table. John and the others watched as a demonic elongated skull generated within the flame, looking over to Altidore as soon as its horns were complete.
Altidore nearly drooled as he glanced over to Randall, standing in confusion.
"One-one-eight" Altidore said.
The AI replied in a raspy, demonic multiple-voice "Executing order 66" fallowed by a laugh.
"And what the fuck do-" but before he could, Randall felt a strong, throbbing pain in his head. He tried to shake it off but the throbbing pain was unbearable.
Randall cried in pain, holding his head. Something the Spartans did not do.
John and the others around him tried to help. John walked over to him, tilted his head and looked into his eyes. John ignored Randall's screams.
"What's your status Spartan?" He asked.
Randall's eyes were bloodshot; he began to claw at his throat. "Sir…I…I…can't breathe" he tried to say.
John and the rest stepped back, Randall's face turned red from the lack of oxygen, and his eyes were about to pop out of his face. He tried to scream before the unthinkable happened.
Randall's head from the jaw up exploded in a gory mess. Chunks of skin, brain, and bone flew all around the room.
John froze there as the group of Spartans erupted in uproar and fear as they jumped out of there seats heading back.
Sheila (Spartan-119) having finally reached her breaking point, lunged at one of the ODST troopers and grabbed his rifle. He struggled with her before the she pried the rifle away from him.
Just as she was about to aim at the Colonel, two troopers opened fire on her. She fell in a dance of death as the bullets poked into her chest and through her head. Her blood splattered all over the wall.
"Everyone settle down" he said, but the commotion muffled his orders.
The ODST fired over the Spartan's heads, trying to pacify them without killing them.
"Settle down Spartans!" John called out. He kept repeating until the Spartans slowly settled down and kept silent.
It was clear that John was scared, even if he would never show it. He wiped off the chunk of flesh off his face before speaking.
"Colonel" He gulped, continued, "What the hell just happened to Randall, Why are two of my Spartans dead?"
"I'm glad you asked," The colonel pointed over to John, cracking a smile.
"During your surgeries back on the medical station, it was subjected by the head of ONI that a special device be placed inside all of the Spartans. We called it 'Project-Guadalcanal' a failsafe in case you become too powerful for section III to control, or in case, you leak the Spartan Project to the public. It is an explosive device as thin as apiece of paper, and about the size of a bookmark fused to the back of your skulls close to the brain. It as you may have noticed has the explosive capability enough to incinerate your entire head."
He paced around the room, confident as he hid behind the cover of his armored guards.
"You try to escape, you die, you don't fallow the rules I give you, you die, if for some reason you manage to kill me you all die, I can utter a single word, Just one word, and every last one of you Spartans dies!"
"So without further adieu, Lets get down to business shall we."


-To Be continued-