Chapter V
Legacy Of The Precursors
Chapter V
Conner began his long tale. "First to understand everything I must go back to the beginning." He did not want to speak for so long but he had little choice, so he powered through the discomfort.
"The Unified Earthen Government was humanities central power."
"Humanity?" Pepper asked.
"Yes I am of the human race."
Pepper nodded in understanding and told him to continue.
"Moving on, the UNSC or United Nations Space Command was the military arm. It's purpose was to defend earth and her colonies. Due to rising unrest the UNSC placed the colonies under martial law. In order to combat the growing rebellion they created a program called ORION. It was a failure. But it led up to the successful spartan project."
"Spartan...that's what you are!" Slippy exclaimed.
"Yes, unfortunately the specifications of the project are highly classified."
"So you can't tell us?" Fox asked.
"Correct."
"Why, what are you hiding?" Falco demanded.
"Some things aren't meant to be known." Conner said quietly and softly. It was one of the rare times he let his emotions bleed through his tough outer exterior.
"Well I want to know!" Falco said confrontationally. Everyone was looking at him angrily. He was being awfully rude.
"I'm sorry but it is classified at the Highest levels." Conner repeated his tone becoming angry.
"Oh so you can't tell us!" Falco said mockingly.
For some reason Conner was now very upset. He usually had better control over his anger. It was probably due to all the tension and recent events piling up with no way to vent in combat. So he couldn't stop his emotions from controlling him. He was no longer Conner, he was Wrath.
"So you wanna know the truth." Wrath hissed dangerously. They all went silent and Falco looked scared. This was something they had never seen before it was like he changed into a different person. "The truth is the spartan program was a highly unethical project where the office of navel intelligence kidnapped children all over the colonies put them through a brutal boot camp, causing some to kill themselves, and other to die just from the training courses. Then the survivors were augmented in a agonizing and terrible procedure to turn them into the most dangerous and lethal weapons ever molded by humanity. Many died or were horribly disfigured by the operation. And after that the survivors were trained on how to hunt down and kill the UNSC's enemies. THAT is the truth!"
Wrath was shaking with unbridled rage. The black armored giant was trembling with the urge to lash out. He was consumed with the desire to lay waste to anything and everything in existence. This wasn't the first time this had happened to him. The scientists said it was an imbalance in the brain, one of the many aftereffects of the augmentation. It was a sort of deep seeded feral rage that could manifest after a long time without expending energy. It was a frightening thing to behold.
Conner, now back in control visibly shook himself trying to clear his thoughts. "...Forgive me." He said quietly, "that was a complication from the augmentation procedure. After long periods of stress without a way to relive it, it can be triggered." He sounded exhausted.
The room was silent, they all were visibly shaken by his outburst, not to mention what he told them about the origins of the spartan program. "It's alright." Fox said when his voice returned. "Falco had it coming."
The others agreed with him wholeheartedly.
"Still I should not have let it get out of control." Conner said regretfully. He looked to General Pepper who was looking at the spartan with an understanding eye.
In all his long years he had seen many men turn out like this without any augmentation. The sad part was this was an infliction caused by his own people.
"Sir if I may request, do you have a training field, or somewhere I can...cool off."
"Of course son." Pepper said kindly. "Fox knows where it is, he can take you.
".....Thank you. I will wait outside." The spartan left the room leaving the others to stare at the door.
"That was something." Falco muttered.
Krystal jumped up and slapped him on the beak with her red manicured claws. "You asshole!" She exclaimed.
"What!" Falco shouted rubbing his now sore appendage.
"You insensitive jerk!" Fay exclaimed. Miyu just looked at him disgustedly. The women left the room leaving it occupied only by Fox, Peppy, Slippy, and Pepper and of course Falco."
"What'd I do?" He honestly didn't know what he did wrong, he was always like that.
"Falco sometime you can be an ass." Fox said before leaving as well to find the spartan.
"I think we need to talk." Peppy said as he motioned for Falco to sit with him and Pepper. Slippy decided to go after Fox.
Conner in an extremely rare moment of weakness was sitting on the floor with his back on the wall outside the room. He held his helmeted hand in his gauntlets. He did it again! He lost control! It was a terrible thing to lose control of ones mind. The last time it happened would never be forgotten, he could still see the look of surprise on the little girl's face.
He began to rock imperceptibly back and forth. The repetition was comforting to the lost spartan. It offered some semblance of order in his now hectic and bizarre existence. He knew it was bound to happen. After the death of his crew and becoming stranded in a different galaxy, inhabited by fucking animals! He always put out the tough spartan exterior but in reality he had a fault, a fatal one, he cared to much.
He always loved taking care of the animals when he was little with his mom, who was a veterinarian. He had a soft spot for the the small fluffy and furry ones. Then the covenant had come. He watched helplessly as the jirahalanae killed, and ate his family. He was trapped under a beam with a broken leg. His mom told him to stay quite until they were gone.
They had found her and his sisters. And he had to watch them die, screaming as the brutes played with their meal. That day the kind caring young boy died. And in his place was a cold unforgiving and angry man. Then ONI had offered him a chance at vengeance he could never have turned down.
He had done and seen things that he would never forgive himself for in his career as ONI's lapdog. The only way to carry on was to suppress it. Not anymore, memories surged through, like the flood god used to scour the earth of humanity in the old bible, swarming through his damaged mind. He continued to rock back and forth.
Broken on the inside.
Krystal and the other women walked out of Pepper's office. "Falco is such a jerk." She growled to herself.
"He can be kind of mean." Fay added helpfully.
"Yeah he's an ass alright." Miyu agreed.
"Where is the spartan, where is Wrath?" Krystal asked. Her question was answered when she saw him. The once intimidating and mighty armored human was sitting on the floor near the door cradling his helmet and rocking softly. The women gasped in surprise. "Oh gods!" Krystal gasped.
"Oh my!" Fay exclaimed with a paw covering her mouth.
Miyu was silent although her eyes were shining. Fox chose that moment to enter followed by Slippy. "What's going...oh." He said quietly.
"What do we do?" Slippy asked his voice panicky.
"Krystal do you think you can enter his mind?" Fox wondered. Maybe she could help him.
"I can try fox." She said determinedly. She closed herself off to the world and embraced her telepathic gift. She tried to find the humans mind.
It wasn't hard. Each persons mind is an extension of who they are. For some people it looks like a house with all of their memories like pictures on the walls. For some others it was like a museum guarding their memoirs subconsciously. The human's was a fortress.
It took on the appearance of a Medieval castle with large thick walls and imposing battlements. She spent a good deal of time trying to get in. There! A crack in the wall. She tried to work it open so she could get inside. It crumbled slightly releasing fragmented shards of memories.
"Please Conner no matter what promise me you will be quite." A women, furless and simian, looked into Krystal's eyes. She was trapped inside a pile of rubble and she could feel a piercing pain in her leg. It was broken.
"Okay mommy." She heard a little boys voice come from her muzzle.
"Your sisters and I love you very much the women said, she was crying as she moved a piece of debris concealing Krystal from view, but she could still see. Suddenly she heard guttural snarling and barking in deep unintelligible tongues. The women was holding onto three little girls each furless and vaguely simian. Then the real apes showed up.
Towering furry beasts emerged from the wreckage of the families home. Their fur was matted with the dried blood of their recent kills. They wielded crude bladed pistols and they barked cruel laughs as they closed in on the defenseless family.
Krystal wanted to cry out, shout, do anything to stop the monsters. Then they did the unspeakable. It tore at Krystal's fragile mind, the things they did to that family.
She woke up to Fox's worried muzzle as he looked down at her. "What happened?" She ignored him and looked over to the spartan sitting on the floor.
She started crying.