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NOTE: You will need to have read Rise To Honor by Shadow, or at least the last few chapters of his series in order to understand this prologue. If you haven't, or don't plan to, you will NOT understand most of the important elements of this story.


Takan and the other trainees watched the commander intently as he walked back and forth from one end of the room to the other. They were still waiting for one more trainee who had been a bit 'reluctant' to wake up this morning. He watched as a boy a year older than he quickly walked into the room. He had dirty blonde hair and was a little taller than he was. He was also a bit stronger, and he was known for being a very good leader of his team. His team consisted of a few underdogs, and the commander decided that because of his good skills as a leader, he could possibly shape them up to be a bit stronger in the physical activities. But according to the recent exercises, the attempt didn't seem to be working quite all that well. The name of the trainee was Gebrard, but everyone called him Geb. Takan watched as Geb quickly sat down, and two guardians were quick to walk in after him and stand at the back of the room, just in case things became a bit rowdy for some unpredicted reason. The Commander looked out the large window at the front of the room. It took up virtually the entire front wall. It gave a great gaping view of the little indoor battlefield. It was pretty large, about the size of a football field. On each side, there were sets of barricades. On each side, there was a flag placed into a slot located at the top of a small black box. There were weapons on racks on each side. Each was filled with MAB2s, which were small machineguns that were very similar to the old MA5Bs, but fired at a slower rate, with a more accurate burst. Next to them was a set of the old shotguns. They seemed like the real weapons; though Takan suspected that the Commander was not going to be using live ammunition in whatever exercise this was. The Commander continued to pace back and forth, apparently contemplating something. Finally, the stopped right at the middle of the room, right in front of the trainees.

"Ok, this will be your most physically and mentally demanding exercise you've gone through here so far. But most of all, this exercise will teach you how to work together as a team. I've set up teams," he said with an ominous tone.

One of the soldiers in the back quickly jogged to the Commander and handed him a clear blipboard and quickly jogged to the back of the room again. The Commander pressed the activation button, and the transparent board quickly hummed to life, showing a two-column list. For the first time, Takan realized that in addition to the main entrance in the back of the room, there were two hallways that led out on each of the side-walls. The Commander lifted his arm and pointed to one of the hallways, still looking down at the clipboard.

"Numbers: 56, 88, 23, 45, 22, 49..."

The Commander continued on with the list until half of the trainees had been announced in a seemingly random fashion.

"You trainees will go down this hall. There you will be briefed on the mission. The rest of you are to go down this hall here."

The Commander quickly pointed to the other hallway. Takan was within the half that was not selected for the right terminal. He and the trainees stood up in an almost complete unison and began to file into the hallway. The hallway was brightly lit and made the gray walls almost seem as if they were white. The hallway ramped downwards and to the right, causing Takan to realize that it was leading straight to the battlefield area. The door in front of them quickly slid open and the trainees walked into battlefield. There was already an officer at their barricaded end of the battlefield. Takan wondered how that guy got there before they did. The soldier began to give out orders.

"Each of you will have a choice of one weapon. Ammunition in this battle will be supplied in abundance, and you will not have to worry about that. We will be using tranquilizer darts instead of live rounds. Dummy rounds were considered to be too inaccurate in portraying the situation of the battlefield. We want to make this as realistic as possible without the deaths. The point of the mission is to find a way of capturing the opponent's flag and bring it back to your base before yours can be stolen. There will be no physical contact. Only weapon fire. We don't want to kill our adversaries here, only beat them. Are there any questions?"
"Sir, no sir!" they said in complete unison.
"Good. Grab your weapons, and prepare for the battle. Good luck."

Each of the soldiers quickly ran to the racks to grab their weapons. Takan debated on which weapon to choose. Naturally, the shotgun provided more power. But in this situation, only one dart would do the trick to send an enemy down. So the assault rifle would be not only more effective, but more efficient as well. And so he grabbed one of the assault rifles, and prepped. He leaned up against one of the barricades, ready for some signal that would initiate the battle. He heard a thump next to him. He quickly turned around and saw it was Callad.

"Hello Takan. Guess we're here together," he said.
"Yes, we are." He replied without any care.

He heard another thump next to him on the other side. He looked and saw that it was Azrielle.

"Azrielle?" He asked.
"Call me Az. And what do you want?" she replied amiably.
"Well, I wanted to thank you for sticking up for me back at the mess hall."
"Don't worry about it. I did it because it was the right thing to do."
"Is Gebrard here?"
"Yes I'm here," Gebrard replied.

Takan looked up and saw Gebrard standing over them, looking down.

"Well, I wanted to thank you as well."
"I did it for the same reasons as you and Az. Now let's get down to fighting."
"Can I stay with you guys too?" Asked a jumpy, seemingly excited voice.

Takan turned behind him and saw that it was Janet. He nodded to her. Looked like they were going to be her bodyguards again today. She sat down next to the rest of them, and they formed a small circle.

A loud, chirp from the alarm told them that the battle had begun. He was the first to get up on his knees and begin firing. He fired at full automatic, and the darts seemed to fire just as accurately. A second later, the others poked up above the barricades and began firing as well. He looked to his right and saw that 6 on their side had already fallen. They seemed to be loosing numbers fast. If that was how real battles were fought, then they'd need to have better training than this to stay alive. He heard the click of the gun, and he quickly realized that he was out. He ducked beneath the safe haven of the barricade to hide. He As he did so, he looked to his left to see the others. One was hiding behind the barricade, but he fell down as if he was dead. But he was behind the barricade! Just then a flash of light came through the barricade and he watched as a dart poke right through.

"Damnit, the barricades can't hold off the darts. We need to do something."
"Yes, but what?" Az replied cooly.
"I say that we find cover in that mound of dirt over there. That dirt spans the entire length of the battlefield. If we can get there, we can quickly sneak up behind their ranks and take their flag before they even know it," Geb replied confidently.
"That's a good idea, but we'll need more men than we have now," Takan replied.
"I'll go summon some of their forces. You make a break for the wall, and make sure it's secure. The others might have already had the idea," Cal said with a hint of bravery about breaking off from the rest of them to accomplish a separate goal.
"Right," Az said.

Takan looked around, and waited for Geb and Azrielle to make their first move. Geb led the small force to the huge 'hill' along the side of the battlefield. As soon as Takan left to join them, he could hear the muffled blasts of rifles on the other side. He quickly dashed to the hill, and moved to join them. Apparently the other team had the same idea. Takan quickly ran up, but watched as Geb fell to the ground. He looked down with slight remorse, and then began to fire at the two enemy soldiers there. With quick blasts from both Az and him, the two soldiers went down quickly. They looked at Geb and then began to move along the hill. They poked their heads out the other side and saw that the enemies were completely preoccupied with the main battle. He heard loud clanking behind him, and he quickly spun around. But to his fortunate surprise, it was Cal and a set of 6 other soldiers.

"We lost Gebrard," Az proclaimed.
"Yea, I saw. So how are we going to do this?" Cal replied and questioned.
"Az and I will go in to steal the flag. The rest of you will provide cover fire, if we are found out. If we fall, you get the flag. Got it?"
"Right."

Takan nodded to Az and they both made a dizzying dash for the flag. Az got there first, and she quickly unhooked it from its notch in the black box and began a full sprint back. Takan stood behind her, facing towards the opponents. Both of them refrained from firing a shot, lest it alerted the enemy to their theft. One of them immediately noticed their theft, and began firing at Az. Before he could do any damage, Takan dropped him. But the soldier was enough to alert the others. Before they knew it, about half of the force began fire on them. Takan flattened himself on the ground, and fired back. Lucky for him, the main concern with the enemy was the flag. He dropped as many as he could, but it wasn't enough. Azrielle was impacted with a hail of enemy fire, and she fell down as if she had just been a deactivated robot. He took a second to finish off two more, and he made a mad dash for the flag. He scraped it up from the ground, and made a full dive behind the hill. He waited there, on the ground for a few seconds, half-expecting darkness to take over. But it didn't. He looked up, and watched as one of his comrades fell to the ground. He got up, and quickly dashed along the hill while Cal's team covered him. He blew right out of the hill and ran straight for the barricades.

"COVER ME!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

The others turned to him and saw that he had the flag. They all immediately stood up and formed a human wall in front of him as he dashed across the border to insert the flag into the notch. Many members of the team fell trying to protect him, but in the end it was worth it. He finally reached the black flag, and he took no waste in tasting the sweetness of victory. That would come after he achieved it completely. He inserted it, and yelled out in joy and holding his hands up. The others immediately dropped their weapons and raised their hands in the air. The gunfire immediately ceased, and the other team knew that they had failed. They too dropped their weapons, and slowly walked over to congratulate the winners.


2569 A.D./ 27 A.C.W: 0330 Hours: Earth, American Continent, Rushton Peninsula, Human Retreat Center Of The Final War

After the battle, Takan, Geb, Jan and Cal all made a silent pact to cover each other's backs and to keep watch over each other. No one ever said anything about such a thing, but it was quietly assumed and expected from each other. Even though their friendship had grown strong, their bonds with Commander Mendez and the entire military excursion seemed to be growing weaker and weaker. When the Commander announced that they were going to be going under cybernetic and chemical enhancement, none of them could take it anymore. They had to break out. These enhancements were never announced, and none of them wanted any part of this crap anymore. It took many days of planning in the mess hall and of arguing over probabilities and other details over specifications throughout the complex. There was a ventilation shaft outside in the main hall. That would be where they could make their escape. The main hall of the dorms was generally unguarded, and they decided that there would be the location of their escape. To reach the top ventilation shaft, they would have to find something to bolster their height and allow them to reach the ceiling where the entrance to the ventilation shaft was located. They found that the chairs in each of their dorms could be stacked if the legs of all the chairs except the ground level one were cut off. The stacking would be efficient, clean and stable. They planned that night. At 2 'o clock, each of them: Callad, Azrielle, Takan, Gebrard and Janet all sneaked out of their individual dorm rooms and quickly made their way down the long, winding hallway to the spot where they had designated as their escape route. Janet had brought the stacked chairs with her. The day before, instead of eating at dinner, they were working hard in Janet's room to prepare the boosting device. It was quite a wonder, and Takan realized for the first time that she had quite a knack for making things out of almost complete scrap. She quietly placed it on the ground, and Geb climbed up the stack of chairs, careful not to knock them down. If they did, they'd probably all be court marshaled, and in the case that they were at a secret laboratory and training center, they would most likely be murdered and be reported as accidentally killed during an exercise. He found the vent, but it was welded in tight.

"It's stuck!" exclaimed Geb.
"Hold on, I have a blowtorch in my room," Jan replied quickly.

After she left to get the torch, they all looked at each other with the same confused look. Where the hell did she get a blowtorch?
She couldn't possibly have made one out of the scratch that she seemed to be getting all the time at the arenas and exercise rooms. He shrugged his shoulders. He had learned one thing at martial arts, and it went something like this: "If you are given a miracle you do not understand, do not ask of its creation or origin. Just be happy with what you have and be grateful for it."
It seemed like a strange wacko saying, but it applied perfectly in this situation. Jan returned in no time, panting hard. She had apparently sprinted the entire hallway and back. She tossed up the blowtorch and Geb immediately began work. In addition to actually working, it was quiet as well. Jan had really planned ahead. Within a few minutes, the vent was open, and Geb tossed down the torch. Az caught it, and they each climbed into the vent. The specs said that it led straight to the exit of the base. They would have no trouble after that.


2568 A.D./ 27 A.C.W: 0132 Hours: Earth, American Continent, Rushton Peninsula, 2 Miles Off Human Retreat Center Of The Final War

Shadow closed his eyes as the explosion came right at his face. He expected an extreme wave of heat and then an extreme sense of pain before his death. But he felt none of that. In fact, there was no sound of the explosion at all. It had simply vanished from his ears. The total lack of sound seemed even more exaggerated with such a difference between the sound of the inferno, and this sudden sense of quiet tranquility.
Was the explosion so loud that he had already become deaf? That was a very likely situation. He slowly opened his eyes, and he was rewarded with not a blast from a fiery inferno, but it seemed it was a blast from something else. The fire had utterly disappeared. But what was strange, was that all the damage had as well. There was no hint of fire at all. No burned branches- no detonation crater in front of him. Heck, there wasn't even a Covenant base! Not even a decimated one! What the hell was going on?

He could hear the carefree chirping of the birds in the area, and now he knew something was up. The birds would have flown away long before the explosion had hit here. And there was no evidence of any explosion at all. It was all so strange. The forest seemed somewhat similar to how it was before the explosion had sounded; though there weren't as many fallen trees in the area. Perhaps he was in heaven. Maybe this WAS heaven. He took his hands away from his face, and placed them on the ground, and tried to push himself up. Immediately, he was hit with an extreme pang in both of his legs. He could feel them both with extreme potency, but he couldn't move them at all. Were they broken? He looked behind him and realized it was beyond that. They were shattered. This wasn't heaven. His legs were still broken from the explosion. There was something wrong here, but he had no way of finding out...

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