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Draco Part 1
Date: 11 August 2003, 1:44 AM
I was hurried along the hallway as a pair of doctors dragged the chain that bound my arms. I was nervous; being taken to the training ground was never like this. They were talking too much, they were talking abut me. They were talking about what was wrong, they were talking about my flaws. I knew I had no flaws though, I am perfect, I am the best, they taught me that. I am a SPARTAN-III. I stumbled down the hallway which was a hue of blue due to the dim light, the only actually illumination coming from the moon in the night sky above me and the perpetually shifting light of the guard tower. We passed several cell doors and finally to the end of the hallway where the doctors asked me to step onto a table. I complied, I was trained to.
"Alright now Draco, we're just going to run a few tests on you and see how we can improve you." I looked around at my surrounding. There were several steel carts with knives and scalpels on them. This wasn't a normal health-check.
I watched as one of the doctors grabbed a small shot and vial, drawing an once into the shot. He flicked its end twice and leveled the container with his eyes to make sure he had the right amount. I focused on the container and read it, sedative. "What is that, creator?" I asked, hoping to find some reassurance that it was not a sedative.
"I won't lie to you Draco, it is a sedative. For this procedure we need you to be calm. I want you to strap your arms into the braces now, you need to, then we can continue." He replied, I continued to strap my arms into the leather braces.
"What is this operation?" I asked hoping that I would not be hit for asking too many questions.
"You sure are inquisitive tonight. We are going to improve your race, we will make your brothers better." He replied while moving towards me with the needle. He pierced my bullet resistant skin and injected the fluid into my body. As he pulled the needle from my skin I watched the wound close. The second doctor left the room.
"How are you going to improve me?" I asked. There was a short silence.
"By finding out what's wrong with you."
"There is nothing wrong with me! I am a SPARTAN! I am the perfect soldier, you have said so yourself!" I shouted.
"Nothing is perfect." He replied. Suddenly I felt tired as if my energy had been sapped by the training days that we are forced to race the Warthogs. I fell to the table as a result of my tire and soon my vision began to blur. The nearby voices echoed in my head as I tried to stay awake. I rolled my head and saw the second doctor, accompanied by two armed guards, enter the room. He dragged another steel cart, this one with several jars. I looked at them, but the words on the jars were just blurs. I stared at them as hard as I could and deciphered two of them, one saying "HEART" and the other saying "STOMACH", I couldn't read any of the others. I was familiar with receiving organs, but these jars were empty, so unless I was to get a different cart of organs that carts was not meant for me. I watched as the doctors slid on gloves, a smock and a small hair net before stepping to their table of tools. I stared in confusion as the creators grabbed a small bone saw and a scalpel. This wasn't a normal operation. Suddenly I noticed something the creator said, "Don't worry, this one has a docile mind and an imperfect body. He shouldn't put up any resistance." This was no check-up... I pulled one of my weakened arms against the brace as the doctors grabbed a battery pack for the bone saw. I pulled my right leg against one of the braces, and to my surprise, it snapped. My leg flew like lightning to the jaws of the scientists as one of my arms ripped free from the table. The scientist's bodies fell to the ground as one of the heavy shackles struck a guard in the face, knocking him to the ground instantly. The other guard suddenly realized that I was breaking free, and within a second of the leg braces snapping to free me I had knocked out the other three people in the room. He soon fell to the ground, unconscious and probably bearing a few fractured ribs.
I pulled the last shackle free from my arm as I felt a sudden odd sensation in my stomach over my kidney. I looked down at my bare chest as a pore in my skin opened up and spurted a clear fluid, the sedative. My kidneys were built to reject poisons, and my skin to part at command. Energy flooded my body and the world began to sharpen again. I looked down at the scientists and loosely checked ones pulse, he was dead. The others produced identical results and my sins began to become a realization, I had killed the creators and his guards. But they had to be imposters, the creators know that I am perfect, they had told me so for my whole life. I was the ultimate weapon. This had to be a test of my power.
I stepped to one of the guards, the second one I had killed, and searched him for items that would be of any use. I managed to take his clothes, his rifle, though it was a tranquilizer one rather than a lethal pistol, and I found his wallet. I flipped it open and quickly pocketed all of its contents, most notably a level three security clearance card, enough to get me anywhere in the base. I dragged all of the bodies to a closet in the small lab room and locked the door behind me as I left.
Quickly and silently I shuffled into the hallway. I suddenly saw my new greatest foe, light, I couldn't be found, if I were to be found in this test it would mean failure and it would mean the creators were wrong and that I was not perfect. I carefully shuffled past the window and into the cell area, the light of the guard tower avoided like the plague. As I looked around the corner I saw a line of three cells, all of which were placed across the hallway from a window that looked onto the courtyard guard tower. I pressed against the wall, silently preparing to dodge the windows, as I suddenly realized that three sets of eyes were watching me from within the cells.
"Shhh... Quiet..." I whispered to the cell group, only faith binding me to that they would remain in silence.
"What are you doing Draco-1?" the middle cell's inhabitant asked me.
"I am passing the test, the creators tried to call me imperfect, so it has to be some resistance training so that we will be able to persevere through torture." I replied, confident that I was correct.
"I always thought you were smart Draco-1.", the middle cell replied again, "Would you free us so we can help you?"
I began to consider whether or not it was within the rules of engagement for this test as the closer cell's trainee forwarded his beliefs on the issue "You know that we are trained to work as a team, chances are that they want use to work with you!" he whispered with some enthusiasm in his childish voice.
"You are probably right; I'll get you out in just a second..." I waited and watched as the spotlight crept across the floor, the silhouette of the windows lit by its radiance. It slid along the floor until it reached an insurmountable wall near to me and disappeared, continuing its orbit along the edge of the trainee courtyard. As it disappeared I ran to the cell and slid the access card through the reader, and a quarter second later the door was closed as if nothing had happened, Pat-42 standing ad my side. We ran to the edge of the hallway again and pressed our backs against the cold brick wall. The searchlight passed by the cell area again. I trembled as I saw it creep closer to me, my relief coming as it again disappeared. I bolted down the hallway and unlocked the middle cell, continuing in my intended path to the far end of the hallway. Jake-15 and Pat quickly joined me as we waited for the search light to pass again. As it silently slithered past my position I ran and slid the access card in the final cell's access panel as I suddenly heard a shout outside. I looked at my feet to see the glow of a spotlight tracing a path up my body, I had been spotted, my test's chances of failure getting higher, but it was impossible for me to fail a mission... It had to be some flaw! It didn't matter to Jenna-14 though, who was merely glad to be free and on a mission. I walked down the hallway as Jake-15 and Jenna-14 fell into place with me in a two-by-two cover formation. I was the leader of our squad, and as would be expected by the creator I quickly fell into my place as the point-man of our group, and it would be my job to make up for my failure in that I got spotted by making sure that we made it out of the cells without being seen. We quickly ran along a corridor and into the next room, the cafeteria. As we silently moved into the large room I noticed three guards standing watch at the far end of the room, each armed and talking to one another across the bar table. I waved the stop and duck signals with my hands and watched as the others followed suite, ducking to the ground. I snapped a hand up and signaled to sneak to the left of the guards by crawling into the next area, a simple plan, but one that would pass the test of the creators. I crawled along the ground and listened for any movement that might signal that our test was compromised. I crept across most of the cafeteria and to within ten feet of the door when I near had a heart attack, the alarm sounded. A ringing bell and the sudden awakening of the red alarms alerted the guards, who stood and sun to see the rest of the cafeteria, and who spotted Jake.
"All personnel", the speakers blared, "Four SPARTAN Three units are believed to have escaped from holding cells in the 4-A region." Three bullets struck the wall behind Jake. He jumped to his feet and ran out of the cafeteria as another trio of bullet struck the wall behind him. I stood and flipped a cafeteria table forming a makeshift barricade. I ducked behind it as a hail of bullets ripped it to pieces, each puncture streaming a small trail of light. The gunfire ripped the table to shreds and I soon began to wonder if I were to die behind that cafeteria, but I knew I wouldn't, I was perfect. The hail of gunfire suddenly stopped as the guards began to hope that I was dead. I looked to my left and right, seeing that the table was coated in bullet holes, bar only where I had my back pressed against the table. It must have been impossible for me to fail... The other Spartans waved for me to come through the door, and I began to jump to follow them as a grenade suddenly bounced to the ground behind them. Before the two second fuse ran out they were cowering behind the table with me. The grenade exploded and I noted some cinder blocks falling from the wall. I heard one of the guards slide another magazine into his gun and knew there was no more time.
I jumped over the flipped over table and charged at the guards. The one that had managed to reload fired a series of six gunshots at me. The three bullets seemed to slide at me in slow motion as I dodged them and ran along the wall to the first guard, where I flipped off of it and kicked him in the side of the neck, snapping it and felling the first of the three. The armed guard spun to shoot at me, and I knew that he would manage to shoot me if I charged him. I looked at my feet and noticed a cinder block fragment sitting at my feet... The guard spun his gun and leveled his aim at me as a brick hit him as fast as a cannon shell would have in any of the early armed wars. He dropped to the ground, undoubtedly dead as the third guard ducked behind the bar table. I pried a sub machine gun from the dead guard's hands and reloaded it delicately as the other Spartans advanced. It was an MA 8-7C, not one of my favorite rifles but more than adequate. I slid another magazine into the rifle and clicked off the safety. I could hear the man on the other side of the table pulling the pin from a grenade as I fired about a dozen rounds into the bar table, the result a distinct grunt that guaranteed his injury. A flash and the following deafening noise assured his death. The cafeteria door that Jake, Pat and Jenna had previously run from suddenly burst open, a flood of guards running into the room. Jake, Jenna and Pat quickly bolted to the destroyed bar area and ran through the hole punched in the cinder block wall by the dead guard's grenade. I hesitantly ran from the battle, it was the first time I had to be afraid of anyone or anything... I charged across the room and out of the room, noting the bullets raking the wall behind me as I ran. The guards, now responding to our attempt to run ran back into the hallway. Jake, catching onto my idea grabbed a cinder block and threw it down the hallway, the large brick hitting a guard at at least one hundred miles an hour and dragging him to the ground and along the floor of the hallway for about three yards. Before I could look back o my allies another cinder block flew down the hallway, clipping another guard and deforming his rib cage so that it was almost a v shape. The remaining guard only leaned around the corner as a half-cinder block struck near his feet where it instantly shattered. I flipped the MA 8-7C rifle into my hand and fired a burst of gunfire down the hallway, one of the bullets hitting his upper shoulder near the man's heart. The gunshot wound forced the man to the ground, blood already welling into a puddle beneath his body. I lifted my foot sympathetically and kicked a brick at his head to end his misery.
I ran around one of the final hallways in the facility when a troop of guards ran across the hallway before us. They were moving towards the exit to bar our escape. I gestured for Jake and Jenna to reload, switch to full automatic, and to fire some suppressive gunfire at the guards. They complied with another hand gesture and switched his magazine for his second one, completely filled magazine. I waved a short hand signal to Pat, the signal for attack. Pat and I burst around the corner; a volley of gunfire catching three guards in the back, each thrown to the ground with an exit wound the size of a hand grenade. The MA 8 was a powerful model if nothing else... The remaining four guards were already into the base's lobby and running for cover. It would do them no good, we were created to never fail. Pat ran to the left and myself to the right, both of us ducking behind columns. Tracer fire lit the hallway and the percussive noises of a dozen rifles firing filled the room. I knew that there was around eight guards at the end of the room, an easily defeated force. I heard a clicking noise to my left and looked towards it to see a grenade bouncing to a stop. I quickly kicked the grenade back to the front of the room, it exploded near the middle though and I was certain that they were unharmed. The fire alarm began to ring suddenly and the emergency sprinklers activated, quickly soaking the floor in a thin layer of water. I saw a blur move down the hallway as Jake and Jenna followed our footsteps, each ducking to opposite columns. I leaned to the right around the corner and chose the closest target, a lone guard with his head above the desk he was hiding behind. A moment later his skull was split by a bullet and his lifeless body dropped to the ground, a trail of lifeblood following its movement. I ducked behind the column as a brace of gunfire scarred the wall behind my former position. I could hear shouts from the other side of the room as they tried to devise a plan to eliminate us, and to call for reinforcements. Time was short, and this was a very odd test, normally we didn't use live rounds but instead the shocker substitutes. Somehow I knew that the punishment for failure was death. I whistled a series of three short, high-pitched whistles meant to gather the attention of my comrades. Their heads snapped to me and watched for orders. I raised my hand and waved the attack gesture. The squad burst around the corner and ran towards the enemies, a bullet quickly clipping Jake in the side. He continued moving, though, and managed to shoot a guard before we were halfway across the room. I watched as another set of bullets felled another set of guards. The remaining four guards had time to duck behind the desk before we were able to run across the room. Within a second of our departure we had vaulted across the desks in the front lobby and each of us stood above a cowering guard. Before the guards could possibly react to our arrival each of their rifles was taken by one of my squad. Two of them begged for mercy, the other two waited for an opportunity to strike, I knew that there would be no opportunity, we were perfect. I grabbed the guard that I had disarmed by the neck and lifted him into the air as best I could, he was taller than me. "How do we finish the test?"
"Test?"
"You heard me, how do we finish the test. We had defeated the base flawlessly, what is our task?" I interrogated. The man began to turn red from the asphyxiation.
"This is no test..." he choked and spit some blood onto his chin and my hand, "This is an escape attempt... You damn monsters are trying to get--" I snapped the man's neck and dropped his limp body to the ground. I moved to the next guard and kneeled down to his level. Jake backed away from the guard and looked at his side as his skin reopened to release the bullet, which was momentarily forced from his abdomen and dropped to the ground.
"Do you want to die?" I asked the guard rhetorically.
"No, I don't want to die." He replied, trembling.
"Alright then, maybe you can tell me how to finish the test." I asked.
"This is no--"
"I could kill you with any two of my fingers, keep that in mind when you answer this." I continued.
"This is no test." I swung my arm back to deliver a lethal strike when a plea suddenly fled his lips, "Don't kill me! I have a family! A wife and kids!" I frowned and continued to bring my arm backwards, "Alright, fine! This is a test!" (Authors Note to help you along with the plot: The guard is lying so that he can live, this really isn't a test.) "You have to escape. One of your mission objectives was to kill as few guards as possible, but I suppose you have already failed that. Run!" I stood as the shouts of another platoon of guards began to flood around the corner. I had succeeded in another mission...
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