Matt-038 (Halo Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: First Mission

Author's Note: If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

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Chapter 7: First Mission

Location: UNSC destroyer Pioneer, en route to Eridanus system

September 12, 2525

0605 hours

Matt was one of the lucky ones to survive the augmentations months ago. He was one of the first to wake up from his augmentations. Others though weren't so lucky. A total of 30 had died from the augmentation procedures and another 12 were discharged after failing the augmentation procedures, most becoming severely crippled. Matt heard that the majority of these former candidates were later reassigned to ONI.

Now it was time for their first mission as Spartans.

Linda was sitting in the Spartan barracks room meditating, practicing Zen, and preparing herself for the upcoming mission in which she was selected to go on. She opened her eyes and saw Matt sitting across from her doing the same as she was. She glanced at the clock that was resting above the doorway. The clock read: 0605 hours, almost time for the first mission to start. The Spartans had been briefed and John had selected Sam, Kelly, Fred, Matt, and Linda on a mission to capture Colonel Robert Watts, an insurrectionist leader.

Linda got to her feet and touched Matt on the shoulder.

"Time to get ready for the op?" he asked with his eyes still closed.

"Yep," she replied. Matt stood up and stretched. They then met up with the others and they all walked to weapons locker. Inside, they found an array of combat equipment. On a table in the room, there were guns, knives, communications gear, body armor explosives, medical packs, survival gear, portable computers, and even a thruster pack to make maneuvering in space easier.

Fred sat on the ground and started twirling a combat knife, which was razor-edged sharp.

Kelly walked around the table and held up a pair of grease-stained overalls that had her name on it.

"Are these our new uniforms?" she asked.

"ONI gave them to us," Matt heard John reply, "They're supposed to match what the crew of the Laden wears."

"They don't give a girl that much to work with," Kelly said as she held up the overalls and inspected them.

"Here, try this on," Linda said. She held up a black bodysuit to Kelly's long slender frame. The bodysuits were formfitting, lightweight polymer body armor. The suit could deflect small-caliber rounds and had a refrigeration/heating units that would mask infrared signatures. The helmets had encryption and communications gear, a heads-up-display, and thermal and motion detectors. The helmets were also sealed tight and the unit had a fifteen-minute reserve of oxygen to let the wearer survive in a vacuum. All the Spartans disliked the bodysuits because they were uncomfortable and they were also tricky to repair in the field and the suits always needed repairs.

"What weapons do we use?" Matt asked.

"Three-ninety caliber," Fred said, but from the tone of his voice, he didn't sound very confident.

"Yes," John answered. "Everyone take .390 caliber ammunition so that we can share clips if we have to. Except for Linda and Matt."

Linda saw Matt walk over to the crate. She followed behind him. He popped the lid off of the crate and he reached in and pulled out an SRS99C-S2 AM. He smiled and reached into the crate and pulled out another of the matte-black long-barreled rifles and handed her the rifle.