Welcome to Gaia! ::

(We are officially moving back to the Battlesite subforum!!! Which is the first time in about...... 500 posts or so. Or maybe it was 750? Anyway, it was a long time, so I'll see you there.)

Later..............

Liz met Johnson in the drop pod bay, the Roosevelt hovering over a particular spot over Earth. "Are you ready to learn how to become a Spartan, soldier? Because, if so...." Liz said, then pushed Johnson into the drop pod, closed the door and jettisoned him away. "Have fun!" She said over the comm, laughing.

"If only that much. For someone your age? Around 1.47%." Liz responded, then shut off her comm.

(Several years later.....)

"Well, it seems like command wants me to congratulate you guys for surviving the training. You are now full-fledged Spartans. And, what I have to say it this.... You will get killed out there. I have seen it happen. However, what I do not want you to do is intentionally set yourself up to die. You are to work as a team and with all members of the armed forces around you." Elizabeth said, looking over the 20 or so new Spartans.

Liz looked back at "Romeo", as his new callsign was, and almost nodded to him. "The fact that, of you twenty three, only two of you came in as volunteers surprises me. Volunteers have a less than 2% chance of survival, and being one hundred percent crippled. The fact that both.... no, all of you survived with none of you being crippled is an amazement larger than anything that I have seen. And now, for your assignment. We have lost all contact with the four Spartans on the Ark, and we have discovered a very, very fast way to get there, and it's near New Mombasa. For this reason, New Mombasa has been radically evacuated and massively reinforced. Every single one of us is going to take this...." Liz stopped, and she gritted her teeth, visible because she was without her helmet, or her right arm armor. She had kept her armor this way in case the Flood inside her had decided to activate itself. A lone tentacle wound its way down her arm, bulging the skin. Another rose through her neck. She lifted her head, her right eye now pure black. She spoke, and there was a second voice under hers, deeper, earthier. "We are going to take this and recover the four Spartans if necessary. And any other Marines that are on the Ark." She turned around, and released her control over the Flood. "What you will be fighting is something like this." She said, and turned back around. Her face had looked like it was partially melted, and her arm bulged, a few tentacles sprouting from it. She then forced herself back in control and the tentacles reversed, sealing the holes in her arm and her face stretched back to where it was. She let it have some control, and her eye was still black. It gave her a unique way of seeing things. With her eye infected with the Flood's corruption, she could actually see a few miles farther than she already could, and everything was much clearer.

(Changed your callsign to Romeo, for funzies.)

Liz chuckled lightly. "I should, but I have control over it. Besides, for some reason, it actually keeps ONI away from me." Liz said, taking her armor entirely off and laying down on the bed to rest her back. She didn't care that she was completely nude, all she cared about was her friggin' back. "Want Scotch?" She asked, pointing to a rack filled with alcohol.

"What is that, the '42? Hand me a shot glass." Liz said, sitting up. "And look at me, for god sakes. You're a Spartan now. Nothing's supposed to phase you."