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Project Athenian by Arinoth Koby
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Project Athenian: Chapter 1
Date: 18 October 2004, 9:35 PM
Sixteen years before the fall of Reach and the discovery of the ring world Halo was an experiment project that took place, one which was hoped to change humanity and turn the tide against the Covenant onslaught. It had been deemed important for the UNSC to create new forms of technology to aid the front line soldiers against the Covenant, to give them some age. Project Athenian was hoped to be that such project. The project was to infuse humans with technology, as if to give humans the increased ability that a machine can give and mix it with the need for technology to be able to grow. This technology was code named Biotech. The Biotech was to be infused to every part of the body so that when the subjects grew, so would the technology.
Over one hundreds subjects had been taken as babies to conduct the test and throughout the years, more and more of them seemed to die from complications or from deformity with the technology changing the physical make up of a person. One person survived most of this training...
Arinoth Koby or at least the code name he now goes by. His true name, lost in the past, in the mystery that is Project Athenian. He walks down a deserted hallway in the underground facility that he has grown to call as his home. He continues down the hallway, looking along the bland walls as he heads to a one of the tech facilities. As he arrives at the door, he looks around to make sure no one sees him as he enters the room. Inside are arrays of computers from monitors, to electronics taking up an entire wall, to a glass table with miniature weapons embedded into it. Arinoth walks over to one of the computer consoles and begins to creatively entire the restricted file sector of the facility. He searches amongst millions of files and decoy files until he opens the one he is looking for, the field report on his progress, which comes up onto the screen in front of his eyes:
---Security Clearance Required---
**Project Athenian**
Project issued by: United Nations Space Command High Command
Objective: Creative an integrated human-technology subjects to give the UNSC an edge on the battlefield
History: Project Athenian was started in 2535 in hopes to rival the successful Spartan II project. It was foreseen that the only way to defeat the Covenant in combat was to outnumber them or have a superior soldier. Project Athenian hoped to create the superior soldier using technological enhancements.
Number of Starting Subjects: 245
Number of Deceased Subjects: 164
Number of Out of Action Subjects: 76
Number of Insane Subjects: four
Number of Current Surviving Subjects: one - Arinoth Koby
Project Update: UNSC High Command acting on closing the project due to it seen as a failure
**End of Subject**
Please Enter Subject Name or Number: 018
**Subject number: 018**
Subject: Arinoth Koby
Current age: 17 years
Gender: biotech male - unknown if able to reproduce -
Height: 5 feet 8 inches
Weight: 160 lbs
Years in the program: 16 years
Mental stability: at times unstable
Weapons test: exceeds exceptions, superior to Spartan IIs
Computer test: exceeds expectations, unable to test speeds
Integration test: exceeds expectations, looks and acts like a normal human
Biotech enhancements: - split second reaction time
- remarkable memory
- quicker recovery time from injury
- 100% accurate
Security Clearance: unlimited - under UNSC High Command watch -
**End of Subject**
---End of Details---
Arinoth rubs his eyes after scanning over what the computer told him about the project and himself. He gets up and walks over to a mirror, examining his features. He is 5'8" tall with an athletic build. His hair is kept short and out of the way. Staring back at him are dark blue eyes with a ring of teal on the outside of his pupils and little red dots in the middle of his pupils from where the biotech integrates with his own eyes. "Failure, I exceed all known human and Spartan II expectations and I'm deemed as a failure?"
"Not all of us at the UNSC High Command share the same opinions, Arinoth," says a voice in the doorway.
Arinoth glances towards where he hears the voice came from, as soon as he sees it is , the UNSC President, he immediately stands at attention and salutes her.
"Sir, what brings you out here to Mars?" Arinoth asks the commander of the UNSC, referring to her as sir, do to her position.
"Well, I came out here to see Project Athenian, seeing as the UNSC High Command wants to close it down."
"You are looking at it sir, I am the remaining survivor," Arinoth replies blandly.
"Yes, I know, you are supposed to be doing some form of obstacle course today to show off all your Biotech enhancements. Personally son, your easier on the eyes then the SPARTAN IIs, also you seem to blend with other people who will be key to striking fear into the Covenant."
With that, the UNSC President leaves the computer lab and heads back to her own quarters. Arinoth sits back down on his chair thinking that this is his chance to prove himself. That he really is the pinnacle of 16 years of hard labor and advancements in technology. He begins to run through in his mind all he has learnt during the program, he wants a chance to fight the Covenant, to fight side by side with the infamous Master Chief and drive the Covenant horde back.
Arinoth's mind then drifts into thinking about the SPARTAN IIs. He surprisingly admires them, feeling that he can relate to them and them to him. If he ever met one of them, if he or one of them ever survived long enough to run into each other, Arinoth knows in his heart that with the combined force of Athenian and SPARTANS, the Covenant could be driven back and eliminated if necessary. If only he could meet the legendary Master Chief...with these thoughts, Arinoth drifts into a light sleep.
Several hours later, he awakes to see quite a commotion with technicians and scientists setting up his obstacle course. Arinoth squints his eyes once then stands up, heading over to the armory to pick up his weapons and armor for the test. It is a short trip to the armory and when he arrives, two technicians greet him.
"Sir, your armor and weapon are ready for you," the first technician announces to Arinoth, saluting him.
Arinoth returns the technician's salute as he walks over to a glass case holding his armor. Arinoth has to focus his eyes to see the almost transparent neo-titanium crystal armor that he is to wear. He remembers hearing one of the scientists refer to it as NCA for short, though he would refer to the suit, as it is proper name unless he is told otherwise. This armor is one of a kind in that it is lightweight, stronger then the MJLONIR armor has the ability to blend into its surroundings with active camouflage, and it is biotechnology so that it can interface with the Athenian as if it was his own skin. He turns to the technician who first addressed him, "So this is my armor?"
"Yes sir, the neo-titanium crystal armor or NCA for short, you will be field testing it, if it proves as successful as we hope, a non-biotech version will be designed and sent to the troops to replace their current armor," the technician replies happily. "Sir -"
Arinoth cuts him off, "call me Arinoth or Koby for formalities to replace sir, I'm no officer."
"Yes sir, I mean Koby," the technician stammers, "...as I was trying to ask you, would you like to see your firearms before we put you into your suit"
Arinoth nods and the second technician walks over with a black case, places it on the table in front of her colleague and biohuman. She then proceeds to cracking open the lid to reveal a modifier Battle Rifle.
"Arinoth, this is your version of the Battle Rifle, it is designed to support MA5B rounds, SMG rounds, S2 AM Sniper Rifle rounds, and the Battle Rifle rounds, to enable you to carry multiple rounds of each style of weapon instead of having to carry several weapons at once. Another feature of your modified Battle Rifle is that it too is biotechnology which will enable upload and interfacing between you and your weapon for more precise shots if you need to conserve ammunition."
Arinoth whistles impressed that they had the technology to do this, yet nothing should surprise him since he is biotechnology as well. He removes the weapon from its black case, looking over it, and then turns to the second technician, "Is this everything?"
"Yes Koby, this is all that we currently feel are safe enough to be tested in a combat simulation," the female technician replies, leaving the room with her colleague to allow Arinoth to put on the suit himself since he would have to in due time.
Arinoth stares at the suit for a second, then reaches in and removes the 4-piece armor. He begins to put on the boots, seeming to believe this is where he should start. The books auto-fit and lock in place so that he will never have to worry about losing his boots in combat. Next, he puts on the lower torso part of the suit, which covers him from the waist down. As he pulls on the suit, it begins to form fit to him, appearing to be more like a jumpsuit then a war suit. As the suit begins to finish its form fitting, he puts on the upper torso part of the suit which form fits to everything below his head. The last piece to his suit of armor is the helmet. Which he places on his head and hears hissing as it locks into place with the neckpieces. Other then his helmet, which appears to be a standard combat helmet other then the fact it has a full-face shield, the rest of him looks as if he could be a technician.
The moment the helmet has locked into place, it begins to run a self-diagnostic to ensure that the suit's shield, environmental or life support, and bioelectrical systems were up and running and where intergraded into Arinoth as well. Once the suit finishes its self-diagnostic, Arinoth hears a voice in his head, "Greetings Arinoth, I am Zeo, your Smart AI, I have been integrated into the suit to aid you with any tasks as well as monitor your life signature. You will be please to know that this suit can sustain your life without the need of food for it produces a bi-product waste of bioelectrical energy which you can use instead of eating"
"Hello Zeo, it should be a pleasure working with you, now anything else about this suit that you think I should know?" Arinoth states coolly.
"None at the moment Arinoth, I will keep you notified. The energy shield is active as well as the biosuit itself, we are ready for the test," Zeo replied with his direct connection to Arinoth's biotech brain.
Arinoth gathers his "belongings" making sure to take as much variety of ammunition that he can carry on his suit without hindering mobility. Once he is satisfied that he is ready for the test run he begins his walk down a long corridor towards the elevator which will take him several levels below the planet's surface into dark caverns in which Project Athenian will have its first "field test".
Upon his arrival to the caverns he is greeted by two soldiers, the first one stops Arinoth not recognizing him, "I'm sorry soldier, this area requires top clearance, please proceed to the higher levels."
Arinoth chuckles to himself, then speaks to the soldier you addressed him, "Arinoth Koby, rank undefined, clearance level undefined."
Both the soldiers' jaws drop, not quite believing that the rumours they had being hiring about Project Athenian have soldiers built like SPARTAN IIS to instead see this runt. The second soldier speaks up, "sorry sir, we didn't know who you were, proceed."
The soldiers move out of the way, as Arinoth walks along the dark tunnel until he sees a large group of UNSC scientists and personnel. They seem to be putting final changes on some sort of program before a few of them spot Arinoth and finish up. The lead scientists, Keturah Black walks towards Arinoth smiling, "Arinoth, this is your big day, its time for you to show the UNSC High Command that this hasn't been a waste of time, resources, and humans."
Arinoth nods after he shakes her hand; Dr. Keturah Black was the leading scientist and actually came up with the initial plans and details to create biotechnology to aid the UNSC's fight against the Covenant superior technology and numbers. The doctor is in her mid 40s, with dark blonde hair, which she keeps at about shoulder length. Her eyes are a hazy blue, which are usually accompanied by a pair of high magnification glasses for her work. She has a slender build, which would turn a few men's head even now.
The group of scientists and personnel who are on hand to watch the experiment head towards a fortified room off to Arinoth's left where they would monitor him through the entire ordeal. Keturah smiles once more before she turns and heads towards the safety of the monitor station. Arinoth hears voice over his com-line, "Arinoth, your objective is to neutralize all your enemies, and they will be a combination of marines in old MJOLNIR armor, holographic projects, and defense druids. Use your ammunition and the test will begin at the end of this message."
Arinoth loads his battle rifle with MA5B ammunition to begin with, knowing all he has to do is empty the clip before being able to fill his weapon with a different type of ammunition. Zeo gives him a heads up on his HUD telling him his shields and armor are at 100%. Arinoth begins heading off into the dark caverns, flicking on his biotech night vision, which enabled him to see with about 75% visibility as if it was bright out. He turns the first corner to be confronted by a blue Elite with a plasma sword who lunges forward the moment it sees Arinoth...
To be continued
Project Athenian: Chapter 2
Date: 12 January 2005, 9:29 PM
**Note, this is not a final version**
Chapter 2
Arinoth rolls to his right, the plasma barely missing him to the fact that his shields flare up from the heat produced from the weapon. Arinoth decides he doesn't have enough time to graph his side arm and goes to engage the enemy head on. The Elite noticing that Arinoth was not going for a weapon swings at him a second time, a stronger, more concentrated thrust. Arinoth rolls forwards towards the Elite's feet, the sword barely missing him a second time. As Arinoth comes out of the roll, he kicks up one of his feet landing a crushing blow to the Elite's knee cap, causing it to stubble back howling in pain. Arinoth takes this moment to reach for his battle rifle, firing several rounds into the injured Elite, which stumbles backs before falling to the ground. The Elite then disappears, apparently one of the holographs.
"You do know that was cutting it close, though you did have a few more millimetres before his sword would have hit your shield," Zeo chirps out.
Arinoth does not reply, realizing that the AI he was given happens to have been programmed with a sense of humour. Arinoth shakes his head to clear his mind, reloads the battle rifle with some MA5B ammunition and presses on into the darkness.
Minutes pass before he is confronted by several defense droids, remotely operated by simple AIs and marines. The druids immediately open fire on Arinoth, giving away their position. Several high velocity glance off of his suit's diminishing shield and begins to impact against the actual armor. Arinoth quickly ducks to find cover. Zeo quickly tells him that all the internal components of the suits are still intact and that his armor is actually working as a second shield, which it is supposed to. Arinoth removes the MA5B round that is in his battle rifle and switches it to the then weapon's primary ammunition. He leans at a diagonal to get a possible angle to shoot at his enemies whom continue to fire volleys of rounds towards his position. Arinoth quickly lines up his targeting reticule and fires several quick bursts at each of his enemies, immobilizing or destroying the droids. Arinoth slowly comes out of from his cover and moves slowly, in the shadows, towards the immobile droids. He finally stops; he is only a foot or so away from the large scraps of metal that were his enemies. One of the droids begins to twitch and fires random rounds at the ceiling. Arinoth quickly rolls to his side before a large piece of the cavern comes crashing down, burying the droids and where he was a few seconds ago.
Several hours progress into the "test", Arinoth made quick work of all of his obstacles so far, yet he has a bad feeling that there is going to be something worse then what he has already faced. As he continues down this stretch of caverns he happens to overhear conversation between several Elites and humans and veers off the obstacle path to investigate the noise. He peers around the corner listening attentively.
"We must shut down the Athenian project as soon as possible; the subject may become a threat to the mission."
A reply comes after what sounds like Elite dialect translated, "Do what is necessary, we must proceed with the initial objective. We must the human species of its genetic defects; we must step up our assaults to continue the purification. Make sure those you wish to survive meet our expectations and are kept on remote 'safe' worlds."
"The current projection is that 95% of humanity will be eliminated, leaving the rest as the perfect specimens for our society to thrive."
"Excellent, after we shut down project Athenian there will be no force to stop us, most if not all of the foolish SPARTAN IIs are dead. Once the project is terminated we may set up for the final sweep."
Arinoth then hears footsteps as the group he was listening to leaves the caverns, heading to the surface, What Arinoth was able to peace together was that some part of the UNSC has made a deal with the Covenant to create the perfect humanity. The "Holy War" is nothing but genocide. He has to do something...
Arinoth is interrupted by a message coming over his com-line, "Arinoth, your test is complete, the UNSC High Command has decided that your performance was not satisfactory and that project Athenian is then forth terminated."
After hearing those words, there is a cold lump in his throat. He has to do something; he will do something, "Zeo, we have to find someone on the inside who can help us stop them..."
Zeo replies, "I suggest we leave immediately and undetected, if we can find somewhere safe then we should look for a solution."
Arinoth nods in agreement, turn towards a dark hallway in the cavern, disappearing into the darkness. There will be patrols of UNSC marines searching for him but they wont find him, he's gets to surface through an old service lift, amazing what you can find when your on the run.
Arinoth peers on the surface of the industrial planet that he has been calling his home for so long, examining all the different types of structures and how all of them will end up being destroyed...
"Arinoth, I have been analyzing the conversation we over heard early in the caverns and have a positive vocal ID match with one of the humans, UNSC High Command councilor Chan Dorlan. His residence is not too far from here, shall we pay a visit?" Zeo says breaking the previous silence.
"Hmm, I believe we shall, upload the coordinates Zeo," Arinoth replies while checking that his battle rifle is still with him.
Upon arriving at the large condo structure Arinoth decides to scale up the building until reaching the appropriate floor. Once he reaches the desired floor, which ironically is the 13th, he carefully breaks into the build, leaving shattered glasses around the window he broke in. He hastily puts up a black tarp over the broken window with an under construction sign on it so that no one would suspect an intruder. He walks down the hallway, stopping at his target's door. Arinoth quickly lock picks the door, opening the door and closing it behind him once he has entered the room. Most of the building's security was on the first floor so there is no room alarm for Arinoth to disable. He quickly scales the hallway walls and places himself along the ceiling right a couple of feet beyond the door and waits.
An hour or two passes before there is activity at the front door, its occupant unlocks his condo door, steps inside and closes the door. He begins to walk towards his family room when he is jumped by Arinoth. Arinoth lands on his feet blocking the doorway, "Greetings Councilor."
"What the, who are you?!" the surprised councilor replies.
"I am your worst nightmare; did you not expect someone to eventually find out the truth about the war against the Covenant, the planned genocide of 95% of humanity?" Arinoth questions the taller man.
"I....," councilor Dorlan begins to reply before seeing that Arinoth has a knife in his hand, "You have no proof of this...you can't tie me to anything, let alone this crazy theory of yours."
"Hmm it's a shame I'm going to have to kill you then," Arinoth says coldly.
"What do you want with me?" Chan replies frustrated
Arinoth looks at the man before playing the recorded conversation he heard which clearly has the councilor's voice on it.
"You don't understand, humanity is plagued with diseases, not just physical but mental. We are doing everyone a favor by purifying humanity. You must understand, it is for the better-" Chan's voice is interrupted as Arinoth thrusts his body forwards, the knife piercing into the councilor's vocal chords.
Arinoth stares into the man's eyes as he watches the traitor to humanity die. It doesn't take long for the councilor's body to droop to the floor and lay there life less with a pool of blood coming from his neck. Arinoth steps over the man's dead body and walks inside, places the modified battle rifle on the bed and places a note reading,
"UNSC High Command, I know what you are up to; I will not enclose the details on what I know since my proof is limited. I will right the wrong you have caused, and by doing so I will kill all of you." Arinoth leaves the note unsigned as he leaves the dead man's room and heads to the broken window in which he used as an entrance, at which he dives through the black tarp plunging downwards, pulling a rip cord on a glider and floats out of the city, to find his next victim.
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