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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.

2559 A.D./20 A.C.W: 0430 Hours: Earth, European Continent, Atika Mountains, Secret Military Training Camp, Spartan III Project

Takan and the others stood in a line at the exercise room again. They looked straight at the wall in front of them, not fidgeting at all. They had been working hard, and they had learned a bit of discipline in the recent year. The Commander called out, groups of three. Takan was quite annoyed with his partners. They were Tam and Kim. They were both very average participants, and they preferred to never help anyone but each other out in the exercises. He hoped they'd make an exception today, or the entire team was going to go down in flames. The Commander began pacing back and forth.

"Your mission today is to get through this obstacle course, as a team. All the teams will be going at the same time. There will be no obstruction of other teams, or any interaction with them at any point. When you finish the course, you are to sit down in one line. I will know that you are all finished. Are we clear?"
"Yes sir!" everyone replied in unison.

The course didn't seem extremely hard. First, there was huge ditch in the floor filled halfway with water. After that, there were many logs placed above another ditch filled with water. Beyond that was a pole set down horizontally and suspended above another deep ditch. The only way that was allowed to get across was to climb across the pole in any way possible. At the end was a huge 20-foot wall where only ropes were used to climb.
Takan couldn't see, but he assumed that the other end was without any rope, and the team would have to jump down to get to the end. He shrugged his shoulders. This drill didn't seem very hard at all. He looked up, and the Commander had a whistle in his mouth. He held up his hand, and each team got ready to get through the obstacle course as quick as possible. Takan was going to go as fast as possible.

The Commander snapped his arm down, and blew the whistle at the same time. The entire trainee force quickly began their course. Takan quickly whizzed by Tam and Kim, and was one of the first ones to the ditch. He jumped as far as he could, and landed about halfway through it. He landed with a wet splash, and quickly waded through. He pulled himself up, and began with the logs.
Only 5 others were still with him. Everyone else, including Kim and Tam, was fighting their way through the ditch.
It was remarkably small, especially to fit 100 trainees. He and the other 5 were lucky to have been the first ones in and out. He quickly slid along the logs, moving past the other 5 as they tried to walk along. As he began to slow down along the slippery log, he began a quick jog along it with no hint of losing his balance at any point during the run. The martial arts that he had taken as a child had helped him greatly. As he finished the end, he ran towards the next course. There was only one other that was still with him. He dove towards the laying pole, and grabbed with both hands and locked both legs around each other on the pole. He let his body swing down below the pole, and he quickly pulled himself along in a similar fashion to that of a caterpillar.
As he moved along, he looked back and saw that Tam and Kim were still struggling along the log. He watched as Kim fell to the water filled ditch and quickly climbed out to attempt again. He quickly finished with the pole, and dashed to the wall. He looked to his right and saw that the other trainee was completely even with him. She was a female, and even though he was concentrating fully on the wall, he couldn't help but notice how beautiful that she was. After holding the look, he finally realized that it was Azrielle, one of the reclusive and quiet ones. Just like him.
He grabbed the rope and quickly scaled up it, Azrielle did the same with just as much finesse. They both reached the top at the same, and slammed into the ground with complete unison. But when they both landed on the wall and sat down, the Commander ran towards them, and began yelling.

"What is wrong with you maggots? I said work as a team! Both of you have left your team to the enemy! You scale that wall back and help your team! Don't go lone-wolf on me or both of you go to the cooler!" He yelled with extreme fanaticism.

Takan and Azrielle looked at each other with equal regret and both began to scale the wooden wall without any rope.
It took him three times as long to get up the wall. He didn't notice how Azrielle was doing. He was too angry to even bother to look.
He didn't know why he was angry, or who he was angry at.
Later that day, he would think about it and realize that he was actually angry at himself. As he finished scaling the wall, he realized that many of the other teams had already began to scale it.

He dove out forwards beyond the other teams, and landed with a quick and nearly silent thump. He dashed back to the logs and slid along halfway. Tam and Kim were the last team. They were really struggling with the logs.
Tam was getting frustrated. She didn't know if she could take it any longer. She was losing balance, and the log began to rotate again. If she fell again, she was going to cry! But a hand jumped out in front of her before she could slip completely.
She grabbed hold and was systematically pulled along the log. Only after she was safe did she look up to see who her savior was!
Was it Kim? It couldn't be. She was still working hard to get across as well. She looked up and realized it was Takan. Kim was also kneeling there, coughing heavily. Both their clothes were extremely soaked and the pants and shirts clung to their skin.

"Come on. We don't have much time."

He held out his hand again, and she let him pull her up to her legs. They quickly moved to the final obstacle. The wall... Kim looked at it with awe, and then looked to Takan.

"It's too tall. I can't do it!"
"You can't do it alone, but the commander taught us that if we worked together, we will be able to do it."

She quickly nodded and began to climb up the wall, Takan quick to follow on the same rope. Tam had no problem. She was quite good at climbing.
Kim was having a huge problem climbing up. She constantly slipped, but Takan was there to stop her fall. Each time she landed on him though, his hands gripped and slid just a little bit.
After five minutes, they still hadn't reached the top. But they were close. Tam was at the top, holding her hand out to Kim. The skin on Takan's hands was already torn off, and the rope was beginning to go to work on the second layer. But he held steady, and waited for Tam to lift Kim up. He pushed up as hard as he could, his head slowly moving Kim up. After 8 whole minutes, they made it up the wall, and they barely had to strength to even land their fall over the other side. They slowly sat down in their line and awaited orders from Commander Mendez.

"Now. Have we learned our lessons? Especially number 97? Have we learned that teamwork will be the only way to survive here?"
"Yes sir."

He indeed had learned a valuable lesson today. He had learned that even though his teammates were totally and utterly useless, they were a team and they had to stick together if they ever hoped to survive anywhere. He'd realized that halfway up that wall, but at the time, he was too angry to realize it. He was so angry with the Commander and himself. He was angry with the Commander for making him go back. He believed he could do it all on his own. But later that day, he realized that teamwork would have been better that day. It would have been better to work together.

They walked with the others to the mess hall where they were to have dinner. The mess hall was a traditional large room. It had one very long window on the right side that gave a perfect outlook to mountains. They were beautiful to him. Anything nature had amazed him and put him awe. And the mountains were no different. The windows there had one of the best views he had ever seen. The window was on the exact opposite wall, and the serving counter was on the right wall. Tables littered the entire center of the room. Takan preferred to sit by himself, and today he got his way. He sat down at his table, thinking of the earlier events of the day. He wasn't hungry tonight, and decided that eating would only cloud his thoughts. Why had he been so selfish in leaving his team behind? Was he really that cold and heartless? Maybe... He didn't know anymore. Everything was just too confusing for him now. He wanted to blame someone. But he really was the only to blame. He couldn't blame Kim and Tam for their incompetence. And he couldn't blame the commander for trying to prepare them for the war. He was the only last candidate. At least he wasn't the only one. There was Azrielle...

He was about to get up to go to bed early, but he heard the crashing of tables. He looked over to where everyone ate, but there were no problems there. He looked to his right and saw a lone table where Janet ate. He stood up and watched two larger trainees lean on the overturned table.

"You costed us the first place slot at the course Janet!"
"Yea! You'll pay for that hun. There aren't any soldiers here. You will get your due."
"I'm sorry, guys. I'm just not good with water. I'm really sorry!"

One of the bullying trainees slammed his fist into his open palm. It looked like they were going to beat her up. Well, that was just plain wrong. There was nothing honorable in hurting one of the lesser trainees merely because of her lack of abilities. He was going to act. He stood up, and began to casually walk towards Janet and the two other trainees.

"What are you two doing? Is that how you flirt?" he said with a sardonic tone.
"This isn't any of your business Takan."
"Oh? So standing by and watching a fellow soldier get beaten up would be the right thing to do?" He questioned.

Before the fool could answer, Takan's foot was already in his face. He fell backwards from the blow. His nose was already broken. Takan followed up swiftly with a sharp punch to the gut. He spun around, with his fist leading the shot. He slammed the buffoon with a backfist to the cheek, and he fell to the ground in pain. The other fool came towards him, fist back and ready to attack Takan from behind. Takan quickly spun around and made a quick shot to the trainee's knee, snapping it backwards. The trainee stopped dead in his tracks, yelling in pain. Takan spun around again, this time leading with his foot. The spinning kick rammed right into the trainee's face and sent him sprawling to the ground. He looked at them both and then to Janet.

"Don't let anyone bully you around," He said simply while he began walking to his dorm.
"Oh no man. You're not getting away. Those were our friends you just hurt," One of the other watching trainees said with anger.
"Do you want your ass kicked too?" Takan replied coolly.
"There's 10 of us and one of you!" he yelled with confidence.
"You're going to stand up for those buffoons who were trying to bully one of your own teammates? Despicable."

Azrielle walked out from the crowd and stood next to Takan, her fists up.

"I'm not standing on the side to let another teammate fall. Bring it on."

The second she walked out, Gebrard also poked out of the crowd and stood next to them.

"They're right. What you're doing is wrong. I'll stand for righteousness any day."

Even though they still outnumbered Takan, Azrielle and Gebrard by 10 to 3, they seemed a little fidgety and a bit less confident. But before the big brawl could begin, Commander Mendez swung open the doors and quickly stood between the two groups to cease the violence.

"Hey hey! You trainees are training to fight with each other! Not against each other... What's this all about?" he asked with sincere curiosity.

Commander Mendez honestly wanted to hear both sides of the story. He wasn't one of those adults that would listen to the explanation, and then punish them even if their explanation showed a perfect reason. No, he wanted to know the truth, and develop a punishment, or lack thereof based on the information.

"Sir, I saw two of my teammates picking on another one of us. They were going to rough her up. I decided to stop it. Once I took those two down, these other trainees, who had apparently formed a clique with those buffoons decided to challenge me."
"I see. Is this true?"
"Yes sir..."
"Well then your entire team will be punished with extra pushups and sit-ups tomorrow. I am not giving out any more severe punishments because I did not see this. But will not see any more violence. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir!"

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