Meanwhile, deep within the Amazonian base, the Chronos-Weave Deep Dive System hummed to life. Inside the vast, ethereal blue glow of the pod facility, 1,653 recruits – the 300 of the 1st Spartan Battalion, the rapidly advancing 2nd Spartan batch, the 1st Phasers, and even the newest arrivals – were plunged into a virtual world designed to push them beyond the breaking point. They were about to face 24 years of simulated war and unimaginable horror, compressed into mere months of real time.
Within the virtual reality, the field operations base was an underground marvel, a sprawling command center humming with simulated activity. The recruits, now in their digital forms, scrambled for equipment.
