| abstract | - As he looked out of the large viewport and saw the panoramic view of Earth and the stars, he thought just how beautiful it looked. He had seen hundreds of planets, many with the same hues of blue and green, but for some reason, Earth was different, it was special. Despite serving for almost thirty years, Colin-142 had never seen Earth in person and the sight was breathtaking. Humanity's home world, our last bastion after the Fall of Reach almost two months earlier, stood stalwart against the speckled backdrop of the universe. Out of all those points of light, some were a lot closer than they might seem; the forces of the UNSC Navy's Home Fleet, one of the largest naval organizations in human history. More than a hundred ships of various classes and three hundred of the massive Orbital Defense Platforms, each armed with a devastating "Super" Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. It all had its own form of beauty, something he felt that only he really appreciated. The assembled assets represented the last significant, organized resistance to the Covenant onslaught that had claimed most of Humanity's interstellar empire. For almost three decades, the alien conglomerate had burned their way through human space, killing billions indiscriminately in their holy war to cleanse mankind from the universe. He had lost his own home, Paris IV, years ago despite all he had done in an effort to save it and its people. Since then, he had become much more stoic and bitter, when Reach and so many of his fellow Spartans died, so did an important piece of himself. It all pointed to a startling conclusion: the war was coming to an end and soon, and they were losing. He knew it was odd, but instead of despairing over what was most likely the end of the world as they knew it, he had an almost calm demeanor. He knew that the fear of death was motivated by the uncertainty of the event, and knowing that his would more than likely occur in the next few months helped ease some of the anxiety he had been feeling for the past two months. It was at that moment that the red lights came on and a loud klaxon flared to life, followed moments later by the voice of station commander, Captain Sofia Monaldo, "Attention, Covenant forces detected nearing Earth Defense Perimeter, all hands to combat stations. I repeat, all hands to combat stations." As her voice was replaced with the sirens, Colin sighed and turned to the door, muttering along the way, "Looks like doomsday came early this year." As he walked out into the corridor, he could see marines already in their iconic green M52B body armor rushing to their designated defense positions. Even though drills were common on stations and ships, after Reach fell, they were stepped up. Instead of bimonthly, they became biweekly in preparation for an attack that everyone knew was coming. As the massive Spartan continued, he saw several marines setting up machine gun emplacements at choke points, hoping to bottle up any Covenant forces that might make their way on to the station. After a few minutes of walking, which had quickly evolved into a jog, he made it to one of the station's armory bays where his armor and weapons were being kept. A marine NCO who appeared to be in his mid forties strode up to him as if he wasn't a 7' 2 giant and gave a quick glare, "It's about time you showed up, we could have been swarming in Covenant in the time it took you to get here." The Spartan walked past him and deeper into the room, "And I'm sure you would've done just fine while you waited." The sergeant glared again as he walked over to his console and typed in a special code that released the locks on a cylindrical container towards the back of the room. A moment later, the container split down the middle and separated, revealing the aqua and olive colored suit of MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark VI within. "Chief, I'll never understand why you picked such disgusting colors for such a beautiful piece of equipment." The Spartan threw him a quick glance as he began the process of putting on the suit, "I bet you won't be saying that when these disgusting colors save your ass, Sergeant." A few moments later, thanks to the assistance of robotic equipment, Colin-142 placed his helmet on his head, a slight wisp being heard as the seal locked in place. He walked towards the marine, who looked a lot smaller now thanks to the extra height the suit of powered armor added, who simply gestured over to a weapons box on the wall. It took him only a few strides to make his way there, where he opened the box and retrieved his new MA5C and his custom M6D, attaching both to the magnetic clamps on his armor along with a few fragmentation grenades. He walked back over to the Sergeant who looked as if he were about to speak again when Captain Monaldo's voice came back over the intercom, "SPARTAN-142, report to the bridge, immediately." Colin sighed while the marine chuckled softly and as he turned to leave, the marine spoke up once more, "Make sure you don't take too long this time. Spartan or not, the Captain is an impatient woman." After making his way to the bridge, he had been ushered into the Captain's Ready Room by a young Ensign. Inside, he saw Captain Monaldo sitting in her chair whilst opposite of her stood four soldiers clad in what he quickly identified as the SPI armor worn only by members of the SPARTAN-III Program. Thanks to his position within the secretive Section 0 of ONI, he had learned of the existence of the third generation of the Spartan Program in 2536, before its activation. For years, he had hated them and what they stood for, but after the particularly brutal campaign on New Zaječar, he came to not only respect them, but view them as kindred spirits. For a moment, he was confused as to why they were wearing SPI, a cheaper form of armor that traded protection for camouflage, as all of the IIIs that he had worked with had utilized MJOLNIR, when he remembered that the third company of the program, Gamma, was due to be deployed. When the realization hit a moment later, he frowned. That meant that these were children, not much older than he was when the SPARTAN-IIs became operational. The difference is that they've been given papier-mâché armor. If Earth was where they were going to be deployed for their operation, he knew it would wind up like PROMETHEUS and TORPEDO; a bloodbath. The Captain stood as he entered, "SPARTAN-142, this is Team Tekko, they'll be assisting you on your mission." He tilted his head slightly, "Mission? What do you mean? Shouldn't we stay onboard the station to repel boarders?" She typed on her computer for a moment before his TACPAD beeped, signaling that it had received her data. As he looked down, he saw footage of two of the massive ODPs, which the feed showed as stations Athens and Malta, being consumed by large, internalized explosions. An AI aboard Cairo Station had determined the explosions were caused by Covenant antimatter bombs. The feed shifted to footage recorded by Cairo, showing a Spartan flying one of these antimatter charges into a Covenant CAS-class assault carrier and destroying it. Colin looked back up at her, "Ma'am, what does this have to do with us?" He looked back down as the video was replaced with tactical data, showing how several ships in the Covenant fleet used the gap in the defense grid caused by the destruction of the Athens and Malta to slip past the other stations and make it to Earth. "At least two Covenant ships made it past the defense grid. The carrier has taken station over New Mombasa in Africa, the other, a cruiser, is currently over Gorgan, Iran. The Office of Naval Intelligence has a facility there and have requested a team of Spartans to help hold it. You all are the closest group available, and so you're deploying. Now." The SPARTAN-IIIs nodded and turned toward him with one of them, likely the team leader, walking up towards him, "Sir, SPARTAN-329, you've been granted operational command of Team Tekko for this mission." Colin nodded and turned towards the door, motioning them to follow behind him. After leaving the bridge they headed for the hangar at a brisk pace, getting there in only a few minutes. They boarded one of the many Pelican dropships inside which took off and exited the hangar. Once inside, he took off his helmet and looked at the four other Spartans sitting on the other side of the troop bay, "Names." The Spartans traded glances at each other, clearly surprised by his request, before the team leader spoke up, "Chief Petty Officer Gabriel-329, that's Cyril-193, rifleman, Altina-140, CQB, and Ismael-075, designated marksmen." He smiled at the team, who seemed rather uncomfortable to be around him, "First combat op?" They all nodded in unison, which didn't really surprise him. He knew Kurt had done his best training them, but that didn't mean he couldn't help reassure them, they were still kids after all. "Combat's great, you're gonna love it. Ismael, let me tell ya, it feels great to plink an Elite from half a kilometer away, and Altina? I'd get an M90 if I were you, not as rigid as an M45 and even more fun to splatter Brutes with." As he continued his "pep talk," he could tell from their subtle body language that he probably wasn't making it any better, so he attempted a different, far more serious angle, "Look, I know you kids are still nervous, but you were trained by one of the best, so I know that you all know what you're doing, you're Spartans after all. Even the worst of you are better than everyone else, and you can handle whatever the Covenant throws at you." After he finished, he flashed what he thought was a reassuring smile and, to his credit, they seemed to relax at least a little. Several minutes later, their Pelican touched down near a series of now-abandoned apartment buildings that had been converted into the command center and barracks of the Marine and Army forces operating in the city of Gorgan. Slapping his helmet back on, Colin led the team of Spartans down the ramp and to the marine waiting nearby, who saluted and began to speak, "Sir, Lieutenant Hamilton is waiting inside the command center. I'll take you to him." The marine began walking towards the largest building in the complex, the Spartans following next to him. Soon, they arrived in the main room of the command center, dozens of Marines and Army troopers looking at computers and holographic displays, most of which showcasing the CCS-class battlecruiser parked above the city, Phantom dropships and Banshees already pouring out from its many hangar bays. The marine walked towards an individual wearing a naval officer's uniform, the rank of a full Lieutenant on his shoulders, who turned to face them as they arrived, "Ah, glad you could join us, Spartans." He gave the ONI agent a curt nod and then got straight to business, "Lieutenant, what's the situation?" He pointed at the nearest holographic display, expanding it so in showed a larger area of the city, a purple hue spreading from the ship like a virus, "The Covenant cruiser, designated CCS-U9424, arrived over the city half an hour ago, and almost immediately began deploying troops to the surface. So far their goal simply seems to be to wipe out all human resistance, but, and I'm sure you were briefed about this while onboard Tehran, there is an Office of Naval Intelligence storage facility present in the city. What you weren't told was what was stored there. In addition to ONI data drives are two prototypical suits of MJOLNIR armor, designated Stormtrooper, along with several artifacts of Forerunner origin brought here before we lost Reach." This was great, prototypes of the advanced armor system had been manufactured throughout the course of the war, all supposedly giving their own edge against the alien war machine, and somehow the Covenant always knew where they were located. He had forgotten all the times he had been called to protect these secret variants. Odyssey on Sybota, Venator on Concord, Saracen and Templar on New Jerusalem. And then there were the Forerunner objects which further complicated things. He had to admit that his knowledge on the ancient, extinct race was limited, even with the information he gained due to his employment with ONI. He was suddenly interrupted when the Lieutenant continued speaking, "Your mission is to prevent the Covenant from accessing the facility, and if they do, ensure the retrieval of the prototypes and artifacts, as well as all sensitive material and data." Gabriel looked over at him, "What about if we can't recover it? Do we have clearance to destroy the assets?" The Lieutenant didn't even bat an eye, "Negative. Those prototypes are too valuable to lose, as are the artifacts." The Spartans nodded collectively as the agent continued, "I'm uploading the base's location to your HUD. You'll be joined by Army forces on their way to engage the Covenant in the city's financial district. Once at the facility, you will report to Lieutenant Ventura of the Security Division and keep the Covenant from entering the base." It was then that he became aware of the sound of gunfire, the staccato of automatic rifles and the high pitched whine of discharging plasma weapons. An Army trooper ran in a few moments later, "The Covenant have landed troops all around the complex and in the courtyard! They caught us off guard, we're getting killed out there!" Before anyone could respond, Colin walked off at a rapid pace back in the direction he had come from minutes earlier, followed close behind by the Spartans of Tekko.
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