Halo: The Awakening

Chapter 1: the infiltration

1345 HOURS, MAY 09, 2059 (MILITARY CALENDAR) / LOCATION: CLASSIFIED

UNSC Vigilance, Infinity-class supercarrier

Stars exploded across my vision as I rolled with a punch that connected with my jaw. I grabbed the arm while it was extended, spinning the opposite direction to deliver a powerful elbow strike to my aggressor's chest.
While I still had a hold of the arm, I easily flipped my target over my shoulder to land hard on the floor.
I spun around, still holding onto the same arm and came down on top of the other combatant, pinning my knee against their chest.
I was unable however to pin down the other arm, which delivered a powerful punch into my exposed side. The air rushed out of my lungs and I stumbled back to my feet as I tried to catch my breath.
The combatant sprung up back to their feet, using the momentum to deliver a flying punch aimed at my face.
I blocked the strike, as well as the next two well aimed punches before I was able to grab both arms of my combatant to my sides as I counterattacked, delivering a powerful headbutt.
The other fighter stumbled backwards, momentarily stunned. I took advantage of the lapse of my target, vaulting forward and wrapping myself around my target. I brought them down to the floor, this time able to pin them successfully.
I then raised my left arm and was about to deliver the knockout strike when the bell went off, signaling the end of the duel.
I stood up and extended a hand to help the other fighter back to their feet.
"Any lasting damage?" The Australian accented voice asked me.
I shook my head as I turned and walked over to the weight rack and grabbed the towel laying on it.
As I wiped the sweat drenching my face, Hailey came over and wrapped her arms around me.
"Its been a while since we've had a chance to be alone together for once."
I smiled as I handed the towel to my wife.
Now normally relationships were strictly forbidden in the UNSC, but we Spartans had a bit of leeway in that category.
Of course Spartans normally didn't think about or even consider relationships, mostly due to our selected profession being extremely deadly, seeing countless Spartans die.
But I wasnt always a Spartan IV.
I had once served at first as a young still wet behind the ears UNSC Marine grunt when I had been younger, eventually making it into the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper program, where I had earned my nickname The Wolf due to my hyperlethal eradication of any Covenant I had came across.
At that point I had been recruited into the highly secretive Office of Naval Intelligence headhunter program, where I became a ghost. I had met Hailey in the ODSTs, so when I was recruited by ONI for their headhunter program, Hailey had been recruited with me.
So naturally when the Spartan IV program became active and all volunteer, Hailey and I had immediately signed up, still eager to serve the UNSC post- Human-Covenant war.
During our time as ONI headhunters we ended up getting married, realizing how short our lives could be, as well as professing our strong connection we had with each other.
We had been married going on thirteen years in August.
"Come on, let's take a shower and go find the rest of the squad." I replied, grabbing Hailey's hand and leading her out of the weight room.
Hailey giggled as she squeezed my hand tighter, and I relished in the warmth of her hand in mine.

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Roughly a hour later we was suited up and in our personal armor as we walked through the expansive corridors of the Vigilance, passing crews on their runs, other Spartans, Marines and science teams.
Everyone stopped and nodded respectfully. Fellow Spartans snapped to attention.
We simply nodded as we made our way to one of the hangars where the rest of our team could normally be found.
Now to public and most of the UNSC, there was only two Infinity-class supercarriers. But the Vigilance had been built in complete secrecy in a hidden nebula, where no sensors from the outside could see into the dense clouds of the forming star.
The mission of the Vigilance was to keep an eye on the various Covenant factions and to intervene if someone became a threat or decided to secure power that could prove fatal to the fragile peace in the galaxy.
As well as study Forerunner artifacts and tomb worlds in complete security and safety.
The hangar we finally made it to was completely private to just our team, and was thus guarded by four Spartan IV recruits at all times stationed at the entrance to the hangar.
After being cleared to enter we went through the hangar entrance to our private hangar.
The space was cavernous, and could easily fit six pelican dropships in their births as well as numerous armored scorpion tanks and warthogs.
But this hangar only had one craft inside. It resembled a pelican much in the design, but was smaller and sleeker, with a chin mounted rotary cannon and missile pods under the wings. Even the engine nacelles were baffled, meaning they was quieter and had less visible engine flares.
The entire Spectre Dropship was coated in radar reflecting and absorbing grey paint, and even had a built in cloaking system reverse engineered from Covenant cloaking technology.
But what was probably the most special feature about the dropship was it had its own built in AI that both operated the dropship and served as the squad's personal AI that supported us on our missions.
Gear and wires were scattered around the dropship, and a few panels were missing from one of the engine ducts.
Two figures moved about, cleary busy in their work not to notice us. Well thats how it looked anyway.
"So who won the match this time?" A voice called out, echoing across the empty hangar.
I shook my head as I approached the owner to the voice. The Spartan stood up from working on the rear engine and turned to me, easily towering over me by a couple of feet.
Alex was one of the few original Spartan IIs left besides the legendary Blue Team and a few others. The veteran Spartan had lost his right arm a long time ago to a Covenant Elite trap, barely making it out alive, but lost his arm to an energy sword in the process. It had been replaced with a highly advanced prothstesis arm, mirroring my left arm, which I had lost in a vicious battle with Covenant Separatists on Requiem.
Alex served as the team heavy weapons expert, highly effective with explosives and heavy weapons.
I held up the two fingers over my faceplate, giving Alex the Spartan smile.
"I did this time. Quite easily I might add. " I replied, but a second later I received a blow to the back of my head.
I turned to Hailey as she crossed her arms and looked at me.
"Its only because I let you win husband."
Alex threw back his head and laughed as he slapped me on the shoulder. "Hailey apparently doesn't take your shit does she?"
I just silently shook my head, nodding at the exposed engine, eager to change the subject.
"What's wrong with the Silence?" I asked, indicating the engine.
Alex turned to look at the exposed machine, then turned back to me.
"Oh that? Nothing really. Its just Anubis was reading a slight decrease in power by five percent, and asked if I could take a look at it. It's pretty much fixed now. A coupling was a bit loose and needed to be tightened and a few other minor issues that were no problem fixing. Probably from that hard drop we did over Vancura."
I nodded in satisfaction as the fourth member of our squad came over to where we was standing.
Carmen nodded to Hailey, who returned the nod.
"Things are too quiet around here. We haven't been on a mission in over a month." Carmen commented, her voice low.
Carmen wasn't much of a talker, mostly due to her often being out alone on recon when we was on missions, the same as me as I often would scout out alone, taking down any enemy stragglers or if possible enemy commanders to disrupt their operations.
"Well you all are in luck." Anubis spoke up as his hologram of the Egyptian God Anubis appeared in the palm of my hand. "Admiral Hawk has called for the squad to meet her in the briefing chamber."
"Very well. Inform the Admiral we will be there shortly." I replied as I glanced at my team, noticing their postures had stiffened at Anubis's words.
Admiral Hawk wanting one of her Lone Wolves teams could only mean one thing.
Action.

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A short while later we made our way onto the bridge. The windows showed the stars of deep space beyond, and the bridge was a buzz of activity as naval personnel ran about their business.
Admiral Hawk stood in the center by the holotable, and was hard to miss.
Short and thin, but with a solid frame topped with short blonde hair with one side shaved and the other combed over, Admiral Hawk wasn't a person to reckon with.
I've seen the Admiral fight Spartan recruits in hand to hand combat and win.
Admiral hawk stood from leaning over the holotable and approached me and my team.
"Good you're here Wolf Team. I'm just going to get straight to the point." Admiral Hawk wasn't one to kick around the bucket. She preferred to be straight and to the point.
"We have a dire situation brewing that requires youre fine hand. We of course know of The Banished, and what they're capable of. Now in recent times their forces have been hit hard and have suffered several severe setbacks along the way." Admiral Hawk paused to turn back to the holotable.
An image of an Covenant Elite sprang up, but I immediately noticed this was no ordinary Elite.
The warrior before us was adorned in elaborate armor and helmet, and was armed with a elongated energy sword.
"This ladies and gentlemen is Joto 'Rotam. He was a former Covenant Zealot turned Banished officer. He served under Atriox and was one of his most trusted Lieutenants. But with the dissapearance of Atriox The Banished began to splinter.
Joto saw this as an opportunity and began to collect power for himself. He's arisen a powerful military, and has either bullied or conquered several other Banished factions into his fold. And with the UNSC focused on keeping the peace between them and the Covenant, their attention has been focused elsewhere."
Admiral Hawk waved a hand, and the Elite faded away to show a planet.
"This is New Hope. Its a colony world we founded shortly after the end of the war, due to mainly there being a vast amount of Forerunner technology on and under the planet. A number of scientists and researchers teams are stationed on the planet with a large number of civilian populations to research all the technology." Admiral Hawk's face grew dark.
"The planet went silent three days ago. The UNSC hasn't as of yet noticed the slience, and we've sent several probes to the system to find out what the hell is going on. All we sent have been destroyed. Now we are sending your team in Master Chief. Find out what the hell is going on, and put an end to whatever it is causing the problems. However, once you are in the system you will be on your own. You will have no outside support until we are given the all clear."
I nodded once in confirmation. We were used to doing missions behind enemy lines with little to no support, so this wasn't anything new to us.
"Any questions?" Admiral Hawk asked us as she looked at each one of us in turn.
We didn't have any, and there was no point in asking any questions we already knew the answer to.
"Very well. You are dismissed. And good luck."

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