Halo: The forgotten Spartan.

A/N: I got bored last night and thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool of there was a Spartan than didn't exist in the games because nobody knew he existed?" so I called up everyone I knew and both of them though that it sounded like a good idea, so here is the end result. And if you don't like it please keep in mind that I wrote it to scratch a creative itch, and will possibly create another chapter, depending on feedback.

Prologue

This is the story of a Spartan, a Spartan that was wiped from the memory of anyone who knew him, and cast into the Human-Covenant war as a silent weapon, a secret guardian of the colonies, he is unknown to those who once knew him, he is a ghost to those who have seen him, he is Spartan-024. The Silent Knight of the UNSC.

Spartan II augmentation procedures, Dr. Halsey's personal office.

1330 Hours march 11, 2525 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani system, Office of Naval Intelligence Medical Facility, in orbit around planet Reach.
She lay her head in her hands, groaning, Dr. Halsey had been up for three days, surviving on coffee and stim-packs, but she wanted to be awake for when her spartans finished their augmentations, she was at the end of her rope. After futilely fighting a wave of exhaustion, she slumped in her chair, dead asleep.
Just after she started snoring, seven black clad men dropped from a vent, they moved through the lines of beds surrounded by fabric, they knew exactly which bed they were looking for.
The first stopped at bed 024, they drew back the fabric curtain to reveal their target, their target had dark brown hair and a strong jaw, like the rest of the Spartans, he was hooked up to various machines and had many scars along his tanned muscular body, he was heavily sedated and his face was peaceful, until something caused him pain, and he groaned and shifted before returning to a restful state.
The second man took out a small data pad, he began reading the display out loud but at a whisper.
"Spartan 024, Quinn, 6'9", male, 170 lb., will be 200+ when the augmentations are fully settled in.". The fourth man nodded impatiently.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, now let's get him outta here." he moved to grab the handles of the gurney but the fifth person stopped him.
"We need to erase all memories of him from everyones minds first.". She whispered, then each of the group produced a small, hat like machine and moved toward various parts of the vast medical room.
The first man found Dr. Halsey asleep at her desk, he carefully lowered the device onto her head, when it powered on he carefully typed in a series of commands and watched as the device gave Halsey a targeted amnesia over all memories of Quinn-024.
When they were finished wiping the memories of Mendez, and the spartans, the medical team was part of their group, they carefully rolled the gurney containing Quinn out of the room and into their prowler.

0000 Hours March 30, 2525 (Military Calendar) / UNSC carrier Atlas, en route to the Lambda Serpentis system.

"And so we commit the bodies of our fallen brothers to space"
Mendez solemnly closed his eyes for a moment, the ceremony completed. He pressed a control and the ash canisters moved slowly into the ejection tubes...and the void beyond.
John-117 stood rigidly at attention. The carrier's missile launch bays - normally cramped, overcrowded and bustling with activity - were unusually quiet. The Atlas's firing deck had been cleared of munitions and crew. Long, unadorned black banners now hung from the bay's overhead gantries.
"Honors...ten hut!" Mendez barked.
John and the other surviving spartans saluted in unison.
"Duty," Mendez said. "Honor and self sacrifice. Death does not diminish these qualities in a soldier. We shall remember."
A series of thumps resounded through the Atlas's hull as the canisters were hurled into space.
John felt something in the back of his head, something that made him turn his head slightly to the left and glance at the main door, he could just make out a figure standing there, dressed in a large black cloak that obscured it's body while a hood covered it's face. The black opening in the figure's hood turned and stared back at him, he looked away quickly, and when he looked back a second later the figure was gone.

One day previous.

Quinn groaned as he woke, his muscles were burning and his bones ached, he opened his eyes and was rewarded with a jab of pain as the light hit his pupils.
"Sir, he's awake.".
"Good." Quinn turned his head in the direction of the sound, then cracked his left eye open, he realized that he was no longer on the ONI medical facility, a man stepped in front of the light.
"Who are you?". Quinn croaked, having not drank for at least two days. The man shifted, his head haloed by the light he was blocking.
"My real name is not important, but you may call me Slate, I work for a special division of ONI section Three, Section X, only a few people actually know of our existence ." Quinn heard a smirk in the man's voice and shifted, wincing as his arms and legs throbbed.
"What am I doing here, where is here?" Slate snapped his fingers once.
"Finally, we get to it, you are in a top secret facility far away from reach, I can not tell you where. But you are here because of your talents." that made no sense to quinn, all of the Spartans had talents.
"What do you mean?". He rasped, slate handed him a cup of water which Quinn drank gratefully as slate continued explaining.
"You are the first and only Spartan we have chosen because of your exceptional stealth,and hacking abilities, not to mention you are a spartan, these are skills that the UNSC and ONI need, you have been recruited for the DarkBlade project, we recruit the best assassins, hackers, melee experts and infiltrators to fight as a secret army, we recruited you because a new threat has presented itself at Harvest.". Quinn listened as Slate explained about the 'Covenant' and their attack on Harvest, when the man finally finished his briefing Quinn asked a question he had been meaning to ask since he woke.
"How are the others?" Slate knew immediately what he was talking about, and lowered his shadowed head solemnly, causing it's light to shine in Quinn's eyes.
"Only thirty-five made it, the rest died or were too deformed to continue as soldiers, a Spartan funeral is being held on the atlas en route to the Lambda Serpentis system, we can get you on if you wish, but you can not interact with any of the other Spartans, all people involved with the project have had their memories wiped of anything pertaining to you, and all record of you in their files have been destroyed, officially, you never existed.". Quinn nodded.
"Very well."

One day later, Atlas's missile bay.

Quinn stood by the main entrance, a large black cloak was obscuring his body, except for a strip down the center, it was clasped to him with two red half-spheres on his shoulders and a chain. He wore his hood, watching and listening as Mendez lead the ceremony, and the ash tubes were ejected into space, suddenly John-117,
the leader, glanced over at him, Quinn looked back.
"You may not know me anymore brother, but I will never forget who my family is.". He turned and walked out when John glanced away, heading for the prowler he had come in on.

0245 Hours November 29 (Military Calendar) / unnamed ONI instillation.

Quinn sat up on his cot when Slate's voice crackled over the intercom.
"Chief petty officer Quinn-24, report to the equipment testing section ASAP." Quinn got up and pulled a teeshirt over his lean muscled chest and arms before throwing his cloak on, he pressed the door control and it slid open.
When he opened the equipment testing room door, there was slate and three techs standing around a suit of grey armor, Quinn moved forward to inspect it.
"It is the new MJOLNIR armor, Dr. Halsey gave the other Spartans theirs about ten hours ago, only Spartans can use it." explained the ONI man, as Quinn circled the armor, running his hand over the non-reflective grey plates.
"There is one change to the original design, we made more plates, they are thinner, but give you better overall protection and better mobility." the dark Spartan nodded appreciatively. Slate gestured to the suit.
"Try it out." the techs ordered Quinn to strip down, so he did, hanging his cloak over a chair, then he stood on the platform and allowed the techs to assemble the suit around him.
When the suit was finally assembled Quinn stood in the same position as instructed, the techs moved away and one put on a headset.
"Alright, raise you left arm to chest level." Quinn moved his left arm as slow as possible, it blurred into motion and stopped at chest height, he gasped.
"Holy crap." he said, Slate grinned. Then his communicator beeped, he checked it and looked up.
"Run him through the obstacle course, I'll be back in a few minutes.". He said and walked out. The tech proceeded to instruct Quinn on how to get used to the speed, strength and extra abilities the suit offered him, he was able to punch through two feet of concrete easily, put a sizable dent in 1.5 feet of titanium A,
jump three plus meters, run at speeds of up to 55km/h and his reaction was increased tenfold, the suit made him feel like he could dodge bullets. He had finished the course twice and was going through it for the third time with his cloak on when Slate returned, he looked proud that the Spartan had mastered the suit with his trademark cloak on.
"It's good to see you've gotten accustomed to the suit, now we can test it in some real combat, the covvies are moving in sector 8.". Quinn grinned as he took off his helmet.

0600 Hours July 18 2552 (Military Calendar) / Sigma Octanus IV, C te d' Azur.

Quinn was a shadow as he snuck down the streets of C te d' Azur, there was rubble strewn everywhere along with bodies of civilians, marines and some covenant. He froze in the shadows as a patrol of grunts passed a mere two meters away, his black cloak covering his grey armored body, he was grateful that he had decided not to use a helmet, that would reflect light, instead he wore special contact lenses that projected images exactly like a HUD. As they passed his position the squat aliens barked and yipped in their doglike language, he let them pass and tailed them, he made sure his cloak covered him and that his hood was over his head.
He followed the six aliens silently for five minutes, until they were heading in the general direction he suspected that their command center was located at, toward the center of the city, now he knew for sure that their CP was there.
He drew close to the rear pair of grunts, one was slightly behind the other so he went for it first, grabbing the creature's face and breaking it's neck, he placed it on the ground silently, then did the same with the other one.
He was about to knife the third grunt when the leader tapped something that Quinn supposed was directed at the rearguard, but when they did not answer, the remaining four grunts turned and barked in surprise and fear at the cloaked figure that stood behind them, the nearest backed into it's fellow while the leader tried to bring it's plasma pistol into line.
Quinn lunged forward, his right hand flashed out from under his cloak and the tips of his fingers rammed into its sternum, caving in it's chest cavity, his left hand with the knife slashed the throat of another grunt, the final alien barked and tried to run but Quinn's knife ruptured it's methane tank, the grunt went spinning across the pavement before it finally slamming against a car.
He listened for a moment, trying to discern if the attack had been heard, sure enough he heard several jackals screech and move in, the glow from their shields allowing Quinn to see them before they got too close, he melted into the shadows and hid his knife hand in the recesses of his cloak as to keep the blade from reflecting light.
Three birdlike aliens appeared from around a corner, they swept the area with their pistols before moving toward the grunt bodies, foolishly they left their rear unguarded as they chattered among themselves and inspected the corpses.
Quinn swiftly moved in, his cloak billowing I his wake. The first alien was grabbed from behind, letting out a muffled squawk, the other two spun and fired, Quinn used the jackal's shield for his own, the plasma bolts splashed against the barrier, he grabbed the jackal's pistol as well and returned fire, to his frustration the remaining aliens ducked behind their shields, he swore and held down the firing trigger, charging a large green blob.
When the pistol was fully charged he aimed for the triangular spot between the aliens where their round shields touched the ground and each other, but did not touch at the base.
The pavement melted from the heat and the aliens were toppled, he raced forward and stepped down on ones throat, snapping it even as he shot the other in the face, alien blood sprayed across the road.
Something else had to have heard that so he left the scene and continued on his course to the Covenant CP, albeit in a roundabout way.

1800 hours July 18 2552 (Military Calendar) / Sigma Octanus IV, C te d' Azur.

Quinn had just reached the last two kilometers of his journey to the Covenent CP on the planet, it had taken so long because he had taken a very long route, and had rescued twenty civilians and hidden them inside a cargo ship along the docks, three covenant ships now hung over the city, they were dropping more troops,
so he had a short window to get into their CP. Quinn was slipping past a rather large covenant patrol consisting of seven jackals, ten grunts and three floating creatures, he cursed himself for not having a helmet cam installed, but there was a risk of someone somehow hacking his cam and knowing what he was doing and had done for as long as the thing was recording.
Just as he slipped into the adjacent alleyway his comm system crackled, a transmission on a secure channel, he activated his receivers, it was covenant, heavily encrypted, he recorded as much as he could, but after a few minutes it stopped, his comm system said that it had been tightened up and he could only get it if he found the source, but just as he was about to move, his comm picked up a transmission on the Spartan channel.
"Green team, come in." John, the Master Chief himself.
"Roger: Green team leader here," Linda. "We've scouted the residential section," a pause. "No survivors...just like Draco three. We're too late." Quinn remembered Draco three, he had been sent there under orders to get some very top secret DarkBlade research. John continued conversing with the other Spartans.
"Green team: stand by and prepare to fall back to tue RV and secure the area."
"Standing by."
"Red team, report."
This time Joshua answered.
"Red leader, sir. We've got something for ONI. We've spotted some new type of covenant race. Little guys that float. They seem to be some sort of explored or scientist type. They take things apart, then move on, like their looking for something. They do not, repeat do not appear hostile. Advise that you do not engage. They raise a pretty loud alarm, Blue lead."
"You in trouble?"
"Dodged trouble, sir," joshua replied, then. "There is one snag,"
"Go ahead" the Master chief replied after a second of silence.
"We have survivors. Twenty civilians in a cargo ship, several wounded but they have been tended to, said they were rescued by a large black-cloaked man, mean anything to you?". John had a flashback to the day of the funeral for all the spartans who had died in the augmentation procedures, he recalled the moment when he saw the figure dressed in a black cloak that went down to about three inches above the floor, he flashed back to the present, none of the spartans were aware that the same man was listening in.
"Negative" MC replied, he mulled over this snag then made his decision.
"New mission objective, Red team leader, get those civilians to the recovery point and evac them back to the fleet." he switched to all team channels.
"Green team leader, you still online?"
"Roger"
"Move to the docks and coordinate with red team, they have survivors we need to evac, green team leader has strategic control of the mission." Linda paused before replying.
"Understood, we're on our way.".
"Affirmative sir, we'll get it done." Joshua said.
"Blue team out, if anyone catches a glimpse of this cloaked man, do not fire, but try and get a good look at him or take him in." there was a pair of 'rogers' then MC switched the comm off.
Quinn slumped against the wall of the alley, the civvies were safe, good. Suddenly he snapped to, the covenant might have been eavesdropping, he scanned frequencies, and sure enough he found a spike leading from the Spartan teamcomm to the covenant CP net, it was a once in a lifetime chance for the covenant because the spartans' comm system was very secure, it had just lagged that one time, but it lead them straight to Green team, as if to add insult to injury, two covenant Spirit drop ships slowly rose from the surrounding city and touched down in the CP to load up. The Dark Spartan hesitated before jumping as high as he could and scaling a building, when he reached the top he produced four medium blobs of explosives and inserted the timers and waited.
The instant the first drop-ship cleared the tops of the buildings, he threw the first pair of plastic explosives, they split up in midair but both collided within two meters of each other, near the pilot area, he hit the detonator. The ensuring blast split the forks off and sent the remains of the drop-ship's body dribbling down, Quinn's cloak billowed behind him,the second drop-ship met a similar but less spectacular fate, that was one problem taken care of. But Covie ground patrols would be all over Red and Green teams, so he needed to intercept them as well.
Once he had arrived to the position where the container ship had been he spotted dozens of grunts and jackals, and with his enhanced vision he could just make out the small cluster of dots that was red and green teams escorting the civilians. The covenant force began searching around the ship and soon found the tracks left by the humans, they began following the trail.
Quinn trailed them as he produced another quartet of explosive blobs, he primed the detonators and lobbed them into the midst of the aliens.
The explosion that followed him pressing the detonation button threw several alien body parts into the air along with a plume of blood-soaked dirt.
Chaos spread through the two dozen shaken survivors as they scrambled around, barking and squawking in confusion. He primed the second pair of makeshift bombs and threw them, another eight grunts and five jackals died, the last fifteen turned and finally noticed the cloaked figure. They aimed their weapons at him and fired.
Quinn used his augmented speed to dodge out of the way, the sand was peppered with plasma in his wake, he lunged forward and grabbed a jackal, snapping it's neck as he retreated backward, placing the armguard on his right wrist as he ran circles around the covenant.
He fired the pistol at a cluster of grunts, they squealed and toppled. Green plasma splashed across the jackal shield that Quinn snapped on. He charged the pistol and fired at a trio of jackals that were hiding behind their shields, the shot drained their shields, forcing the jackals to abandon the armguards and try to find cover.
Quinn's shield flickered as another volley of plasma hit it, he used the last of his pistol's energy to fire a charged shot at the ground, the shot sprayed sand and glass into the aliens, he took this distraction to toss the jackal shield aside, draw his knife and charge into the last seven covenant, casting the pistol into a grunt with enough force to imbed into it's skull.
He slashed and punched the few aliens that remained, he stood there for a moment in the center of a small field of bodies, he winced and looked down at his waist, three plasma bolts had hit him, the armor plates were melted and the skin underneath was burnt, he quickly applied a cream and bandage, then he turned and headed into the woods,
in a general direction of his extraction ship.
On the nearby hill, overlooking the cargo ship, linda picked up her sniper and jogged back to the dropship, Joshua was standing by the ramp.
"Well, any covenant following us?" he asked shifting his weight forward, she shook her head and approached.
"Not anymore, you should see this.". She transmitted the feed from her helmet cam. The other Spartan was silent as he watched the cloaked man destroy over two dozen covenant soldiers with a plasma pistol and knife, then walk away.
"Impressive, we need to show this to the chief." she bobbed her head in agreement. But something about the way that man fought and walked nagged at her memory, but she could not recall anyone. Little did she know that joshua was thinking the same thing.
Quinn had just made it to his extraction ship and was priming it for launch when his comm beeped, he checked the frequency, X-band, his channel with Slate and the DarkBlade program, he clicked the audio on the main console. Slate's voice drifted through the speakers.
"Quinn, have you infiltrated the covenant CP yet? What is their plan?"
"Negative, I didn't get in, the spartans were deployed in the city and some found several civvies, but the covenant were making a move so I had to help out, and they were about to prime a nuke." slate mumbled something. Quinn remembered the signal he had intercepted. "But I did intercept a covenant transmission, heavily encrypted.
"Very well, just get out of there."
"I'm already in the extraction craft, on my way to point Delta."
"Slate out." Quinn shut down the comm system and fired the engines. The craft shot up and began slicing through the air, he activated the stealth systems in preparations for space. A few minutes later, just as he broke the cloud-cover a sun blossomed on the surface, the nuke had been detonated, the battle of sigma Octanus IV was over.

1115 Hours August 12 2552 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani system, Reach UNSC Military complex, planet Reach, camp Hathcock

Quinn took a deep breath of the crisp air, he had just gotten back to reach from a mission against the covenant in the Scorpio system, he was here on Slate's request, as a witness to what the covenant were doing in the city.
He approached the gate in a warthog, the trio of marine guards were visibly unnerved by the presence of a man in a jet-black cloak, his face completely hidden,
he handed his ONI pass over and they waved him through after a thorough database check, he moved up the road, and was instructed to park in the visitors area, and entered the rustic looking building.
He entered an elevator that dropped him a hundred meters below the surface, when he exited the lift he was instructed by marine guards to wait in the lounge, he stood in a shadow corner, a habit he had gotten into, there was almost no one he trusted aside from Slate, the Spartans and their creator, Dr. Halsey, the marine guard at the door kept glancing nervously at him, and looked like he might say something like 'take off your cloak' but kept quiet.
Dr. Halsey exited the dark briefing room, she glanced at the guard, who asked on edge, she looked to a darkened corner when he continued to cast glances in that direction, a lone figure stood there, a tall person with a large cloak that covered their entire body, the person nodded to her from under the hood, she nodded back and walked out, deep in thought, passing a man with raven hair and an aura of smug confidence that intelligence officers seemed to carry, he nodded to her as they passed, and walked into the briefing room as the doors parted for him.
Quinn was summoned into the room after a few minutes, he strode in, standing beside Slate and going into attention under his cloak, saluting the dark figures that sat in a semicircle around the center of the room.
After the briefing Quinn and Slate walked along the barbed wire fence of camp Hathcock, slate was almost genuinely happy.
"Nice job at C te d' Azur Quinn, even though you did not get into the covenant CP, you did manage to assist in the securing of several civilian witnesses, they really gave ONI an insight into what these new creatures are, and our techs are working on that transmission you intercepted.". He paused for a moment, and his expression grew serious.
"Although I am worried about you letting the Spartans see you like that, are you trying to get in touch?" Quinn let out a snort.
"No, I did not know that that a Spartan was there looking for tailing enemy forces.". Slate decided to believe him and dropped the subject.

A/N: Just wanted to see how I'd do writing a Halo fanfic, I'll do a second chapter most likely and see how it goes. I also have a N.O.V.A (iPod game) fanfic in the works,
chapter one should be out in a week or so. Thanks for reading! PS, Read my Mass Effect fanfic, ME3: Retribution, now completed!