An Old Soldier's Tale
This is a found record of an interesting man. This is the tale of a man who fought with those he considered his family for a caused that he believed in. That man suffered a lot, I would know, I was one of those who caused this great man suffering. I am his son, and this is my father's last and final account of those fateful days after the Great War, and how it changed the world around him. This book may be considered illegal in UNSC space, for it contains 'pro-separatists propaganda'. However I cannot let my father's story die out. So if you choose to continue on then here is my father's tale.
Prologue: An Old man's ramblings
Who am I, well that depends on who you ask. Some might call me a demon, others might call me a crazy bastard. Some see me as a loving father, others see me as a man who abandoned his kids. But no matter who you ask they would all say one thing about me. That I am an interesting person that changed the people around me. If it was good or bad that is up for debate, but changed the galaxy I did.
Well you might be wondering who I am, well my name is Ashitaka Hanzo. I was born on the year 2506 born on the planet of Madrigal. When I was 18 I joined up to get out of that planet. However as I got out of boot camp the Covenant showed up and my unit was sent to Harvest to 'teach the alien bastards human strength', that went well until they started to win. 5 years on that damn rock, if it wasn't for the fact that I found my first love there then I would have found it pointless. Her name was Rei and I found her in a bombed out house. She was alone with me, I had stumbled into her house by accident and she tended to my wounds while I laid there unconscious she tended to my wounds. It wasn't long before the rest of my unit found me. We sent her back to the inter colonies. I reunited with her on Reach. It was there were bonded and fell in love with each other. We soon married, but I had to return back to Harvest.
Harvest was nothing more than rock, ash, and glass when the battle was done. Too many good man were lost, it was then that I realized that the war would last a long time. So I joined the most Elite unit, the ODSTs. Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, Helljumpers, the best of the best. Apparently my 5 years on Harvest qualified me to join their esteemed ranks. So after a year of training passed before I was allowed to enter the ranks of the ODSTs. However my home planet of Madrigal was razed and glassed. I would have understood it better if the UNSC tried to fight back there, but no it was razed with little resistance by the
UNSC.
So the years marched on and I fought on numerous worlds. Rei had given birth to my first son Takashi. My right hand man Johnathon Bishop also had a family on Reach. In fact our children became fast friends. But it came at a cost, my precious Rei died giving birth to my son Kenshin, and around the same time Johnathon got half his brain full of a shrapnel. He was never the same after that, he turned to alcohol and abandoned his family. So I had to raise his daughter and my kids on my own.
My lovely Rei wanted me to be happy afterwards. In her words, "To find someone else to love and to stay happy." So began my life of philandering. I slept around hoping that maybe one of them would work out. However it never seemed to be like that. They never seemed to connect. I don't know anymore. I guess I am just sentimental.
Well the years passed on by the battle began to blur, but my sons grew up. Takashi became an officer, and then an ODST officer. Kenshin joined ONI, however in the year 2550 Takashi died. I had a falling out with Kenshin, you have to understand that Takashi was on a mission that ONI was leading and died during the mission. ONI wanted to cover it up however I just wished to bury my son. To give him the final rites he deserved, yet Kenshin his brother and my son said no. It was then that my old hatred of the UNSC returned. It wasn't long after the war ended that I was discharged and left to the wayward side.
So I joined the URF, to get revenge on those who had wronged me and my family. To right the wrongs in the system and to make a difference. This is my story of the time in those days. How I, Ashitaka Hanzo, an ex ODST, a war hero who betrayed his country, and caused an untold amount of death and destruction in his rampage against the UNSC. This is my story of those fateful days.
After joining up with the URF I was sent to a cell that needed more men. I had forgotten how I made gotten there. It was so long ago, but I do remember that when I got there that the URF cell wasn't doing so well. Their base was just destroyed and they were on the run. The plan was to raid the UNSC ship that was crashed on the planet. There was quite a bit of people back then. I forgot who was in charge, and many of their faces seemed the bend together and their names long since forgotten. The only thing that I remembered before going on the raid was a sense of dread. I was used to missions with low odds; after all I was an ODST, but that mission seemed suicidal, that it would have been impossible to get out alive or even it working, but I could say nothing.
On that fateful day when we raided the UNSC Icarus I was tasked with raiding the armory, to take any gun not nailed down and to get out of there, a damn Jackal was with me for some forgotten reason. Anyway, on my way out I was caught red handed by then Private Osbourne, with his future wife. He was for some reason armed with a flamer. A tad over kill, but whatever makes him happy. He somehow didn't see me there, and was questioning the Jackal, in fact none of them saw me. So I took advantage of the situation, and aimed my shotgun at the fucker's wife's head. So in a moment it became a Mexican standoff. We nearly killed each other until the higher ups stepped in and told me that the mission is called off. That they made a deal with the UNSC, well my work went down the drain, but that wasn't new. The entire war was us holding the damn Covenant long enough for it to be painful, and for all of it to be washed away.
It could only get worse. Not long after the aftermath of the raid, some goddamn brutes showed up and killed a few of members in the cell. It wasn't the deaths only that caused me to go mad with rage. No it was the damn brutes, the memories of the men under my command that died to their barbaric hands. Unlike the squidheads, the Brutes were savage through and through. Nothing about them could be forgiven and every last one of them should be exterminated. With what would become a part of my signature style of fighting I rushed the head Brute and with all my fury to try and slay the damn beast. However it was to no avail, I was merely treated like a rag doll. I was beaten within a heartbeat. It was no contest.
However it was only the beginning of my troubles, I didn't know it at the time, but an ancient evil would have been awoken and nearly killed us all. It would take every last one of us to defeat this evil, and to make it out of the damn planet alive. It was the damn Flood. The damn Flood was somehow on that planet. I didn't know it at the time, but I would find a man that I would consider to be my brother in arms, someone that I would die for, His name is Jack Danger. This story is about our times together.