Okay folks here we go with the start of The Walls. Currently I lack a beta reader (accepting volunteers with sufficient background reading and life experience) so these chapters are going to be kinda rough especially since I'm trying to keep my typing dialect out of this. Also while I'm going to try and keep a fair schedule with this story I'm writing about reflections and issues that DO and HAVE triggered issues with my PTSD.

Now you may be asking 'Why would this guy purposely do trigger something that's about as smart as sticking a knife in his head?' To this I say GOOD QUESTION! Simply put this is therapy, and by getting these ideas out of my head and visiting them upon you all I get to feel better.

For those ridiculously huge fans who are going to be sourcing this entire piece on Halopedia, this is a side story (see: Gundam) not an AU or some such. As such I'm going to be trying to stick to the cannon as close as possible as often as possible. These stories should fit in the gaps left open by the cannon, supplementing it rather than supplanting it. So if you find an issue, leave a review, I'll double check my work happily.

Lastly, this is gonna be one talky story, action will happen but remember the old adage, 'war is hours and hours of boredom punctuated by a few moments of sheer insanity.'

Edit 1 April 2017, swapped the memoranda and this chapter to give people an easier time jumping in.

Edit 9 August 2017, abused grammarly for tweaks

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Where We Once Were

0300 HOURS, JUNE 05, 2558 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ABOARD UNSC BACKSTAB, INTERSTELLAR SPACE, SECTOR G-102

Rank has its privileges, a common enough sentiment and one that Spartan Nasir sorely missed right now. Ever since he'd transferred to Spartan branch he'd endured the constant and unrelenting frustration of dealing with UNSC personnel who were unsure of where Spartans with their lack of rank fell in the greater pecking order. Never was this more evident than when dealing with the ubiquitous junior officer, currently a lieutenant who seemed to think that Spartans should keep to their deck when in armor. "Spartan I gave you an order, report back down to Spartan country and remove that armor before you step back on my bridge."

It was always unsettling, being out of armor, hence most Spartan-IIs avoiding it as often as they could. MJOLNIR was their second skin and the most obvious mark of service, removing it just felt unnatural. Nasir removed his helmet before fixing a gaze on the lieutenant that would freeze water. "First, last I checked this was still Captain Fokker's bridge." He now turned to fully face the now sweating officer. "And second..."

"Second, Lieutenant Platt, the Spartan here holds functional rank equivalent to a full Commander, in addition to his former naval rank being the same." Nasir found himself cut off as Captain Fokker entered the bridge. "All that aside, I'd expect him to be accorded the basic respect of any of the Spartan-IIs." Fokker grinned after passing Platt and stepped into the bridge proper.

The Lieutenant now looked sufficiently terrified having locked up as soon as the captain had spoken up. His expression had dropped like a stone the moment he realized this Spartan wasn't one of the Spartans that had begun to show up in force with the new military branch but instead was one of the now legendary Spartan-IIs who had survived the war. "S-Sir, I'm sorry about that, I didn't know." Was all that he could get out.

"Go find something to do Lieutenant." Fokker deadpanned with a small note of exasperation in his voice before turning to Nasir. "Commander, if you would?" He motioned the Spartan over as Platt made a rather quick exit. The elderly Captain leaned over the map board bracing himself with both arms. Most would simply assume he was simply focusing on something in front of him but Nasir knew better. Fokker was still hiding his limp from everyone. 15 years ago a chunk of a bridge console had torn its way through his right leg and hip. Nasir remembered the incident all too well, the deck falling out from under him and the chunks of metal pinging off his armor. Fokker had a long history of playing bus driver to Spartans, leading all the way back to the some of the old Project Orion ops. The incident that had almost cost Fokker his leg was a total charlie foxtrot of a day when they had dropped out of slipspace right on top of a covenant corvette.

Nasir moved around the table and set his helmet down on the edge of the holotank, "You ever going to get that fixed sir?"

Fokker glared at the armored giant now standing opposite him, clearly unamused with the Spartan's jibe. "You ever going to learn to quit when you're ahead?"

Nasir chuckled at that, a rather unsettling sound to the rest of the bridge crew. "Why should I bother now? So who's the boot?"

Fokker straightened up, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Lieutenant Platt, he's not a boot but for some reason, he still acts like one." He sighed staring looking back to the Spartan. "Didn't even graduate the academy until a couple of years after the ceasefire."

"Explains the attitude, but I'm guessing he could still use a good couple of tours alongside a Helljumper outfit." He looked back down at the map table finally turning to matter at hand. "So any updates?"

The Captain shook his head, "None, so far everything is still on schedule. You sure this isn't going to turn out like Corinth? I don't have that many functioning joints left."

"Frankly, no sir." Nasir's tone was humorless now, that base neutral tone that made so many see Spartan-IIs as almost machine like. "Then again this time we're exiting slipspace much closer to the surface so you can drop us off then slingshot around the planet giving you a clear scan of the system."

Fokker held his chin examining the displayed system charts as a foot-tall man composed of light and wrapped in robes filled with swirling star field patterns stepped walked onto the table. "Incoming data burst Captain." The AI was stone faced and aloof appearing totally disinterested in the affairs of the bridge as if he had better things to do.

Fokker leaned forward onto the table, "What do you got for us Ptolemy?"

The AI raised his hand and the table charts followed up into midair becoming full projections of the local cluster. "All appears to be quiet in system and the target seems unaware of our spotters."

Nasir leaned in focusing on the planetary systems spinning slowly, "Tol, any sign of commercial or colonial militia traffic?"

The Captain focused in on the system display, "Something we're missing Commander?"

Nasir shook his head, "Just a feeling."

Ptolemy cocked an eyebrow at the Spartan, "Yes but all traffic is within expected patterns. There is no sign of hostile activity."

Nasir leaned back picking his helmet up, "Best plan I can see sir is to drop out of slipspace beyond detection and infiltrate via pelican. We can slip in hit atmosphere and deal with the target before they can respond."

Ptolemy stroked his beard, light flashing behind his eyes. "Including possible Colonial Guard pickets, that puts us at one hour out." Ptolemy looked at the Spartan, "Will your company be ready to deploy this far ahead of schedule?"

Nasir just smiled first at Ptolemy then nodded at Fokker, letting the question hang in the air, it wasn't even worth answering.

Fokker pushed himself back upright, "Alright, your OP, your call Spartan." He folded his hands behind his back as he turned on his heels moving to the fore of the bridge. "Make prep for slipspace exit early and prepare a status update for our spotters."

Nasir pulled his helmet on as he made his way off the bridge as Ptolemy spoke up, "Commander Nasir if you would be so kind to remind your pet AI to stay out of my command networks, it would be appreciated."

Nasir looked up at the ceiling as he spoke as a courtesy to the AI, the humor now back in his voice "No promises Tol."

"Spartan," The Captain called over his shoulder, "Just another OP right?"

Nasir paused at the hatch, "Such as it is sir." He recited as he disappeared from the bridge. Just another OP on, another world, on another day.

Below decks, Nasir made his way to what had affectionately been nicknamed "Spartan Country". This area consisted of a pair of cargo bays off of the main flight deck which had been repurposed into sleeping quarters and improvised armory. Appropriating space like this was the norm, after all, it was far easier to steal deck space than dislodge crew from living quarters. The deck was almost silent, the ship's crew giving the Spartans a wide berth keeping activity in the area to a minimum.

Even with the newer Spartans being recruited from the other branches, the stories, and reputations of the older ones colored them all. Rumors of where the IIs and IIIs came from, their combat actions, and of course the rift between them and the ODSTs all cast shadows over Spartan Branch. Nasir always regretted that rift, many of them did. He liked working with ODSTs, they were the right kind of crazy, you had to be to throw yourself from a ship in orbit inside a metal egg and dive to a planet's surface just to get to get to the fight that much faster. The rivalry between the elite marines and Spartans always meant that he had to work that much harder to bridge the gap on operations.

Over the quiet of the deck Nasir could hear his Spartans conducting operation prep, field stripping weapons, loading equipment, and he could even make out a spar going on before he passed through the bay hatch. The scene was so familiar, so many of these younger men and women reminding him so much of his old family. He stood there allowing himself a rare moment to be lost in his thoughts before snapping back and moving into the bay proper. The only ones to react to his presence were Joseph, Rosenda, and Hesan, his XO and platoon leaders respectively. They had been discussing something and had doffed their helmets, as Nasir approached they took note and all three pivoted to face the Commander. Hesan was the first to speak up as Nasir reached them, "What's the word from above Sir?"

Spartan Arif Hesan was what Nasir deemed as an exception to his usual opinion of the series IVs. The leader of Fireteam Hazard, while not like the Spartan IIs or the IIIs, Hesan displayed a certain determination and quiet fervor that made him fit right in with his predecessors. His attitude fit his image as well, his graying hair and creased face adding to his air of experience. Ari, as he was affectionately known was just as old as the Spartan-IIs, marking him as one of the oldest series IVs in or out of service.

Nasir looked from one Spartan to the next. "FRAGO, deployment's being moved up two hours, we're going to make the last leg of the run with the pelicans to avoid local traffic picking up on the Backstab."

"So we're going to be dropping in bare instead of using coffins?" Rosenda-A344 grimaced, the Spartan III was never a great fan of either SOIEVs or of the newer crash assault protocols. She had was a part of the old Cat-II teams and had served on Dagger and Atlas Teams first with Nasir and later with Kirk, now she acted as the leader of Fireteam Blackout and his first platoon leader. Like many of the Cat-IIs, she had a habit of shirking regs wherever they could get away with it. With Rosenda it was her copper brown hair that she let hang loose, long and messy, in the wrong light one could even confuse her for a civvy if she weren't a seven-foot-tall killing machine. "No air support either, this could go real wrong real fast boss." Having survived the glassing of a planet on three separate occasions Rosenda had a rather poor opinion of working without support, an opinion not uncommon amongst survivors of Reach.

Joseph turned to her and smirked, "Since when are things ever right when we jump in?" Joseph-122, his XO and brother in arms from the beginning, tireless soldier, Spartan fanatic. Joseph had attempted to desert after being augmented alongside the rest of the Spartan-IIs but had been recaptured quickly. This incident had shaken the Spartan's faith in them and hurt morale on any team he was assigned to except for Gold. Nasir and Jorge had given Joseph another chance and he did not disappoint. The nondescript man had learned to strike forward at every turn rather than fade into the background and hide in shame. This cavalier attitude combined with his time ostracized from most of his class pushed him to develop a rather gregarious attitude often being confused for a large ODST out of armor, or perhaps it was just the haircut. "And since when do you not prefer just blowing down the front door?"

Rosenda shot Joseph a sideways glance but focused back on Nasir. "So are who's going to make the drop and who gets to play backup?"

"Speartip and Blackout will make the drop, Raptor and Hazard will play backup, and Serpent's playing driver." Nasir spotted a slight tick of an expression from Hesan at his orders. "Joseph, Rosenda get the squads briefed, Hesan." The two team leaders nodded before moving off as Nasir motioned for Hesan to follow him out of the bay. They headed for the back of hanger out and away from any of the sparse maintenance crews. Nasir depolarized his visor and calmly rounded on Hesan allowing the Spartan to see his face, "Got something you need to say, Ari?"

Hesan picked up on the intention behind Nasir using his nickname and stood easy relaxing noticeably shifting his helmet under his arm. Though just as old as Nasir he often felt like his junior in many ways. "Sir you're sidelining the newer squads and taking Blackout with you again?"

Nasir cocked an eyebrow, "Your point being?"

Hesan let his mask drop allowing Nasir see his unguarded expression. It was rare that old Spartan did such, he was a marine, an ODST at heart and that kind of life bred a certain kind of confidence in a person. What Nasir saw on Hesan's face wasn't the usual self-assured calm expression but instead concern, not for a mission but for the unit. "Word's starting to work around that you don't trust the newer IVs to watch your back."

"Serious or just backchat?" Nasir furrowed his brow, this kind of talk could cripple a unit, and the newer Spartans didn't have the same kind of discipline that the older generations once had beaten into them.

"Backchat for now but it's starting to get obvious that you put Speartip and Blackout up first for ops, and that you only deal with one of the newer IVs personally. Sir if this keeps up it's going to kill morale."

Nasir stood there pondering Hesan's point for a moment before walking past him as Hesan followed. "Tell Crash and Quake they're on backup, Raptor and Hazard are also on the drop now. If anyone asks since we're hedging our bets, and pass along to Joseph that we're full green side on this one." Nasir repolarized his visor nodding at his platoon leader as the smaller man donned his helmet. "We'll dig into this later Ari, thanks." The Commander waved him on back to the bay before as splitting off on his own before swapping all his comms to a private channel for a moment of quiet.

Hesan had proved himself invaluable over the years, not just a capable fireteam leader and officer but Spartan in more than name alone. Hesan had a habit of keeping the older Spartans grounded when working with the newer IVs. Nasir didn't know if he would've been anywhere near as effective an officer without the man's counsel. Today was just another example, He needed his occasional reminder that these fireteams were Spartans and not just a collection of marines.

Nasir didn't head back to the Spartan's bay, instead making his way to one of the pelicans assigned to Phalanx Company. These craft had been part of a recent refit program for special operations craft, containing a host of stealth tech, communication upgrades and even slipspace drives. None of those upgrades were what he was there for, however. The Spartan made his way into the vessel shutting the rear hatch behind him before standing in front of the reason he was there for. "Joy do you really think I don't have enough headaches right now that you feel it's a good idea to step on Ptolemy's toes?" He spoke into the seemingly thin air.

The holotank in front of Nasir lit up and a small figure of amber light now stood before him. Dressed in what looked like a baroque styled set of MJOLNIR armor, her helmet held under one arm revealing apparent wearer to be a young woman with a worn face and an old set of eyes. Joyeuse was a military smart-AI that had been assigned to Phalanx Company and now stood amongst them as much a part of the branch as any of his Spartans. "I have to say I didn't expect him to get so touchy about his personal space." She gave an exaggerated shrug as Nasir noticed a slight smirk form on her face. "I'll be sure to cover my tracks better next time."

Nasir crossed his arms "So what was so important you felt the need to stir him up?"

Joyeuse waved her free hand bringing up a set of displays for Nasir. "I wanted to secure our channels before any of our comm traffic came in. I didn't think it'd be appropriate to let company business out into the open."

"Anything new since our last check in?"

Joyeuse flicked her wrist and moved through the displays. "Basic mail from home for the company, responses for your citations for the last operation have been reviewed and approved, same goes for your materiel requisitions. Did you know that Barnes snuck in three cases of high-velocity AP sniper rounds on the last order?"

"Yeah, I let him tack it on as a last minute thing, wasn't fun dealing with that covvie base with basic rounds." Nasir shook his head remembering the sight of an Elite sniper taking a round off their helmet and snapping off a return shot before someone dropped them. "It's worth the complaints from the quartermaster."

Joyeuse nodded, "Lastly we have the usual load from Admiral Musa and Jun." A contemptuous look appeared on her face, she never liked dealing with Spartan Branch Command, few ever gathered why and she was locked up about her reasons. "Mostly it's the usual complaining from Jun about breaches of protocol, requisitions, your own complaints, and the last time you hurt Commander Griffiths' feelings. So you know, nothing important." She waved her hand dismissively and all but one of the displays around her disappeared. "The Admiral had one message for you though, 'Quit asking.'… Sorry, guess he's getting fed up with it by now."

That disappointed Nasir, he had requested permission to reinstate ranks as an informal company structure. The Spartan Branch since its inception had eschewed formal rank only using the title 'Commander' for detachment leaders and the rank 'Spartan' for all others. He always thought this was at odds with the fact that Musa-096 was himself a Rear Admiral. While a lack of rank may have worked well within smaller groups like the IIs where they all knew each other's capabilities and leadership fell where everyone thought it should regardless. However, there were hundreds of IIIs and over two thousand IVs, with so many it was much harder for fireteams to function in the field with each other when orders ended up irrelevant, conflicted, contradicted, or worse when leadership was removed. Nasir had asked every few couple years to test reinstatement of rank within the branch but was always rebuffed, now apparently Musa's patience was wearing thin.

"You know Hesan's not wrong about the company." Nasir cocked an eyebrow and Joyeuse could feel his expression even through the opaque visor. "Anyone who pays attention to your command records is going to see some old blatant favoritism for the IIs and IIIs and new favoritism to war veterans. You may not like the new guys but a lot of them have earned the name, and those who haven't aren't getting the chance with you."

"I give them-"

"I can count on one hand the number of Spartan IV fireteam leaders you actually trust and lets not even get into your history with Palmer and Griffiths."

"There ar-"

There was a fire in Joyeuse's eyes as she was holding her helmet in her hand and leveling a finger at Nasir, "Quit acting like an elitist snob and realize that Spartans came before you and they'll come after, not all of them had to go through a personalized version of hell."

"Okay, okay I get it." Nasir leaned back almost imperceptibly, showing his surrender.

"Take it from someone who had to build who they are from day one, I know what it's like to lack an identity and I know what it's like to have who you are called into question." Her expression softened as she returned her helmet to rest on her hip. "You're letting your personal issues affect the unit and you know better." Joyeuse's image flickered and faded out but her voice still echoed in Nasir's helmet. "You're more than the name. Now I believe we have an op and I am nowhere near dressed to hit the town."

The pelican's cargo door began to open and Nasir began to head back to the cargo bay. While only having been assigned to Phalanx 2 years prior, Joyeuse had spent more time playing psychoanalyst to the Spartans than he would've liked, but it had a positive effect on morale, both his and the company's.

Hesan relayed the changes to Joseph and watched the entire tempo of the bay change. A green side op meant that now they had to plan to take and lock down the entire target area. Unfortunately, this now meant that they were going to end up with twenty to thirty Spartans against possible enemy reinforcements. At least this was an insurrectionist op instead of covvies, trying to hold ground without sufficient air support was never a fun time.

He spotted one of Blackout's Spartan's sitting on an ammo crate, finishing her prep swapping the barrel of an M45 and something seemed off about it. "Spartan James." The much younger Spartan snapped to face the team leader, the reaction too fast. "This is your first crash assault isn't it?"

James curtly nodded, "Yes, closest I've come was a high orbit HEV drop behind enemy lines on New Lagos, the Combat drop on Medellanos, and the long range insertion a couple months ago."

That explained it, crash drops weren't exactly standard actions in most of Spartan Branch and Nasir usually restricted them to the older teams. "How'd you manage that, You've been with us for what, 2 years now?"

She shrugged, "Luck of the draw I guess."

Hesan shook his head, "Well time for another baptism by fire."

James focused on her task mumbling something that even his enhanced hearing couldn't pick up.

Now that caught the team leader's attention, He established a private com channel with the Blackout Spartan, "You alright kid?" He wasn't her team leader, but they shared something that Rosenda didn't, they were ODSTs, and that transcended branches. It was always their job to police each other before someone else had to.

James finished with her kit before responding. "Just thinking, about my first combat drop…" She trailed off.

Hesan remembered New Lagos, nasty bit of business with a remnant of the Covenant attempting to capture some Forerunner ruins, a whole assault carrier spearheaded the enemy force driving the UNSC back for months. The 78th Rapid Assault Division, the Dragoons, had dropped in mass while the Covenant fleet was pulled away by naval forces. It was a bloody mess and some of the hardest fighting the UNSC had seen since the war's end. "You made the Lagos drop fresh, you'll make this one fine. There's not going to be nearly as much triple-A this run."

The younger Spartan shook her head, "Yeah, just like any other op right?"

"Yeah, Lagos wasn't your first op though was it?" Hesan depolarized his faceplate giving her a knowing look

James hesitated, "No… No it wasn't…" She finished loading her shotgun and locked it onto her back mag plate.

There were always things that ODSTs new, old, or even former had in their footlocker that didn't need to be said, and Hesan realized he'd tripped over one. Letting the matter drop was the only decent thing to do, but it wasn't good to allow her to let this fester. "You know, the thing about baptisms by fire, eventually you got nothing left to burn." He shut the ammo locker and tapped James on her shoulder with the base of his fist as he passed her. "Report to your team leader Spartan. Just remember your training and you'll do fine."

Rosenda watched Hesan talk with James as she double checked her gear. Normally she'd appreciate his attempt at helping a member of her fireteam but James was an unusual situation. She and Nasir had gone to some lengths to keep certain aspects of James' life quiet, some of it classified, some of it just unnecessary to bring up.

Hesan though, he was a whole other issue. The platoon leader was a junkyard dog when it came to issues inside his unit. Typically, this served the company well, and he often served as an anchor for the unit. They really should've looped him in on James when she joined the unit. Then again it was James' business to share, so long as she asked for their silence they'd provide it. But Hesan was part of them, as much as James, as much as Rosenda herself. He had earned the name time and time again and none of them questioned the man's position anymore. This was a rift years building and it needed to get cleared soon.

Rosenda stood from the ammo crate she'd been using for a seat as James approached and held her palm up low in front of her giving a little shrug. James responded with a slight shake of her helmet as she passed her team leader. The language was subtle but clear, 'Something to share?', 'No.' This wasn't good but she relented and let it lie as she saw Nasir reentering the bay, deciding to bring this up later.

Looking over to Speartip and Joseph she saw him keeping an eye on her and James. She held one arm low in a fist and flicked a single finger at the XO and immediately a private channel pinged her from him.

"She doing okay?" Joseph asked as he finished his own final checks.

Rosenda kept her eyes on Crash and Raptor doing her best not to give away anything via body language. "No, she's still headed downhill. I'm starting to think Nasir was wrong in getting her fast tracked."

"Yeah, she's got the chops for this but I'm worried it's going to start breaking her down if we keep her at this kind of pace." Joseph shook his head absentmindedly, "Then again I'm not sure she's going to stop even if we try to make her."

"Guess this is her crucible then, here's hoping Nas isn't letting sentiment color his judgement. At least ours wasn't under live fire… well most of the time."

Rosenda could hear him chuckling and started laughing herself ignoring the confused look of some of Fireteam Raptor.

Nasir stepped back into the bay, sidestepping as Fireteam Serpent passed him by heading for the Pelicans. He smiled as he watched the well-honed play that was mission prep, as he headed for the small holotank in the middle of the room and extracted the data crystal chip inside before inserting it into his neural interface. It felt like cool water pouring over the inside of his mind as the digital construct filled his neural interface and spread out to settle in his armor.

Joyeuse's voice once again chimed in his ears, "Ah fits like a glove." Her eagerness to jump into the field mounted in MJOLNIR armor was often marked by other AIs as reckless and sometimes suicidal considering Spartan's missions but for her, there was nothing that made her more content than riding shotgun in a Spartan's head. The pairing wasn't just for the AI's good though, some Spartans could almost feel the fractions of seconds cut off their reaction time with a full AI translating neural impulse into the armor's physical response. It was this improvement in ability that made 'dumb' AIs dedicated to the task more common in the newer MJOLNIR armor.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself." Nasir made his way over to his own little corner of the bay. Most detachment commanders took quarters with ship's officers but Nasir held onto the old Spartan II habit of just crashing down wherever there was space.

"Hesan and Rosenda are reporting all fireteams ready." Joyeuse allowed her avatar to appear in Nasir's HUD as if she was standing beside him. "The Nav is about to call warning. Serpent has the pelicans' prepped and spooled up." She smirked and gave the commander a sidelong glance. "Shall I call the dance?" Picking up his own gear he heard the chime overhead and nodded to Joyeuse.

"All hands prepare for slipspace deceleration." The voice of the navigation officer called over giving the crew a chance to brace.

The next voice was Joyeuse's as she faded from his HUD calling out and signaling for their operation to start. "Rise up, warriors, take your stand at one another's sides, our feet set wide and rooted like oaks in the ground."

This was quickly followed by Joseph's call, "Okay Spartans, find your seat before the music ends!" The Fireteams piled into Pelicans and Nasir had just planted his feet onto the boarding ramp of the lead one as he felt the shock from exiting slipspace.

Looking to his XO, Joseph gave him the ready signal and Nasir took his position in the center of the pelican grabbing a handhold and keying the command channel as the craft's bay door locked, "Backstab, Phalanx Company, Pelicans Dog 217, 218 and 219, requesting permission to disembark."

Nasir was surprised when it was Captain Fokker's voice that came back at him instead of the officer of the deck or the operations officer, "Greenlight Commander, good hunting."

"Always sir." Nasir swapped to an open channel, "Phalanx, op is a go. Let's go ruin someone's day folks." Acknowledgment lights winked once on his HUD as the pelican shook and accelerated into open space.

Nasir felt Joseph tap his shoulder with his knuckles, a question 'All ok?' Nasir returned the gesture 'All ok.' With that, Joseph took his seat and Nasir grabbed a second handhold. It was just before the slipspace entry shock that the thought ran through his mind, one that had rang out more and more often since the end of the war, 'How did we end up here, all the way from where we once stood?'

dit: 8 October 2016 - added notes

Okay so tacking on Notes here for everyone

This chapter sits to introduce you to the characters that the story will lead up to. The next several chapters will be flashbacks following not just Nasir but characters that surround him, Gold Team, Dagger Team, Fireteam Speartip and Phalanx Company. The story will cover a huge range of time and characters both cannon and OC, I'm a big fan of Gundam style work especially that involving Shin Matsunaga and Johnny Ridden along with the other characters introduced with the chimera corps, MSV, and other series like Blue Desity. In all of these stories the authors create a whole new cast that is designed to slide right into cannon without losing a step. I view Halo in the same light as Gundam in this way, Halo 1-3 as compared to Reach, as compared to Wars, Ghosts of Onyx, Kilo 5, Halo 4 and then Halo 5. Each iteration creates a host of new characters to tell stories about while preserving the essence of the mythos as a whole. In this vein Halo: The Walls will feature a mixed cast which I hope you folks will enjoy.

Bonus points if you can guess character background points before I get explicit.

Also still looking for a Beta reader, not really perturbed with someone who wants to offer ideas (so long as they don't mind me not accepting any)

Dramatis Personae introduced

Commander Nasir-025, OC here for storytelling purposes, Spartan II, Commander Phalanx Company, Fireteam Speartip team leader

Captain Fokker, OC created because Bungie/343 never gave us enough cool naval personnel

Spartan Rosenda-A344, referenced in Halo: Reach development and background materials, Spartan III, Fireteam Blackout team leader

Spartan Arif Hesan, OC because most of the Spartan IVs we get from 343 coughterriblecomicscough, Spartan IV, Fireteam Hazard team leader

Spartan Joseph-122, referenced in Halo: Legends short Homecomming. Spartan II, Phalanx Company XO (unofficial position) Fireteam Speartip

Spartan James, points to you folks if you figure this one out before I come out and tell you. Spartan IV, Fireteam Blackout

Joyuse, Smart AI, OC created because well AIs burn out after 7 years so they're kinda needed to rotate. Expect more of them due to length of story timeframe