Prologue
When the SPARTAN Project was set in motion, a lot of guys like me were kind of pissed off. Of course, we had plenty of reason to be, the UNSCDF were effectively retiring my outfit without so much as a thank you for our time and effort in fighting the Covenant. But hey, we understood. It was our job to be invisible, to not exist. We'd been running 'special missions' for the Corps for almost 6 years before the Covenant even showed up, so we knew how things ran in our neck of the woods. SPARTAN Project convinced the higher-ups that we, a unit affectionately known as 'The Garrote', simply were no longer needed. So we were merged into other 'normal' infantry groups and most of us were separated across the whole damned galaxy. But some things cant just change when you want them to. The marines around us knew what we were, and they gave us a good measure of space. You cant break the habit of liking the smell of fear.
Due to my prior service as an infantryman, I've been attached to the 1st Marine Battalion off of the ship "Strong Arm". We're heading for a distant outpost that was lost to the Covenant early on in the war, high command seems to think and brief offensive action could throw their tactics off and surprise them. So here we go, one Battalion to take on an entire planet, with damn near zero Intel on what we will face when we arrive. Its good to be a marine again.