0100 - September 25th, 2552

Aboard the UNSC Hell's Janitor, in orbit over Krevin

Garth sighed heavily as he stepped into the HEV pod, exactly 10 seconds before the launch time. He was currently about the UNSC Hell's Janitor, and he was orbiting above the Covenant controlled world named Krevin. The ship was literally about to blow up, due to the plasma fire from the eighteen CCS class battle cruisers surrounding it. Garth was a SPARTAN-II. His service tag was 394. He was from the second class of Spartans, who started training in 2538. He had been 12 years old then. Even before he was a Spartan, he was gifted with both a fast reaction time and the ability to multitask easily. He was also very, very retentive; he could recall his old home phone number even now. He was one of the last five SPARTAN-IIs from the second class. That was about how many were left from the first class as well.

He checked his HUD; he would hit dirt in thirty seconds. Matt and James were already on the ground, cleaning up the zone Garth was about to land in. Matt and James were SPARTAN-IIIs, two of four survivors from the slaughter of Beta Company on Pegasi Delta. Although they were nineteen, Garth still considered them kids. He himself was only twenty-six.

Garth cracked his neck after the HEV pod hit the ground. It was time to get going. He checked his shields on his MJOLNIR Mark VI-Z Variant armor. Finally, he checked the ammo for his MA5C Assault Rifle, and finally he kicked off the door of his HEV pod. He looked around; there was dead bodies everywhere and smoke filled the area.

Finally, his HUD fully kicked in, and Service Tags showed up above Matt and James' heads. They were just over the next rise. Matt's tag was B013, and James' tag was B246. They were armed in full MJOLNIR Mark V armor. Someone in ONI or HIGHCOM had been smart enough to realize that if the S-IIIs didn't have some kind of shields, they wouldn't be very effective.

Garth's heavily modified armor was dark blue with a few spots of gold, while Matt and James' armor where green with a few streaks of blue. Matt currently held an M7/Supressed Submachine gun and M41 SSR Rocket Launcher was strapped to his back, while James held a BR55HB Battle Rifle with a SRS 99D Sniper Rifle strapped to his back. "Looks like we made it." A voice inside his helmet said. He simply nodded. He had nearly forgotten about Kelvin, the ship AI from the Hell's Janitor. The captain had given the AI to Garth shortly before he had departed.

Which reminded him. Garth looked to the sky just in time to see the ship blow up in the atmosphere. "Hell…" Matt remarked over the COM. "What are we going to do now?" It was silently a moment, and then Kelvin spoke up in Garth's helmet, "I released a probe from the ship before you disconnected me, and it appears to still be intact, I am currently monitoring the planet. It appears more people got away than I originally calculated." Garth nodded, and then relayed the information to his teammates.

"Looks like we get to have some fun this time!" James shouted excitedly. Matt smiled with him, and even Garth smirked a little. After three months of non-combat, he was itching for a fight. "Move out, soldiers!"

All three of them started sprinting east, where Kelvin had placed a waypoint over the nearest escape pod from the ship, which was two miles away. All of them topped out at 40 km/h, and they reached their destination quickly. "I've gotten control of multiple Pelicans that escaped the ship with various equipment. It seems we brought enough stuff to wage our own war." Kelvin informed Garth. As he and the others passed over a rise, they saw the drop pod, in the middle of the valley.

And between them and the Spartans must've been one hundred Covenant troops. After a few moments, Garth heard Matt crack his knuckles. He grabbed James' sniper a zoomed in the scope. The Marines were literally pinned down inside the drop pod. While Grunts and Jackals hailed the thing with plasma and needles, more Grunts were setting up Plasma cannons on the other side, also, a few Elites stood around, giving orders here and there. Garth gave James his sniper back, and pointed out a particular group of Gold, Red, and Blue Elites. James nodded, and green acknowledgement light blinked on Garth's HUD. Garth then turned to Matt, and pointed out two of the plasma cannons that were being set up. Once again another green acknowledgement light blinked on the HUD.

Garth finally crept up to a rock mere feet away from a group of Grunts who were setting up a plasma cannon. He winked his acknowledgement light, and the sound of rockets being fired was distinctly heard. Suddenly, two of the plasma cannon emplacements blew up. The group of Elites turned into Matt's direction. The gold one pulled out a carbine, and sighted through the scope, it was about to pull the trigger when…

CRACK!

Its neck suddenly had a huge hole in it. Before it even hit the ground, the two red elite majors next to it had already brought their Particle Beam Rifles to bear.

CRACK!

One went down clutching it its neck, for it had literally swallowed a bullet. The other one got his sights on James, but he didn't get the chance to fire.

CRACK!

That one went down as well. Finally the last one yelled and brandished and energy sword, yelling in rage.

CRACK!

A bullet pierced its chest cavity, and it fell to the ground.

Garth heard James, reload, and he also heard Matt fire two more rockets. Finally, Garth jumped up and sprayed fire at the Grunts in front of him before they could turn their plasma cannon towards the hill James and Matt were on. There were five of them. Four went down quickly, but one got lucky, or maybe unlucky. Garth now stalked towards the little creature, which was all but screaming his head off now.

Garth picked up by the neck as it pleaded for mercy. He ignored it, and crushed its head to shut it up. After the skirmish was over, he picked up two plasma grenades and stood back up just in time to see the group of shield carrying Jackals and a few Elites near him. He primed both grenades, and dove to the ground. From this angle, he threw both grenades through the little holes in the shields and stuck the leg of one Jackal and the leg of one of the Elites in the back. Both screeched before the grenades blew up, turning them into a pile of gore.

Garth jumped back behind his rock just in time to avoid a full barrage of Fuel Rod Cannon fire. He reloaded his MA5C, and then picked up a plasma pistol of the ground. He fully charged the thing, and then looked over the rock and fired it. It obliterated the shield of a Jackal in the middle of the phalanx, and he quickly switched to his Assault Rifle to finish it off.

Having effectively making a hole in their phalanx, Garth turned to the other Jackals. They started running. He primed a plasma grenade and stuck on just before it returned to the main bulk of the group, who had turned away from the escape pod, towards both Garth of to their left, and Matt and James sitting on the hill. He heard a grunt exclaim "Demons!" and then the air was full of plasma and needles.

He barely had enough time to dive back over his rock. He reached his gun over and unleashed a full clip of MA5C, and also used a lot of plasma pistol ammo. He also heard the sound of Battle Rifle and SMG ammo flying through the air as well.

You will be the stuff of legend. One-man armies, capable of taking on a thousand Covenant soldiers easily. In essence, you will be the best. You will be, Spartans. The voice of his long lost teacher rang in Garth's head. He had heard that speech the day after he had been kidnapped and taken to the Spartan training grounds. He just couldn't help but think, what if it wasn't true?