I never knew my real parents. All I can remember were voices and slightly blurry memories, but not once have I ever remembered my parent's faces. The farthest back that I remember too, was where I was playing with my friends, when I was suddenly called over by two big men in ominous uniforms. I remembered seeing them last time a woman came by and played a game with me… I still had that quarter with me that I had won. After coming over to them, all I can remember was a small sharp pain in my arm… and then blackness. That was where my training started. Endless weeks of punishing obstacle courses, runs and classes. CPO Mendez is the man who is responsible for who I am today…. What I am today. A Spartan. I am just one of the only few left alive. Half of our numbers "washed out" during the augmentation process, leaving just around thirty of us left alive, that doesn't include those who are too physically irreversibly disfigured. I am a Spartan. A cybernetically, genetically and technologically enhanced super soldier. All the Spartans including myself, have all been given the title of "Hyper Lethal". Hyper Lethal… not a title taken lightly. I have fought in over 150 ground campaigns. I have killed tens of thousands of covenant. I have been awarded every medal in the UNSC forces and have saved the lives of a lot of top brass. I have reflexes and strength that far surpass those of any regular human. I have survived weather conditions and injuries that would have killed any regular human. I can lift over two tons, sprint at 53 KPH, and snap a grunts neck with a twitch of my hands. Yet I have my flaws. I have never been able to control my emotions, and this has led me to following reckless, suicidal actions and I have allowed depression from the grief of dead teammates to swallow me up. Yet the worst of my imperfections was outstanding and out shadowed absolutely every other flaw. I could love.
Mission Log: Investigate enemy contact on surface of Classified: Date: October 21, 2550, 16:25:46+
I am Spartan-099-Alex. And this… is my story of confusion.
"Ok Spartan, listen up!" Captain Drake's voice rang out from inside of my helmet and cut through my slumber, waking me up.
Chinning a control in my helmet inside of my helmet, I spoke to the Captain. "Go ahead sir."
"Well I'm glad that your awake, because I was just getting ready to send some ODST down there to wake you up. Anyways, we are almost in drop position, assemble your squad of men and report to "Hells Waiting Room" immediately." And then the Comm, went dead.
Shaking my head to wake myself up, I reached for one of the storage lockers near me and yanked out one of the weapons from within. An MA5B Assault Rifle which I checked over for any faults with a trained eye. Seeing none, I ensured the safety was on before slipping across my shoulder to where it magnetized onto my back. Reaching in again, I then pulled out an M6G pistol before slipping that into the holster placed on my hip. Grabbing two frag grenades, I clipped them onto my harness before sliding the knife that was situated on my chest out of its holster and spinning it around lazily, all the while checking for faults. Finding none, I slid it back in the holster and then proceeded towards the elevator. Stepping in, and punching the last button on the holographic display the doors closed and the elevator immediately started to head down towards the launch room. Chinning the botton for the comm in my helmet, I opened up a channel to all of the ODST's under my command.
"ODST's! Listen up. We are about 3 minutes away from dropping into hell once more; we get the honor of doing this for what… the 50th time now? Whatever it is, kiss your bunk mates goodbye because we are dropping in less than 3 minutes!" I shouted out, and I heard a collective groans and 'ah shits' but everyone thundered back at me, 'Sir yes sir!'
Straightening my back in pride, I reflected on how well my men had performed over the last four years. Back when I was just a Lieutenant, ONI had taken me away from the main group of Spartans, and had placed an ODST squad under my command. The first few months were rough and tense, as the ODST's were extremely reluctant to be under my command; A Spartans command. Over time though, I had earned their trust, then their respect and finally their friendship. The ODST's said that 'I was the biggest, meanest, and coldest son of a bitch out there on the field. Off the field, I was the most relaxed, sarcastic person that they had ever really known. As you can see, I am very easy going. But on the field… all of my hate, the cold fury that I kept bottled up inside of me… I saved that exclusively for the Covenant. I wanted the Covenant to realize that they were going to hell when they died, and for that reason alone, I had gone against regulations and changed the regular green color of my armor to a jet black finish, and had changed the golden visor into a black one. It was EXTREMELY non-regulation, but my superiors ignored it due to the fact that I got results on missions.
The elevator pinged and that snapped me out of my reverie. The doors opened up to reveal a long hallway with a bunch of yelling coming from behind the door at the end. Jogging lightly towards the door, I just pass in front of it before the door opened up to reveal my team. Specter squad. MY squad. I stepped into the room and called out to everyone.
"Specter squad, attention!" Every man and woman immediately stopped what they were doing and formed up in front of me in precise and sharp movements.
"Listen up! We are going to be over the drop zone in 40 seconds, so I'm going to make this short. Watch each other's backs, shoot at any hostile that moves and for god sakes, DO NOT shoot at me this time!" I yelled, chuckling at the end. Everyone dispersed into their own individual pods bearing their names, laughing all the while.
It was a reference to the one time that one of my ODST's shot at me with a Gauss turret, making me dive for cover faster then I had ever moved before.
I waited until everyone had secured themselves in their pods before I myself leapt into my own pod. Once the hatch closed, my hands were a blur even to me as I checked the pods status, secured my harness over myself, armed the ejection tube, and primed the mini rockets on the bottom of the pod. I braced my boots on the grating of the pod, and watched the seconds slowly tick down on the timer.
0:05…0:04…0:03…0:02…0:01… EJECT!
A thump reverberated through the pod, and then suddenly my stomach lifted into my throat and I was sent hurtling in the pod through the planets atmosphere.
I got a sudden adrenaline rush and couldn't contain my excited yell.
"YAAAHHHOOOOO!"
The shout reverberated throughout the Comm, and on the mini-screen which displayed all of my squads helmeted heads, all of them gave me a thumbs-up.
We were all excited now… but I had no idea that disaster was just waiting for me and my squad on the surface of the planet. Disaster that would make me re-think the entire war… and redirect my hatred.
