King Leon
The Story of Gray Team
Prologue:
A Story of Spartans
1200 hours, August 17, 2547
Aboard the UNSC Save Haven, Gray Team's bunk
Leon sometimes wondered what he was doing here. Being away from Earth and the colonies for so long was almost to much. "Why couldn't we have simple missions, like Blue and Green Team? Go here, kill Covenant scum, come back; nice and easy" he would think. But he wouldn't complain. They were Spartan soldiers of the UNSC Navy. It was their duty to follow orders; even if they hated doing them. Even if it meant they were going to die.
Gray Team was created for the sole purpose of doing the crap no-one else wanted to. Most soldiers hated sleeping in the Freezer. Traveling Slipspace for years at a time just to get to the mission would be extremely annoying to any member of the UNSC; especially Spartans. They hated space. They preferred the nice, cold ground, where you don't float off. When it takes 5 years to do one mission, it was enough to drive you insane. But this was Gray Team's duty. And they kept their mouth shut and did their duty, like a good soldier.
Gray Team's official assignment was "Extreme long-range missions that benefit the UNSC and UNSC operations". Their ship was called Enduring Journey. She was created especially for ELR missions; regular Shaw-Fujikawa Engines were not made to be in use for over a year. A "long" jump was considered to be from 5 to 6 months. Enduring Journey had to be part camel; since they would be gone for up to 3-5 years at a time, she had to pack quite a lot of supplies.
When not on duty, Gray Team and the Enduring Journey stayed on the Mobile Station Safe Haven. Safe Haven was rebuilt from an old Mobile Station, named Forever Lingering, that had been decommissioned because of extensive damage from a surprise Rebel assault. The old station was rebuilt solely for Extreme Long Range Missions, and was built to be a base for all ELRM-based personnel. As Safe Haven was rebuilt for only one type of mission, it was not as well-equipped as most Stations. Since it took so long to do one mission, Safe Haven was home to many squads that completed their own Extreme Long-Range Missions. Gray Team was the only non-marine Squad in the entire base. Most other squads had only completed one mission, but a few had completed two.
The missions Gray Team had done consisted of stopping Rebel-Pirate operations in faraway systems. Capturing and interrogating high-ranking Rebels was the only way of obtaining the knowledge of where to find the stations. As of late, they had been resorting to self-destruction, so the A.I.s weren't able to get the information off the ships. The mission objective was to place a bomb in the heart of the space station or planet-side base. Three missions had been completed. Three Rebel-Pirate bases destroyed, and it only took 12 years.
A few ensigns on Enduring Journy openly wondered what the point was of sending three highly valuable Spartans to Rebel bases when the Covenant so close to home, especially when it took so long to finish the missions. The answer: the Rebels were creating weapons far too serious for us to just ignore. Their wasn't any time to steal information, they said. They had a point; the Covenant were knocking at our doorstep, and we had to dispose of the Rebel-Pirates now before they became a problem later.
After a few weeks of doing nothing but playing card and word game, and interacting with the Staff Members, news came from the higher-ups that Gray Team was to go on their first Covenant ELRM. Unfortunetly, none of them could see the future; then maybe they would have known not to go.
Gray Team was composed of three Spartans; Team Leader Leon (Spartan Designation: SPARTAN-048), Paul (Spartan Designation: SPARTAN-021), and Terri (Spartan Designation: SPARTAN-080). Paul was the kind of guy that you can trust your life with, even if you just met him. He just had an aura around him that said that you could trust him. He made friends with the marines easily, which was rare among Spartans. Paul was all business, and didn't talk much. Terri was an oddity and the exact opposite of Paul. Whenever they were off duty, Terri talked up a storm. Since she liked to talk her mind, she annoyed people a lot. But Terri was a Spartan; with being a Spartan comes discipline, and Terri was no exception. Whenever in a combat situation, it was like she flipped a switch. And despite Terri and Paul being complete opposites, they got along like brother and sister.
They all were like brothers and sisters.
Every soldier in the UNSC is required to have a Final Word speech that is to be read at the funeral. What follows is an excerpt from Leon's: "My real name is Leonidas; you know, after the King of Sparta? I never knew my mother, but I bet she though it was real cute to name me that. When i first started to understand the SPARTAN project and the Earth's history, I thought my name was so odd. I mean, I was named after the king of Sparta, and I was going to be a Spartan?" Only his fellow Spartans called him Leon. To everyone else, he was another face-less Spartan. Except Dr. Catherine Halsey. Dr Halsey was like a mother figure to the Spartans; although they never talked about it, Leon was sure that every single Spartan felt the same way.
After the Lieutenant on the other end of the intercom was done telling them they'd be doing a Covenant ELRM, they started talking about the new mission. "They" meaning Terri talking at a mile-a-minute, Leon throwing in a sentence or two every once and awhile, and Paul nodding his head. About five minutes after the announcement, Gray Team heard footsteps coming towards the nearby door that led into the room, along with some other sound they couldn't distinguish. Any Spartan could hear a pin drop in the next room through a full blast door if the setting was right. By the time the door opened, they had long been silent, awaiting the visitor.
The metallic "swoosh" of the door swinging open was followed by the "pang" of metal on metal as Lieutenant Commander Rita "Peg-Leg" Thronson walked in. Lieutenant Commander Thronson had lost a leg during a Covenant boarding attack on a previous ship; the Emergency Blast Door closed on her while running to the Escape Pods. She had to cut off a leg with a nearby Covenant Energy Sword. Leon immateriality realized the noise they heard was the metal stilt the doctors had given her. Being away from civilization so much meant supplies sent could only be the necessities. Their wouldn't be any time to get her a prosthetic until she returned.
All three Spartans stood up immediately and saluted the Lieutenant Commander. She returned it, and the Spartans let their arms fall, but didn't stray from being at attention. "Evening, Gray Team. I believe Lieutenant Quial informed you of your mission? I am here to brief you in detail." After a motion from Rita, all four of them sat down. "As I'm sure you know, those Covenant bastards make sure to self-destruct when boarding is eminent. Hell, maybe one of their Captains got a little too fat-headed, and thought he could fight us off; fool didn't know who he was dealing with, did he? After all personal of the ship had been dealt with, we used our A.I.s to get information from the ship. Just like what we used to do with the Rebels, before they wised up.
"Intel gained from the ship's computers have told us about a Covenant installation an Extra Long-Range jump away. Apparently, the station is a reverse-engineering facility; they bring dead ships back their to get information on us. The bastards have some serious tech; they can still gain knowledge of us through our ships, even when they have self-destructed. By "shutting down" the facility, it would halt Human information learned by the Covenant. Of course, we're shit out of luck if they have more than one of these facilities; but destroying this one is still going to hurt 'em.
"We leave in exactly 28 minutes. Prepare and load your equipment into the Enduring Journey, and head to the Cyro room to freeze up. We got a long trip ahead of us. Any questions?" We all shook our head, and Lieutenant Commander Thronson nodded. "Good. You have your orders." After saluting the Spartans, Lieutenant Commander Rita Thronson left the room.
