Author's Note: This is my first work, so plenty of feedback is requested. Please read and review, and don't fear flaming me about something wrong with it. I accept criticism like the next man. Secondly, this is a Disclaimer's Note. I don't own Halo, Master Chief, or any cahracters, storylines, or plots referenced to the Halo series. I do, however, own the three main characters mentioned in this story. Thirdly, this is just a prologue. One I have a little more time to work on this story, I promise to have another chapter set up. So, just be patient with me.

We Are Spartans

By: GundamFreakX

Prologue

Space is such a vast universe, full of stars, planets, comets, asteroids, galaxies, and the like. Humanity has only been able to travel to such a small number of these systems. Even in the year 2575, we've only scratched the surface of this world. There's so much space, and yet humanity has such little time to explore. For some, the journey ends after a long life of adventuring and conquest. For others, the journey ends in a flash, and they never learn of the places they could've gone before they met their demise.

For Corporal Jonathan Mendez, he had to help make that choice for one of his teammates: death quick and painless, or death slow and painful.

Floating above the surface of the vast, deserted planet, Octanus VI, floated one of the Navy's greatest star-traveling ships in the fleet. Named after its previous ancestor, The Pillar of Autumn II sure was a beauty. Integrated with light-speed travel, 20 cannons, and 2 MAC-guns on each side, this ship was feared by all, even the vast alien cult, the Covenant. If both were to be fired, it could easily take down a Covenant carrier. She may have been slow, but as they say, "Slow and steady wins the race." In this case, it won a war that has been going on ever since 2552, with the Master Chief, an icon to anyone entering the new, improved, and now public-known MJORLINR program, allowing soldiers to become Spartans, just like John, aka Spartan 117.

Upon this ship were two of those Spartans that have now multiplied by the dozens, now that they have indeed been deemed heroes. One was Corporal Mendez, aka Spartan 491, who was looking down upon the desert planet from the main cockpit. The other was Sergeant Samuel "Wolf" Raenef, aka Spartan 430, who was currently recovering in the adjoined Cryogenesis Chamber, with his compartment moved to the cockpit to give orders. He always was one to make his authority over the crew known.

Now, though, his authority was being used for sure. Upon the surface of Octanus VI was their third teammate, Private First Class Nicholas Stanson, aka Spartan 13, now surrounded by the Covenant force they were all too familiar with. As he stared up towards the sky, knowing the location of The Pillar of Autumn II, he was waiting for his request to be fulfilled: he wanted Mendez to fire the two MAC-guns upon his position, killing the Covenant onslaught, and him.

The pressure was definitely on Mendez now. He had to choose. There was no flipping a coin on it. There was no trial-and-error. There was no second-guessing. It was now or never. Fire the guns, or let him die by their hands. He would have to make this choice…again.

"Come on, Mendez," yelled Raenef through his Telepathic Communicator (TC), newly installed in the next-generation of Spartans, allowing their communications to not be encoded by the enemy. This was good, since the crew didn't need to know the fear they were both feeling. To other humans, Spartans were soldiers that had no fear. They would take any challenge head-on. They would stare death in face and say, "Come and get me, bitch!" In reality, a Spartan was like any other human. They had feelings. They also had emotions, but they were secretly guarded by their one-way visor on their helmets. If humanity were to see a true Spartan in the face, then there would be nothing to see. It would be just a face, tattered and worn by the everlasting war.

"I can't sir," thought Mendez, who realized of his fear when he called him "sir". The three had never established ranks between each other. To them, knowing your teammates' names was a key element in your survival. They had always called each other by their first or last names, depending on which sounded better. Now, that didn't seem important now. Damn, I am nervous, he thought to himself, hoping that Raenef hadn't picked that up through the TC.

"Look, Jonathan," thought Raenef, trying to calm him down by calling him by his first name, "you're up here because he sent you to fire the guns. He used all of his teleporter juice to have you fire the guns, and this is how you're going to repay him? By letting your emotions get the best of you?"

"Of course not, but…I can't do it. I can't do it!"

His mind was in haywire. As Raenef continued to yell in his mind to push the damn button that would fire both MAC-guns at the same time, Mendez began to think back. He thought back to when they all had joined together as a team. Then, he thought back to when he and Raenef had captured 13, as Nicholas liked to be called back then. He thought back to when he had found Raenef after he had been missing for 2 years. He thought back to when a decision he made just like this one which almost cost him his military service if Raenef hadn't taken him in. He thought back…to the beginning, to when he became…a Spartan.

Author's Footnote: So, what you think? On the edge of your seat? Begging for more? Because I'm eager to type some more for you. Just please, remember to review. Thanks.

Signing off,
GundamFreakX