They told me it was supposed to be a simple mission. I only had three objectives: Smash, grab, assassinate. That's all I had. Simple, right? You'd think that, but there's one problem...In my line of work, there's no such thing as a "simple" mission. Don't believe me? Well then, let's go down the steps, shall we?
Step one: Smash into a disabled Covenant Storm ORS-class Heavy Cruiser. Once in, use AI to locate targets.
Right now, you're probably thinking, 'Wait, what? How is that simple?' Well, it's not...if you're either a Marine, a Helljumper, or even an ONI spook. But to a Spartan like me, smashing into a Storm ship is easy, especially when you have a fifth-generation 'smart' AI to help you along the way. Anyway, let's continue.
Step two: Grab second half of the Janus Key. Objective is high priority above all else.
This was where things started going from "simple" to complicated. We, that is the UNSC, already had the first half of the Janus Key, recovered from Requiem hours before the Forerunner planet's destruction. The second half was stolen by a Sangheili terrorist named Jul 'Mdama, the leader of the Covenant Storm. It had become a game of cat-and-mouse as we tracked the key. After twenty years of searching, we had finally traced the key's location to a Heavy Cruiser, the Prideful Vengeance, which had been disabled by a patrol of UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios warships while trying to traverse through a Joint Occupation Zone. Hence one of the reasons I was here in first place.
Why the mission had become complicated was because of where Kara, my AI, had located the key: the ship's bridge. This was where I had to start battling my way to the objective, barreling through groups of Unggoy, cutting through multiple Kig-Yar, dancing around Mgalekgolo pairs, and diving through waves of Promethean and Sangheili soldiers. I understood why they kept throwing this many enemies at me, but not why the key would be at the bridge of all places. I did know my orders though, and what that ONI spook told me: "If the key is near, then chances are both the terrorist and the traitor are not very far."
Hence the third and final step: Assassinate Jul 'Mdama and Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey.
*sigh* Okay, two things wrong here. First of all, I understood why 'Mdama had to be killed, but not necessarily Halsey. True, she worked with the Storm in order to retrieve the Janus Key, but it was only to make sure they didn't take it and had opted to give it to the UNSC when they arrived. True, she joined forces with the Storm later on, but only because she wasn't given much choice; the UNSC tried to execute her, after all. She may have become a traitor, but in the end, she was still a civilian. And I draw the line at killing civilians.
So, I had come up with my own objective: Assassinate only Jul 'Mdama and apprehend Dr. Halsey.
The other wrong thing? I didn't get a chance to implement my plan. For when I had arrived at the bridge, my mission automatically went from complicated to utterly FUBAR. The entire bridge was empty. No crew, no Halsey, and no 'Mdama. Oh, and the second half of the Janus Key Kara had said was on the bridge? There was a key alright, sitting on the bridge's central holotable. The problem...it was a complete fake!
And sitting next to the fake was a datapad with a clock counting down. It said: Slipspace Generator Self-Destruct Sequence. Detonating in 5...4...
In that instant, my mind had registered what had just happened. They had rigged their Slipspace generator into a makeshift bomb! I had just walked into a trap!
Kara and I had just enough time to scream "SON OF A BITCH!" before the timer hit zero. As I closed my eyes tightly, I waited for the end.
Little did I know that this would not be my end. This would be my beginning.
The Legend of 117. The Sacrifice of Noble Team. The Heroics of Lasky. The Tragedy of the Rookie. The Origins of Locke. And the Ongoing Redemption of the Arbiter. These stories, you already know. You don't know mine. I am Scott Dunn. Supersoldier. Blood-Stained Demon. Spartan of Remnant. And this is my story.