-1 year later High Charity-

The rest of bootcamp went well, no hiccups and no more problems. He graduated and became an elite spec-ops officer. A position that gave him his own lance. It was quite a jump, recruit to officer. Almost unheard of, but the commander must have seen something in him. Something Cas wished to prove he has. He had been able to pick his own squad from a limited number of the recruits. There were multiple elites, a few kig-yar, and even a grunt. What surprised him the most was the jiralhanae on the list. They were usually too untrustworthy to be allowed to fight in spec-ops. After reading the name he understood slightly more. It was Atriox, the only promising brute in the entire military camp, one whose achievements on the training fields were only matched by Cas himself.

A few hours later he had finished looking through the profiles and got the list of people he wanted for his lance. Himself, two jackals, the one grunt and Atriox. Once he sent in the request some of the higher ups questioned his choices but nothing major came of it. His choices stayed. They had probably thought he would pick more elites, but Cas knew best. Those elites from his camp were nothing more than glory seeking fools. They may have come to see him as their leader. That did not mean he wished to be seen that way. Most of his time at the camp was him training his swordsmanship and marksmanship.

-Outside Zealous Thunder High Charity-

Her it was the ship he would stay on for multiple years and call home. A 2-kilometre-long warship, the RCS-class armoured cruiser Zealous Thunder. He could here the whine of a military transport coming with the rest of his lance. First the two kig-yar left their transport and stood next to Cas, obviously as excited as he was. There was a reason he had selected these two, they did not merely fight for money. They joined by free will, not out of economic desperation like so many others. They were very capable soldiers in their own right; he was glad to have them on his team.

Next to arrive was his lone unggoy. Many of his species would be scared at the prospect of being the only unggoy in the team. This one did not seem to care and was excitedly watching the ship.

At last came Atriox, the hulking beast he was. When he came, they clasped their hands together and he chuckled. "When I said I look forward to fighting with you; I didn't think it would actually happen. Nonetheless I am ready to serve your every command". As he said so he gave a crisp salute with a fist to his chest, which Cas promptly returned.

As their transport into the ship arrived he started looking over his lance. He had himself the leader with his Needle Rifle, plasma pistol and a crimson energy sword. Next he had his second in command Atriox, with a plasma repeater, brute plasma rifle and his custom made Gravity Mace. The next would be his T'vaoan scout Kig-yar Beq Tod with his carbine, plasma pistol as well as a shield gauntlet. Next would be Dux the other kig-yar he was no T'vaoan but was an excellent sniper. He had a beam rifle, needler and wrist shields. Last on his team was the heavy weapons expert, Didip the Unggoy with a fuel rod and a plasma launcher as well as his own wrist shields.

As he was finished looking over his squad the dropship came, a normal spirit came to pick up his lance and another lance on the other end. They quietly entered, knowing full well that after this there was no return. Technically that point of no return was many months ago but it did not matter. Now they were entering a ship they would live in for the first time.

Once inside the hangar they could see it busteling with life. Lances running all around all with their own thing to do. The huragok were fixing up several ships while multiple dozen unggoy were carrying around cargo in and out of the hangar.

Not a single soul stopped to glance when a team of 5, fully clad in black with shining crimson light across their armour. Cas had to be honest, Didip looked almost more frightening than Atriox, with his twin weapons of massive destruction and the visor that glowed crimson. It seemed like he could tear apart this entire place. His methane tank being sleeker and to the body, concealing an obvious weak spot.

Their first order of business was to get to the armoury and deliver their weapons for storage. It was strictly not allowed to carry weapons that were not ceremonial, like Cas' energy sword and Atriox's gravity mace. Once there the quartermaster seemed shocked as the five of them entered, there were not many brutes on the ship, but as Cas guessed. The site of a spec-ops unggoy with a fuel rod and a plasma launcher is something you do not see often. "We are here to deliver our weapons quartermaster major". Cas said. "Yes, yes. It will be done Spec-ops officer". The quartermaster answered.

-Lance living quarters-

The lance, now officially known as Crimson Squad had gotten their own multi species living quarter. With its own sleeping chamber for unggoy and special rooms for the other squad. Cas being the leader got the most prestigious room, although it was not much. Still better than the barracks.

Having switched to his non-combat clothes he walked out into their main living space where the two kig-yar sat playing some sort of card game. Deliberating on it for a moment, he sat down with the kig-yar and asked to join. He had to set the mood that they were going to be a team without the ineffective segregation of races. As a kid he had wholeheartedly believed that some races were inferior to others. Alas after much thought he concluded not limiting any person's opportunities in his squad to assure the highest level of efficiency. And on a less military focused note. To make a more comfortable environment where he could relax.

The kig-yar allowed him to join, it was some sort of old gambling game that kig-yar of old had used over deals that could not be made in a civilized manner. You would essentially play until you lost what your opponent wanted. In this specific situation they had played regarding who would buy their food. Technically food was free. That was the bad food, if they wanted good proper food they had to pay.

Atriox and Didip sat and just observed the game, waiting to see who was going to give them all food. Whilst Cas, Beq and Dux played he spotted in the corner of his eye. Didip and Atriox talking together. A rare sight, an unggoy and a jiralhanae not commanding each other around but instead discussing everyday topics.

In the end Cas lost the game. At first the kig-yar looked a bit frightened and probably thought he was going to refuse and force the kig-yar to pay. He did no such thing. Cas just laughed it off and walked down to the cafeteria where he bought the food they wanted and he brought it back in a hover cart.

A sight rivalling a brute and grunt talking was Cas, a sangheili buying and getting food for kig-yar, an unggoy and a brute. This whole squad seemed to be full of what other lances might consider strange. Or in some cases, borderline heretical. Though heretical had become a word simply used to accuse anyone of anything. Neighbour talking loud. Heretical. Kid falls over and bleeds on your turf. Heretical. You sneak in line at a store. Heretical.

One day he wished to be able to change that. But for that he needed power. And the only way to gain power in the covenant was either the military or being born a prophet. Which in of itself was extremely rare seeing as there were only around 20 million of them.

-Orbit over human world Madrigal Zealous Thunder-

Cas had just been briefed on his first mission. They were to land with a dropship and infiltrate a human sensor outpost. He had not been given the details, but he presumed that if they succeeded the covenant could land more forces without the humans noticing. Possibly saving thousands. A big burden for their first mission.

He stood up in the spirit dropship and began speaking, "Crimson squad, you all know what we are supposed to do but I will repeat for good measure. We will land at ground, fight back at anyone trying to stop us and blow up a human sensor station. Do you understand?!" As 4 voices could be heard shouting in agreement Cas continued speaking. "Maybe we live through this victory and with the writ of union and the covenant, further our path towards the great journey". The pre-fight ritual had been complete, and he sat back down. Ready for the coming fight.

From the outside he could hear anti-air thunder across the hull and shields of the spirit. At one point he thought they would break, but due to the excellent piloting. It never happened. They had a hot landing where they all jumped out seeking cover. Despite this being everyone's first proper fight, they were all prepared. Being the most astute at the training camp and everyone coming from a background of at least some wealth and weapons training, even Didip.

Speaking of, Cas opened his squad channel in his HUD and spoke. "Didip use your plasma thrower to stick their light vehicles. Atriox you and I give Dux covering fire so he can get into position as a sniper. Beq Tod, you run around them trying to draw their fire to split the humans up as much as possible". A streak of affirmatives scrolled across his ui before he saw Didip charge up the launcher. A second later ad he jumped out of cover and let go of the trigger. Two bolts of plasma streaked towards the warthog. It stuck and started ticking down to explosion.

As this was happening Beq was running with all his speed around the troops, using shield gauntlet to get some cover whilst running. At this point, Didip was back in cover switching to his fuel rod whilst Cas and Atriox were giving cover fire for Dux who were swiftly approaching a good sniper position.

Once Dux gave the affirmative that he was in position they ducked back down. Beq still running circles around the enemy, eliminating them where she could. "Atriox, charge towards the enemy to force them out of cover, thus Dux has a clear line of fire. I will follow you swiftly after, Didip, Beq you kill as many as you can. Same for you Dux". With that he closed the comm and got ready to follow Atriox in his charge.

As Atriox ran he easily got up to a speed of 40 kilometres per hour, smashing into the human position with Cas close behind. Flinging plasma at anything that moved with his repeater; Atriox wreaked unimaginable havoc on the human defensive position. Only a short half minute after and they had cleared the entire position.

They regrouped to continue their assault. This time directed towards their objective. As they ran towards the sensor station, they could hear something approaching. "A strafing run! Seek cover!" Cas shouted as a pelican flew straight towards them. Everyone jumped towards cover except Didip. He stood calm and ready with his fuel rod until the perfect moment. By some miraculous way he hit. Nor only did he hit the pelican, he hit the cockpit making it inoperable for anyone in the near future. It crashed into the ground behind them. But not before squad of human army troopers had jumped out.

These troopers tried their best to defeat Crimson Squad, but it not even close. Dux slaughtered three with his sniper whilst Cas took the last one himself. They continued on towards their objective, when they finally got to the door. Cas opened his comm, "Didip climb up on the roof and shoot down any incoming transports looking to reinforce this area. Dux find a good sniper position to take out potential incoming land targets. Beq, you stay with the two deciding on your own volition on who to support". He took a breath then continued "Atriox you're with me, let's shut this thing down". A curt nod from Atriox and they started. It did not take long for them to smash down the door, together they weighed more than a ton. Much more than what the small human door could handle.

As they entered, they heard the emergency sirens of the base turning on, notifying everyone of intruders. Cas silently cursed but continued forward towards what his HUD had designated as the main control room. Here he hastily found what they were after whilst Atriox guarded the door. He managed to shut down the entire system an was about to leave when 12 fully armoured ODST came crashing through the window. Spraying the two covenant troopers down, almost draining Cas' shield. Atriox looked to be in the same position. Knelt down behind a wall that gave some sort of protection.

Cas took a deep breath before jumping out. He punched one ODST with the hilt of his energy blade before throwing him in front of another and activating it through them both. He jumped over the now dead troopers and smashed another under his weight. Swinging his sword and decapitating another, he could see Atriox fighting against the humans like they were ragdolls. One of them was dented into the wall by a throw whilst another lost his entire head to Atriox's mace. The third managed to stab a knife in Atriox's gut only for him to pull it out and put it back down the ODST's mouth. Pushing it down until it hit the spine.

The rest were easily eliminated by the two massive monsters of soldiers before they began to walk out. Right before Cas noticed something, there was a nuke there. A human hell bomb. If that went off here it would blow up the ship in orbit above. Which would be catastrophic.

Cas instantly decided they needed to give the humans back their bomb. He called up the rest of the team regarding the situation and asked them to capture the next vehicle coming their way. As luck would have it, it was another pelican. Dux managed to expertly shoot through the glass and blow off the head of the pilot. As the human autopilot tried to make a soft landing yet another batch army troopers jumped out. It seems the humans were flying major troop formations this way. If they could manage to plant the bomb where they were all going it would be fatal for the humans.

Entering the ship was the easy part, trying to fly it was more difficult. Though the pressure of a still ticking nuke certainly made him more focused. The timer had reached 3 minutes. Scouring through the flightpath they managed to pinpoint the location it was going to. The access codes were even put in. Probably as a measure to be able to unload faster with no need to type it in again. A fatal mistake that could take the lives of many humans.

After flying for another minute, they saw the place. Sending over the access codes they were let in. Only for them to open the hatch, throw out the nuke and leave. Just in time too. A blinding light hit them so they could not see anything, when it cleared a beautiful mushroom cloud where the humans were mere seconds ago. Then the shockwave hit. Throwing their pelican forward and crashing into the ground.

From here they had to walk to the rendezvous point. It was only a few klicks away. They should reach the evac point in good time. One their way back they only encountered sparse resistance and not a single squad member got wounded. On their way back they started discussing who got the highest kill count. Disregarding the nuke everyone agree it had to be Didip, who singlehandedly took down three pelicans and a scorpion tank plus two warthogs. All transporting army troops to the position they just nuked. There had probably been many tens of thousands of troops amassing there. Which were now all gone.

Once they reached the pickup point, they were greeted by a sangheili minor who was the last of his squad, as well as the pilot who quickly walked aboard and took them up.

-Orbit over human world Madrigal Zealous Thunder-

Cas had expected to be met with some praise and congratulation. But a personal visit by a prophet, that was not something he expected. As the squad entered the bridge the Prophet of Acceptance turned around to greet them. A squad of Honour Guards protecting the Prophet and watching Crimson Squad's every move. The prophet spoke. "Why is the unggoy here? I did not ask for an unggoy" Didip taken aback by this blatant attack stood firm and stoic. Only a minute degree of anger slipped out. Cas started to speak to protect his comrade, "If I may noble prophet. That unggoy is a part of my team and he has no doubt done the most of any of us here, singlehandedly eliminating up to a hundred humans on this one mission. If there is someone who deserves praise, then it is Didip".

The look on Didip immediately changed, he shined with proudness and looked at the prophet with determined yet soft eyes. The prophet scoffed at this but accepted it and continued on, "Very well, I must congratulate your squad on not only completing a mission, but destroying a major human encampment, you saved hundreds, perhaps thousands today. You will be promoted to Spec-Ops Major. And the rest will all become Majors too. Dismissed".

After they left the bridge, they were all extremely happy, a promotion on the first mission was a great honour. Not even getting a day of rest the ship moved into slipspace to rendezvous with the fleet and move to their next target.