Halo: Squad 21

by Chino and Russ and Audo

The war ended, We had won. We moved forward as much as we could until war threatened us again. As we fight with new allies against familiar enemies one man's lust for power takes over. That was their call, and this is their story, the story of Squad 21.

1. Prologue

Halo: Mission Log

Intro.

After the Human/Covenant War had ended in the year of 2552, the United Nations Space Command was still faced with a growing threat. The remaining members of the disbanded Covenant were sending messages of war, wanting revenge for their fallen brothers. At first these seemed to be cheap threats untill the sudden Glassing of a recovering outter colony. It seemed that a powerful and wise San 'Shyuum, a Prophet that had originally served directly under the three deceased members of the High Council, had assumed command of the Covenant. He called himself the Prophet of Rebirth.

The UNSC knew they could not risk another type of assault to the Human Race and, after months of talks and debates, the UNSC ordered that all soldiers, new and old, would undergo tests needed to see if they were able to be part of the Spartan-III training and augmentation program. They called this the Page Protocol, named after UNSC head director Mark T. Page. After two years of failures and deaths due to the attempts to equip the Spartan-III's with the more advanced MJOLNIR Mark V and even Mark VI armors, the UNSC and Office of Naval Intelligence began work on a new type of armor codenamed: TYRFING.

Thel 'Vadam of the Sangheili, The Arbiter to his people, lead an assault on the attacking Covenant force, claiming that the Humans have lost to many lives by the hands of the Covenant and maybe even more to Sangheili. This was their way to show respect to the lives that both the Humans and Sangheili lost. After successfully pushing back the small advancing Covenant fleet he announced that they, the Sangheili, would take up arms and defend the outer colonies, giving the humans time to ready themselves for another possible attack. Thus peace was an inevitability and sharring of technology began.

Even though the Sangheili, or Elites, were true to their word attacks from the Covenant were not uncommon.

After a year of searching ONI found what was thought to be long lost, the original files and data of Dr. Halsey. Thus the UNSC voted and unanimously agreed it was time to re-open the Spartan-II and MJOLNIR Projects. Although this time children would only be "adopted" from orphanages instead of kidnapped due to the leaking of that dark secret. This act was carried out under the Downing Protocol, Named after General Robert A. Downing. This stated that every orphan that reached the age of five would be adopted by the UNSC untill the Human Race is no-longer under alien threat.

After another year ONI was able to access further and much more detailed data in the Doctor's files, thus revealing why nearly ninty percent of the Spartan-II initiates had died during the genetic augmentations. As it turned out the children needed to have a specific strain of DNA. After further evaluation it was decided that the UNSC would continue to "adopt" children, but they would be split into two groups. There were the Spartan-II's and the Spartan-III's, halting the already initiated Page Protocol and allowing recruits to train under normal settings, thus saviing the UNSC wasted time and money, and also halting the slightly growing "Initiate Body-count".

By 2571, eightteen years after starting the new programs, The UNSC had 900 Spartan-III soldiers, 216 Spartan-II's and a meeting between UNSC Officials and Sangheili Lords to discuss interplanitary trade and arms shares was taking place within a joint ship named: The Diligo Quod Pacis. Much was learned from both sides and ended with the advancement of Human space travel and of Sangheili economy. On top of the shared advances it was also agreed to allow the Sangheili to take up residence and visit our planets freely, and visa-versa.

Early in 2575, The UNSC and Sangheili forces began to plan a assault on a key Covenant controlled world that would begin what would be called Operation Breakdown. Aptly named because the reason for the starting of this new battle was to essentially breakdown the remaining Covenant. The world that was targeted was none other than the home planet of the Jiralhanae, Doisac. Captain Dom Miho, the highest ranked Spartan-II at the time, was to lead the ground assault with a Division under his command made up of 76 Spartan-II's, 648 Spartan-III's, 1,700 Marines, and 492 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. He was given two Stealth Cruisers so he could easily avoid the orbital battle so the still more advanced Sangheili ships could attack with a blitzkrieg from the day side and he could sneak up on the night side.

The plan had been tweaked and re-evaluated many times and was ready to be put into action late in 2576, but on the eve of the planned attack and the 24th anniversary of the end of the Human/Covenant War, a large, unknown group, attacked a Top-Secret UNSC Ship yard and began to steal multiple ships that had been equipped with Sangheili weapons and technology. Reacting quickly the UNSC sent the closet forces in the area to attempt to stop the attack, among the forces was a squad of Spartan-II's known as S21.