Gray Team, chapter 1 Options

[Agent Griff]

I've studied all my options regarding a Halo story, and this seems the most unexplored and the most mysterious of all Halo stories. Even Eric Nylund, author of several Halo novels said that he considered the story of Gray Team a subject for a possible novel. Where I'm gonna be 1 step ahead of them and I'll try to express what I think happened to Gray Team. Most of this story will be fictional but I will add some things which are canon in the mix. I hope you enjoy this story.

~~~

The year was 2525. The UNSC frigate Commonwealth was in orbit over the planet Chi Ceti IV, in the fringes of UNSC space, more than 77 Light Years from Earth. The Commonwealth had just dropped all of the Spartan IIs which had survived the byo-augmentation process to test their new armour. This armour, dubbed the Mjolnir Mk IV by its creators, was a new type of special combat suit which was designed from the ground up especially for the Spartans, and especially for fighting the Covenant.

The MJOLNIR Mark IV was a radical redesign of the suit taking advantage of many technological leaps. This advanced battle suit was the first to fully integrate with the soldier's body. The suit plugged directly into the soldier's nervous system through a standard issue Neural Interface. The suit's many functions (communications, hydro-static gel levels, environmental systems, etc.) responded to commands issued by the soldier's thoughts.

This was also the first design to successfully utilize the reactive metal liquid crystal as a means of enhancing locomotion. It flawlessly enhanced the speed and power of the wearer, a sharp contrast to previous versions which required powered motors to allow the soldiers mobility. Because of this advancement, the design more closely resembled an actual suit of armor, as opposed to a powered exoskeleton. On one level the soldier moved the suit and in return the suit moved the soldier. This allowed for an incredibly compact design when compared to the previous incarnations.

The success of this version was also dependent upon the parallel development of the Spartan-II program, which produced soldiers with the physical prowess required to drive the system. Previous attempts to wear the prototype suit by unaugmented soldiers resulted in their deaths or severe injury due to the extreme reactivity of the system.

As soon as the Spartans equiped their new suits, they found it to perfectly suit them and their needs on the battlefield. The Spartans could now be assigned into military units and be sent to battle the Covenant. Before they would be officially sent into battle however, the Spartans were forced to undergo a baptism by fire when a Covenant frigate entered the system and engaged the Commonwealth. As soon as they could load up on weapons and ammo, all of the Spartans were ferried via Pelican dropships to the Commonwealth. It was going to need all the help it could get.

As soon as the Spartans boarded the ship they received tactical information regarding the situation of the battle, information on their enemies and their role in the battle which was going from bad to worse for the UNSC. There was only one option left for captain Wallace, commander of the Commonwealth: send the Spartans to board the enemy ship. Without a flinch, the Spartans did what they were told.

After being taken by a Pelican dropship to the very hull of the Covenant starship, the Spartans infiltrated the ship through a hole in the hull made by the Commonwealth's MAC gun. The MAC gun was an advanced weapon used by the UNSC, on par with Covenant Plasma torpedos. They were in short suply however when the war started and few ships had fully functional MAC guns. When they were fully functional however, they were a weapon to be feared by the Covenant. A well placed MAC gun shot could disable a Covenant ship by destroying its engines, or destroy it completely by destroying its fuel cells. Before the hull could be destroyed however, there was always the issue of Covenant shielding. All Covenant ships had shields, and the most resilient of shields could even resist a SHIVA Nuclear Missile. In this situation however, the shields of the Covenant ship were down, and both ships were exchanging body-blows between eachother. The Spartans would turn this situation however.

Only three Spartans, John-117, Kelly-087 and Sam-034 succesfully landed on the ship and entered through it's hole. They reached the ship's reactor, tossed their warheads inside, and escaped. Unfortunately, Sam got hit by plasma from a Jackal that breached his armor making it impossible for him to follow his friends out from the ship since he would die from decompression. He was forced to stay behind . He held off the Covenant while John and Kelly escaped. The warheads went off, and the Covenant ship was destroyed, taking Sam with it.

This battle was a victory for the UNSC, yet the Spartans had paid a price in this victory. One of their finest was killed by the Covenant on his first mission. He was the first of the Spartans to be deemed "Missing in Action" by the UNSC. It was part of a startegy to keep morale up by maintaining the myth that Spartans couldn't be killed. The reality however, was painfully different from what UNSC publicity made it appear to be.

After the battle, the testing facility on the planet's surface was abandoned in fear of a Covenant counter-attack. This attack featured only one ship, yet Covenant fleets often employed great numbers of ships, upwards of 30 capital ships with many more support ships.

The Spartan super-soldiers were divided into platoons, called teams, which were colour-coded. The team of Spartan John-117 was Blue Team. Out of all the Spartan teams, one stood out. Gray Team. Sent into a mysterious mission to a place held secret by the UNSC, being named only "too far away to be recalled", they were one of the last remaining Spartans by the end of the year 2552, when Earth was invaded. Many kept seeing them as possible reinforcements to join the battle to come. Yet many also questioned wheter they actually existed and if they weren't dead.

The task of Gray Team, when they set out from the UNSC HQ on Reach in 2551, was to try to focus Covenant ships and troops into a far away section of Human space, while keeping attention away from Reach and, ultimately, Earth. Hoping for a diversion, Gray Team was sent along with a task-force of 7 UNSC ships to the furthest reaches of UNSC space, even further than Chi Ceti IV. The planet which was their destination, Caleston, was a rocky planet, made up of several continents with wide surfaces of undrinkable liquid between them. This, coupled with the great heat of Caleston caused by the nearby star Fury 821, made the planet lightly inhabited. It wasn't one of the greatest places to set up but it was better than other planets nearby.

The task-force, dubbed task-force Atlas after the flagship of the battlegroup the carrier UNSC Atlas, stood in orbit over the planet as Pelican and Albatross dropships ferried troops and engineers over to the surface of the planet. The whole taskforce was commanded by captain Alexander Quinn, a promising UNSC naval commander who had seen action before in the battles of Paris IV and Jericho VII. This was first mission in command of an entire task-force and he was visibly nervous.

As he stood on the bridge of his flagship, the leader of Gray Team came up to him to talk about what his Spartans would have to do in this mission. Since he was thinking heavily, he barely noticed Spartan Randall-079 coming up behind him, even if Randall was in his Mjolnir Mk V armour specially given to him and his squad-mates for this asignment.

"Sir?" Randall quietly asked from behind captain Quinn.

"What...who...oh, Spartan-079. I wanted to speak to you. Good thing you received my message quickly." Quinn said in a slightly nervous voice. It was the second time he talked with a Spartan, and he knew about their famed skills in battle.

"You can call me Randall sir, I much prefer it when people call me by my name. Regarding a message, you never sent me one sir." Randall after a slight pause in which he tried to remember any message sent to him. Captain Quinn had only thought of a message, but since he was so stressed he didn't actually send one.

"Well, it's good you came anyway. I've been receiving preliminary reports from the planet's surface. It seems it's uninhabited. A barren wasteland...thankfully." Captain Quinn said, gathering his thoughts and trying to calm down. He felt a constant beat in his heart, a constant fear which always gnawed at him from the inside, too faint to really affect someone but too powerfull to dissapear. Quinn was feeling it fully.

"I have gathered my men sir, we are all suited-up and ready to go. What are our orders sir?" Randall asked. He was not impacient yet he did not appreciate staying away from the subject.

"Very well then...Randall. Go to the hangar bays and board Pelican dropship Alpha Kilo 17. It will take you to the surface of the planet, where it is no longer my jurisdiction to give you orders. General Blake will handle everything from there. I wish you luck on the surface Randall." Quinn said in a calm and collected voice. To an outside observer, only slight flickers of his voice would show how stressed he really was. Those that knew him closely however, could clearly see that he had changed since his promotion to captain. From the confident and outgoing commander he used to be, he was now a hollow shell of his former self, always seeming to fear something which was neither close but neither far.

"Yes sir. Good luck to you as well, I hope this all goes well for you." Randall said as he politely saluted his commanding officer. Randall wished the captain luck with a slightly ironic tone. He smiled slightly as the captain's face went pale. Randall always liked making these slight jokes on his colleagues. Little gags to personally amuse himself and ease off the stress of constantly being ready for battle.

As he left the bridge, he left the captain alone, staring blankly at the large viewport which showed the planet above which his ships orbited. His task-force was well-equiped as far as UNSC standards went. The oldest ship he had was his own flagship, the Atlas, which had served in the war since its very start, in 2525. The other 6 ships, the heavy Marathon-class cruiser Acheron, the 2 frigates Ebon Falcon and Surprise and the 3 destroyers Avenger, Achilles and Galahad were all relatively new ships, all equiped with modernized MAC guns, Archer misiles and Shiva Nuclear misiles.

The long trials and tribulations of Gray Team had just begun...
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I hope you liked this first part of "Gray Team". Feedback and criticism is greatly appreciated.

This post has been edited by Agent Griff: May 11 2007, 07:12 PM

[Agent Griff]

Correct! The part when Tom asks what the marines could do to him and suggests being knocked over the head with a rifle stock is the Fallout reference. In Fallout, a Spartan is knocked over the head with a rifle stock and he is knocked out cold. Well seen Jack. Now to get on.

~~~
The ride with the warthog was bumpy, extremely bumpy. The terrain was rougher than expected and the Spartans had a hard time evading all the little bumps in the ground. Nonetheless, they didn't encounter anything during the whole trip and that made them feel relieved. All of them except Tom. He was aching for another kill since his last encounter with the Covenant. He loved to see Grunts cower in fear at the mere sight of him.

As they passed a great big hill they could see a scorched plateau in front of them. Sheer rock walls however stood between them and the plateau's surface. The Spartans however weren't on exploring the plateau as well. Feeling they had gone enough, Randall turned the Warthog and went back towards the base. They were eager to move again since they had gotten stiff all cramped in the Warthog. Tom's legs were also aching since he had stood and manned the turret for the entire trip. They were all eager to return.

Meanwhile, as the Spartans were making their way back to base camp, Captain Quinn was silently monitoring the situation from aboard the Atlas. As he quietly watched the planet, countless thoughts raced throughout his mind. Even though he did not like being in this situation, of leading a small battle-group into unknown Covenant space, he thought that it was better to be here rather than back on Reach. A silent fear had been etched into his mind, and had changed him, and he had been thinking about it ever since.

As he stood, quietly thinking, one of his officers interrupted him. As was with Randall, he did not notice him.

"Captain? Are you alright?" the lieutenant asked.

"Yes...yes, I'm fine. What is it?" Captain Quinn said, as he was interrupted from his thoughts.

"We have detected an unknown silhouette in slipspace sir, it's big, too big to be an asteroid, and it's coming towards us at great speeds." the lieutenant said with fear in his voice.

"E.T.A.?" Quinn asked.

"7 hours." the lieutenant quickly said.

"There's only one thing out there that's that fast, and it sure as hell isn't friendly." Quinn said as he blocked out all thoughts about the past from his mind. That was what he did in battles. It kept him from the stress of his memories.” Order the whole crew to be at their battle stations and prepare for immediate engagement. Equip and send out all of the Longsword starfighters as soon as possible. Relay these same orders to the whole battle group. And give me a link with General Blake and captain Maywheather from the Acheron."

The lieutenant, after a few moments of memorizing all of the commands left. Quinn was yet again alone. Alone against the Covenant. Just like in his troubled memories. Yet this was not the time to think about things which best lay forgotten. It was the time for action. Even though he was conscious of the fact that he had slim chances of defeating the Covenant fleet, Quinn was prepared to give them hell before he would lose the battle.

As the crew members of the Atlas scrambled to their stations, and the Longsword starfighters were equipped with ammo for the battle ahead, Quinn was given a link with captain Maywheater and general Blake. Blake was in the comfort of his own quarters and Maywheater was on the bridge of his ship. Blake was rather surprised but Maywheater seemed to know what was going on.

"I hope you two both know the situation we are currently in." Quinn said.

"No, I don't. What is it?" Blake asked in a slightly bewildered voice.

"The Covenant are heading towards us. Probably one of their Wolf-packs on the prowl. All ships are to prepare for battle and the marines on the ground are to prepare for ground combat. Our ships will try to hold the Covenant off as long as possible while Pelicans will try to evacuate as much of your soldiers as possible. We need the Spartans here on deck if the Covenant try to board our ships." Quinn said to Blake. Maywheater quickly gave orders to his lieutenants to prepare his ship for battle. Orders were relayed to the other ships as well.

"The Spartans are currently on a mission captain. I will call them on the comm. channel and tell them to hurry back to base. As soon as they're here, you can send one of your Pelicans to pick them up." Blake said. He seemed rather alarmed by the announcement of the Covenant threat.

"Most of my crew has already assumed battle stations. The ships are all in battle positions captain." Maywheater said.

"Excellent. All ships prepare their MAC guns for a coordinated salvo against Covenant ships. Archer missile pods and SHIVA nukes should be ready to follow up after the MAC barrage. I'm canceling this mission, I don't want to waste the lives of the Spartans given to me when they could be more useful somewhere else."

"Are you sure about this Quinn? HIGHCOM back on Reach will probably court martial you for canceling this mission against their express orders to continue at all costs." General Blake said, trying to convince Quinn not to evacuate all troops and cancel the mission.

"My opinions....haven't been taken in account and my authority has been...overruled before, General. I am not prepared to allow it again. If you don't agree with that, you can just stay on the surface and watch the Covenant glass the planet-with you on it!" Quinn said with anger and hate in his voice. It was not directed at General Blake however, but at someone else, someone within Quinn's troubled memories. He had however, succeeded in standing up to General Blake and defending his own opinions. It was a start.

"Ok, ok, I was just trying to make you think before taking such a hasty decision. My men will be ready for evac in a few minutes." Blake said trying to calm Quinn down.

"The rest of the battle-group is ready for engagement Quinn." Maywheater said.

As Quinn communicated with his two peers over the viewscreen, the Covenant Wolf-pack neared. Fleet Master Kusovai had not sent his entire fleet however, he had sent only 5 ships to carry out a preliminary strike against the UNSC ships and evaluate their strength, numbers and condition of their ships. After a short battle, the 5 ships would retreat and inform Kusovai of the composition of the UNSC fleet so that he could arrange his tactical plans accordingly.

As Quinn's ships finally went to their positions, the Covenant strike-force appeared. 5 ships appeared in the blink of an eye out of the parallel dimension of slipspace, 1 CCS Battlecruiser and 4 frigates. Quinn immediately saw that his ships outnumbered the Covenant ships yet he was also aware of the fact that this wasn't the entire Covenant Wolf-pack. Wolf-packs always outnumbered their targets at least 2-1 if not more. This ensured their chances of success.

As soon as the Covenant warships could be targeted by the MAC guns, Quinn commenced a volley. The shields of 2 of the frigates were overloaded and one of the frigates of was badly damaged by the volley. The CCS Battlecruiser however returned fire, firing its plasma torpedoes. It could not fire all of its plasma torpedoes, as it was not fully turned to bear upon the UNSC ships with all its turrets. As soon as the MAC volley was over, it was followed up by hundreds, if not thousands, of Archer misiles which hacked up the hull of the three frigates with overloaded shields.

Captain Quinn, noticing that 2 of the 4 frigates were on the verge of being destroyed, ordered all fire to be concentrated on them, in an effort to destroy them. Hundreds of Archer misiles slithered towards the 2 frigates like snakes slithering towards their prey. Even though they had sustained heavy damage, the frigates were still returning fire. As the MAC guns were being readied for another devastating volley, the CCS Battlecruiser, now fully turned, fired its plasma torpedoes for full effect, heavily damaging the UNSC frigate Galahad.

As soon as the MAC guns were ready for another volley, Quinn gave the order to fire. In one concentrated volley, 2 of the 4 Covenant frigates were destroyed while the other 2 were severely damaged. The CCS Battlecruiser still had its shields at more than 50% capacity, and was still bombarding the UNSC ships.

Seeing that the CCS Battlecruiser was still holding out, Quinn gave the other to close the distance and use SHIVA nukes to permanently disable the Covenant ships. All of the ships respected the order and started advancing at full speed towards the 3 remaining Covenant ships.The Galahad however was shattered to pieces under the heavy bombardment of the remaining Covenant ships. As Plasma torpedoes continually hit her hull, the ship was ripped into two separate pieces glowing with an eery blue light caused by the plasma.

As the required distance was nearly reached, Quinn ordered the MAC guns to be fired once more to disable the shields of the CCS Battlecruiser. All MAC guns fired in one coordinated volley, overloading the shields of the Battlecruiser. After the Volley, several SHIVA nukes were loaded up and prepared for immediate firing. For added effect, Quinn ordered that several of his Longsword Interceptors be armed with Shiva nukes and remotely driven right into the Battlecruiser. As they approached point blank range, the nukes would be detonated and the Longswords destroyed. It was a plan which often worked for the UNSC, which traded their Longswords for the chance of destroying or, at least, disabling a Covenant ship.

As the Longswords were launched, the Covenant Ship Master aboard the CCS Battlecruiser received a message from one of the remaining Covenant frigates.

"With all due reverence sir, we are taking a pounding here. Our ships do not have the resilience of your Battlecruiser. We must retreat!" the Ship Master of the frigate said to the commander of the CCS Battlecruiser.

"Fleet Master Kusovai ordered me to test the human defenses. They have worked rather nicely. If you do not have the skills to further continue this test, you are free to leave." the Ship Master of the Battlecruiser said to both the Ship Masters of the frigates. Soon enough, the frigates both entered slipspace and left the battle.

"Cowards..." the Ship Master muttered to himself.

Moments after those words were uttered by the Ship Master, his ship was instantly vaporized by the combined effect of several SHIVA nukes coupled with a volley of MAC guns. Captain Quinn had won his first victory against the Covenant, and what a crushing victory it was. 3 Covenant ships destroyed at the price of only 1 of his own frigates was a feat rarely seen. 2 of his destroyers were damaged by the battle however, and his own flagship had suffered the effects of Covenant plasma weaponry.

As soon as the battle was over, Quinn was approached by one of his lieutenants. Quinn felt a great sense of relief and a great weight taken off his shoulders. He feared that his first mission in command of his own battle group would be a failure, and that he would be criticized for it by his superior officers back on Reach. If there was one thing Quinn hated and feared more than the Covenant, it was the oppinions of his superior commanders who always seemed to be against him, no matter what he did. They would have a hard time finding reasons to criticize him now.

"The Covenant are retreating into slipspace sir, shall we pursue them or shall we exit the system as per your previous orders?" the lieutenant asked.

"Do not pursue the Covenant, carry on the evacuation procedures. Send as many ships down to the surface as possible and gather as many men, equipment and vehicles as you can. This victory has bought us the time needed to exit this system safelly." Quinn said with renewed confidence in his voice. For the first time since this voyage had begun, he finally felt a measure of confidence in himself.

"Understood sir." the lieutenant said as he hurried off to carry the orders.

Battle group Atlas had won a victory in the battle with Kusovai's Wolf-pack. They had not seen the full power of a Covenant fleet however...
~~~
I hope you enjoyed this part of Gray Team.

This post has been edited by Agent Griff: May 13 2007, 01:29 PM