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.

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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...
~~~
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]

Okay, here's the next part and the final part of this chapter.

~~~
As Tom's Bumblebee lifepod approached the surface of Caleston, he looked up once again to the battle in the skies which was coming to an end. Heavily damaged capital ships, both Covenant and UNSC were falling to the ground all around. Great flaming ruins, formerly ships of war. They had been rendered to flying graveyards now. Among the ruined ships, Tom could also observe the flagship of the Covenant fleet, the Sacred Promise, Kusovai's ship.

"We finally destroyed that behemoth? I've got a new ammount of respect for this captain Quinn, if he's still alive that is." Tom said as he looked with wonder towards the towering ship plummeting to its destruction.

Captain Quinn was alive and rather well aboard the Atlas. He stood on the bridge, looking towards the remains of the battle. Only 5 of his ships remained after the battle, most of them heavily damaged and with their ammunition almost depleted. He had lost the most potent ship of his task-force, the Acheron, and he also though that he had lost a Spartan. He still had 2 more at his side however. They came soon enough, purple blood all over them. They had fought off several Covenant boarding parties sent in the final stages of the battle.

"We've defeated the Covenant boarders sir. We have had severe cassualties however, almost half of the Marines who fought with us to defend the ship are either dead or badly wounded. Any further orders sir?" Randall asked with a cold, efficient voice. He had just been doing what he trained his whole life for, and he was still focused on his job. Mike was just as focused as him, if not more focused. He kept looking on the viewport for Covenant ships. They had retreated into slipspace however.

"The Acheron has been destroyed and your squad-mate, Tom, is most probably dead. The Covenant will probably be back with reinforcements so the only thing we can do is leave the system and hope for the best." Quinn said with a somewhat sad and regretfull voice. The Prowler stealth-ship accompanying them had laid all of its mines in preparation for the battle which had just ended. They were placed expertly, and they did great damage to the Covenant ships, yet Quinn sorely missed he had saved some for later.

"But sir, Tom just sent us a message through his AI. He said he was plummeting towards the surface of Caleston in a lifepod." Mike said, as soon as he heard mention of his squad mate.

"Hm. If your squad mate survived in a lifepod then it means that captain Maywheater must have issued a general call to abandon ship right before the Acheron blew up. There might be more survivors on the surface." Quinn stood a few moments, thinking about something. He started hunching his back. "Now that I...think of it, it is...adviseable that we leave your squad mate and the surviving crew of the Acheron for latter rescue. They might not be spotted by the Covenant on the surface of the planet." Quinn's voice was now merely relaying the orders he had secretly received before he and his task-force left Reach.

"That plan of yours relies heavily on chance sir. They might survive, yet they just as well may all be killed. Could you please reconsider this sir? The life of our fellow Spartan is at stake." Randall said, waiting to see the response of Quinn. He was a good judge of character, and had seen that Quinn changed from the undecisive, distant man he was when they first arrived to the dynamic, independent and confident commander he had been during the battle. Randall observed that Quinn had started to change after thinking a little.

"I might, but sending a rescue party to the system would involve holding orbit above the planet and waiting for the rescue party. This could give the Covenant time to attack once more...and this would be against my...my orders." Quinn said. He had been threatened by the man who gave him his secret orders that if all 3 of the Spartans would return from the mission, he would be demoted and even court-martialled. The man who gave him these orders, was Colonel James Ackerson of ONI, the enemy of the SPARTAN II program. Fearing court-martial, Quinn hesitated to send a search party for Tom, even if it meant sacrificing the other survivors.

"Hmm...I have an idea sir which I think you will appreciate." Randall said, after thinking over the reasons why Quinn might refuse to send a search-party. Randall knew that it would take some time before Covenant reinforcements appeared, enough time to send a search party down to the planet's surface.

"What?" Quinn asked, wanting to end the conversation as quickly as possible and jump to slipspace with the rest of his ships.

"Send me and Mike to the surface. Alone. We'll search for Tom and the other survivors and if we find them, we'll maintain a low profile until extraction is possible. You can maintain a link with my AI, Grendel, so we can be notified when you can extract us." Randall said with an extremely optimistic tone. He said all these things as if he was going to find a lost dog in a park, not going to find another Spartan on an uninhabited planet. Quinn started thinking a little, then smiled slightly. He saw that he just found a solution to avoid being demoted by the influencial Ackerson. As soon as he smiled, his face saddened. He realized that he was sending two Spartans to their very probable deaths. Still, he thought it a necessary thing.

"Hm...this is something rather unheard of. A very bold request Randall. I will have to keep in mind the fact that you personally requested this, and that HIGHCOM sent me here in the first place with 3 Spartans. Very well then. Still, for the sake of your safety, I'm sending a fire-team of Marines with you. Take a Pelican dropship as soon as you're ready, and make planetfall. I hope we can send a rescue team as soon as we can after we leave the system.

"Thank you sir, we appreciate this greatly." Randall said with an appreciative voice. He was grateful that Quinn allowed them to leave and even gave them a team of Marines to assist in their efforts. He also smiled under his helmet that his persuasion skills once again succeeded. Mike however, almost went pale under his helmet. Going alone to the surface of Caleston was the last thing he wanted, knowing that the Covenant would soon be back in force. Still, when it came to his "brother" he was prepared for anything.

"Good. You can leave after you suit up." Quinn said as he was saluted by the Spartans. He knew he was sending them to their likely deaths, yet he also knew that he did not want to rise against the will of Ackerson. Not yet.

Meanwhile, as Randall and Mike were suiting up and preparing to make planetfall, Tom was aimlessly wandering around the rocky highlands on the surface of Caleston. He walked for what seemed like ages, trying to find some kind of shelter, or other survivors, yet all he could see was a red, rocky landscape, and the ruin of the crashed Sacred Promise in the distance.

As he wondered around he soon started to stagger because of exhaustion. Soon enough, he fell down and lost consciousness. He had given in to exhaustion and a lack of water after travelling roughly 50 kilometers. As Tom laid down on the ground, he could see things going dark, finally blackening completely as he went unconscious. Several hours later, Tom woke up. He was now in another enviroment however. As he looked up, he could see the moist roof of a cave. He could also feel that he was lying on the cold floor of a cave. He quickly got up and, instinctively, tried to hold his pistol at the ready. His weapons had been taken away however.

Unarmed, Tom started cautiously walking around the cave, trying to see who or what had taken him there. He soon discovered the culprit. A man was quietly sitting down and blankly staring at the wall of the cave, apparently unaware of Tom's presence. Tom silently approached the man, aiming to imobilize him.

"I know you're there, so stop all that stealth non-sense." the man said sharply as Tom approached him. Tom froze as soon as he heard those words. For a few seconds he stood perfectly still, even holding his breath.

"It's no use staying still now that I know you're there you know? Is what they teach you military grunts these days? A shame...a shame. Why don't you introduce yourself?" the man asked as he stood up and turned. He had a regular face with a beard, and didn't seem to be part of the military.

"My name is Tom. Who are you and, most importantly, what are you doing here?" Tom asked the mysterious man.

"Nice to finally know your name Tom. All the hours I dragged you around through the wilderness, it's good to know your name now. My name is Preston. I can't...remember my other name. People however used to call me...well I can't remember that either but I wouldn't really want to remember it. It was an ugly...ugly name." Preston said, oddly repeating himself at times.

"People, what people? And you didn't answer my other question. What are you doing here?" Tom asked curiously.

"Oh, I shouldn't have told you about that. It's enough to say that they are all...gone now. A sad accident." Preston said, with an odd look on his face trying to immitate sadness. He soon started smiling however. "Who's to say they didn't deserve it however?"


"It seems we're gonna have a lot of talking to do...Preston." Tom said with a suspicious tone. Due to the way Preston talked about the other people, and the fact that he didn't really want to say why he was there made Tom awfully suspicious.

As Tom began for a more in-depth discussion with Preston, Randall and Mike approached the surface of Caleston. Bent on finding eachother, the three squad mates would inevitably meet...
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I hope you enjoyed this part of Gray Team. Comments are welcome as always.