Riz-028

"You can't become a hero in life; you can in death."

- Riz-028 SPARTAN-028, identified as Riz-028, is a SPARTAN-II commando serving in the UNSC Naval Special Warfare during the Human-Covenant war. Unlike most other recruits, Riz was thankful to be abducted in the program after a lifetime of neglect, from her abusive stepfather.

Early Life
Riz, born Remmie Young, was the daughter of Harrison Kyte and Amelia Young. Her father, a respected East European businessman, and her mother, a Luna native who descended from English settlers. Just a day after her birth, Riz's father was lost in space and assumed dead. Her name, Remmie, is in honor of her paternal Great-Grandmother. Eventually, her mother remarried to Benjamin Hinker when Riz was less than a year old. Benjamin was abusive, and caused discord in the home. When her mother filed for divorce, she lost custody of Riz to Benjamin, which caused her to take up heavy amounts of alcohol and drugs. She eventually overdosed. Benjamin frequently beat Riz, and malnourished her. She took to extensive workout at a very young age, believing that she was unfit for her father and that is the cause of her abuse. In reality, he was a hardened insurrectionist war veteran that took his trauma out on young children.

At one point, Riz was bullied in pre-school. This had a negative effect on her, and she frequently resorted to bullying other young children. This behavior persisted until grade school, where she was identified as one of 150 possible candidates for the SPARTAN-II program by Dr. Catherine Halsey in 2517. She was abducted on the night of September 17th, 2517, and replaced by a flash clone. After her stepfather attempted to engage in illegal activity with the clone, the clone died and he was arrested.

Training
"Y'know, all my life, I thought I was just fat. So I decided I wanted to punch some people. But then I realized when I met you that some people might be better than punching."

- Riz on the 7th day of training to Vannak.

The Recruits
While initially confused, Riz was eventually happy to have been taken away and given a chance to train her physical strength. Initially acting up, she fell into line and exceeded in early training. On the first day, Franklin Mendez made the trainees do 100 reps of Jumping Jacks, Sit-Ups, Deep squats, Pushups, and Leg Lifts. Used to these exercises, she finished first, and decided to do more sets while waiting. While tired, Mendez made the trainees jog to the Reach Naval Academy, where they were greeted by Déjà. Riz, who had never met an A.I, thought the personality was funny and asked her questions. After informative videos, they jogged two miles to the "playground", a brutal obstacle course with a bell at the top. The candidates were grouped into threes; Riz was teamed with Randall-037 and Vannak-134, two children her age. They were tasked with playing "ring the bell", where they had to work together to get to the top of the playground and ring the bell. Their team, ultimately, finished 2nd. Randall and Riz agreed to leave Vannak, who had been falling off the course, behind. Vannak, angry at them, pushed Randall off. Riz had a brief argument, before punching him in the temple. Both were reprimanded, and Randall was put into the medical wing for a couple of days. She personally visited both of them, and apologized (Albeit, slightly aggressively.)

The next day, the candidates were woken up and ran a mile to Deja again. This time, the playground was more complicated. Vannak, while still struggling, improved. Due to Randall being absent, the third person on the team was Kai-125. Kai helped Vannak, and Riz decided to help him again as well. They finished first, and had a dinner. Congratulating eachother, Riz realized she may be able to consider Vannak and Kai friends.

On September 26, the candidates began training on combat methods. These included learning how to strip a tripline, fire guns and treating various wounds. They engaged in regular activity on the playground; oftentimes, Mendez would add his own twist. Snipers with paint guns, for example, would commonly shoot down the children during training. Mines and traps were also laid across courses; ultimately, this process hardened most of the children. Notably, Vannak seemed to have started fearing the courses after having several bruises and welts. Upon asking Vannak about it, he explained that he was sometimes bullied at school. The bruises reminded him of a time he was nearly stabbed by an older child; upon remembering the abuse, Riz shared her own experiences to comfort him. They were reprimanded and resumed training.

Cooperation
">> We could be, team, eh..

>> Marine!

>> What? No, too boring.. How about, shark."

- Naomi and Riz, on naming the "team" In 2519, when the subjects were 8 years old, they began advanced education (equal to a college education) and education on specialized subjects, such as mechanical physics. Vannak, annoyed of the fact that Daisy-023 refused to go on a "date" with him, decided to workshop a special machine to "get back" at Daisy and Mendez. The machine in question consisted of a large mechanical arm that he bolted into the ceiling when he should have been watching the presentation; he filled it with paint, and covered Daisy in all-green paint. He attempted to refill it so that he could get Mendez, he was reprimanded and put in detention. After being released, and apologizing to Daisy, he educated Riz on mechanics (which she struggled at) and helped her build her own model of machine. While the incident later became known as the "Cafeteria Garden" due to the green color of paint, the 'Vannak Arm' was later refined to act as a "trap" to training ODSTs in the late 2520s.

On July 12th, 2519, the candidates departed to the Military Wilderness Training Preserve. Torn pieces of paper were distributed across the candidates, all fragments of a map of the area. They were set down in a grid, all on the corners of square kilometers. There were 72 candidates in the exercise, and somewhere in the center of the grid (which had been left blank) was an Albatross, waiting to pick them up. The last one there would be left behind and had to walk the 30 kilometers back. Riz met Naomi-010, Daisy-023 and Li-008. Eventually, they also found Vinh-030 and Robert-025. They combined their maps and formed a rough idea of where they could find other candidates, and the 6 of them walked north for 20 minutes before encountering a group consisting of Joshua-029, Otto-031, August-099, John-117 and Vannak. The 11-member group eventually found several smaller groups, and after 5 hours most of them had assembled. Leaving their maps behind, Riz went with Naomi and Vannak to locate the other SPARTANs in the area. They found Arthur-079 and Victor-101, and returned to find Joseph-122 at the camp. Still, there were roughly 10 additional children missing. By then, the children had assembled a loose map and a group of 7 (containing John, Riz, Vannak, Kai, Naomi, Victor and August) to scout towards the center of the grid. Eventually, they came across a lake with an Albatross landed. To their shock, roughly 15 Armed Men stood near the ship, and John told August to warn the others and bring reinforcement. August, halfway back, was captured by a patrol squad. Learning of this, Riz and John decided to lure some of the soldiers in and rescue August. Vannak, wandering near 2 men, broke branches and yelled at them. Running after him into the woods, the 5 others knocked out the two (tho one later died of related injury). They stole MA5 rifles, and went to find August. They found him guarded by 6 men, and the SPARTANs opened fire. While they were evenly matched, the SPARTANs had more advanced training and killed 3 of them. The soldiers, amazed at the children's skills, surrendered and gave up August. They regrouped, giving guns to some other children, and launched an assault at the ship. In the end, they forced the 8 remaining survivors into the woods. All the SPARTANs entered the dropship, and John waited an additional 4 hours for the remaining SPARTANs to arrive. Cal-141, Roma-143, and Jorge-052 were found. The final remaining SPARTANs grouped up, and John contact Deja to pilot the ship back to base.

On the way back, the SPARTANs thought they should create their own "team" with all of them. Many names were thrown around, from options such as "Alpha" "Beta" and "Gamma", to "Super" "Heroes" and "Awesome". In the end, Riz suggested team "shark". John, enjoying the name, declared them all team "Shark" and John, who organized the assault on the soldiers, was deemed "Shark Leader". When they got back, Mendez congratulated them on their teamwork (Although, he sent rescue squads to find the marines.) and gave them all ocean-themed dinner, while watching classic shark films. The dessert then was crabcake.

The Paint Wars
Later in the year, "team Shark" was "disbanded" (tho technically it never officially existed). The children began being split into teams, and Riz was put into White Team with Vannak, Kai and Malcolm-059. On August 3rd, the children entered into "Paintball Warfare". 18 Teams, with 4 members each, would face off in varying rounds. The winners would earn a marvelous feast; the rounds went smoothly, with White Team dominating each round. The goal was to "soak" the other team, and capture the flag at the center. The flag, weighing 300 pounds, was incredibly heavy, and all 4 members were required to lift it. The final round was fought between White and Orange team, which consisted of John-117, Fred-104, Linda-058 and Kelly-087. White team was capable of reaching the flag, but Orange had incredible teamwork and managed to push White team down. John, alone, pulled out the flag over 40 seconds while the rest of the team covered him. Linda was capable of hitting Kai accurately from over 80 meters way, annoying him and causing him to train extensively in marksmanship. John pulled the flag over and dropped it on Kelly; Orange Team won and White Team was offered warm showers and food. The rest of the teams were given stale bread or undercooked meat.

More rounds of Paintball Warfare began to take place. Many more gametypes and objectives were created; This included Elimination, where the main goal was to score the enemies out by tagging them. Capture The Flag; conceptually similar to Soak, except that each team must take the (much lighter) flag from the enemy base to their base. Faceoff, where 8 SPARTANs fought solo against eachother, the goal to soak eachother. Over time, the teams shifted around. Malcolm was replaced by James at multiple points. Kai was occasionally moved to Orange. On the 31st of every month, starting September, tournaments similar to the first time were held. Mendez coined paintball warfare as a "fun" way to teach them about practical warfare. At some points, experienced Marines were given paintball guns as well so that they could face off against the teams.

On November 28th, 2520, a "team deathmatch" was held. Similar to Faceoff, except each team was playing. This time, it was in a square-kilometer courtyard, with multiple "ordinances" containing high amounts of weapons. Near the center, there was a sidetask of liberating a Warthog and driving it to freedom. It started at 12:00 P.M; White Team, consisting of Riz, Vannak, Kai, and Naomi, managed to score out Brown Team, containing Vinh, August, Li and James. They fought and scored out 2 other teams, Red and Purple. Kai had taken a stray round, resulting in his elimination. Nearing the center, the 3 of them encountered Orange Team. Scoring out Kelly and Fred, Riz and Vannak decided to board the warthog. Naomi, getting on the gun, fired upon them as they drove off. The gun featured paintball rounds, and they managed to drive to freedom. White, winning the game, was treated with a thanksgiving feast. Approaching orange afterwards, they accepted each other as worthy opponents and went on their ways.

One Team
On July 10th, 2523, Mendez announced that games conceptually similar to paintball warfare would be held. Instead of going up against eachother, tho, these would be against Tango Company, a group of hardened insurrection veterans. On July 14tth, the first match was held. Team A(lpha), consisting of 12 members (Riz, John, Vannak, Naomi, Kai, Linda, Kelly, Vinh, James, Otto, Leon and Li) went up against 3 squads of Marines with 5 members each. Outnumbered, Kai and Linda decided to snipe the marines. However, when Otto and Leon were hit, they passed out. The rounds, not paintball anymore, were suddenly much more dangerous. Falling back, the two of them took 3 marines before being captured. Charging the enemy base, Riz, John, Vannak and Naomi took out 8 of them and freed Kai and Linda. They won the match, knocking out all the marines, and left for Team B(eta). There were a total of 6 teams, Alpha-Beta-Charlie-Delta-Echo-Fox.

Going up several more times, Tango Company became bitter of how the "threak Section Three kids" were always capable of defeating them. Their CPO, Antony Zegas, secretly let them use Live Rounds and Real Explosives, and gave permission to "do what you want" if they captured any. On October 1st, a faceup between 50 Marines and 15 Children was held. The Marines, now using malicious intent, had injured many and taken them. Falling back, many of them wanted to retreat further and ambush them later. However, upon learning what they'd do to the captured, including August, Riz and John decided they'd go, solo, to rescue them, like they had years ago in the forest. Sneaking up on a squad, they killed the members and stole grenades. They threw them over walls, and ran in full assault. Kai, sniping, had decided he would steal one of the real firearms. Taking and MA5, he mowed down marines before entering the compound, There, he found 5 men beating many of the children. Throwing a grenade beneath the feet of them, John and Isaac-039 carried them out on their backs. Sustaining fire while doing so, they evacuated and successfully completed the op, "Knocking Out" 50 (tho only 29 marines survived the encounter).

PROJECT: ASTER
On the onset of puberty, which would complicate training and feelings, the SPARTANs were subjected to augmentation in PROJECT: ASTER. An untested and dangerous process that would change them mentally and physically forever; the 75 children were brought to orbital stations to undergo advanced physical changes, using chemicals and injections that altered their bodies to near perfect strength and durability. The highly dangerous procedure was flawed, and "Killed" 45 of the children. In reality, only 33 were killed; 12 of them had been "washed out" and severely wounded; phased out of the way and said to be dead. Some, such as Jerome-092, would eventually get retrained and given full MJOLNIR armor, giving them full SPARTAN status. Upon discovering that an alleged 45 of them had been killed, Riz mourned the loss of her deceased siblings whom she knew so much more than anybody else, and was inconsolable for days. Vannak and Kai attempted to make her feel better.

Titanium Team
On September 11th, 2525, Riz and the rest of the augmented SPARTANs were transferred to an abandoned Titanium mine on Reach to increase secrecy and aide the personnel there. Due to the incredible strength, agility, and speed of the teens, the personnel wore MJOLNIR mk.I exoskeletons simply to keep up with them. Engaging more training exercises, this time with live rounds, the SPARTANs won every round even against ODSTs. Split into different teams, Riz was placed as commander of Yellow Team, featuring Kai, a sniper and scouting specialist, and Vannak, a technical specialist.

Human-Covenant War
The SPARTANs were equipped with powerful MJOLNIR Mk.IV Powered Armor in November 2525; before that, an unidentified class of massive ship was seen near the edge of the Epsilon Indi system. An initially peaceful first contact resulted in a massive conflict on the planet, spanning many years and many battles which would be known as the Battle of Harvest. Despite a successful first operation conducted by Blue Team in September against insurrectionists, the strange new alien threat was far more deadly than the rebels humanity previously faced and resulted in a terrifying opponent. The SPARTANs, trained and ready, were the first line of defense against the Covenant. Initially highly effective, they became a feared and occasionally respected symbol of "Demons", and were hunted by cocky Sangheili. Yellow Team, led by Riz, was deployed in March of 2526 to dispose of the aliens. Deployed to Harvest in March, their main goal was, along with teams Red and Blue, to board and kill covenant ships from the inside. Succeeding in these, Yellow Team was eventually moved to assist human forces on the rapidly decreasing amount of outer colonies. The most notable deployment was the battle of Biko, where they were deployed to aide in evacuating the planet.

Battle of Biko
Yellow Team departed in 2526 to Biko, where they were tasked with evacuating major cities to an inner colony before Covenant could arrive. Finally, in May, the Covenant attacked the planet. Yellow Team, reassigned with destroying a covenant battlecruiser, boarded the UNSC Demigod, a Paris-classHeavy Frigate. Along with group Delta, the fleet consisting of 10 UNSC Frigates arrived above the planet. Initially, they were encountered by swarms of Banshees. However, after realizing the banshee squads were getting quickly outmatched by the superior designs of ship, the battlecruiser deployed modern Morsam Patterned Seraphs. While during earlier battles the UNSC had encountered the slightly slower Kai Patterned models, the newer models were much faster and capable of deploying torpedoes to dispatch of major communications on the ship."What the hell did I just see?"

- Captain H.M Junwats after his ship, the Demigod, was attacked by Seraphs. In order to keep up with the ships, several GA-TL1 Longswords were deployed to keep up. While the Longswords were capable of driving some off, others still performed hit-and-run attacks on other frigates. All the while, the battlecruiser Sustaining Preacher was drawing closer. Outnumbered, the Seraphs decided they would die noble in combat, crashing into the engines of the Demigod at full speed. Rendering the ship unmoveable, the captain H.M Junwats requested all onboard personnel get to an escape pod. Yellow Team evacuated several men before two other frigates ran their forward-facing MAC Cannons into the hull of the battlecruiser. Breaking it's powerful shielding, more frigates opened as much fire. Still, the seraphs heavily damaged the ships, and 5 were damaged before the battlecruiser sustained enough damage to open up. The Longswords deployed flew and dropped missiles on the underbelly of the ship, one detonating in it's Ventral Projector and causing a nuclear explosion in the ship. The ship, splitting in two, was nonfunctional at this point and finished with a single MAC Blast. Despite the Pyrrhic victory, more battlecruisers began appearing on the planet and Yellow Team deployed.

On May 5th, Yellow Team was sent to help civilians make it to the Eclipse-class shuttles in the nearby spaceport. However, the mass amount of civilians in the street and mass panic at the alien invasion was causing massive pileup, and the bridge leading towards the port had been destroyed by a plasma torpedo. The crowd, now running in the opposite direction, stopped as a covenant Lich had began rapidly deploying covenant lances and firing into the crowd. Grabbing and shuffling as many as they could, Riz and the rest of Yellow Team barely managed to evacuate more than 20 people. Retreating into a subway tunnel, Vannak and Kai stayed at the bottom shooting until the Covenant had mostly departed from the area. Running down the tunnels, Riz lead several civilians (including 4 children) into an abandoned area. Finding it leading into a cave-in, the Civilians were attended to by Riz. Finally, after about 30 minutes, Kai and Vannak returned, revealing they had sealed off the tunnel. Unknown to them, the mysterious process of glassing was occurring above. The immense heat caused by the beams nearly made some die of dehydration; the SPARTANs resorted to giving them emergency sustenance located in their belts. The small packs, filled just with a biscuit, water, and slice of fruit, were barely enough to sustain half of the group for the better part of a day; knowing they needed an escape plan, Riz ordered Vannak and Kai to dig out. When attempting to hijack some sort of radio line, Riz was approached by a young child asking whether his mother was okay. His mother, who died of dehydration, had started to smell of rot. Riz, feeling horrible she never even realized this, began to cry. The child, knowing this too, started to get upset. Realizing that she had to set an example, she gave the child a picture in her wallet. The civilian's wallet consisted of a picture of the child and her, seemingly in France. She told him to hang onto it, and asked if his father was here. He said no, and she told him to go find somebody else. After he was mostly out of view, she took the body and buried it. Unknown to her, she had inspired a SPARTAN-III, Nicholas-A106, to later join the program.

Realizing that they needed to dig out before more people died of hunger, Riz joined the two others in digging out. Punching through the dirt, they had shifts between them every 30 minutes to check on the civilians. The dirt, clogging Riz's system, caused the MJOLNIR armor to lockup and function less. Taking off her helmet, she used that to dig, working as a bucket. However, when dirt got caught in her Neural Lace, her armor was rendered entirely useless, while also causing her extreme pain. Vannak ripped off most metallic parts of the armor, before entirely removing her from the suit. Now incapable of working any more, she returned to the civilians to find some dying of hypothermia. Treating them with warm blankets, she used the last 3 of her sustenance packs to treat the worst-off. Vannak and Kai had left their packs, combined only having 14, which would have to be sparsely given out. Only about half of the original group remained, and she concentrated 3 for each of the 3 remaining children. Giving the rest to the adults, she managed to strip a pipe from the fuel line in the system. She used the pipe to break through, but after about 8 meters, she ran into hard obsidian. Vannak, ready to punch through, told them to stand back. Nicholas looked at Riz's broken and rusted helmet, still on the floor, and attempted to pick it up. Riz picked up the 75-pound metallic helmet, before removing the glass and broken parts. As Vannak finally made a way to the surface, she gave the (slightly) lighter helmet to Nicholas. Putting it in his backpack, the 8 survivors and the 3 SPARTANs climbed up to the surface for the first time in 6 days.

The surface was underwhelming; instead of a city, it was a flattened piece of glass. Despite being several days since initially being glassed, the surface still had several fires lit and Vannak brought back sticks to make a campfire-esque heating area. Vannak walked over 50 kilometers west into a forest, bringing back a killed elk. Distributing the meat among the civilians, he then decided to depart to find any settlements, and attempt to link up with UNSC Forces. Giving her a radio, he left. Kai had scouted the perimeter 3 kilometers out, and noted that there is nothing but glasslands and that it would probably be "Atleast 50 or 60 kilometers" before they'd even get to semi-natural land. Throughout the night, the 3 SPARTANs took shifts staying awake. Riz wanted to take shifts, but was convinced, reluctantly, not to. The next day, the 10 of them hiked 30km before resting. More elk meat was cooked, and the elk was consumed to the stomach. They hiked 20 kilometers before stopping for the night; that time, Kai had spotted lights on the horizon. He went in that direction, promising to return. He returned 5 hours later, finding nothing. Finally, after nearly 10 days of being stranded, a signal from Vannak came. He had linked with UNSC Forces in a city some 500km from them, being raided by Covenant. A Pelican was en route to evacuate them. 10 Hours later, it arrived; the civilians were evacuated. Nicholas hugged Riz, and she was evacuated on a different Pelican.

New Armor
Biko, now 75% glassed, had been nearly completely evacuated. Riz was transported to an orbiting station, and as an injured SPARTAN-II, took priority from the ones who had been injured in the battle. It was revealed that the dirt in her interface had caused rust and infection, short-circuiting it. If she hadn't had augmentations, she likely would have died. Kai and Vannak returned to the station by the time Riz was fully healed; there, she received a new suit of MJOLNIR. Yellow Team, at the station, encountered Green Team, recently failed another attempt at OPERATION: SILENT STORM. Attempting to catch up, Yellow team was debriefed before any real socialization could occur.

Yellow Team was taken out of the system so that they could participate in OPERATION: Velvet, a top-secret operation to kidnap several covenant species members and dissect them, to hopefully design powerful and specific bioweapons against them. The operation would consist of SPARTAN squads Green and Yellow, and took place on July 11th, 2526.

OPERATION: Velvet
"What the hell is that thing?"

- Riz-028 upon encountering a Mgalekgolo during OPERATION: Velvet. Teams Yellow and Green departed from the frigate Nightman at roughly 28:00(L) hours, above the planet Alpha Aurigae 8. Landing at 28:29, SPARTANs Kai and Malcolm-059 scouted the area before finding a covenant area. Alerting the SPARTANs remaining near the LZ, the pelican Big Ol' Pa along with ships Cookiescent and Bitterorange flew roughly 19 kilometers to the covenant. The secret to the attack was stealth; so Riz,Kurt-051, Vannak and Anton-044. The fireteam, titled Velvet Prime, were equipped with tranquilizing guns akin to the ones used in training. They were equipped with some degree of lethal weapons, tho, in case the mission went wrong. Riz ordered Anton and Vannak around the side, while Kurt would attack from behind after Riz went in. On her command, Riz, Anton and Vannak all opened fire. When in close combat, Kurt attacked from behind and caught the lance off guard. Within a minute, all Covenant were tagged and after 3 minutes all of them were asleep. However, the mission wasn't over; 2 Phantoms had been deployed to the area and had dropped several lances down.

Requesting air support, the three Pelicans fired upon the ground. While tranquilizer rounds were used, mainly lethal weaponry was deployed against them as many samples had been gathered. Anton had sustained several plasma rifle shots, and was severely wounded. Kai covered Riz as she helped Anton, and the rest of the SPARTANs arrived. Shooting down many Grunts and Jackals, they tranquilized three Elite leaders before they succumbed. 25 tranquilized covenant confirmed; however, two Mgalekgolo had been deployed to dispose of the demons. After showing incredible durability, even injuring Vannak and Kurt, the SPARTANs assumed Mgalekgolo were some kind of mechs and requested air support. Cookiescent opened fire and killed one hunter, but one still survived (albeit wounded). After attempting to tranq the hunters, they ended up using a SPARTAN Laser to "destroy" the "mech". Upon investigating the body, they found it was a completely odd specimen and they decided to load * specimens into Bitterorange. The specimens included: 10 Unggoy, 7 Kig-Yar (4 Ibie'shan, 3 Ruuhtian), and 5 Sangheili. All were donated to Procedure 110-Velvet, which would contribute to the development of new weaponry against some covenant species.

Ultimately, the 7 Spartans sustained minor injuries, while Kurt, Vannak, and Anton sustained more serious wounds. A full recording of the event has been analyzed; the success of OPERATION: Velvet inspired two more operations and procedures: OPERATION: Velvet Knife, preceding Procedure 111-Velvet in 2535, and OPERATION: Velvet Blade preceding Procedure 112-Velvet in 2548. Riz would continue to serve OPERATION: Velvet Knife later on.

Battle of Alpha Aurigae
As Yellow Team had already been deployed in the system, they had stayed for increasing security in the broadpart. In October of the year, the entire system came under fire in a massive naval battle between Alpha Aurigae Defense Fleet and the Fleet of Nobility and Preach. The defense fleet was one of the largest UNSC Fleets at the time, with 117 total ships under command of Preston J. Cole. The Covenant Fleet, smaller than anticipated, arrived in the system on October 21st with only twelve ships. It was the first encounter with the CAR-Class Frigate. The "first wave" consisted of 25 frigates, engaging 2 Covenant ships. The 2 ships, each battlecruisers, severely outmatched the 25 Frigates on their own. However, Yellow Team, who had been in naval battles like this on Biko, knew that they needed assistance to defeat it. 5 Fleets of Longswords, deployed from Frigates further back, deployed Hit-And-Run tactics against the battlecruisers. In the end, 5 of the Frigates were severely damaged, and an additional 4 destroyed. However, a sixth of the enemy fleet had already been destroyed.

Over the next hour, more small-scale engagements would occur. This was the first large-scale engagement between small fighters, including Banshees, Seraphs and the first sighting of the Phantom Gunboat model. The engagement eventually ended in the Human Fleet's pyrrhic victory; however, a total of 30 ships had been completely destroyed while an additional 7 were so damaged they could not be recovered. The damage to the surviving ships resulted in over 1,000,000,000 credits required being spent; as such, many of the ships were scrapped and rebuilt into eachother. Some of the ships in the fleet, such as the Commonwealth, became so damaged they were mostly stripped for parts for the other ships. Admiral Cole specifically thanked Yellow Team for their assistance in the battle, which aided their victory, and all 3 of them earned the Silver Star award.

Battle of XI Boötis A
In the years after the battle of Alpha Aurigae, few major conflicts with the Covenant happened. As such, many of the SPARTAN-IIs were kept training. Yellow Team had independently trained for months; sometime during this, Riz was promoted to Petty Officer First Class (PO1). Meanwhile, Kai and Vannak both had been promoted to Petty Officer Third Class (PO3) and Crewman (CR), respectively. In order to keep their training up, they regularly hunted animals. However, they were recalled to serve in the Battle of XI Boötis A in 2528. Happy to finally be able to get their boots muddied, Yellow Team deployed into the system on February 15th.

Similar to the battle of Alpha Aurigae, the UNSC Fleet (consisting of 70 ships) went against 8 warships. This time, under the advice of Riz, the longswords were deployed first and gained an early tactical advantage, swarming and overwhelming 2 ships. Receiving backup, several Frigates engaged covenant ships. Despite having an early lead, the ships started to overpower the human fleet. Riz requested, personally, if she could pilot a longsword. Despite objections, the admiral, J.F Tieban, cleared it and Riz went out. Knocking out engines on a ship, several covenant battleships fell. Despite a naval victory, the fleet once again lost nearly half of it's entire worth. Riz demonstrated her piloting ability, and despite Tieban facing charges, they were dropped when Riz was moved into piloting duty for the next battle, the battle of Hat Yai.

Pilot's Training
"Damn, you inspired me, SPARTAN. And more than you navy folk really do; you actually made me want to test myself. Push me to the limit. I'd, really, actually, truly, be honored if I could help you out- teach you your way around a pelican. Anything, ma'am!"

- Malissa Yvetta, meeting Riz-028 for the first time outside of the battle of XI Boötis A.

Riz, who demonstrated her extreme piloting skills, was moved away from the command spot in Yellow Team to engage in extra piloting advice. Kai had been moved to Red Team while Vannak had been put on Green Team. Moved into the Sargasso Academy of Advanced Military Piloting, Riz was given a F-39 Broadswoard for test runs. Flying some 100km above the planet surface before returning, she met Malissa Yvetta, a reknowned UNSC Air Force Major (MAJ). Yvetta, who had served in the same fleet Riz piloted in in the battle of XI Boötis A, was inspired by the SPARTAN and wished to personally mentor her. Teaching her tricks, she learned how to fly many ships; her favorite, tho, was the longsword, which she flew beforehand. By June, Riz had proven an advanced ability to outfly even the most experienced pilots; even when against pilots that had flown for decades. Amazed at her ability, Malissa Yvetta "challenged" Riz to a race around the continent. Starting at the academy, they had 10 major "checkpoint" cities to flyover. Yvetta won, although Riz was only 8 seconds behind. Stunned at the SPARTAN's ability to fly, she gave her a personalized PILOT helmet that included the ability to interface with A.I; unmatched tech for the time. The "dumb" A.I, Frida, had served as the main A.I for every pilot at the academy.

Towards September, Riz was eventually made leader of Gold Squadron, a fleet of elite pilots. After seeing her performance in exercise operations, then-airforce General (GEN) Hyfex E. Tail had requested for ONI to lend her to the air force. After a mass amount of debate, Riz became the first and only SPARTAN ever to become a full Air Force member. She was promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major (SGTMAJ) and piloted the limited and experimental Longsword (S) variant. In November, the Battle of Hat Yai took place. Gold Squadron was moved to the system for intervention, and Riz, Malissa and 15 other elite pilots participated in the battle.

Battle of Hat Yai
"Hold steady, hold steady.."

- Riz, upon losing a wing of her Longsword (S)

The Covenant had an early naval victory over Hat Yai on November 8th, 2528. Now marching throughout the continents of the planet, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were deployed to defy them. Despite being semi-effective, the Covenant kept a steady naval foothold on the planet with a fleet of 16. Requesting backup, only a small handful of Frigates could be taken to attack as they were still trying to compensate losses from small insurrectionist conflicts while also fending off other covenant invasions. Gold Squadron was deployed from the UNSC Battlehammer to buy them some time; Riz lead Malissa and 3 other Pilots into battle against Seraphs. The pilots could easily outfly them, and managed to win. However, upon attempting to damage the surface of a CCS-Class Battlecruiser, many covenant reinforcements arrived. Nuclear Bombs were dropped on covenant forces on the ground, but the fleet had been all but destroyed. When attempting to regroup with Battlehammer, the Longsword (S) Riz was piloting had it's wing destroyed, causing her to lose contact with the rest of Gold Squadron and falling through to the surface of a (now being glassed) planet. Assumed M.I.A, she survived, albeit slightly wounded.

Upon finding the capital city, Dawn, under siege, Riz decided to try and evacuate civilians. A cruiser, now glassing the city, had the UNSC Fleeing the battle and spaceports relying on old broken craft to evacuate them. There, Gold Team found and located Riz. She was brought to the medical bay on the frigate Hat Yai, and only sustained minor injuries. She was deemed Active again the next week and redeployed into Gold Squadron. "Need a ride, SPARTAN?"

- Naomi-010, seeing Riz-028 on the ground.

Battle of Goombridge
"I seem to remember us destroying your ships yesterday. Did you think we were going to let you just waltz right in?

Yesterday? Three ships, human? You boast about "outmatching" three of our vessels when you had five times that many, and lost almost all?"

- Preston Cole, interrogating "Subject 386" Serving in small recon missions from Hat Yai, Riz and the rest of Gold Squadron would eventually serve in the "battle of Great Bear", or the Battle of Goombridge, taking place on December 24th of 2530. 2 Covenant Warships, along with a CAS-Class Assault Carrier, a then rare-seen ship, entered the vicinity of the planet. The 17-ship team, lead again by Preston Cole, deployed 2 Destroyers and several squadrons of Longswords against them. This included Gold, and a Shrieker-class missile deployed by Riz into the bridge of a destroyer caused a meltdown, the ship being destroyed. Despite taking two of their ships, 11 destroyers were lost in the process and the carrier attempted to fly down to the surface of the planet.

Ships hot in pursuit, the cruiser crash-landed and a Sangheili Prisoner, Gtam 'Delamee, was captured and designated Subject 386. Two sets of reinforcements were sent, however the fleet drove them off. The interrogation revealed that the Covenant had no real idea of how big human space was, and inspired the initiation of the Cole Protocol. The, admittedly pyrrhic, victory was unparalleled however and wouldn't be found again until 2552.

OPERATION: Fallen Walls (the Battle of Jericho VII)
In 2532, the human colony of Jericho VII came under attack. Gold Squadron, mobilized to defend, managed to push back several attempted deployments of banshees to the surface. However, when a massive CAS-Class Assault Carrier arrived in the battle, the squadron was ordered to fallback. Riz, not wanting to give up, flew upwards firing heat-seeking missiles. While her Longsword(S) had sustained near irreparable damage, she deactivated her engines and let the remaining fighters fly down. Malissa proceeded to fire on them vertically, and only 2 managed to slip by. The full scale attack was reduced only to .5% of what the estimated damage could have been, and despite disobeying orders, Riz was eventually awarded the Colonial Cross for her fearless act of seeming self-sacrifice. She was one of the first SPARTANs to be given the award.

Despite the Longsword keeping her inside, she was injured and the bird was damaged. Forced to wait inside an orbiting space station, she watched as the UNSC lost naval advantage. Realizing the Covenant war was becoming more and more hopeless, and that the UNSC started abandoning fighting back when they lost naval combat, she was brought on board the UNSC Resolute with SPARTAN-II teams Red and Blue.

After the loss, Riz's old friend, John-117, requested to watch the surface being destroyed. He stood there for nearly an hour, showing no expression or emotion. Riz went there, trying to talk to him. However, he didn't show any sign of budging. She left.

OPERATION: Velvet Knife
"When this war started, I didn't realize it was a fight. Partly since I've never been in a real one, and all the battles looked similar to me. But it's been a decade since, and I realize now that it's so much more."

- Riz-028 It's been a decade since the Human-Covenant war had started. While humanity gained an early foothold in some battles, the brutal covenant saw no sign of stopping, and the year quickly became one of the worst.

8 Years ago, then-squad Yellow Team, which had been lead by Riz, as well as Green Team, lead a mission to recover tranquilized covenant bodies for dissection and experimentation. While the initial was successful, many more covenant species had been discovered. Additionally, with the glassing of Charybdis IX, most of the sensitive information had been completely lost, as the replicated files were frequently redacted and replaced.

A follow-up operation, titled OPERATION: Velvet Knife, was scheduled for April 9th. Riz, now taking command of Red Team for the operation, selected 5 specific SPARTANs for the team. Her personal choices were Li-008, Joshua-029, Kelly-087, Fred-104 and Vannak. During the operation, they were also going to be flanked by Blue Team. Because of the advanced security required for such an operation, three pelicans: Aerial Ace, High Flyer and Moody were only deployed with a small frigate behind the moon of the planet Hades IX. The covenant had began a siege on the planet 2 days earlier, and had been deploying lances to attack major cities. The frigate arrived at 23:10, local time, and the SPARTANs would deploy at 23:25. She took this time to talk to Vannak, who she hadn't seen in many years. Vannak had changed, however; he had visible shell shock, and remarks that his time with Green Team caused "many casualties". Riz attempted to comfort him, but he refused before leaving the room.

Unlike the first operation, this attack was going to be much more of a full-on attack. Moody and High Flyer flew ahead of Aerial Ace, shooting the ground. The third pelican, Moody, which held the SPARTANs, deployed Blue Team, which shot tranquilizers. 2 minutes later, the rest of Red Team deployed as well. Within 4.5 minutes, all 19 of the "tagged" targets had been asleep. In addition to the Sangheili, Unggoy and Kig-Yar bodies recovered previously, there were also recovered Jiralhanae bodies and Yanme'e bodies. However, disaster occurred when 5 Phantoms suddenly began firing, one even destroying the High Flyer with it's personnel. The SPARTANs were forced to retreat, and had to call for ordinance. The Frigate sent ordinance, but didn't want to engage in the combat fully; it eventually sent in 3 extra pelicans. 2 of the phantoms stayed behind to fire on the Demons. In that time, several Hunters and countless other reinforcements have arrived. One of the ordinances was a Rocket Launcher, which Joshua used to kill both hunters. Upon remembering Tieban, who organized this operation, wanted hunter specimens, Riz ordered John and Li to come with her. Attempting to pick up the massive body of the hunter, they were semi-successful. However, it was made impossible due to the Covenant attacking them. They resorted to firing tranqs at the covenant attacking them, with some firing guns, and they resorted to collecting small samples of "blood" and teeth. However, the full biology of the Mgalekgolo was revealed when Riz ripped a small Lekgolo out. Bringing the strange creature into the Aerial Ace, Riz resorted to personally taking most of the specimens, along with Fred and Joshua, while the rest of the team covered.

Ultimately, 15 Unggoy, 10 Jackals (50/50), 7 Sangheili, 4 Jiralhanae, 2 Yanme'e, and a Lekgolo were recovered in the operation. This would all contribute to Procedure 111 Velvet, conducted on April 12th. This would also aide in better development of biological weapons; Riz would later go to resign from the air force for regaining full command of a new Yellow Team.

Resigning from the Air Force.
While she had served in the air force for 7 years, and met notable friends such as Malissa, Riz wished to retire from the air force and move back into NAVCOM for command of Yellow Team oncemore. While he didn't want to let her go, Tieban greatly respected and admired Riz, and after 2 months she was cleared. She was moved back into the Navy, but not immediately given command of Yellow Team. Instead, she was moved into the current lineup of Red Team, which consisted of Her, Will-043 (the leader), Isaac-039, and her old friend from Yellow Team, Kai-125.

Battle of New Constantinople
"How the hell am I supposed to fly this??

You're a pilot, aren't you?

I hate you."

- Riz-028 and Will-043

In July of 2537, the colony of New Constantinople came under attack. While SPARTAN-IIIs made themselves very known and respected in the battle, SPARTAN-IIs were called in order to ensure victories in some battles. While the battle was initially going well, hundreds of battlecruisers had been deployed to glass the planet in battle, a fleet so large the UNSC couldn't respond. OPERATION: Delta was an officially commissioned operation to pilot and destroy a covenant command ship for the purpose of causing a retreat, conducted by SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III teams on board the Unparalleled Justice, a CAS-Class Assault Carrier.

The battle was going incredibly smoothly until the fleet arrived, and the dozens of covenant ships swiftly moved past all UNSC forces. SPARTAN-II team Red, lead by Will-043, took command of SPARTAN-III teams Bravo, Lynx and Jeremiah. The 28 SPARTANs, in an assembly of 4 Frigates and a Destroyer, lead an attack on the Justice. 2 of the frigates were destroyed by surrounding battleships, but Longswords (including Gold Squadron's remnants) and Pelicans (some holding SPARTANs) managed to slip past most of the heavy defenses. In an all-out assault, all SPARTANs secured a major hangar, big enough to hold the entire Frigate, and a pelican titled Archipelago brought in small Gauss Cannons, to secure the hangar. Riz and Will, along with team Jeremiah and some of team Lynx and Bravo, fought through the ship for 2 hours, recording the interior, before finally reaching the control bridge. The skirmish on the bridge was long-fought and hard; in the end, only 15 out of the 17 SPARTANs survived. Upon being encountered by the strange controls, Riz attempted to pilot the massive ship. Upon realizing it was a near impossible task without help, she ordered the teams to make it off the ship in whatever means were necessary. Will respected her command, and the teams escaped the ship.

Now imminently going to impact into the single moon of the planet, Riz stole and commandeered a single Phantom dropship, and barely made it out of the hangar. She eventually made it back to the destroyer, and was met by the rest of SPARTAN red team. While the destruction of the ship didn't stop the covenant invasion, it did make some of the ships retreat into orbit. The fleet of Destroyers managed to destroy much of the ships, and the bulk of the Covenant Invasion was halted before July 20th. The UNSC officially won the battle in July 23rd.

Reformation of Yellow Team
Riz distinguished her service during the battle of New Constantinople. While the mission was a success, OPERATION: PROMETHEUS, in the same week of July 2537 as the battle of New Constantinople was, caused a massive loss of SPARTAN-IIIs. In the end, this would cause a mass loss of defense on Orion-side colonies. Because of the massive loss of life, SPARTAN-II teams were reorganized in order to (somewhat) provide defenses among systems.

Due to her service during the battle of New Constantinople, she was given command of a new Yellow Team. She had the choice of several SPARTANs to put into the team; however, she requested Kai and Vannak be brought back in. After a month, Yellow Team was officially recommissioned in August of 2537.

Lost in Space
"Everything is powered down. Goodnight, SPARTANs. I'll wake you when it's time."

- A.I Alix, on board the UNSC Bread and Butter In 2539, Yellow Team had been deployed to the Battle of Kholo. Despite aiding ground forces, the SPARTAN team was severely outmatched. With no choice but to retreat, the SPARTANs on the ground were moved to the UNSC Bread and Butter in orbit. When the frigate attempted to go into slipspace, however, an engine malfunction caused a fire that was eventually put out. However, the ship, now incapable of jumping to slipspace, was ultimately abandoned. The crew decided it would be better to go into cryostasis, sending out a distress signal and using it's engines to drift to the next system.

The SPARTANs were put in cryo last; The shipboard A.I Alix promised to wake them in the event of a covenant attack.

Burning Up
"Alix, what's happening? We're burning up.

Well, shit."

- Riz-028 confronting the shipboard A.I on the UNSC Bread and Butter, named Alix. On August 1st, 2548, Riz was woken up for an emergency. The Bread and Butter had drifted towards the star, Kyix, and was beginning to burn up. Shocked, Riz attempted to get Alix to wake up the rest of the crew. However, Alix remarked that it was "immensely immoral" to wake up a crew of hundreds towards their imminent deaths. Frustrated, she asked if any ships remained in the hangar. There was three pelicans; over-riding Alix, Riz woke up Kai and Vannak and explained the situation. Running to the hangar, Riz took one of the pelicans and escaped the ship.

The Pelican had began to burn up. Sending a distress signal, the SPARTANs left the Pelican and began to orbit around the sun.

Approximately 4 hours later, the scout ship Gale had picked up the SPARTANs. Taking them back to the larger ship, Forward Unto Ascension, the SPARTANs were severely wounded. Their MJOLNIR armor was nearly completely burnt, and they had all had cardiac arrest. In the hopes of resuscitating them, they were preserved in cryo on the ship, which moved back to the Sol system.

Back to the fight
On April 11th, 2549, the SPARTANs were revived and treated as a medical top priority. While technically alive, they still relied on external systems to keep them alive and functioning. Finally, after October 1st, 2549, they were capable of speaking and breathing without assistance. They were fully healed on December 2nd, 2549. Despite being capable of fighting oncemore, they weren't put back in rotation until 2551, after they received their MJOLNIR MK.V armor.

Despite missing much of the 2540s, Yellow Team was removed from MIA lists and deemed Active oncemore.

Battle of Concord
In June of 2551, the human colony of Concord came under attack from the covenant. Yellow Team was tasked with fighting back ground forces on the planet.

At some point, a school came under attack from 3 Wraiths. The students initiated a lockdown drill, but soon Sangheili broke into the building. Attempting to save the children, Riz and Vannak entered the school and saved the 5th grade class. Eventually, they also evacuated the 3rd through 7th grade classes as well. One little girl, Elizabeth, was stuck in the cafeteria between the exit and a Sangheili Zealot. When the Zealot located her and was about to attack, Riz stabbed him in the neck and shoved him into a table. Picking her up and running out the doors, Vannak killed the elite. Elizabeth hugged her, before running to find her teacher.

Concord would ultimately result in a human victory, the most significant for years. After that battle, however, Yellow Team and the rest of the SPARTAN-IIs were recalled for the most significant operation of the Human-Covenant war: the battle of Reach

Fall of Reach
During the Fall of Reach in August 2552, all remaining SPARTAN-IIs were recalled to the FLEETCOM Military Complex in the Highland Mountains where the SPARTANs once trained, on Reach. The SPARTANs were recalled to initiate OPERATION: Red Flag, an operation that would hopefully end the war. The SPARTANs were to capture a large covenant ship, like a CAS-Class Assault Carrier or a CSO-Class Supercarrier, pilot it to the covenant "homeworld" finding coordinates in the ship, capture one of the covenant "leaders", holding them hostage and forcing the covenant into a ceasefire.

However, the covenant suddenly attacked the planet. In the scramble, the SPARTANs were placed under Red Team, now being lead by Fred-104. The team attempted to land and fight, but the pelican they were in, Bravo 001, was shot down. The SPARTANs abandoned the bird, resulting in 4 deaths and 6 injuries, one of which was Kai, who suffered a ripped Achilles Tendon. Red team split into four groups; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta-red. Riz, Kai, and Vannak were split into Delta Red, along with Vinh-030, Isaac-039 and Will-043, along with 4 Marines from Charlie Company. Team Delta was ordered to take several Warthogs and fallback to ONI Castle Base. They found a way to the front door; however, before reaching, the members of Yellow had become separated. Now stuck, the team entered cryo in the nearby Military Reserve 01478-B in hopes of eventually being recovered.

Upon stray SPARTAN Naomi-010, who had been stranded from Beta Red, entering the facility attempting to enter cryo, she discovered the SPARTANs. Releasing them, the "Echo Red" unit made their way back to CASTLE base.

CASTLE Base had been destroyed in OPERATION: White Glove when they arrived, and the Covenant had attempted to break in. The four of them fighting off the covenant, Riz picked the others up in a phantom, and managed to escape the atmosphere. The small ship couldn't sustain itself outside of air, and had to resort to boarding the stray frigate ''Faith in a friend. ''Marines surrounded the ship, but as soon as the SPARTANs exited the vehicle, they were rushed to the medical wing.

Voi Memorial
Riz and the rest of team Yellow had successfully survived the Human-Covenant war; despite of this, Riz and the rest of the SPARTANs lost most of their brothers and sisters, and the war severely wounded many of them, physically and mentally. At the Voi Memorial, at the end of the war, all the dead in the war were memorialized. There, the surviving SPARTAN-IIs attended. During the memorial, she talked with remnants of Blue Team as well as teams such as Gold, Green, and Red. Unlike most other SPARTANs, Yellow did not participate in the Battle for Earth. This is due to Kai's injuries, which had partially recovered by March of 2553.

Post-war
"I didn't know what to do with myself when I was a kid; I decided I wanted to beat people up because my parents hated me. I didn't know what to do with myself during the war; surely, I would have died. But now, I don't know what to do with myself the war is done; I have no purpose. I was designed to fight; the only time I knew what I was was with the rest of the SPARTANs, and now they're gone I don't know what to do."

- Riz-028, reflecting on the war. After the war, Riz became a mentor to SPARTAN-IVs. She trained several squads; during this time, she interacted with other SPARTANs, such as washouts Musa-096, now Musa Ghanem; as well as SPARTAN-III Jun-A266. In 2555, she decided to fully retire. Her augmentations and MJOLNIR were removed; she later lived on Luna.

In 2558, she was interviewed by a young artist Nathaniel Pollux so that he could accurately illustrate for his next album.

Later on, she would reconnect with Malissa Yvetta, Nicholas A-106, a child she saved on Biko and inspired to join the SPARTAN-III program, and Elizabeth Blue, another young child she saved on Concord who became a Marine.

Personality & Traits
Bullied and abused as a young child, Riz was frequently violent and demanding. This changed when she was taken for the SPARTAN-II program; she met friends who changed her personality, and served as commander of many notable squads and fireteams in her career. One of the few SPARTANs to survive the war, she inspired countless people to fight on. She was a bold and cunning tactician and leader, and proved to be a great pilot, the one and only SPARTAN to ever serve in the UNSC Air Force.

Leadership
Riz was a brilliant and inspiring commander and leader; serving as leader of SPARTAN squads Red and Yellow teams at separate points, and being the only SPARTAN to be officially moved from Navy to Air Force, commanding her own squadron titled Gold Squadron.

Piloting
Riz was an impressive pilot, piloting the experimental Longsword(S) model and commanding her own squadron. Gold Squadron, in her command, was capable of destroying covenant ships and taking down tens of enemy squadrons.

Intelligence
Like every SPARTAN candidate, Riz was incredibly smart and resourceful from a young age. She was in Grade 3 at 6 years old.

Strength
Similarly, every SPARTAN candidate was also incredibly strong. Riz used this strength early-on for negative uses, such as bullying.