User:XW3 AR3 L3GION/Halo: Battle of Yaris IV/Chapter Two

Halo: Battle of Yaris IV/Chapter One

Chapter Two
September 12th 2624

En route to Yaris IV

UNSC Light Destroyer Santiago

Guardian Team sat in a semi-circle in their temporary accommodations aboard the Santiago. A disused machine room had been appropriated for the six-man SPARTAN-IV fireteam, of course, with permission from Captain Ivan Telistok.

Guardian One, otherwise known as Oscar-234, was partially asleep, as always. SPARTAN's never slept fully due to the many early wake-up calls from their training which usually begin with a bucket of ice cold water and ended with a shock baton to the gut of whoever didn't move fast enough. Oscar's Tyr Rifle lay across his chest as he held it limply with a single hand but all who knew Oscar well enough, knew that he slept with a rifle in one hand and a knife in the other. Didn't stop the others trying to pinch his rifle however, it was all training and reflexes.

Guardian Two, known to her friends as Amber-254, was awake and had her own Tyr Rifle in pieces on the floor in front of her. She meticulously cleaned every part of her rifle again and again, as if her own cleaning was making the rifle unclean again. But all who knew Amber, knew her to be the best shot of the entire SPARTAN-IV Program, though they were few who did try to dispute her claim leading to many embarrassing training matches.

Guardian Three was unlike both Oscar and Amber. Marshall-134 sat in the corner, flinging a small black rubber ball against the floor, up the wall and catching one-handed, all the while listening to the latest thrash metal to grace the music industry. His Tyr Rifle lay with the rest of his armour, ignored by its SPARTAN-IV owner. Marshall, however, was a professional on the battlefield despite his desire for seclusion amongst his own teammates. His squad worked around his quiet, loner nature.

Guardian Four, called Mirabelle-182, was half buried in the side of a open panel, the occasional flash of blue light from her 'borrowed' tools. She had scrounged those tools from the engineering bay, without the consent or knowledge of the engineer who owned them. Mirabelle had a way with technology, she understood it in a way that many didn't and she loved to be among it, to fiddle with it, to optimise its efficiency. Buried hip-deep in the ships' internals, Mirabelle was accessing the carriers massive computer hard-drive. She would glean any useful information off the hard-drive before disappearing again without the Captain or anyone else on the ship knowing.

The last two, Guardian Five and Guardian Six, Amsden-208 and Sarah-088 respectively, were weight-lifting together. Amsden had thrown down a challenge that Sarah had taken up with a zeal, despite her smaller frame and strength. Amsden was the largest of Guardian Team, a result of the augmentations and used it to his advantage. Despite repeated warnings from his instructors during training and Oscar on mission, Amsden would constantly close the gap with his enemy in order to beat them on his terms. Sarah, with her lighter frame, was more of a sprinter than a body builder and was the fastest amongst Guardian team. During training, Sarah was always sent ahead to capture critical areas first and hold them while the rest of Guardian Team caught up to reinforce her. On the battlefield, Sarah and Amber would act as a scout-sniper team ahead of the rest of Guardian Team, or even flanking the enemy, attacking the rear while Guardian Team bullied their way forward.

Together, Guardian Team was amongst some of the best of the SPARTAN-IV Program, a fact recognised by their peers and fellow Spartans. But this made their next mission all the more confusing. According to scuttlebutt picked up from the naval crews, Carrier Taskforce Sanitago was to retake Yaris IV from the Imperial in their recent counter-offensive. Yaris IV, according from what Mirabelle had discovered from the Santiago's computers, was a recent addition to humanities collection of planets, brought into the fold in the spring. With the frontline over a dozen light-years away, the UNSC had taken advantage of Yaris' heavy metal ores, destroying the Jiralhanae industries that were already there.

They had barely got them up and started when the Imperial Jiralhanae invaded again, destroying the small naval contingent defending the planet and then that's when contact with the planet ceased. It was lucky that the Yaris Alpha Defence Force managed to send off a coded transmission before their destruction, warning the rest of the UNSC Defence Forces; especially South George Strategic Command, which commanded the Yaris Alpha Defence Force and all other system defence forces within a fifty LY radius.