Riker-012

"It is better not to speak, and let men consider you a fool, than to speak and confirm their suspicions"

- Riker-012, quoting President Abraham Lincoln

SPARTAN-012 was a SPARTAN-II Commando, also known as Riker Alexander Abrams by birth and Riker Oakley post-conscription, Sierra-Zero-One-Two by alpha-numerical designation, or Codename: CHRONO by ONI designation. Specializing in orbital and airborne drops, as well as commando missions, he became one of the four Leonidan operatives and served in countless engagements in the Human-Covenant War, Rebuild Era and Necros War.

Born February 29th, 2511, Riker experienced a pleasant childhood with little true problems: he received a year of schooling, and showed learning skills slightly higher than others his age. It was because of this, and a myriad of other traits that Dr Halsey chose Riker as a candidate for the SPARTAN-II program: out of the 150 candidates, Riker was among the 75 chosen, and after 7 years of intense training he survived the augmentations process.

Officially, however, Riker did not survive and was instead turned into a top operative of Margaret Parangosky, leader of ONI Section 0, as well as fellow ONI higher-ups Captain Aaron Gibson, General Henry Von Keller, and Conan D'Souza (the former Section 1 and the latter two of Section 3); later, a handful more in ONI would become fully aware of the history behind Riker, or "Codename: CHRONO", such as Fleet Admiral Cornelius Denham, Brigadier General Valor Geisel, and Read Admiral Lower Half Richard Patton (Section 3, Section 1 and lastly Parangosky's successor, respectively). Riker, now dubbed and primarily referred to as Codename: CHRONO, would go on to operate in nearly three hundred engagements over the course of the Human-Covenant War: ranging from quelling anti-UNSC rebel groups to eliminating rogue AI’s, from disabling Covenant invasion fleets in advance to performing one-man commando strikes on Covenant worlds, Riker did al these and practically everything in between. Ironically, Colonel James Ackerson – well known hater of Section 3’s “SPARTAN freaks” – found Codename: CHRONO’s daring exploits the stuff of legends and highly inspirational, little knowing that a much hated SPARTAN-II was carrying them out.

Once the Great War ended, Riker’s status as a secret agent was destroyed when he was discovered by old friend and fellow SPARTAN cover-up Laz-108: soon after, Operation: SAVIOR began and Riker, as well as other SPARTAN-II’s and SPARTAN-III’s, began the long and, in the end, futile search for John-117. As Riker’s search area kept him well within AUR territory, he was redirected multiple times during the so-called “Rebuild Era” to assist in various battles and to end crisis. By the end of the Rebuild Era though, Riker reluctantly left Operation: SAVIOR as the second-to-last member, only outlasted by Ajax-013: this may not have been so, however, had it not been for the SPARTAN-IV Program.

Joining the SPARTAN-IV Program, Riker was assigned Kilo Company, to whom he then taught the skills of orbital combat drops and one-man strike missions, as well as intelligence warfare and stealth techniques to a lesser extent, and instilled within his pupils the principles of honor, courage, justice and wisdom. Once the Necros War began, Riker commanded Kilo Company with pride throughout the Outer Territory Defenses, the Inner Territory Defenses, the Core Defense, Operation: FINAL WAR, the Oblivion Gun Crisis, the Crucible Campaign, and the Last Push. When Riker fell in battle during the last battle of the Necros War, he was greatly mourned by all his SPARTAN comrades and students, especially his wife Miranda Talavera, and was honored as a fallen hero of war. "Courage is of no value unless accompanied by justice; yet if all men became just, there would be no need for courage"

- Riker-012

Riker's personality over the years has changed greatly: originally, while just a less than six-year-old boy, he was fun loving and surprisingly brave, as well as inquisitive, though not very friendly. Once abducted for the SPARTAN-II Program, however, Riker's seclusive nature grew even more pronounced, with his only friends being Laz-108 and, to a much lesser extent, the other members of Brown Team; when Riker was kidnapped by Parangosky, this forced seclusion, coupled with the news of half his brothers' and sisters' death (a number that included the false death of Laz), had a very terrible effect on his psyche, plunging him into a depression like many of the other SPARTAN-II's: Riker's, however, became much more fatal, as he emerged from it with a different personality. Riker's friendly side, emotions in general in fact, had practically died, tucked deep within him to keep him safe from emotional attachments and entanglements, something that could endanger his well-being and his ability to complete a mission: Riker was now a cold vessel of hatred, channeling his pain, sorrow, rage and loneliness into his missions and racking up kill numbers that many veterans of the Insurrection had not reached. Riker would keep this persona for years, with it melting away partially when he fell in love with Codename: SHISA, aka Olivia Holm; her death, however, counter-acted this for the most part, and he though he was no longer as much an unemotional being that became a rage-filled berserker, he still carried with him much sorrow from never forgiving his friend Laz prior to his "death": this persona at last began to permanently waste away with Riker's rediscovery of Laz after the Battle of Reach, an event that caused Riker much joy. Riker became much more "human", so to speak, over the course of the Rebuild Era, even with his extended time in cryo-sleep: upon rejoining his Spartan brethren to command Kilo Company, he seemed much more Human than ever before, though he was still quite harsh, distant and unemotional for the most part of his time, save to Miranda. At first, Miranda received the full force of his distrust, rage, and all negative emotions, but eventually the two came to love each other instead, marrying in 2612. Riker had dark brown hair, usually kept near bald in his younger years though, not really being grown out until after the end of the Human-Covenant War and the Reclamation Campaigns immediately following; since he was able to grow facial hair he has always kept a small goatee on his chin, and in his later years he grew a full beard and mustache, "making him look older" according to Laz. In his younger years, Riker's eyes were a light blue color, and when combined with his round face and colorful skin it gave him what the other Spartan trainees called the "baby face", a term they used just to annoy Riker; this "baby face" appearance later disappeared through Riker's slimming down in training, his Caucasian skin paling due to the near-constant wearing of his MJOLNIR armor (this was later reversed partially in the Rebuild and Necros Eras as he would spend slightly more time out of his armor; he would still remain mostly pale however), and an odd physical quirk that started by making his eye color change from blue to gold-brown at unspecified intervals before at last permanently settling into a deep gold-brown in 2534. Through the years, Riker has gained a large number of scars in various places, most noticeably the numerous cuts on his arms and hands, but also several on his head, and a very large scar across his chest where he'd been cut during melee practice in his youth.

"Lucky" Few (2511)
"You have been called upon to serve, you will be trained...and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the Protectors of Earth and all her Colonies"

- Dr. Halsey to SPARTAN recruits

The second child of the family, Riker Alexander Abrams was born to parents Jeremy Abrams and Mary Kuykendal Abrams on February 29th, 2511, in the city of Rubic, Mars: growing up, Riker lived in a relatively peaceful childhood, as his parents, while not extremely rich, were rich enough to give Riker some of the best things in life and, according to their friends and family, "spoil" the child. However, Riker's psyche suffered little: while expecting to get what he wanted, when he wanted it, he could adjust quickly to stricter situations as needed, even at such a young age. Indeed, Riker was far from spoiled, as he was a very caring soul: despite being the younger sibling, he always attempted to help his older sister Tanya with anything she needed, with little complaints.

When Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey began her search for suitable candidates for the SPARTAN-II Program, Riker was one of the first children that Halsey found and observed. Watching him, she noted that his curiosity was quite large for such a young child, and that he lacked a child's natural fear of heights, as well as being quite sneaky, managing to sneak up and spook other children on the playground: Halsey concluded that Riker could likely serve well as an orbital drop commando and, to a lesser extent, a commander and intelligence operative.

Dr. Halsey always felt guilty about taking Riker, as he was quite happy with his life in the real world: this same feeling would later develop for her feelings toward all the SPARTANs, as she would come to feel that she had exploited them and stripped them of any true life. However, at the time when her doubts and regrets were simply towards a select few candidates, she disregarded them and justified her exploitation of the children as "a necessary sacrifice for the greater good of Mankind". When Riker's flash clone died a few weeks later, his family greatly mourned "Riker's" death, especially his sister Tanya: the death of her "brother" sent her into a deep depression for several months, but afterward she recovered, and later went on to become a leader in the fight against the various immuno-deficiencies that caused the flash clone's death.

Training (2517)
Taken as one of the 150 candidates for the SPARTAN-II Program, Riker became one of the 75 to be accepted. The training was hard, but despite his young age, Riker was surprisingly not one to give up, only having to be "prompted" to continue by trainers a few times. During the years of training the Spartans went through, Riker did not make many friends among the Spartans; Ajax-013 and other loners he saw as enemies almost, while he revered John-117 and his ilk, was uneasy around friendly Spartans like Kurt-051, and had varying degrees of infatuations and crushes with the female trainees.

Assigned to train with four other Spartans - Cal-141, Soren-066, Marquis-065 and Orlando-150 - these five became known as "Brown Team" in training missions: they came to work well together, with Cal serving as commander, Riker as second-in-command and B-Team leader, Soren and Marquis as long range specialists and Orlando as their CQC master. Learning quickly, they became one of the better - though not the best - of the Spartan teams, being particular rivals with Ajax-013's "Orange Team"

Interestingly enough, Riker's sole, true friend was Laszlo-108, who was himself a rather cheerful Spartan; just because Laszlo annoyed him, Riker would repeatedly call him "Lavernius", a fact that bugged Laz to no end. Exactly how they managed to strike up a relationship is unknown, since Riker hated Laz to begin with, but later he came to like him: according to Riker, it began when Laz helped save Riker from a scrape with another candidate, one named Edward-077, and the friendship later grew from there.

One of Riker's more raucus acts while in training was an attempt to stop Joe-124 and Ajax-013 from stealing Chief Mendez's cigars: Riker found the two's stealing the cigars rather disrespectful to Mendez, so in an attempt to teach them a lesson, he replaced several of the cigars with carefully disguised dynamite. Unfortunately, before the other two Spartans could come and steal the cigars, Mendez himself walked in and lit a "cigar", which nearly killed him. Riker was quickly found out and severely punished, not only by Mendez but also by John-117 for nearly killing his fellow Spartans.

Augmentations (2525)
Just prior to augmentations was when Riker pulled his stunt with the explosive cigars: after his punishments from John and Mendez both, Riker got into an argument over the incident with his friend Laz-108, the latter finding it to have been a very bad idea that could have hurt or killed someone; the two failed to reconcile, and in the end the argument would haunt the both of them for more than a quarter of a century.

Shortly after the argument, Riker and the other 74 candidates completed training and were subjected to the augmentations aboard the UNSC Hopeful, being given the following procedures:


 * 1) Carbide ceramic ossification: advanced material grafting onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable. Recommended coverage not to exceed 3 percent total bone mass because significant white blood cell necrosis.
 * 2) Muscular enhancement injections: protein complex is injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time. Risk: 5 percent of test subjects experience a fatal cardiac volume increase.
 * 3) Catalytic thyroid implant: platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst is implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues. Risk: rare instances of elephantiasis. Another risk is to get a suppressed sexual drive.
 * 4) Occipital capillary reversal: submergence and boasted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of subject’s retina. It produces a marked visual perception increase. Risk: retinal rejection and detachment. It can also cause permanent blindness.
 * 5) Superconducting fabrication of neural dendrites: alteration of bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. Three hundred percent increase in subject reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence, memory and creativity. Risk: significant instances of Parkinson’s disease and Fletcher’s Syndrome.

Sadly, according to ONI records, Riker suffered difficulties with the second augmentation, muscular enhancement injections: Riker suffered a fatal cardiac volume increase and died from it; deeply mourned by the other Spartans, he received military burial in space alongside his other fallen brethren. However, in reality, Riker survived the augmentations: he was kidnapped by ONI Section 1 to become their own personal operative, a member of four kidnapped SPARTAN-II's known unofficially by ONI's upper echelon dubbed "The Leonidans", and given tasks of extreme danger and skill.

While in reality Riker managed to survive the augmentations, he would never be the same, as at this point Riker's state of silence began, starting the ever serious and silent appearance that he kept that was only to be broken by extreme emotion at odd times: Riker himself once stated that he was silent for those that would never again speak, meaning those that had died in augmentations. Although not as bad as some of the other candidates, a deep depression took Riker, which cause him to spend long periods out of battle in complete solitude, utterly silent and still: though highly effective in battle, Riker had no joy nor hatred in what he did, kept in a terrible state of mind that all his life was amounted to being a weapon.

The Leonidans (2525)
The Leonidans, sometimes referred to unofficially as "ONI's Hands", was the term used to describe four Spartans - Jared-091, Leonid-144, Laz-108 and Riker-012 - that were abducted by ONI immediately following augmentations and officially classified as killed and, in Laz' case, wounded. ONI then proceeded to use these four Spartan's for countless covert operations, all of them kept secret form all but the highest of the UNSC's top brass, and each one operating under the false impression that they were the only Spartan to have been abducted.

The tales and lies of ONI had major effects on Riker's mind, with the fact that he had not made his peace with Laz before his "death" playing heavily on Riker's mind for years to come. Riker continually worried about what Laz' last thoughts before his "death" would have been, and whether or not he would have accepted his apology.

When the four Spartans were first kidnapped, they were all sent to separate ONI facilities and rigorously trained, furthering their knowledge in stealth, technological warfare, hacking, information stealing, etc. This secondary training lasted for one year, and then the four were sent out, beginning their long history of missions.

Quelling the Valhalla Rebellion (2525)
"If we were augmented to be better, someone did the reverse on the Innie's brains"

- Riker-012

As with all the other Spartan-II's, Riker's original purpose was to take out the growing rebellions on border territories. However, while most were reassigned quickly to combat the Covenant, Riker was one that was kept on his original mission, if for five missions. After being given his MJOLNIR Mk. IV armor, he initiated a series of lightning quick commando missions, Riker was able to eliminate two small rebellions in the border territories, while they then moved on to destroy a stockpile of illegally made nuclear weapons that were in the hands of another group of rebels.

However, Riker's first major challenge came with the world of Valhalla. Already fully seceded from the UNSC, the Valhalla Regime had suppressed all opposition in massive prisons, and had armed their small armada of ships with illegal nuclear weaponry as well as top-of-the-line stolen technology, allowing them to counter all of the former attempts by the UNSC to bring them down. So, ONI sent Riker in to quell the rebellion in a stealthy manner: entering the system in a small stealth ship, he arrived undetected, and after a week's time he had managed to destroy the rebellion's dry docks, rendered their nuclear arms depo inert, and in the end assassinated their leader. Sending out a slipspace signal, a UNSC fleet moved in and destroyed the opposition, while Riker left just as stealthily as he'd come.

Operation: DEATH GRIP (2526)
Operation: DEATH GRIP was a relatively simple mission: a hostage situation, the Arcadian Insurrectionists had captured the colony's governor, Christopher Swindoll, and several rich families from the city of Pirth several weeks prior and demanded for the colony to surrender control of the planet to them; the UNSC refused, but after a blunder by a special ops rescue attempt the Insurrectionists killed the governor and half the hostages. Wanting to prevent any further blunders, ONI sent in Riker to rescue the hostages and capture or kill the Insurrectionists current leader.

Dropping into orbit via Air Foil Carapace, Riker landed near the rebel compound unnoticed and managed to infiltrate the base from there. Proceeding into an underground complex through the ventilation systems, he soon ran out of ducts to travel through, and was forced to exit into the room below: there, he found himself in a room overlooking the hostage prison room; watching, Riker saw all the living hostages present - both genders and all ages represented - and the rebel commander in front of them, having yet another video conference with UNSC HIGHCOM to bargain for the hostages lives. Angered by a comment from HIGHCOM, the commander picked up a young girl, held her in front of the screen and shot her, attempting to prove his seriousness: Riker, angered by the murder of the child, smashed the circuit breaker to the room, activated his nightvision and jumped down into the room, killing all four dozen of the rebels in the darkness

Knocking the rebel leader unconscious, Riker turned on his helmet flashlights, tied up the man and, after some coaxing, led all the hostages to the exit: instructing them to wait, Riker caused a distraction outside by calling in an airstrike with a laser target, then guided the civilians away from the chaos to an awaiting dropship which flew them all to safety.

When Riker returned to ONI with the commander unconscious on his shoulders, he was asked why he had not killed the commander: waking the rebel from his sleep, Riker said "let the punishment fit the crime" and snapped the man's neck; turning to his CO, Riker asked, "Sufficient?" and walked away.

Operation: INCOGNITO (2526)
After Operation: INCOGNITO was said and done, the name was to be forever dubbed one of the military's worst misnomers, as the operation - through a last-second change of plans - became anything but stealthy.

INCOGNITO began as a stealthy counter attack to an ongoing URF campaign on UNSC fringe territory: Riker was to await their next attack, enter the system, and eliminate the commanding officer of the enemy fleet. However, when the fleet made a bold and unexpected attack on a UNSC orbital research station known as The Three Gurus, Riker was moved in for a quick-response, low-stealth mission of defending the station and killing the fleet's CO.

When Riker arrived, he quickly saw that the URF intended to capture the station and its' contents, and had already half succeeded in doing so: docking in the station, Riker proceeded to make his way through the station's many levels, clearing them of enemies one by one. When at last the station's situation was under control, Riker infiltrated the fleet's flagship via a URF boarding craft: once aboard the starship, Riker caused total and utter confusion by eliminating communications systems, video monitors, and other systems, including the ship's slipspace drive. With the crew in disarray, Riker made his way to the bridge where he proceeded to kill the CO and all others' present before setting the ship on a collision course with the gas giant below.

With the fleet disorganized now, a UNSC fleet entered the system and managed to attack and destroy all the remaining starcraft.

Operation: RING OF FIRE (2527)
Perhaps one of the most critical situations in the entire Insurrection situation was the kidnapping of Joseph Morrison, Current Director of the UEG: taken hostage when a URF black ops group captured the Director's private jet-craft while it was in transit from Reykjavik, Iceland - the location of the UEG's treasury - to Sydney, Australia - the UEG's capital - the Director was held for ransom on the URF stronghold of Bastion, the URF demanding the UNSC surrender all control to them or the Director would be killed.

ONI reacted immediately, deploying Riker and several other ONI spooks to the planet for immediate rescue operations. Jamming all forms of communications at the rebel base, the agents moved inside where the group split: the spooks moved to disable the power generator, while Riker moved to eliminate the Director's captors. The spooks encountered little resistance as they moved along, taking care of the fews guards they could until they'd at last disabled the power generator: with the security systems shut down, Riker commenced to move through the fortress, sneaking by guards unnoticed until at last he'd entered the main holding room.

There, Riker killed the squad of guards, freed the Director and attempted to make his escape: however, the rebels had killed the spook team and lain in wait for Riker, and once he was within their trap they ambushed him and the Director. Riker, not expecting this, reacted as quickly as possible, but the Director was still wounded in the ensuing firefight, and Riker's evac dropship destroyed. Thinking quickly, Riker helped the Director's wounds as much as he could, then took the Director back into the URF base and, after a good deal of fighting, managed to steal a URF Pelican Dropship and get back to his Prowler. Upon returning to Earth, Riker was thanked by the Director but at the same time severely reprimanded for such recklessness; the reprimand had little to no effect.

Siege of Madrigal (2528)
As only the fourth attack made by the Covenant, the assault on Madrigal was not like the later fights by the UNSC where they were defending their planets and holding the line, nor were the Covenant expecting to find Forerunner relics on the Human worlds and therefore were not taking the care they would in later attacks. The attack on Madrigal was a massacre, part of the early blitzkrieg attacks by the Covenant: a fleet of seven ships descended upon the planet and began the annihilation of the inhabitants, unloading armies of troops into their cities.

Riker was present on Madrigal in a temporary layover from a mission against the URF while waiting on orders from HIGHCOM: ground-side on shore leave, Riker was out of armor to allow inconspicuousness, and was only carrying small firearms when the assault began; as the Covenant cruiser dropped into the atmosphere, Riker was all at once curious and truly frightened at the sight of this unknown assailant that was suddenly blasting Madrigal's surface with its' weaponry and unleashing all manner of troops and vehicles from its' hull. In little time, Riker became a part of the small resistance in the city of Nueva Angeles, and began to fight back against these creatures as they attempted to destroy the city and those within: Riker and the other soldiers fought wave after wave of small creatures, later known as Grunts, who came in enormous numbers to try and swarm their position, and while easily killed their numbers made them a major threat.

Eventually forced to fall back by the driving onslaught, the soldiers made a drive for the city's space elevator with hopes of reaching an orbiting ship and jumping system: fighting through more Grunts, as well as bird-like snipers that proved later to be Jackals, the soldiers had nearly made it to the space elevator before the elevator collapsed, falling due to structural integrity caused by stray fire from the fighting.

With only one option left, the soldiers and Riker headed for the city's airport with the hopes of finding a civilian slipspace transport: only half of the soldiers made it to the airport, however, as during their race across the city they encountered a third species of foe, a large armored beast that would later be dubbed a Hunter; attempting to engage this creature and kill it, the soldiers found its' armor to be highly impenetrable, and as they lacked any heavy weaponry they were forced to flee. The Hunter, however, followed the group, and they were still forced to engage it, at the cost of many good men's lives: the creature was finally killed, however, when Riker, having noted a hole in its' armor, somersaulted over its' head and stabbed it in the back with a piece of metal refuse.

With the Hunter defeated, the Riker and the remaining soldiers made it to the airport with little difficulty, and were lucky enough to find one last transport intact: boarding, the group broke atmosphere as quickly as possible and then jumped to slipspace, the Covenant fleet glassing Madrigal behind them.

Operation: VERTIGO (2532)
In 2532, not far into the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC detected large amounts of casualty reports, forces build-ups and tactical orders on the Covenant BattleNet around a system the Covenant called "Y'Deio". Though details were sketchy at first, the UNSC soon discerned it to be infighting between Covenant forces: taking advantage of the situation, ONI deployed Riker-012 to the system to eliminate the Covenant leader present

Arriving, Riker found himself in the midst of a small scale rebellion: a Sangheili Fleet Master had been branded a Heretic by the Hierarchs for denouncing the Holy War the Covenant now waged; fleeing execution, he and those loyal to him had formed a large army in the Y'Deio System, bolstered by the native Kig-Yar Pirates that had been forced to serve also

Riker had little difficulty pinpointing the position of the Covenant leader, the Prophet of Forgiveness: the only problem was how he would manage to get aboard the ship. Taking what appeared to be the only viable option, Riker boarded one of his Prowler's Booster Frames and launched it, managing to maneuver the frame very close to the cruiser before being noticed: attempting to outmaneuver and avoid the point-defense lasers, Riker failed, but not before he was close enough for his T-PACKS to carry him into one of the ship's hangers.

Eliminating the few Unggoy in the hanger, Riker quickly moved through the hallways towards the control room, killing the few guards and soldiers he encountered on his way. However, when Riker arrived in the cruiser's engine room he saw a golden opportunity: quickly setting one of two timed mines that Riker had with him, he placed it so that when it went off it would disrupt the engine, causing it to explode and destroy the ship

However, as he did this Riker was discovered and this time his presence was reported: killing the lance of Sangheili that came to kill him, Riker quickly made his way to the control room to try and kill the Prophet of Forgiveness, only to get there to watch the Prophet flee and be forced to survive the onslaught of Forgiveness' Honor Guards. Rushing after the Prophet, Riker killed the Covenant in his way and finally caught up with the Prophet in a hanger as he boarded a Spirit to escape: at the same time, the cruiser came under attack, causing Riker's mine to detonate prematurely, starting the ship's destruction early.

Moving with speed only a Spartan could muster, Riker ran for the Spirit, fighting through several dozen Covenant on the way: as the craft began to take off, Riker jumped two stories to land on one of the arms, where he punched through, ripped out the Sangheili inside, and entered the cockpit. There sat a Sangheili pilot and the Prophet of Forgiveness, the former of which tried to attack Riker: Riker proceeded to kill the pilot and toss him from the craft before shooting the Prophet of getting rid of his body in the same manner; sealing the cockpit and escaping the ship, Riker returned to his Prowler and immediately jumped system, but not before being detected, and followed.

Operation: VERTIGO II (2532)
Exiting from the random slipspace jump away from Eayn, Riker arrived at the UNSC colony of Victoria, only to watch helplessly as a fleet of the Covenant Heretics emerged all around his Prowler. Though the UNSC had a moderately sized fleet present at Victoria, Riker knew they didn't stand a chance: so, the only solution was to begin Operation: VERTIGO II; objective, kill the Sangheili commander present.

Taking Patton, his Prowler's shipboard A.I., along with him, Riker used an onboard Booster Frame and managed to infiltrate the flagship of the fleet. As the space battle raged around him, Riker made his way through the ship, fighting through the ship, fighting through legions of Unggoy, as well as multitudes of Lekgolo and Sangheili, until he at last reached the ship's bridge: much to his dismay, Riker discovered the Fleet Master had gone to the planet's surface to oversee the excavation of alleged Forerunner artifacts. Thinking quickly, Patton began to misdirect ships under the guise of the now-dead Ship Master, causing them to crash into one another during their maneuvers and fire on each other: soon enough though, the treason was discovered and, as Riker used a Spirit Dropship to head groundward, he saw the flagship destroyed by Covenant fire.

Arriving groundside, the Covenant were expecting troops and supplies from the landing Spirit Dropship: in their few remaining seconds, they were shocked as they saw Riker disembarking, killing the “welcoming committee”. With the landing zone not far from the dig site, the alarm was easily raised, but Riker did not care: using his Spartan training he emptied round after round into waves of foes, soon dropping his own weapons for Covenant ones, using his own Combat Knife and Covenant melee weapons to kill enemies without using shots, even sticking a dead Unggoy's Plasma Grenades on the corpse and tossing the creature at another group, killing the group upon detonation.

At last making it through the rest of the Heretics, Riker reached the Fleet Master: engaging him in combat, Riker killed him, leaving the Heretics leaderless; when the news reached space, another Sangheili declared himself leader and ordered a full retreat, granting the UNSC victory.

ONI later examined the Covenant dig site, only to find no Forerunner ruins at all: this puzzled them for years, but after the Plainsfierians revealed themselves this became evident as a Plainsfier-induced mishap, used to aid Humanity (in this case, keeping the Heretics occupied so that they would not bother the rest of Victoria)

Battle of Jericho VII (2535)


Riker operated on Jericho VII as an elite commando, completely secret to most UNSC forces on the planet, save for a few ONI spooks he was assigned with. Their mission was to eliminate the being that appeared to be commanding the ground operations - similar in appearance to a Sangheili, but with rather visible distinctions in form - and had gathered along with a large amount of forces to excavate a Forerunner artifact (the UNSC did not at the time have knowledge of the Forerunners nor their connection with the Covenant; the artifact itself was never seen by Riker or the others during the mission).

Near the climax of the artifact's transportation, Riker and the spooks struck, attempting to assassinate the Covenant commander: the mission failed, however, as while several of the commander's aides and friends fell around her, the commander herself suffered only several scrapes and a bullet to the leg; the Covenant forces quickly evacuated, with the Forerunner artifact under their control. Shortly thereafter, Riker and all other Human forces were recalled to the UNSC fleet in space as the Covenant glassed the planet.

Battle of New Constantinople (2536)
Sent along with other UNSC forces for the New Constantinople engagement, Riker was present in the ground battle. His mission was to eliminate several key figures within the Covenant military, as well as eliminate an under-construction Scarab.

For the prior objective, Riker managed to sneak into range of the Covenant's command center and eliminate two Sangheili Fieldmasters using a Stanchion Rifle; while the infiltration had been easily done, the Stanchion's smoke trail alerted the Covenant of his position, and Riker was forced to fight through three dozen Unggoy, a line of Kig-Yar and five Sangheili in order to escape.

In completing the second objective, Riker was forced to use the utmost stealth, yet combine it with speed as well. While a contingent of Marines distracted Covenant forces, Riker infiltrated the construction site and planted explosives at key locations, intent on not only destroying the vehicle but burying the camp as well. The mission was successful, with the Scarab being destroyed and the camp, along with its' inhabitants, being buried. Sadly, in the overall view of things, the battle was a failure, with a Covenant victory overall.

Battle of Midway (2536)
Midway was a large planet, populated by a number of people equal almost to that of Earth. Set behind a seemingly impenetrable line of defense planets, it was thought protected; however, a large Covenant stealth fleet managed to sneak through the line, and unleashed an invasion force upon it. Part of the emergency forces diverted from the defensive line, Riker led several air raids on the major Covenant encampment, and even managed to destroy one of the Covenant ships. In the end, the Battle of Midway was a surprisingly easy victory; the reason soon became evident, as the Covenant swiftly captured three of the under-manned fortress world that had been holding the line.



Siege of New Istanbul (2536)
Arriving with the reinforcements that were attempting to break the siege of New Istanbul, Riker first moved in to assist with the freeing city of Terusto, before moving on to destroy two Covenant supply lines before moving on to free up the Neo-Ural Mountain range complex, within which hid most of the residence on the planet.

Once the complex was freed, Riker, along with assistance from Team Alpha, moved on to attempt to eliminate the large Covenant forward command base and the leadership there. However, before they could complete their objective, the Covenant began glassing the planet, and they had to be evacuated immediately.

Second Battle of Tejas IV (2537)
Tejas IV long served as a fortress-command world on one front of the Human-Covenant War. It had withstood multiple assaults from Insurrectionists in earlier times, and had even withstood one assault from the Covenant already, as well as having launched multiple assaults back into Covenant territory. However, nothing lasts forever.

Sent with a large force to rearm and resupply at the outpost before moving on to attack a nearby Covenant world that was reported to be relatively unprotected, the fleet arrived to find Tejas IV under attack from a huge assault force, only to be outmatched by later attacks such as seen at the Battles of Reach, Earth, and the Forerunner Installations. Though outnumbered, outmatched, and out of all form of supplies, the fleet joined up with the defending UNSC forces and attempted to drive back the Covenant forces. Unfortunately, half the UNSC fleet forces were soon destroyed, while ground troops fared only slightly better against their innumerable foes. With all commanding officers tied up in the space battle or the defense of major cities, Riker took forward command into his own hands: giving orders, the UNSC got the better of numerous Covenant forces, managing to pull off explosive ambushes, a few air-supported assaults and countless strike missions, many spear-headed by Team Alpha.

Still, it was not enough: with the space battle going badly, the ground troops evacuate; as they pulled out, the last of the UNSC ships exploded into a flower of fire, signaling Covenant victory.

Siege of the Atlas Moons (2537)
The Atlas Moons, six moons that surrounded the desert world of Atlas, had been besieged for some time before being taken over by the Covenant. However, the UNSC did not want to lose the world to the Covenant, due to the tactical position of the Atlas system, and the fact that it had long served as a major dry dock for the UNSC. So, a reclamation mission was launched: a large fleet of ships was assembled, poised to take out the Covenant fleet, while a large military force was readied to retake the planet and moons themselves.

Riker was reassigned from his then-current offensive in the Eros Asteroid Field to the fleet that was to engage in the Atlas Moons conflict. Arriving in system with the rest of the fleet, Riker and several squads of ODST's were dropped in HEV's to the surface of Atlas itself, with the mission of denying the Covenant the use of a recently finished trio of ground-to-space Energy Projectors, capable of decimating the UNSC space fleet easily. The ODST's and Riker landed, quikcly taking care of a small Covenant reconnaissance group that had spotted them on their way down; unsure if the rest of the Covenant forces had been alerted to their presence, they decided on a three-part strike, the ODST's splitting into two groups while Riker served as a third.

Each of the three group then made their way towards their respective targets, with Riker advancing completely alone, heading for what intel had told them to be the most heavily guarded of the three weapons. Armed with a Sniper Rifle, a Battle Rifle, a handful of grenades and the satchel charges needed to destroy the emplacement, Riker carefully and tactically began to eliminate the enemy personnel, starting by killing the commanding Sangheili Ultra officer at range with his Sniper Rifle. Once his Sniper Rifle was out of ammo, Riker moved in closer, quickly and efficiently taking out the Kig-Yar and Unggoy cannon fodder with his grenades and Battle Rifle; with only a few Sangheili warriors left, Riker quickly eliminated all but one, with this remaining warrior engaging Riker in close-quarters combat. After a short struggle, Riker managed to bash the Sangheili's skull in, and quickly set the charges on the Energy Projector; fleeing the scene, enemy reinforcements soon poured in, only to be killed when the explosives went off.

Surprisingly, the Siege of the Atlas Moons was, in the end, one of the few successful land and space battles of the Great War.

Massacre of Troy (2537)
While ONI had secretly cracked the then-current Covenant message encryption program, they did not wish to immediately alert the Covenant of this, so they secretly evacuated the planet of Troy that was about to be attacked. Since Troy was relatively defenseless, and the Covenant knew this, any form of major resistance would be deemed as counter-productive to the deception: so, Riker was sent in to secret infiltrate a Covenant ship, the program it to head into the midst of the fleet and self-destruct.

Using a top of the line stealth ship, Riker managed to maneuver close enough to a ship to perform a EVA maneuver into one of the hangars, and from there began to make his way through the ship. Since the mission was to be a complete and total stealth mission and made to look like an accident, Riker's journey was made slightly difficult: sneaking through the shp, he was forced to maneuver around numerous guards and, even with the help of the stealth cloaking system he'd been granted, the job was no easy task. When at last he reached the bridge, it was here that he was able to reveal himself: after eliminating the Sangheili commanders there while cloaked, Riker killed the Unggoy and Kig-Yar outright, since no one would be sent to check before it was too late.

Reprogramming the ship for a course into the fleet where it would self-destruct, Riker escaped via an escape pod, from which he was soon extracted by an ONI Prowler. The Covenant ship exploded, taking several ships from the small fleet with it, and though the planet of Troy was lost, the infiltration mission was deemed a success, and the Covenant never suspected sabotage instead dubbing the explosion Unggoy stupidity.

Shutting Down Proxy (2538)
Proxy was a fifth generation smart A.I. that was tasked with the caretaking of hte modular space colony Rogue Shadow, a large, artificial world-colony orbiting the gas giant Executor. For seven years Proxy faithfully watched over the Rogue Shadow and ensured its' safety: however, over this time he constantly watched the Humans on the colony, and watching he gained a distaste for Humanity's violence, negligence and other negative tendencies, to the point where Proxy deemed himself that only one capable of keeping the colony running smoothly.

So, when at last it came time for Proxy to be permanently shut down and replaced, Proxy resisted, turning the commonplace civilian robotics on the colony against the Humans that resisted him: the situation soon escalated out of hand, and in favor of Proxy, to the point where immediate, special ops aid was requested. ONI, receiving the request and realizing the situation's severity, immediately dispatched Riker-012 to deal with the situation: arriving, he was met with resistance as expected, but easily blew through the civilian robotics, as they were no match for Riker, even in large droves; pushing forward, Riker was easily able to cut through towards the control center in the station's central dome.

However, when Riker entered the dome adjacent to the central dome, he was assaulted by a number of military-grade unmanned drones, as well as several Police Warthogs that had been rigged for remote operation, as well as a similarly rigged Police Scorpion. While the drones posed little threat, Riker experienced some difficulty in defeating the half dozen remote-controlled Warthogs: eventually, Riker managed to force them to crash into either something or each other, even destroying one by tricking the Scorpion into shooting it; when at last it came time to destroy the Scorpion, however, Riker did so by tricking it into firing on a structure above it, crushing itself with the rubble.

At last there, Riker entered the control center and attempted to remove Proxy: the A.I. was ready, however, and captured Riker: Riker, though, was able to trick the A.I. into destroying itself by playing on its' outrage at being unable to understand Human emotions. When Proxy stated Riker was sent to try and destroy him, Riker corrected the statement with the word "choice": in a drawnout conversation, the A.I.'s rampant and therefore degrading core made the illogical decision to kill Riker, but Riker slipped his bonds and the blasts hit Proxy's CPU, destroying the A.I. permanently.

Operation: VIRTUE (2538)
"No wise man ever thought that a traitor should be trusted"

- Riker-012

When the Covenant attacked the Polynesian Expanse, the UNSC breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that they were receiving a slight reprieve from the hegemony's assault, with the hammer's blow falling instead upon the United Rebel Front. But after several months of fighting and an attack on the stronghold of Fiji, the URF made an unprecedented maneuver: they requested aid from the UNSC, and while the UNSC was reluctant, the rebels pulled the sympathy card by telling of the massive amounts of devastation and casualties wrought by the alien empire. The UNSC, after hesitation, decided to aid their former foe, believing in the old proverb that "the enemy of mine enemy is my friend".

The UNSC deployed a moderate sized fleet and an ONI detachment into the system - including Riker-012 and a respected ONI known as Codename: SELENA - the group drew up a battle plan with the URF commanding officer, Admiral Ulysses J. Lee, and then set the trap for the Covenant invaders. Maneuvering a large number of their forces into a nearby asteroid belt, false data feeds and signals were emitted from the largest of these asteroids, tricking the Covenant into believing the asteroids held URF bases; when the Covenant opened fire to destroy the asteroids, the UNSC and URF ships behind them attacked from within the pseudo-safety of the asteroid debris, while other ships simultaneously flanked the Covenant battlegroup. While only half of the Covenant ships were destroyed in combat, around half were damaged enough to be forced into emergency landings on Fiji below while the remainder fled the system for regrouping.

Mobilizing, the URF launched their large ground force to take out the Covenant ships, while the UNSC aided with their own minor ground presence - the URF had stated from the beginning that they had a large ground force in-system, so the UNSC had merely sent a large space fleet to compliment the operation, leaving any possible ground conflicts for the rebels to deal with. Most of the ONI team was dispatched to attempt to recover a Covenant A.I., the Guardian of Fate, from a downed Covenant ship so that the AI could be researched, scoured of information and then reverse-engineered if possible, while the other half of the ONI team remained onboard the UNSC What E'er Betide, a highly secretive and well protected military science vessel that happened to be have been transporting two suits of HAYABUSA Armor to a research station on the planet of Coral prior to being reassigned to Operation: VIRTUE.

While Riker, Codename: SHISA and the rest of their ONI team neared their objective, however, they received a distress signal from their commanding officer, Codename: ROOSEVELT, stating that Codename: SELENA had betrayed the UNSC and was in fact a URF double-agent; in addition to this, she had managed to kill most of the ONI team, wounded the rest and made off with both Hayabusa suits. Moving quickly, Riker, SHISA and several others rerouted themselves to intercept SELENA, but Admiral Lee had discovered that his plan was falling apart and as such he took every measures to try and stop the ONI group, but to no avail: the team managed to reach SELENA, but after a pitched battle that ended with SELENA's death, the traitor had still managed to ensure that the URF gained its' suits of armor.

Evacing to the UNSC fleet, the CO of the UNSC fleet quickly had to turn tail and run from his battle with the URF as a large fleet of Covenant entered the system, bend on the Humans destruction. Forced to withdraw from Fiji, the mission was dubbed a failure, as the URF managed to gain the two suits of Hayabusa armor and the Covenant AI purged its' own databanks in order to ensure "the Unclean did not grasp holy knowledge with their grimy paws"

Defense of OUTPOST Base
With coordinates given by Codename: SELENA during Operation: VIRTUE, Admiral Ulysses J Lee and his URF forces' next move against the UNSC was an assault on the planet of Coral: a mostly barren and deserted world, it housed a hand full of cities and a secret ONI research station known as OUTPOST Base. Recently, the research station had uncovered a massive structure of alien origins buried under the planet's surface, and because of their attempts to either excavate the structure or find an entrance to it, the main base had been temporarily put into a lower priority state, with most of hte staff moving to a base camp around the structure. It was for this reason that Admiral Lee deemed it the perfect time to strike.

Sneaking a small force into the system, the URF force landed their stealth ships near the research facility and proceeded to infiltrate the base, eliminating guards and security systems as they went. However, what at first appeared to be an easy mission for the URF soon became complicated when a UNSC fleet arrived for a short respite and repair period at the planet: hailing the facility, they received no answer, telling them something had gone awry - the base was massive, sprawling underground for miles in any direction, and had multiple communications posts. Looking up personel records, the fleet contacted an ONI member known as Codename: CHRONO ; CHRONO was, in fact, Riker-012, who was temporarily stationed at the base until further orders: awaking, Riker answered the communique and began to investigate the base, running into URF forces quickly enough.

As the UNSC fleet deployed troops to try and aid Riker, the Spartan himself began guerrilla warfare to try and stop the URF from taking the high-tech and experimental armors, exoskeletons and vehicles housed in the facility. Reaching the major storehouse with most of the Rebels defeated, Riker was more than surprised when he came under heavy attack there, which revealed itself in the form of of two soldiers wearing the Hayabusa armor stolen by Codename: SELENA during Operation: VIRTUE: attempting to fight back against these "Persian" supersoldiers, soldiers specifically trained to kill Spartans, he was then attacked by a third assailant in MJOLNIR Mk IV armor. As the Persians broke off and began to attempt to disarm the security functions holding in the technology, Riker confronted this third "Persian" who seemed capable of anticipating and fending off his every attack; when at last the UNSC forces entered, the battle was soon forced to stop as the structure began to fall apart around them due to the orbital bombardment coming from the just arrived Covenant fleet in orbit. While the two sides managed to evacuate with small casualties, Riker was determined that the Persians had survived and, knowing what a threat they could cause to the UNSC, he was determined to find them and kill them.

However, upon reaching the surface, Riker was temporarily diverted to the city of Kolto, where the Covenant were setting up their main base of operations on the planet. Rendezvousing with another UNSC group – among whose member's were Team Alpha – the combined forces moved into the Kolto outskirts, encountering little resistance at all: discovering an active supply line at the outskirts, the group followed a strangely undefended caravan into the city only for it to end up being a trap, leading them straight into a dead end and a Scarab. Acting quickly, the group managed to destroy the joints on one of the Scarab's legs, temporarily disabling the walker, and, while the vehicle was crippled, Riker managed to get onboard, eliminate the guards and commandeer the Scarab: taking the behemoth's controls, Riker went to the main Covenant base and, once there, proceeded to decimate it until his foes at last destroyed the Scarab. However, by the time the Scarab was destroyed, the enemy was so decimated that Riker and the marines easily eliminated them completely.

As soon as the Kolto base was destroyed, Riker left ground operations to Team Alpha and the other UNSC forces while he quickly located and infiltrated the URF forces' ship, the URF Hollow Men

Boarding the URF Hollow Men
Locating the Persian's ship via orbital satellite images, Riker managed to sneak aboard the ship and hide in the main cargo bay. Waiting to act until the ship took flight, Riker observed the URF's few prizes from OUTPOST Base being loaded: though most of the technology had not been salvaged in time, Riker saw a few experimental, reverse-engineered plasma weapons and portable energy shields, but these were paled by the prize of two Mk IV MJOLNIR suits and three Titan Mk III Exoskeletons.

Incorporating the threat of these items into his plans, Riker was jerked into action as the ship took to the air. Moving stealthily to the engine room, Riker destroyed the power core, leaving the ship temporarily without engines: as the crew members attempted to repair the engines and find the source of the problem, Riker stole back to the cargo hold to destroy technology there; however, when he arrived, he was met with the mysterious third Persian, Persian-01, aka Alpha.

Joining in mortal combat once again, Riker and Alpha fought in the cargo hold, destroying much of the equipment within during the fight; the battle was difficult even for the well-trained Riker, as the Persian was an even-match for him and, only making the battle more difficult, was the fact that the other two Persians joined in soon enough

Riker – tired, out of ammo save for his M6D, and forced to fight with his Combat Knife – made a desperate bid at survival and success by retreating to the adjacent cryo chambers and escape pods: there, Riker used guile and stealth to get the jump on Persian-02, Beta, knocking him unconscious, while he managed to knock Persian-03 Gamma – into a cryo tube and lock her inside. Spotted by Alpha by this point however, Riker withdrew to the escape pods corridor, where the two supersoldiers commenced in hand-to-hand combat: both fought spectacularly in the confined space, neither letting the other land many blows. However, Alpha at last let his guard down for a split second, and Riker tried to strike but Alpha turned the tables, knocking Riker back and holding his blade to Riker's neck: yet, instead of killing Riker, he kicked him into an escape pod and jettisoned it.

Soon, both Riker and the pod were recovered by the UNSC Annihilator, just before it jumped system while the Covenant glassed the planet. Riker, while safe, was left to wonder why Alpha had spared him.

Battle of Gold-512 (2539)
With Persian super-soldiers in its' command now, the URF became emboldened, disproportionally so in fact: arrogant in its' handful of recent victories, the URF dispatched a fleet of ships – the Persians among them – under the command of Admiral Lee with orders to attack the shipyard of Gold-512 and take over it and, more specifically, the ships that were in dry-dock there; a blow here was hoped to make a dent in the UNSC's forces, as well as bolster the URF's fleets further.

The attack was made quickly and came as a total surprise, but this did not stop the UNSC forces at Gold-512 from putting up a valiant defense of their shipyards: forming defenses within the network of shipyards that floated thickly about the planet's atmosphere, the scanty UNSC forces set up several ambushes, hiding functional ships among the fleet of dry-docked ones, and even using the weaponry on those dry-docked ships that were able to fire. Nevertheless, the URF fleet outnumbered and outmaneuvered the UNSC ships and Gold-512 began to slowly fall to the Admiral Lee's forces.

Moving a fleet to Gold-512 as quickly as possible, the UNSC reinforcements did not manage to arrive until after most of the shipyard had been taken by the rebels: moving cautiously, the fleet soon came under attack by numerous ambush groups, with even the dry-docked ships attacking them as they had attacked the rebels earlier. Dispatching EVA teams to several of the defense and command stations scattered across the shipyard, it was hoped they could regain control of the former UNSC defenses and turn the tide.

Landing on the main command station of the shipyard, Riker-012 began to move through the station with several squads of ODST's, attempting to proceed with all speed and stealth to ensure a quick and successful mission: the plan was to reactivate first the station's defense systems and turn them on the rebels, then to move on to the external weaponry and repeat the same ideal. However, things did not go as planned, and the rebels discovered their presence: fighting their way through the station, they soon enough managed to activate the internal defenses and eliminate the rebels, then turned the orbital stations on the URF fleet as well; using a UNSC command override code allowed the team to even disable the dry-docked ships, preventing them from fighting off the UNSC fleet as they boarded and cleansed the ships.

Taking a Pelican, Riker and a large portion of the ODST's proceeded to board the URF flagship in the hopes of killing Admiral Lee and ending his campaigns against the UNSC: however, shortly into the attempt, the team was attacked by the Persians, now aided by several other recruits including ?? armed with the powerful Mk II Exoskeletons. Despite their best attempts at managing to push forward, the entire team of ODST's were killed and Riker was wounded, with only two casualties to the Persians, one killed and one badly wounded. Facing death, Riker was forced to retreat: despite the fact that Gold-512 had been retaken, the survival of Admiral Lee and his Persians continued to pose a threat to the UNSC.

Battle of Chaos (2541)


The Battle of Chaos was an odd situation in the context of the Human-Covenant War: out of the entire war, it was the only recorded incident in the war where the Covenant took prisoners, creating a mass hostage situation. A rogue element of the Covenant forces led by Jiralhanae Chieftain Romulus and Kig-Yar Pirate Prince Huka took over the planet of Chaos, located within the Chaos Asteroid Belt, and once there they proceeded to capture all of the planets inhabitants and force them to work on making a massive Jiralhanae-Kig-Yar fleet of warships and vehicles with which they hoped to overthrow the Prophets and establish a higher place in the caste system for themselves.

Wishing to save as many of the inhabitants of Chaos as possible as well as destroy the Jiralhanae-Kig-Yar fleet, ONI dispatched Riker-012 and an elite group of ONI Spooks, including Riker's love interest Olivia Holm, Codename: SHISA. Sent with a small distractionary fleet, the fleet engaged and occupied the Jiralhanae and Kig-Yar warships while Riker and the ONI Spooks dropped from a separate UNSC stealth warship down to the planet below; as soon as the UNSC agents were safe on the ground, the slightly wounded fleet jumped from the system back to relative safety. For several days, the ONI agents waged a guerrilla war against the rogue Covenant forces, until on the sixth day a Covenant fleet under the command of Usze 'Taham arrived to quell the rebel faction: taking advantage of this major distraction, the ONI agents moved in on the major command post of the faction, and managed to destroy the place, nearly killing both leaders.

However, as forces loyal to the Covenant Empire moved in, the ONI agents were forced to attempt to withdraw from the system, and in the terrible confusion wrought by the planet was being destroyed by the orbiting fleet, Olivia Holm was killed by Pirate Prince Huka; Riker, in retaliation, mortally wounded Huka, who only barely managed to ask of his friend and cohort Romulus that his two children be split up for their own safety from the Hierarchs wrath. The ONI agents managed to escape the system shortly after with the arrival of their retrieval ship, while the Covenant rogues were all taken to High Charity by Usze 'Taham to be punished accordingly.

Operation: DAGGER'S TIP (2545)
"You now stand upon the edge of a knife: stray but a little and you will fall"

- Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

An attempt to stab into the Covenant war machine's heart, Operation: DAGGER'S TIP was a multi-pronged offensive down "Excalibur's Blade", a large slice of space that lay between the Hyde Run and the Lorien Trade Route. Consisting of roughly two dozens battles, Riker participated in seven of these, and - with only a few exceptions - the battles were all UNSC victories; the operation was later deemed even more of a success by historians in that the colonies all held till late 2549, more than 4 years later.

Battle of Detritus (2546)
Since the earliest days of modern Human society, the elimination of waste, trash and other refuse has always been an issue. However, in 2173, Kosyetze Agriculture managed to start to change this with its' R3 (Refuse Recycle into Resources) Program: Human and animal waste was gathered and used as fertilizer on UNSC Ag-Worlds, while inorganic materials were shipped to Kosyetze's personal world known as Detritus where it was sorted for either recycling or disintegration and chemical gathering. The R3 Program soon became one of the greatest ideas of the century, and would continue to serve its' purpose for years to come.

With the Inner Colonies falling quickly during the latter half of the Human-Covenant War, Detritus' centuries of refuse had become a major source of supplies for the UNSC, its' refuse being constantly melted down and transported to orbiting shipyards for use. Because of its' significance to the UNSC, innumerable measures were taken to protect its' secret location: Detritus was never referred to by name, nor were its' true coordinates given uncoded, and around the planet was a good-sized fleet of warships surrounding it at all times.

However, as is inevitable, the Covenant advanced to the planet in their relentless push forward. As the Covenant fleet battled Detritus' guardian ships, Covenant ground troops moved to destroy the UNSC's major ground bases and factories. Riker, currently stationed on the planet, had a primary objective to defend those factories.

Setting up a perimeter around the factory he was currently at, he, the Marines and the soldiers there fended off wave upon wave of Covenant infantry and light vehicles through the use of turrets, mines, three Scorpion tanks, and other ambushes. however, over time the waves of Covenant kept coming while the defenders began to be overwhelmed: the ambushes and mines had sprung, a Scorpion had been destroyed, and ammo and stamina were low. When several lances of Covenant managed to break the defensive line and enter the factory from the side, Riker moved quickly with a small force of Marines and eliminated the threat with little damage to the factory: from here, Riker saw the opening that the Covenant continued to pore through towards the Marines' defensive line, but also noticed a very large and precariously placed metal structure; taking a Rocket Launcher, Riker fired two shots at the base of the structure, causing it to break and collapse onto the opening the Covenant were poring through.

After a short moment to ensure the makeshift wall's secureness, Riker and a small taskforce pushed forward, seeking the Covenant's forward base: heading in the same direction as the Covenant forces had come from, they soon arrived at a very small camp made at the end of a dead-end path. Raiding it, the group managed to kill all the occupants, but Riker was still convinced that this was not the true base: soon enough he was proven right, as they discovered a large path that's entrance was covered by a massive stealth generator that made it appear to merely be part of the great piles of refuse that covered the planet.

Moving on to the forward base of the Covenant, Riker and the team began a guerrilla attack on the structure and its' guardian forces, distracting them from sending out more forces to deal with the factories on the planet. However, a good deal of the fleet entered the atmosphere and began charging up their glassing beams, beginning to glass the planet: fighting until their last second, Riker and the team were picked up by a Pelican dropship and returned to a UNSC ship in orbit, where they retreated from the battle, which ended in defeat.

Battle of Damascus (2547)
Damascus was a world of vast open plains of grass and enormous mountains honeycombed with innumerable caves within, and the few Human settlements were separated by hours-long Pelican flights: in fact, there was practically any UNSC presence on the world at all. Due to this lack of strategic value, Damascus was not an immediate Covenant target: it became so, however, when Forerunner relics were discovered by Luminairies on Kig-Yar scout ships.

The UNSC, however, had cracked the Covenant's current communications code, and therefore sent a large fleet to set an ambush at Damascus: the plan worked well, but the fleet was still damaged badly by the Covennat, and in but a few days the Covenant had sent in a larger fleet to respond to the distress signal of the former - and now destroyed - fleet. The UNSC fleet was outmatched and outnumbered, and as such were forced to land and dig into the vast mountain caverns to survive, as they were sitting atop the Forerunner relics that the Covenant dared not destroy.

Two weeks into the siege, a detachment of ONI's best operatives arrived in system to break the siege and rescue the planet: the group included Riker-012, some of ONI's top spook agents, Team Alpha and a team fo former ORION supersoldiers. The group did marvelous work, causing mass casualties and wide-spread chaos, as well as pushing the Covenant completely out of the mountain caves: however, they were incapable of stopping this Juggernaut single-handedly, and the ONI battalion was forced to retreat into the caves with the rest of the UNSC forces, leaving them in the same position as before with just slightly more forces, intel and supplies.

However, from the retreat came unexpected victory: during the retreat Riker-012 fought a Sangheili Zealot, mortally wounding him. This Sangheili, by name Destil 'Auguree, saw visions in his wounded delirium, thinking he spoke with the Forerunners: when his brethren found him and nursed him back to health, Destil said he was a Prophet of the Gods, and he knew the true path to the Great Journey, a path far different from the death the High Prophets were leading them towards; dissension arose amidst the Covenant forces, with many following 'Auguree's grand visions, and as the Heretics fled the system the UNSC was able to mop up the belleaguered remnants of the Covenant.

Operation: JUDAS (2548)
For years, the United Rebel Front had been a thorn in the side of the UNSC, a thorn that no matter how hard they pulled it would not leave: so, in 254? ONI commander Margaret Parangosky ordered Riker-012 to pose as a defector and infiltrate the URF with the purpose of eliminating all of their upper hierarchy. As per orders, Riker left his MJOLNIR with ONI and shipped out to the world of Bree, well-known for its' criminal underworld: quickly gaining intel on which members of the black market were connected to the URF, Riker requested to be brought to the URF as he had valuable intelligence.

Within the week he was shipped to the URF stronghold of Loki, and here he informed some of the URF's upper echelon that he knew of an experimental vessel, the UNSC Zeal, that was being moved from one location to another for final construction, and would be prime for the capture: the URF quickly looked into the information, and, finding it to be true, they immediately captured the Zeal. Impressed by Riker's find – in fact a set-up by Parangosky – but not yet trusting him entirely, the URF's commanders requested that he provide a second proof of his abilities to provide useful intelligence: so, quite promptly, Riker proved yet another set-up from ONI, a cache of older UNSC ordnance. After this second betrayal, the URF welcomed him as a double agent, requesting that he continue his intelligence gathering within the UNSC and keep them informed on other possible gains.

Within a month, Riker had gained the hierarchy's trust completely, and it was at this point that he struck: gathering most of the URF echelon together, he assassinated all of them and their guards, and then proceeded to fight his way out of the facility and sabotage all of the gains the URF had made over the past month – the old ordnance was destroyed, technology was confiscated, information downloaded and then erased, and lastly Riker captured the UNSC Zeal and, with the help of a micro-AI he had been given, piloted it back to UNSC space.

This blow, while not completely fatal, was highly lethal to the URF: with its' commanders reduced to a fraction of what they were before, and all the gains made within the last month eliminated, they were reduced a shadow of their former selves and would not act against the UNSC until their moves in 2552, after which they were formally and promptly defeated by the UNSC during the post-war period.

Siege of Paris IV (2549)
The Siege of Paris IV was a major conflict in the Human-Covenant War, beginning when a small Covenant fleet made a wrong slispace jump that took them to the UNSC colony of Paris IV instead of the repair station they'd been wanting. There, the UNSC had been amassing a large fleet to attack the Covenant with, and the Covenant were quickly engaged by it; before the end, several of the Covenant ships were forced to the planet for repairs, while all the remaining Covenant ships were destroyed. However, over the course of the space battle, all the UNSC ships were either destroyed or horrendously damaged, and the only slipspace signal transmitter on the planet was destroyed by the landing Covenant ships.

With no hope of reinforcements for the UNSC, and with Covenant reinforcements still a long time coming, the Covenant quickly took the offensive, creating large controlled zones around their five damaged cruisers. While a quickly made strike by the Air Force managed to take out one of the ships, the others were quickly reinforced.

Arriving on Paris IV shortly before the battle as a layover stop until his next assignment, Riker-012 quickly assisted in several missions against advancing Covenant forces, attempting to push them out of their occupied territory, and even carrying out a few solo missions. Soon enough, however, the commanding officer of the defending UNSC Marines, General Esau Werner, ordered a mission to attack two cruisers via a diversionary attack on a third: while an older marine sergeant named Avery Johnson was to lead the attack on one cruiser, Riker was appointed to lead the other attack.

Once the diversion had drawn away the majority of the defending forces, Riker and his group of Marines quickly and quietly took out the guards around the gravity lift and entered the ship. Splitting into three groups, each with explosives, Alpha Team headed to the engines, while Bravo headed to the vehicle/ship depot, and Charlie (with Riker) went to the bridge. At first, all went smoothly, until Bravo slipped up and alerted the ship's crew to their presence. Moving double-time, Bravo planted their explosives, killed the encroaching enemies and then escaped. Charlie and Riker managed to make it to the bridge, only to find the supreme commander of the Covenant forces on Paris IV, Holy Commander Ameigh Broley. Riker and Ameigh dueled while Charlie planted explosives; in the end, Charlie Team was unable to properly set the explosives, so their team's extraction time was severely cut, and they were forced to leave immediately, with Riker's duel interrupted near its' climax.

While Riker and Charlie Team fled, Alpha radioed in: save three members, all were dead, with the remainder about to die and the explosives still not set. Riker quickly ordered Charlie to extract, then grabbed a Ghost and drove the length of the ship, the clock ticking down; when he arrived, he killed the Covenant troops - though he was too late to save Alpha Team - and quickly set the explosives. With little time to spare, Riker deemed his only choice of escape was to jump the Ghost from the cruiser's highest hanger at top speed on the fool's chance that the anti-grab systems could help break the fall enough to keep him from breaking his entire body upon landing. Managing to jump from the ship just as the explosives went off, the force of the resulting explosion severely threw him off course: trying for the best scenario, Riker attempted to manipulat the Ghost towards a nearby river, but when he could not totally do so, he jumped.

When Riker regained consciousness, he found himself onboard the UNSC Ensemble with his right arm, left hand and a few ribs broken, and bruises everywhere else. Upon debriefing, he found that his mission and Sergeant Johnson's had been a success, and that the third cruiser that had been targeted for the diversionary attack had, in a struck of luck, been destroyed as well. However, almost immediately after the completion of the mission, a large Covenant war fleet had arrived, and the fifth grounded cruiser joined the fleet and Ameigh Broley - who had escaped the doomed cruiser Riker had destroyed - had ordered the planet's glassing; the planet was immediately evacuated, and the few ships left withdrawn.

Operation: RETURN TO SENDER (2552)
Perhaps one of the greatest stirs in the entire war happened in early 2552: a message was from an "outer territory" Covenant colony to a location known as "High Charity", and was intercepted by an ONI Prowler, operating undercover in Covenant territory, while being relayed through a Covenant cruiser; this was no uncommon thing, but the contents of the message were, being enough to be relayed directly back to ONI Command. The message was amazing: the Covenant claimed to have found an older Human ship floating through space, badly damaged; more than this, though, was that while half the crew was found dead, of the surviving crew were three “Demons”.

ONI quickly put the seemingly impossible puzzle together: the UNSC Spirit of Fire and its’ large crew – among then Sergeant John Forge, Professor Ellen Anders, and SPARTAN’s -130, -042 and -092 – had disappeared after the First Battle of Arcadia in 2531, diving into enemy territory after a kidnapped Professor Anders; the UNSC lost contact in two days, and they were never heard from again. Though it seemed impossible, it appeared the Spirit of Fire had been found at last, a fact more likely with the mention of three “Demons” aboard. The last fact was the deciding factor, and ONI immediately moved Riker into action from the just-won Transcendence Light-Belt Campaign, with order to evac key emmbers of the surviving crew while not revealing his identity.

Perhaps the most difficult part of the mission was reaching the holding compound: the Covenant’s defenses were none too light, as the ship had been towed to a nearby Covenant garrison world, with the world covered in barracks, weapon and vehicle depots, and command structures, while numerous fleets orbited the planet. So, Riker created a distraction by dropping a bomb into a cruiser’s thrusters, detonating it and causing an explosive chain reaction that ran through half a dozen ships and brought others to aid the survivors: moving quickly, Riker commenced an orbital drop from his Prowler, with the experimental ORPHEUS Power Armor he was still garbed in – assigned to test it before his missions to the Transcendence Light-Belt – using false imagery to make him appear to be debris from the ships.

Battle of Reach (2552)
Riker was present on Reach during the battle, as ONI had deemed that every available Spartan-II would be required for the mission to eliminate the Covenant hierarchy; because of this assumption, they recalled all Spartan-II's, including their secret operatives. However, one of their operatives, Spartan-091, never made it, and against all ONI plans none of the three S-II's were never revealed to their Spartan-II brethren.

Riker's mission was very simple: destroy the main base on Reach, containing enormous databases on all kinds of UNSC data, ranging from protocols to weapons designs and more. After disabling the hastily erected auto-turret defenses the Covenant had set up by destroying their power generator, he managed to hijack a Spirit and ram through the main chamber; while the Spirit managed to take out most of the database equipment, Riker quickly set a small tactical nuke and escaped before it destroyed the entire complex

While one of the two other operatives, Leonid-144, escaped on board a Covenant ship, the second - Laszlo-108 - escaped via a small prowler bound for Earth. He was, however, not alone, as Riker sent out a distress call and was also picked up, and for the first time since training the two Spartans met, both realizing that ONI had weaved quite an elaborate lie around the both of them's "deaths". Each Spartan, while glad the other was actually alive, began to wonder what else ONI might have lied about.

First Battle of Earth (2552)
Carried to Earth aboard the sub-prowler from Reach, Riker was present when the news was given to HIGHCOM that Reach had been glassed. Riker would never forget the terrible looks upon the faces of those present.

When the Covenant arrived, Riker immediately led a strike force from Rome Station to a Cvoeannt cruiser serving as a command vessel, both to acquire intel from the ship's computer systems and to blow the cruiser itself. While the cruiser was successfully destroyed, the intelligence data could only be partially transferred, revealing very little in new, or understandable, Covenant intel.

Battle of the Sol System (2552)
"Only guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things your eyes saw, and lest these things depart from your heart all the days of your life. And you shall make them known to your children and your children's children"

- Verse from the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible

On Earth's surface at the start of the invasion, Riker held out against Covenant invaders in London, barely escaping death when London Station was destroyed and plummeted into the Thames River.

Moving to Paris, invasion forces were successfully repelled through lightning strikes and ambushes, after which Riker moved on to former Germany. Here he stayed till the end of the battle, pushing towards Berlin, which was won back shortly before Covenant Loyalist surrender.

After the battle, he was present for the mass memorial that was held to honor those that had died fighting in the war. After Lord Hood finished his speech, Riker did not follow him to the hillside memorial outside New Mombasa's wreckage, but instead stayed at the Fallen Heroes Memorial and mourned.

Reclamation Missions (2552)
The SPARTAN-II's were heavily involved in freeing the Covenant Loyalist held worlds, and Riker was no exception to this: just like his brethren, Riker was deployed on a dozen missions, ranging across several solar systems and consisting of both missions to recapture UNSC worlds and to take over Brute worlds; Riker was one of only three S-II's, however, that was not present at the final attack on Doisac.

At the Battle of Crystal

The Battle of Tantalus

Riker's at the Battle at Cyrus VII

The final mission for Riker was the Battle of Tribute

Operation: SAVIOR (2553)
Riker was one of the first of the Spartans to suggest a rescue mission for John-117, beginning to avidly propose it almost immediately after the capture of Doisac; he even planned to go by himself if none of the other Spartans would come. Once Lord Hood officially requested it and allowed the Spartans to carry out Operation: SAVIOR, Riker quickly came on board, being the third Spartan-II to do so.

Battle of the Mirror (2562)
"Whatsoever you reap, so to shall you sow"

- Riker, referring to Team Beta after the Battle of the Mirror

After the discovery and subsequent attacks of the Infinitum League, a large AUR fleet was gathered with the purpose of destroying the League in its' infancy: to this purpose, the AUR gathered many of its' best soldiers, Riker-012 being one of them. Deployed with Charlie Division, the plan was for their ships to land on the northeastern portion of the Mirror to attack, but all did not go as planned.

Attacked while in the air, only three of Charlie Division's seven ships managed to land safely on the Mirror's surface: out of the remaining four ships, one was destroyed outright and while the others began evacuating all non-essential personnel through any means, only one ship was fully evacuated while the others were destroyed at roughly 50 and 75 percent. Riker was on one of the destroyed ships, and was forced to jump while the ship began to fall apart mid-air: forced to descend into enemy territory, he began a commando strike mission in an attempt to reach Charlie Division's HQ.

The Destruction of Just Caretaker (2572)


In 2572, the radical Prophet of Salvation broke away from the United Sangheili Republic, taking with him a large number of followers than then formed a new faction, known as the Covenant Reborn. They prepared to launch a war against the Alliance of United Races, using a lost stockpile of Covenant warships, including the massive space station known as the Just Caretaker.

Salvation and his army of Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar and Unggoy (stolen from the USR colony of Alagaesia) posed a practical threat to the AUR, but they underestimated them and believed they would amount to nothing: until three colonies of the USR fell to the Covenant Reborn did they even plan any form of retaliation. Bringing together a small strike force, the AUR sent them to destroy the Covenant fleet, but the pitiful strike force was outnumbered; it was quickly beaten and nearly destroyed, and quickly fled back to the AUR.

The AUR feared that the Covenant Reborn might become a full-blown insurrection soon enough, and they were especially fearful of the Just Caretaker and the possible repercussions of an entire space station on the rebels side. So, they sent out a message to Riker-012, operating on Operation: SAVIOR at the time, ordering him to slip in and cause havoc with the station - destroy it if possible - while the AUR prepared a larger attack force. Riker quickly jumped to the Nephtyr System where the station was currently located, but his prowler was spotted, and after a short dogfight it was shot down: Riker preformed an orbital drop, jumping from the ship as it plummeted.

Landing in the city, Riker began a single-man guerrilla campaign against the forces of Salvation. After managing to destroy quite a few ammo, weapon and vehicle depots, Riker captured a Scarab and began to destroy the station in that manner: it was only after the combined efforts of an attack by an elite group of Jiralhanae and the destruction of the Scarab that Riker was knocked out and captured, brought before Salvation to be interrogated. When he would not talk, he was thrown into one of the many prison cells on the station, to be executed in the morning.

However, that time never came, as just when the execution was about to begin, the AUR fleet jumped into system. Riker managed to break away from his captors, escaping into the station's maze-like paths, and eventually came to one of the many on-station Energy Projectors, which he fired at several of the major ships before setting up as a trap to kill his pursuers.

As the confusion ensued, both on station and in space, Riker prepared to deal the final blow to the movement: finding the Prophet of Salvation himself, he battle his Honor Guards, then took Salvation and tossed him into the nearby power core to the station ; this set the power core into an unstable state, causing an imminent self-destruct. Riker found it to be impossible to escape the station conventionally in time though, and therefore he was forced to escape unconventionally: taking a large piece of the station’s metal walls, he waited for the station to self-destruct, the explosion hurling him away from the station, and towards the nearby planet of Osiris III; the landing was hard, but the piece of the Just Caretaker Riker rode on managed to save him from any major injuries.

Riker was soon retrieved, treated, and back on his mission to find John-117.

Battle of Ignito Prime (2589)
"I was told the supposed "Hydra" parasites were at that death-trap, making a mess of the forces on the far-side of the Facility.... I never saw them; Laz always looks at me like I'm crazy when I say I never saw them, since Ignito was the biggest gathering of those things in recent history - shocks him more when I say I've never seen either the Flood or the Hydra, 'cept in visual records"

- Riker-012

Arriving with the large AUR fleet coming to reinforce the beleaguered forces already on Ignito Prime, Riker dropped through the atmosphere with a squad of ODST's via HOPE pods: landing, the team cleared a large swath of enemy-controlled canyon so that it could be used to set up as a forward command base. Pushing forward, Riker and his team pushed all the way to the AUR frontlines and beyond: arriving at the Facility's control center, Riker was forced to engage a large army of Precursor constructs, including two Precursor Genesis Walkers, while the second force diverted Hydra forces on the far side of the Facility.

Attacking, Riker at first took a Scorpion Tank and proceeded to engage and destroy numerous Precursor constructs across the rocky valley: however, when he was forced to abandon the Scorpion as the Genesis blasted it, Riker quickly made his way up the rocky ledges on the valley's slopes and managed, with difficulty, to not only scale the side of the gorge and survive his foes, but to then board one of the Genesis Assault Platforms, kill the pilots, and take control of the bio-engineered craft.

Using the Genesis to break into the control center, Riker moved as quickly as he could towards the position of Team Alpha and the Lance of Unrelenting Reparation's surviving members: he was drastically slowed though by the powerful Precursor drones within the structure, especially when he encountered a half a dozen Smasher units simultaneously. However, Riker managed to defeat all the foes in his way, and soon joined the others in their attempt to kill Nogard.

Arriving at the main room, the group confronted Nogard: attacking, Nogard began to slowly kill off the brave soldiers. Yet, as the deranged monster focused on Riker, he asked the Spartan to join him, and exact vengeance on all those that had wronged him through the years: Nogard said they were not so different, Riker and he; Riker, however, rose above his hatreds and fear, stating that Nogard and himself were nothing but polar opposites. Retaliating, Nogard attacked Riker furiously, and would likely have killed the Spartan save for the intervention of Ameigh Broley: together, the former rivals attempted to defeat the beast, but both were wounded and, as Nogard fled quickly, were forced by their pleading comrades to save themselves.

Riker, seeing how gravely wounded Ameigh was, promised to get her to safety despite her protests, and, at the request of James and Katelynn Davis, he also took the necklaces they had been given indirectly by their parents, with orders that he give them to their twin grandchildren. Escaping with Ameigh in a Pelican Dropship, the two barely made it into orbit before the planet self-destructed, ending the threats of Nogard and the Hydra.

Training (2603)
"No man is an island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend or thy own were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in makind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee"

- The poem For Whom The Bell Tolls by John Donne

Though most of the Spartan-II's pulled out of Operation: SAVIOR at the first call of the UNSC for them to come and serve as commanders and instructors of the Spartan-IV's, Riker held out, being the last Spartan-II besides Ajax-013 to withdraw from the operation. When he at last did, reluctantly, he took command of Kilo Company, was given the Thirteenth-Gen AI Susano, and began instructing the new Spartans according to the specifications of the program; occasionally, he would break from the program's rules to teach something that he had been taught in the S-II Program and deemed important, but the IV's were not being taught. In the end, Kilo Company graduated alongside the rest of the companies, their specialty being orbital and airborne insertions, just like Riker.

Graduation (2610)
"I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are evil"

- Riker-012

When augmentations took place, all but one SPARTAN-IV survived. This one Spartan, by name Clyde-K102, was a member of Kilo Company, and his passing was greatly mourned by all the other members, especially Riker.

Operation: DEVIANT (2610)
Riker was merely a spectator at the beginning of Operation: DEVIANT, just as all the other commanders, as all twelve companies were tested with how well they could operate in a situation where their was no absolute commander. After Kilo Company managed to take control of the first asteroid they had been assigned to take, Riker and the other commanding officers of the company and the platoons returned to the Spartans, leading them at Asteroid J-V13 during the joint-attack with Albion Company

Once the Spartans had claimed all the asteroids, half the Spartans were sent to the planet of Kol as an advanced force to disable the Kig-Yar bases and emplacements planetside: Kilo was held back with the UNSC fleet, and once the fleet and the rest of the Spartans were sent in as a regular invasion force, Kilo Company HOPE dropped and parachuted down to the planet's surface, reeking havoc from the sky before beginning commando missions across an entire continent of the planet. In the final hour of the operation, Kilo began harrying tasks on the main Kig-Yar base structure, distracting them long enough for Albion, Joker, and Lambda Companies to break into the facility, from which they off-lined the base defenses to allow the other Spartans inside.

Third Battle of Linna (2616)
"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, not give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much"

- Excerpt from Cry, The Beloved County

Second Encounter (2616)
"You stand there now, standing as if you were the last hope of the universe. You are. You are told you do not know fear, you do not know pain, you do not know any of these things... but you do, and that is what makes you Human. But remember, it is only through facing these things and overcoming them that we can grow stronger.


 * After the Great War, I am told that Lord Hood dedicated the memorial near Voi to “those that journeyed into the howling dark and did not return.” He then said “For their decision required courage beyond measure, sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight, our fight, was elsewhere. As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten”. Remember those that went before you; remember the other Spartans, the one's who blazed the path through the darkness you now face and died in their effort: let them not have died in vain!


 * You face now a foe unlike any the galaxy has ever known: neither the Covenant, nor the Flood, nor anything else can match with those we now face. Your fear of them is not unfounded; I have seen many a horror, but never one such as them. Even now, the Darkness you must face awaits, hungering for all our flesh, to devour us and feast upon our fear. But we will not fall! We will prevail! Now, for the AUR, for Earth, for Mankind, and for the fallen Spartans, CHARGE!"

- Riker-012 to Kilo Company before engaging the Necros force at the 

The Final Battle (26xx)
"Sons and daughters of heroes, my brethren! I see in your eyes the same fear that would grip the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails; when we forsake our friends and break all bounds of fellowship: but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered souls; but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear in this universe, I bid you to stand, Spartans, heroes of Men!"

- Riker-012 to Kilo Company at the final battle of the Necros War

Death
"Last words are for fools who have not said enough"

- Karl Marx

"If a man has done his best, what else is there?"

- General George S. Patton

Alternate Universes

 * Operation: VALKYRIE
 * The Saulosian Campaign

Overview
Riker is strong, silent and loyal, and while a natural leader, he never presses for command, taking on the role as needed. Though he'd never say it verbally, Riker has extreme loyalty and respect for his Spartan-II brothers and sisters, both Class I's and Class II's; oddly, however, while other military officers are respected as well (if not quite as much), Riker disrespects the Spartan-III's, once calling them “pathetic excuses” left from a “failed attempt to recreate the II's” in a “cannon fodder” format. While Riker is primarily unemotional, even for a Spartan, but he is not entirely stoic, and in addition he does at times have brief moments of extreme emotion; he was once recorded as having told 23 jokes in a row, and when he heard that John-117 was MIA after the Battle of the Ark, he was said to have mourned his fallen brother for several hours.

Hobbies and Interests
"Life resembles novels more often than novels resemble life"

- Riker-012

Riker had few hobbies during his early life in the Human-Covenant War, due to constantly being on the move and in battle, but after the war he began to gain several hobbies, notably an interest in the Japanese story telling of the 20th century and onwards, whether it be movie, anime, manga or otherwise. Of these, his interests were primarily narrowed down to two series: the Kingdom Hearts series and the Toho-Daiei creations.

While the Kingdom Hearts series had not been updated 2144, the storytelling behind it was something that Riker found quite wonderful: the ideals behind it were what made him interested more than anything, as the ideal of ultimate dark and light with a gray in-between being the founding tenants of the Kingdom Hearts universe was something that Riker believed in. Beside this, the thought that a young child was caught up to become a hero by powers beyond his owns was another thought that Riker associated with, as he had experienced similar (though still different) circumstances as a child when he was chosen as a SPARTAN-II.

The Toho-Daiei creations were a fascination to Riker, not because of any relevance to himself, but simply because of the interesting oddity that they were: the original series's from the 20th and 21st centuries did not interest Riker much beyond a point of context and origin for the later series, which had continued to be made up into the late 24th century and had begun to experience a revival in the 2560's with several new series. Riker's favorite series were the Godzilla Neo series of the 2050's-2100's, the New Era series of the 2110's, the Destiny series of the 2270's, the Ultimatum series of the 2300's-80's (notable as the longest running series yet), and lastly the Rebirth series of the 2640's-90's.

Dreams
"Our truest life is when we are in our purest dreams, awake"

- Riker-012

Riker always believed heavily that dreams served a purpose; that each and every single one had a message, a lesson to be learn within it. As such, he was always very attentive to his dreams, recording them in an audio jounral that he kept as soon as he awoke.

Out of all of his dreams, Riker had a small amount that were consistently recurring. One of these was a dream common among all the Spartan-II's: the brief flashes of memories from his childhood that he had would be warped and contorted as they were thrown together, creating a false childhood in this dream. The dream would almost always end with a collection of memories of Dr. Catherine Halsey, who all the Spartans considered something of a mother figure.

The most common dream of Riker's began shortly after the Battle of Reach: it was a perverted version of a trial, sentencing him to death for “abandoning” Reach instead of drying there. When Riker would attempt to argue his case, the “witnesses” would speak, all of them the battered, broken and bloodied bodies of all his Spartan brothers and sisters that had fallen at Reach. When at last he was sentenced guilty, Grey Team would walk in as three executioners and encircle him: they would then pull out shotgun's and fire, at which point Riker would awake.

Riker's second most common dream, consistently recurring during the Necros War yet still not enough to beat the years and years of the Reach trial dream, was another grim nightmare: the same every time, save that more and more of the people he knew would be included, the dream would always begin with Riker in the middle of a dark room, without any night-vision. As he'd move on, he would hear a noise, and whirling around would see a friend, either another Spartan-II or one of his Spartan-IV's, rushing at him: however, something would look slightly off about them, so Riker would be forced to shoot them when they didn't stop charging. But, when they would fall, they would seem as normal, and they would ask why he had killed them; after usually two repeats of this, Riker would find himself in a large room filled with light and a hillock in the middle: once Riker had climbed to the top of the hillock, all of the sudden all the people he held dear would charge him as the three had before, and one by one he would be forced to kill them, until at last he was left standing there alone. But as he stood on the mound of his dead comrade's bodies, he would here maniacal laughter, and they would rise again to kill him: on and on the dream would go, till at last Riker would be unable to hold them off and they would manage to kill him.

Overview
On the surface, Riker appeared to be extremely distanced from all lifeforms, even Humans. However, despite the appearances due to his silent and serious nature, he did connect well with Humans when necessary, though he did not do so often; this seeming lack of love for his own kind was simply due to his rather reserved and slightly distrusting personality, as well as a natural self-defense mechanism that usually kept him from getting emotionally involved (to avoid pain in an unfortunate event).

As well as simply being reserved, various things arose with every race that Riker disliked: for Humans, Riker hated the ideas and misconceptions about Spartans, such as the saying that "Spartans never die", and that the Spartans weren't entirely Human. In addition to this, Riker was usually simply uneasy, as regular Humans didn't generally view life the same as him, and even with his fellow Spartan-II's he wasn't entirely at home: the more friendly Spartans made him uncomfortable with their constant attempts at friendship and humor, while loners such as Ajax made him feel less unique; oddly enough however, he became quite friendly with Laszlo-108, but Riker lived with a false regret for 25 years as he and Laz had come to a serious disagreement prior to augmentations, and neither had forgiven the other beforehand, and after the event both Spartans thought the other dead.

AI's were a mixed bag for Riker, as he would like them or hate them judging on their actions and personalities; this was a logic applied to all beings, but most obviously to AI's, as they were much more restrained with their free will than Humans (at least in Riker's mind). After joining the S-IV Program, Susano and Dante were immediate friends to Riker due to their heroic and honorable natures, while Baphomet, Nemesis and Themis were the subject of his spite and retribution because of their blood-lusting, demeaning personalities.

Riker's relations to the various species of the Covenant varied: he never learned to trust the Jiralhanae, viewing them as mindless living weapons just wanting to kill, and the San'Shyuum he would forever distrust, due to how they were the ones that ordered the war in the first place

The Unggoy, the Kig-Yar, and the Yanme'e were usually ignored by Riker due to the fact that he didn't view them as much of a threat - though he always kept a careful eye on the Kig-Yar, knowing of their treacherous nature - and because he didn't see them as truly having done anything against Humanity, merely having been the Prophets tools.

The Sangheili and Lekgolo however, unlike the others, Riker admired due to their sense of honor, and their powerful combat natures, and always enjoyed fighting by their sides; the Huragok Riker found interesting for their technical prowess, but he never truly interacted with them.

The Vorenus and their disciplined natures impressed Riker, but at times this nature went too far and made him find them annoying and stuck-up as well. The Vanguards and their intentions, however, he found admirable and well-intented, though some of the many rules he thought unnecessary.

The Plainsfierians, while usually possessing a similar sense of honor as the Sangheili, were not always the best of Riker's allies, as despite their sense of honor and stealth capabilities, their shape-shifting abilities and at times arrogant natures unnerved and annoyed Riker, as well as the fact that for every Plainsfierian that was honorable, Riker found one that was a rogue and scoundrel.

The Machina Riker regarded with respect and awe, their massive, weapon-mounted forms being a source of inspiration and, in a reinforcement situation, joy to the Spartan. On the other hand, before the Necros War but much more prominently once the war began, Riker saw those same, ingenious frames as a dangerous piece of equipment, as many Machina became power-hungry warriors in battle, or worse, became pawns of the Necros or their Sympathizers.

Laz-108
"I hated those stupid idiots that tried to be overly friendly; I hated everything back at the beginning. We were Spartans, bred to be fighters and warriors, not clowns.... and yet, seems Fate laughs at me, since Laz ended up being my best friend. I gave him a chance after that fight with Ed, and somehow we just clicked after that."

- Riker on he and Laz-108's friendship

John-117
"He was a great leader; one that thought straight, did what was right, and made sure we got ought alive if he had any chance of doing so. Yes, he was good brother-in-arms, and a little more: I wish I had been given one more chance to give my appreciation"

- Riker-012, giving his thoughts on John-117

Team Scimitar
"3's?... *frowns and spits*"

- Riker-012 upon meeting Team Scimitar

In general, Riker hated the Spartan-III's, once he became aware of them, and were oft the subject of his contempt, as he saw them as attempts to make cheap clones of the Spartans, beings that were seen as symbols for the UNSC's freedom. However, he did form bonds with Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091, as he viewed them as the last of their generation - survivors like himself - and he was forced to work with Team Scimitar, who he developed a deep and varied relationship with over time.

Dr. Halsey
"She was like a mother to me; she was mother for all of us. Sadly, I think I was probably the stubborn child that didn't listen to what she said enough."

- Riker-012

SPARTAN-IV's
"You are only what you believe you are: if you believe yourself weak, then you are weak; if you believe yourself strong, then you are strong. I tried to teach this to my Spartans, among other things: I suppose you could say that they were my chance at redemption"

- Riker-012

With the SPARTAN-IV's, Riker instructed Kilo Company personally, many times contradicting the teachings of their Spartan-III teachers. While he would at times speak with the members of the other companies, his main focus was on his own company, and teaching them to the best of his abilities.

Love
Riker-012 has fallen in love twice, not counting the teenage crushes that he had on the female Spartan-II's: these were soon crushed, of course, as those he was infatuated with (most the girls, such as Linda, Elise, and Alice) politely said they weren't interested in him, while Melanie went so far as to threaten him that he shouldn't ever mess with her "if he valued his life and dignity to any degree".

Riker's first true love was Olivia Holm, an ONI spook that operated as Codename: SHISA and worked with Riker a good deal during the 2530's and 2540's: an attractive, smart young woman with a witty sense of humor, short black hair and purple-grey eyes, Riker came to love her over the course of a dozen missions. Riker constantly fought battles within his mind about whether he should engage in a love relationship: he was a Spartan, a hero of the UNSC, and he believed that falling in love would distract him from his mission. It was inevitable, however, and he fell deeply in love with the girl, only for her to be killed by Covenant forces during the Battle of Chaos. Riker mourned her death, feeling a sense of loss greater than he'd felt since deaths of his friends during augmentations.

Riker's only other love was Miranda Talavera, a woman with whom he already had a history of violence and hatred: the first time Riker encountered Miranda was when she was operating as Persian-02, Beta; specially trained to kill Spartans, Miranda fought Riker to a standstill multiple times during Admiral Lee's campaign, and nearly killed Riker during the Third Battle of Marathon. After Operation: THERMOPYLAE, however, Miranda was the only Persian to survive: breaking away from the URF, Miranda became a head hunter, which eventually led to her and Riker's second encounter during the Zeta Shield World Crisis; at the end of this incident, though, Miranda was captured by the Sangheili and placed in cryo-prison to await judgement. When the S-IV Program was begun, however, the UNSC freed and pardoned Miranda to have her help: when she accepted, she was placed in Kilo Company, much to Riker's chagrin, as their previous encounters had instilled only hatred in both individuals. Over time though, the two came to work surprisingly well together, their strong points complimenting one another's shortcomings: the two developed a mutual trust and understanding over time, with Riker even coming to Miranda's aid and defense when she was accused of high treason in 2611. It was during their time together in this incident that a true spark of love began to grow, and within a few years Riker proposed to Miranda, the two being married on May 12th, 2612

Equipment
"The weapon cannot make a man a warrior, but a warrior can make a man a weapon"

- Riker-012

During the Human-Covenant War, Riker was originally equipped with the standard version of the MJOLNIR Mk IV, which he wore until he was upgraded to a Mk V later in the war. In his spare time, Riker worked on his Mk V, upgrading it slightly with the help of ONI techs until he'd created what he called the "Drop Variant": the cushioning gel layers were enhanced in the chest and leg areas to assist in lessening drop impacts, the hip and shoulder areas were made slightly more flexible and the visor on the helmet was made slightly larger to accommodate better field of vision. The weapons Riker carried during the Human-Covenant War varied, but all reflected his commando duties: the 99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle was a near constant companion due to Riker's sniping needs, and the MA5B Assault Rifle was his general purpose weapon many times, though the BR54 Battle Rifle became a new favorite once it came into production in the late 2530's. In addition, Riker always carried an M6D Magnum with him, which many dubbed his "life insurance" due to his method of using it only as a last resort weapon.

When Riker became the commander of Kilo Company, his MJOLNIR was updated, being granted a Mk VII CO/J, a variant based upon his Mk V "Drop Variant". Riker's armament in the Necros era was upgraded also, generally consisting of several recurring weapons: Riker constantly carried either an MA6A Assault Rifle or a BR 09 Battle Rifle as his weapon of choice, and as a sniper rifle he carried either the Sniper Rifle System 99G-S3 Anti-Material or Sniper Rifle System 40A-O Anti Material/Anti Vehicle. In addition to these, he carried two M98 Compacts modified by Angel Arm Inc - the Angel Arm Kaiju Special - as his sidearms, a perk of being a Spartan-IV commanding officer.

Weapons

 * Magnum Series
 * M6D
 * M6L
 * BR Series
 * BR54
 * BR55
 * BR09 SR
 * SR Series
 * SRS99C-S2 AM
 * SRS99G-S3 AM
 * MA Series
 * MA5B
 * MA5C
 * MA6A
 * M98 Compact
 * Angel Arm Kaiju Special
 * SRS40A-O AM/AV
 * M77 ECQCS
 * Melee Weapons
 * M5 Folding Knife
 * M7B Tactical Knife
 * M27 Combat Tomahawk
 * Grenades
 * Frag Grenades
 * Smoke Grenades
 * Flash-Bang Grenades

Armor

 * Body Suit
 * ODST Body Armor
 * ORPHEUS
 * MJOLNIR Series
 * MJOLNIR Mk IV
 * MJOLNIR Mk IV/Jump
 * MJOLNIR Mk V
 * MJOLNIR Mk VI
 * MJOLNIR Mk VI/Jump
 * MJOLNIR Mk VII/Jump

Strengths and Weaknesses
"I don't need a weapon: My friends are my power"

- Riker-012

Riker was one of the more balanced Spartans, much like Fred-104: a gifted leader, tactician and soldier, Riker would yield command to others, preferring to work more in a secondary command position, ensuring that things were planned out and came together correctly; however, should a commanding officer be needed, Riker would just as easily take control of the leaderless forces and would usually win a victory with them.

Riker's true specialty was orbital drops: dropping to the landing zone either in an SOEIV or by some other, in-atmosphere method such as by Aero Foil, Riker would proceed to immediately carry out his objectives, whether it be clearing the LZ of enemy forces, infiltrating enemy structures, sabotage or commando and assassination strikes. In many of these missions, Riker's close-quarters combat and sniping abilities were a major advantage to him: though truly excelling in neither field, Riker's skills in both were still better than most Spartans, and they were very useful for the missions he was most often assigned.

Riker was not the perfect soldier, however: his abilities to skillfully operate vehicles were sub-par, nor was his exceptionally skilled in aquatic warfare, and his demolition capabilities were also slightly less than others. Riker's biggest weakness, however, came from the times when he would allow emotions to get in the way of his missions: during his early missions against Insurrectionists, Riker's missions that involved capturing rebels were mostly failures due to his venting the sorrow and rage - born of the deaths of Spartans caused by augmentations - upon the rebels, causing numerous massacres; similarly, Olivia Holm's death led directly to the death of Pirate Prince Huka and his entourage in the Battle of Chaos. Beyond these, even Riker's loyalty can cause problems as Riker will risk his life to save a comrade that has been wounded, trapped or captured.

Quotes
"If I ever say even one cuss word to you, prepare yourself to be beaten within an inch of your life if you do anything else to me"

- Riker-012 to the candidates of Kilo Company

"I do not claim any religion. However, I do not believe in chance or evolution either; I believe there is indeed a God out there that created all this for a purpose. I find the view of Christianity both plausible and appealing, but I will not claim it. At least not right now."

- Riker-012 when asked if he claimed a religion

"Destiny and Fate are not the same. Destiny is what will happen, regardless of what we think will happen; destiny is the future's version of history. Fate is what we see: our fate may or may not be our destiny. Fate can be changed, Destiny cannot. But in the end, all Fates lead to Destiny: I suppose, to use the phrase, that all roads lead to Rome"

- Riker speaking about Fate and Destiny

"Everyone's mind is a lovely little mess in their own special way"

- Riker-012, speaking on the Human psyche

"Courage is the ability to face what you're afraid of; without fear, courage can't exist"

- Riker-012

"He who fears nothing, loves nothing, and if one loves nothing, what joy is there in his life?"

- Riker-012

"I wonder how many other people were stuck in time and I passed them by on my way through life, never understanding until I, myself, became that person. And although the current of life pushes ever forward, you are never fully removed from that one, single day when life as you knew it ended."

- Riker referring to Olivia Holm's death

"Us S-II's are like a big, dysfunctional, yet closely-knit family in a way: Fred and Laz are the joking ones, the girls all stay together, the girls generally stay together, Jared and Leonid stick together because of their similar natures, and then myself and Ajax stay loners. We're two of a kind, Ajax and me, and yet so different still; we're brothers in arms, kindred spirits, and yet we hate each others guts."

- Riker speaking of all the Spartan-II's

"The trouble with the rat race is that, even if you win, you're still a rat"

- Riker-012 on life

Conversations

 * Riker-012: "Susano, I need those reports NOW"
 * Susano: "My name is Terrence Hood and you will address me as sir Spartan"
 * Riker-012: "Susano, you're not Hood and you're MY support AI, not the other way around"
 * Susano: "Well, I care to disagree"
 * —Riker-012 and Susano arguing with one another early in their career

Trivia

 * Riker is a very unique Spartan in that he has never encountered any parasitic organisms, whether they be canon (the Flood) or fanon (the Hydra)
 * Riker suffers from a form of "waking sickness": caused by an incurable neurological deficiency, when awoken from cryo-sleep Riker is exceedingly disoriented for five to fifteen minutes. However, the Spartan has learned to overcome this and continue to function despite what would normally incapacitate a person.
 * Due to a combat accident, Riker is missing the tips of his right pinky and ring fingers

Behind The Scenes

 * Riker's name is a two-part reference: his first name, Riker, is an obvious reference to his physical basis William Riker of Star Trek: The Next Generation; his last name, Abrams, is a reference to J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost, Cloverfield, and the 2009 Star Trek movie. In addition, the name he was given by ONI, Oakley, is a reference to a friend's last name.
 * Riker was originally intended to be written as a regular member of the Spartan-II Program, not a kidnapped agent of ONI; this was later changed to allow for more writing freedom, as well as to avoid canon issues
 * Riker is the fourth longest article on Halo Fanon, disregarding stories and RP's; however, he is the 45th longest overall
 * The author of the article, LOMI (myself), is currently in a friendly competition with Matt-256 and his own Spartan, Laz-108, to see who can create a longer article. Currently, myself and Riker are in the lead with Matt and Laz in hot pursuit.
 * In addition to this contest, Matt created SPARTAN-358 "Richie" to blow Riker's lead to dust, which he effectively did, temporarily at least: Riker has since passed Richie also, though this would likely fail should Matt return and get back to work.
 * Although in a few other alternate universes, Riker's main universe is considered the Necrosverse, for which he was created

Related Pages

 * Laz-108
 * Miranda Talavera
 * SPARTAN-IV Program
 * Kilo Company
 * Team Scimitar