Lancaster-205

“Man no more…” -Excerpt from a poem written by Lancaster, later etched into his visor

Lancaster-205 was a SPARTAN II Commando active in the Human-Covenant War, Requiem Conflict, and Sanghelli-Jiranhele war. Unlike his teammates who were taken by ONI for more classified work, he was deployed to frontline duty, almost never with support from other SPARTANs, instead operating alongside more mainstream combat units. As a result, the bonds formed were more easily severed as non-SPARTAN personnel died far more easily than the alternative, and rotated off duty. This constant feeling off loss became extremely traumatizing to Lancaster and lead to his eventual mental break.

Early Life and Training
Born on Kholo to a writer father and a literature professor mother, Lancaster was raised around fine literature and poetry. From early on he was pressured by his parents to strive for greatness in education, the boy was tutored privately, had little free time, and almost no contact with other children. Lancaster was not pleased. By the time he was four, thanks to pressure from his parents, he’d written his first book of poetry, and his last.

In 2537, he and many other children were kidnapped to become the second generation of the SPARTAN II Program to combat the insurrection, and the Covenant. Thrown onto Reach, Lancaster Cormac, now designated Lancaster-205, was placed under a brutal training regimen.

Thrown into Cobalt Team with SPARTAN-226, Marcus, and SPARTAN-243, Jason, Lancaster found himself to be the lesser among friends. After an incident in which Jason was savagely beaten and Marcus attempted to protect him, the two became inseparable, leaving Lancaster on the outside looking in.

While Lancaster was not excluded by any means, Marcus and Jason operated far better as a pair, simply employing Lancaster at times where his particular skill set came in handy, provide covering fire, or running diversions. All in all they used him, and he knew it. When 226 and 243 ran off to steal food, or make an escape attempt, or some other shenanigan in the early days of training that would inevitably get them all in trouble, 205 remained in his bunk, writing poetry.

Halfway through training, as it became clear the Covenant was not a threat that was going to fade, Class II was introduced to the menace, gaining firsthand experience by using captured members of Covenant species as subjects for study, training with some of their weaponry, and analyzing Covenant battle strategy for exploitation.

As time continued on, and Cobalt Team became more mature and effective, 226 and 243 caught the eye of ONI Section 0 while Lancaster shied away from that spotlight, the young supersoldier’s effectiveness in total war-scenarios was duly noted by interested NAVSPECWAR parties.

When the time for augmentation came, Cobalt were some of the last to go under the knife. Almost as if he knew ahead of time that this would be the last time he would see Marcus and Jason, he gave both the SPARTANs a poem, representative of the time they had shared together. All of Cobalt survived augmentations, but not on paper. Both Jason and Marcus were marked as having died in the procedure, and Lancaster was folded into Maroon team, but was told both his teammates had died clutching his poems in their hands. It brought him no peace.

Wracked by guilt Lancaster secluded himself from the other two members of Maroon, sitting quietly by himself, writing poetry in remembrance of his ‘fallen’ brothers. An unspecified DI, seeing one of his SPARTANs in despair, confronted Lancaster and verbally whipped him into shape. By no means was he chipper afterwards, but Lancaster was combat ready after this conversation.

Sargasso Deployment


In 2546 Maroon Team was deployed in the catastrophic Battle of Sargasso. Maroon Team, consisting of Katie-301, Reggie-291, and Lancaster himself hit the ground to assist in the defense of evacuation and to launch a counter attack.

Once on the ground, the team, now clad in MJOLNIR MK IV met problems from the start. What assets they had been granted for support had been all but decimated, those that remained were critically injured, slumped against walls and such, barely keeping their weapons raised like the rest of the evacuation’s defenders. The SPARTANs knew they could not abandon the evac site, but also that without some sort of counter strike to knock the Covenant back they would be overrun.

Katie, as Maroon lead quickly devised a plan, Lancaster and Reggie would defend the evacuation while she singlehandedly assaulted the Covenant. 205 shot down her plan with haste, making the case that he was the most specialized in assault, therefore he would make the attack, though he commended Katie’s leadership as she was trying to keep her subordinates out of the more dangerous of the two objectives. Begrudgingly she agreed and Lancaster set out to push back the Covenant forces with his only his MA5B, a pair of M7s, a knife, and some explosives to aid him.

Pushing into the Covenant forces, Lancaster fought with untold ferocity. He knew the odds were against him, but if he felt he’d be with Marcus and Jason supposedly, who despite their exclusion of him at some times, were still his greatest friends. Utilizing his explosives and some Wraith mortar fire initially intended for him, Lancaster essentially dropped a building on a Covenant armor column. From there he proceeded to mow down any survivors before engaging a company-sized unit of reinforcements.

He fought until his MA5 ran dry, then turned to his M7s and eventually whatever weapons he could scoop up off the corpses of a fallen Covenant soldiers. Then he encountered them for the first time, the Sanghelli, one of the kinds of Covenant he had no experience with. Up until now. At first he was confronted with but two minors, whom he dispatched with relative ease, hammering one with a needler, before dispatching the other in hand to hand combat, in which he noted their extreme strength, one that rivaled his own.

It was then that an ultra stepped forth, energy sword ignited in one hand, plasma rifle in the other. Before he had time to react Lancaster caught to lances of plasma in his gut, bending over in agony only to be kicked to the ground and pinned there, sword to his throat. The elite then proceeded to stab through Lancaster’s torso, opening up the SPARTAN’s innards. In agony, Lancaster planted a knife in the beast’s leg and blasted it with a plasma rifle. While it was distracted, 205 fled.

As he hobbled back towards the evac site he watched in horror as the Covenant began glassing the world, starting with the site. His comrades and anyone in the area were vaporized instantly, the only survivor of Maroon was the SPARTAN who’d been on a suicide mission. Further traumatized by the loss, Lancaster debated not calling evac and simply perishing on Sargasso with the rest of Amber, but in the end he made the call and was rescued, albeit critically injured.

Recovery and Reassignment
During his time in recovery, Lancaster attempted suicide, overwhelmed by guilt and depression. He was caught with a M6 to his head by none other than the same DI who’d consoled him after augmentations, after talking him down, the DI forcefully punched Lancaster in the face and reprimanded him for daring to take himself away from his family. Shaken up, 205 took in the lesson and progressed on with his recovery.

After moving forward, NAVSPECWAR commander Percy Lloyd made a successful requisition request and acquired Lancaster as an operator in his unit. The SPARTAN found himself surrounded by ODSTs, Force Recon, and Marines, people whom he’d seen slaughtered in droves on Sargasso. But Lancaster’s nature got the better of him, and he began to bond with the units.

While the ODSTs were somewhat off put by the supersoldier, with the intra-unit tension already had set in and led the troopers to be somewhat distant to Lancaster. He didn’t care. 205 bonded rather quickly with the troops from the Force Recon units and a group of marines. Lancaster grew especially close to one sniper team consisting of Corporal Charles Keller and Lance Corporal Lyla Matheson, who reminded him of Marcus and Jason respectively.

With a newfound since of belonging the SPARTAN entered a month of training with the unit to allow them to get a feel for operating alongside each other. Lancaster proved to be quite useful to the unit, his ability to simply stampede his way through enemies, in addition to his tactical resourcefulness.

Prepped and ready, NAVSPECWAR Group 5 was all set for deployment, and was slotted to carry out Operation: RED OCTOBER against the insurrection.

Operation: RED OCTOBER
In 2549, an insurrectionist cell on New Carthage made off with a UNSC Carrier, the Call of the Wild and fled the system into parts unknown. When located in mid-2545, instead of being destroyed, HIGHCOM ordered it recaptured, as they needed any available vessel to combat the Covenant. NAVSPECWAR Group 5 was deployed to take back the vessel.

The operation kicked off with the UNSC Bridge too Far and Cyclone, both frigates, came at the carrier from the front, employing low power weaponry to harass the vessel while avoiding it’s MAC rounds. Behind these two, a Marathon-class cruiser, Khe Sahn sat in wait, in case the carrier made a run. Behind them, a wing of pelicans from the Khe Sahn launched earlier would spring into action once the vessel had slowed.

Rushing the vessel, the Pelicans zoomed in, evading anti-aircraft fire, and barreling in one side of the hanger, dropping their troops, and speeding out without stopping. Lancaster landed and barreled into cover as the insurrection instantly targeted the SPARTAN, horrified to see one coming for them. This fear made them easy prey to the other members of the unit, who cut down the innies with ease.

Pushing from the hangar, the UNSC forces cut their way through the skeleton crew of rebels, working their way into the warhead storage and securing the nuclear ordinance. It was at this point the terrorists began attempting to destroy the vessel, detonating explosives in one of the ARCHER batteries and killing ten operators in the ensuing explosion.

Acting with haste Lancaster led the effort to cut down the remaining hostiles before they could do more damage. All in all, he succeeded, managing to clear out the rebels before they could cause tremendous damage, though they did detonate two other ARCHER batteries before he could stop them. The final total of UNSC casualties was 27 dead and 30 some wounded in comparison to the 130 dead insurrectionists. The mission was success, but the losses still weighed heavily on Lancaster.

Second Battle for Arcadia
SPARTAN-A136: “The hell are you, JAVELIN?” SPARTAN-205: “Sierra Two.” SPARTAN-A136: “No shit?” -Lee and Lancaster upon their introduction to each other

In early 2549, Lancaster was sent to Reach and was introduced to his partner, SPARTAN-A137. Instantly the two took a liking to each other, and found themselves on a similar skill level. What 205 had in training, A137 made up for with experience. The two were tasked with the protection of the Arcadia colony as it came under siege once again.

Deployed into intense frontline combat the two SPARTANs were tasked with the destruction of the Covenant supercarrier Apostle of the Path. The two SPARTANs quickly went about devising a plan. The end result was rather extreme.

An all-out assault on the vessel was launched, and amidst the chaos, the SPARTANs and 50 NAVSPECWAR operators flew to board the carrier via booster frame. 27 of the operators were shot down en route. Once aboard the soldiers carved a path towards the ships primary cannon, HAVOK in hand.

Due to the vessels titanic size, Lee’s marksmanship played a pivotal role in the survival of the operators. However when forced into the halls, Lancaster’s skill showed once again. Wielding an M90 CAWS the SPARTAN II carved a path through the alien vessel, stacking body on top of body, taking five Covenant soldiers down for every human that fell. When his shells ran out he perforated the remaining resistance with a pair of MA5Ks recovered from fallen allies.

Once inside the main gun’s chamber, the remaining human force was confronted by a Special Operations detachment, and the final battle began. The SPARTAN duo worked in harmony, cutting down the elites swiftly, Lancaster especially, despite the results of his first encounter with the split jaws, and he had long been preparing for his eventual second face off.

When the smoke cleared the elites were dead, but so were the remaining NAVSPECWAR operators, leaving on A137 and 205 standing. Hurling the bomb into the weapon, the SPARTANs high tailed it back towards their booster frames, but the bomb detonated prematurely. As the carrier was torn apart, Lee and Lancaster were flung towards the planet, both relying on their re-entry packs to survive the fall.

Miraculously, both SPARTANs landed only a few kilometers from each other, and linked up quickly after landing. Armed with a pair of knives and an M6G with half a clip total between them, the SPARTANs had to contact friendly forces quickly.

The first contacts they encountered were human, but, they were not friendly. The two had stumbled onto a small stronghold of the local insurrection. With A137’s assistance Lancaster acquired a “confetti maker” LMG and proceeded to work his way through the stronghold leaving no survivors. To this day helmet cam footage is used as propaganda and is routinely inserted into insurrectionist networks to remind them of the capability of SPARTAN operators.

Utilizing the base’s communications the SPARTANs managed to secure evac and were transported to Forward Operating Base Thornwell for reassignment. Immediately they were tasked with the elimination of several Covenant sites providing various forms of support, designated Able, Baker, and Cooper respectively. Able was becoming a center for Covenant air forces to rearm and refuel, Baker was serving a similar function albeit for armored infantry, and Cooper appeared to be the nerve center for Covenant communications.

Cooper was marked as the first for elimination by Lancaster, who pointed out with it down, sites Able and Baker would be blind to a degree. The commanding officer at Thornwell with the SPARTAN and got in touch with the head of operations for the planet’s defense and Commander Lloyd. FORECON units from Group 5 were deployed to Thornwell along with a compliment of marines to boost the bases defenses, the latter bit being a ‘reward’ from Lloyd to the FOB’s CO for finding his SPARTANs.

Mobilizing to the nature-overrun Pirth city, Lancaster led the charge clearing out hostile emplacements as Lee and FORECON marksman eliminated the hostile sniper defenses. Despite initial success of the strike, the group was pinned in by assets from Able and Baker. As casualties began to pile up (quite literally in some cases) Lancaster and Lee both reached the conclusion that retreat was the only solution.

Taking up position in the lobby of a hotel, Lancaster covered his comrade with and M247 GMPG while Lee made the call. However, radio interference from Charlie Site made getting in contact in possible leaving the two with the only option being to retreat without support. Well aware that the non-SPARTAN operators would be slaughtered in such a move, both elected to remain behind and provide cover.

Holding their position, the two operators battled on for in excess of two hours before F99 units, called in by the troops whose escape they’d provided, allowed them to pull back. Both soldiers had sustained major injuries in the form of plasma burns and blunt force trauma strong enough to break their reinforced bones.

Both Lee and Lancaster were hospitalized rapidly aboard the UNSC I Am Your Father, a Marathon-class cruiser, and evacuated the system. Once aboard, Lancaster began to sink into a state of depression not seen since the aftermath of augmentation, but unlike the previous time, Lee was able to keep Lancaster stable. Using the tale of his past, which Lee had not shared with Lancaster in great detail.

This ‘tale of woe’ seemed to resonate deeply with Lancaster, who turned his comrade’s anguish into anger, fueling the fire within both of them against the Covenant. From this point onward, both SPARTANs, Lancaster especially displayed an extreme increase in aggression when facing off with the Covenant forces.

Operation: SWAMP FOX
SPARTAN-205:“So basically, the mission boils down to ‘fuck shit up’?” SPARTAN-A136:“Basically.” -Lancaster and Lee on the objective of SWAMP FOX

In December of 2550, Lancaster and Lee alone were taken aboard the ONI Prowler Silent Night and were briefed on a Venizian based cell of insurrectionists who after a string of bombings had launched a brutal full out assault on Athena II, an outer colony simply missed by the Covenant onslaught as other colonies such as Veniza or Sedra had. Not wanting the rebels to gain another stronghold, ONI directed the two SPARTANs to the world without support to wreak havoc among the insurrection using guerilla warfare. Deployed via slipspace capable drop pods, the two landed without detection, along with several pods of ordinance for their campaign.

The two kicked things off with a series of ambushes, exploiting the rebel’s newfound arrogance to take them down. Their preferred targets in the early days of the operation were armored convoys, which the insurrectionists had a habit of placing a tank in both the front and the rear. Utilizing a M99 SASR, A136 would incapacitate the lead vehicle, then the rear, pinning in the convoy on the colony’s narrow roads. Then, Lancaster, armed with a M41 and the M247 GMPG that had begun to accompany him everywhere, would rush in and eliminate the hostile forces quickly before retreating into the swamps lining the highways.

After a week of successful attacks, the rebels began trying to convince the public to help them against the operators, to no avail, and launched a series of desperate airstrikes into the forested areas of the planet, significantly draining their ordinance supply. Unknown to the rebels, the SPARTANs had long since relocated to New Corinth, the capital of the world, and had settled in with a group of independence seeking insurgents.

Their allies were by no means pro-UNSC, feeling abandoned by the governing body and feeling they were self-sufficient, but saw the Venizian rebels as they were, just another faction vying for control of their world. While both of the indoctrinated supersoldiers were off-put by the views of the group, they worked with them regardless, and Lancaster formed a deep, romantic bond with one of them by the name of Phoebe Snow.

Once settled in the SPARTANs began a series of sabotage and assassination missions, eliminating rebel leadership and key supply depots. Whittling the numbers of rebels down from the high thousands to the low hundreds in a matter of months, the SPARTANs began to hatch their final plan. The night prior to the finale of SWAMP FOX, Lee and Lancaster engaged in an extremely hostile argument which turned violent on the subject of 205’s interaction with Snow, with whom he’d procreated with hours earlier. The two were far too wrapped up in their argument to be alerted to the incoming RPG.

Enveloped in fire and shrapnel, their allies assumed the two SPARTANs dead, fleeing their safehouse, only to be all but massacred by rebels hopped up on rumble drugs. Of 22, only three escaped the onslaught, including Phoebe Snow, who was in fact beginning pregnancy.

Having in fact survived the blast, Lancaster dug himself and Lee out of the rubble. As the rumble drug using rebels began to fall victim to the psychological effects of the products, a trio charged Lancaster and engaged him in hand to hand combat. At first 205 was caught off guard, too focused on helping Lee to notice them coming for him, this resulted in him receiving a stab wounds from a knife being buried in shoulder and torso, as well a blade being jammed through his visor. Turning his attention to the insurrectionists, the SPARTAN II quickly killed two, wrenching the knife from his shoulder and slitting one’s throat and then plunging it through another’s skull. The final one managed to tackle him, shooting him twice at point blank with and MA2B carbine before Lancaster reached up, and snapped the woman’s neck.

Heavily injured and outgunned, Lancaster remained collapsed on the ground, only surviving thanks to Lee’s quick awakening and application of biofoam. Dragged for approximately 17 miles, Lee would evade numerous patrols all while dragging along an incapacitated Lancaster, right into the now decimated swamps. A137 would leave him there, returning to the city and finishing the operation, then coming back for his comrade. ==Operation: SAVING GRACE==

Tyrannus II, a relatively unimportant outer colony, came under Covenant siege in early 2533. In one fell swoop the colony was eradicated, with any and all evacuation attempts failing as the alien menace invaded. Humanity could do little but look away as a cloud of silence slowly consumed the world. Then, in 2551 a transmission escaped the world, revealing the Covenant had not glassed it, but occupied it, keeping the locals as a slave labor force in an intense mining operation.

With ONI curious as to the alien’s motives, and HIGHCOM desperate to save those left behind in hopes of boosting morale with a daring rescue, NAVSPECWAR Group 5 was dispatched. Aboard the Silent Night Lancaster, Lee, and a battalion of ODSTs sat in wait for over a month while the prowler conducted observation from orbit and utilizing stealth drones. While on board, Lancaster as well as Lee were outfitted with MJOLNIR Mark V.

Then, on the 22nd of March, the SPARTANs and ODSTs were deployed. Only two would return. A year later. Operation: SAVING GRACE went south from the start, as the pods were dropped, a CCS cruiser got the drop on the Silent Night and completely destroyed the vessel. With the Covenant aware of the inbound troops, AA opened up, destroying in excess of a hundred drop pods. The casualties rose after nearly twenty troopers died on impact, and another forty as the Covenant converged on their position.

Acting quickly, Lancaster took up his M247, rallied a platoon of troopers, and launched a daring counter-assault. Pushing up rapidly, Lancaster divided his troops, taking only a fireteam with himself and pushing through and out of the Covenant line. As the alien troops turned their attention to the breach of their line, the exposed their backs. The remaining troops struck without mercy.

Successfully punching a hole through Covenant lines, Lancaster had Lee lead the remaining troopers through the gap and out of the trap. The next three days consisted of constant movement and fighting without rest. The ODSTs, however tough, began to tire, and casualties began to pick up again until they reached one of the planet’s mountain ranges. Amongst the valleys and caves, the humans found shelter, and rest.

Sleeping in shifts, the SPARTANs and ODST revitalized themselves before plotting their next course of action. Considering the Covenant forces had ceased their attack after failure to find them, yet hadn’t orbitally bombarded them, they deduced that this mountain range was the site of the ‘mining’ operation being undertaken. Also Lancaster rescued a party of captive colonists. That helped. Using the rescued colonials as their guide, the task force, still dead-set on completing their mission, to the ‘mines’. In actuality, it was an excavation site, digging up what appeared to be a long dormant teleporter array. With the majority of the Covenant’s forces still hunting for the human soldiers, they struck quickly, ambushing and annihilating the site’s guard. Unfortunately, the forces stationed there were able to get out a distress call and a quartet of hunters made a dent into the ODST’s numbers.

Utilizing the very COMs that had just been used to call the enemy to them, Lancaster watched as Lee sent out a distress call to whoever could hear it, hopefully one of the slipspace capable recon drones still active. From there, Lancaster dispatched of the remaining Covenant forces, including a zealot personally. Taking up a fallen ODST’s M41, the assault specialized SPARTAN pumped two rockets into the warrior, shattering his shields and killing his compatriots, then killing the stunned elite with his knife.