Halo: Deeper We Go

Author: Matthias Karlsson

Prologue
0124 HOURS, FEBRUARY 9, 2535 (MILITARY CALENDAR)/EPSILON ERIDANI
SYSTEM, ONI CASTLE BASE, PLANET REACH
Commander Achilles Ponton stopped a yawn. It was late in the evening, and CASTLE BASE
was now even darker than it was usually was, despite the fact that it was hidden deep
underground. Most workers had left the facility to go home. Only a few were remaining,
nearly dozing in front of their computers, trying to finish reports or writing letters to others.
Ponton had been in his office from eight AM, so he had worked non-stop (except for lunch
and dinner) all day, so now he was exhausted. But he had one thing to deal with before he
took a pause.
Ponton sat a little straighter, and typed some letters on his keyboard. His screen flashed for
a moment, then a file with attached documents listed in alphabetical order appeared (Ponton
was a perfectionist, wanting everything in good order and organized). He clicked on a link
saying “SPARTAN-003”. On the screen the CSV of SPARTAN-003 “Michael” appeared.
Ponton skimmed through the material, adding important information to his mind to remember
later.
According to the CSV, the Spartan had had nearly no major action up until this point. Same
accounted for the rest of White Team; SPARTAN-109 “Alexis”, SPARTAN-035 “Thomas”,
SPARTAN-024 “Joshua”, SPARTAN-095 “Eve” and SPARTAN-057 “David”. Their CSVs
were almost blank, with only a few counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations in the
outer colonies.
Ponton cursed quietly to himself. He had had to choose these rookies for his new
operation. If anything, he had wanted Blue Team, the de facto best SPARTAN-II team. But
Blue Team was tied up in battles against the Covenant and couldn’t be called back. Same
applied to Green and Red Team, while Grey Team was currently fighting behind Covenant
lines from an ONI prowler, which made it impossible to make contact with them. So White
Team was the only team available.
Ponton calmed after convincing himself that White Team was Spartans, and thus would be
the best of the men that would go on this operation. Except for Ponton’s right hand, Randal,
and Section 1’s representative in the operation, Lavernius, of course.

Suddenly Ponton’s COM pad buzzed and shook. He picked it up from underneath a pile of
papers and coffee mugs. Out of the pad the voice of one of Ponton’s right hand men, Agent
Stockholm was heard.
“Sir,” he said with his heavy southern accent “the ‘people’ are here. Should I let them pass?”
“Please do.” Ponton massaged his eyes for a second, and then added “And you’ll escort them
here through the more secretive passages. We don’t want the whole place knowing about the
top brass that just showed up.”
“Roger sir.” The COM Pad went dark again, and Ponton put it down on his desk. He
straightened up in his chair, retrieved a file with documents from his cupboard and separated
the papers on six places in front of an equal amount of chairs that he had prepared. He shut
down his computer and pulled the light switch, lighting up the room for the first time in five
hours. Finally, he sat down and waited.

He had barely waited a minute before footsteps were heard in the corridor, sounds that were
getting closer. Then the silhouettes of three people appeared through the doorway; one that
looked extremely old, far beyond the mandatory retirement age regulations. She were Vice
Admiral Margaret Parangosky, head of ONI Section 3, in other words, Pontons’ top boss. She
was followed by two other officers; Rear Admiral Rich, Covert Operations Commander in
Section 3, with hair that was already growing grey. Along with him was Captain Gibson, head
of Section 3’s Black Ops, the dirtier counterpart to Covert Operations.
After the three had entered, they were followed by three others. The first after the heads of
Section 3 to enter was Captain Antonio Silva, who still wore his black ODST Body Suit,
indicating that he had very recently been on a training exercise with the rest of his ODST
Company.
ODSTs (abbreviation for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) had a complex command
organization. They followed the Marine Corps’ chain of command, but were under the real
command of Naval Special Warfare. They could do anything from counterinsurgency,
rescue/recovery, and assassination and sabotage missions to regular military operations to
serve as morale amplifiers. So, technically, they were the 26th century’s version of Delta
Force. There was one major thing that separated ODSTs from Delta Force though; ODSTs had
much more dangerous ways of insertion, using the Human Entry Vehicles, which, while
stealthy, was very dangerous for most normal humans. Thus, ODSTs were the toughest of the
toughest of the UNSC military, needing to have had at least three years of experience in other
Special Warfare units. Even after that, they had to go through an extreme training regime,
which would kick out most candidates. ODSTs were the best, except for Spartans of course.
This often led to rivalry between the ODSTs and the Spartans. But that wasn’t the sole
reason for the rivalry and the ODSTs’ hatred for the Spartans. It was also because the
Spartans’ Squad Leader, John-117, had at some point been ordered to face a group of ODSTs
in the boxing ring of the ship he was stationed at. The Spartan defeated the ODSTs easily; it
even resulted in death for some of the poor soldiers. As the fate of irony, those soldiers were
from Silva’s unit, which made him one of the prime enemies of the Spartans.
After Silva, a hazel-eyed woman in standard Navy outfit entered. Ponton identified her
instantly as Lieutenant Commander Al-Cygni. She was a veteran in ONI, having been in
charge of many ops, including what turned into first contact with the Covenant on Harvest.
Finally, after Al-Cygni, Dr. Catherine Halsey entered. She wore a lab coat, which Ponton
knew that she always did. She looked Ponton into the eye for a moment, but then looked
down and sat down like the others. For a moment there was silence. Parangosky was the first
to break it.
“Are you going to tell us what you brought us here for?” Ponton could easily tell that she was
getting impatient quickly. He swallowed once, then began.
“Of course, ma’am. If you would just go ahead and read the documents in front of you?”
“Fine,” she said, bitter in her voice. All six reached for their papers and started to read. Halsey
finished first.
“Are you kidding?” she shouted out without warning. “You couldn’t honestly want to go
through with this!”
Ponton held back his rage, storing it in his mind. He looked at Halsey, appearing calm.
“It’s far from impossible, doctor, and yes, I am going through with it, with Parangosky’s,
Rich’s and Gibson’s approval, of course.” He turned towards those he had mentioned, who
were done reading now as well.
“Well,” Rich said, “there are risks, but we don’t have too much to lose, so I approve. If you
should succeed, the Covenant will be slowed down for months, which is worth taking a few
risks. How about you, Gibson?” Gibson gave an approving nod, and, after grimacing a bit,
Parangosky did the same. For half a second, Ponton could see that Halsey looked shocked, but
then she looked casual again. She had impressive control over herself. But nothing of that
mattered, because he had what he needed now.
“Now, let’s go through the personnel we need,” he said after a time’s silence. “I’ve counted
for eight Spartans and-“
“Eight Spartans?” Halsey interrupted. “White Team only has six members, and even if you
take Randal - which I’m very surprised over that he’s here since he’s been gone for three years
– with you, there will only be seven.”
“You are clever, Halsey” Ponton responded, smiling. “You recognized Randal, despite the fact
that he was hidden inside a regular ODST Body Suit. Well, there will be time to discuss
Randal later, so let’s continue.” He reached for a glass of water and drank a few sips. “The
eighth Spartan is someone you thought were gone, but there will be time to discuss him later
as well, so I’ll just continue with the personnel list; two 6-man Combat Teams from Silva’s
company. Do you have your best men available, Captain?”
“Yes, sir!” Silva responded, adding a salute.
“Lieutenant Commander Al-Cygni, you and Staff Sergeants Avery Johnson, Nolan Byrne,
Dean Jackson and Marvin Mobuto will tag along too, because of your experience with the
Covenant that will prove invaluable for the operation’s success.” Al-Cygni gave an approving
nod, but Ponton could tell she wanted to say something. He decided to ignore it.
“Then there’s me – who will command the operation – and my personal team consisting of
Randal and Agent Stockholm. Finally, we have Lieutenant Jacob Keyes, who will command
Team Alpha of NAVSPECWEP Seven. Any questions?”
No one spoke. So Ponton relaxed and yawned as they left. After the doors closed, he
instantly fell asleep.