Halo: Bone Marrow

Bouncing down the long dirt path, Echo team; Spartan 022, 028, 051 and 095 sat silent in the back of a warthog M914 Recovery Vehicle driven by a very tense and silent UNSC Marine. He had his eyes fixed on the dirt track in front and didn't waver at all, as if he didn't want to disturb the four Spartans he had on board. Private Gomez was a proud soldier and under normal circumstances would have done his utmost to make small talk with his passengers if not to shorten the journey more than anything else. The truth was these were not normal circumstances; he had four rather short fused Spartans in the back of his 'Hog and all he wanted to do was drop them off on site and leave as quickly as possible. Tension was high upon the vehicle due to the nature of the assignment they were currently en-route to. All four Spartan-III's sat in the back in the sweltering sun bouncing down the road into the Sinoviet ship breaking facility on a low priority defence mission. More like an insult than an assignment to the UNSC's most advanced, well trained and expensive soldiers they had to offer. This reason and this reason alone PVT. Gomez was silent all the way there.

Ralph, Spartan-095 sat toward the back of the warthog polishing the barrel of his model 99 Anti-Matériel sniper rifle to the point he could see every cloud in the sky. Jenifer, Spartan-051 stood at the very back of the warthog with her right hand clutching the bar on the top of the vehicle, her M45 Tactical shotgun held loosely in her left and one leg resting on step of the 'hog looking hard into orange brown dust cloud getting kicked up and slowly settling onto the track. Spartan-028, Bradley sat at the front end of the rear personnel section of the warthog balancing his UNSC issue combat knife perfectly on the end of his right index finger, no show of emotion and his left hand rubbing his head below his short yet thick brown hair. James-022 sat in the passenger seat of the warthog looking over his left shoulder at his team. He knew every one of them inside and out and he knew they were all agitated. Ralph for example never polished his gun unless he was tired or annoyed and Jen was an easy one. She held her shotgun in her left hand and she was right handed. He knew she adored her gun or as she called it, Theodore and she would never hold it so carelessly if she didn't have her mind on something else. Brad however never did anything other than play with his knife if he could help it. James liked to analyse his team because he believed a leader is only as strong as his team in combat. He glanced down to the Intel pad he had attached to his wrist which told him they would be on site at Sinoviet in exactly 5 minutes, just enough time for rest he figured. He set his visor to full tint and closed his eyes.

When James awoke he was in front of a great metal wall coloured grey from top to bottom at either end where huge orange brown rod walls. The Sinoviet facility didn't look anything like he had imagined. One relatively small double door stood at the top of a shallow ramp, rusted railings at both sides looking almost lonely built into the great wall. The only thing keeping the door company was a small keypad on the left of the door frame.

Brad quickly slid his knife into the holster located on his left breast plate and jumped off of the back of the warthog. He looked back at the three other Spartans left in the warthog in anticipation. One by one they all got off. James was the last one. He took an extra few seconds to glance at his Intel pad, tapped it and then jumped off the vehicle. Bradley watched James turn to the Private driving the vehicle. He nodded to him, the Private instantly snapped to the road in front, span the warthog and sped away leaving only a pillow of dust as he did. Odd, Brad thought. He hadn't spoken a word to the four of them the whole journey.

"This is it." James announced to the team. He stood upright legs apart and hands on his hips. His Designated marksman rifle securely fixed to the back of his MJOLNIR armour. A grand Spartan in the eyes of Ralph. A natural born leader. He was more of a brother to Ralph than a teammate. They had trained together for as long as he could remember. Since he met him he sensed greatness in James. Something assertive yet calm about him. Even the way he stood showed nothing but pride for himself and his team. He would never settle for half measures when it came to his squad and he would go out of his way to ensure the wellbeing of each and every one of them. In battle James would always be the first in there be it thick or thin he would never expect someone to go in his place. An all-out good soldier.