W E A P O N S & E Q U I P M E N T ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ BR75 Battle Rifle ◼ Mk50 Sidekick ◼ M1 Combat Knife ◼ 2559 Battle Dress Uniform ◼ CH252 Helmet Attachments: Video Camera, flashlight ◼ Standard Issue Medical Kit -
S K I L L S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Light Infantry Training ◼ First Aid ◼ Basic Engineering Training
Kajina Yates was born and raised in New Mombasa. Her father, Baraka, worked as a mechanic while her mother, Taji, worked as family court lawyer, leading to a comfortable life in the city. Growing up she heard all about the horrors of the Human-Covenant war, but for much of her youth, it always felt like a far-away problem. As she grew older, the realities hit hard as her childhood friends enlisted with the UNSC. Yates feared joining the front lines, so she decided to enroll in medical school. She wanted to give back to Earth and support the war effort in other ways. At twenty years old, on her way to her college, the Prophet of Regret's fleet invaded New Mombasa. War came home.
During the emergency, the university became an emergency shelter for civilians looking for evacuation out of New Mombasa. While waiting for a pelican to arrive, a horde of Covenant aliens infiltrated the holdout. There, Yates would see the brutality of the Covenant firsthand. Fortunately, she escaped the university and focused on running out of the city. During it, she stumbled upon an M6C/SOCOM (M6S) laying on the ground. Seeing her home destroyed before her eyes, she joined a civilian militia group composed of the city's police, civilians, and with the aid of the UNSC. She remembers shooting at a horde of grunts, but in the haze of smoke, Yates doesn't know if she hit any targets that day. She was present to witness both the carrier engage in slip space and the glassing of New Mombasa. Once out of the city, Yates immediately enlisted with the UNSC marines.
Once she enlisted with the marines, she received training for a light infantry role and as a combat medic. She was eager to get out on the field, but before she got out of training, the Human-Covenant war ended. A month later, she learned her father died during the invasion of New Mombasa. Her mother was still alive and could look after her siblings. With New Mombasa gone and furious with herself for not enlisting beforehand, she continued to serve with the UNSC marines.
“I am but a blade; the cause I serve defines my edge.” - "The path between right and wrong is mine to navigate.” - "I am the sword that hangs above your head." - “Where others see chaos, I see opportunity waiting to be shaped.”
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
W E A P O N S & E Q U I P M E N T ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Customized Black Body Suit ◼ MJOLNIR GEN2 - Multiple Parts ◼ Tactical Utility Pack ◼ Active Camouflage Attachment ◼ Demolition Kit ◼ MK88 Combat Knife ◼ Customized VK78 Tactical Rifle + Under Barrel Shotgun ◼ Model 99 Special Application Scoped Rifle-
S K I L L S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Spartan Training ◼ Advanced Engineering and Demolition ◼ Composure Under Pressure ◼ Assassination and Covert Operations ◼ Applied Psychology -
◼ Keeps a collection of random useful and personal items inside her utility pack.
◼ An incredibly small select few have ever seen what Solares looks like under her armor.
◼ She has quite a few hobbies, like music, cooking, video games, art, and so much more.
◼ She has a fierce fascination with explosives, often embracing a strong chaotic edge that keeps everyone on their toes, and quite concerned.
◼ While disciplined and precise, Solares isn’t afraid to bend or even break protocol when the situation calls for it. She often goes off script, trusting her instincts to carry out missions in her own way. She is a risk-taker who values results over rigid rules.
◼ Calm, cool, and collected under pressure, Solares presents the perfect image of a hardened operative. Beneath that steely exterior, she’s a big softy who deeply cares for her teammates and values loyalty above all else. She’s known for her dry wit and sharp sense of humor, often lightening tense moments with well-timed jokes. She will go out of her way to comfort and protect those she fights alongside.-
T H E M E S O N G ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
-
S E R V I C E R E C O R D - [LEVEL 7 CLEARANCE] S E R V I C E R E C O R D - [LEVEL 7 CLEARANCE]
File Number: ONI-WD-███-MN-427 Name: Morgenstern, Solares Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer (SCPO) Branch: UNSC Navy / Office of Naval Intelligence — Section III (Watershed Division) Program: Spartan-IV Initiative — GEN4 MJOLNIR Operator Status: ACTIVE – Clearance Level BLACKNET
BIOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW Solares Morgenstern was born 11 February 2535 in Mitte, Berlin, German Democratic Republic, Earth. Raised in an influential ONI family, Solares spent her early life shielded from the harsher realities of the Human-Covenant War, receiving some of the finest things in life. Her parents, both high-ranking ONI officers, had ensured that she received not only the finest education, but also opportunities for very highly sought after positions were available to her. Solares was placed in the UNSC Eurydice Military Academy at age 10, well known for being an elite institution reserved for promising candidates from military and political families.
During her lengthy time there, she displayed exceptional aptitude for tactics, marksmanship, leadership under stress, and others. Solares consistently ranked in the top one percentile of her class. By age 18, she had completed advanced officer-track training and was slated for strategic command roles within the UNSC Navy.
It was during these formative years that Solares’s curiosity began to push boundaries of what was acceptable. Unsatisfied with the controlled flow of official doctrine, she conducted her own independent research into UNSC operations, history, classified conflicts, and even going as far to learn about Project Orion. In the process, she uncovered restricted information—details about covert ONI actions, failed missions, and questionable wartime policies that she was never meant to see along with the mention of something considered a “biological infestation" aboard derelict ships and remote colonies. Though fragmented and vague, the data hinted at something far more dangerous than any Covenant threat she’d been briefed on.
Within hours of the breach, ONI Section III operatives, posing as standard UNSC Military Police, detained her without formal charges. She underwent exhaustive interrogation, psychological stress testing, and invasive neural scans to assess the scope of her unauthorized knowledge. Official records note a severe reprimand and a direct warning: any further infractions would result in her transfer to “Black Iron Prison,” a name she would later learn belonged to a covert ONI detention facility on Europa, used for high-risk individuals kept permanently off-record.
For six months, Solares was held under constant observation, subjected to controlled misinformation designed to test her reactions and loyalty. Upon completion of this evaluation period, she was quietly reinstated at the academy, resuming her officer-track training under heightened surveillance.
INCIDENT: BLACKSTAR FACILITY During the final phase of her officer training at the UNSC Naval Academy, Solares’s parents were killed in a Covenant infiltration and sabotage of the Blackstar Facility, a classified ONI black-ops station in Earth’s orbit. The strike, later attributed to an internal data breach, allowed Covenant forces to bypass security protocols, disable the station’s gravity stabilizers, and overload its core power systems. The resulting detonation was brief but devastating, tearing through the station and leaving little behind.
Public reports described Blackstar as a civilian research installation, a cover story that Solares initially believed. It wasn’t until an old family friend, and an ONI operative of very high ranking delivered the truth in private that her parents had been upon the station. She was devastated by the news, but quickly channeled her grief into determination. Inspired by her parents’ service and sacrifice, Solares resolved to become a Spartan, dedicating herself to the rigorous training and intense operations necessary to protect humanity from threats both seen and unseen. Her resolve only strengthened, she vowed to carry on their legacy and prove herself worthy of the clandestine path they had walked.
SPARTAN-IV INDUCTION In 2███, Solares was inducted into the Spartan-IV Program, an evolution of the Spartan-IV initiative. Designed for maximum operational adaptability, Spartan-IV augmentations balanced physical enhancements with cutting-edge neural integration, allowing seamless MJOLNIR GEN2 interface and advanced tactical toolsets. Solares excelled in demolition operations, infiltration, assassination, psychological stress, weapons handling, CQC, extended-duration stealth deployments and many others.
Her training record shows particular distinction in:
ONI SECTION III — WATERSHED DIVISION Following her Spartan-IV graduation, Solares was assigned to ONI’s Watershed Division, an elite subsection specializing in ethically complex operations. Officially, their existence remains classified to all but high-clearance ONI and UNSC personnel. This decision was due to her knowledge of highly classified topics due to her past actions, who her parents where and what they had done for her, their family friend, and a hand full of other factors that turned important heads.
Missions under her purview have included, but are not limited to:
Operation Silent Quarry: Elimination of a known human terrorist, who had been feeding information to the Covenant.
Operation Ember Veil: Orchestrated civil destabilization in a rebel-held colony to weaken Insurrectionist recruitment lines.
Operation Fractured Glass: Covert demolition of a hostile orbital drydock, disguised as an industrial accident.
Operation Fading Star: Assassination of rogue Spartan(s)
Operation Cleansing Fire: Eliminating a highly dangerous UNSC scientist known as Kroeber who had been running unethical biological experiments on █████ and others. Reports say Solares ████ ███ ██ ███ ███████, by opening the ████ and allowing the ███████ to ███ Dr. Krorber █████. Video from mounted camera confirm that ███████ ███ ██ ████ did indeed happen. She underwent a psychological evaluation, held after the mission concluded. When asked why she had to ████ him, her reply was, "All I did was unlock a door."
[CLASSIFIED]
[CLASSIFIED]
[CLASSIFIED]
Her approach often involves calculated unpredictability, controlled chaos, to achieve psychological and strategic superiority over the target, with a healthy amount of violence of course.
“I am but a blade; the cause I serve defines my edge.” - "The path between right and wrong is mine to navigate.” - "I am the sword that hangs above your head." - “Where others see chaos, I see opportunity waiting to be shaped.”
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
W E A P O N S & E Q U I P M E N T ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Customized Black Body Suit ◼ MJOLNIR GEN2 - Multiple Parts ◼ Tactical Utility Pack ◼ Active Camouflage Attachment ◼ Demolition Kit ◼ MK88 Combat Knife ◼ Customized VK78 Tactical Rifle + Under Barrel Shotgun ◼ Model 99 Special Application Scoped Rifle-
S K I L L S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Spartan Training ◼ Advanced Engineering and Demolition ◼ Composure Under Pressure ◼ Assassination and Covert Operations ◼ Applied Psychology -
◼ Keeps a collection of random useful and personal items inside her utility pack.
◼ An incredibly small select few have ever seen what Maya looks like under her armor.
◼ She has quite a few hobbies, like music, cooking, video games, art, and so much more.
◼ She has a fierce fascination with explosives, often embracing a strong chaotic edge that keeps everyone on their toes, and quite concerned.
◼ While disciplined and precise, Maya isn’t afraid to bend or even break protocol when the situation calls for it. She often goes off script, trusting her instincts to carry out missions in her own way. She is a risk-taker who values results over rigid rules.
◼ Calm, cool, and collected under pressure, Maya presents the perfect image of a hardened operative. Beneath that steely exterior, she’s a big softy who deeply cares for her teammates and values loyalty above all else. She’s known for her dry wit and sharp sense of humor, often lightening tense moments with well-timed jokes. She will go out of her way to comfort and protect those she fights alongside.-
T H E M E S O N G ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
-
S E R V I C E R E C O R D - [LEVEL 7 CLEARANCE] S E R V I C E R E C O R D - [LEVEL 7 CLEARANCE]
File Number: ONI-WD-███-MN-427 Name: Nachstern, Maya Rank: Chief Petty Officer (CPO) Branch: UNSC Navy / Office of Naval Intelligence — Section III (Watershed Division) Program: Spartan-V Initiative — GEN2 MJOLNIR Operator Status: ACTIVE – Clearance Level BLACKNET
BIOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW Maya Nachstern was born 11 February 2535 in Mitte, Berlin, German Democratic Republic, Earth. Raised in an influential ONI family, Maya spent her early life shielded from the harsher realities of the Human-Covenant War, receiving some of the finest things in life. Her parents, both high-ranking ONI officers, had ensured that she received not only the finest education, but also opportunities for very highly sought after positions were available to her. Maya was placed in the UNSC Eurydice Military Academy at age 10, well known for being an elite institution reserved for promising candidates from military and political families.
During her lengthy time there, she displayed exceptional aptitude for tactics, marksmanship, leadership under stress, and others. Maya consistently ranked in the top one percentile of her class. By age 18, she had completed advanced officer-track training and was slated for strategic command roles within the UNSC Navy.
It was during these formative years that Maya’s curiosity began to push boundaries of what was acceptable. Unsatisfied with the controlled flow of official doctrine, she conducted her own independent research into UNSC operations, history, classified conflicts, and even going as far to learn about Project Orion. In the process, she uncovered restricted information—details about covert ONI actions, failed missions, and questionable wartime policies that she was never meant to see along with the mention of something considered a “biological infestation" aboard derelict ships and remote colonies. Though fragmented and vague, the data hinted at something far more dangerous than any Covenant threat she’d been briefed on.
Within hours of the breach, ONI Section III operatives, posing as standard UNSC Military Police, detained her without formal charges. She underwent exhaustive interrogation, psychological stress testing, and invasive neural scans to assess the scope of her unauthorized knowledge. Official records note a severe reprimand and a direct warning: any further infractions would result in her transfer to “Black Iron Prison,” a name she would later learn belonged to a covert ONI detention facility on Europa, used for high-risk individuals kept permanently off-record.
For six months, Maya was held under constant observation, subjected to controlled misinformation designed to test her reactions and loyalty. Upon completion of this evaluation period, she was quietly reinstated at the academy, resuming her officer-track training under heightened surveillance.
INCIDENT: BLACKSTAR FACILITY During the final phase of her officer training at the UNSC Naval Academy, Maya’s parents were killed in a Covenant infiltration and sabotage of the Blackstar Facility, a classified ONI black-ops station in Earth’s orbit. The strike, later attributed to an internal data breach, allowed Covenant forces to bypass security protocols, disable the station’s gravity stabilizers, and overload its core power systems. The resulting detonation was brief but devastating, tearing through the station and leaving little behind.
Public reports described Blackstar as a civilian research installation, a cover story that Maya initially believed. It wasn’t until an old family friend, and an ONI operative of very high ranking delivered the truth in private that her parents had been upon the station. She was devastated by the news, but quickly channeled her grief into determination. Inspired by her parents’ service and sacrifice, Maya resolved to become a Spartan, dedicating herself to the rigorous training and intense operations necessary to protect humanity from threats both seen and unseen. Her resolve only strengthened, she vowed to carry on their legacy and prove herself worthy of the clandestine path they had walked.
SPARTAN-V INDUCTION In 2███, Maya was inducted into the Spartan-V Program, an evolution of the Spartan-IV initiative. Designed for maximum operational adaptability, Spartan-V augmentations balanced physical enhancements with cutting-edge neural integration, allowing seamless MJOLNIR GEN2 interface and advanced tactical toolsets. Maya excelled in demolition operations, infiltration, assassination, psychological stress, weapons handling, CQC, extended-duration stealth deployments and many others.
Her training record shows particular distinction in:
ONI SECTION III — WATERSHED DIVISION Following her Spartan-V graduation, Maya was assigned to ONI’s Watershed Division, an elite subsection specializing in ethically complex operations. Officially, their existence remains classified to all but high-clearance ONI and UNSC personnel. This decision was due to her knowledge of highly classified topics due to her past actions, who her parents where and what they had done for her, their family friend, and a hand full of other factors that turned important heads.
Missions under her purview have included, but are not limited to:
Operation Silent Quarry: Elimination of a known human terrorist, who had been feeding information to the Covenant.
Operation Ember Veil: Orchestrated civil destabilization in a rebel-held colony to weaken Insurrectionist recruitment lines.
Operation Fractured Glass: Covert demolition of a hostile orbital drydock, disguised as an industrial accident.
Operation Fading Star: Assassination of rogue Spartan(s)
Operation Cleansing Fire: Eliminating a highly dangerous UNSC scientist known as Kroeber who had been running unethical biological experiments on █████ and others. Reports say Maya ████ ███ ██ ███ ███████, by opening the ████ and allowing the ███████ to ███ Dr. Krorber █████. Video from mounted camera confirm that ███████ ███ ██ ████ did indeed happen. She underwent a psychological evaluation, held after the mission concluded. When asked why she had to ████ him, her reply was, "All I did was unlock a door."
[CLASSIFIED]
[CLASSIFIED]
[CLASSIFIED]
Her approach often involves calculated unpredictability, controlled chaos, to achieve psychological and strategic superiority over the target, with a healthy amount of violence of course.
M I S C I N F O ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Rank: Master Sergent
◼ Homeworld: Harvest
◼ Edward Lance has spent much of his career trying to prevent his own guys from killing people who are supposed to be their allies. Sometimes they are humans, sometimes they are aliens. -
T H E M E S O N G ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Wonderlust King -
S E R V I C E R E C O R D... S E R V I C E R E C O R D...
Edward Lance's service history began as an unskilled laborer in the motor pool within the CMA. Driving everything from warthogs, to forklifts, and on a couple occasions a Pelican. He would later claim that piloting aircraft was the worst job he ever had to work, and was thankful to never have to do it outside of moving old craft from one maintenance point to another. Edward was never a die hard loyalist though. Not to the UNSC, to Earth, the CMA, or even Harvest. To Edward Lance, his job was just that, a job to do to pay the bills, earn a pension, and retire comfortably when he got old in the frontiers of space. While serving in a storage complex just off Paris IV, Edward had gotten the news of the invasion of the Covenant on Harvest, and had heard the devastating figures coming in. Due to how spotty communication was, himself and others within his unit didn't know for sure what had happened until nearly a dozen other colonies had also fallen. Even then, many assumed the UNSC had gotten fed up and began to isolate and lay siege problem planets. Cutting them off from the rest of the galaxy. Though Edward Lance didn't believe that, he believed the rumors of aliens wiping out whole colonies while the UNSC got their collective assess handed to them. But as fewer and fewer ships returned to port, fewer and fewer enlisted men returned from deployment, it was clear that even if it wasn't aliens, it was bad.
The absorption of the CMA into the UNSC navy was a slow one. Edward Lance had to reenlist into the Marines to keep his job and hopefully his pension. Years later, he would learn that would be lost too as well as his homeworld. It took years to get confirmation on what had happened to his friends and loved ones, and every time he learned more, he was more and more disappointed to read who was missing and confirmed dead. Lance spent several years just focused on his work. "Soon this war will be over and you'll be done. Soon you can make a new home, a new life, and this nightmare will end." Soon became nearly 25 years. His unit, originally motor pool, was converted into an improvised combat engineer unit to fill the gaps of experienced combat engineers lost during the war. Edward Lance had been one of the lucky ones, having not been in too many engagements himself. The ones he had been in were devastating to his unit. Losing so many men that by the time Reach fell, he was the last member left of the original CMA unit that had been folded over into the marines. Some were killed, others wounded so badly they could never function. Edward Lance? Never anything more than scratches, light burns, and on two cases, a mild concussion. Some men went missing, presumed dead. Others went awol trying to escape the fighting, or joining up with insurrection remnants hidden within human space. Lance was thankful his unit was rarely deployed against rebels, and never in combat roles. He wasn't sure if that was done intentionally due to the original unit's ties to the CMA, or if it was pure luck, but he was thankful none the less. He'd rather face endless hordes of the Covenant rather than bear arms against his former neighbors.
When Earth was attacked, Edward Lance had been redeployed into the streets of New Mombasa with orders of Scorched Earth. Destroy every bridge the Covenant press. Level every building they hold up in. Mine every street they tried to cross. Make the bastards bleed for every inch. He'd later be quoted saying that when the shooting finally stopped, his hands felt like they weren't working right because they couldn't readjust to not shooting anymore. Edward Lance however did not escape this battle unscathed. A piece of debris from a bridge had crushed part of his leg pretty early in the fighting. With front lines being as muddy and messy as a swamp, Lance was patched up and sent back out. Two Plasma bolts would melt his armor trough, causing severe burns on his chest and chin. When that was patched up he was sent back out to have a needle shard pass clean through the same leg that had been crushed only weeks before. When the medical station in Cuba he had been laid up in was about to be overrun, Edward Lance had participated in their last stand in a desperate attempt to stop the brutes from overrunning their position. Himself and other combat engineers from his unit would orchestrate a mix of improvised explosives using scuttle charges from a downed warship, mining charges packed in containers filled with shell casings from their rifles, and improvised fire bombs made from medical compounds used only the week before to treat their wounds. Edward Lance and his men, combined with other wounded, and the medical staff would hold their position until the war finally ended. When the relief and rescue teams came they came across gaunt starving men surrounded by improvised barricades made of storage crates and the bodies of fallen aliens, armed with guns with less than a dozen bullets each, and bandaged up with whatever rags could pass as clean enough. Most had trouble believing it was finally over. Edward Lance however simply smiled when he heard the news, and could be quoted stating "About fucking time." With a limp that would never properly heal, old age finally making life harder, and the deadliest war in human history coming to an end, Edward Lance decided he was finally ready to retire.
Retirement was far from what Edward Lance had hoped for. Between paperwork being a mess due to a near genocidal war, a massive refugee crisis, and few colony worlds remaining to live out a comfortable retirement, Edward attempted to retired as a mechanic on Earth with what limited pension he could muster up. After years of this, Edward Lance made the decision that retirement was not for him. Not yet anyways. Humanity was not in a position to allow for men like him to rest easy. Reenlisting Edward Lance would rejoin the Marine Corps as an ODST Master Sergent. Much the same work he was doing during the war, just with far, far less shooting. Something that Master Sergent Lance was more than happy with. Sure, he got the occasional combat drop. And sure, then there would be shooting. But it was rarely the kind of shooting that led to whole companies being wiped out in a weekend. A much better improvement to the old war vet. After all, how many galactic ending events can take place in one man's life? Sure, Earth would get nearly wiped out a few times since he reenlisted, AI overthrew the human race, and a covenant splinter group had jumped started a new major conflict, then another one when the first one was subdued. And smaller ones would still pop up from time to time. And now he worked side by side with the same species that tried to wipe his kind off the face of the galaxy! All in all, still an improvement to the old combat engineer.
M I S C I N F O ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Rank: Master Sergent
◼ Homeworld: Harvest
◼ Edward Lance has spent much of his career trying to prevent his own guys from killing people who are supposed to be their allies. Sometimes they are humans, sometimes they are aliens.
◼ Halo Reach -
T H E M E S O N G ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Wonderlust King -
S E R V I C E R E C O R D... S E R V I C E R E C O R D...
Edward Lance's service history began as an unskilled laborer in the motor pool within the CMA. Driving everything from warthogs, to forklifts, and on a couple occasions a Pelican. He would later claim that piloting aircraft was the worst job he ever had to work, and was thankful to never have to do it outside of moving old craft from one maintenance point to another. Edward was never a die hard loyalist though. Not to the UNSC, to Earth, the CMA, or even Harvest. To Edward Lance, his job was just that, a job to do to pay the bills, earn a pension, and retire comfortably when he got old in the frontiers of space. While serving in a storage complex just off Paris IV, Edward had gotten the news of the invasion of the Covenant on Harvest, and had heard the devastating figures coming in. Due to how spotty communication was, himself and others within his unit didn't know for sure what had happened until nearly a dozen other colonies had also fallen. Even then, many assumed the UNSC had gotten fed up and began to isolate and lay siege problem planets. Cutting them off from the rest of the galaxy. Though Edward Lance didn't believe that, he believed the rumors of aliens wiping out whole colonies while the UNSC got their collective assess handed to them. But as fewer and fewer ships returned to port, fewer and fewer enlisted men returned from deployment, it was clear that even if it wasn't aliens, it was bad.
The absorption of the CMA into the UNSC navy was a slow one. Edward Lance had to reenlist into the Marines to keep his job and hopefully his pension. Years later, he would learn that would be lost too as well as his homeworld. It took years to get confirmation on what had happened to his friends and loved ones, and every time he learned more, he was more and more disappointed to read who was missing and confirmed dead. Lance spent several years just focused on his work. "Soon this war will be over and you'll be done. Soon you can make a new home, a new life, and this nightmare will end." Soon became nearly 25 years. His unit, originally motor pool, was converted into an improvised combat engineer unit to fill the gaps of experienced combat engineers lost during the war. Edward Lance had been one of the lucky ones, having not been in too many engagements himself. The ones he had been in were devastating to his unit. Losing so many men that by the time Reach fell, he was the last member left of the original CMA unit that had been folded over into the marines. Some were killed, others wounded so badly they could never function. Edward Lance? Never anything more than scratches, light burns, and on two cases, a mild concussion. Some men went missing, presumed dead. Others went awol trying to escape the fighting, or joining up with insurrection remnants hidden within human space. Lance was thankful his unit was rarely deployed against rebels, and never in combat roles. He wasn't sure if that was done intentionally due to the original unit's ties to the CMA, or if it was pure luck, but he was thankful none the less. He'd rather face endless hordes of the Covenant rather than bear arms against his former neighbors.
When Earth was attacked, Edward Lance had been redeployed into the streets of New Mombasa with orders of Scorched Earth. Destroy every bridge the Covenant press. Level every building they hold up in. Mine every street they tried to cross. Make the bastards bleed for every inch. He'd later be quoted saying that when the shooting finally stopped, his hands felt like they weren't working right because they couldn't readjust to not shooting anymore. Edward Lance however did not escape this battle unscathed. A piece of debris from a bridge had crushed part of his leg pretty early in the fighting. With front lines being as muddy and messy as a swamp, Lance was patched up and sent back out. Two Plasma bolts would melt his armor trough, causing severe burns on his chest and chin. When that was patched up he was sent back out to have a needle shard pass clean through the same leg that had been crushed only weeks before. When the medical station in Cuba he had been laid up in was about to be overrun, Edward Lance had participated in their last stand in a desperate attempt to stop the brutes from overrunning their position. Himself and other combat engineers from his unit would orchestrate a mix of improvised explosives using scuttle charges from a downed warship, mining charges packed in containers filled with shell casings from their rifles, and improvised fire bombs made from medical compounds used only the week before to treat their wounds. Edward Lance and his men, combined with other wounded, and the medical staff would hold their position until the war finally ended. When the relief and rescue teams came they came across gaunt starving men surrounded by improvised barricades made of storage crates and the bodies of fallen aliens, armed with guns with less than a dozen bullets each, and bandaged up with whatever rags could pass as clean enough. Most had trouble believing it was finally over. Edward Lance however simply smiled when he heard the news, and could be quoted stating "About fucking time." With a limp that would never properly heal, old age finally making life harder, and the deadliest war in human history coming to an end, Edward Lance decided he was finally ready to retire.
Retirement was far from what Edward Lance had hoped for. Between paperwork being a mess due to a near genocidal war, a massive refugee crisis, and few colony worlds remaining to live out a comfortable retirement, Edward attempted to retired as a mechanic on Earth with what limited pension he could muster up. After years of this, Edward Lance made the decision that retirement was not for him. Not yet anyways. Humanity was not in a position to allow for men like him to rest easy. Reenlisting Edward Lance would rejoin the Marine Corps as an ODST Master Sergent. Much the same work he was doing during the war, just with far, far less shooting. Something that Master Sergent Lance was more than happy with. Sure, he got the occasional combat drop. And sure, then there would be shooting. But it was rarely the kind of shooting that led to whole companies being wiped out in a weekend. A much better improvement to the old war vet. After all, how many galactic ending events can take place in one man's life? Sure, Earth would get nearly wiped out a few times since he reenlisted, AI overthrew the human race, and a covenant splinter group had jumped started a new major conflict, then another one when the first one was subdued. And smaller ones would still pop up from time to time. And now he worked side by side with the same species that tried to wipe his kind off the face of the galaxy! All in all, still an improvement to the old combat engineer.
