Halo: Rubicon Protocol - Spartan-IV Respect Thread

Despite facing hundreds of Banished forces - with Stone describing it as the largest assembled enemy force she’d ever seen - the UNSC survivors held their own against the Banished for a day and a half of virtually non-stop fighting, despite most of the Spartans’ equipment being damaged and their only support being the Reverie’s guns:

JAN 31, 2560 // Stone recons Riven Gate, near the edge of enemy territory and reports a massive Banished invasion force.

[Sound: Distant marching and war cries.]

Spartan Bonita Stone: This is Spartan Stone to FFG-Five-Two-Five. Do you copy? Repeat, do you copy?

Marine: We copy, Spartan Stone, what's your position?

Stone: I've got Boulder Squad at sector sixty-three overlooking The Gate. Five-Two-Five, I'm looking at the largest gathered force I've ever seen. The Banished are moving on the Reverie. They'll be there by nightfall.

-

FEB 02, 2560 // UNSC forces defend the Mortal Reverie, but realize it's falling quickly to the Banished.

[Sound: Clamoring. Gunfire.]

Marine: We can't hold them back much longer, sir! There's too many!

Spartan Bertold Vettel: We don't have a choice. If we lose Reverie, we lose everything. Hold the line, marines!

[Sound: Gunfire.]

Spartan Nina Kovan: The marine is correct, Vettel. Infantry and armor are pouring into valley by the hundreds. The Reverie is already lost.

Spartan Vedrana Makovich: So what? We just abandon it?

Kovan: Griffin warned us of this possibility. It is why we stayed behind. We must save who we can.

Vettel: She's right. We either leave now or Reverie becomes a graveyard. Makovich, get the order out. Everyone falls back. Everyone.

Halo Infinite: Retaliation Audio Log

-

UNSC Mortal Reverie

Zeta Halo

January 31, 2560

Day 51

Night arrived on the heels of thin gray clouds that settled into the ravines and hovered around the cliff tops. The air became still and cold and quiet, every bump or knock echoing in the poised atmosphere. All personnel were armed and in key positions around the exterior of the ship. Barricades had been fortified and ammo and resupply stood with runners at the ready. Inside the ship, gunners manned what remained of Reverie’s Rampart point-defense guns while Commander Hensler and Spartan Vettel were prepped to coordinate movements of personnel and Spartans. Murphy stood in the armory. It’d been a long while since he’d geared up in infantry body armor. He grabbed a standard CH252 helmet complete with its own heads-up display and comms system. What he wouldn’t give to be behind the controls of a Pelican right about now. The idea of close-quarters killing made his heart pound a little harder in his chest. The idea of being outnumbered a hundred to one made it worse. It came down to this—making their stand, knowing their chances.

-

Seven minutes later, the Banished arrived. Their vast ground forces, directed by a heavily armored Jiralhanae at the rear, swept up the pass with a hard-driving fury, the fog alight with a red glow of overclocked Banished vehicles and weapons. Suddenly Reverie’s point-defense guns engaged in a series of earsplitting blasts as enemy air forces appeared in range, the sound striking thunder in Murphy’s heart and signaling the beginning of chaos. The primary barricade began letting loose. Heavy fire streamed from vehicles and weapons as the minefield lit up the Banished front line. “Hold steady!” Murphy called, keeping a steely eye on the edges of the primary barricade and the ridgeline above the pass. His finger tapped anxiously against the side of the rifle’s trigger. … There. A swarm of Choppers had breached one side of the barricade while a unit of Grunts and Jackals was leading a charge down the ridgeline. “Fire!” All thought and emotion gave way to a highly condensed tunnel vision of focus. Point and shoot.

-

UNSC Mortal Reverie

Zeta Halo

February 2, 2560

Day 53

“Pull! Pull, goddamn it!” Lucas’s voice broke, hoarse from a day and a half of relentless fighting. Exhaustion permeated his mind and body, but he forced the words out the same way he compelled his body to keep on going. Artillery echoed overhead, the ground shaking violently as plasma mortars slammed into the edge of the pass nearby. Rocks and soil rained down, pelting his helmet and bouncing off the wounded Spartan lying at his feet.

-

“After the battle at Mortal Reverie—”

“You were there?” the stranger asked intently.

“Mmm. Was a bloodbath. The Banished, they outnumbered us a hundred to one. We didn’t stand a chance. We never did.”

Rubicon Protocol

A decorated soldier and ideal candidate to become a Spartan-IV:

Hudson Griffin was a decorated soldier and an ideal candidate for the Spartan-IV program.

Halo Encyclopaedia (2022)

According to the Chief, Hudson and his team were some of the best Spartans on Infinity:

John studied the Spartans a little more closely now, taking in the names fed to his heads-up display: GRIFFIN, VETTEL, DIMKA, OSHIRO. . . all on Fireteam Taurus. The others were from a similar outfit, Fireteam Intrepid. Two of the best crews Infinity had when it came to Spartan-IVs, trained explicitly for high-risk operations well behind enemy lines. John had seen them in action on several occasions. If Lasky had sent these two fireteams, it was clear that he was just as serious about neutralizing the threat the Havoks posed as he was about Halsey’s mission.

Shadows of Reach

He and his team, with support from Kovan, disable two AA guns:

DEC 13, 2559 // As Taurus disables the second Banished gun, a cataclysmic event on the Ring's surface levels the playing field.

Spartan Bertold Vettel: Second AA gun offline, Griff.

Spartan Hudson Griffin: Good work, Taurus. Let's move on that far gun. Give Infinity's birds some breathing room up there-

[Sound: Energy pulses.]

Spartan Oshiro: What is that?

[Sound: Energy charging.]

Vettel: It's coming from that tower to the north. It's-

[Sound: Explosion. Static in comms.]

Griffin: Taurus! Sitrep. Now!

Vettel: We're green, sir. But everything except for my armor is down. Must have been that blast.

Griffin: The last AA gun is down too. Whatever it was, it leveled the playing field. Let's go. We've got work to do!

Halo Infinite: Ringfall Audio Log

Trusted with leading the UNSC survivors:

A daily question that occurred all over the ship without fail. Captain Thomas Lasky had all but vanished. Last reports had Fireteam Taurus escorting him into a dropship aboard the flagship. Spartan Hudson Griffin, who led Taurus and had taken on an operational leadership role among the UNSC survivors, confirmed that much to be true.

Rubicon Protocol

Of the four Spartans chosen for the operation to assassinate Escharum, Griffin was the last one standing and apparently close enough to have a conversation with the War Chief:

JAN 30, 2560 // Griffin encounters Escharum and learns of his team's end and the Banished's impending assault on the Mortal Reverie.

Spartan Hudson Griffin: Spartans: if anybody can hear me, I'm proceeding. We've come too far to turn-

[Sound: Clanging.]

Escharum: (Chuckle) You're correct, Spartan. There is no turning back.

[Sound: Reload. Echoing laugh.]

Escharum: (Chuckling) Do you take me for a fool? That I would leave my own home as unprotected as you have yours? You overreach. You and your friends. What remains of them will made adequate trophies.

Griffin: You sick-

Escharum: I spare them this, but I will not spare you: as you and your Spartans approached my citadel, I ordered the destruction of your people and that battered ship. Your "home" upon this Ring will soon be but ashes. And not even a whisper of your kind will remain on this Ring.

-

JAN 30, 2560 // Griffin sends a one-way transmission back to Mortal Reverie, telling them of the assault and to abandon ship.

Spartan Hudson Griffin: (Panting) This is Griffin to FFG-Five-Two-Five. Reverie. Do you read me?

Suit AI: Griffin, you are badly injured. And your armor's medical systems are offline. Seek medical attention immediately.

Griffin: Open up a one-way encryption channel to Reverie's up-spin transmitter.

Suit AI: Encrypted, one-way transmission confirmed. Record when ready.

Griffin: The mission was a failure. Escharum was waiting for us the whole time. Malik, Panago, Sarkar. All gone. Listen to me, Reverie. Escharum has dispatched almost every soldier and asset they have available. Their goal is...

[Sound: Static]

Griffin: We have only one objective now. It's not victory, it's not extraction, it's not even survival. We must deny the Banished this Ring no matter what it costs us.

Suit AI: (Static) Transmission sent.

Halo Infinite: Retaliation Audio Log

Holds up a metric ton of titanium via a support beam in order to keep a corridor on Infinity from collapsing:

“Roger that.”

A metric ton of titanium support beam pressed on Spartan Bonita Stone’s armor-clad shoulders as she held up the corridor ceiling from collapsing. Her muscles burned. Pressure built in her chest, her heart working overtime to process the massive surge of adrenaline flowing through her system. Amid the smoke billowing in the passageway twenty meters ahead, a friendly was making his way to the lifeboats behind her. Infinity shuddered again. Power cables and plating fell and sparked and the giant beam she held aloft shifted. Her stance dropped another fifteen centimeters, putting incredible strain on her thighs and knees.

“How … much … farther?” She squeezed her eyes closed and gritted her teeth.

“Nineteen meters,” Ouco, her personal AI, replied.

Rubicon Protocol

Using her thrusters and her strength, she catches a Bumblebee lifeboat (approximately 14 tons) and pulls it out of a collapsing mesa:

Marine: What the hell? The damn mountain is coming apart!

Stone: Back into the lifeboat! Now!

[Sound: Energy charges louder. Explosion. Ground crumbling.]

Marine: Stone! The boat's going down!

Stone: Hold on! I've got you!

[Sound: Ground crumbling.]

Stone: Marines! Hang! On!

[Sound: Lifeboat creaking.]

Stone: Thrusters. Now!

Suit AI: Thrusters online.

[Sound: Thrusters going off.]

Halo Infinite: Ringfall Audio Log

-

Spartan Hudson Griffin: So, is it true? The report?

Spartan Bonita Stone: Yes. The Banished are deploying resource harvesters, and-

Griffin: Nevermind that — did you pull an entire lifeboat out of one of the breaches in the Ring?

Stone: I ordered the squad inside to take shelter from the explosion. I wasn't going to let them die in it.

Halo Infinite: Reverie Audio Log

-

Stone’s a beast. Before we found you, she pulled an entire lifeboat out of the breach, saved a lot of soldiers. …”

Rubicon Protocol

Punches through a damaged lifeboat hull and tears it open. Whilst it was already compromised by the small hole in it, these are built to withstand rapid atmospheric re-entry:

Debris rustled and the small hole in the hull once again allowed in a shaft of muted light. He remembered thinking how much he wanted to see daylight again, but now was seriously regretting that wish. He caught a shadowy movement ahead and realized Murphy was slowly reaching for his rifle. Suddenly a hand punched through the hole in the weakened hull, making him jump. In a blink, Murphy had the weapon in his grip and aimed at the opening. Then the hand returned and began peeling back the ruined plating, creating a bigger hole. A crisp female voice filled the cabin. “Stand down, Murphy.”

-

“Give me one sec,” Stone said, retreating to peel back more of the hull, making an opening big enough to allow them to finally escape. His heart swelled. He knew Spartans were strong— he’d seen her hold up the bulkhead ceiling—but another feat of strength like this up close …

Rubicon Protocol

Drags an injured Spartan-IV in 400 kg of Gen-3 with one hand:

Stone reached down and grabbed the wounded Spartan’s shoulder armor, yanking with one hand while firing her rifle with the other as she pulled the patient toward the medical tent.

Rubicon Protocol

Slams into a Brute with enough force for the shockwaves to echo across a clearing:

He was on his feet, rifle in hand as Spartan Stone turned and charged through the center of camp at a dead run, coming up hard against a Brute as he stormed toward them. They hit each other with enough force that Murphy felt it in his chest.

Rubicon Protocol

Goes toe to toe with a Brute strong enough to dent Mjolnir armour. She notes that the Brute had some kind of strength-enhancing gauntlet:

He was on his feet, rifle in hand as Spartan Stone turned and charged through the center of camp at a dead run, coming up hard against a Brute as he stormed toward them. They hit each other with enough force that Murphy felt it in his chest.

-

Murphy pushed to his feet and tried like hell to ignore the overwhelming ringing in his left ear as he looked back at camp, where Stone exchanged punches with the Brute while his partner terrorized the marines with its bare hands, ripping apart one and slamming another against the tree trunk.

-

Stone meanwhile ran to the bloody axe that still pinned the first fallen marine to the tree. She leapt over the victim, grabbing the axe handle and wrenching it free as her momentum carried her up the tree trunk, where she springboarded off, sailing over the pursuing Brute’s head and bringing the bladed weapon down into his neck. With a roar stuck in his throat, the Brute dropped dead next to his brother.

-

Stone worked her shoulder. Ever since the nighttime fight with the Jiralhanae in the forest, it had given her trouble. One of his blows had created a dent in the titanium composite plating over her right shoulder blade, which now caused it to press against her bodysuit—not enough to pierce it or prevent movement, just enough to make it really annoying at times. She was sure the Brute must’ve employed some kind of a power-assist gauntlet when he’d struck her.

Rubicon Protocol

Whilst injured and in failing armour, she pins Jega, stuns him with a punch and then briefly holds him down with one hand:

Jega appeared just as she swept his feet out from under him. Seizing the moment, she jumped on his torso and forced his arms down, using every ounce of strength she had until it felt like her muscles were about to explode. He roared, his mandibles snapping erratically as he attempted to thrust his energy blades toward her neck.

-

Suddenly releasing the grip of her right hand, Stone slammed her fist into his prosthetic arm where it met his shoulder, momentarily stunning Jega and deactivating its twin energy blades. Struggling to keep him down with one hand, she tore the module with the data node free with the other, tightening her grip around it.

Rubicon Protocol

After being badly wounded by a Ghost ramming into her and with a busted shoulder, she's given an adrenaline drug by her A.I that gives her enough strength to do the following:

Slams into two Grunts with enough force to send them hurling across a room to collide fatally with a wall:

This door opened like all the others, leading to a short, narrow corridor and then a small antechamber with two parallel ramps that sloped down toward yet another door. But here there were four Grunts at the bottom of the ramps.

Great.

She ran headlong into the first two with enough force to send their crumpled forms into the air. They hit the wall and bounced off in a slurry of blood and methane.

Rubicon Protocol

Kills another Grunt with a single blow and launches it into the air:

Her continued momentum allowed her to land her fist into the third, lifting it off the ground with a cracking sound.

Rubicon Protocol

Kicks a Grunt hard enough to cause internal ruptures, splatter it across a far wall, and break the closing mechanism of a door:

The last Grunt turned tail and made a clumsy run for it, but she shoved her boot into its backpack, sending it careening toward the door with such speed that it splattered across the frame of the door, causing the closing mechanism to break and leaving the door frozen halfway ajar. She must’ve ruptured something in the creature, because the Grunt’s body continued to spray blood all over the inside of the far corridor.

Rubicon Protocol

Breaks a Jackal's spine:

The rifle’s magazine was spent by the time the two Jackals came in, their own weapons firing relentlessly. She dropped her AR and lunged at the first, yanking his firing arm toward her while her boot was firmly planted in his gut. With a loud snap, the Kig-Yar immediately stopped firing and went limp—broken spinal column, no doubt. She flung his body to the side of the room, where he fell to the floor in a heap.

Rubicon Protocol

Punch clean through a Brute Bloodstar's bulletproof armour and pulverise his organs in a few blows:

Before the Brute had time to attack, Stone was already slamming headlong into the captain. Hectarius was strong and well-armored, but Stone began punching the Jiralhanae’s gut with a kind of unrelenting ferocity she didn’t know she possessed. The beast reeled backward, falling heavy to the ground as his torso armor began to perforate and break off into pieces under the vicious blows. It was only a few seconds of punching his stomach dead-on before Stone knew she had won, letting go of the Brute as he crawled into a corner and began staring unbelieving at the mess Stone had made of his vital organs. He finally stopped moving and slumped over in a pool of blood.

Rubicon Protocol

Reacts to an invisible Elite’s swing:

The smoky air in front of them warbled for a second with the now-familiar signature of a personal cloaking device. Stone dropped her hold on the unconscious Spartan and threw up a defensive arm as a Sangheili warrior solidified and slammed into her. She went down on one knee.

Rubicon Protocol

Runs up a tree and moves faster than a Brute:

Stone meanwhile ran to the bloody axe that still pinned the first fallen marine to the tree. She leapt over the victim, grabbing the axe handle and wrenching it free as her momentum carried her up the tree trunk, where she springboarded off, sailing over the pursuing Brute’s head and bringing the bladed weapon down into his neck.

Rubicon Protocol

Keeps up with Jega, a former Silent Shadow whose speed she notes is greater than any Elite she's ever faced:

The closer he came, the better she could make out his silhouette, which took on a clear distortion effect. With a remarkable burst of speed, he lunged at her, deactivating his stealth as he sliced the cannon barrel in two, his energy blade so hot it went through the metal with ease.

Stone released what remained of the smoldering cannon, leapt back, and retrieved both M6s, firing as Jega unwaveringly continued his attack, flashing in and out of stealth, disappearing and reappearing to strike.

As her own energy shielding dropped by the second, Stone took cover behind Jega’s overturned Ghost, reloading her last M6 magazine and focusing on depleting his shields with whatever she had left. Her odds weren’t looking too great. Jega’s speed and skill were extraordinary, unlike anything she had ever seen in a Sangheili. Without his shield, it might be a fair fight—but with it and the damage she’d sustained over the past several months, coming out of this unscathed was starting to look like wishful thinking.

If she could just steer clear of those blades long enough for his shielding to drop—

“Behind you!” Stone ducked low and spun at Ouco’s warning, instinctively throwing out her leg and hoping it connected. Yes. Jega appeared just as she swept his feet out from under him. Seizing the moment, she jumped on his torso and forced his arms down, using every ounce of strength she had until it felt like her muscles were about to explode. He roared, his mandibles snapping erratically as he attempted to thrust his energy blades toward her neck. Suddenly releasing the grip of her right hand, Stone slammed her fist into his prosthetic arm where it met his shoulder, momentarily stunning Jega and deactivating its twin energy blades. Struggling to keep him down with one hand, she tore the module with the data node free with the other, tightening her grip around it.

Before she could recover, he’d already gotten a leg under him and then a foot, shoving her off with a great bellow. Midair, Stone jammed the data node into the secondary port on her left forearm guard. “Ouco, copy and then corrupt the node. And do it quick. We don’t have much time.”

“Copying now. Impact in two sec—”

Stone slammed into the wall to the sound of her Mjolnir armor groaning and cracking. She slid down, landing on her feet, out of breath and shaky. An excruciating pain seared down her shoulder and back. Holding that Sangheili down and then landing that blow on his cybernetic arm must have torn her right arm and both shoulder muscles to shreds. And she was clean out of internal pain meds that would have automatically dispersed into her system.

Jega was now rising.

“Ouco …”

“Almost done.”

Stone grabbed her last grenade and primed it, gritting her teeth against the pain and lobbing it at the approaching Sangheili. Then she quickly took aim with her M6 and used its second-to-last round to blow it just as the grenade reached him. The force blew Jega out into the deep chasm beyond the platform.

Rubicon Protocol

Keeps moving - and then fighting once she lands on the ring - after suffering tissue damage across her body from holding up a metric ton of support beam and the ceiling on top of it:

With that thought, Stone disengaged her harness and pushed herself to her feet. Her muscles felt sluggish and fatigued from holding up the support beam. Diagnostics were showing some tissue damage in both shoulders, thighs, and one knee. At least she didn’t feel any pain. Yet.

Rubicon Protocol

Takes a surprise blow from a Sangheili that knocks her to one knee, and is up moments later:

The smoky air in front of them warbled for a second with the now-familiar signature of a personal cloaking device.

Stone dropped her hold on the unconscious Spartan and threw up a defensive arm as a Sangheili warrior solidified and slammed into her. She went down on one knee.

Lucas stumbled forward at the sudden stop as an earsplitting boom resounded from a nearby mortar hit. Jo had fallen onto his rear and was attempting to right himself and aim his battle rifle at the Sangheili as it raised its now-activated energy sword over Stone.

Heart in his throat, Lucas reached for the knife at his belt and surged forward, shoving it as hard as he could into the break of the Sangheili’s leg armor. The alien roared, backhanding him across the dirt, but it was all Stone needed to land an uppercut to the Sangheili’s jaw and then an M6 in the face until he fell dead.

Rubicon Protocol

Takes numerous blows from a strength-enhanced Brute, with her only lasting bit of damage being a dent in her armour’s shoulder from their power gauntlet:

Murphy pushed to his feet and tried like hell to ignore the overwhelming ringing in his left ear as he looked back at camp, where Stone exchanged punches with the Brute while his partner terrorized the marines with its bare hands, ripping apart one and slamming another against the tree trunk.

-

“Nah, it’s too fried, and Makovich got the last one in storage. One of the engineers is attempting to make another. Just takes time. Could use a fix on this dent, though. …” Stone worked her shoulder. Ever since the nighttime fight with the Jiralhanae in the forest, it had given her trouble. One of his blows had created a dent in the titanium composite plating over her right shoulder blade, which now caused it to press against her bodysuit—not enough to pierce it or prevent movement, just enough to make it really annoying at times. She was sure the Brute must’ve employed some kind of a power-assist gauntlet when he’d struck her.

Rubicon Protocol

Keeps fighting after ripping her shoulders and right arm's muscles to shreds:

Stone slammed into the wall to the sound of her Mjolnir armor groaning and cracking. She slid down, landing on her feet, out of breath and shaky. An excruciating pain seared down her shoulder and back. Holding that Sangheili down and then landing that blow on his cybernetic arm must have torn her right arm and both shoulder muscles to shreds. And she was clean out of internal pain meds that would have automatically dispersed into her system. Jega was now rising. “Ouco …”

“Almost done.”

Stone grabbed her last grenade and primed it, gritting her teeth against the pain and lobbing it at the approaching Sangheili. Then she quickly took aim with her M6 and used its second-to-last round to blow it just as the grenade reached him. The force blew Jega out into the deep chasm beyond the platform.

Rubicon Protocol

With the help of an adrenaline stimulant, she withstands being crushed by a speeding Ghost (0.9 tons with a max speed of at least 82 mph):

As Stone released a relieved breath, the Ghost piloted by Gorian rammed straight into her torso, mercilessly pinning her against the wall.

The force flattened her across its hull. A wave of warnings filled her Mjolnir’s heads-up display showing a list of internal injuries that seemed to never end. The pain was so severe that Stone nearly passed out. Darkness at the corners of her vision began to creep inward and she felt herself begin to roll off the Ghost’s crumpled front air dam. Reaching over the controls, Gorian grabbed her helmet in an iron-like vise and directed his Ghost across the platform and up the arched corridor leading to the lift. Evidently, the Bloodstar wasn’t going to take any chances: rather than attempt to retrieve the data from Stone, he’d simply retrieve Stone. Whatever was left of her, at least.

That was a mistake.

Unable to reach her assault rifle, Stone had nothing to fight with now except her will. Taking hold of the Jiralhanae’s arm with her right hand, she began pummeling Gorian with her left fist as he held tight to her helmet. The Bloodstar lifted her head and slammed it on the hull several times, trying to knock her unconscious. The trauma was so great that the display immediately blinked out and her visor began to crack. She scrambled to get better footing but couldn’t achieve any traction on the Ghost’s curved hull.

Without any words, Ouco released a reserve draft of adrenaline into Stone’s bloodstream. The stimulant coursed through her system, giving her a final burst of strength.

Grabbing Gorian’s wrist with both of hers, she used her core to twist onto her back, then pulled her legs into her chest, flipping herself over the Jiralhanae’s head. A bolt of pain reverberated through her chest and arms, but she stamped it down and held on, allowing the Ghost’s momentum to carry her to its back. In the process, she came down behind Gorian and, using what strength remained, she jerked the Bloodstar from the Ghost.

The two rolled for over ten meters before coming to a stop in the antechamber just outside of the lift area. A Brute captain hurried from the lift, mangler drawn. Beyond him still on the lift was a Brute Sniper, an Elite, and two Jackals. Her odds were starting to dwindle.

“Hectarius, no,” Gorian growled.

The Bloodstar hadn’t suddenly gone soft on her, she knew—he was simply denying the newcomer the right to a kill he’d worked so hard for.

Stone pushed sluggishly to her feet. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew things were not going to turn out the way she’d hoped. Only a few rounds left in her AR and no camo, her shoulders and arm screaming, but it had to be enough. She activated the enhanced shield module and immediately launched herself through the doorway past the captain and the lift full of reinforcements, darting across the larger area she’d seen when she first arrived, all the way to the door on the far side.

Rubicon Protocol

Briefly remains conscious after being impaled by an energy sword:

“Spartan Sto—!” Ouco tried to warn.

Fire sliced through her spine, then her chest cavity, without warning.

A gasp stuck in her throat as unimaginable pain exploded through her torso. A red glow lit on her front and the tip of an energy sword appeared in her field of vision as it pushed through her chest.

“Found you,” Jega ‘Rdomnai growled. Instantaneously her wound was cauterized by the sword’s heat, preventing body fluids and blood from moving through vessels, veins, and arteries, the force and energy causing mini-ruptures throughout her body.

As Jega pulled the energy sword slowly back out, he leaned in closer.

“Does it hurt?” The pleasure in his voice echoed menacingly through her audio. “Take your last breath, Spartan, and behold your tomb.”

Before she lost her wits, she removed the node from the secondary port in her forearm guard and cradled the now-corrupt data in a tight fist as Gorian approached from the doorway, a smug sneer on his face. Blood bubbled up her throat and she coughed it out onto her faceplate as her knees gave out. She slumped to one side, her body coming to rest on the floor. She heard Ouco’s voice in her ears but couldn’t process the words. Stone laughed, spurting up blood with the sound. Her hands fell limp, and her vision clouded with red.

As she ebbed into unconsciousness, she felt no pain as footsteps approached and the data node was wrenched out of her hand.

“Nice try, Spartan,” Jega said. A massive hand gripped her arm and lifted, but Jega spoke again, sounding very far away. “Leave her. We must get this to Escharum immediately.”

Elation swept through her. Her plan had worked. A wrench had been thrown into Escharum’s grand scheme. And with that final thought, Bonita Stone let the blackness take her.

Rubicon Protocol

Served with distinction even before becoming a Spartan:

Before her induction into the SPARTAN-IV program, Bonita Stone served with distinction on the UNSC stealth cruiser Relentless Watch, where she coordinated the efforts of several reconnaissance strike teams deployed to key areas of interest and unrest following the Covenant War. This experience led directly to her assignment to Fireteam Shadow.

Halo Encyclopaedia (2022)

Kovan, her Fireteam Shadow teammate, notes that recon came naturally to Stone:

“Ten years,” Kovan finally said. “We met on the reconnaissance starship Relentless Watch before joining the SPARTAN-IV program. Recon was hardwired into her DNA from the beginning.”

Rubicon Protocol

Kovan notes that her multi-tasking skills are unparalleled:

Soon the large detachment of Grunts relaxing in the pits would be replaced by another incoming unit. For three days they’d watched the routine, and now it was just a matter of timing. Two birds. One stone. Multitasking was something she and Murphy had in common, and it made them a pretty effective team. Though, to be fair, there was no one more skilled at it than Bonita Stone.

Once sat in the same position for six days to recon a Sangheili target:

The Stoic eyed her for a second. “Why is it you can sit still for hours during recon, and yet—”

“Recon is doing something.” Sitting on the rock and losing herself in what-ifs was not.

“You once sat for six days in the same position monitoring that Sangheili zealot on Talitsa.”

“Yeah, and still never came close to Shadow One’s record.”

“We can’t all be champions,” Kovan replied with a smirk.

Rubicon Protocol

Singlehandedly takes out several Ghosts, boards a Wraith, kills the pilot, and then uses it to destroy a Shroud:

But in that short span of time, the single-operator Ghosts had slaughtered all the marines while Stone killed the driver of the Wraith, pulling the Sangheili out of the pilot’s seat and then using the vehicle to take out the Ghosts before turning skyward to fire on the Shroud.

After, they’d dragged the bodies into the ditch, not wanting to leave them out in the open. Stone barely spoke. Murphy knew enough about Spartans to know that she blamed herself for their deaths, despite the fact that she’d fought like hell, overcome the equivalent of an armored tank with spikes, and then singlehandedly taken on each Ghost—not an easy feat when they sported twin rapid-firing plasma cannons and were extraordinarily nimble gravity-propulsion vehicles.

Rubicon Protocol

Took out a Sangheili and a Chopper in seconds:

A Sangheili hit the ground a few meters in front of him, snapping Lucas out of the battle haze. Immediately a Spartan dropped onto the alien warrior and stabbed a ravager bayonet deep into its gut, twisting and then ripping it free and sending a spray of purple blood arcing through the air. Without missing a beat, the Spartan fired the ravager’s incendiary bolts into the bladed wheel of an oncoming Chopper. It instantly veered off course and crashed into the burning Warthog.

The bright explosion put the super-soldier in the spotlight, and Lucas realized it was Spartan Stone.

Rubicon Protocol

Went toe to toe with a strength-enhanced Brute, then dodged him, retrieved an axe and killed him with it:

He was on his feet, rifle in hand as Spartan Stone turned and charged through the center of camp at a dead run, coming up hard against a Brute as he stormed toward them. They hit each other with enough force that Murphy felt it in his chest.

-

Murphy pushed to his feet and tried like hell to ignore the overwhelming ringing in his left ear as he looked back at camp, where Stone exchanged punches with the Brute while his partner terrorized the marines with its bare hands, ripping apart one and slamming another against the tree trunk.

-

Stone meanwhile ran to the bloody axe that still pinned the first fallen marine to the tree. She leapt over the victim, grabbing the axe handle and wrenching it free as her momentum carried her up the tree trunk, where she springboarded off, sailing over the pursuing Brute’s head and bringing the bladed weapon down into his neck. With a roar stuck in his throat, the Brute dropped dead next to his brother.

Rubicon Protocol

Kovan somewhat jokingly claims Stone can beat her in hand to hand combat:

Stone’s dark eyes were filled with relief. A wide grin was parked on her face, and her head was shaking like she just couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Beyond the welcome, though, Kovan didn’t miss the gaunt quality to her skin, the shadows beneath her eyes, the busted lip and the blood crusted in her ear. Her dark hair had grown into her eyes, long enough to tuck it behind her ears. It made her look softer—an observation that, had Kovan voiced it aloud, would have gotten her a swift ass-kicking.

Rubicon Protocol

Whilst injured and in failing armour, she fights evenly with Jega for a time:

The closer he came, the better she could make out his silhouette, which took on a clear distortion effect. With a remarkable burst of speed, he lunged at her, deactivating his stealth as he sliced the cannon barrel in two, his energy blade so hot it went through the metal with ease.

Stone released what remained of the smoldering cannon, leapt back, and retrieved both M6s, firing as Jega unwaveringly continued his attack, flashing in and out of stealth, disappearing and reappearing to strike.

As her own energy shielding dropped by the second, Stone took cover behind Jega’s overturned Ghost, reloading her last M6 magazine and focusing on depleting his shields with whatever she had left. Her odds weren’t looking too great. Jega’s speed and skill were extraordinary, unlike anything she had ever seen in a Sangheili. Without his shield, it might be a fair fight—but with it and the damage she’d sustained over the past several months, coming out of this unscathed was starting to look like wishful thinking.

If she could just steer clear of those blades long enough for his shielding to drop—

“Behind you!” Stone ducked low and spun at Ouco’s warning, instinctively throwing out her leg and hoping it connected. Yes. Jega appeared just as she swept his feet out from under him. Seizing the moment, she jumped on his torso and forced his arms down, using every ounce of strength she had until it felt like her muscles were about to explode. He roared, his mandibles snapping erratically as he attempted to thrust his energy blades toward her neck. Suddenly releasing the grip of her right hand, Stone slammed her fist into his prosthetic arm where it met his shoulder, momentarily stunning Jega and deactivating its twin energy blades. Struggling to keep him down with one hand, she tore the module with the data node free with the other, tightening her grip around it.

Before she could recover, he’d already gotten a leg under him and then a foot, shoving her off with a great bellow. Midair, Stone jammed the data node into the secondary port on her left forearm guard. “Ouco, copy and then corrupt the node. And do it quick. We don’t have much time.”

“Copying now. Impact in two sec—”

Stone slammed into the wall to the sound of her Mjolnir armor groaning and cracking. She slid down, landing on her feet, out of breath and shaky. An excruciating pain seared down her shoulder and back. Holding that Sangheili down and then landing that blow on his cybernetic arm must have torn her right arm and both shoulder muscles to shreds. And she was clean out of internal pain meds that would have automatically dispersed into her system.

Jega was now rising.

“Ouco …”

“Almost done.”

Stone grabbed her last grenade and primed it, gritting her teeth against the pain and lobbing it at the approaching Sangheili. Then she quickly took aim with her M6 and used its second-to-last round to blow it just as the grenade reached him. The force blew Jega out into the deep chasm beyond the platform.

Rubicon Protocol

Shoots a grenade in mid-air:

Stone grabbed her last grenade and primed it, gritting her teeth against the pain and lobbing it at the approaching Sangheili. Then she quickly took aim with her M6 and used its second-to-last round to blow it just as the grenade reached him. The force blew Jega out into the deep chasm beyond the platform.

Rubicon Protocol

Tricked Jega ‘Rdomnai into taking back corrupted data via sleight of hand:

Suddenly releasing the grip of her right hand, Stone slammed her fist into his prosthetic arm where it met his shoulder, momentarily stunning Jega and deactivating its twin energy blades. Struggling to keep him down with one hand, she tore the module with the data node free with the other, tightening her grip around it.

Before she could recover, he’d already gotten a leg under him and then a foot, shoving her off with a great bellow.

Midair, Stone jammed the data node into the secondary port on her left forearm guard.

“Ouco, copy and then corrupt the node. And do it quick. We don’t have much time.”

“Copying now. Impact in two sec—”

Stone slammed into the wall to the sound of her Mjolnir armor groaning and cracking. She slid down, landing on her feet, out of breath and shaky. An excruciating pain seared down her shoulder and back. Holding that Sangheili down and then landing that blow on his cybernetic arm must have torn her right arm and both shoulder muscles to shreds. And she was clean out of internal pain meds that would have automatically dispersed into her system. Jega was now rising. “Ouco …”

“Almost done.”

Stone grabbed her last grenade and primed it, gritting her teeth against the pain and lobbing it at the approaching Sangheili. Then she quickly took aim with her M6 and used its second-to-last round to blow it just as the grenade reached him. The force blew Jega out into the deep chasm beyond the platform.

“Transfer complete,” Ouco said.

-

Before she lost her wits, she removed the node from the secondary port in her forearm guard and cradled the now-corrupt data in a tight fist as Gorian approached from the doorway, a smug sneer on his face.

-

Stone laughed, spurting up blood with the sound. Her hands fell limp, and her vision clouded with red. As she ebbed into unconsciousness, she felt no pain as footsteps approached and the data node was wrenched out of her hand.

“Nice try, Spartan,” Jega said. A massive hand gripped her arm and lifted, but Jega spoke again, sounding very far away. “Leave her. We must get this to Escharum immediately.”

Elation swept through her. Her plan had worked. A wrench had been thrown into Escharum’s grand scheme. And with that final thought, Bonita Stone let the blackness take her.

Rubicon Protocol

The boat crew, which includes Lieutenant TJ Murphy who had worked extensively with the likes of Fireteam Crinson, consider her one of the mightiest Spartans they’d ever known:

No one in the boat crew spoke. They collectively stood there, digesting the reality, trying to process the fact that Bonita Stone— one of the mightiest Spartans they’d ever known, who’d saved their lives time and again—was just sitting there dead on the ground.

Rubicon Protocol

Stops an 8’2 Sangheili’s body slam:

She opened her TEAMCOM channel and said, “Kovan, on the ground,” and then she went to work. As soon as her feet hit the alien deck, a two-and-a-half-meter-tall Sangheili mercenary rushed her with an angry roar, mandibles wide. The collision sent her back several steps as she blocked with her forearm, ducked and spun, coming up at his side and firing a round from her MK50 into his ribcage, her combat knife already in her other hand, the blade sinking deeply into the thick cords of his muscled neck.

Rubicon Protocol

Breaks a Sangheili’s neck:

Behind him, a Sangheili in crimson armor emerged. A split second later, a shadow fell over the alien warrior and a Spartan in camouflage armor landed on its back.

Kovan.

She came down on his shoulders from the ridge above, wrapping her alloyed legs around his neck, grabbing his helmet and twisting with all her might. The Sangheili ripped the weapon out of Jo and the man collapsed to his knees next to the fallen Spartan as Kovan twisted and twisted until the alien’s neck snapped.

Rubicon Protocol

Murphy notes that she could easily crush his wrists:

Kovan’s hands curled around his wrists and squeezed. She could have crushed them to dust without much effort, but that wasn’t where this was going. At least, he hoped not. She removed his hands from her armor and then stepped back, taking off her helmet and tucking it beneath her arm.

Rubicon Protocol

Breaks a Grunt’s neck:

On the other side two Grunts fiddled with a Banished crate in the corner. When the door suddenly opened, it startled them, but they had no time to respond. Murphy plunged his bayonet into the nearest one’s gut, and Kovan quickly broke the other’s neck before he could even raise his weapon.

Rubicon Protocol

Murphy notes that Kovan could lift and carry Stone’s armoured weight (522kg):

It was up to Kovan, but the way Murphy saw it, there was very little choice. While Kovan could carry the body and its accompanying armor, doing so would slow them down considerably, and with the Banished hot on their heels, that decision could jeopardize the entire crew. And Stone wouldn’t want that.

Rubicon Protocol

Blocks a strike from an Elite:

Murphy landed hard on his back, the wind knocked out of him, his rifle clattering somewhere nearby. Instinctively he rolled, seeing Kovan block an Elite’s attack while the sound of Bender’s weapon echoed over the din.

Rubicon Protocol

Kills a Brute in the time it takes four marines to do the same:

After a quick nod between them Murphy dove for the Brute’s stomach, stabbing the tip of the energy bayonet against the leather covering his gut, then activated it as the enemy jerked, eyes flying open. Murphy forced the bayonet straight up through the Jiralhanae’s chest cavity as Bender cut his throat, sending a spray of wine-colored blood over his hand and arm. At the same time, Cam and Dimik cut the tendons behind his knees. They’d learned to cover their asses—if the larger wounds didn’t stop the Brute, taking out his mobility would sure help. The Jiralhanae never had a chance to scream.

And Kovan had overtaken her target just as quickly, her knife nearly decapitating the guard. She shoved the body to the ground, stepped over it, and then faced the lift.

Rubicon Protocol

Largely unharmed by a high-speed collision between a 500 kg drop pod and a Phantom:

One hundred and eighty meters per second, the pod gained on the Phantom in a flash as it fired on the fleeing shuttle.

The drop pod shuddered, and her teeth vibrated, but Kovan willed the clatter and pandemonium to fade until all she could hear was the sound of her slow, steady exhales and her beating heart. She smiled. “This is probably gonna hurt. …”

She came in fast, braking rockets firing moments before the pod slammed into the Phantom as it leveled off, slicing through its hull as the automatic braking chute deployed. Alarms screeched again, controls sparking as explosive bolts triggered and the drop pod’s door expelled into the interior of the Phantom.

She was out in seconds, seven enemy targets appearing on her HUD as she drew her MK50 Sidekick. “Knock knock.”

After being holed up in the drop pod, Kovan was ready to exact some close-quarters payback. Immediately, she fired at the two dazed enemy targets in the cockpit as the Phantom nose-dived.

“Fifty meters to impact,” Mouse warned.

Out of control, the Phantom rolled. There was little time to find an anchor and the ground was coming up fast. Kovan turned and dove into the drop pod as the Phantom hit the ground like a lightning bolt. Despite the protection of her STORMFALL-class Mjolnir armor, and titanium nano-composite body suit with its shock-absorbing layer of hydrostatic gel, the sudden force rattled through her body.

A shaky groan escaped her lips as she shook off the crash effects—beyond the split-second gratitude of being alive, there wasn’t time to acknowledge anything else as battlenet reports flooded through her HUD and five Sangheili targets were rousing within the crashed Phantom.

She opened her TEAMCOM channel and said, “Kovan, on the ground,” and then she went to work.

Rubicon Protocol

Falls 7 metres without any injury:

Kovan waited until the team signed off; then she climbed down the tree, her right leg feeling a little stiff again, jumping the last seven meters and then taking off at a dead run toward the Banished armory.

Rubicon Protocol

An exemplary marksman, even before her augmentations:

For her entire career, Nina Kovan was considered an exemplary marksman.

Halo Encyclopaedia (2022)

Singlehandedly takes out a Phantom with a Sidekick pistol and a drop pod:

One hundred and eighty meters per second, the pod gained on the Phantom in a flash as it fired on the fleeing shuttle.

The drop pod shuddered, and her teeth vibrated, but Kovan willed the clatter and pandemonium to fade until all she could hear was the sound of her slow, steady exhales and her beating heart. She smiled. “This is probably gonna hurt. …”

She came in fast, braking rockets firing moments before the pod slammed into the Phantom as it leveled off, slicing through its hull as the automatic braking chute deployed. Alarms screeched again, controls sparking as explosive bolts triggered and the drop pod’s door expelled into the interior of the Phantom.

She was out in seconds, seven enemy targets appearing on her HUD as she drew her MK50 Sidekick. “Knock knock.”

After being holed up in the drop pod, Kovan was ready to exact some close-quarters payback. Immediately, she fired at the two dazed enemy targets in the cockpit as the Phantom nose-dived.

“Fifty meters to impact,” Mouse warned.

Out of control, the Phantom rolled. There was little time to find an anchor and the ground was coming up fast. Kovan turned and dove into the drop pod as the Phantom hit the ground like a lightning bolt. Despite the protection of her STORMFALL-class Mjolnir armor, and titanium nano-composite body suit with its shock-absorbing layer of hydrostatic gel, the sudden force rattled through her body.

Rubicon Protocol

Takes out the entire crew of the Phantom with relative ease:

A shaky groan escaped her lips as she shook off the crash effects—beyond the split-second gratitude of being alive, there wasn’t time to acknowledge anything else as battlenet reports flooded through her HUD and five Sangheili targets were rousing within the crashed Phantom.

She opened her TEAMCOM channel and said, “Kovan, on the ground,” and then she went to work. As soon as her feet hit the alien deck, a two-and-a-half-meter-tall Sangheili mercenary rushed her with an angry roar, mandibles wide. The collision sent her back several steps as she blocked with her forearm, ducked and spun, coming up at his side and firing a round from her MK50 into his ribcage, her combat knife already in her other hand, the blade sinking deeply into the thick cords of his muscled neck.

She was several steps ahead, knowing where her additional targets were and the directions they were moving. As the mercenary dropped, she yanked him close and used him as cover to head-shot another Sangheili that had been approaching from behind him.

Three more of his ilk took potshots at her with plasma rifles, superheated rounds peppering a stack of nearby containers as she dropped the alien body and dove for cover. In one fluid motion, she unshouldered her S7 sniper rifle and sighted, waiting for them to expose themselves. As if hiding behind consoles and supply crates was going to save them …

“Just a little peek. … Come on, don’t be shy,” she muttered.

“Wrap it up, Kovan,” Stone said via TEAMCOM.

Oh, she’d wrap it up, all right. Neatly and with seven little bows …

Not even Stone could distract her now. Kovan’s talent for compartmentalizing was one of her greatest strengths. Even with the relentless turmoil outside, the constant barrage of neighboring Banished AA guns vibrating through the Phantom, and debris pinging the exterior, she settled easily into her sweet spot. She had a sense for where to sight her target, an uncanny ability to determine when the smallest bit of an enemy would emerge. It felt like minutes, but in reality only a few seconds passed before the mercenary took another peek.

No hesitation. Ever.

As soon as the moment came, she took it, instantly squeezing the trigger. The impact blew out the Sangheili’s throat.

Two left. One crept behind the crates, changing positions to get a shot off on her position, but as soon as he exposed a shoulder, she fired. As he fell, she delivered the head shot.

The last one had come around the bulkhead to her left in an attempt to outflank her. She stayed put, letting him do the legwork and move in close. As soon as he unsheathed his energy sword and charged, she was ready, blocking his forearm with hers, then grabbing him by his red-painted combat harness, dropping to her rear, sticking a foot in his gut, and flipping him over her head. He clumsily hit the deck and she was on top of him at once, shoving the Sidekick under his chin and firing a round.

Rubicon Protocol

Takes out a Banshee in two shots:

Damn it.

“I see it.” Kovan put on the brakes, her heels sliding deep into the ground as she swung around, grabbed her rifle, and knelt in the dirt. She cocked her head and sighted its plasma cannon through the S7’s scope as the Banshee barreled toward her position, its single fuel-rod cannon letting loose and the ground exploding in a scorching trail of radioactive red. She fired and hit the weapon, then immediately fired again, straight into the vehicle’s central housing. The Banshee blew apart in a blinding explosion. Its fuselage hurtled toward her. She dove as it soared over her head and hit the side of the ridge with a deafening report.

Rubicon Protocol

Stone claims that if Kovan wanted, even she wouldn’t be able to hear her coming:

She heard Kovan long before her teammate appeared on the ridge. But that was only because Kovan hadn’t bothered hiding her approach—if she had, Stone never would have seen or heard her coming until the very last second.

Rubicon Protocol

Stone claims Kovan never misses:

Nina Kovan was as tough as nails, though. No one gave her a hard time. She never messed up, never missed, and never responded to sarcasm. It drove the other teams crazy—she was a nut they could never crack.

Rubicon Protocol

Takes out an entire Banished Grunt campsite with a single sniper shot:

The detachment separated into two groups and came to a halt at the pits’ airlocks. There was a good chance Kovan’s round would ignite the methane by hitting something metal inside and creating the spark needed, but no point in taking chances. If they were going to risk their lives, they’d make damn sure the campsite lit up the sky. If the last couple months had taught them anything, it was to make the most of every opportunity, and wreak as much havoc as possible. Maximum damage, all the time.

“Taking the shot in three.” Slow exhale out and …

“Now,” Murphy whispered into comms.

Kovan’s high-velocity armor-piercing round cracked through the air and pierced one incoming Grunt’s methane tank just as he was about to enter the tent. The HVAP round continued straight through the tank and sliced into the first tent as the C10 explosive charges blew the second tent. The whole damn campsite went up with an earsplitting whoosh. The ground shook and the trees rattled, sending birds scattering from their branches. The sky turned dark as a fiery plume of methane mushroomed into the air.

Rubicon Protocol

Like all Spartans, Kovan knows how to move silently, doing so to infiltrate a heavily defended base:

The cold winds coming up from the fracture pressed Kovan against the cliff face, making her way slow but steady—not her first choice of infiltration points, but a necessary one since her active camo was still on the fritz. Every small sound carried in this environment, but despite their size, the Spartans knew precisely how to use their suits and armor. They were ghosts. Shadows.

-

She took her time edging around the supply depot, then moving behind weapons stations and supply crates until she was close enough to approach the Phantom and make a soft leap into its open carriage bay, settling her weight down like a feather in its darkened interior.

Rubicon Protocol

Considered a sniper extraordinaire:

Jungle camo. Cradling a STORMFALL helmet and a BR75 service rifle. Pale hair, strong bone structure, perpetual frown … Nina Kovan. Fireteam Shadow. The Stoic. Sniper extraordinaire.

Rubicon Protocol

Runs at approximately forty-seven kph (29 mph) on unstable terrain:

DEC 13, 2559 // In the wake of the cataclysm, Makovich attempts to reach safer ground.

[Sound: Explosion. Ground quaking.]

Suit AI: Spartan Makovich, the Ring is coming apart beneath your feet. Recommend-

Spartan Vedrana Makovich: One crisis at a time, please!

[Sound: Gunfire.]

Suit AI: Spartan Makovich, your sidearm is insufficient to deal with Sentinels in such numbers. Recommend-

Makovich: Yeah! Retreat! I'm working on it!

[Sound: Gunfire. Sentinel explodes. Another Sentinel screeches. Running footsteps.]

Suit AI: Spartan Makovich, your current speed of forty-seven KPH is-

Makovich: One more physics lesson, and I'm ripping you out of my head.

Halo Infinite: Ringfall Audio Log

Reacts to a surprise attack from Jega ‘Rdomnai:

MAY 15, 2560 // Inside the Conservatory, Makovich and Sorel confront a powerful adversary.

Spartan Vedrana Makovich: Oh yeah. This is Forerunner. We're clear, Theo. Moving up.

Spartan Theodore Sorel: Let's keep it quiet for as long as we can. There'll be no putting the cork back in the bottle once the party starts.

Makovich: Speaking of which, when we're done here, I know of a certain supply crate with a couple of bottles of- Movement! Behind you!

Jega 'Rdomnai: (Attack roar)

Sorel: Agh!

[Sound: Gunfire. Active camouflage shimmers.]

Halo Infinite: Scattered Audio Log

One of the UNSC Air Force’s most versatile and adept pilots:

The leader of Fireteam Windfall, Vedrana Makovich made a name for herself in the UNSC Air Force as one of their most versatile and adept pilots.

Halo Encyclopaedia (2022)

Led a number of ‘impressive’ victories against raiding parties, and helped design the production model Sabre:

Makovich was invited into the SPARTAN-IV program, where-in addition to leading an impressive list of successful sorties against enemy raiding parties- she was also instrumental in the development of the production model Sabre.

Halo Encyclopaedia (2022)

Murphy considers her the best pilot he’s ever seen:

Just outside of the bay, Kovan separated herself from a pair of familiar Spartans: Vettel of Fireteam Taurus, unmistakable in his red Mjolnir, and Makovich, whom Murphy knew well—the Fireteam Windfall leader was hands-down the best pilot he’d ever seen and was something of a hero to the flight squadrons on Infinity.

Rubicon Protocol

Holds her own for a time against Jega 'Rdomnai. How long is unclear, but it was enough time for a badly injured Sorel to get far enough away that Jega didn’t pursue him:

Makovich: Damn it, he cloaked! you still with me?

Sorel: Yeah. I'm good. Where'd he go?!

'Rdomnai: (Growling) I am near, Spartan. I am near.

Makovich: Go. Leave this to me.

Sorel: No, I can't do that-

Makovich: Find the Monitor. I'll be right behind you.

Sorel: You better be, Mako.

Makovich: Now then, where were we?

[Sound: Energy sword activates.]

'Rdomnai: You were about to die screaming.

[Sound: Gunfire.]

-

Spartan Theodore Sorel: Mako-come in. Come in, Mako. No. You're not dead. You're right behind me. I'm gonna keep moving. That Elite got me pretty good-

[Sound: Gunfire.]

-

Tovarus: Look there, brother! Jega left us some table scraps.

Hyperius: The last Spartan. Let us enjoy this moment, Tovarus.

Sorel: -not until our last breath.

[Sound: Weapon cocking.]

Sorel: You're in my way. Which one of you wants to die first?

Halo Infinite: Scattered Audio Log

Despite being stabbed by an energy sword, he's still able to run and fight:

Makovich: Speaking of which, when we're done here, I know of a certain supply crate with a couple of bottles of- Movement! Behind you!

Jega 'Rdomnai: (Attack roar)

Sorel: Agh!

[Sound: Gunfire. Active camouflage shimmers.]

Makovich: Damn it, he cloaked! you still with me?

Sorel: Yeah. I'm good. Where'd he go?!

-

MAY 15, 2560 // A wounded Spartan Sorel makes a last stand in the bowels of the Conservatory.

[Sound: Distant roaring.]

Spartan Theodore Sorel: Mako-come in. Come in, Mako. No. You're not dead. You're right behind me. I'm gonna keep moving. That Elite got me pretty good-

[Sound: Gunfire.]

Unggoy: Aggh!

Sorel: -but I'm still alive. And I'm not giving up-just like you. Right, Mako? Rubicon protocol. We keep fighting. For everyone we've lost. For everyone back on Earth. We never stop. Not until-

[Sound: Door opens.]

Tovarus: Look there, brother! Jega left us some table scraps.

Hyperius: The last Spartan. Let us enjoy this moment, Tovarus.

Sorel: -not until our last breath.

[Sound: Weapon cocking.]

Sorel: You're in my way. Which one of you wants to die first?

Halo Infinite: Scattered Audio Log

Managed to escort marines through the heavily occupied hangar bay to evac:

DEC 12, 2559 // Spartan Theodore Sorel leads marines in defense of Infinity.

[Sound: Gunfire. Alarm blaring. Explosion.]

Thomas Lasky (loudspeakers): This is Lasky to all hands. The Infinity has been compromised. All remaining crew should immediately evacuate and make for the surface. Rendezvous coordinates incoming.

[Sound: Gunfire.]

Spartan Theodore Sorel: What? Already?

[Sound: Explosion.]

Private Chamberlain: Another breach, port side! Banished are pouring in faster than we can keep up! What's the move, Spartan?

Sorel: You heard the captain! We're falling back to the hangar bay and getting off of this ship!

Private First Class Miyazaki: Heading for the Ring's surface? With the Banished all over us?

Sorel: Do you think you're safer here? Pick up the wounded. The Infinity's lost. We are not.

Halo Infinite: Evacuation Audio Log

He and the squad of marines held off waves of Banished forces and got to safety from deep behind enemy lines:

DEC 12, 2559 // Deep behind enemy lines, Sorel and his squad defend their position

Spartan Theodore Sorel: Oscar One Two Eight is down. I repeat: Oscar One Two Eight is down, and we've lost uplink to command. Anyone hearing me out there? Does anybody copy?

[Sound: Static comms]

Private First Class Miyazaki: Banished troopers! Nine o'clock!

[Sound: Erudo'ma'keth-pattern pulse carbine being fired.]

Private Chamberlain: Open fire!

[Sound: Gunfire.]

Sorel: Telemetry's shot so I have no sense of our position. All I know is that we're deep in enemy territory. Banished hardware is deploying from orbit faster than we can count them.

[Sound: Clamoring. Gunfire.]

Sorel: We're dug in and holding position. We'll head for the rendezvous point as soon as we've got a chance to move — if we get a chance.

Halo Infinite: Ringfall Audio Log

Despite being stabbed by an energy sword, Sorel not only escaped Jega when Makovich acted as a distraction, but went on to fight and kill numerous Brutes, Elites, Jackals and Grunts with just a Sidekick and a screwdriver before being overwhelmed. What makes this even more notable is that the Banished forces were being led by two Spartan Killers, Tovarus and Hyperius, both of whom are confirmed to have killed other Spartans and later were defeated by the Chief himself in an intense fight:

MAY 15, 2560 // A wounded Spartan Sorel makes a last stand in the bowels of the Conservatory.

[Sound: Distant roaring.]

Spartan Theodore Sorel: Mako-come in. Come in, Mako. No. You're not dead. You're right behind me. I'm gonna keep moving. That Elite got me pretty good-

[Sound: Gunfire.]

Unggoy: Aggh!

Sorel: -but I'm still alive. And I'm not giving up-just like you. Right, Mako? Rubicon protocol. We keep fighting. For everyone we've lost. For everyone back on Earth. We never stop. Not until-

[Sound: Door opens.]

Tovarus: Look there, brother! Jega left us some table scraps.

Hyperius: The last Spartan. Let us enjoy this moment, Tovarus.

Sorel: -not until our last breath.

[Sound: Weapon cocking.]

Sorel: You're in my way. Which one of you wants to die first?

Halo Infinite: Scattered Audio Log

-

-

The menacing and relentless Jiralhanae warrior was responsible for the deaths of over a dozen Spartans, a fact made clear for all to see in the form of the trophies that hung about his armor-each pulled from a defeated combatant.

-

Despite having the upper hand in numbers, the Hand of Atriox would suffer a monumental blow as the legendary Spartan dispatched them both in a fierce and harrowing battle.

Halo Encyclopaedia (2022)

Moves rocks and fallen trees:

There was no way in hell he was going to leave the Banished with a readily available food source to return to, so he began moving aside rocks and downed trees to create an escape route for the herd.

Rubicon Protocol

Digs himself out from around nine metres of debris, shifting what he estimates is thousands of pounds worth of residue:

“Report,” he said with a groan, attempting to push up, but the weight above him didn’t budge. “Report.”

“Pulling data from sensors …” He waited, staying calm despite the fact that he’d just been buried alive. What the hell was taking so long? “Fi! Report!”

“Motion tracker, active camouflage module, and long-range comms remain offline. Propulsion system is damaged and energy shielding is at thirty-two percent. The pressure experienced by your armor in conjunction with estimated average weight of land mass suggests your current position to be nine meters beneath debris.”

“Great.”

“And you have ninety minutes of breathable air.” Horvath grunted in response, a small note of panic coursing through him. He squashed it immediately, relying on his training instead of giving in to the familiar and unsettling memories of being trapped in his own skin, unable to move, to make anything work. His heavy breaths echoed in the helmet. He hadn’t delved too deeply into his past in a long time and absolutely didn’t want to start now. That part of his life was over. This time, he wasn’t paralyzed; his spine wasn’t shattered into a dozen pieces; his body wasn’t utterly and completely broken. No, this time he could move. Only a little bit, but it was a start.

His fingers worked back and forth, eventually carving out the tiniest bit of wiggle room, and after a few minutes he was able to move his elbow, some of his arm, and a knee. Elfie displayed a countdown timer on his HUD. Eighty-three minutes. He removed it with a thought. “Not helping.” He was already going as fast as he could. A timer would only get under his skin. “Give me a heads-up at the halfway mark.”

“Of course, Spartan Horvath.”

It was a painstaking process and took extreme effort to dig and create spaces and pockets to push upward and find a blind path through the debris.

“Halfway mark achieved. You have forty-five minutes before oxygen depletion.”

“Plenty of time.” He hoped. Suddenly he hit a small air pocket, giving him more leverage to push aside debris. All around him the land squeezing him in began to relax. His pulse was pounding, his muscles and armor pushed to maximum as he carved a tight path through thousands of pounds of rock and dirt and debris to reach the surface.

Finally his hand broke free, then a forearm followed by an elbow, which he used to leverage himself up. As soon as his helmet was clear, a curtain of dirt slid down his visor, and he was finally out of the dark and into the ambient light of Zeta Halo and the yellow dwarf star nearby. Readouts told him there was gravity and breathable air—thinner than before, but enough to allow him to rip off his helmet and draw large drafts into his lungs.

He stayed there, partly submerged, until he was able to stabilize himself. “We made it, Fi. We made it.” For a while there, he hadn’t been so sure. …

Horvath pushed the rest of the way out of the ground and finally onto his feet, dust and dirt sliding off his Mjolnir as he straightened. A jumble of downed trees, rocks, and chunks of dirt surrounded his position, preventing him from getting a good look at where he’d landed.

Rubicon Protocol

Slightly moves a Phantom (188.6 tons):

He was strong, but not even an augmented Spartan-IV in GEN3 Mjolnir power armor could lift and hold a Phantom out of the mud while retrieving a sentinel stuck in the same muck. He’d managed to rock the Phantom ever so slightly, but the mud kept sucking it back down.

Rubicon Protocol

Lifts and throws a 700 kg Jiralhanae body:

With a disappointed sigh, he grabbed the Brute by both wrists, pulled him up to the cargo hold’s edge, and then shoved him off before leaping down and dragging the body far out into the basin.

Rubicon Protocol

Rips off a Jiralhanae’s armour and comes out ahead in a fight, albeit the Brute had cracked ribs. The Brute, Gorian, was much larger and somewhat heavier than the average Jiralhanae (9’10 and weighing 700 kg versus 9’2 and 680 kg) and is part of the spec ops Bloodstars, who are notably more skilled and intelligent than the average Brute:

He gripped the side of the Brute’s damaged chest armor, ripping a section free before landing a hard blow to his injured ribs and feeling a small, satisfying crunch. The Brute rallied by seizing his shoulders and slinging him across the bay; the pummeling went on for several minutes until Horvath’s lungs burned and armor integrity warnings skipped across his display.

Neither he nor the Jiralhanae was able to stay steady on his feet, but Horvath was in much better shape overall. Every blow he landed was aimed at his enemy’s ribcage.

Finally the Brute held up a wavering hand, and slurred, “A truce, demon.”

Rubicon Protocol

Rips off part of a crashed Phantom’s plating:

He bypassed them and climbed into the vessel. Within the bay area, he found a few pieces of bulkhead plating that hung from the ceiling. After ripping one out, he tossed it out the bay door, then went back to retrieve another before returning to camp with the pieces.

Rubicon Protocol

Blocks Gorian’s blow with one arm:

Before he had time to react, Gorian struck with a large armored fist. Horvath blocked the blow with his forearm, but their movements caused the drone to spin and the force flung him off into open space—

Rubicon Protocol

Breaks a Jackal’s neck:

Immediately he finished off the last Jackal with a vicious twist to its thin avian neck, relieved it of its forearm shield and plasma pistol, and then ran for the mounted plasma cannon.

Rubicon Protocol

Despite being badly injured, he shifts a 700 kg Brute’s corpse enough to get out from underneath and then shoves it off a cliff:

“Your mistake was letting me live,” Horvath ground out as the Brute’s momentum slammed him down onto the translocation pad. He knew his opponent was dead when the Jiralhanae released a long, audible breath and settled about seven hundred kilograms of dead weight on top of him.

-

As soon as he had extricated himself, Horvath stood over the Jiralhanae, thinking of ONI agent Kate Stalling, and then placed his boot on the body and shoved it off the edge and out into the thin mountain air. He’d watched the Brute drop through layers of puffy clouds before disappearing.

Rubicon Protocol

Outruns an earth tsunami for a short time:

Deep magnification showed an intense sonic wind rushing over the area, the force not merely flattening everything in its path, but ripping up the landscape in a gargantuan wave of debris. In an instant, adrenaline flared like a matchstick. He didn’t think, just reacted, pivoting and bolting. But the earthen tsunami was already at his heels. Still, Horvath pushed himself and his armor to the limit until he was caught up, tumbling with earth, water, substructure, flora, and fauna.

Rubicon Protocol

Kills five Grunts in the blink of an eye, the resulting attack causing explosions that killed half of the rest:

He played through his firing scenario one more time, and then said, “look lively, folks,” into the short-range comms link Kovan had given to him. The armor-piercing round cracked through the calm air, lighting up the Grunt’s methane tank. Immediately, the Spartan shifted aim across the units. One o’clock. Eight o’clock. Four o’clock. Four additional tanks blew in the blink of an eye and eliminated more than half of the Grunts.

Rubicon Protocol

Dodges a Brute shot round in mid-air:

Horvath leapt off the overlook, the last grenade from the brute shot passing below his armpit as he twisted his body in midair and flung the spike grenade toward Gorian’s feet. The grenade struck the rock almost between his legs, instantly arming on impact.

Rubicon Protocol

Kills two Jackals with headshots before they could walk around a tree:

As soon as he found his footing, he was up and running back up to the overlook, only to glimpse Dimik pinned down behind a tree. His display showed two Jackals trying to flank her position. With extreme speed, he pulled the carbine, aimed for the head, and fired two consecutive bursts at each Kig-Yar. They dropped as Horvath tossed the hot, unvented carbine, intending to take the enemies’ weapons, but at that moment, Gorian reached the overlook.

Rubicon Protocol

Withstands an earth tsunami that damages his armour:

Deep magnification showed an intense sonic wind rushing over the area, the force not merely flattening everything in its path, but ripping up the landscape in a gargantuan wave of debris. In an instant, adrenaline flared like a matchstick. He didn’t think, just reacted, pivoting and bolting. But the earthen tsunami was already at his heels. Still, Horvath pushed himself and his armor to the limit until he was caught up, tumbling with earth, water, substructure, flora, and fauna. The force flung him high and off the plateau where he was battered from all sides, his heart pounding as he smacked into solid rock and tumbled. Flailing, he managed to snag a pocket on the side of the plateau wall, holding on for dear life as the supersonic wave flowed past and finally disappeared. He hung there, breathing so heavily that it took several seconds to catch his breath.

“Holy shit.” Another ding echoed, and the utter absurdity of it caused laughter to bubble to his throat. “Fi … report?”

“Motion tracker, active camouflage, and long-range comms are offline. Armor integrity is at fifty-two percent.”

He’d already taken a beating the last twenty-four hours of constant fighting. At this rate, he’d be lucky if his GEN3 lasted out the week.

Rubicon Protocol

Remains conscious after a landslide of debris:

As the land fragment continued to flip, the piece of alloy support Horvath held buckled and snapped, and he went weightless. Quickly he fired his grappleshot at the scaffolding still attached to the ring fragment as the entire piece of land went vertical and then belly-up, swinging him into an upward arc and then down at blistering speed along with mounds of loosened debris. Not again. He was swallowed up, battered from all sides as his display went black.

He never lost consciousness. He heard and felt it all, rocked back and forth, tossed and tumbled and hit repeatedly by earth and rock and metal. And when the upheaval finally stopped, he lay facedown, held in place by what felt like a mountain of detritus.

His HUD blinked out a few times, lines skating across the display, before finally returning to normal.

“Report,” he said with a groan, attempting to push up, but the weight above him didn’t budge. “Report.”

“Pulling data from sensors …” He waited, staying calm despite the fact that he’d just been buried alive. What the hell was taking so long?

“Fi! Report!”

“Motion tracker, active camouflage module, and long-range comms remain offline. Propulsion system is damaged and energy shielding is at thirty-two percent. The pressure experienced by your armor in conjunction with estimated average weight of land mass suggests your current position to be nine meters beneath debris.”

Rubicon Protocol

Withstands nine metres of debris bearing down on him, which he estimates to be thousands of pounds of dirt and rock:

“Report,” he said with a groan, attempting to push up, but the weight above him didn’t budge. “Report.”

“Pulling data from sensors …” He waited, staying calm despite the fact that he’d just been buried alive. What the hell was taking so long? “Fi! Report!”

“Motion tracker, active camouflage module, and long-range comms remain offline. Propulsion system is damaged and energy shielding is at thirty-two percent. The pressure experienced by your armor in conjunction with estimated average weight of land mass suggests your current position to be nine meters beneath debris.”

“Great.”

“And you have ninety minutes of breathable air.” Horvath grunted in response, a small note of panic coursing through him. He squashed it immediately, relying on his training instead of giving in to the familiar and unsettling memories of being trapped in his own skin, unable to move, to make anything work. His heavy breaths echoed in the helmet. He hadn’t delved too deeply into his past in a long time and absolutely didn’t want to start now. That part of his life was over. This time, he wasn’t paralyzed; his spine wasn’t shattered into a dozen pieces; his body wasn’t utterly and completely broken. No, this time he could move. Only a little bit, but it was a start.

Rubicon Protocol

Withstands explosions that send him flying with enough force to crack a boulder in two:

By Horvath’s count, Gorian had three shots left. One hit the rock in front of the Spartan before he had a chance to dive, sending him off his feet and slamming into a nearby boulder, breaking it apart. He lay bent on the ground, trying to catch his breath and make his body move. He lifted his head as gravel tumbled down the slope, and the sounds of Gorian’s footsteps grew louder.

Rubicon Protocol

Withstands a fully armoured Gorian’s shoulder slam, despite significant injuries:

Horvath turned as the Brute charged. The energy sword that Bender had tossed to him earlier was still magnetically attached to his Mjolnir. He grabbed the hilt as the Brute's massive shoulder drove into his gut, lifting him high. Horvath punched the hilt into the side of Gorian's ribcage and fired it up.

-

As Horvath straightened, the world had stretched and tipped, and he’d slumped back onto the ground to the sound of Elfie listing his injuries. “Broken ribs, plasma burns to your back, left hand, and elbow …”

Rubicon Protocol

Kills five Grunts in the blink of an eye, the resulting attack causing explosions that killed half of the rest:

He played through his firing scenario one more time, and then said, “look lively, folks,” into the short-range comms link Kovan had given to him. The armor-piercing round cracked through the calm air, lighting up the Grunt’s methane tank. Immediately, the Spartan shifted aim across the units. One o’clock. Eight o’clock. Four o’clock. Four additional tanks blew in the blink of an eye and eliminated more than half of the Grunts.

Rubicon Protocol

Kills two Jackals with headshots before they could walk around a tree:

As soon as he found his footing, he was up and running back up to the overlook, only to glimpse Dimik pinned down behind a tree. His display showed two Jackals trying to flank her position. With extreme speed, he pulled the carbine, aimed for the head, and fired two consecutive bursts at each Kig-Yar. They dropped as Horvath tossed the hot, unvented carbine, intending to take the enemies’ weapons, but at that moment, Gorian reached the overlook.

Rubicon Protocol

Defeats Gorian, a Bloodstar, twice. The first time, Gorian had broken ribs whilst Horvath’s armour was damaged. The second time, Gorian was fully healed whilst Horvath’s armour was all but falling apart and he was badly injured:

Horvath moved back, energy flowing and ready as the Brute got his feet under him, and straightened to his full height. And despite the dislocated shoulder and cracked ribs, he charged.

Giant arms wrapped around Horvath’s waist, lifting him up and then slamming him against the piece of hull that hung into the aisle. He heard the telltale snap indicating that the force had slammed the Jiralhanae’s shoulder back into place. They crashed through and rolled into the bay.

He gripped the side of the Brute’s damaged chest armor, ripping a section free before landing a hard blow to his injured ribs and feeling a small, satisfying crunch. The Brute rallied by seizing his shoulders and slinging him across the bay; the pummeling went on for several minutes until Horvath’s lungs burned and armor integrity warnings skipped across his display. Neither he nor the Jiralhanae was able to stay steady on his feet, but Horvath was in much better shape overall. Every blow he landed was aimed at his enemy’s ribcage.

Finally the Brute held up a wavering hand, and slurred, “A truce, demon.”

If he’d had the breath to laugh, he would have. But all he could manage was “That’s what you said earlier, and look where it got us.”

“On … my honor, human. A truce.”

-

Horvath kept his distance, grateful for the sloping terrain and the rocks. He had to play this smart; with his armor in its present condition, one hit from Gorian’s brute shot—a handheld weapon that could fire four powerful explosives every three seconds—and it’d be game over. The weapon wasn’t known for its great aim, so he’d use that to his advantage, along with the environment, and his all-around superior intellect. Gorian would no doubt put all of his focus on one thing—killing the Spartan—while Horvath would think smarter.

Baby steps.

Horvath aimed the carbine and rapidly fired pulse after pulse, targeting the Brute’s armor and forcing the shielding to recoil and overload.

What ensued was a cat-and-mouse game as each brute shot grenade slammed into rock and exploded way too close for comfort. A few times Horvath went airborne, but was up and running, dodging and firing on the Bloodstar armor.

But he was running out of places to hide.

-

By Horvath's count, Gorian had three shots left. One hit the rock in front of the Spartan before he had a chance to dive, sending him off his feet and slamming into a nearby boulder, breaking it apart. He lay bent on the ground, trying to catch his breath and make his body move. He lifted his head as gravel tumbled down the slope, and the sounds of Go- rian's footsteps grew louder.

As he went to roll to his feet, his gaze collided with ... Dimik? What the hell was she doing here?

She was crouched behind the rocks along the tree line. Blood was smeared on the right side of her face and arm, and her skin was ashen, eyes wide with shock. Slowly she held up a spike grenade. Hope shot like lightning through Horvath's veins as she reached out on her hands and knees and laid the explosive device on the stone.

Suddenly she whipped her head around as though she heard some- thing behind her, took one last look at him, and fled.

Spurred by her courage, Horvath forced himself up and ran a blazing path down and then around and in between rocks, coming back up the other side of the slope and circling around Gorian. The Brute noticed and merely laughed, heading back toward the top of the slope. "Tired yet, pup?" he called out, his voice dripping with arrogance.

As Horvath reached the overlook, the brute shot sang out, forcing him to dive onto his belly as the projectile flew overhead. His hand snaked out and he grabbed the handle of the spike grenade, surging up and running across the flat rock, drawing Gorian to fire again. The Brute just missed him.

Horvath leapt off the overlook, the last grenade from the brute shot passing below his armpit as he twisted his body in midair and flung the spike grenade toward Gorian's feet. The grenade struck the rock almost between his legs, instantly arming on impact.

The grenade exploded as Horvath hit the slope and rolled. It wouldn't be enough to kill the Jiralhanae, but the Brute's shields would pay the price, and a few errant shards might do some well-deserved damage. At least now they would be on a level playing field.

As soon as he found his footing, he was up and running back up to the overlook, only to glimpse Dimik pinned down behind a tree. His display showed two Jackals trying to flank her position. With extreme speed, he pulled the carbine, aimed for the head, and fired two consecutive bursts at each Kig-Yar. They dropped as Horvath tossed the hot, unvented car- bine, intending to take the enemies' weapons, but at that moment, Go- rian reached the overlook.

Horvath turned as the Brute charged. The energy sword that Bender had tossed to him earlier was still magnetically attached to his Mjolnir. He grabbed the hilt as the Brute's massive shoulder drove into his gut, lifting him high. Horvath punched the hilt into the side of Gorian's ribcage and fired it up. The blade slid easily through bone and tissue and organ and came out the opposite side of the ribcage.

"Your mistake was letting me live," Horvath ground out as the Brute's momentum slammed him down onto the translocation pad. He knew his opponent was dead when the Jiralhanae released a long, audible breath and settled about seven hundred kilograms of dead weight on top of him.

Rubicon Protocol