Arch, combat Sniper and colleague of Spartan 01 (Halo Fan Self Character)

EXPLANATION:
I’d actually like to thank @KAI_BORG for getting me inspired for creating this character, and making his own characters cosplay, which we might show on here.

Overview:
Legal name: Mark Warshank
Callsign: Arch
Country of origin: America
Date of birth: N/A
Age: 25
Class: Assault/Overwatch

Preferred weapons: Magnum Standard Pistol, M86 Sniper Rifle Custom.

Current location: N/A
Last known location: Reach.

Mark Warshank entered the training program at 15, one of the youngest initiates ever. He also trained alongside John-117 and was carried onto multiple Spartan Overwatch teams. His last mission before going MIA was codenamed Operartion Firefox, led by Spartan-01.

The planet was Reach, it was a simple Overwatch and extract mission. Spartan-01 was leading a split two team op into a Covanent war base to extract and interrogate a War Guardian. With the info they could receive from the War Guardian, the tide could change in the covalent Cold War.

As Spartan-01 entered the war base, Arch was positioned 2 miles behind with his M86 LRHC Sniper Rifle, aimed for anything in his way. Beside him was his best friend Crank, who spotted the enemies with his binoculars.

THE MISSION

Spartan-01 entered the base, accompanied by Rec and Jax. He had already knocked out and silently killed a few Covanent guards surrounding the War Base on Reach.

2 miles back behind them, Crank is spotting and calling out multiple targets for Arch to shoot down. The sound of the gun would be silent despite not being suppressed.
Crank turned his head towards Arch and said the first thing that popped into his head.

“Maybe after this, a couple of colas and a shooting range might just be a good weekend for us, eh?”

Arch remained calm and collected.
“Why not? But right now let’s focus on keeping S1 alive and well.”

Spartan-01 turned on his helmet microphone and interrupted the two Spartans with a simple clearing of his throat.

“Back to work boys.” He said without hesitation.

As he said that, he jammed his knife into another Covanent guards head. Another sniper shot rang out from Arch, and down went another Guard with a satisfying bump.

Spartan-01 lost visual contact with Arch and Crank after entering the Warbase main entrance, followed by the intercom of Crank requesting that he and Arch move up to a better location.

Spartan-01 agreed and along came the sound of Yes Sir from both Spartans.

As they packed up their weapons and holstered their pistols, they had almost forgot that they had parked two Warthogs behind them.

They quickly embarked and raced towards the War Base, weapons in tow and their intercoms still connected to Spartan-01s helmet.

“What do we do when we get to the entrance, sir?”
Asked Arch, who was paying attention to the road ahead of him.

“You park the Warthogs a few kilometres behind and ditch them. Take the left side and use your laser cutters to break open the side panels, from there meet us at the main atrium.” Said Spartan-01.

“Oh, and watch out for stragglers of course. We won’t have any use for you two when your Covanent slaves.”

They made their way towards the base using a more off-road Warthog technique, Drift-Steering to the left and braking over high rocks.

Meanwhile, Spartan-01 had his gun primed towards the front of a Covanent guard, yelling questions towards him.

“WHERES THE WAR GUARDAIN BEING KEPT!?”
The short, unarmed and terrified Grunt looked at the Spartans helmet visor and attempted to blurt out a response before getting the barrel shoved in his mouth.

“WHERE!?” Spartan-01 yelled again, this time not straining back.

The Grunt managed to spit the barrel out and start screaming the location.

“LEFT WING MIDDLE CORRIDOR! HE IS IN PRIMARY CONTAINEMENT!”

Spartan behind his helmet smiled and slowly removed e barrel from the Grunts mouth, and then put handcuffs and a cloth around his mouth and hands.

“Now was that hard?” He asked comically and sarcastically.

Arch and Cranks Warthogs were about half a click to the War Base. But they weren’t, as they had already disembarked to the left side of the base, already cutting opening the panels.

The laser was direct and to the point, no crazy action feature or extra weapon capability. Just a utility Mk3 Laser cutter. Yet it cut through Alien steel like an Energy Sword through flesh.

After a speedy cut, they were inside and walking along exposed yet safe scaffolding just a few feet above the ground. They radioed Spartan-01 and checked in.

“Sir, we are inside and facing the left main corridor. What’s your location?” Crank announced silently.

“We are heading towards primary containment, meet us halfway. Prime your flash bangs.”

The last sentence confused the two sneaking Spartans.
They exchanged expressions then continued along the catwalks. They followed the bodies of Grunts, and found the still bond Grunt who passed out from fear. They knew where they were going after seeing the Grunt below them.

They gave up on crouching and started sprinting down the catwalks, making turns every body they saw until they reached the teams footprints. They used the last bit of power in their cutters to cut open the panel underneath the footprints.

They gripped the ledge they created as they slowly hung off the edge to touch the ground. As they did, Spartan-01s team crept up behind them and announced over the radio intercom that they were behind them and try to stay quiet.

They did, and kept their pistols in hand. Out of the whole squad, they were the only ones braves enough to not carry an assault rifle with them.

The room ahead of them was covered by squads of Grunts, so a head on gunfight was not even in mind.

They used a burnt hole in the ceiling to climb upwards and into the ventilation ducts.

“There’s an opening up ahead, let’s see if we can find a way towards PC. There we destroy the War Guardian, and then we get out, no casualties no problems.” Said Spartan-01.

They could hear yelling and Grunts from below the vents,
Oddly enough Arch felt nothing about it and took point ahead of the squad, absolutely ready for anything.

In his belt, Arch carried 7 Cocktail Flashbangs, capable of blinding anything for 20 seconds. The more used the better flash duration. He kept them on standby and waited for the right moment to use them.

“All that yelling, do you think that’s a commander?” Asked Jax, focusing on Arch.

"Nope, not even close. I’ve seen commanders and I’ve heard how they scream. That right there is a D-38C. A General of incredible power and intelligence. "

“It’s codenamed Black Trench.”

Arch’s stomach almost flipped over at the words Black Trench. He had only heard one scream before and the sound terrifies him even now.

The ending of the vent was in sight, after Spartan-01 noticed that the entrance to PC was getting closer on his helmets mini-map. He had a schematic downloaded into his helmets software, for reasons directed to the mission.

The vent looked like it was getting smaller, but the claustrophobia was little to nothing on their scale of fear.
The Black Trench was just below them, and screaming to one of his Grunts.

Primary Containment was just below them, after being confirmed by Spartan-01, and with no effort kicked open a panel from below his feet. Jumping into Primary Containment, Spartan-01 gave the all clear and allowed the squad to jump down.

The room was pitch black, so the helmet flashlights gave them a better perspective. It was huge, really huge. Filled with crates of unknown materials, maybe weapons. And right in the middle was an opaque black box. It was twice the size of a Spartan and twice the length.

Inside that, was the War Guardian.

The team of trained Spartans, even Spartan-01, felt scared. Adrenaline got to them before fear.
The thought of seeing one of these things and then pumping bullets into it? A Priceless feeling.

“Split up, go around and tag four crates each. Then we get to the main course.” Spartan-01 directed.

They spilt up into two teams and started using tracking bullets to tag the boxes. Leaving no crate left, they ended the task in a small matter of fifteen minutes.

Then came, as Spartan-01 put it, the main course: the War Guardian. The real fun began.

They regrouped in the centre of the room, facing the cage. Their was a few buttons on a console on a platform to the left of the cage. Jax got on top and translated all the buttons text into English.

He found a few buttons and pressed controls connected to the boxes opening mechanisms. The box’s front panel, facing the team, dropped open with a loud oomph.
There it stood. A War Guardian. It was a folded Alien queen, kept in storage for hibernation.

“Only three of these lead the whole Covanent Empire. We use all of our mags and grenades.” Spartan-01 said.

They readied their weapons, Jax unsheathed his rocket launcher and aimed it at the box. The crosshairs lining the outside.

“Let’s get a countdown rolling.” Suggested Crank, aiming his shotgun at the head of the War Guardian.

“3…2…”

The voice was interrupted by a click. They saw sparks from inside the War Guardian flare up out of nowhere.

“ITS ALIVE! FIRE NOW!!” Screamed Spartan-01.

They opened fire, the sound of gunfire filling the room. Jax steadied his rocket launcher and fired a round into the War Guardians chest, who had already broken open the box and stood up. It had a rocky texture, with a large body, same texture with orange boots of pure Covanent energy flowing in them. It opened its eyes, they were a menacing bright blue.
A sudden rocket exploded against its head and left a considerable amount of damage to its head.
The bullets were flying, and behind the team Arch unstrapped the bandolier of flashbangs. They had enough force in them that it would surely kill the Guardian.

He unpinned all of them, and let them fly. The smacked into the Guardians chest and exploded upon impact. A bright flash almost blinded the room, but the Spartans helmet visors adjusted to the brightness and made it easier to see. Where the War Guardian was, stood a pile of rock and molten orange blood.

They had destroyed it, leaving nothing but rocks where It stood, bullets lying everywhere. Then it clicked into their heads, the sound of gunfire must’ve rang out towards the rest of the base. It must’ve reached the Black Trench’s ears, and probably everything for a mile behind that.
The squad realized that just as the door behind them exploded forward, Revealing the Black Trench and the small group of Grunts. The Black Trench was a Grunt inside of a robot which had twin rocket launchers on each arm. It had a mask over the face of the Grunt which changed its voice.

They ran the other way into the back of Primary Containment. Jax fired a rocket into the wall and bolted outdoors. They ran around the side and found a path back towards Cranks and Archs Warthogs. Every now and then they would turn around and open fire at the coming army behind them.

It didn’t help, but a few grenades would’ve came in handy.

They made it to the Warthogs, and embarked. Jax had manned the turret on Archs Warthog, already opening fire behind them. The Black Trench and his minions had embarked on Banshees and had started chasing them, raining bullets everywhere around them.

Archs personal jouranl
Then it happened. Jax had taken a hit. He fell forwards onto the truck, blood pooling from his shoulder.
Someone had to reach for him. Someone had to administer a health pack. So I drifted behind a rock and jumping out of the driver seat, forgot about Spartan-01. I disobeyed orders for a dying soldier. He even drove back and yelled at me because I was holding a dead body.
Jax was there, in my arms, lifeless and drained of light.
He was dead and I had disobeyed orders.

Spartan-01 dragged me away and left the Warthog. I put had taken too much damage. It was flaming, and it had nothing but ammunition in it. That included rockets. So when I was on the Warthog, I found my sniper rifle, loaded and fired a bullet into the other Warthogs engine, blowing it up. The fire would block the Black Trenches army and make them turn around.

I shouldn’t have done that. Because that’s why Soldier-01 ran away.

(Also a glitch has been found, if the word as-sualt (no dash) is written it either censors or does not allow the topic to be posted, such as with this one, the title is supposed to say as-sault instead of combat, this should be remedied, just letting any mods know.)

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Changed catergories since it’s a story. -OT