Chapter 0 (doesn't matter )

Hey, you ever wondered what happens when you die? Well, it's one of life's greatest mysterious isn't it? Do we really go to heaven or is there just eternal emptiness? Well, what if I told you I already died once in another lifetime, and what if I told you I was reborn in a world that was just fictional where I'm from.

A world that was primarily based in first-person shooter games along with a few novels.

I know, it sounds crazy, you probably think I'm lying and that I'm making all this up, whether you believe me or not is up to you, I'm just telling you the story. It really doesn't matter to me either way.

I suppose I should tell you my name and a little bit about my past life. Well, I'll do my best but my memory is a bit murky. Guess that's a consequence of living another life after your first one. Anyway, in my previous life my name was James Graham but now it's just Casper. In my previous life, I was raised by my father and had a younger brother and we all lived together in Cheyenne, Wyoming, my mother had apparently left shortly after my brother was born, don't know what happened to her after. Growing up, I was always introverted growing up and displayed symptoms of having Schizoid personality disorder, so I didn't have many friends growing up. It was alright with me, I was never that good with socializing and interacting with other people. I was a huge fan of various video game franchises such as Call of Duty, Dead space, Crysis, Fallout, and my personal favorite, Halo. While I didn't know much about the expanded universe, I still loved the games and the story they told.

My life growing up was alright. My father had to work most of the time to pay the bills so my brother and I had to pick up the slack around the house. I was never a smart kid in school, that was my brother. He was the kid that got straight As while I was the one that just barely managed to graduate.

When I turned eighteen, I was lost in life. I didn't know what I wanted to do for a living, and I was never that great at anything such as science or math. This led me to join the military once I graduated from High school since at the time I thought it could help me figure out what I wanted to do, and maybe see the world at the same time. Soon enough, I went down to my local recruiting office and enlisted into the Army. Once I finished with basic training, I was classified as a 11-B. Infantry. Ended up in the Tenth Mountain Division when I was deployed to Afghanistan for the first time.

The platoon I was in was stationed at this small combat outpost in the mountainside of some valley that I cannot remember for the life of me. Rebel fighters would often fire mortar rounds at us during the fighting season, engaging us with bursts of machine gun fire before disappearing over the ridges. They rigged improvised explosive devices on roads and detonated them once we were near them on routine patrols as well as ambushed us from the trees and rocks.

Make no mistake, it was pretty frightening at times. Not knowing if you were going to catch a bullet once you peaked out from behind cover, or if they were going to start lobbing mortar rounds at your position. The weird thing is that for me, it was the most exciting thing I ever experienced. I lived more in those few minutes of intense fighting than in all of my nineteen years put together. I know it sounds weird, but there was something about life threatening situations that just felt so addicting for me.

It was there where I found what I was good at in life.

Once I completed my service, I reenlisted and joined the Navy, became an Explosive Ordinance Disposal Specialist. Simply put, my new job was locating and disarming explosives in the middle of warzones such as tripwires, improvised explosive devices, and undetonated mortar and artillery rounds. Let me tell you it was exalting, if you made one slip up such as cutting the wrong wire or accidentally triggering a failsafe, they would be picking up your remains from the street. During most of my available free time I learned additional tactics such as reconnaissance, guerilla warfare, close quarters combat, and marksmanship. Soon enough, I became well trained in those skill sets when I conducted in joint operations and training exercises with Force Recon marines, Navy Seals, Delta force, Green Berets, and other units.

My family was doing alright. My brother managed to get into MIT and from what I heard that he was doing pretty good for himself. Dad started dating again and it looked like the relationship was going pretty well this time.

Years later, I bit the dust when an IED detonated near my HMMWV in Iraq as the platoon I was assigned to was out on patrol. The blast completely tore apart the vehicle, including me as I was the closet to it when it detonated. Ironic right? My whole job is defusing bombs and I died by the one explosive I didn't see. I remember staring at the medic as he pulled me out of the wreck and tried to patch me up as how I couldn't hear anything because I'm pretty sure I went deaf from the explosion. Surprisingly, I felt no pain as I laid there with almost my entire body destroyed. This is likely due to the fact that the explosion destroyed pretty much all my nerves. While I was laying there, I thought about my dad and brother and how they would react and feel about me dying. I wasn't able to ponder long though as I drew in my final breath as everything went black.

The next thing I knew, I was reborn into the Halo universe. Yeah, imagine my shock when that happened. The planet I was born on I believe was called Jericho VII and I had new parents. They seemed to be nice in the timeframe that I knew them, though I didn't interact with them all that much since the vocal cords in my new body weren't fully developed yet. Not to mention I was still worried about my dad and brother. Would I ever see them again? How were they reacting to my death? Eventually, I came to terms that I was here to stay in this new universe and that all I could do was pray that they were alright. At first, I wasn't quite sure if the new world I was in was Halo but when the Covenant attacked, that's when I was sure. Since I was in a much younger body, all I could do was watch as my new parents were left behind as the planet was glassed. I didn't know what I felt at the time. I mean, I've seen my fair share of human suffering but never on a scale such as this.

While I was at a refugee camp, a guy who I could pretty much tell at first glance was a spook, came up to me and asked if I wanted to get revenge on those who took everything from me. I didn't even hesitate in saying yes.

Soon enough, I was recruited into the Spartan-three program where I met Chief Petty Officer Mendez and Lieutenant Kurt Ambrose. I soon learned that the group I was in was called Beta company that the number I was given was 312. It was at this moment that I became stunned. Was I going to be Noble 6? Would I have the responsibility of ensuring that Cortana made it safety. I decided to make plans and preparations for what I would do if that was the case. Mendez and Kurt put us through rigorous training and exercises to prepare us for what we had to face in the future. Since, I was a former EOD tech, I was able to learn faster than the other kids. While I was unfamiliar with the current period's equipment and weaponry, I was able to familiarize myself with it and soon I knew the ins and outs of various UNSC vehicles, equipment, and firearms. Considering that I seemed to understand the subjects faster and easier than others, many cadets came up to me and asked me to tutor them on what we were learning. While I did not have the best social skills, I did my best to try to help them and even give them advice that I hoped would improve their chances of survival. I did not interact with others much outside of that though and the other trainees seem to respect it, even if they didn't understand it.

Now, you're probably asking why didn't you tell anyone? Why did you keep your knowledge about the future to yourself? Do you really think people would believe me if I told them this entire world was fictional. I didn't have any proof and would most likely just make myself sound crazy and wind up in a mental ward. I figured my best chance was to manipulate events in the shadows and convince people to follow my advice when it matters. Knew this was difficult since I didn't have the best social skills but I didn't see any other options.

I guess because of the fact I was introverted and didn't liked to socialize much that I became the personal assassin of the creator of the Spartan-3 program, Colonel James Ackerson. Not surprising considering I was in Beta company and my number was 312. Now, I know the guy gets a bad rep in the universe and the Halo community but personally, I didn't think the guy was all that bad. Sure, he was petty at times and sent many people to their deaths, but he genuinely cared about the survival of mankind and was not afraid to fight up close and personal if he had to. How do I know this you may ask? Well, I worked with the guy for years. I think he took a liking to me as he kept me informed on battle plans and even consulted me to help develop them. Eventually, I even managed to convince him to give up the grudge he had with Dr, Halsey by asking him what's the point in trying to decide who's better if everyone's dead.

During my time with ONI, I eliminated numerous insurrectionist cells as well as other Covenant targets such as supply depots, combat outposts, and forward operating bases. I was designated as a Tier 1 ONI asset and gained the hyper-lethal vector rating, the same category that the Master Chief was in. The head of ONI, Admiral Margaret Parangosky, seemed to hold me in high regard and dispatched me on many clandestine ops. My missions that I had were sent on were long-range recon, sabotage, guerilla warfare, HVT capture and elimination, and direct action operations. There were talks at times to give me a headhunter partner, but I insisted that I preferred to be alone. Ackerson even defended me on that and stood up for me whenever some ONI pencil pusher tried to question me on my job. At times I was assigned to take part in joint operations with other units or Spartans, such as Rosenda-A344 and Cal-141, to dispatch an Insurrectionist cell, assassinating a high value individual, etc, but for the most part I worked by myself.

Sometimes, I was assigned to take part in a few top-secret projects such as the classified Sabre program, the same one from Halo reach. I also tested out on a few experimental modules for Spartans such as the armor lock, cloaking, and the decoy hologram. You know the grappling shot from 'Halo Infinite?' Well, I helped to test it out when it was still in development. Back then it wasn't nearly as reliable as it was shown in the game. Sometimes it wouldn't even fire at all while at other times the electric charge that was supposed to be delivered to the target ended up shocking me instead.

Let me tell you, that was really painful.

While in the original timeline the project would be shut down and wouldn't be reactivated until the events of Halo Infinite, I was able to keep it going thanks to a few connections I've made ever since I began working for ONI. This is due to me having quite the reputation in the organization, as well as having the trust of some influential figures such as James Ackerson and Margaret Parangosky. The head of the project, Dr. Elena Salazar, was very thankful for my support in her work. In case if you were wondering, this was the same woman from the Project Magnes commercial.

Years later, I was transferred to a Spartan fireteam as a replacement since they lost a member. If you guessed it was Noble team from "Halo Reach", than you are right on the money. Figured this would happen because of my number and the company I was placed in. When I realized this, I began thinking of ways on how to save their lives during the Battle for Reach without making myself appear suspicious. If I could ensure that they don't perish, more Spartans would continue to fight in the defense of the human race.

During the battle for Reach, I managed to kill the Zealot team that was at Visegrad relay before they could escape with the data they acquired. Later on, I was able to save Jorge from dying by bringing an extra timer for the bomb we brought onboard the Covenant frigate that we hijacked to destroy the Super-Carrier in orbit. I also managed to save Kat from dying by a sniper as we were rushing to a bunker to shield us from the Covenant glassing. She was grateful that I saved her life, though she did question on how I saw the sniper. I responded by saying that I heard the Phantom's engines as we made our way to the shelter and assumed we were being targeted by it. While she accepted the explanation, I had the feeling she was not entirely convinced but chose not to comment further. Later, the team rendezvoused with Dr. Halsey, where she gave me the AI know as Cortana, the same one partnered up with Master Chief. Carter ordered Jun to escort Halsey back to CASTLE base while the rest of us went to link up with the Pillar of Autumn. I managed to ensure Carter didn't get too heavily injured during the flight by taking out the Covenant Banshees when they showed up before they could do much damage and convinced Carter to take a flight route that would allow us to avoid the Scarab.

Unfortunately, we had to leave Jorge behind to man the MAC cannon on Reach. I volunteered to do it, but the guy was stubbornly persistent. Wasn't really surprised considering how much Reach meant to him. I handed Cortana over to Captain Keyes and boarded the Pelican with Kat, Carter, and Emile. Disappointment filled my head over the fact I couldn't do more. That I couldn't save more people and that we had to leave Jorge on Reach. Shaking my head, I reminded myself that I couldn't let these thoughts cloud my judgement and that I needed to remained focus if I'm going to continue fighting in this war.

Right before we left the planet, we went to go extract John-117 from an orbiting station that was under siege. That's right, John-117, the Master Chief. As he entered the bridge, he took a quick glance at us before he went to debrief the Captain. Once he was finished giving his sitrep, he requested to go back down to the planet to rescue the rest of his team, which the rest of us verbally supported as well. Unfortunately, the request was denied as the planet had now fallen to the enemy and we were forced to jump to slipspace to escape destruction. After we departed from Reach, he questioned us on who we were as I remembered he never encountered the Spartan-threes before. We gave him our names, ranks, and numbers but nothing else. If Chief didn't already know, he didn't have clearance to know. Cortana informed him that we were the ones that got here off planet. We informed him about Jorge and how he stayed behind to allow us to escape. Chief was surprised to hear about Jorge and quickly stated that he's confident that Jorge will survive. I just hope he's right. Cortana began telling Chief info about us, much to our annoyance. He seemed to take interest in the fact I was a Hyper-lethal just as him. I think he was even starting to like me as we took inventory of all the equipment we managed to salvage before we fled the planet.

Over the next few days, we began doing whatever we could to pass the time such as making modifications and repairs to our MJOINIR armor, doing target practice with various weapons, or performing maintenance on vehicles in the motor pool. Eventually, we decided to head into cryo sleep to make the wait go by faster, as there wasn't much else we could do.

Right before we entered cryo sleep, I took the time to look over my plans on how I was going to change things when we got to the first halo. As well as creating backup plans just in case if I needed it. Ah who am I kidding, of course I'm going to need it. While I did have an idea of what I'm going to do, I still remained nervous. I did not know what events I already set in motion because of my earlier actions, plus I was scared about having to face the flood. Having to face off against zealous aliens with more advanced weaponry is one thing but facing off against an enemy that brought down the forerunners and required wiping out all life in the galaxy to defeat was another. I tried not to think about being infected by one of those spores and my body transforming into a flood form. While I don't lose my cool easily, the though of transforming into a flood form almost sent a chill down my spine. I calmed down by remining myself what's at stake and how I had the advantage of knowing the future. Once I had everything planned out, I joined the others in cryo sleep.

Well, now you know my story up until this point. Thanks for listening but I think we should stop here. Looks like the cryopod is about to open, which probably means I'm about to start Combat Evolved. I would say I hope everything will go as planned but as the saying goes, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy." Instead, I just ask that you wish me luck, cause I think I'm going to need it.

This is Spartan-three Lieutenant, Casper-B312, signing out.