#UNSC Marine Corps

[ask-monty-christo]

Hmph. Add more fire to the science. It would be enlightening (hah.)

The Hellbringers of the Marine Corps have been looking a little downtrodden recently.... I'll see what I can do. Sunflower see if you can pull up that old Napalm Flamethrower Idea I had back in 2543, Maybe I can finally finish that design

[unsc-marine-corps]

Captain, we're pinned down here, covies stuck themselves between here and the base, think we can get some reinforcements?

Solid copy. Break. Interrogative: Identify your unit.

[figures4fun]

A US Marine tries to decide between Halo’s battle rifle or Alien’s pulse rifle and if he wants to be a UNSC Marine or a Colonial Marine

[biomecharnotaurus]

Rookie is so broken he has zoomies there are 40° C/ 107° F AND HE IS NOT OVERHEATING IN THE SLIGHTEST

[halobirthdays]

Happy birthday to Spartan Edward Buck!

Today is his -487th birthday!

Buck is the leader of the Spartan-IV fireteam Alpha-Nine, and spouse of ONI agent Veronica Dare.

Buck was born on Draco III and lived with his parents and sister, Lucy. His mother was retired military, while his father and uncle were a dockworker and fisherman, respectively. At the age of eighteen, he stopped working for his uncle and enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps, following in his mother's footsteps.

He was involved in many engagements during the Human-Covenant war, including the Harvest campaign. In 2530, he was part of a strike team which recovered a Sangheili survivor who was taken into custody and interrogated. It was then that the UNSC learned the Covenant's true reasons for waging war against them.

In 2545, Draco III was attacked by the Covenant but only partially glassed, preferring to use its inhabitants as hunting practice. Buck's entire remaining family was killed, and he obsessively watched the footage of Draco III's citizens being hunted and eaten. That same year, he put in for transfer to the ODSTs.

Still reeling from the attack on Draco III, he was ordered to take shore leave after his transfer. It was there that he met Veronica Dare, and the two had a short fling that ended poorly when Buck realized Dare worked for ONI.

Soon after, he was assigned as the commander of ODST squad Alpha-Nine, a position he avoided promotions to keep. Throughout his career, he continually encountered Dare agan, working under command during a mission to Belisk (where he rescued and met Sarah Palmer) and later in the Battle for Mombasa, albiet six years later.

Buck participated in the campaign on Reach, where he met NOBLE team. After Reach fell, he was assigned to UNSC Say My Name to participate in the Battle for Earth. The initial plan was to bombard the Prophet of Regret's flagship, which remained in orbit over New Mombasa. However, Dare took control of the mission, ordering them to land away from the ship. It would eventually be revealed that Dare changed the mission because she became aware of the presence of a Huragok--an organic Forerunner construct with a natural drive to repair and an invaluable wealth of knowledge about both Covenant and Forerunner technology. They would succeed in capturing the Huragok, surrendering it to ONI. After completing their campaign on Earth, Buck and Dare would rekindle their relationship and take shore leave together. At the end of their vacation, he was approached by Jun-A266, who offered him admission into the SPARTAN program, which Buck initially declined.

After the war, he returned to duty and was deployed to Draco III to combat Insurrectionists who had set up operations on the planet. During this engagement, one of his squad members, Jonathan "Rookie" Doherty, was killed. Later, Buck was once again approached by Jun to join the Spartans, adding that his squad would be offered a place, as well. After speaking to Dare, Buck accepted.

He, Romeo, and Mickey underwent augmentations, while Dutch, who was shaken by the Rookie's death, decided to retire with his wife, Gretchen.

In 2555, Alpha-Nine was assigned to a mission on Talista to combat the United Rebel Front presence there. There, Mickey would betray them, revealing that he had defected to the URF. Buck--a staunch anti-Insurrectionist--attacked Mickey, eventually apprehending him and handing him over to the UNSC. After these events, Alpha-Nine dissolved, and Buck was transferred to be a member of Spartan fireteam Osiris. He participated in the fireteam's mission to apprehend Master Chief and Blue Team, though he expressed concern about the mission's perception. Buck was present when Osiris and Blue Team learned of the threat of Cortana, the Guardians, and the Created, and changed their objective to stopping her.

After returning to Infinity, Dare once again gave him a new assignment: a mission to a URF-controlled settlement which was able to cloak itself from the Guardians. To Buck's dismay, the mission would require the help of Mickey, who was still in UNSC custody. After rescuing Romeo from the Unggoy homeworld of Balaho, he traveled to the secret Spartan training site which housed Mickey. He begrudgingly broke Mickey out of imprisonment, with the unexpected help of Dutch and Gretchen, who had quietly joined the Spartans.

With Alpha-Nine back together, the group was able to escort Dare to negotiate with the mayor of the settlement who, after witnessing the threat of the Guardians, reluctantly agreed to share the technology with the UNSC. After this mission, he slowly began to make amends with Mickey. His team restored, he accepted the offer to lead Alpha-Nine again, this time as a Spartan fireteam leader.

Back on Infinity, he and Dare met at the ship's bar, where she pressed him on their relationship, daring him to marry her. He agreed that he would, but was shocked when she immediately began making arrangements on the bar's datapad. Roland, the ship's AI, heard the exchange and offered to officiate. After a brief "ceremony", the two were married before the bar patrons, including Osiris and Alpha-Nine.

In canon (~2560), he is turning 50!

[a-midwest-irishman]

Halo, the Human-Covenant War : Thoughts

An absolutely mind-boggling apart of the Halo franchise that still sticks with me is the absolute lack of fanfare and adoration that is thrown the UNSC Marine Corp and Army's way.

In the games, we really do get used to the idea of being the badass Master Chief; kickin' ass and takin' names. Stopping the Halo rings from firing not once, but two times, stopping the genocidal campaign of the Covenant, falling from space and walking away with ya boys.

Don't get me wrong! The Chief is awesome and the games are great, but I feel like a large part of the community who aren't exactly well versed in the lore don't give enough of their respect to the average human soldiers who, for roughly 30 years, fought on both ground and in space against enemies who outmanned, outclassed, and outgunned them. But, they just kept on fighting.

UNSC Marines coming in and holding off the decimation of one colony world after another, fighting ferociously for every inch of soil, filling the grotesque bodies of grunts, jackals, elites, and so on with lead! We may very well have been heavily outclassed in space warfare, but on ground it became a much more even playing field.

Thousands of years of becoming versed in warfare pays off when having to face against genocidal aliens. For 30 years we held them off, and thanks to the Great Schism we were able to be victorious.

Of course, we're it not for the actions of the Master Chief, Noble Team, and many other Spartans we would be annihilated. But, without the selfless actions of the myriad men and women of the UNSC who chose to not go gentle into that good night, but rather face the overbearing might of an Alien empire dead set on our extermination. Inferior technology? Insufficient biology? No matter. They fought regardless.

"In memory of those who died in defense of Earth and her colonies."

[kenneier]

“Commander gave me that when I was in the UNSC Marine Corps. Seen a lot of action. .50 Magnum, safety always off. Told me he was proud of me once. Fucking prick.”

[halopedia]

Did You Know that some of the new armor in Halo Infinite's newest season is inspired by the armor worn by Marine Corps pilots in Halo 3? This includes the shoulder pads, the chest armor, and the helmet, now called the Talon flight helmet!

[halofcrged]

@galaeus sent a meme.

❛ I wish I could say I’m making a difference, but I don’t know. ❜

He watched from the platform over the firing range as one of the dozens of units in training were being drilled through the field stripping and cleaning of their standard issue weapons, fingers twitching unconsciously in time with the motions that had been drilled into him in his youth. To be able to fight, to be able to protect themselves, their units, the civilians of the UNSC, such tasks had to be rote memory, to be drilled over and over and over again so that they could be performed in the most exhausted states, under pressures that most of the cadets in the range below could not even begin to imagine, despite their best attempts to do so.

He wondered if he'd ever been that young. That naive.

Her words drew his attention and his gaze, and brought him turning on his heel to face her, watching her as she tucked the last parts of her fatigues in place. She'd taken it onto herself to add additional hours into her training regimen for the Spartan-III's, and he'd offered to observe and offer suggestions that might further benefit her; he had little else to do in between missions and despite the fact that the Covenant's attacks had only increased in the last weeks, there seemed an ever increasing gap between missions for the already existing Spartans. He'd needed a way to keep himself occupied, and even though he couldn't offer much in the way of hands on training without potentially decimating the upcoming Spartan class, advice he could do.

When it came to skills, and tactics. Moral dilemmas and morale weren't entirely his specialty.

He could've offered platitudes: every marine makes a difference, every soldier matters, but he knew her well enough by now to know she'd see them for what they were. There were mixed feelings in the Spartan-II's about this up and coming 'generation'. These third gens were nothing like them. Most of them were being pulled from already active duty, and sure, their training programs were rigorous and extreme in comparison to standard marine corps, but they didn't have the augments of the second gens, they didn't have the MJOLNIR or the capacity to wear them. What makes them worthy of the name?

"You're putting yourself through the nine levels of hell to come out the other side, stronger, faster, smarter, better, to protect your people, your pack, your home, your family." Maybe not the same levels of hell that he and his had been through, but with all that he'd learned in the last weeks, would he really wish that on anyone? Halsey had convinced ONI and UNSC that he and his Spartans would be the difference between victory and death, and for what? They were still losing. "We fight for the ones that can't, so you have to decide. Are you going to do what it takes, make that stand, make that difference, or are you going to hand that mantle to someone that will."

[bloodgulchblog]

Ok I got two ODST ocs but the issue is I know like next to nothing about how ODSTs work. Besides what was shown in Halo 4 ODSTs. Is there any wisdom you can impart upon me,,?

Alright full disclaimer: I have successfully put off playing more than like the first level of Halo 3: ODST for 13 years, and my knowledge of what happens in that game is limited to what I remember of the summary of it in New Blood.

Shame disclosed, I can now begin taking a swing at this.

HOW ODSTS FIT INTO THE UNSC

ODSTs are specialists within the UNSC Marine Corps. Marines take orders from UNICOM (Unified Ground Command) along with the Army and Air Force when operating on the ground, and from NAVCOM (Naval Command) when operating in space.

ODSTs are usually looped in with the Navy because the Navy has to drop them, and some groups of ODSTs are specialized for operating in zero g and that kind of thing is also on Navy turf.

WHAT KIND OF PERSON GETS SELECTED TO BE AN ODST

First of all, ODSTs are all-volunteer. You don't get assigned from on high into being an ODST, you ask to be considered.

The most important criterion for an ODST is being able to get in the pod and drop, knowing that something could blow you out of the air and you could do nothing about it, into hostile territory. And to keep doing it. It takes a lot of courage to be able to psyche yourself up into doing that again and again and again. (Honestly, when you see mention of ODSTs doing things like playing loud music during a drop, I feel like that is a huge part of what they're doing.)

The second factor is toughness and ability to fight, obviously. Training for ODSTs is intense and they have to be very fit before they can proceed to the later parts.

The third: A certain fighting spirit. ODSTs need to be initiative-takers and they are trained to push to establish a foothold where they land. They need to be aggressive and bold, that's their job, and even beyond helping win a battle it's also a factor for morale. Having a squad of ODSTs roll up whooping and yelling and ready to rock bolsters the confidence of the people around them. That matters.

Ideally the Corps would also love if ODST candidates were also smart, but the UNSC was fighting a losing war for almost 30 years and humanity lost absolutely catastrophic numbers. They had to take what they could get. Not everybody can be AJ Johnson.

There's a reason that when ODSTs heckle the Navy it's for being dweebs with cushy jobs, and when the Navy heckles ODSTs it's about how many it takes to screw in a lightbulb.

WHAT IS ODST TRAINING LIKE?

How long does it take to become an ODST? Our sources are kinda vague, we know 3 weeks of the training is just hammering them on physical fitness and then they go on to the specialized part and it's possible to wash out and embarrass yourself by being sent back to your original unit. We know there are "months" of it. If you want me to guess based on my very vague and incomplete knowledge of US military things gleaned from wikipedia, I'd say prrrrrobably a year, maybe more.

It's kind of fucky because Halo lore doesn't usually think about this kind of stuff and you can tell. You have to do some conspiracy diagramming yourself, but like. We know Palmer was 19 years old when she was a Lance Corporal. (....but Palmer's rank in general when she was in the ODSTs doesn't make sense at all if you look at it with more than your peripheral vision and sshhhh, shhh, it's fine, shhhhhhh.)

Basically, it seems like if somebody really really excels in their first year they can be considered for ODST training but it's probably safe to say that's on the extreme end. I would also be willing to suppose that they probably will not take anyone as old as 29 or 30 as a candidate without it being a major exception.

The most detail we have on what the training itself is like is the short story Dirt in the Evolutions anthology, much of the information on halopedia's ODST page sources that story. (For the record, while I'm still thinking about tacking up red strings, the timeline indicates that Gage would've been 20 at most when he was training to be an ODST.) Here's a piece.

WHAT ARE ODSTS LIKE IN GENERAL

Everybody's an individual, but the most stereotypical ODST is loud, gregarious, swole, and full of machismo. They're probably fun at parties, but maybe sometimes too fun. They're very tight with their buddies. Being ODST is a huge, huge source of pride and identity. They're great to have on your side. They're a huge, bull-headed problem if they're not.

They are good under pressure, experienced at putting a brave face on, and have most likely developed some kind of coping strategy for handling fear and worry because there's no room for that shit when you're jammed in a pod.

ODSTs are brave as shit, and in the ODSTs the leadership is expected to drop with the rest and their pods accelerate ahead and are the first on the ground. Leading from the front is a huge virtue to them. The ODSTs are immensely proud of this and it's what they admire in leadership and in general. If you want to stand tall in the eyes of an ODST, make big fucking plays at great personal risk that pay off.

Here is a very charming anecdote about the time a young Captain Keyes impressed some ODSTs.

And this explanation:

...

Other than that, I don't have much more speculation. I guess keep an eye on the distinctions between the armor ODSTs have and MJOLNIR, because ODST kit is a lot less OP. Other than that, I'm out.

[office-of-naval-intelligence]

// Ok, out of character moment.

You know I run ONI. But what you probably don’t know is my lesser known blogs that I highkey really want interaction on because I want to get back into tumblr. I’m trying so hard. So, feel free to check out:

@am-i-right-marines

@in-command-of-the-unsc

@the-honorable-spartan

@28-years-past

@alpha-nine-five

@noble-leader

@no-higher-authority-aboard

@wasted-or-spent

@get-tactical-marines

@the-conceptual-guardians

@oni-fly-team

@dad-of-the-joc

@unsc-navy

@unsc-army

@unsc-marine-corps

@unsc-air-force

@new-mombasa-police

A few of those aren’t actually Halo, so I hope you like those. I do Star Wars as well, but I haven’t touched those in ages.

So… that’s that. I hope you guys like my other locales.

[unsc-marine-corps]

Is it really a war crime if the covies/flood/forerunners/insurgents didn't sign the Geneva convention?

We have standards to uphold, Marine.

We’re no better than them if we break those rules.

But these are special circumstances.

Ergo, Designation Purple.

[thatoneenbydork]

The Spartan II Program And Its Ethics

Quick trigger warning for those who don't want to read about kidnapping, child endangerment, starvation, "augmentation", and various other harsh topics. This is all fiction but I want to put it out there nonetheless.

So...

The Spartan II Program...

It was certainly a thing that happened in the HALO universe.

I'm not typing like this because I don't like the way it was executed. I like how the story went VERY MUCH.

I'm typing like this because of the severe ethics (or lack thereof) that the Spartan II Program presented.

The Spartan II Program was envisioned during a extremely dark time for humanity. At this point, the human race had spread across the galaxy, colonizing many planets. But with colonization comes a spread government and therefore more political dissent. Soon enough insurrections began occuring.

The Spartan I Program took some of the UNSC's (United Nations Space Corps) best marines and genetically altered them. Very few survived, and those that did were certainly taller and more muscular, but not strong enough to carry the MJOLNIR armor that was necessary for the program. It certainly wasn't worth the death toll either.

The lead researcher, Doctor Catherine Halsey (a very important figure in HALO lore) realized that genetical augmentation had to be done to a healthy body BEFORE it was done developing.

TLDR: They needed children.

And thus the Spartan II Program was born.

For better or for worse...

75 children were kidnapped from families across the colonies, replaced with clones genetically coded to die mere months after creation.

These children were put through extreme testing on the planet, Reach. 8 hours of sleep exact followed by a 8 mile run, extreme training, and war-games, the losing team of which would get no dinner that night. It was harsh, but all the children were still alive by the end of the multi-month training program. Although that wouldn't be true for long.

The Spartans soon underwent extreme genetic development and augmentation, essentially replacing bones, reinforcing femurs, increasing muscle growth, removing the pituitary gland, etc.

Out of the 75 children, aged 6-14, only 45 survived, with 12 being physically and/or mentally crippled beyond any use to the UNSC, and were subsequently "reassigned" to various positions.

The remaining 33 were the first every REAL Spartans. Deployed at first to quell insurrectionists with sheer force and violence, but soon deployed against the Covenant in the beginnings of the Human-Covenant Conflict.

What's truly sad is that the majority of them are now long gone, brainwashed into sacrificing themselves for the UNSC. And kidnappings were never done again, only being declassified to the public decades after. The III, IV, and V programs all didn't use kidnapped children, but rather used volunteering ODST and marines, just like what was originally intended.

And such is my first lore dump of HALO :3

[biomecharnotaurus]

Need to throw Baird on your face again, maybe later

[john-halo]

Mr 117! Does the unsc have military cadences? (Totally unrelated question: How's your singing voice?)

Yes. Some of the melodies are hundreds of years old, but words change. Different branches, places, times. Different enemies. Different brass.

Something that's pretty new and weird for me is there's a couple floating around that are about me, these days. The new Spartans have one about who all I can beat. The Marine Corps has one about how a marine isn't one of 'em.

As for the second question: I couldn't say. You'd have to ask somebody who's heard me.

[halobirthdays]

Happy birthday to Lucy Orion "Rion" Forge!

Today is her -501st birthday!

Rion was born on Earth to Laine and John Forge. John Forge was enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps and was rarely home, leading to resentment and a strained marriage with Laine. Although his marriage was souring, he maintained a close relationship with Rion, leading her to idolize her father, which damaged her relationship to her mother.

Her father had been stationed aboard the UNSC Spirit of Fire, which was declared "lost with all hands" in 2531, though the ship was actually missing rather than lost. Rion, like most of the crew's families, did not believe the UNSC's account, and her growing distrust led her to a career as a salvager, with the intention of commandeering a ship to search for her father.

Rion would prove to be an excellent salvager with a good reputation. She became the captain of a modified transport ship named the Ace of Spades after the playing card her father wore on his armor's pauldron, and put together a small ragtag crew.

Their travels would lead them to the Forerunner installation known as Trove--the place where her father gave his life to keep the planet's armament out of Covenant hands. Trove was still surrounded by a debris field, which included the destroyed Covenant ship Radiant Perception. She recovered a damaged Forerunner AI known as "Little Bit", who was able to offer them more information about Spirit's last location via a log buoy onboard the Perception. She and her crew were able to uncover the location of a Forerunner luminary which would give them unfettered access to location of Forerunner relics, but not without invoking the ire of the Office of Navel Intelligence, who wanted Little Bit, and ex-Covenant Sangheili Commander Gek 'Lar, who had also been in pursuit of the log buoy. 'Lar killed Rion's crew member and romantic partner Cade McDonough, and she swore to take vengeance on him.

ONI grounded and detained the crew, taking Little Bit and raiding Ace, erasing many of its star maps. Having to start anew, the crew reconvened and followed the same trail that ONI was on, leading them to a uninhabited planet called Geranos-a. Little did they know, the recovered Forerunner monitor 343 Guilty Spark was on the planet, having crashed there after taking control of the UNSC Rubicon, where he was being held and interrogated. He took the form of a Forerunner armiger, which gave him greater offensive capabilities. Thinking Spark was salvage, Rion and her crew brought him onboard, leading to a much greater-stakes mission.

Spark eventually revealed himself to the crew and told them of his history--that he was an ancient human named Chakas whose consciousness was turned into a Forerunner monitor in service to the Librarian. Though Rion did not entirely believe him at first, she could not deny his far superior technological abilities in the face of being impaired by ONI. Spark agreed to assist her in her search for her father if they traveled to Earth to a Forerunner facility where he could interface with the Librarian, which required a Reclaimer to access.

Upon reaching Earth, the crew was pursued by ONI, but were able to reach the Forerunner facility, where Spark was disappointed to find only further instructions from the Librarian, something he resented but ultimately accepted. Rion also encountered the Librarian, and felt the familiar draw towards her that all humans possess. Their agreement met, Spark shared the truth of John Forge's fate with Rion, something he had known the entire time. Though initially furious, Rion and Spark made amends, and, emboldened by her father's sacrifice, and with nowhere else to go, she agreed to help Spark complete his assignment from the Librarian. She also gave 'Lar's location to ONI, letting them pursue him for her.

While still fleeing ONI, Rion and the Ace crew helped Spark uncover the location of Bastion--the deeply hidden shield world containing the Librarian's laboratory. During these missions, Rion experienced vivid dreams where she spoke to the Librarian, closely mirroring the experiences that Chakas went through thousands of years before. Sensing danger when Cortana entered the domain, Bastion went into slipspace to avoid falling into Created hands. It was there that Spark learned the Librarian's intentions for him: he would be the caretaker of Bastion and the Precursor specimens that the Librarian had gathered with the intention of atoning for the Forerunner's eradication of their parent species. His mission completed, Spark and Rion parted ways, but not without upgrading the Ace of Spades with Forerunner technology and equipping it with a recovered fragment of Little Bit, making Ace one of the most technologically-advanced ships in the galaxy.

In canon (~2560), she is turning 36!