John-117/Late War

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This article details John-117's actions in the final year of the Human-Covenant War.

Late War

Before Daisy was killed, it was noted by a Marine Corps sergeant by the name of Hauser that the planet on which they were fighting was finished.

"Everyone else might have cheered at the images of humanity's superheroes diving in and kicking some Covenant ass, but all I could think about was how useless it was to pin our hopes on a few handfuls of super-soldiers who couldn't possibly be everywhere we needed them to be."

— Edward Buck recalls his reaction to watching footage of the Spartans taking back Draco III.

At some point following the advent of 2532 John became acquainted with British war photographer Jake Courage, who not only earned his trust and respect, but became a loyal companion of his as well. On January 10, 2545, the Covenant began a brutal assault on the colony world of Draco III. Its defenses were overwhelmed in a short amount of time and the Covenant began to land forces on the surface. The majority of the Spartan-IIs, including John and Linda-058, were directed to reinforce the colonists. Before arriving, the Spartans were shown footage of a massacre on the surface which had been relayed to them via satellite linkup. John and the others could only watch as humans were herded together and then torn apart by ravenous Unggoy and Kig-Yar. By the time the Spartans finally made it to Draco III, there was nobody left to rescue. Despite being too late to save the victims, John and the others made sure that they were avenged. Their retaliation resulted in the deaths of every Covenant soldier on the planet and footage of it was broadcast to the public in order to boost morale.

At one point during the fighting on another human colony, he arrived too late to the scene of a battle and found fellow Spartan-II Daisy-023 had been killed. Her corpse was without a helmet, so John kneeled to close his fallen sister's eyes and clasp her hands over her chest. He also took note of a loop with a tiny teddy bear on it that she had dropped, which he reverently placed between her fingers. At some point in 2550 John and the rest of Blue Team successfully inserted onto the ice ice moon Umagena in order to capture the traitor Hector Nyeto. Unfortunately, the target was not present.

OCEAN BREAKER

Main article: Operation: OCEAN BREAKER

"We've come to take Sigma Octanus IV back from the Covenant, Corporal. To do that, we're going to kill every last one of them."

— John-117 plainly tells Corporal Harland what his Spartans were there to do.

Operation: OCEAN BREAKER saw a dozen Spartans split into three teams of four. As was customary, John led Blue Team; composed of himself, Kelly-087, Fred-104, and James-005.

Covenant ships arrived at Sigma Octanus IV on July 17, 2552 and begin landing ground forces straightaway. Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth's Battle Group Leviathan redirected to defend the planet by the next day, among which were John and eleven other Spartan-IIs. At just under 1800 hours, the dozen Spartans were flown to Alpha Headquarters by Pelican in response to a call for help from Corporal Harland, who had assumed command after the near-destruction of the base and the deaths of all but ten marines stationed there. Upon exciting the craft, John met Harland and let him know that they were there to take Sigma Octanus IV back and to kill every last one of the Covenant there.

The Master Chief's first order of business, after surveying what remained of the headquarters, was to lock down the area. He directed Kelly to post a guard on the dropship, to put three others on patrol, and to have the rest of the Spartans secure the landing zone. Turning back to Corporal Harland, he informed him that as of 0900 hours, Naval Special Weapons had assumed control of the ground operation, meaning that the marines now reported to him. Harland proceeded to brief John on what had transpired so far. Once he had concluded, John told him to put his wounded in the Pelican and to have the rest split into three groups that could rotate standing guard and sleeping. He had the leaders of Red Team and Green Team, Joshua-029 and Linda-058, respectively, meet him at the LZ, where they went over the goals of Operation: OCEAN BREAKER. Their objectives were to both gather intelligence on enemy troop disposition and defenses at Côte d'Azur, the planet's largest population center, and as long as no civilians remained, they were to detonate a HAVOK tactical nuclear mine within the city, which would destroy the Covenant's landing zone and kill thousands of its fighters. A secondary goal during the mission would be to minimize contact with Covenant forces as much as possible. Blue, Red, and Green teams each planned to split up and reconnoiter a different portion of the city. As Côte d'Azur was thirteen kilometers away and it was just after 1830 hours then, John estimated they should all be in place by 1930 hours at the latest. Each team would enter the city via its sewers, with downtown being Blue Team's goal. The various teams could keep in contact with one another by using the steel pipes in the sewers and ground-return transceivers. John let Joshua and Linda know that as soon as they left, the Pelican would take the marines south of their current position. Once the mission was concluded they would meet there. Should it be destroyed, an emergency SATCOM link and survival gear was stashed at an alternative location. Assured each leader understood their roles, John called Blue Team together and went over their part of the mission. Kelly was put in charge of the nuke and their medical gear, Fred took the explosives, and James took their extra COM equipment. Armed with silenced MA5Bs, M6Ds, fragmentation grenades, and combat knives, Blue Team took off through a swath of dense jungle.

The assault cannons wielded by the Mgalekgolo on Sigma Octanus IV were noted by John as being more powerful than those he had encountered before.

They made their way carefully, stopping every hundred yards to survey the area for targets. When they did come upon Covenant soldiers, they were two single-file lines of Unggoy minors moving toward Alpha Headquarters at just one-hundred meters from the Spartans' position. John had his team spread out on a hill opposite another one that the Unggoy were approaching, save for James, who remained hidden below to take out the rear guard as soon as it passed him by. When James signaled that the moment was right, John ordered everyone to take the Grunts out silently. Armor-piercing rounds made short work of the stocky aliens and Kelly was soon policing and passing out