Michael Crespo

"Private First Class Michael Crespo - Mickey. Smart enough to be a pilot, but trained to blow stuff up. He's never seen a planet get glassed, I hope he won't see that today."

- Edward Buck describing Mickey

Michael "Mickey" Crespo (Service Number 51033-15973-MC) is an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper in the UNSC Marine Corps. He served in a Squad led by GySgt Edward Buck during the Battle of Earth.

Summary
Being an ODST is Mickey's favorite of all the positions he's been in. He is the demolition expert and pilot for the Squad. According to his file, he is highly creative, a risk taker and a daredevil. Despite being an experienced combatant, he is somewhat unique among his squad brothers, never having witnessed a planet get glassed by the Covenant. He holds the lowest rank and was the last to enlist of all the members on the Squad, though he joined the Squad itself before the Rookie, which is how the Lance Corporal got his nickname.

Early life
Mickey was born in 2530 in Crisium City in Naniwa, Luna. Despite this, he has never visited Earth, and has only seen it from a transport craft window. Mickey's parents were Insurrectionists and they died wiring a bomb to a government building, and he never got to know them well because he was very young at the time. He was placed in foster care, during which he studied subjects such as UNSC history and work productivity.

Military Career
He signed up for UNSCDF service on June 4th, 2548, as mandatory military service was a requirement for freedom from foster care. After the mandatory service, he had the chance to quit the military, but he decided to stay as he considered it home. Both he and The Rookie enlisted in the same year, and were both students before they enlisted. It is possible that they both knew each other before joining the UNSC.

He was a pilot and then Crew Chief on a Pelican dropship for sometime before becoming an ODST with the rank of Private First Class. Before the Battle of Earth, he had undergone EVA training and finished in the top of his class, as well as three HEV drops.

Battle of Earth
Mickey served during the Battle of Earth in 2552. He and his squad, along with a larger ODST force were stationed aboard the, with the mission to assault the Prophet of Regret's Flagship above the city of New Mombasa.

During the drop to New Mombasa, Mickey's drop pod was caught in the EMP blast from the Prophet of Regret's retreating Assault Carrier. It lost power and slammed into The Rookie's pod, cracking the window and causing him and the Rookie's pod to land farther away from his squad.

Later that day, Mickey stumbled upon retreating Marines from the 405th. He helped them fight through to their rally point with a Scorpion tank near the entrance of the ONI Alpha Site which led him to rejoin with Dutch in aiding with other Marines also. After defending the area, both ODST's met up with a desperate NMPD Officer. In response, they defended the ONI Alpha Site complex with him and several other officers and Marines. After the courtyard was overrun they moved inside where NMPD officers were defending the building, and getting ready to blow it up, should the Covenant overwhelm them. Sure enough after a few waves they fell back to the roof on an elevator, there Mickey told the last remaining officer to link the charges to him, saying "If anyone's gonna blow this place, it's gonna be me." Once on the roof they evacuated on a NMPD Pelican, where they finally made contact with Buck who was at the NMPD Headquarters, the pilot agreed to take them to him.

As they flew away from the Alpha Site, the building exploded. Some time after the battle, they were preparing to pick up Romeo and Buck from a landing pad in the NMPD Headquarters building. However, two Banshees appeared and shot the Pelican down. Buck and Romeo proceeded to rescue them. They survived the crash, but the pilots didn't, so they had to hold out against an assault by Banshees and Phantoms. Eventually a Brute Chieftain engaged the squad and severely wounded Romeo in the chest. After killing the Chieftain, the squad later went to Kikowani Station, Mickey was the first to notice that they couldn't take the train out of the city since the tunnels were flooded. Buck then had Mickey help him capture a Phantom that was hovering close to the ground. After taking out the Covenant in the area Mickey went up the Phantom's lift and took out both the pilots. After familiarizing himself the best he could, he picked up Dutch and Romeo, who manned the Phantom's plasma turrets.

Eventually the squad makes it through the station and out of the city, however, Buck suddenly realized where Capt. Dare might be and told Mickey to go back. Buck has Mickey hide the Phantom in a safe location while he rescues Dare. When Dare's Oliphant was damaged by a Scarab they had to find a new location for Mickey to pick them up. After safely evacuating the city, Buck told Mickey he would have a co-pilot, Vergil, which Mickey was reluctant to have in the cockpit with him. He was last seen a month later on an ONI Orbital facility, in an interrogation room with the rest of his squad and Vergil, as Sgt. Johnson began to interrogate the Engineer.

Trivia

 * He is unlocked for use in Firefight by getting the Kizingo Boulevard Achievement.
 * He enlisted more than four months before his 18th birthday. This means he was able to enlist despite being only 17 years old. This, however, can be explained by the fact that Romeo and John Forge were both able to enlist at age 16, which is considered the legal age limit for the UNSC.
 * He is voiced by Alan Tudyk, an actor from the show Firefly (as is Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin). Worthy of mention, his character from the show was also a pilot.
 * On the front of his helmet, he has a small piece of masking tape with his name written on it in black marker.
 * On the right leg of his ODST armor, he has an ammo belt wrapped around it with what seems to be miniature shotgun shells or pistol shells. This came from early in Mickey's character development by Bungie, as concept art for the character shows him as a CQB (close quarters battle) ODST, which was most likely cut due to the danger of close quarter combat in the game.
 * In addition to being a pilot and demolitions expert, Mickey may also be the squad's close-quarters combat expert due to the armor version he wears, the shotgun shells on his right leg, and the fact that he is seen wielding a Shotgun when Romeo is attacked by a Brute Chieftain.
 * Mickey is the only Squad member that does not directly interact with the Rookie throughout the game.
 * In most promotional screenshots, as well as the opening cutscene for the ONI bridge level, Mickey is shown with a brick red chestplate and white stripes on his head and arms. In game however, both of his colors are red.
 * Mickey's backpack has a constantly changing display of numbers above a small keypad of sorts on the left side, worth a mention as it is so small it's pretty much impossible to see without pausing on Theatre Mode, showing Bungie's incredible attention to detail.
 * The events of Halo 3: ODST take place on his birthday (October 20), though neither he nor any other character mention it.