Recovery of John-117

John-117 and Thel 'Vadam in the Kenyan jungle.

On November 17, the Prophet of Truth arrived at Earth aboard the Forerunner Dreadnought, landing in the center of the Portal. SPARTAN-117, onboard the ship, bailed out as it entered atmosphere, and using a hatch as a heat shield, landed in a jungle near Mount Kilimanjaro. Because of force of the impact, he went unconscious for hours.   In the morning, the Spartan was recovered by Marines led by Sergeant Johnson, and the Arbiter with them. Just as they thought they'd need to call in VTOL support to carry the Spartan's body away, he woke up. As John-117 got to his feet, Johnson sent the First Squad forward as the scouts. The Bravo Team, led by GySgt Reynolds, was scouting the jungle some kilometers away, and Johnson radioed Reynolds to fall back to the extraction point at the Nkuu River located nearby. Soon, a Covenant Phantom appeared overhead, and Johnson decided to split the squads, in order to go undetected. With the Second Squad, he would find another way to the extraction point while the First Squad and GySgt Stacker went with the Chief and the Arbiter and headed straight to the river.   After some time, John-117 and the Arbiter discovered Reynolds. He was being tortured by a Jiralhanae, who tried to force him to tell the location of the UNSC base in the area. After being saved, Reynolds told the Chief and the Arbiter that a Jiralhanae Chieftain on a Phantom had pinned them down and killed his entire squad. Reynolds then joined Arbiter and John on their way to the river. As the Arbiter and John-117 arrived at the river, Johnson and the Second Squad were already picked up by a Pelican, Echo 51, with another Pelican hovering nearby and providing fire support against the numerous Covenant ground troops around the river. Suddenly, two Banshees appeared and shot down the Pelicans. Echo 51, its thruster heavily damaged, crashed about half a kilometer away, while the other one plunged straight to the water.

Arbiter and the Chief then made their way to the crash site, where Johnson and his Marines were holding position. However, they were too late. Johnson and his squad were captured by the Jiralhanae and taken to GWC's A2 Hydroelectric Facility nearby. SPARTAN-117 and the Arbiter made their way to the dam, where Johnson and his Marines were being held. After defeating the Covenant on the dam, including the Jiralhanae Chieftain in command of the Covenant forces in the area, the human prisoners were freed. After this however, two more Phantoms appeared, dropping off Covenant reinforcements on the dam. The UNSC forces held off the attacking Covenant for some time, and not long after, the Pelican Kilo 23 arrived, destroying the Phantoms. The Marines, John-117 and the Arbiter boarded the dropship, and set course for the UNSC base, Crow's Nest.