Richard Mack Sr.

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Richard Mack Senior, also known as Codename: PREACHER, was a member of the SPARTAN-I, or elite Trident Team in the late 25th Century and the for most of his adult life. Mack was one of the highest performing candidates while in the project and later emerged as a celebrated special forces hero by the beginning of the 26th Century. He would participate in a number of classified operations until the project's disbandment in 2506, upon which he retired for several years and fathered a son. He was also responsible for training the SPARTAN-II's of Project SIGMA on Earth for several after being called back to military service in 2517 at the behest of the Office of Naval Intelligence and Doctor Calvin Roe. Once the SIGMA Project had been completed, Mack, like many others, were called to the front against the newfound Covenant menace.
During the Human-Covenant War, Mack would go on to lead UNSC forces against the Covenant on dozens of engagements over the years, becoming well-known as one of the Marine Corps' most competent ground commanders with an excellent combat record. Mack was responsible for several major victories, inflicting heavy casualties on enemy forces in most engagements. His distinctive no-nonsense leadership style and charismatic speeches led to several promotions throughout the war in addition to his widespread fame as a leader. Mack's eventual death during the brutal Battle of Harpa in early 2552 at the hands of Felo 'Ranakee marked the end of one of the UNSC's best-kown military leaders.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Richard Mack was born in 2471 in the megaopolis of on Earth, in the . While still an infant, he was given to an orphanage by his biological parents, and remained there for some time until he was adopted by a young couple when he was six years old. Mack lived an impoverished, if reasonably happy childhood, his adoptive parents struggling to find work even at a time of considerable economic growth. Though he was quite a bright young student, Mack was a known troublemaker at school, well known for his confrontational behaviour with both teachers and peers.
Growing up in the huge city also came with it's hazards. When he was fourteen, Mack was mugged by a local gang and badly beaten, ending up in a local hospital with several broken bones. Though his parents were able to afford medical treatment, it left the family with very little money for some time, forcing the teen to take on several part-time jobs on minimum wage in addition to his schoolwork. Things began to go badly at home as well. His adoptive father began drinking heavily after losing his job, becoming physically abusive to both his wife and Mack. In 2488, while coming home from a local bar, Mack's father was gunned down in the street by the same gang of thugs and left for dead yards from his own home.
The 17-year old Mack, who had neglected going to college despite his reasonably good grades to support the family, witnessed the incident while waiting up at home to protect his mother if his father had a violent outburst. Seeing the retreating gang and the corpse lying in the gutter, Mack took his father's gun, which was concealed for emergencies, and went out into the night after the gang members despite his mother's pleadings to seek revenge for both the years of torment and his adoptive father's death. 
Mack chased down several of the gang members as emergency services were called, following them into a disused factory which served as a hangout for the gang. The young man quickly got into a firefight with two of the members while the leader, the man who had pulled the trigger on his father, attempted to escape. Never having fired a gun in his life, Mack used the darkness to hide before ambushing a few gang members, beating them just as badly as they had done to him years earlier as he made use of metal pipes and bricks as makeshift weapons. Mack then tracked down the gang leader, trapping him on the roof of the building. After disarming the man, who was only a few years older than him, Mack found himself unable to pull the trigger on the murderer. As he turned away the other man attempted to shoot Mack with a concealed weapon, but was taken down with a shot to the head by a police sniper. 
A member of a SWAT Team, which had been called in after the initial shooting, comforted the young Mack, even complimenting him on his prowess in taking down some of the gang members, who were in police custody. The man introduced himself as Anton LaMarche, befriending the disturbed young man and ensuring that he was not sentenced too harshly for his rash actions. When asked by Mack for advice on what to do with his future, LaMarche suggested that Mack join the military, stating that it would give him a good deal of life experience and useful skills. Seeing no other option, Mack enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps three months later, on his eighteenth birthday after some compulsory community service. His adoptive mother, distraught over the death of his father, was firmly against the idea and refused to speak to him at all after he joined up. Mack was greatly saddened by this, and resolved to send all his pay home to her as the only family he had left.
===Marine Corps===
After enlisting, Mack was transported to Reach along with hundreds of other potential recruits, and underwent training there. Unlike his school years, in which he had been quite rebellious and confrontational, Mack seemed to be an exemplary soldier, performing well under pressure and being marked down as a good leader. It was here that Mack first met John Ackton and Harold Redford. The three became good friends and were placed within the same unit once they had finished their training. 
Mack's first taste of battle came in late 2489. His unit had been dispatched to an outer colony world after communications had been shut down. Upon being deployed via pelican dropship, their squad quickly secured a large communications array, discovering that it had been irreversibly damaged by an Insurrectionist group. While calling in reinforcements, the NCO of Mack's squad was shot and killed instantly as hostile forces attempted to ambush the marines. Using improvised explosives, they killed off most of the unit, forcing Mack, Redford and Ackton inside the comm facility with the survivors. As the highest ranking soldier alive (being a Lance Corporal at the time) Mack ordered that the marines set up a killzone at the main exit to the facility, killing the rebels as they tried to pursue them inside. This strategy proved to be quite successful, the depleted squad holding off the enemy force until reinforcements arrived, swiftly clearing up any remaining opposition.
After exiting the facility, Mack was surprised to encounter a man from his past: Anton LaMarche. After greeting his old friend, LaMarche explained that he had decided to rejoin the military shortly after Mack had enlisted, quickly being promoted back to his former rank of Sergeant. Mack's squad, which had been reduced to only five people, was folded into LaMarche's unit after the incident. For the next year, Mack battled the Insurrection on several worlds, being promoted to Corporal, then to Sergeant by early 2491. 
===The ORION Project===
In January 2491, Mack, along with a number others in his unit, was recruited for the top secret as one of the original sixty-five test subjects. After undergoing an arduous training regime and receiving experimental chemical augmentations, a hundred more recruits were accepted into the program, which was designed to create a special forces unit that could effectively combat Insurrection in the colonies.. The training they underwent there was some of the toughest ever devised, much harsher than the infamously tough Orbital Drop Shock Trooper training course that weeded out all but the strongest applicants. Mack watched many others 'wash out' of ORION in this stage, though those who made it to receive their augmentations were effectively the UNSC's best soldiers at this point. Afterwards he noticed a marked increase in his strength, speed and reaction time, something that showed when all sixty-five ORION subjects improved their performance greatly in exercises and broke several training records as a result.
In 2495 both Mack and LaMarche signed up for and spent a number of months training there with several of their fellow ORION candidates. During this period he befriended and Frederick King, both of whom were noted for their leadership qualities within the ORION Project. Mack left there as a in early 2496. For a long period of time, Mack worked largely as a trainer for the newer ORION recruits and participated in several training missions to prepare them for covert operations against the Insurrection. It was not until early 2496 that it was announced that the entire ORION unit would be deployed in Operation: CHARLEMAGNE. Mack was assigned to the newly-formed Trident Team under his friend and mentor, First Lieutenant Anton LaMarche.
===Operation: CHARLEMAGNE===
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Operation: CHARLEMAGNE, which took place in mid-2496, would be the first major operation undergone by the ORION members, and Mack's first taste of a special operations mission. The entire ORION contingent was deployed on Eridanus II in order to quell the Insurrection there. Trident Team, which consisted of Mack and seven others, was one of the first teams on the ground, swiftly wiping out a rebel outpost within minutes of landing. Mack personally eliminated over two dozen hostiles during the operation, covering his teammates as they set explosive charges and cleared out buildings.
The operation proved to be a huge success, proving the ORION soldiers to be an effective military unit, only taking a single casualty over the course of the entire mission. This would also be the first and last time that the entire company would be deployed as a whole, Mack and Trident being assigned to another mission within a month of CHARLEMAGNE's success.
===Operation: BRIMSTONE===
Trident Team's first mission on their own was to Mamore, a colony with a long history of anti-UNSC sentiment. A well-armed group of Insurrectionists had seized control of an arms factory that was constructing tanks for the war effort, taking the workers hostage. Rather than risk storming the facility, which would lead to heavy casualties and civilian deaths, the UNSC sent in the ORION soldiers to eliminate the rebels and save the hostages. After their initial insertion just before dawn, Trident Team was able to quickly advance on the factory. As silenced sniper fire eliminated the outer sentries, Mack and the others were able to get through to the inner walls without being detected, planting explosive breaching charges on their entry points. While LaMarche led several others to free the workers, Mack joined Marion Hollister and Tobias Crowley in breaching the main factory and eliminating the Insurrectionist leader. 
The moment the wall was breached, the three commandos stormed the factory floor, their enhanced reflexes and superior equipment giving them the edge against the enemy. Crowley deployed smoke grenades to cover their entry, drawing hostile fire as the ORION's moved forward. Mack took point, utilising thermal goggles to see through the smoke. The surviving Insurrectionists retreated further into the facility, forcing the three to split up and hunt them down. Mack was fastest, and arrived in the main assembly area before his teammates could catch up with him. It was here that he came face to face with a rebel-operated . Knowing that he had to avoid the tank's , Mack stayed close to the machine, which in combat would usually be protected by several soldiers. The gun fired in an unsuccessful attempt to hit the young soldier, though it brought down several walls, making the building quite unstable. Mack was able to, albeit with some difficulty, climb aboard the tank and open the hatch. After nearly being killed by small arms fire from the driver, a grenade was thrown inside, destroying it and killing the driver as Mack dived off to safety.
Mack was greeted by Crowley and Hollister shortly after, the two of them having cleared out the rest of the building. As the three of them exited to regroup with the rest of Trident, the roof caved in, having been weakened by the Cobra's fire. Outside, another Cobra sat unattended, and was commandeered by the soldiers in order to eliminate the surviving rebels, who were attempting to escape to a waiting transport, which was disabled by repeated fire from the tank. Meeting up with LaMarche and the others, it was discovered that most of the hostages had been saved, one being killed by Steven Hawkins when used as a human shield by one of the rebels.
The mission over, Trident signalled for pickup, and were extracted from Mamore via dropship. In spite of the massive collateral damage caused by the team, the factory being put out of commission for several months, ONI deemed the operation as a resounding success, with similar reports coming in from other ORION teams deployed around UNSC space. Mack was awarded the for his courageous actions on Mamore following the mission.
===Operation: SWEEPER===
In January 2498, it was revealed that a large, well-equipped secessionist group had launched an attack on a UNSC-held town, slaughtering the soldiers there and seizing the military equipment present. Fearful of losing control of the situation, a number of ORION troops were dispatched alongside the Marine Corps to wipe out these rebels. In addition, there was a total media blackout on the event to allow for the troops involved to gain superiority and win. This would grant them good publicity, something sorely needed in light of growing public criticism of their rather brutal methods in fighting the Insurrection. 
Trident Team was deployed separately as the attack began, the UNSC utilising a number of UH-144 Falcons to land troops in the villages that dotted the colony world. While there was little sign of their Insurrectionist foes at first, a number of Falcons were suddenly hit by AA fire, prompting the rest to immediately land or retreat. Mack, accompanied by Ackton and Crowley, barely managed to hit the ground before their transport was struck by a missile, sending the soldiers into cover. Though radio chatter they picked up, it turned out that the rebel soldiers had been stockpiling equipment for much longer than they had expected, and had taken their attackers by surprise. 
Mack led his comrades through the dense forest, eventually locating one of the stolen AA guns and destroying it before arriving at the designated rendezvous point in a local village. There, they came under attack once more by dozens of enemy soldiers, many Marines being killed in their first assault. While running for cover, Mack was shot several times in the side, being forced into sparse cover while his comrades attempted to save him. It was here that he experienced a very close brush with death, managing to crawl into a nearby building where he killed an enemy soldier with his sidearm. Just as the battle seemed to be going against them, reinforcements finally arrived. Another Falcon, armed with two , was able to decimate the opposing rebels, destroying a great deal of the village as the rest of Trident Team was dropped off. Hawkins, armed with a heavy flamethrower, burned down many of the remaining buildings, flushing out any survivors who were quickly gunned down. Though Ackton objected to this, he was overruled by Lieutenant LaMarche, who had Mack and the other wounded picked up as they prepared to fall back. They did not get far, however, as their Falcon soon came under fire and a rotor was hit, spilling out the crew into the foliage before the helicopter finally crashed.
Though he had been momentarily patched up with biofoam, Mack was still wounded, weaponless aside from his knife, and alone in the forest, having been thrown out into a nearby treetop. He hid there as an enemy patrol passed by before descending to the ground. He followed the patrol for some time until they came across the crashed Falcon. The soldiers were able to rescue the pilot from the wreckage, though they took him as a prisoner instead of executing him. Closing in on the patrol, Mack surprised one as he broke off from the group to urinate, killing the man with his knife and taking his rifle. He then gunned down the entire patrol from his concealed position and untied the pilot. Though both were wounded, Mack and the pilot made their way back towards the rest of Trident, who had survived with minor injuries. LaMarche was impressed with Mack's survival skills, but insisted that he be brought back to base with his gunshot wounds. After retreating for over four miles, hounded by vengeful rebel patrols, the group was forced into cover by a large clearing as they were attacked. Though the ORION team had the high ground, their foes had numbers and ammunition, Harold Redford sustaining a wound to his leg as he moved into cover. When their Pelican evac did arrive, the treeline was bombarded with missiles, allowing for Trident and the other survivors to escape. 
Both Mack and Redford were confined to a medical bay for several days afterwards, hearing news that the UNSC had ended up carpet bombing a large portion of the forest for two days until the remaining rebels finally surrendered. Though they had won the battle, Mack was rather disapproving of the tactics used by his own side, particularly after the media span it into a tale of heroism afterwards. Both he and LaMarche were given promotions to and respectively following the success of Operation: SWEEPER, a mission that he would later recall as one of the worst experiences of his life.
===Operation: HEART OF DARKNESS===
In late 2498, Trident was dispatched to the outer colony world of Axus, where Insurrectionist forces were confirmed to have built up their own arms factories and military bases within the dense rainforests that covered the southern continent. The team were inserted several kilometres away from a Pelican dropship, and began making their way through the harsh terrain, Mack taking point. However, the ORION soldiers had been spotted landing on the planet and rebel forces were rushing in to intercept them. Richard kept leading the group through the forest. After some time, Trident Team came across several anti-personnel mines. LaMarche sent in Redford and King to disarm them. As they did so, King was hit several times as rebel forces launched an ambush. Redford, having finished disarming the explosives, was able to drag his comrade back into cover, becoming cut off from the rest of the team. Heavily outnumbered, LaMarche gave the order to retreat and leave the others behind to fend for themselves while the rest of Trident regrouped and fought back.
As they fell back into the jungle, Mack realised that both King and Redford would most likely be killed if left to fend for themselves. Moving back in spite of LaMarche's orders, he returned to the fray alongside Ackton and Hollister, using the dense foliage as cover to flank the Insurrectionist soldiers before launching their own ambush. This took the enemy by surprise, the two commandos killing over a dozen before escorting their wounded comrades to safety as so they could call a Pelican for medevac. In spite of his heroism, LaMarche berated Mack for the rash action he had taken, which had clearly defied orders and endangered team mates. Nonetheless, with most of the attack force killed, the ORION's were free to continue their mission, Ackton staying behind to look after King and wait for evacuation.
The remainder of the operation went smoothly as the rest of Trident assaulted the factory with Mack and LaMarche leading separate teams. After eliminating the remaining resistance and killing any survivors, Trident placed explosive charges around the area and retreated to their extraction point, detonating the explosives and denying the Insurrectionists another valuable installation. It was not until the team was aboard the dropship that an argument broke out over Mack's actions earlier. While he had saved the lives of two teammates, he had nearly gotten himself and King killed in the process. The debate went on for some time, with the general opinion being in Mack's favour. This however, was the beginning of the end for Richard Mack and Anton LaMarche's friendship, the two becoming embittered and angry over their differences; a far cry from the day that the SWAT officer had given advice to an angry teenager years before.
===Operation: SPARTACUS===
In April 2499, Trident Team and two other ORION teams were dispatched to , an outer colony world in the well known for its high crime rate and trafficking operations. However, due to the relative lack of Insurrectionist activity there things had been left largely in the hands of the CMA and local authorities. That was until an undercover agent successfully located a massive criminal underworld that operated, among other things, a black market of weapons, the marketing of illegal drugs and substances and the trafficking of human slaves. One horrifying discovery was that there were several 'pits', or fighting arenas where children as young as seven years old were expected to fight to the death. The ORION operatives were given explicit orders to completely destroy the criminal organisations on Troy to avoid a potentially massive anti-UNSC surge if the media discovered this.
Shortly after their arrival, Mack was sent with Hawkins and King to accompany to members of another team, Gunnery Sergeant Teresa Morrison and Lieutenant in attacking one of the many hideouts in a densely populated city. The ORION's moved in under cover of night, with black bodysuits and helmets to provide concealment as they assaulted an inner city compound guarded by a number of gang members. It was little more than a slaughter, with dozens of confirmed kills before anyone was even alerted to their presence. Mack felt no guilt for gunning down the criminals who owned the fighting pits; many of them reminded him of the thugs who had murdered his adoptive father years before. In a single night, the twenty-four ORION operatives had shut down nearly two thirds of Troy's drug manufacturing plants and freed dozens of children, many of whom carried deep physical and emotional scars from their ordeals.
On the second night of operation: SPARTACUS, Mack's group were tasked with the infiltration of an abandoned fuel refinery that had been converted into a manufacturing plant for weapons. After eliminating a few perimeter guards, Mack waited for an which confirmed the presence of explosive devices within the building. The ORION's moved up and planted several charges on an outer wall and detonated them to gain entry, killing a force nearly four times their number inside. As they began to secure the perimeter, Mack discovered an underground tunnel that led to a much larger complex beneath the main building. After venturing within, they came across a much larger pit fighting arena attended by hundreds of people, including a number of civilians. While their group initially hesitated, it soon became clear after they released two children to fight to the death that everyone in the area was a target.
What followed was a slaughter as the ORION's gunned down dozens of unarmed foes, making use of undermounted grenade launchers and conventional grenades to inflict massive casualties. Steven Hawkins, whom Mack privately disliked for his overly aggressive attitude, was allowed to go about with a machete, butchering the people responsible for the fights. Within less than ten minutes the five soldiers had killed more than 150 people and had expended almost all of their ammunition. Mack then moved to the fighting pit, where he found a young boy standing over the corpse of another child with a bloody knife in hand. He ordered King and Morrison to free the rest of the child slaves while he took care of the boy he had found, signalling for extraction via Pelican. Several of their targets were still alive and wounded by this point. While Hawkins advocated finishing them off with his blade, Mack ordered for their capture instead, feeling somewhat guilty for his actions. When their team regrouped with Anton LaMarche and the others, he was actually congratulated by his superior for his actions, the older man having completely wiped out the encampments he had attacked.
While operation: SPARTACUS was considered a complete success, with the massive criminal presence cut down greatly on Troy and the children relocated to orphanages in the Inner Colonies, Mack would be ashamed of his actions here in later years, as a moment of anger at the crimes of others had led to him creating an atrocity of his own. The Office of Naval Intelligence ended up covering the full details of the operation up, crediting the ORION's work to that of a massive policing operation in conjunction with the CMA. SPARTACUS would also give Mack something of a reputation among his peers, as fellow ORION Daniel Black had denounced him as a war criminal before the operation ended. Mack's actions did not go unnoticed by ONI, either. A few notable individuals within the intelligence world had already marked him for future use within a week of SPARTACUS. He would always regard this operation as one of his greatest failures in spite of what he and the other ORION's had achieved.
===Heimdall Incident===
In late 2499, Trident was split into two groups. Mack, Redford, King and Ackton were sent to assassinate a minor rebel leader and his lieutenants on Biko, while LaMarche and the others were sent to Heimdall, an outer colony world, where a UNSC weapons testing facility to assist in the usage of prototype technology before it was mass produced for the UNSC's special forces. Though he thought it strange that Trident would be split up on this one, having always remained as a group in the past, Mack joined the other two on the mission to shortly after. It was a simple mission, which involved taking down a small-time rebel group there suspected of creating bombs. After little more than a day they had completely wiped out their foes and succeeded.
Immediately after their operation on Biko, Mack and the others were abducted and covertly transported to ONI's on Reach by agents from the Office of Naval Intelligence. There, they met with Admiral , the Commander-in-Chief of ONI, and Commander , who explained to the three how the situation on Heimdall had gone from bad to worse upon Trident Team's arrival to the planet. From what ONI could garner, Anton LaMarche had gone rogue. After being deployed on the sparsely-populated colony world to deal with the reported incident, it had been revealed that LaMarche, Hollister, Hawkins and Crowley had apparently joined the terrorists and their leader, Oleg Lombardi, in taking over the experimental weapons facility. Worse still, some of the garrison of soldiers there had not been taken hostage; instead they had actively rebelled and joined the others in the takeover. As the base had a number of weapons in development and a supply of active nuclear warheads, ONI had decided to send the remainder of Trident Team in to end the incident.
Mack and the others were taken aboard a Prowler, the UNSC Vacuna, to the Heimdall system several days later. Armed with the latest military technology, including sets of prototype semi-powered body armour designed to survive a jump from the planet's stratosphere and tiny backup communicators designed to remain undetectable if they were captured, the four ORION's were to use to land near or within the Ouroboros Station without being detected. While the jump was initially successful, as they descended Mack and the others came under fire from the facility's AA guns and scattered as they swiftly descended towards Heimdall's snowy surface. While he was too focused on landing safely to notice, the rebels fired an experimental cannon from the facility's roof that knocked out their electronics and a communications satellite in orbit. As the Vacuna could not move closer for fear of coming into the cannon's range, Mack and the others were left alone as they reached Heimdall's service. 
Unable to contact his comrades, Mack landed in a snowfield not far from the facility, and after discarding his parafoil fled into the nearby woods as enemy patrols scoured the area. Much to his surprise, Commander Parangosky contacted him through the backup communicator, which had been reinforced against EMP's. After being informed of the situation and the mission's dire state, Mack stumbled upon a rebel patrol, which had found another ruined parafoil. They soon came under fire from across the woods and a firefight ensured. While the enemy was distracted, Mack moved into position and swiftly eliminated the remaining rebels before approaching the direction of the shooter. He soon found that it was Harold Redford, who had broken a leg in his descent and dragged himself into a nearby building. Though still a crack shot and loaded up with enough painkillers to ignore his injury for several hours, his friend would be of little use on the mission and was unsure of how they could proceed. 
Quickly formulating a plan to infiltrate the Ouroboros Station, he carried Redford over to the slain patrol's warthog and swapped clothing with the rebels, dressing up several corpses to make it look like Mack and Redford had been killed by the patrol. Though he secretly doubted that such an outrageous idea would even work, they had few options and after loading up the vehicle with bodies drove back to the facility, claiming that they had killed the enemy infiltrators and needed medical attention for Redford's broken leg. Surprisingly, the rebels inside believed him and allowed the pair inside. With their faces hidden behind balaclavas and a snowstorm obscuring visibility further, they were greeted by a group of guards who greeted and even congratulated the pair for their actions. While they took care of the bodies and took them to their leader, a young Insurrectionist named Adam Makosky assisted Mack in taking Redford to the medical bay, which possessed equipment beyond the likes of anything Mack had seen before. The oblivious rebel conversed with the two for some time about the state of affairs and informed them that several machines designed to automatically diagnose and operate on wounded soldiers were present in the facility, though they would only work on UNSC personnel via dogtag scanning or override codes the rebels didn't have. 
After Makosky departed, Mack placed Redford within one of the machines, which scanned his injury and could even operate remotely after applying anaesthetic. While he had his reservations about leaving his friend inside an untested machine for a number of hours while it operated on him, they once again had no choice in the matter. After Redford was anaesthetised, Parangosky contacted Mack again and let him know that Ackton had landed out of range, while she was unable to contact King. Furthermore, Admiral Volkov's reaction to the less-than-successful insertion had been to send for a UNSC Destroyer to bombard the Ouroboros Station from orbit rather than allow the Insurrectionists to keep digging in or worse, attempt to escape with some of the most advanced military technology the UNSC had. Naturally, such an action would kill Mack and his team, giving them less than a day to take down their former comrades and Lombardi's group.
With a new threat looming overhead, Mack then proceeded to the station's medical wing, where he managed to bluff his way into a room by pretending to be the guard's replacement despite lacking the correct keycard to open the door. Locked in a nearby office was a young scientist who introduced himself as Calvin Roe. Though clearly afraid, Roe laughed when Mack revealed that he was from the UNSC's special forces, believing it to be the rebel's way of extracting more information from him. Before the conversation could continue, the guard Mack returned with his actual replacement. Acting quickly, he shot one man and threw his knife into the other's throat, ending the confrontation before his foes could even raise their guns. This convinced Roe that Mack was on his side, though the teenager had wet himself out of fear when Mack started shooting. The ORION then hid the bodies while Roe changed.
Once Roe had recovered, he and Mack discussed re-activating the Ouroboros Station's 'dumb' AI, Leonard, in order to turn the facility's systems against the Insurrectionists. While a viable option, LaMarche had removed its memory chip immediately as Lombardi's forces had landed and possibly destroyed it. Nonetheless, they then moved to a nearby laboratory that had been turned into a dumping ground for failed technologies by the rebels as they looted the base with the slim chance of finding the discarded chip. While Mack was pessimistic about their chances, he and Roe recovered the device from under a pile of scrap just as a group of enemy soldiers moved past the room. Realising that they would raise the alarm upon finding the pile of corpses, Mack ordered Roe to stay put and engaged the group, gunning down a number of rebels and engaging in a brief firefight with the survivor, who he soon realised was none other than his former squadmate Tobias Crowley. As both men were reluctant to kill each other, they moved out of cover and conversed for some time until Steven Hawkins arrived and ambushed Mack. Unable to fight off both men at once, Mack was beaten into unconsciousness by Hawkins' and thrown into a jail cell by the men. He was out cold for several hours and presumed dead by his superiors until he woke up, stripped of his equipment and unable to escape.
Shortly after awakening, Mack was contacted by Roe again. The young scientist had been put back to work on a prototype exoskeleton by the rebels, though they had not discovered Leonard's data chip on his person. The AI was able to open every single door in the cell block, releasing not only Mack, but a captured Frederick King and Marion Hollister. The trio were quickly able to overwhelm the nearby guards and were contacted by Leonard, who informed them that the facility's gatehouse had been breached and that Steven Hawkins was heading towards the comatose Redford in the medical wing. Mack ordered the others to assist Redford while he moved towards the Ouroboros Station's command room alone.
En-route, Mack ran into a squad of enemy fighters being massacred by Ackton, whose heavy combat suit allowed him to plow through their lines with ease. After aiding his comrade, he was contacted by Parangosky, who brought news of Hawkins' death at the hands of King. Though he'd never particularly liked the man, some part of Mack felt sorrow at his former team mate's passing. The pair kept moving, only to be ambushed on the bridge to the station's command room by an enemy Hornet, piloted by none other than Oleg Lombardi. Unable to match the aircraft's sheer firepower, they surrendered to one of the craft's wingmen - Tobias Crowley. As they drew closer, Mack distracted Crowley long enough for Ackton to lob a grenade at the vehicle, sending it spiralling out of control. The explosion gave them enough time to overpower the rogue ORION and knock him unconscious, opting not to execute him. After Ackton offered to carry Crowley's body over to the vehicle bay to meet up with the rest of Trident, Mack moved into the command room, where he encountered the facility's rampant AI, Alexander.
Confronting the AI over its actions, Mack discovered the true purpose of the colony-wide broadcast Alexander and LaMarche wished to make. As it turned out, LaMarche had discovered the existence of a secret network of artificial intelligences known as while trawling through little-known COM frequencies. After covertly monitoring transmissions between these AI, the Captain had discovered their goal of guiding mankind's future and had grown incredibly paranoid, believing that the AI would one day attempt to completely overthrow the Human race. As such, he had collected irrefutable evidence of their existence and intended to use this station to broadcast these findings across the colonies, possibly leading to a massive backlash against Smart AI. Alexander, who had been active for just over seven years, had agreed to help him in exchange for continuing to live.
Mack felt horribly betrayed after this revelation, knowing that his best friend and mentor had gone against the UNSC and committed numerous crimes just to reveal what some part of him felt might have been just a conspiracy theory. Worse yet, his refusal to even tell Mack of his findings, trusting a group of terrorists instead, only served to hurt him more. Realising that the action of wiping out all Smart AI would almost certainly lead to millions of deaths as they fought to protect themselves, Mack refused to allow their broadcast to go through.
It was then that LaMarche himself arrived, and after a brief attempt to convince Mack to join him the Captain opened fire. The two ORION's fought against each other for some time in the control room, Alexander overloading terminals to injure Mack before the gunfight turned into a close-quarters battle. Though the pair were evenly-matched, LaMarche made a botched attempt at stabbing Mack that allowed the younger man to break his arm, leaving him defenceless. At this time, Calvin Roe arrived in the room, and was able to quietly insert Leonard's data chip into the main system while both LaMarche and Alexander were distracted. Despite being a 'Dumb' AI, it turned out that Leonard had a sophisticated cyberwarfare program that took the Smart AI unawares and tore him to pieces, Mack realising that he had likely been placed there by the Assembly as a countermeasure against a Rampant program.
In the confusion, LaMarche was able to escape Mack and fled outside into the snowstorm, though with a broken arm the ORION doubted he would survive for long. With the Ouroboros Station reclaimed, Mack contacted Admiral Volkov to inform him of his mission's success. Suddenly, an alert sounded throughout the base as a number of HAVOK-class nuclear weapons had been primed to detonate after a brief countdown. Leonard revealed via security footage that a heavily-wounded Lombardi had survived his Hornet's crash and was attempting to take the base with him. Much to his surprise, Volkov then ordered Mack to disarm the nukes, despite them having no tools whatsoever to do so. As the Admiral threatened Mack, he was knocked out by Parangosky, who ordered him and Roe to escape immediately.
Mack and Roe, who was carrying Leonard, were able to make it to the station's storage bay, where they opened the entrance to an escape tunnel that led through the nearby mountains. After discovering Lombardi's corpse in a nearby Warthog, they took the vehicle and began to move, only to find a maddened LaMarche pursuing them. What ensued was a dangerous chase through the tunnel, Mack driving and firing back at LaMarche while Roe cowered in the passenger seat. As they neared the exit, LaMarche managed to leap into his Warthog's turret after jamming the accelerator pedal down and let loose a flurry of rockets and sent Mack's jeep flying out into a nearby snowfield. Though his injuries were fairly minor, Mack found himself unarmed as he pulled himself up from the crash, and turned to find LaMarche pointing a gun at him.
Completely defenceless, Mack conversed with his former friend, who accused him of dooming mankind by allowing the Assembly's continued existence. Mack noted his own belief that the future would not be as grim as LaMarche predicted, hoping that the older man would be wrong. Before LaMarche could execute him, he was shot through the heart by Calvin Roe and died instantly. Shortly after, a Condor carrying Parangosky and the rest of Trident Team arrived to rescue Mack and Roe, carrying them off Heimdall just as the Ouroboros Station was consumed in a massive nuclear blast.
===26th Century===
Following the Heimdall Incident, Mack and the survivors of Trident spent several weeks recuperating from his ordeal aboard the as they were debriefed. To his dismay, almost every detail of the mission would be kept secret, with a cover story put in place that terrorists had seized the facility and had only been stopped by the heroic actions of Mack. He was placed in the public eye and made out as a hero in several broadcasts across the colonies, receiving the Colonial Cross and a promotion to . Mack disliked the publicity that he was receiving, but put up with it until he faded from the public eye, allowing him to begin embarking on missions as the new leader of Trident Team. For another six years, Mack would lead his team, now down to five operators, on dozens of classified missions against the growing Insurrectionist movement. He would also participate in a few smaller operations, such as an in 2502 during which Mack spotted for a as he killed a . While they encountered some resistance during the mission, the pair were able to eliminate their target and escape without incident. His reputation following Heimdall often had him assigned in a supervisory role during missions as the highest ranking active duty operator in ORION.
 
In spite of the ORION's effectiveness in the field, the number of rebel organisations seemed to be growing, with many violent incidents sparking up over the colonies. In addition, as a result of their augmentations, Mack and some members of Trident were beginning to suffer from side effects from their augmentations. Though not serious, largely involving headaches and occasional migraines, it soon became clear that the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder were beginning to set in. Marion Hollister was discharged from the unit due to this in 2504, and it was soon after this that the ORION project as a whole began to disband. It was officially ended in 2506, with its operators either retiring or joining other UNSC branches.
The members of Trident went their own ways after the project was shut down; Mack was assigned to Reach to train Orbital Drop Shock Trooper recruits, Redford and Ackton joining the ODST's themselves while King went to work for the Office of Naval Intelligence. The four of them generally kept in contact over the years in spite of their work. In early 2509, after a liaison with a former member of his support team during the Heimdall incident, a child was conceived. Mack was forced to retire from active duty for some time and arrived back on Earth not long before the birth of his son, who was named after him. Mack Senior, who had disliked using his own first name for years, didn't initially approve, but ended up going with the mother's choice. Four months later, she left Mack on good terms to pursue her own career and left Mack alone to bring up his son with the generous benefits paid by the UNSC and ONI.
Though he lived comfortably, Mack resented the inactivity, even while looking after his young son. Using some of the pull he still had within the military, he was able to get a job on Earth and went back to his ODST training for some time while still being able to stay close to his son on an almost daily basis; he still relied heavily on maids and nannies to take care of Mack Junior, however. One of Mack's most promising recruits was Henry McNair, who had grown up hearing about Mack's 'heroic' exploits before joining the military himself. While he busied himself with training new ODST's, Mack saw his son less than he would have liked to, becoming quite distant from the child. In 2517, Mack was visited by Doctor Calvin Roe, a man who had saved his life on Heimdall years before.
===Project SIGMA===
Roe, now a well-known civilian consultant for the Office of Naval Intelligence who specialised in robotics, spoke to Mack in detail about the 'SPARTAN' initiative proposed by to combat mounting Insurrection in the outer colonies. Roe, who had been in contact with Margaret Parangosky, was forwarded the data for review, and came up with the idea of adapting the project, the goal of which was to train super-soldiers for both the UNSC and ONI's own needs. This was largely due to their mutual dislike for Halsey, whom Parangosky had considered disposing of when her usefulness had run it's course. Roe's project, codenamed SIGMA, would utilise all the data from Halsey's operation, though certain aspects would be modified. All they needed was someone to head up the training of these new soldiers.
Though initially dubious of the whole project, which involved kidnapping and the creation of child soldiers, Mack was eventually persuaded to join for several reasons. Firstly, he owed both Roe and Parangosky for their actions during the Heimdall Incident, and trusted the pair of them as good friends. Secondly, there was an implicit threat if he did refuse, the technical war crimes that he and his fellows in Trident had committed years before would be revealed to the general public, ending his career immediately. The training facility would be located on Earth, hours away from Mack's home so he would be allowed to return there often to look after his son, something that had been taken into consideration when he had been selected for the job.
However, the one thing that made up Mack's mind about joining the project was the children that were involved. Though he trusted Roe personally, he was aware of the man's lack of social skills with others and his explosive temper, needing someone who was harsh but fair to ensure that the ones they were training to be Spartans would come out well. One candidate in particular caught his eye: Kane Hollister. A quick background check confirmed his suspicions that he was the son of Marion Hollister, a former squadmate. Though disgusted after finding out that King had willingly given up his son and promising to kill the man if they ever met again, Mack accepted Roe's offer and was secretly transported to the SIGMA facility in Washington DC to prepare for the candidates arrival. Along with his new position came a surprise promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, something that Mack cared little for but knew was given to appease him in some way.
For the next eight years, Mack worked in the SIGMA facility on a daily basis, forming training programs for the twenty trainees there. The small 'class' size of SPARTAN-II's meant that they could be individually monitored and enhanced based on their own specialities. The children gained a great deal of respect for the SPARTAN-I, never misbehaving in his presence or speaking out of line as some would with Roe; SPARTAN-035 in particular would challenge the Doctor but never Mack. Though he put years of hard work and effort into training the Spartans, Mack was still deeply disturbed by the ethical issues brought forward by the program, chiefly the flash cloning procedures used as first proposed by Catherine Halsey. While some of this came from his own dislike of the Doctor, Mack lived in fear of his involvement in SPARTAN-II being revealed to the public, particularly towards his own child, who was becoming very detached from his father after years of little attention.
When the Human-Covenant War broke out, the SIGMA Spartans had only just gone through their . However, Roe made a decision backed by ONI to split up the SPARTAN group with eleven members set to fight humanity's new foe, the Covenant, and the other nine focusing on whatever ONI wanted them to do behind the scenes. Unlike Halsey's group, there were no fatalities or even permanent incapacitation from the procedures, largely to the smaller, which allowed for less errors to be made. In addition, the fact that they underwent their augmentations several months after the Reach-trained SPARTAN-II's allowed for many corrections to be made from the original process, significantly lowering the danger rate for Sigma, though several were badly scarred and/or had long recovery periods. Mack was furious to find out that the second group, consisting of nine members, had officially 'died' during their augmentations. On Roe's orders, this fact was hidden from 'Sigma-Alpha' for many years. He assumed that Roe had done this in some kind of misguided attempt to motivate the Spartans to fight for their fallen comrades, but personally saw it as a horrible mistake. 
Upon hearing word of human colonies being destroyed by the Covenant, Mack received word that many former military commanders, including the famous , were being called out of retirement to fight once more. While he was technically not retired, Mack felt the need to return, the Sigma project nearing it's completion. It was on his final day with the Spartans of Sigma-Alpha that a breakout occurred within the facility. Jack-085, one of the highest performing Spartans in Sigma, had broken into the armoury, along with Ahmad-126, and slaughtered his way through the facility, heading for the hangar bay. Mack pursued the two Spartans alone, armed only with his M6D Pistol, and attempted to corner them in a corridor. After a brief standoff, Jack was able to get the upper hand, taking Mack hostage as Fenn-145, Kane-098 and Jax-007 arrived. Though Jack threatened to kill his trainer, he relented, knowing that killing Mack would almost certainly lead to the death of him and his accomplice. Mack was released as Jack escaped through a side door, managing to flee the facility in a Pelican. 
What followed was an intense manhunt for the rogue Spartans through the surrounding area after the Pelican was shot down, though the search teams found little evidence to trace the pair. After a few days, Ahmad-126's body was found on the outskirts of a city, the cause of death being ruled as suicide. Jack, however, managed to escape, much to Mack's despair, and was never found by the authorities. As someone who had trained these people for several years, he felt as if he had failed both of them, not having any idea of Jack's plans until it was far too late. Depressed over the loss of two SPARTAN-II's, Mack made his goodbyes to Sigma. Not long after, a message came through from , requesting that he return to the front to fight against their newfound alien foe.
======
Mack's return to active duty in the Marine Corps was met with a great deal of praise, from both his peers and his subordinates, many of whom had heard about the so-called hero's exploits years before. The Lieutenant Colonel spent several weeks reading up on everything he had regarding their new foe, known as 'The '. Though they definitely held a technological advantage compared to humanity, and had already demonstrated their immense destructive capabilities by glassing several colonies, Mack was certain that they could be defeated on the ground, in addition to the few pyrrhic victories the UNSC were gaining in space, largely to the tactical genius of Preston Cole. Eventually, Mack was given command of the 85th Marine Battalion, and dispatched to , along with a massive fleet under Cole's command, with the intent of reclaiming the whole planet from the Covenant. It was in mid-2526 that the news came of the death of Harold Redford, one of Mack's old friends, on Harvest at the hands of the Covenant. This surprised him greatly, remembering Redford's combat prowess years before. Attending a memorial service shortly after, he discovered that his old comrade Frederick King attempting to recruit Redford's son into ONI. Mack was displeased to see this and attempted to speak to King for the first time in over a decade, though it quickly became apparent that his former squadmate merely saw Alexander Redford as a replacement for Harold. Following the argument he made it clear that King was not the man he had befriended so many years ago and told him to stay away from his son.
The position of command suited Mack, who was now in his fifties. Though long periods spent in cryosleep and his ORION augmentations slowed down his ageing process somewhat, keeping him, for the most part, fit and healthy, he had began to notice his limits on the battlefield. In addition, the chemical augmentations that gave him a distinct advantage over 'regular' humans also gave him occasional debilitating migraines, which struck more often than not when Mack was out of combat. In addition, Mack Junior had, against his father's wishes, joined the rather than taking up the offer from the prestigious , as his father had wished. He was aware of his son's presence during the Harvest Campaign, albeit in another Marine Company.
By 2528, Mack took direct command of a beleaguered Marine Company entrenched in the ruins of one of Harvest's cities after its commander was killed in a banshee strike. There, he led the survivors in a massive counter-offensive against their enemy, with air and armour support massacring the Covenant on the ground. They did, however, take heavy casualties in the attempt. This was Mack's first experience of losing a great deal of troops under his command, with the company at less than a third of its original strength by the end. Mack himself sustained a plasma injury, a pistol bolt hitting him in the lower abdomen; its impact was stopped only by his body armour. While recovering, he met a trio of Marines who had fought alongside him during the battle: , Mira Reyes, and Carlos Driscol. He personally commended the three for their valour in subsequent battles; each would end up earning the prestigious by the end of the conflict.
===Outer Colony Campaigns===
For the next few years, Mack would fight in many battles across the Outer Colonies, even as they slowly fell to the Covenant onslaught. Weeks turned to months, and months to years as he led various forces against not only the Covenant, but the remnants of the Insurrection as well. In 2537, Mack was in charge of fighting against rebel forces on Mamore, a world in the Outer Colonies that he had visited many years before. The planet had changed much since his ORION days, and with the majority of UNSC forces away fighting the Covenant, the rebel forces had gained a great deal of support from the people and held most of the major settlements. 
While Mack had some private doubts about even engaging his fellow man with the alien threat elsewhere, he led his troops to victory across the colony, totally crushing most forms of armed resistance within a few weeks. The final stronghold proved too much for even his forces to take, and not wishing for a long siege, he contacted the Office of Naval Intelligence for support. In response, they deployed the newly-graduated SPARTAN-III to the planet. In spite of the program's top secret nature, Mack had been privy to its creation and was even considered as a potential trainer over Franklin Mendez had the UNSC not needed capable field commanders. The Spartans completely wiped out the fortress in a single night with no casualties, impressing Mack greatly. With orders to inform his men simply that 'Special Forces' units had destroyed the enemy, Mack left Mamore and was promoted to for his actions in stopping the Insurrection there.
===Siege of Fargad===
Main Article: Siege of Fargad
In late 2547, Mack was stationed on Fargad, an important world in the Inner Colonies that had long been one of the UNSC's prominent bases beyond Reach and the Sol System. The planet's importance to the war effort warranted a large fleet to be stationed there at all times. As such, many military units waiting for reassignment would spend their shore leave on one of the colony's cities, something that Mack himself was doing when news of Covenant forces reached him. An enemy fleet had appeared out of slipspace at the edge of the system unexpectedly, destroying two sensory outposts as they alerted the fleet. Reporting into a local UNSC base, Mack discovered that he was the highest-ranking person alive on Fargad, and was immediately put in charge of its defence against the Covenant invasion.
Following a disastrous mechanised assault led by Colonel Brandon Walters on the primary Covenant landing zone, Mack organised the UNSC defences, with elements of the 91st and 104th Marine regiments striking at the incoming Covenant armies from the nearby mountains while Sigma Team participated in a number of operations in the area that essentially ground the Covenant advance to a halt. Even with a full team of nine SPARTAN-II's deployed, the sheer amount of Covenant troops landing on the colony world forced the UNSC to fall back and regroup, with Mack sending Colonel Walters to hold off the enemy elsewhere to give him near-absolute control of the situation. This would lead to a crushing blow being dealt to the Covenant on the ground after a successful counter-strike. However, the situation in space worsened as the Covenant fleet slowly gained an advantage over the weaker UNSC ships lead by Admiral Michael Hsu, which allowed for more ships to provide support for their armies below. Mack ordered his force to hold a nearby city, which had been heavily fortified with Mass Drivers and AA guns.
Even with these preparations, Mack was fully aware that they would not be able to hold the city for long, and was surprised to find a message sent from the upper echelons of the Office of Naval Intelligence, who had dispatched reinforcements to Fargad to assist him. This came in the form of two SPARTAN-III teams, Upsilon and Tau, who had landed in the nearby harbour. Mack was both surprised and relieved to discover this, and dispatched Sigma Team to rendezvous with the others aboard an old wet navy battleship, belonging to the head of Fargad's Colonial Militia, 'Admiral' Han Kurtz. After foiling a Covenant sabotage attempt, the Spartans helped to fight off the Covenant army as it attacked the city, wave after wave of troops wearing down the defenders, with thousands of casualties being inflicted on both sides.
By the fifth day of the battle, the city had been reduced to ruins from the fighting and the Covenant were gaining a big advantage on the ground as well as in space. Kurtz had died taking down a Scarab, and soon news arrived that Colonel Walters had been killed while fighting elsewhere on the planet, leaving Mack as the sole leader of the planet's defence force. From the UNSC's Storm Base he commanded the majority of planetary operations, and ended up as a prime target when the Covenant pinpointed his location and dispatched an entire Legion there. This was foiled by an ambush by the Spartans, who used FENRIS nukes to collapse a mountain on the approaching force and managed to assassinate the Field Marshall leading them. Though he protested, the SPARTAN-II's evacuated Mack and his command staff from the base to Fargad's capital, Antolia, where they would hold out until they could be evacuated from the system. It was here that he gave a hastily put-together and inspirational speech to the forces under his command, who had lost nearly two thirds of their number in just a few days.
When the attack came, the UNSC defenders inflicted horrific casualties on the enemy over the course of a few hours, though a number of Phantom dropships deployed Sangheili SpecOps teams to blow up bridges and cause havoc within the city. Eventually a massive bombing campaign was launched, with hundreds of Seraph fighters destroying large sections of the city. Mack was holed up in an emergency bunker with his staff and a few soldiers, and was surprised to discover that the ODST team sent to protect him was none other than Whiskey-04, John Ackton's former unit which contained his son. As the bombing intensified and parts of the bunker began to collapse, Mack was finally able to speak to his only son for the first time in years. While their relationship had always been rather frosty, he attempted to apologise for being a terrible father and admitted how proud he was of him. Mack Senior and Mack Junior were able to reconcile, believing that the Covenant bombing would be the end of them both. The bunker was eventually breached by A Sangheili team, who assaulted the defenders for over an hour, pushing the dwindling group back until they were trapped in a strongroom with limited ammunition. Mack was wounded in the shoulder during this battle, though he was still able to slit the throat of an Elite attempting to kill his son and successfully fought his foe off until reinforcements arrived. 
When Mack and the five other survivors exited the bunker they were greeted by twenty-one Spartans and hundreds of other soldiers who had been sent to look for him. A frigate, the UNSC Bright New Day, had taken up position over what remained of the city and was evacuating the surviving UNSC forces aboard. It was revealed that Admiral Hsu had also perished along with most of his fleet, but not before taking down a number of Covenant capital ships. Three other frigates had joined the Day in the evacuation, a process that took roughly four hours before what remained of Mack's troops were off the ground. Before the Covenant fleet could regroup and pursue them, the human ships exited the system. Though Fargad was glassed, many considered Mack a hero for his actions in holding up the Covenant advance for as long as he did, something that forced him into the public eye once more. Fully aware that the UNSC was trying to use him like they had with , he refused a promotion to Major General and arranged to be reassigned so he could go back to a station near the frontlines.
===Battle of Harpa===
Main Article: Battle of Harpa
Richard Mack Senior would face his final battle against the Covenant on Harpa, a small colony world of little significance that came under attack in March 2552. A the time, he was stationed at HAMMER Base, a research facility run by the Office of Naval Intelligence that studied alien ruins on the world. On March 8th, two Covenant Destroyers exited Slipspace near the planet, and immediately began to engage the small UNSC Fleet stationed above Harpa. In spite of their numbers, the Human defences were quickly broken and the Destroyers began to deploy troops groundside. As the highest-ranking military officer left on Harpa after a single hour of fighting, Mack ordered for an immediate evacuation, deploying several Marine Companies to Harpa's major cities while the SPARTAN-II Sigma Team split up to help stem the tide and give civilians a chance to escape. Mack was surprised that the Covenant had not immediately begun to glass Harpa, instead engaging in a costly ground war with the Human forces while smaller detachments moved around the planet's less-populated areas. 
The fighting in Harpa's capital, Andama, lasted for a number of days, prompting Mack to dispatch several and three SPARTAN-II's to help bolster the city's defences. He had gone with little sleep for this time, and ended up giving temporary command to Master Chief Petty Officer Fenn-145, the leader of Sigma Team. In spite of the Spartan's rank he trusted Fenn's judgement while he got some sleep. When Mack returned to the command room after ten hours, he found that his Spartans were successful in their assault, but were forced to abandon Andama when one of the destroyers began to glass the city. Nonetheless, the UNSC had inflicted heavy casualties on the Covenant invaders and had destroyed a number of Scarabs in their retreat to HAMMER Base. Mack then received the news that just over 75% of Harpa's populace had managed to escape, which was a much better result than initially predicted. With the civilians out of the way Mack could order the military forces on Harpa to leave the planet; the last orbit-capable ship they possessed was an ageing Frigate, the UNSC Bright New Day. However, news arrived that a massive Covenant force was moving in to attack HAMMER Base, forcing Mack to delay the retreat until they had carried out the and ensured the safety of all remaining UNSC forces. 
Mack had the Spartans lay out a field of LOTUS anti-tank mines around the base while others set up a to deter any direct attacks from the Covenant Destroyers. Days of fighting had reduced his once-formidable force to just a few thousand Marines, ODST's and Army troopers, and even with the Spartans Mack was unsure how long they would be able to hold out against the vastly superior Covenant force. When they did arrive, they fell upon HAMMER Base in the thousands; tanks, infantry and dropships assaulted the well-defended facility for several hours and gradually wore down the Human defences before troops began breaching the base. Mack personally led a squad of Marines in the base's defence, taking down dozens of Unggoy before they were attacked by a swarm of Yanme'e, or Drones. Mack's squad was saved by the timely arrival of Marco-035 and a group of , who gave him time to escape and call for their remaining forces to fall back through a tunnel that led through the nearby mountains. The loss of the Mass Driver after a lucky Seraph bombing run left the base nearly defenceless against sustained aerial attack, so Mack had the survivors leave in a hurry while the base's systems were purged. As the first vehicles departed the base, Mack discovered that SPARTAN Nef-015 had been badly wounded in the fighting, and was making his way towards one of the enemy ships in a stolen Banshee with a HAVOK nuke. Mack and the rest of Sigma were forced to listen to their friend's last moments over the COM before the Destroyer was obliterated.
Though he had been in sparse contact with Sigma over the years, Mack was greatly saddened by Nef's death, having known each of the Spartans since they were children. As the convoy and the few hundred survivors emerged on the other side and made their way towards the Bright New Day, which was stationed over a nearby desert, a number of Banshees began pursuing them and forced the retreating Humans to divert through the nearby ruins. Mack, who had been with a number of ODST's in a supply truck, ordered the others to press on to the Frigate at all costs while they avoided enemy fire from above. Before they could escape, his truck was hit with a burst of plasma that killed the drivers and sent it careening into a wall. Mack and the others then fought a desperate battle against a number of Sangheili, who had already landed in the ruins by the time Mack's forces got there. The old soldier and his comrades were vastly outnumbered, killing a number of foes before they were finally surrounded. Mack was the last man standing, and fought several of the much larger Sangheili in close combat before confronting their leader. A Sangheili Shipmaster, Felo 'Ranakee, offered Mack his life in exchange for the location of Humanity's homeworld. Mack had heard this false offer many times before, and responded by killing one of 'Ranakee's bodyguards. The Shipmaster then stabbed him through the chest with his energy sword in anger. Mack spat in the Sangheili's face before he succumbed to his wounds and died. 
===Legacy===
Shortly after his death, Richard Mack Senior's body was recovered by Jax-007, who managed to badly injure the Ranakee before escaping to the Bright New Day alongside the other survivors. His corpse was put in cryogenic suspension until they arrived on Reach several weeks later, whereupon it was taken to Earth for burial. Mack's funeral was attended by the SIGMA Spartans and a number of other figures within the UNSC such as and , there to pay their respects and honour his years of dedication to fighting the Covenant. Much like before him, the day of Mack's death was designated as one of mourning as both the UNSC and the general media hailed him as a war hero and one of Humanity's finest leaders during the Human-Covenant War.
==Skills and Abilities==
As both a former marine and ORION member, Richard Mack was a highly skilled soldier, proficient with most forms of weaponry in the UNSC's arsenal. While a part of the program, he distinguished himself as an expert at scouting and tracking in most environments, as well as being an accomplished marksman. In addition to this, he was known for his deadliness in close quarters, his enhanced speed and reflexes giving him a vital edge on the enemy, even being able to take down Sangheili warriors at quite an advanced age with nothing but a combat knife. Even in his late seventies, he was noted for being just as fit as he had been in his ORION days, there being dozens of occasions in which he would have to take to the frontline during the Human-Covenant War.
Another key skill that Mack had was the ability to lead and command respect from others around him and deal with changing situations in battle. Upon taking command of the remnants of Trident Team in 2500, Mack proved to be an effective commander for the team until it's dissolution several years later. Upon being recalled to active duty in 2517, he was the man responsible for training the SPARTAN-II Sigma Team on Earth, drilling the twenty children into an effective fighting unit and overseeing their augmentation procedures a few years later. 
After the outbreak of the Human-Covenant War, Mack was one of many formerly retired commanders to be brought back into action by the UNSC to fight against their new alien foe. Despite his unparalleled record on the battlefield, he had little experience of commanding large military forces when initially recalled. However, when the time came and his marine regiment was deployed he proved to be an effective strategist, being responsible for dozens of ground victories over the course of the war, and, if victory could not be achieved, organising retreats that would be costly to pursing enemy forces, as exhibited during the Siege of Fargad and several other battles. Even at an advanced age, Mack took to the field on multiple occasions, fighting on the frontlines if necessary. 
==Personality==
Richard Mack became well known among colleagues for having something of a hair-trigger temper, particularly in his ORION years. This largely stemmed from a history of bullying while at school and the death of his adoptive father when he was seventeen. While his Marine Corps training helped to some degree with his anger problems, Mack's violence on the field was noted, though he never brutalised or endangered innocents, unlike some of his Trident squadmates. Mack was known for never backing down in the face of danger, persevering against all odds to win on the battlefield. While some superiors did see this behaviour as reckless, he never failed to get results, though his eventual status as a war hero following the Heimdall Incident meant that few questions his methods. He despised his portrayal as a paragon of the UNSC in the media due to the attention it got him from the press, though he understood the need for such propaganda in a time when Insurrectionist sympathies were growing and even embraced it during the Human-Covenant War, where news of his victories would help with flagging morale across the armed forces. Despite this, Mack disliked HIGHCOM's attempts to use him and several other officers as military figureheads following the apparent death of Preston Cole in 2543, believing that they should have propped up Cole's legacy instead of trying to replace him as a rallying figure in the media.
Following the Heimdall incident in 2499, Mack became a heavy drinker and suffered from a lengthy period of depression, wracked with guilt over the secret of the Assembly and the belief that he could have prevented LaMarche's defection. This downward spiral would lead to a temporary suspension from his duties in 2501, though Mack would eventually recover thanks to the efforts of his fellow Trident members and went through rehabilitation for several months, emerging as a complete teetotaller. While still prone to fiery outbursts on occasion, Mack became a gruffer, less animated individual than he had been in his younger years.
After unofficially retiring from full duty for some time, Mack became calmer, helping to bring up his son until he was called back into service. There, he was forced to adopt the persona of a drill sergeant in training the young Spartans. However, a key characteristic of his was the ability to see what was bothering the trainees and speak to them individually, something that gained him the everlasting respect of his pupils. However, this degree of dedication to the SPARTAN Program distanced himself quite a lot from his son, leading to a somewhat strained and even hostile relationship between the two at times. Though they eventually reconciled, Mack would often feel guilty about treating his only child far too harshly in his youth for minor misdemeanours and neglecting him in favour of the SIGMA children. 
While in command of various Marine regiments over the course of the Human-Covenant War, Mack often chose to lead without taking the advice of others into account. While regarded as a brilliant commander who rarely made mistakes, this arrogance earned him few friends among his peers and stymied any promotions; it was commonly believed that had Mack been more affable then he would have made General much earlier in his career. In spite of his stubbornness as a commanding officer, Mack's insistence on doing things his own way was often overlooked in light of his many victories, and few subordinates dared question his orders in the field. 
While he was considered an exemplary commander and a talented orator, Mack was a solitary man in private, with only a few friends outside of his former ORION team and little connection with his own son, something that he came to deeply regret as the Human-Covenant War went on. Strangely, one of the few genuine friends in Mack's life was , who led the Office of Naval Intelligence for many years. The two were reportedly close confidants with a shared tendency for ruthless efficiency in their respective professions, though this friendship would become strained for years due to Mack's involvement in the SIGMA program, an offshoot of SPARTAN-II. While sickened by the ethical ramifications of the project, cutting ties with Frederick King after discovering that he had offered up his own child to SIGMA, Mack came to believe that the SPARTAN program was the only thing that could prevent a full-blown civil war within the colonies and did not regret his role in SIGMA after its subjects were eventually deployed to great effect against the Covenant.
==Promotions==
 Rank 	 Rank 	 Dates 
 	 	November 14, 2488—February 8, 2489
 	 	February 8, 2489—December 21, 2489
 	 	December 21, 2489—March 22, 2491
 	 	March 22, 2491—September 19, 2492
 	 	September 19, 2492—May 6, 2495
 	 	May 6, 2495—January 29, 2498
 	 	January 29, 2498—January 4, 2500
 	 	January 4, 2500—April 1, 2512
 	 	April 1, 2512—March 4, 2517
 	 	March 4, 2517—February 22, 2531
 	 	February 22, 2531—August 22, 2537
 	 	August 22, 2537—March 15, 2552
==List of Appearances==
*Choice (2498)
*Halo: In the Dark (2498-99)
*The Shot (2502)
*Back Then (2520)
*Start of Darkness (2525)
*Halo: Oversight (2525)
*Improvisation (2529)
*Boot (2531)
*Halo Fanon: Survival of the Fittest Season 5 (Non-Canon)
Category:Spartan-Is
Category:Sigmaverse Characters
Category:Sigmaverse
Category:Sigmaverse Spartans
Category:Sigmaverse ORION
Category:Sigmaverse HCW