Richard Mack Jr.

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Richard Mack Junior was a highly decorated soldier who served with distinction during the 26th Century as both an during the Human-Covenant War and a SPARTAN-IV supersoldier afterwards. Living up to the reputation of his father, a well known war hero, Mack was greatly involved with a number of SPARTAN-II's and III's over the years and fought in numerous campaigns alongside them. Joining the Marine Corps shortly after the Human-Covenant War began, Mack was marked out as an exceptional soldier early on, largely due to the enhanced abilities he had as a Spartan 1.1. Mack a survivor of the five-year battle to retake Harvest, and was among the first human forces on the ground in the UNSC counterattack. Once the planet was finally reclaimed from the Covenant in 2531, a chance encounter and fight with one of his father's old comrades landed him in Whiskey-04, an elite unit assigned to the SPARTAN-II Sigma Team.
After undergoing the gruelling training involved to become an ODST, Mack emerged as a valuable member of the unit and fought in many bloody battles throughout the Human-Covenant War. By late 2552 Mack was the last remaining member of the original team. Despite coping with his father's death early that year and the crippling losses of the , he pulled his team through and made it back to Earth, though he would be Whiskey's only living member after the Battle for Moscow. In the aftermath of the war, Mack would eventually become a commissioned officer in the 10th Shock Troops Battalion and was called in to assist the Office of Naval Intelligence in several classified operations on occasion.
In 2554, Mack was eventually selected to join the SPARTAN-IV Program, undergoing numerous augmentations that transformed him into a supersoldier. He would serve for over a year as part of a covert two-man team until he and his partner were assigned to the newly-created Fireteam Whiskey, with Mack serving as its leader. Following the outbreak of war against the Created in late 2558, Mack and his team became instrumental in organising long-term resistance against their powerful new foe from aboard the UNSC Peacemaker.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Richard Mack Junior was born in 2509 in the United Republic of North America on . His father, Richard Mack Senior, was a well known war hero who had participated in the years before. Due to his father's augmentations, he was required to take several injections to ensure normal growth without any kind of defects. A few weeks after his birth, Richard's mother left the family and never returned. His father would never speak about her, leaving his son to grow up in the care of a number of nurses, nannies and maids while he continued his military career. When he was eight years old, Richard's father began work on a secret project elsewhere on Earth and would be absent for weeks at a time. With no friends in their upscale neighbourhood, the young boy's childhood was a lonely one.
Growing up, Richard attended a prestigious private school and attained fairly good grades while there. However, he often got into trouble due to his hot-headed nature, starting several fights and getting into arguments with teachers. Part of his was due to a lack of attention at home, and his father's harsh discipline when he was present. However, he did outperform all of his classmates when it came to physical activities such as gravball, earning several trophies. By the age of fourteen he was considering taking on a career in sports, though with his father's military fame he felt pressured into joining the UNSC as well. In 2525, Mack Senior returned home for a short while. During this period they got into a number of arguments over Richard's plans to enlist before it was revealed that a colony world, , had been attacked by an alien foe. Shortly after, Mack Senior was called back to the field. This only infuriated Richard, who had not seen his father for more than half a year by this point. His father attempted to console Richard by assuring him that he had a place in the prestigious Luna Officer Candidate School, but he saw this as a hollow gesture and the pair parted on poor terms.
Despite the bad blood between them, Richard tried to remain in contact with his father after he left to help command a Marine regiment in retaking Harvest, though by the time he was eighteen he rejected the offer from Luna and made the decision to enlist in the Marines and fight on the frontlines. This was done to both spite his father and to prove that he could be a capable fighter rather than an officer. Mack signed up with the Marine Corps at his local recruiting office shortly after his eighteenth birthday, and was sent to Reach along with hundreds of others who had joined the military after news of the war spread across the colonies.
===Training===
Mack arrived on Reach in late 2527 and was assigned to a massive training group of recruits eager to fight the Covenant. While he was certainly a cut above the rest in terms of marksmanship and physical abilities, largely due to his childhood augmentations, Mack was never given a position of leadership among his training squads due to his reckless, surly nature. During one exercise his actions nearly killed another recruit when he attempted to destroy a mock explosive with a live grenade; only his name prevented him from being removed or worse, court-martialled. Due to the massive intake in troops since the beginning of the war, Mack's group were given just over three months of training before they were shipped off aboard a UNSC Cruiser towards Harvest, where both sides had been fighting for over a year.
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Richard was assigned to the 27th Marine Battalion after getting through boot camp, which was attached to the 12th Marine Expeditionary Force in an attempt to gain a larger foothold on the ruined colony world. They arrived not long before the new year alongside a Navy battlegroup and then were deployed en-masse towards the planet via Pelican dropship. A number of these were destroyed by plasma AA fire from below and many more were taken out shortly after landing. Mack's Sergeant was killed seconds after they moved out, taking a needle shot to the neck and forcing the others into cover. The remnants of their squad were stuck there for some time before a wing of Shortsword bombers destroyed an enemy emplacement and allowed them to move up. As they cleared through what remained of a settlement, Mack encountered a group of Unggoy, gunning them down in an instant before his comrades joined him in finishing off the survivors still infesting the town.
While the landing operation was successful and the UNSC managed to set up a number of firebases, over three thousand lives had been lost in a single day of fighting, including many people Mack knew from training. The situation only worsened on Harvest as time went by, with Covenant reinforcements taking the upper hand one day only to be pushed back by a massive attack the next. Mack fared better than most on the planet and was a corporal by 2530. He was also aware that his father was one of the highest-ranked commanders present on the planet, and in spite of their many disputes always listened out for news of his battalion elsewhere on Harvest. It was during this period that Mack first met with Henry McNair, an officer in an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper regiment. The troopers landed nearby during a prolonged firefight and tipped the scales in their favour before leading Mack's Marines ahead to demolish a Covenant base. The older man was impressed with Mack's skills, and after conversing for some time revealed that he had taken his own Helljumper training under the command of Mack Senior, and respected him greatly.
After Harvest was finally reclaimed in 2531, the 27th were pulled offworld and assigned to the UNSC Bright New Day. On the ship, Richard got into an argument with a superior officer, Major John Ackton, over a small incident in the Ship's cafeteria. The argument (started by Mack) ended in a fight, in which Mack was eventually overpowered, but not before he injured the officer. Mack was demoted to the rank of Corporal and was sentenced to be court-martialled, until Major Ackton approached him, having been impressed with his skill and tenacity in the fight (although this was due to Mack being a Spartan 1.1), and after getting him out of being court marshalled, gave him an offer: train as an ODST, and join his squad. Another reason for this leniency was due to the fact that Ackton has served alongside Mack's father in ORION years ago. Without a second thought, Mack accepted and travelled to Fargad, where he would enlist alongside dozens of other prospective recruits.
===ODST Training===
Mack went through training as an ODST under the veteran trooper Henry McNair, whom he would become good friends with. On his first day of training, Mack was assigned to Alpha Squad, comprised of the most promising ODST recruits. The fact that his father was a well known figure by many of the other recruits put more pressure on the young man, forcing him to work harder than the others in attempt to live up to Mack Senior's legacy. The training that Alpha came under was intense even for the ODSTs; two recruits accidentally being killed in a field exercise while Mack watched, helpless. This was a traumatic event for him, but Mack's squadmates were able to help him through, becoming the best they could be. After months of live-fire training, simulated orbital insertions and mock combat, Mack and the others 'graduated' from ODST training in early 2532, their group becoming famous amongst the 105th for having unprecedented training records, McNair remarking that they were the finest soldiers he had ever trained.
===Whiskey-04===
After passing his training, Mack joined the rest of the team on Earth, where they met with the people they would be in contact with for the next 20 years: Sigma Team. Mack was surprised to find out that one of the administrators of the Sigma Project was none other than his father, leading him to suspect that his reassignment to Whiskey was due to his influence, Ackton being an old friend of his. Mack was assigned to work with Sigma Team, their first operation being a skirmish in early 2532. Though initially wary of the Spartans, having heard about an incident which left several ODST's dead, Mack quickly came to like them, establishing a friendship with SPARTAN-035. This was often a subject of debate between Mack and his mentor, McNair, who had been on the ship at the time of the incident, and had developed an intense dislike of the super soldiers. With their constant contact, Whiskey and Sigma operated well together and came to be one of the few official contacts the Spartan group had.
===Battle of Kurovan===
As the years went by, Mack was promoted several times, attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant by 2545. That same year, Whiskey was stationed on Kurovan, a small world in the inner colonies, when it came under attack. As many high-ranking ground commanders were killed in the initial bombardment, Sigma led the defence in the city while the ODST's were assigned the task of deleting all relevant data pertaining to the location of Earth, much of this being accessible from the ONI centre on the planet. After dropping into the capital, the troopers came under attack as they made their way towards the target, being pursued by a large number of Covenant forces. By the time they reached the building only Mack, Ackton, and Steven Embry remained. 
Still pursued by the enemy, the three descended into the main data centre below the building, where they found Fenn-145, who was working with the city's superintendent in directing UNSC forces while hindering the Covenant where possible. As the rest of Sigma had taken out an enemy cruiser over the city, Fenn had remained there alone. Upon greeting the ODST's, the SPARTAN-II directed them to an underground monorail line that would take them to the city spaceport, where a few transport ships remained. It was there that most of the survivors in the city were falling back to. While they waited for the monorail, the leader of Sigma was able to single-handedly wipe out an elite SpecOps team before retreating to the ODST team, leaving the facility as they detonated the explosives there. By the time Whiskey and Fenn reached the Spaceport, the rest of Sigma and marine forces were already making a stand there, holding off a large Covenant ground force. It was largely due to luck that the majority of enemy ships were focusing on glassing the more rural areas of the planet at the time, with little support going to their attackers within the city. With assistance from a squadron of bombers, they were able to escape to the transports and take off, mere hours before the Covenant glassed the whole of Kurovan.
===Battle of Gress===
In early 2546, Whiskey were deployed once more alongside Sigma to Gress, a large industrial colony that helped to supply the UNSC. While thousands of troops were diverted to fend off the invading Covenant ships and protect key industrial areas, the ODST squad were to assist the Spartans in escorting a sealed package to the nearest spaceport for transport. It soon became clear that Covenant forces were after the package, an odd crystalline shard, as dozens of Phantom dropships assaulted the they were taking across the planet's surface. Ackton ordered his men to hold their positions around the package while Marco-035, Resk-063 and Jax-007 engaged the enemy on the roof. The troopers had a few close calls as plasma fire repeatedly struck the train car, prompting Mack and Embry to move into another one to provide support for the Spartans. 
After nearly an hour of constant battle against both the dropships and Sangheili SpecOps, they arrived at a secure location where Pelicans and AV-14 Hornets provided support and gave Whiskey time to deliver the package to the rest of Sigma. After the SPARTAN-II's moved away, Ackton led the ODST's into battle against Covenant troops pouring into the city. However, with the arrival of several CCS-Class Battlecruisers the UNSC forces on Gress immediately lost what little advantage they had and gave the order for all military personnel to evacuate. Whiskey-04 led a depleted force of Army troopers through the lower city, commandeering several Warthogs and civilian vehicles to get them to the Spaceport. There, they managed to escape via Pelican and were taken to the UNSC Albumasar nearby. The Marathon-Class Cruiser held it's position in orbit for some time to give Sigma Team a chance; Mack managed to convince Ackton to lead a rescue operation with a single Pelican after the Spartans detonated a HAVOK tac-nuke to destroy the package before the Covenant found it. After a lengthy search near the blast zone, Whiskey's Pelican picked up a faint signal from the stranded members of Sigma, and managed to pick them up just in time before returning to the Cruiser. While Gress had been lost, the Covenant had been denied an object of potential value and had taken tremendous casualties while attempting to take it; Mack believed that their foe had won a pyrrhic victory at best.
 
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In 2546, Whiskey-04 was deployed to with orders to protect a science lab as it was evacuated. While Mack protested that they should have been helping the planet's civilian populace, the troopers were responsible for the demolition of the site to stop the Covenant acquiring any data pertaining to Earth and the other colonies. Moments after landing, it became clear to the troopers that the planet would quickly fall to the enemy as its meagre defences were smashed aside by the much larger Covenant fleet. Their target, a military facility home to numerous ONI scientists, had already come under attack by the time the troopers arrived, though Whiskey was soon able to turn the tide momentarily and secure the base before enemy reinforcements arrived. 
Manning the base's defences, Mack was able to bring several defensive turrets online from a control room, which brought those inside more time to pack up their important items for retrieval. After several waves of enemy infantry fell before Mack and his comrades, a new offensive was launched as a large force of warriors surged towards the station in , breaking through the perimeter defences despite taking heavy casualties. Forced to move from his position to take down the Brute invaders, Mack and several members of Whiskey had to retreat along the ramparts as the turrets were quickly blown to pieces by plasma fire, allowing Covenant dropships to offload troops inside the base. Regrouping with Major Ackton and Lieutenant Embry, Whiskey began to escort scientists towards an escape tunnel, which led to a nearby airfield and their extraction zone. 
Faced with overwhelming odds, Whiskey-04 held their ground within the facility, setting up anti-personnel mines and rigging entire corridors to detonate just to funnel their alien foes into a killing zone. While this went well at first, Mack slaying numerous Brutes with a heavy machine gun, they severely underestimated their foe's tactical prowess as an enemy Chieftain and his bodyguards used plasma grenades to blow through the base's roof and ambush the troopers. Caught on the edge of a gravity hammer's kinetic pulse, Mack was thrown down a flight of stairs and watched as several of his teammates were torn apart by the hulking aliens at close range. As the remaining ODST's retreated down towards the escape tunnel, Mack was wounded again as a near miss from a Brute shot sent shrapnel through his leg. Unwilling to leave his subordinate behind, Major Ackton began to carry the wounded soldier into the tunnel, only to be hit repeatedly from behind by a flurry of Spiker rounds. After turning to kill his attacker with a well placed burst of fire, Ackton collapsed and died in Mack's arms.
Distraught at the loss of his good friend, Mack took up Ackton's rifle and continued to fight back, dragging his body into cover as he prepared to make a final stand. With Whiskey reduced to only four troopers and pinned down by a slowly-advancing wave of Brutes, they were unable to retreat until two Warthogs came to their rescue, firing a volley of missiles that collapsed most of the tunnel and cut the troopers off from their attackers. The Marines crewing the vehicles helped bring the survivors and Ackton's body through to the extraction site, where an Albatross dropship awaited Whiskey-04. The remaining soldiers and civilians were able to leave New Llanelli before the Covenant began to glass the planet, boarding a Destroyer before escaping the system. Mack would spend several days being treated for his injury before returning to Earth, where he met with his father for the first time in three years at Ackton's funeral. Their meeting was formal and brief, Mack Junior leaving almost immediately after the service to rejoin Whiskey-04 on the frontline.
===Siege of Fargad===
Main Article: Siege of Fargad
In September of 2547, Whiskey-04 was stationed on the Inner Colony world of Fargad, attached to the 3rd Shock Troops Battalion in preparation for a major offensive to retake besieged colony worlds. Days before they were set to depart alongside the 9th Fleet, UNSC forces on the planet's surface were attacked by a sizeable Covenant attack force. Forced to counter the enemy on numerous fronts, Whiskey were among over a dozen special forces squads deployed into Fargad's countryside. Mack would put his marksmanship to good use over the course of three days as he and his comrades inflicted major casualties on Covenant infantry columns, blowing up bridges and generally wreaking havoc behind enemy lines for as long as possible. While most of these commando groups were hunted down and slaughtered as Sangheili SpecOps teams moved in to intercept them, Whiskey was able to exfiltrate back towards the port city of Antolia.
Mack and his team would remain in the city, overseeing evacuation efforts as Covenant besieged it, launching a massive assault that nearly overwhelmed the city's overcrowded spaceport in the first few hours. While they fought valiantly, the squad and the Marine platoons backing them up were not enough to fend off the tide of Unggoy infantry that constantly assaulted their positions, and as they ran low on ammunition and news arrived of a column of Wraiths heading their way a message was received from nearby that reinforcements would soon arrive to relieve them. While sceptical that they would survive this engagement and ready to fight to the death alongside his comrades, Mack was shocked when two teams of SPARTAN supersoldiers arrived via Pelican, leading a charge that absolutely decimated their opponents in the surrounding streets and gave more time for the remaining civilians to leave the city. After thanking the Spartans - an act he had done many times in his life at this point - Mack joined the rest of Whiskey as they were recalled to Storm Base, the UNSC's main command centre on Fargad. 
Expecting a well-established military outpost, Mack and the others were disappointed to find that Storm Base was little more than a series of bunkers, constructed mostly out of instacrete by military engineers shortly after the Covenant arrived. They remained there overnight and linked up with elements of the 3rd Shock Troops Battalion as what remained of the UNSC's ground forces converged on the capital city, New Istanbul. Leading the defences there was Mack's father, who in spite of his advanced age chose to stand and fight, delivering an inspirational speech to the city's defenders from his bunker by the city centre as the Covenant prepared to hit the city with everything they had. While Whiskey-04 initially worked to set up explosives to create chokepoints in New Istanbul's streets in the battle, they were soon recalled to Mack Senior's bunker; a large force of Special Operations Sangheili had slipped by friendly air defences and were laying waste to all in their path. 
Racing across the city in Warthogs, Whiskey were the first to arrive and entered the bunker complex through a side entrance, seeking to head off the steadily-advancing attack force. Mack took point as the transmissions from the command centre grew increasingly desperate, and managed to finally intercept a group of Sangheili as they prepared to breach the final chamber. Fighting with reckless abandon, he battled several of the alien warriors in close combat with his M90 shotgun, driving several away before his father and his bodyguards joined the fray. Blindsided by the sudden arrival of Whiskey-04, the Sangheili were forced to retreat, though by this point enemy reinforcements had arrived and were bombing everything above ground while fresh infantry poured into the bunker, eager to kill the UNSC leader. Faced with almost certain death, Mack Junior and Mack Senior spoke to each other briefly during a lull in the fighting, with Senior apologising to his son for his distant treatment of him as a child. It was then that Mack's father confessed that he had spent years training the SPARTAN-II recruits that would eventually form Sigma Team, and that he had neglected his own child in favour of turning others into soldiers. While initially appalled, Mack Junior was also taken aback by his father's sudden sincerity and forgave him as they prepared to meet their end, fighting against the Covenant. 
However, both Macks would be saved yet again by the sudden arrival of Sigma Team, who had been dispatched to rescue them. With the battle above Fargad almost concluded as the depleted UNSC fleet made its final stand, the order was given for all remaining forces to abandon the colony world and flee at once. Mack and the others left New Istanbul and reunited with another Spartan team before being escorted out of the city in a military convoy. While Covenant ground forces attempted to pursue, the sudden arrival of the UNSC Bright New Day and several other Frigates in atmosphere gave them enough air cover to board shuttles and load up their surviving troops aboard the vessels. With most of the Covenant preoccupied with either starting to glass Fargad or still reeling from the staggering casualties the UNSC had inflicted on them during the siege, the rest of the UNSC fleet were able to escape successfully. Despite being another costly battle, the Siege of Fargad marked a point in Mack's life where he finally threw off the baggage of his past and made amends with his father, who vowed to contact him more frequently despite being immediately reassigned. While the revelation about the SPARTAN-II's took some time to digest, he felt no jealousy towards the other children who had gotten the brunt of his father's attention and remained on friendly terms with Marco and the rest of Sigma as they continued their fight against the Covenant. 
===A Sudden Loss===
In March of 2552, Mack received the news that his father had been killed in action during the costly Battle of Harpa. While he had grown accustomed to widespread death due to the ferocity of the war and the ruthlessness of their opponents, the sudden nature of Mack Senior's passing took him by surprise. As Whiskey-04 were attached to a battlegroup patrolling the fringe of the Inner Colonies at the time, he was not able to return to Earth for Mack Senior's funeral; his father's body had been recovered by Jax-007 and returned home to be interred. While he was offered commiserations in messages from a number of high-ranking officers, many of whom he had never met, Mack tried to remain focused on fighting the enemy and even neglected to watch a video of the funeral service that was sent to him. With the Covenant steadily closing in on mankind's remaining powerhouses like Reach and Earth, Mack decided that it would be for the best if he didn't visit his father's grave until the war was over.
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When the Covenant eventually attacked Reach, Mack and Whiskey were stationed in the Aszod region, but were transferred as part of the UNSC counter-offensive, being one of many ODST units dropped in during the . However, they were forced to retreat when the Covenant Supercarrier, Long Night of Solace, revealed itself. For the next few weeks, Whiskey was sent on various missions away from Sigma Team, who were deployed alongside SPARTAN-III teams against Covenant invaders. The squad, at the time consisting of nine members, was eventually pinned down during the , fighting atop a skyscraper while under orders to destroy a Covenant jammer. Though their mission was successful, they lost two squadmates to a banshee strike. The team was trapped until a eliminated their attackers, allowing them to escape.
With Mack now in charge, he ordered that the team make their way towards the nearest evacuation site-The Aszod Shipbreaking Yards. Arriving there barely a day later, the ODST team were able to make it to the UNSC Bright New Day, which had been scheduled for decommissioning and was sitting in a drydock. However, with the Covenant invasion, the ship, which was still fully functional, had been left there with only a skeleton crew to manage it. During the intense fighting, Captain Steven Embry was killed by a bloodthirsy Sangheili warrior, Sur 'Ranakee, while covering a group of technicians on their way to the ship. Whiskey-04 held off Covenant forces for some time until they received a transmission from Kane-098, who had taken command of SPARTAN teams Sigma, Upsilon and Tau. The surviving Spartans made their way to the ship and assisted the ODST's in defending it as preparations were made for takeoff. Eventually, the Day was able to escape the planet, with six Spartans on board. As the majority of the Covenant fleet was preoccupied with glassing the planet or pursuing the Pillar of Autumn, the frigate was able to escape from the system unnoticed. 
===Returning to Earth===
After making several random slipspace jumps, the Bright New Day ended up in the Epitadeus system, receiving a distress call emanating from the colony world of Hope. While Mack wished simply to return to Earth, he submitted to Kane-098's authority in assisting in the defence of the planet. As they approached the besieged colony, they came under attack by a single Covenant ship that, though taken down by the Day's MAC gun, managed to severely damage the frigate, rendering its FTL drive inoperable. Seeing no other way out, they were forced to land on the planet, near the city of Port Neandra, in search of another one. 
While the six Spartans made their way towards the city, Mack was left in charge of the ship, attempting unsuccessfully to contact nearby UNSC forces. After some time, the entire planet began to undergo massive earthquakes, troubling him greatly as Sigma reported in, having discovered an intact drive within the city. Mack then personally piloted a Pelican dropship to their location, picking up both the Spartans and the drive while under heavy fire, and returning to the Frigate safely to have it installed, fleeing to the edge of the system. Much to their surprise, a massive slipspace rupture occurred within Hope, the planet imploding, revealing a large portal in its wake.
While Mack and Kane conferred on what to do next, a UNSC Prowler exited Slipspace nearby. After scanning the vessel and discovering its name, Heavens Asunder, the crew discovered that it was seemingly without power and drifted aimlessly through space. Disturbed by this new revelation, Mack was left in charge once more as Kane, Marco-035 and Jax-007 went to investigate. He was contacted by the Spartans shortly after with news that they had encountered another SPARTAN-II: Elena-071. With the rank of Commander she took control of the situation and ordered the Day to follow her Prowler through the Slipspace portal. On the other side, Mack and the others were surprised to find a strange, unknown world. As UNSC forces moved in to attack Covenant troops on its surface, the pair of ships moved in.
For the remainder of the battle, Mack remained aboard the Bright New Day alongside his men while the Spartans were deployed groundside to investigate alien ruins. While there, they protected Elena as she downloaded a massive amount of data from the installation there. With hundreds of Covenant soldiers closing in on them as they escaped, Mack once again dispatched a Pelican to extract them, though to his surprise, Elena abandoned them immediately after making it back to her Prowler, jumping into slipspace while the other Spartans returned. While Mack was in favour of pursuing her, the decision was made to simply leave the system, the survivors of Reach having done all that they could.
===Battle of Second Sanctum===
Main Article: Battle of Second Sanctum
As the battered Frigate made its way back towards Earth, it picked up a signal from a small UNSC fleet standing by at an emergency rendezvous point in a remote system. While Mack and Marco-035 were wary of approaching the site in case it was a Covenant trap, Kane-098 gave the order to move in. The fleet, known as 'Battle Group Cossack', was comprised of ships that had also escaped the Fall of Reach and was surprisingly led by an ONI officer, Captain Jeanette Nisha. While Kane and two others travelled to her Prowler to discuss the current situation, Mack took the time to check on his squad. Having had little rest since Reach, many of them were using any opportunity to sleep while others were constantly preparing for battle. Though he too was worn out, Mack put on a brave face as the team's new leader and had the squad prepare for an update on their situation. As it turned out, the rag-tag fleet had been given a mission from HIGHCOM itself that involved the infiltration and destruction of a Covenant fortress known as Second Sanctum after word arrived that their alien foe had been taking human prisoners there. 
Considering their rather meagre resources, Mack considered it to be a suicide mission, though the Spartans declared that they could not go against HIGHCOM's orders and set out to assist Nisha's troops in their attack. While he volunteered Whiskey-04 for the initial raid into Covenant territory, which involved piloting a stolen Lich into the base, Mack's squad was asked to remain behind to act as reinforcements while several of the Spartans and a detachment of elite ONI Security personnel secured landing zones for their assault. Mack followed orders, and had Whiskey arm themselves well for the upcoming battle as they stood by aboard the Bright New Day. Moving in several hours after the infiltration team set off, Battle Group Cossack was able to quickly overwhelm the fairly lax orbital defences around the moon and dispatched Whiskey and the rest of their ground forces in a wave of dropships to reinforce their allies on the surface. 
Though few in number, Mack and his men soon helped turn the tide on the ground close to their landing zone, linking up with Spartan Louie-A199 and number of ONI troopers in a push towards higher ground. Having taken the Covenant troops by surprise, Mack and the others used their momentum to keep pushing into enemy territory before they could establish a proper defence, giving their allies time to push further into the Second Sanctum itself. The battle would rage on for hours, with Whiskey-04 holding their ground against what remained of the Covenant's security forces while Spartan-led strike teams seized the fortress command room. While it seemed as though they had prevailed against all odds and saved the prisoners from certain death with minimal losses, the sudden arrival of a second, more powerful Covenant fleet quickly changed the tide of battle against the UNSC's forces. With thousands of hostile troops bearing down on their location, Mack's squad moved to protect the rescued prisoners while their remaining allies gathered to enact a last-ditch defence of Second Sanctum until rescue arrived from orbit. 
After their ramshackle battle group was decimated within minutes of the second fleet's arrival, Mack was unsure if they would escape the moon alive, and was prepared to make a final stand against the Covenant when dropships from the Bright New Day and the Destroyer Illustrious arrived to airlift the beleaguered survivors and their protectees out of the combat zone. After another hour of furious combat the last of the UNSC's ground troops managed to escape the moon's surface and chose to immediately escape into Slipspace, with the exception of Captain Nisha's prowler, which destroyed Second Sanctum with a nuclear strike moments before it was obliterated. With only two surviving ships after the battle, Mack and Whiskey remained aboard the UNSC Bright New Day alongside Sigma Team while the few UNSC troops who had escaped Second Sanctum alive remained aboard the Illustrious. Unsure if the Covenant were still pursuing them, the two ships split up, intending to take a roundabout route to the largest remaining human military stronghold: Earth. Though it was later revealed that the attack on Second Sanctum was not actually a sanctioned operation and was instead an act of revenge taken in response to the Fall of Reach, Mack could not deny feeling satisfaction for properly striking back at the Covenant, and remained in good spirits in spite of the casualties taken.
===Battle of Earth===
By the time the Bright New Day returned to the Sol System, the Covenant had already launched an all-out attack that left several planets besieged, including Earth. With their frigate battle-damaged and still severely undermanned, Mack and Kane-098 decided that it would be best to abandon the Day, and after making their way into Earth's orbit had the crew evacuated in shuttlecraft and escape pods while Whiskey and Sigma descended to the surface in the ship's remaining drop pods. At Mack's behest, Kane had their ship set off on a collision course with the nearest Covenant vessel, enduring crippling volleys of plasma fire before it smashed into an enemy cruiser, destroying it. Satisfied that the Day had gone out with a bang, Mack was able to guide his descent towards Whiskey and Sigma's pre-determined drop location, and landed successfully just outside the Russian city of Moscow.
While the local UNSC forces welcomed the arrival of both the Spartans and ODST's, their presence did little to suppress the Covenant's advance into the city. Leading the remnants of Whiskey, Mack fought valiantly against packs of vicious Jiralhanae, forcing them to battle hard for every street and building. Knowing that they could not fight the brutish aliens for long in close quarters, Mack and his men set explosive devices across hallways and turned alleys into killzones to try and stymie the Covenant invasion. While they enjoyed a modicum of success, they could not maintain a successful counter-attack and were pushed back, eventually regrouping with Sigma Team for what looked like a final stand. To Mack's dismay, the entirety of Whiskey-04 were killed in a brutal assault that nearly overwhelmed their position, leaving him as the sole surviving member of the squad as the order to retreat was given. Though he was wounded twice as they fell back, Mack was saved by Marco-035, who carried him to the evacuation zone as the last of the city's defenders fled Moscow, detonating a HAVOK nuke that obliterated most of the Covenant's forces along with a third of the city. 
Mack and the others travelled to ONI'S PILLAR Base, situated beneath Mount Everest. There, they were allowed to rest and Mack was treated for his wounds alongside soldiers fleeing many other engagements before he was assigned to lead a rag-tag squad of troopers from several different regiments. After saying his goodbyes to Sigma Team, Mack would lead this new group in several engagements over the next few years, fighting the in Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco and Kenya in the final days of the Battle of Earth, and remained to defend the planet against a potential incursion while the took place. After hostilities on Earth more or less ceased by mid-December, Mack would be redeployed offworld as the UNSC launched its first initiative to strike back and reclaim any colonies still besieged by what remained of the Covenant's now-scattered forces.
===War's End===
By March of 2553, Mack's regiment were deployed to Ankat, a small Inner Colony world that had been lucky enough to escape invasion earlier in the war. Having been sent to fend off an attack by a Jiralhanae-led remnant group, his troopers saw heavy combat in their first few weeks on the planet, taking many casualties as they fought alongside Ankat's only Marine regiment to defeat the invaders.
===Siege of Yawada===
===SPARTAN-IV Program===
===Created Uprising===
==Skills and Abilities==
As a Spartan 1.1, Mack was mentally and physically superior to normal human beings despite not having the advanced chemical augmentations of his father. Mack possessed above-average intelligence from a young age, and was offered a place in the Luna OCS Academy as a teenager. He would decline this partly to spite Mack Senior's wishes and chose the difficult path of an enlisted Marine. After quickly passing through boot camp and entering the field Mack found himself being quickly promoted partly due to his skill and valour and partly due to the high turnover rate of NCO's during the Harvest Campaign.
In combat, Mack's increased strength, reflexes and speed gave him an edge on the enemy, though he constantly maintained that he was no better than an average human despite of his exceptional abilities. Favouring standard weaponry over flashier items, Mack's preferred to use an MA5 series rifle with an M6D handgun as backup in the field. He disliked fighting in close quarters, but was competent with a combat knife and his fists. His Spartan augmentations only improved on his existing abilities, making him an incredibly dangerous foe on the battlefield.
Throughout his years as part of Whiskey-04, Mack was usually assigned as the unit's technical specialist and was adept in remotely hacking computer systems and repairing vehicles and equipment, including his MJOLNIR armour as a SPARTAN-IV. When he was eventually forced to take command of the team, Mack proved to be a fairly adept leader who directed the remnants of his ODST squad for well over a month. During his stint as a commissioned officer he would hone these skills further and saved many lives with his quick thinking and effective strategies, something that played a role in his later assignment as leader of Fireteam Whiskey.
==Personality==
Over the years, Mack's personality changed drastically, having served in the military for just about his entire adult life. In his youth, he was easily angered, often picking fights or getting into arguments at the slightest provocation, something stemming from his father, who was quite a harsh disciplinarian. It was this attitude that got him into Whiskey-04, fighting John Ackton, who had him put into ODST training for his tenacity. The harsh training measures Mack went through to become an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper got rid of his brash nature, Henry McNair, his trainer, teaching him the value of patience and remaining calm in battle. By this point, he had fought the Covenant on Harvest, having experienced first-hand the death and destruction that war brought. McNair's teachings stayed with Mack for his entire life, his mentor's voice being a constant reminder to stay calm even in extreme situations.
Also, there were many occasions when Mack was noted for his above-average intelligence and analytical skills, something that he would usually conceal to fit in with the crowd. More than once it had been remarked that he had inherited the nature of his father and the high intellect of the mother he had never known, this leading to his quick rise through the ranks following the . Though some attributed this to nepotism in the military due to his father's position, Mack had proved his worth time and time again, both as a fighter and a commander in later years. He was also completely loyal to the UNSC, believing that they were humanity's only real chance at thriving in an increasingly hostile galaxy. While Mack acknowledged that he and his comrades would have to 
Throughout his early life Mack strived to impress his father, who was a SPARTAN-I and a well-known figure in the UNSC. Due to his father's occupation and own personal issues, his relationship with Mack Senior was often rather strained, even moreso during the Human-Covenant War where their contact became very infrequent. It was not until the Siege of Fargad that the pair finally fought alongside each other, reconciling as plasma fire rained down on their position. Mack Senior's death several years later caused a great deal of grief to Junior, who felt as though he had missed out on a chance to connect with the man he idolised. In spite of this and the numerous horrors he witnessed during the war, Mack did not seem to suffer from any combat-related stress disorder and although he was often plagued with self-doubt, he maintained a facade of confidence to improve the morale of his comrades. 
Towards the end of the Human-Covenant War, Mack's confidence and leadership abilities rose out of sheer necessity as he was forced to lead what remained of Whiskey-04 after the Fall of Reach. As he got older, it was remarked by some UNSC veterans that he had become much like his father, being harsh, if fair on the troops under his command while inspiring those around him. Mack treated all with respect, and was quick to reprimand his troops for rudeness of misconduct. Unlike some ODST's during the war, who loathed Spartans and saw them as freaks, Mack had no problems with the supersoldiers due to his regular contact with Sigma Team. He considered Marco-035 to be one of his best friends, and took the offer to join the SPARTAN-IV Program without hesitation.
==Promotions and Demotions==
 Rank 	 Rank 	 Dates 
 	 	December 23, 2527—November 4, 2528
 	 	November 4, 2528—February 20, 2529
 	 	February 20, 2529—September 30, 2530
 	 	September 30, 2530—February 4, 2531
 	 	February 4, 2531—May 28, 2531
 	 	May 28, 2531—July 6, 2533
 	 	July 6, 2533—February 9, 2539
 	 	February 9, 2539—August 5, 2542
 	 	August 5, 2542—July 18, 2547
 	 	July 18, 2547—March 5, 2551
 	 	March 5, 2551—April 30th, 2553
 	 	April 30th, 2553—January 2nd, 2554
 	 	January 2nd, 2554—May 8th, 2554
 	Spartan 	May 8th, 2554—November 11th, 2555
 	Fireteam Leader 	November 11th, 2555-
==List of Appearances==
*Halo: In the Dark (2517)
*Boot (2531)
*Flight (2552)
*Losing Hope (2552)
*Gaining Faith (2552)
*All Quiet (2553)
*Halo: Mercy Kill (2554)
*Halo: SIGMA (2558)
*Halo Fanon: Survival of the Fittest Season 4 (Non-Canon)
Category:Brodie-001
Category:Sigmaverse Characters
Category:Sigmaverse
Category:Spartan 1.1
Category:Sigmaverse HCW
Category:Sigmaverse Spartans
Category:Sigmaverse PW