LOREBOOK: The Fire Team from Hell

*Kendahlah’sulaman*, Jack thought to themself. This was supposed to be a short, easy mission that would move them up the path to promotion. That was five years ago.

“Listen, Jack,” Captain Joe Bidon had said all that time ago, “you’re great with people, but for a spartan, you’re not exactly the best shot.” It was true. Jack was used to plasma pistols and needlers, not the unwieldy kickback of a human weapon. “This assignment lets you get some real distinguished work out there, and you probably won’t even see a lick of combat. I mean, you’d basically be leading a fire team, even if it is full of supremely stupid spartans.” Jack snorted air through their nose, thinking about just how wrong that pitch had been. Distinguished work leading a fire team? No, Jack was stepping aside while the most braindead spartan in the UNSC scooped up all the accolades. Not a lick of combat? Try getting stranded on an alien planet and fighting a bunch of fucked up robots.

At least right now, Jack wasn’t babysitting the rest of the fire team. Alyson’s glassy-eyed silent stare and Orion’s childish temper-tantrums weren’t there to torment them. No, all they had to deal with right now was spartan Ben-110. Which was a tall order all by itself. Jack remembered the way their eyes widened when they looked at his service card for the first time. Severe Narcissism, disobeys direct orders, Consistently insists that he ‘saved’ Aquaria from a nonexistent covenant invasion...it was a wonder he hadn’t died by walking out of an airlock or something.

“Hey man, you want me to put on some music?” There’s that magic word again. Jack remembered their first week on the job. “Listen Ben, I’m nonbinary. That means I use -” “nonerbindarirary? Is that some kind of covenant weapon??” They sighed, used to it by now.  It wasn’t that he was a transphobe, he just couldn’t grasp what gender even was.

“Uh, Jack?” Ben said. Jack didn’t give a response. “Alright, then, I’ll put on my favorite song.” *Shai’Halud, not this one again.* Ben pressed a couple of buttons, and a horrible instrumental began blaring out of his suit. It sounded like high school graduation music. “Isn’t this song awesome, Jack?” Even under the helmet, Jack knew from his tone that Ben was making the pleading, happy eyes of a small child expecting praise from a parent. Jack felt a little warmer. It wasn’t Ben’s fault that he was this way, and they were both going through a really hard time - “stuck on a rock in the middle of space,” as Orion had so eloquently put it. Cheering him up would do some good.

“Yes, Ben. This song is awesome.”

“Yeah!”

*What else could cheer him up?* They thought. *I know, talk about work. He loves that.*

“Do you know where Orion is?”

“I’ve been in touch with Scarab. She’s tracking him.”

Any time scarab was mentioned, Ben was always chomping at the bit to talk about how Orion got her. *Let’s beat him to the punch.*

“Good. Where did he get Scarab?”

Ben’s body language seemed to loosen up in his armor. “Umm, She was a gift from ONI. Me and Orion got new gear when they found us after Reach. We were some of the last Spartan G2s around, so, I got this scanner helmet, and he got Scarab.” The way he said “scanner helmet” was so emphasized, it practically screamed that he wanted to talk about it. They’d heard the explanation a thousand times before, but it always made him so happy. He said “the viewers would want to know,” whatever that meant.

“What does that brick on your face even do?”

“Oh, this thing?” Jack could practically see the smile under Ben’s helmet. It warmed their heart a little. Babysitting the “gone spartans,” as the others on the Infinity called them, was exhausting, but it was fulfilling work in the end.  “They’re night vision goggles, I just clip ‘em to my air assault helmet, and, I see in the dark, I guess.”

“You didn’t have that on, uh, ‘Aquaria?’”

“Oh my god, don’t even get me started on my helmet during Aquaria. ONI said I should wear this like, stupid, underwater-breathing apparatus, CQC-modified thing, it was so dumb!” Jack strained their ears, trying to hear Ben’s story over the cacophony of music. “I know, I wish everyone on the planet would remember me as the person who saved them, I kinda wanted a cooler helmet.” Jack smiled. At the end of the day, Ben’s fanciful imagination was kind of cute.

“Hey, what’s that up there?” Ben said, clicking off his music speaker. Jack ran up to him. A crashed ship - looked like trouble. Once more into the breach.