#field intelligence

“... it is most unfortunate to report that of the ten subjects selected for the Enhanced Spartan-IV Augmentation Procedures developed by members of my team, only one survived the procedure. A failure rate even higher than that of the Spartan-II’s. Though the more disturbing thing would be how mentally unbalanced the Enhanced Augmentations had left the sole surviving Candidate Ilsa Zane. Though I am not particularly surprised by this outcome, not in the slightest. Especially considering who was the template for the Augmentations to the Candidate’s physical prowess that would have rendered the use of MJOLNIR armor redundant. An attempt was made by myself and members of my team to try to persuade the elements in Section Three who wanted to move forward with this experiment to reconsider. However the elements who wanted to move forward with this experiment held a higher rank than myself and I suspect Margaret, that these elements had your silent approval to proceed.  Given that those particular augmentations were based on 02028-14916 SSgt. Lucas B. Reynolds’ unique genetic and biological make up, more specifically, those augmentations were developed directly from the cultures of samples collected by the uninformed, unauthorized and ill-fated endeavor made by Captain Marshal Gilman to study the decidedly non-human part of the Staff Sergeant. 

While Gilman’s action was reckless, it did nevertheless give my team a much better, though sadly still far from complete, picture of how the Staff Sergeant was able to the preform feat’s he performed during the war. However I must stress that even as my science team looked into developing augmentations from those samples, there were concerns voiced by some agents about whether any such augmentation developed should ever be used on a Human being. These concerns are not unfounded, given the observations made when pieces of the Staff Sergeant’s cloned tissues were transplanted into compatible unenhanced, human soldiers [See Attached file: Results of OPERATION BRONCO]... 

...Though I must thoroughly stress that the loss of nine out of the ten volunteers for the program was far above what the predictions placed the number of ‘washouts’ to be. I’m afraid that even if it wasn’t for the psychological side effects the procedures had on the sole surviving candidate, there would be no way to move forward with it without great loss. Which the loss of so many talented soldiers would hold a negative impact on our own military capabilities. Throw in the unstable psychological side effects the procedure had on Ilsa Zane and it’s not a stretch to say that the entire operation was a resounding failure. 

More so when I had my team compare the data gather on Zane’s capabilities post-augmentations compared to the known and reported findings gathered on the man her additional Augmentations were derived from. Staff Sergeant Lucas Bernard Reynolds, the results were,dissatisfying to say the least. Though Zane’s augmentations gave her a physical prowess beyond that of later groups of Spartan-IV’s and even the older Spartan-II’s. This prowess still fell markedly short of the observed prowess demonstrated not only by the Staff Sergeant but most of the other observed Quasi-Humans who were found to be in our armed forces....[See Attached File: OPERATION SHINING LIGHT]

...Needless to say, While in a sense the additional augmentations performed Ilsa Zane and the other nine volunteers succeeded in producing a soldier more physically capable than any other purely human soldier ever produced. The experimental procedures failed to duplicate what had been noted through nearly 42 years of observations, studying, and analyzing quasi-Humans and their various, often distinct varieties, especially the variety found within the extended Reynolds Family [See attached Dossier: The Reynolds Family]...

...Though the final decision to continue looking into ways of duplicating these Superhuman Capabilities found within certain varieties of these Quasi-Humans, is your and your inevitable successor’s decision to make Margaret. It is both in my expert opinion backed by 42 years of collected data and my opinion as your friend, to advise you against approving any further efforts to try to duplicate the physical feats observed in these Quasi-Humans. We had attempted to replicate them and instead we had created a monster. 

 This however is not a suggestion to stop studying them, far from it, however it is a suggestion against attempting to create super-soldiers through Augmentations directly developed from the studies done on these Quasi-Humans and the Ancestral beings they are descendant from. Beings that are, based on a vast array of anecdotal evidence and a few exceedingly-elusive scraps of hard evidence gathered over the past four decades,  strongly suggests are still very much alive despite the passage of hundreds of years, probably even thousands of years...

Though if studies of these quasi-humans are to continue, we must do them in far more covert and subdued manner. For these Quasi-Humans and the originator beings that mixed with our own species at a still uncertain point in time that produced these quasi-Humans hold power we still haven’t been able to fully understand scientifically and I fear, we might never fully understand barring a Earth Shattering breakthrough in the studies of either them or the precious few Forerunner artifacts that might pertain to the ever-elusive originator beings these quasi-humans are descendant of. Though once again I must strongly caution against action that could turn them against us, if Ilsa Zane’s post-augmentation mental instability and subsequent defection to the New Colonial Alliance is anything to benchmark. Making these groups turn against the UNSC would be fatal for the continued survival of the UEG in this tumultuous post-war situation we have found ourselves in. If we make a critical mistake when dealing with them during these chaotic times, we could be facing Venerable Monsters with no real hard counter against them without massive loss of life to all involved parties. I dare state this since the plethora of Intel coming in from some former members of the Covenant hegemony strongly suggests that The Covenant had created a task force, and a fairly sizable one at that, created to specifically fight these Quasi-Humans whenever they were encountered. This is further backed up by reports of peculiar oddities in observed Covenant activities collected from the field post-2531 [See Attached Files Field Reports: 476-JK, 575-HM, 679-SS, 816-AJ, 913-DF, 926-948-DM, 1007-1035-SR and 546 other files.] as well some rather odd intercepted Covenant Transmissions from during the course of the war.

If this Intel from ex-Covenant sources can be confirmed, then I am afraid that what we would have no hope of containing, let alone feasibly stopping these quasi-human groups if we turn them against us. However, if we can keep these groups neutral or better yet, bring them to our side. Though again I must thoroughly stress that we can not afford to make these quasi-human groups our enemies, and we must keep insurrectionist groups from turning them to their side at all possible costs if we our to have even a semblance of order in the post-war Galaxy.”  

The following is a transcript of the incident aboard the ONI Medical Facility Endurance when Captain Marshal Gilman (ONI Section III) brought in Staff Sergeant Lucas Reynolds under the False pretense of testing an expirmental treatment to return him to the field quicker. In order to collect tissue samples of normal state and deliberately trigger the Staff Sergeant’s ‘enraged’ state in order to collect samples of the initial transitioning process. Note that Captain Gilman neither had the clearance level nor the authorization to even perform. This Transcript, the accompanying recording, attached Documents and Report are classified Top Secret-Eyes Only

Date: August 13th, 2547

Time: 0700 hours

Location: ONI Medical Facility Endurance

// File_Start

*Door to Surgery room Delta 14 slides open. SSgt. Reynolds along with a half dozen ONI medical officers led by Captain Gilman enter the room, The Staff Sergeant is only wearing a pair of PT shorts while all other’s are wearing surgical scrubs. Gilman is seen directly guiding the Staff Sergeant to the central table, with sold Titanium restraint’s on it.*

SSgt. Reynolds: “Are those solid Titanium restraints? Are those really needed?”

CAPT. Gilman: “Indeed they are Staff Sergeant. The last time you woke up during a surgery you broke the normal restraints and accidentally wounded a Surgeon.”

*SSgt Reynolds remains silent and his face hold a regretful solemn expression as CAPT. Gilman Guides the marine onto the table before the other medical officers descend on the Marine and secure the restraints on the ODST’s waist, arms, legs and wrists before running a IV to him. In five minutes SSgt Reynolds is unconscious.*

CAPT. Gilman: “Is he completely under?”

1st.Lt Coleman: “Yes Captain, he’s got enough Sedative in him to keep a Spartan out for the better part of the day Anymore and we run the risk of killing him Sir.”

CAPT. Gilman: “Alright, You know your orders Start on it.”

*The Six other medical Officers and Corpsmen begin taking blood samples, Various Tissue Samples, X-rays and Other Biometric data [See Attached Documents Gabriel-01 & 02, Linden-01, Crane-01-04] for 20 minutes before stopping.* 

CAPT. Gilman: “Corpsman Daniel, Hook him up the Neural Marker. Lieutenant Roark, Hook up the Shock Electrodes. We’re going to see what’s really going on in his head.”

*HM Daniel proceeds to hook up and power up the Neural Marker to SSgt Reynolds. Lt. Roark hesitates for a moment before connecting the electrodes just below the ODST’s ears.*

CAPT. Gilman: “Chief Warrant Officer Linden, what’s the Neural Marker showing?”

CWO-2 Linden: “Sir... You’re not going to believe this.” 

*CWO-2 Linden Stares at the screen wide eyed, with the color draining from her face. CAPT. Gilman Walks over to the screen and looks at it. AI analysis show the Captain’s eye’s Dilate then constrict noticeably, a micro twitch almost imperceptible to the human eye occurs in his left eye. [See attached file NMLR-2547 for Neural Marker Recording.] CAPT Gilman stares at CWO-3 Crane and frowns*

CAPT Gilman: “Chief Warrant Officer Crane. Shock him. Lieutenant Gabriel, First Lieutenant Coleman, Corpsman Daniel, make ready to collect samples the very instant we start observing any changes to the ODST” 

*CWO-3 Crane dons two leather gloves before picking up two medical-grade electrical connections from their insulated housing on table and sparks them together briefly to test for power as 1st Lt. Coleman, Lt. Gabriel and HM Daniel all move to position with various sampling instruments.*

CWO-3 Crane: “Shocking in 3, 2, 1...”

*CWO-3 connects the electrodes to the Staff Sergeant’s head, just below the ears. Delivering a high voltage but low amperage shock to the ODST’s skull. Immediately casing SSgt Reynolds to jolt against the current for the three seconds the current was applied to him before being removed. However the ODST’s Movement’s do not cease. The Heart Rate monitor connected to him shows a rate of 320 BPM and steadily rising. CWO-2 Linden’s expression is that of a silent horrified scream. SSgt Reynolds’ Skin pales very noticeably and becomes slick with perspiration. The Marine’s Skin tone takes a slightly reddish hue to it, though this is too pale to be noticed by medical staff*

1st Lt Coleman: “Sir I think we over did it with-” *Is interrupted by CWO-2 Linden’s shriek.*

CWO-2 Linden: “HE’S WAKING UP. OH MY GOD IT’S WAKING UP!” 

SSgt Reynolds: *Pain groans* 

*CWO-2 Linden Stands up from her chair and starts making towards the door. All other’s present in the room briefly look to her before 1st Lt. Coleman looks back to the still thrashing Staff Sergeant in time to see the Marine’s eye’s open as all the muscles of his body tense. The ODST’s Eye color has become a vibrant Glowing Maroon Color. The other medical staff look back to him and begin collecting samples.  This furious collecting ceases when all of the ODST’s blood vessels become clearly visible under his skin as his skin becomes a visible pale red color and continues darkening to a more vibrant dark red color. The camera briefly zoom’s on the SSgt’s eyes; they are noted to be severely constricted. The marine’s face is contorted in a expression extreme agony*

SSgt Reynolds: *Strangled pain scream*

CAPT. Gilman: “ Keep Collecting samples!” 

*HM Daniel Collects one last skin sample but now the ODST’s movements are almost too entirely violent. Sounds of groaning and stressing metal are clearly audible as the SSgt thrashes in his restraints.* 

SSgt Reynolds: *Long pained moan. Pained Groan. Strangled Angry Pained Groan. Low Inhuman Growling.* 

*The SSgt partially ‘sits up’, folding and stretching the solid Titanium table until it went from flat to a 45 degree angle. Barring clenched, slightly enlarged canine teeth at CAPT Gilman with a angry expression. The ODST’s skin is now a complete Fire-Brick red color. The SSgt pulls at his arms still shackled to the arms of the table, the arms of the table groan and slowly bend with the ODST’s arms towards CAPT Gilman. CAPT Gilman and everyone else jumps back with a startled yelp.*

CAPT Gilman: *Barely Coherent* “EVAC THE ROOM. EVAC THE ROOM NOW!” 

*Most medical Staff Swiftly grabbed most of the collected samples and rush out of the room. CWO-2 Linden is the only one left in the room. She appears to sprint out but stops. Even as the SSgt’s Thrashing bends the table back until it rests at a 20 degree declination. This action snaps the Titanium shackle around his waist with a loud pop. CWO-2 Linden grabs one last empty Syringe and draws a final blood and tissue sample from the ODST before fleeing from the room. The pressure door slams shut and Harmonically locks. The Blood is noted to be slightly glowing inside the vial. All cuts and openings made by the Medical Staff earlier close. Interestingly the wounds he sustained by a Covenant Energy sword [see Attached Medical report SSgt LBRJune 14th 2547] do not appear to show the same regenerative effect.*

SSgt Reynolds: *Loud [140 dB] Enraged Roaring*

CAPT. Gilman *Speaking to the Ship’s Ai Ronald* “Start Pumping out the Atmosphere from Surgery Room Dealt 14 NOW! Until the Subject has been contained. Don’t over do it, we need him alive.”  

*The SSgt Rips his legs free of their restraints in the midst of roaring as the air pressure in the room starts to drop. The base of the table follows shortly after which heavily damages all nearby medical equipment. Outright destroying the Heart rate monitor, Monitor’s last recorded reading was 630 BPM. SSgt Reynolds then haphazardly stands up, the stitches closing his energy sword wounds are ripped and the wounds reopen to a degree. The injuries reopen more as the SSgt flexes and breaks the upper part of the table. Air pressure in the room is down 45% from normal levels. SSgt Reynolds tears off most of the rest of the table still attached to his body. Though his left arm shackle and right leg shackle are still attached to him. Signs of Environmental Hypoxia start to show as the Air pressure reaches 57% below normal levels.*

SSgt Reynolds: *Enraged Roar*

*SSgt Reynolds makes his way to the door steadily even as his body movements weaken as the increasing Lack of Oxygen takes effect on his body. However the SSgt’s footsteps leave roughly foot sized 15 centimeter deep dents in the quarter meter thick armored floor of the deck. Air pressure inside the room is now 76% below normal Atmospheric levels. SSgt Reynolds’ movements are now very slow as he comes up to the door and starts pushing against it while bracing his feet against the floor. The Deck benath the ODST’s feet starts to dent and sensors in the door show the door rapidly approaching designed pressure limits. SSgt Reynolds appears to briefly choke and falter his movements as Hypoxia becomes more pronounced. The ODST grits his teeth and gives the door one last shove as blood pools around his feet from reopened wounds. The shove Bulges the entire pressure door ten centimeters, warping the frame and compromising air-tightness slightly. The sound of cracking bones is clearly heard.*

SSgt Reynolds: *Weak grunt*

*SSgt Reynolds collapses against the Pressure door and slumps down into a growing pool of blood. Air pressure begins to return to normal as the ODST’s body takes a human appearance again. Three Minutes later, the adjacent wall opens as ONI Section Three agents with Plasma Torches cut a way into the room. Medics rush in through the opening and work to stabilize SSgt Reynolds, his breathing registering as faint and shallow. Medics fill the reopened wounds with biofoam before carrying him out on a stretcher.*

//File_End

“Afterwards, Staff Sergeant Reynolds had his prior reopened injuries closed again by a different set of ONI medical Personnel. Captain Gilman and all those whom were with him were detained and questioned afterwards. After 73 hours of questioning the captain of where he had learned about the ODST’s non-human side. He informed us of Leak from my team. A leak that was promptly dealt with by Section Zero Personnel. However the Samples and Data collected by Gilman’s team gave my own team a more complete look at the mechanisms of his transformations than what we had ever previously been able to obtain post-rampage even this early on from studying the confiscated samples. My Chief Biochemist has already made a plausible theory of developing several kinds of Augmentations based on grown Cultures of this Transitional tissue.

 Margaret, I personally request that the Captain Gilman’s assistants or at the very least Chief Warrant Officer (CWO-2) Victoria Linden be transferred over to my team to continue their work. Personnel who’ve witnessed such things first hand and yet remained steady fast to performing their duties nearly no matter what is very hard to come by. And that level of Bravery is certainly a much needed commodity for the work you have me performing. Captain Roger Gilman is currently being held at the Midnight Facility Pending your final decision of his sentencing. Staff Sergeant Reynolds is currently recovering about the hospital ship UNSC Artemis. Questioning while under partial lucid conditions concludes that he has no memory of the events that had transpired beyond what he called a vaguely bad dream he struggles to remember. Neural mapping and AI analysis of the questioning session confirm him speaking the truth. 

Date:October 22nd, 2552. 

Time: 23:05 

The Following was intercepted by the UNSC Applebee while making observations of Covenant Activity on the Dark side of the Moon October 22nd, 2552. This Intercepted message and report is classified Eyes Only Top Secret. This message contains separate attached video/ audio data.  [see Attached Documents Tranquility-01 and Tranquility-02.]

Margaret the Translations are still in progress and may require additional screenings to obtain clear information. But below is a transcript of what was intercepted an hour ago and my thoughts on this development. 

“Holy Prophet of Purity our mission has succeeded. The Heretics with in this sector have been purged. Their city is now little more than boiling glass. Your assumption of these Supernatural creatures depicted in captured human artifacts was correct. My forces scanned the moon twice over to find the capital where these so-called ‘pure’ beings resided. Bolstered by the prayers of my fleet the Sacred Luminary aboard our vessel had faintly detected the cloak the cowards had hid behind for so long. When we broke their barrier with the weight and might of our faith in our gods, battle began at once. These ‘Lunarians’ and their so-called advance Technology and mystical powers proved to be strong resistance to our initial incursion attempts. However through the strength of our belief and the persistence of my warriors, we had found weakness in their defense. 

I had the Zealots under my command probe their battle lines and seek the weaknesses in the defenses of the infidels city as I took to the battle field to face their Champions. Their Champions were very strong, one of whom was able to call upon their own heathen gods to aid them in battle. As my forces drew their attention I observed how they fought and found the weakness in their strategy. In the night of that first cycle I ordered my sappers to burn the trees which these infidels used to alert them of Intruders. As well as ordering small elite strike team to harass them continuously. Stretching their forces thinner and thinner as my own encircled them completely. When the second cycle began I ordered the air units to launch a massive offensive as my Zealots and spec-ops made ready to punch holes into the weakest links of the Heathen’s defensive lines. While the heretics were fighting off the air attacks, I ordered my forward units to attack their main lines and their Champions. Forcing them to fight my units, and with their attention focused on the forward units. My Zealots punched small holes through their lines and made way to their city. 

Having seen all that their champions could do over the past two cycles, I ordered my units to fall back and make it appear to the heathens as if though they were victorious for a short time. As my forces fell back I personally entered the battle and came behind the more dangerous of the two. With my Holy blade and prayer to our gods for strength, I skewered the lunar Heretic’s strongest champion, whom had felled 60 legions of my warriors,  on my holy blade before splitting her to three while I deactivated my active camouflage. As the other champion heard the strangled death cry of first, I reactivated my Camouflage and moved into the dust clouds, as she reacted to the death of her kin I sprinted forth and crushed her rib-cage inwards with a boot strike. As the Last Lunar Champion laid dying in the sands I spoke to her after kicking away the sword which had slayed 50 Legions of my warriors. I told her that their race along with the Heretical humans and Demons would all be burned away by the might of the Covenant’s combined faith before removing her head by a single slash of my sword. 

As their battle lines collapsed from a renewed offensive after the death of their champions. My Zealots reported finding a number of Holy Relics within the Heathen city. It was then that I ordered the Ship-masters you had assigned under my command holy one to withhold the ritual cleansing of the Infidel city until all holy relics were removed from the site. A Trove of Holy relics and other items of interest to our mission were recovered from the Infidel city before my subordinate shipmasters burned the rest to glass. Holy one, one of these relics seems to be a map of sorts pointing towards another relic called The [Untranslatable word, no match to known Covenant or Forerunner words on record] on the Human planet below. I shall return with this map and seek your counsel on our next move. Fleet Master Kutaul 'Vadamee signing off.”

“ ...What has been most troubling as my team looked into more about these unusual quasi-human individuals was the fact of how widespread they are. As it stands members of the team you assigned to me for this mission have confirmed the existence of these quasi-human entities on eleven colony worlds, most of them are outer colony worlds who’s settlers can trace their heritage back to East-Asia and/ or of Japanese decent. The exact nature and reasoning for this correlation is still not exactly known. Perhaps digging through the old Department of Colonial Security records may yield additional information and/or clues about the nature of these entities and their capabilities. 

However if any of these quasi-humans are capable of feats similar to what Gregory Reynolds performed during the failed acquisition of candidate Lucas-009, then we face a threat that is potentially far more dangerous than the Insurrection. Or perhaps to better put it: if the insurrectionists win the support of these groups, then we may be unable to further contain the ongoing situation in the outer colonies even with the Spartan-II’s....”