Backstory: Maria Florous
This is the fourth of FIVE backstories of my in-game Spartans. Each using a different core in Halo Infinite, I wanted to express why I chose each armor and give them each a befitting backstory.
As I post each story, I will add links to the other stories, for easy reference and switching back and forth.
After I conclude posting all five written stories, I will then begin to post the audio versions. with links after, accordingly as well.
Once that is complete, I then plan on writing the first of a hopeful series of full Fireteam Piecer stories. For now, sit back and enjoy the fourth installment, “Hazard” Fireteam Piercer’s “Hazardous Materials Operator”.
Chapter One: Childhood Trauma
Maria Florous was born on a moon of an inner colony planet, of much complexity. Normally a world such as hers would have been passed over due to the high sulfur content and the acrid taste of the air.
However, this moon was rich in elements used for nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), specifically uranium. As well as other elements used in chemicals for various hi-tech purposes. As such, there were no cities or colonies, outside of several chemical processing plants dotted around the globe. The moon was under complete control of one company, ChemPro. The ChemPro plants insides were extremely clean facilities and were air tight and pressurized. On the outside, they were painted is similar colors to the planet’s yellow-green haze of the atmosphere. They were typically rectangular buildings of no more than 8 standard stories tall.
Everyone on the planet worked for ChemPro in some capacity, even the children. Each worker wore ChemPro hazmat suits in specific colors, denoting age. Some suits had patches that would signify the worker’s job designation. Adults wore either yellow or orange hazmat suits, teenagers wore green and children wore blue. The only other color was white. This was reserved for the highest levels of personal from the corporation, often referred to as corpos. Corpos were rarely seen in the facilities and even less outside of them. They were kept in more advanced offices restricted from all other personnel. It was rumored they wore other clothing in these offices. Comfortable clothing that people on most planets wore everywhere else. Their offices had the most purified air on the planet. Maria had never seen a Corpo in her 24 standard years.
Maria’s early life was hard. Women were treated differently on this planet than most. Unfortunately sexism and misogyny were very present. This meant that women were often relegated to more menial jobs than the men.
As a blueberry, as children were called, due to the color of their uniforms, Maria was picked on by the older greenie boys. She was always getting into trouble due to fighting with them and her ailing father’s pay was docked because of it. Arturo Florous, her father, was an older man. He had worked for ChemPro for 40 years when Maria was a blueberry. At that time he wore an orange hazmat suit. He had been injured in a chemical explosion and was unable to work in the mines due to his injuries. This left him very limited opportunity. He was relegated to maintenance duty, including cleaning up hazardous materials spills. As such, he was demoted to wearing a yellow hazmat suit. Arturo had promised Maria that he would make enough money to send her to her relatives on a far less harsh world. That promise never came to pass. Shortly after Maria graduated to a greenie, her father got into an accident under suspicious terms and passed away from those injuries. ChemPro was not the sort of company that would just let employees leave. Maria was forced to stay and continue learning about chemical processes and her future place within the company, alone. She did receive a small stipend from the company due to her father’s passing on company property but, it was even less than what he was making when he was alive. Rather than falling into depression, this emboldened Maria to become the best she could be so that she would become a valuable asset to the company and perhaps one day be transferred to another facility on another world. This meant she had to choose her path in life very early and with exactitude.
As greenies, teenagers were given basic employment paths to choose from, then further enhanced those with specific skill lessons, later in their teen years. Boys were typically given either labor intensive jobs or if they excelled in math and science, they were given limited opportunity to learn chemical engineering. Girls, were offered less laborious jobs and they paid much less. The Corporate Office just didn’t value women as much as men. So girls were either cooks, cleaners, or on the package processing line. Maria didn’t want any of those but, she knew she wouldn’t get much opportunity otherwise. So she chose processing since it at least got her around chemicals. However, she had her heart set on chemical engineering. So, she hatched a plan. Her best friend, Hidalgo, didn’t care much where he worked but, was brilliant in math and science. So she convinced ‘Dal’ to teach her everything he learned. Though Dal was forlorn, the chance to help his friend motivated him to do the best he could. During the next 5 years Maria and Dal spent every possible minute together. After their formal education, they would meet and Dal would teach Maria what he had learned from that day’s teachings. She became so adept that she would often do his homework for him.
They were weeks away from graduation when tragedy struck. Several boys in Dal’s class were jealous because Dal had been selected ahead of them for a chemical engineering internship and they were not. They had their suspicions about Dal and Maria’s relationship, so they took things out on Maria. After school, they cornered Maria. First making fun of her by calling her an orphan, then making disparaging remarks to her about being a girl. One began to push Maria and she socked him hard on the jaw. Some of the other boys laughed but their leader, a heaved set kid named Porto, spoke up.
“Are you guys going to just laugh or are you going to do something about that little pug hitting Manny like that?”
Immediately the other three boys, including Manny went after Maria. She kicked, punched, clawed and eventually screamed. Hidalgo, knowing Maria was late to meet him, had been looking for her when he heard her scream. He rounded a corner when he saw the brawl. He wasn’t a fighter but he couldn’t just let his friend be beaten like that. So he jumped into the fray. This excited Porto, who yelled to the boys to start hitting Dal.
Maria, bruised and bloody yelled for Dal to run but, it was too late. Porto grabbed Maria and held her while the boys knocked Dal down and began to kick him in his sides and stomp on his chest. Dal let out a blood curdling scream while spitting out blood. Then looked at Maria in shock. His body went limp. Maria saw this and yelled a high toned shriek that surprised Porto and he let her go. She kick him between the legs and he went down. Then she immediately ran over to Dal. The other boys realized what they had done. They got Porto to his feet and they all ran away. Maria didn’t know what to do. She began looking for where the blood was coming from, when Dal whispered.
“I’m sorry we won’t get to graduate together, “ he said.
Maria cried and looked at him a said loudly, “No, you are NOT going to leave me so close to our goal!’
Dal, looked up one last time and through the blood spoke his last words, “I love you, Maria, thank you.” And with that, he fell silent. Maria let out another scream, She went to shake him but, knew he was already gone.
Chapter Two: A Fresh Start
The next day at school, there were three Corpos waiting in her classroom, along with the four boys who had attacked her and Dal the previous day.
“Maria, “ one spoke. “These boys say you broke Manuel’s jaw and kicked Portnoy between the legs. Is this true?”
“But, they KILLED Dal!” She yelled.
“Is it true? Did you hit and kick these boys?” another Corpo asked.
She was about to shout again, when the third Corpo an older lady with stringy blond and grey hair held up a hand. Maria guessed that this meant she wasn’t to yell. She looked right at the woman. A little surprised to see a woman in a Corpo lab coat.
“Yes, ma’am,” she said. The woman looked at the younger two male corpos and told them to escort Maria out of the room.
“Now boys, is what Maria said true?”
Porto spoke up before any of the others could chime in. “No, Ma’am. We didn’t even touch Hidalgo. He was our friend.”
“Is that so?” Said the woman.
“Yes,” said Carlos, one of the other boys.
“Well, we shall see,” the elder Corpo said. She glared at the boys, smacked one of her hard shelled boots on the floor. That startled the boys. She turned and walked out of the room, not to be seen by the boys again.
The woman met with Maria in another room.
“Maria, my name is Dr. Catherine Halsey. I am not with ChemPro. I am with the UNSC.”
Maria’s eye grew wide. “Wow, this woman is even more important than I thought,” she said in her mind.
“Can you guess why I am here?” Halsey said.
“To punish those boys?” Maria responded.
“No. But they will be dealt with. That I promise you,” Halsey reassured.
Maria, looking confused then asked, “Then why ARE you here?”
“It has come to my attention that you are interested in Chemical Engineering and that you were completing your friend, Hidalgo’s, homework,“ said Halsey, sternly.
“How could you have known that?” Maria said worriedly.
“I will explain all to you later, however, I have one question for you,” said Halsey. Wonder and excitement glazed over Maria’s face. What would she ask? Why would this seemingly very important person come to her little backwater Corpo moon wanting to ask her just one question. “I can see you are eager to hear what that question is,” said Halsey.
Maria sucked in air, not realizing she had been holding her breath. “Yes, Ma’am!”
“Good. How would you like to come with me?” Asked Halsey.
It took no longer than a second, though Maria had wondered why would Halsey want her to leave with her.. “Yes! Absolutely yes!”
“Don’t you want to know why first?” Halsey said, with a slight upturn of one lip on her face.
“Ma’am, my life has been hard, especially since losing my father and now my best friend, just last night,” Maria said. “There is nothing for me here now. I’ll go anywhere else with you and do whatever you need me to do.”
“Excellent. Just what I wanted to hear. However, you should know that by going with me, I won’t go easy and you will learn a whole new set of skills,” Halsey said, matter of factly.
“I’m ready for whatever challenges lie ahead,” Maria replied.
“I know that you are. We will leave tomorrow morning. I have a few things I must do today. Gather only what you need. I will send someone for you, early tomorrow,” Halsey said.
Maria was elated! She would finally be leaving this world. Maybe not for a chemical engineering job but, at that very moment in time, she didn’t care. She wouldn’t have the constant reminders of her ailing father, his death and the fresh death of her friend Dal, surrounding her each day. She got what little she wanted to take and put that in a small duffel bag. She could hardly sleep that night.
The next day one of the younger men who was with Halsey the day before, came calling for Maria very early in the morning. Maria was already up, with duffel bag strapped over one shoulder. Before he could knock on the door, she opened it and said, “I’m ready, let’s go!”
“But you didn’t lock the door behind you,” the young man said.
“It’s ok, they can have whatever they want. I never want to come back here again,” said Maria.
They left for the small spaceport and met Halsey, who had a look of concern about her. “What’s wrong, Dr.Halsey?” inquired Maria.
“Nothing you need concern yourself with young lady. We leave in a few minutes. Find a seat on the shuttle,” Halsey said with a measured smile. Maria, went into the shuttle, stowed her duffle and waited for Halsey and company to board.
Lt. Morrison spoke, ‘What’s wrong, ma’am?”
“There’s been another massive attack. We are going to have to accelerate the new recruits training.” Halsey said sternly.
“Where?” asked Morrison.
Halsey sharply replied, “That is on a need to know basis, Lieutenant. Though you will be briefed once we get back to the training facility.”
Lt. Hansen came up to the two. “We’re ready to go Ma’am. If you will both get on board, I’ll get clearance and we can leave immediately.”
“Very good,” said Halsey. They lifted off within minutes.
When they had landed, the sun was shining, the wind blowing softly and the air smelling sweet. This was the first time in Maria’s life that she had ever experienced fresh air with no need for purification. The first time she had ever been outside for that matter. She wanted to just stand there for a while and breathe it all in. However, Halsey snapped her out of her daydream. There were people hurrying about all over the place.
“Quickly, Maria. We have to get you started.” Halsey said. “You may not see me for a few days, but the Lieutenants and other trusted people will get you settled in and started. I didn’t want to start your training this way but, I am needed elsewhere.”
Maria understood as best she could. She didn’t know what was going on but, she knew Halsey was important and wouldn’t likely leave her, unless what she was needed for was even more important.
“It’s ok, ma’am, “ Maria said. “I’ll see you when you get back.” Halsey nodded towards Maria, turned and hastily left. Maria would not see her again for a long time.
Maria was ushered into a room where there was already another girl about her age, present and putting away her things. “Hi, I’m Maria,” she said. The other girl gave a grunt towards Maria. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Maria asked.
“Haven’t you heard,” said the other girl?
“Heard what?”
“The Covenant hit Carthaxis and they are advancing quickly on other inner colony worlds!” The girl exclaimed.
“I’ve never heard of Carthaxis. I barely know anything about the Covenant other than what they taught us in school,” Maria said.
“Where have you been hiding all these years?” the girl said.
“A chemical…”
“That was a rhetorical question. It doesn’t matter. We’ve been at war for almost three decades now and the Covenant are winning!” Maria felt an audible gulp in her throat. Thirties years? All she knew is that there were aliens who had been attacking some outer colonies. The UNSC had fought back and things were stalled. Her home world would see an uptick in production from time to time. Rumor abounded that was for the war. Those rumors were often quelled with other excuses. ChemPro didn’t want their workers attention focused elsewhere.
“Well, what can we do about it?” said Maria with concern in her voice.
“I don’t know about you, Maria, but I plan on fighting back,” said the other girl.
“And just how are you going to do that?” Maria snapped back.
“New girl, you don’t know anything about where you are and why you are here, do you?”
“Who are you calling new? You’re unpacking now too,” Maria said, now getting angry. She never liked being called names and she was not about to let anyone else start here at this new place.
“Okay, okay,” said the other girl. “Let’s start over. I’m Callie. I’m from New Caldonia. The Covenant attacked my planet a few weeks ago. My parents and brother were killed in the attack. I survived and the UNSC found me just three days ago”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Callie. My best friend was killed by bullies two days ago, Dr. Halsey showed up the next day and here I am,” Maria said, with some sorrow in her tone.
“Seems like that’s how Halsey works, doesn’t it,” Callie said. She went on. “She finds kids who have lost everything and brings them here.”
“Where exactly is here? And what are we here for then?” Maria said with some suspicion.
“Strap yourself in, you’re about to go for a wild ride. We are here to become Spartans.” Callie said with a hard stare back at Maria. Maria had a puzzled look on her face. She was about to speak when Callie interrupted her. “Let me guess, you don’t know what a Spartan is?” said Callie, with a tilted head.
“Correct.”
“We are going to learn how to fight.”
“But I already know how to fight,” said Maria.
“If you’re going to interrupt me, then you can just find out yourself,” said Callie.
“No, no, go on,” said Maria apologetically.
“We are going to learn how to fight with the UNSC’s best trainers, then we are going to be augmented. Then armored with super suits.” Callie said with some excitement in her voice.
Maria said, with eyes wide open, “Wait! What do you mean augmented?”
“They really didn’t tell you anything, did they? We are going to have some physical alterations that are going to make us stronger and faster than any other normal humans. The armor will make us almost indestructible,” said Callie. Maria’s eyes grew even wider. Wow, what had she gotten herself into? Then she remembered the life she had left behind and quickly became very interested in what she was about to undertake. She and Callie talked for a couple of hours from there about Spartans, where she and Callie came from, what they both knew outside of the war. It was mostly Callie talking but, Maria got in some conversation as well.
Those first few weeks were very hurried. Though Maria did fall into a routine, even amongst the chaos. She didn’t see Halsey for at least a year. However, she was so busy with training that that time just flew by. Halsey stopped by long enough to let her know that with Maria’s knowledge of chemicals, that she would have special training in that area, as a Spartan. The next four years went by quickly. While the war still raged on, she had become a true fighter, winning training fights even amongst some of the bigger boy recruits. She had also been augmented during this time and now stood a towering 6’9” tall. Her chemical training made her an excellent field operator in that area.
Before graduation from Spartan school, Dr. Halsey came to her one last time. “Maria, I have some news that might be hard for you to hear,” she said. What news could possible be that bad that she hadn’t already heard in some form or another from the war? Halsey saw that same brief bit of daydreaming and again startled her into the moment. “Maria,” Halsey said sharply. Maria snapped to attention. “Maria, your home world was attacked. The Covenant destroyed every plant. We fear no one is alive and the whole place is a massive hazardous zone.” Halsey said with much seriousness in her voice. Maria thought about that for a minute. A place she had grown to hate, she didn’t have any love for it. However, there were people there that she knew, her teachers, some of the kids, now young adults as well. They didn’t deserve to die.
“What do you need me to do?” Asked Maria.
“We are sending you and a few other Spartans in to assess and then start the cleanup. The UNSC does not have the personnel to divert to this. Not on a grand scale. Besides, we do not know if there are any Covenant still present,” explained Halsey. Maria felt a pang of tension tightening in her chest. She never wanted to go back to that place. Surely anyone she knew would be dead. Hell, she would have been dead, if not for Halsey coming to get her years ago. But, she felt she needed to honor both her father and Dal in some way. By going back home, she could assess the damage, and hopefully find survivors. If she met any Covenant along the way, she was more than prepared to deal with them.
“I’m ready ma’am, whatever you want me to do and where ever you need me to go,” said Maria.
“Very good, Spartan Florous. You graduate tomorrow. Have you chosen your armor?” asked Halsey.
“I have,” Maria replied.
Her armor consists of:
Armor Core: HazMat
Helmet: ASHMAW
Visor: Echelon Echo
Chest: VOLTSPARK HUB
Left Shoulder: FX1T ARM
Right Shoulder: FX1T ARM
Knee Pads: PRO-TEK CAPPER
Wrist: COR-BIT
Utility: QUICKFLUSH
Gloves: MODEL 78-C
Armor Coating: Everglade
Spartan Number: [REDACTED]
Service ID Number: [REDACTED]
The armor coating she chose was specifically selected since it had both orange and yellow, the color of her dad’s HazMat suits, as well as, the same green she and Hidalgo wore as greenies. This was a way to honor both the most important people in her life.
Chapter Three: There and Back Again
When she and her fellow Spartans of Fireteam Hazard had landed, besides not having seen any Covenant ship or anything being picked up on radar, her first thought was, I wonder how bad the air smells now. There was smoke in many places, she knew the natural air of the moon smelled of sulfur but had forgotten how bad even the filtered air tasted. She wasn’t about to find out now. She was happy to have her helmet firmly attached. Whether by fate or by design, they had landed outside of the plant she had called home. She figured Halsey had some hand in that. Since she knew the layout, she went in first. It might have been 5 years since she had been here but, not much had changed. So she was able to easily navigate the team through the plant, though now at a different height advantage. Gone were the living quarters. Almost completely obliterated. Just some personal belongings of workers strewn about. They went by the cafeteria. Again much destruction. She saw some food that had rotted in the now perforated plant. The sulfur infused air had penetrated this once pristine location. They went by the classrooms where she had been picked on. She had a brief flash of frustration. They next worked their way to the Corpo office. They still hadn’t seen any bodies though, which was very curious, considering all the destruction. If not bodies, then body parts. But no human remains were to be found, as yet.
When they reached the Corpo offices, they were still sealed. No apparent destruction. Though there was one decaying body lying just to one side of the thick vault like door. She called for her Spartan infiltration expert. Spartan Mayes stepped forward. Though he was taller than her, he was slender for a Spartan. Spartans were mandated to a certain amount of physical training per day when not on missions. Often Spartans would work out even more to further enhance their physical prowess. Not Mayes, he preferred to sink his intellectual teeth into all things techno security. Mayes worked his magic on the security lock in front of him. Within a minute he had unlocked it and the hiss of escaping air let loose. Large cylinder locks slide from the other side of the door and the door swung inward. Inside, the scene was drastically different from what they had seen in the rest of the plant. The offices were unscathed. She called out for any ChemPro personnel to come out, that they were safe. No one came immediately, though there was one small cry for help from what sounded like a small old man. Then the Spartans heard some rustling in the next room. Spartan Florous turned up her helmet vocalizer. This time her voiced boomed much louder. “Any ChemPro personnel, come out. This is Spartan Florous of the UNSC. You are safe now.” At this point, six people came out of hiding. A small old man, as she had guessed. A middle aged woman, a female child and three young men about her age.
The old man, looked up at the much taller Spartan. “Thank you! Thank you for saving us!” He exclaimed. The middle aged woman didn’t speak and looked like she had been holding back tears. the child looked shell shocked. One of the three men came forward.
“Florous? Maria Florous?” One asked.
Maria knew that voice and she didn’t like who it was coming from. She turned toward the man. “Portnoy. So you’re still alive and I see Manny is with you. Carmen, is that you?”
Carmen was another boy she went to early school with. She wasn’t friends with him but, she had never had any issue with him.
“Hi, Maria. Thank you for coming back for us,” Carmen said.
“So that’s what you abandoned us for,” said Porto.
“Where I went, what I did and what I have become are none of your business. I was sent here to assess, save any people, and clean up the mess the Covenant made,” said Maria with a little edge seeping into her voice.
“Hold it together, Maria,” she thought. Here stood two of the men that had killed her best friend. But, she was a Spartan now and could not let her emotions get in the way of her mission. “Where are Carlos and Juan?” Juan being the fourth boy who had beaten her friend to death.
“Carlos died a week after you left. He was caught in a small explosion in the mines,” Porto said. “We don’t know where Juan is.”
“Was he still alive when the Covenant attacked?” questioned Maria.
Manny spoke up this time, scars still visible on his jawline where he had to have surgery to realign it. Maria had really got a good shot in back then. “Juan was right behind us.”
“Shut up Manny,” Porto chimed in.
“No. You are NOT going to do this again, Porto. You are not in charge here, I am,” said Maria, with hard inflection in her tone. Porto took a gulp of air. “Speak, Manny. Porto will not shut you up this time,” Maria said, rigidly
“He was right behind us. We got here to the Corpo offices. Porto ran in first. I made it through, then Porto swung the door shut, leaving Juan outside.”
“That must be the body we saw on the other side of the door,” one of the other Spartans said.
“So, Porto, you left one of your own friends out there to die. If he didn’t die from heat, then he surely suffocated from the outside air that has swept through this place.
Manny looked at Porto with anger in his eyes. “You killed Juan! He was my lover and you just left him out there to die!”
“I didn’t do anything but close a door. If Juan was faster, he’d have made it inside, like we did. If I didn’t close the door, we would all be dead now,” said Porto.
“Always making excuses, Porto. And Dal was not your friend,” said Maria.
A look of shock came over Porto. “You found that out?”
“I did”
“Well, you should also know that, that old woman got us banned from all the better jobs,” Porto said back.
“That’s a lot better than you deserved,” said Maria.
“Um, Spartan Florous,” said one of the other Spartans on their secure channel. That’s all Maria needed to hear to know that she needed to get back on task.
“Get your helmets on. We are going outside where we have a ship. One of the Spartans will stay with you, while the rest of us finish the sweep. He will call in for rescue and a Pelican will come to pick you up for off-world transport,’ said Maria, very business like.
“Ha, looks like I’m going to get off world, unlike your boyfriend,” Porto snickered. Maria ignored the comment, though she wanted nothing better than to punch her augmented first into his face. Maria gave orders to the other Spartans to continue to sweep the area, but stay within a quarter click in case anything surprising happened.
Chapter Four: Survivors
Spartan Florous, Spartan Matone, and the survivors started to make their way to the ship. They had made it outside when Florous had a sense that something was not quite right. She had a feeling they were being watched but couldn’t see anything out of place that she didn’t see going into the plant. Just in case, she spoke over secure com to Matone. “Be on the lookout Pierre, I’ve got a funny feeling all of the sudden.”
“You felt it too,” said Matone. “Good, I thought I was the only one.”
They both widened their motion trackers on their hud to 50 meters. Normal protocol was between 17-25 meters depending on the mission. Widening the trackers however was commonplace when things were too quiet and Spartans weren’t in cramped locations where the trackers wouldn’t pick up motion at that longer range. They began to cross one of the mining truck roads when a blast came from a plasma weapon. Both Spartans immediately told the survivors to hit the deck. Five of them did. The one still standing was almost frozen in place, with a giant hole in his glass visor, the edges of which were still melting from the fresh blazing hot plasma. Then the body fell over, already dead. The Spartans took up defensive positions. Maria sent a com to her team to have them come to their location ASAP. Maria’s head swiveled about while looking at her motion tracker. Nothing showed up. Matone looked over at Maria and made a hand gesture to stay put. He had seen something move about 20 feet behind her. Still nothing pinged on the tracker. Before she could react, a hiss of energy snapped into being and she barely saw the energy sword as she ducked under the slice. Matone immediately shot in her direction with his Battle Rifle. The active camo of the Elite shimmered then blinked off. With her attacker now visible but too close to take a shot with her Automatic Rifle, she used all of her might to land a hard upper cut to the Elite’s jaw. An audible crack was heard by all within earshot. The Elite winced in pain as he once again tried to slice Spartan Florous. Again, she deftly moved out of the way, the blade cutting through the air where she had just been. In the same motion, she grabbed the Elite by the sword hand and flipped him over her back, knocking him hard against an outcropping of stone beside the road. She drew her magnum from her hip and shot the Elite four times in the throat. The energy sword hissed off. Matone came over to her and asked if she was injured. She said, just her pride from being caught off guard like that.
She brushed herself off and went over to the person whose now dead body lay with helmet facing towards the ground. She rolled it over to see which of the survivors had died, though she had already guessed who. An ever so slight upturn of one lip occurred when the blasted helmet revealed that it was Porto that had been shot. She allowed herself to revel in the moment. She might not have been the one to kill him. That had been done by the enemy. But at last, he had paid for his treachery. After the moment had passed, she got right back to work getting the other survivors to the ship. The other Spartans were on scene mere seconds after she had downed the elite. They all took up defensive postures and swept the area with their weapons at the ready.
Nothing else had happened on their way back to their ship. As promised, Matone stayed with them until another Pelican came to pick them up, after the all-clear had been given for the area. Florous and her team swept the area again, moved on to the other plants and found no other Covenant. They did manage to find another 12 survivors and got them all off planet safely. Clean up would take awhile. But, with the Covenant threat gone from the planet, ChemPro could send in their own teams of Hazmat workers to clean up the mess and begin salvaging what they could. Then the task of rebuilding would start.
Epilogue
Florous would receive a special award of merit for her actions that day. More importantly, ChemPro made some policy changes in light of one of their own who came back and saved their workers, some say at the urging of the UNSC, allowing women to hold the same positions as men. The woman she saved would go on to become the planet representative to ChemPro’s HQ, while the little girl was granted a slot to attend Chemical Engineering school. The old man retired to some vacation world. Manny, seeing the courage as well as grace under pressure from Maria, would go on to join the UNSC to both honor her and as a way to pay back for the sins of his youth.
Her last known deployment was aboard the Mortal Reverie, a UNSC Frigate, that was part of the UNSC Infinity’s fleet. She was to be transferred to Fireteam Piercer, aboard the UNSC Infinity as soon as they slipped into Zeta Halo space. It is not known if she made that transfer as there has been no word from Infinity.
High command is assessing the situation and coming up with a plan.