This is the third 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 third installment, “Spartan Steel” Fireteam Piercer’s “Heavy”.

Backstory: Spartan Steel

Chapter One: Citizen Montague

Luciferrous Montague was born on the little known inner colony world of Gheny (pronounced gain-ee). Gheny is a small icy planet just on the outer rim of the habitable zone of its local star. The planet houses several metal processing and manufacturing mega facilities. Each of these facilities are cities unto themselves. Due to the excessive heat brought on from the processing of molten metal, Gheny citizens have no worry of heat on such an icy planet. In fact, it gets so hot inside these plants that workers often wear little more than the required protective gear. One step outside of these massive facilities would be an instant reminder of how cold their world really is.

As Montague’s name was a bit long, in his late teens, he shortened it to Ferrous Mont. Having worked various heavy labor industry jobs for all of his teen years, he bore a heavily muscled form. This went well with his shortened name, which translated in the local language, meant Iron Mountain. Mont’s features are that of a tall, dark brown skinned, clean shaven, heavily muscled man. One standout feature is his thick but short mohawk. He always carried his massive trusty hammer with him.

While Mont enjoyed working the various jobs of heavy industry, he longed for something new. The Human Covenant War had already been going on for a few years when Mont turned 20. It was upon his birthday that he made the decision to leave his world behind for even more perilous adventures. He went to the local UNSC recruiting office, slammed his oversized hands on the desk and demanded to be on the next shuttle out of Gheny to join the Corp. The recruiting officer was surprised by Mont’s size and immediately signed him up.

Chapter Two: In Space Nothing Here’s You Scream

Within the hour, Mont was on his way to the nearest UNSC boot camp. Once arrived, he went through the standard battery of physical and mental tests to ascertain his ability to see where he might serve best. Again, his size and strength led the way and made those decisions easy for his drill sergeants. During basic training, Ferrous also was given the opportunity to become a heavy gunner. Few humans could carry the oversized M247H Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) and Mont was up to the task as he was already quite used to handling large heavy industry tools and other equipment. He was a natural fit for this duty. Upon completion of basic training, Mont was assigned to the 412th Calvary Unit. There he learned how to operate all three major variants of Warthog guns. Those being the standard heavy machine gun, rocket launcher and gauss variants. While he appreciated the area of effect the rockets gave and the shear power of the gauss cannon, he favored the heavy machine gun. He loved using the HMG so much that he requested and was approved for use of his own modified HMG. Mont kept it with him for use as a spare should his Warthog’s gun become jammed or damaged, never leaving him without a high powered weapon to handle. The “Iron Mountain” as he came to be known brought fear to many a grunt or Kig Yar on the battle field. He reveled in mowing down large groups of Covenant with his HMG.

During a high stakes mission to reestablish a trade route that had been over run by the Covenant, the Iron Mountain nearly met his match. A UNSC Frigate and two Destroyers came out of slipspace only to be met with two Covenant ships waiting for them. The capital ships traded fire. Mont, seeing that the UNSC was starting to become at a disadvantage, quickly leapt to the nearest unmanned cannon and began returning fire. The thrill of firing an even more powerful weapon filled Mont with a heavy dose of endorphins. He was so focused on the battle in space that he almost missed that a small Covenant boarding party had made it near to his location. Mont ran back to his Warthog and grabbed his own modified HMG and began exterminating the would-be invaders. He managed to kill every last one of them except for one active camouflage Elite. This Elite got close enough to Mont to bring down a slash with his energy sword. Mont blocked the slash at the last second, at cost of his own HMG, having been sliced in half by the energy sword. 

This enraged Mont and he quickly retaliated with a hard crushing smash of the back half of his HMG onto the Elite’s head. The Elite’s active camo fizzled and shut down. Had the Elite not been wearing his helmet, his brain would have been turned to mush. As it were, the Elite was surprised by this human’s strength and stepped backward. This was all Mont needed to complete his revenge. Still carrying his massive hammer from his industrial days, Mont quickly unclipped it and swung a crushing blow to the Elite’s jaws. The Elite screamed in pain as its lower left mandible was left cracked and dangling. The Elite had dropped his energy sword hilt in this moment of confusion. Mont swung back with his hammer, this time catching the Elite between his right mandibles, breaking many teeth. The Elite swelled with pain. It took a second to look around, only to find that the human had picked up the energy sword hilt. The last thing the Elite saw was the bright light of the sword being lit as it was thrust upward through its skull.

Mont was not yet out of danger. Though he had managed to kill the invaders, there was still the matter of either destroying the Covenant ships attacking them or escaping. He knew the UNSC’s small fleet was losing. He also knew the age old line of wisdom to live to fight another day. With on-board klaxons ringing through his ears and the stench of smoke and blood, both alien and human alike filling the chamber, Mont made his way to an escape pod. His chances were few but better than staying aboard a dying ship. As soon as he got inside the pod and strapped in, he hit the eject button. Just in time as the UNSC vessel began to crumple then exploded with terrible might. His pod was but a speck amid the spinning detritus of the now wrecked frigate. That is what saved him. The explosion had blown his pod far away from the main wreck so that he was either not visible or deemed not important enough to check. That stroke of luck gave him the opportunity to carefully glide his pod down into the cloudy atmosphere of the planet he was originally sent on mission for. He barely knew how to fly this thing let alone fully pilot it. Once in the lower atmosphere clouds and having checked for any danger, which there appeared to be none on the radar unit of the pod, Mont brought up the small engines and found a heavily wooded place to land the pod. Surprising himself, he landed with little trouble, only knocking down a dozen or so trees and not leaving much of a trail of downed wood, to be spotted from above.

Chapter Three: Planetfall and the Banshee

Stranded now and not knowing when help was coming, Mont weighed his options. He could wait it out, knowing it would take weeks if not months for a retaliatory strike from the UNSC and hope they would find him. Or, he could scout out the Covenant trading port, infiltrate it and destroy it from within. One way meant surviving on a planet he did not know, without any food and not knowing what he could and could not eat. The other option meant assured death, whether he completed the mission or not. Mont thought to himself, “Well, I wanted more adventure and I certainly got it.” So he chose the second option. That still meant he had to scrounge for food. He wouldn’t be able to start a fire as surely Covenant scouts would easily be able to see the smoke. So he knew he would have to eat raw food. Plants were no problem to find but, he needed protein. One thing that came in handy at this point was his diet when he worked the manufacturing plants on his home world. Meat was not in abundance, so they had to look to alternative sources of protein. That meant insects, in the form of protein bars. This world was plentiful with insects. He just needed to avoid any ones that might contain poison. And this meant his meals would come from mostly grubs. Before leaving the escape pod he gathered up what little equipment he could use. When out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glint. He must have missed it when he was escaping the frigate but, lo’ and behold, there was a HMG stowed under a large blanket with part of the barrel protruding from underneath and with plenty of ammunition. He knew carrying the HMG for the distance he needed to go, would slow him down. However, his gut and his heart both told him he would need it. After all, he was a gunner. He rolled up the blanket and placed some small equipment into a rucksack and slung them on his back. His hammer was strapped to his left leg and he was carrying the HMG with both hands. Though now, at this moment, he felt the HMG barely had any weight to it. Perhaps that was the adrenaline running through him but, he wasn’t going to second guess it. He knew he was just shy of 10 clicks out from the Covenant trading port. Normally Mont would be able to make that in one day. The weight of the HMG would make that a two-day hike, regardless of how he felt at present.

So off he started. Not much happened during his hike. Mont stopped at a set of downed trees to look for grubs underneath them. He carefully set down his gear. The wood of the trees were rotting but still heavy. Mont used his strength to break a chunk of the dying wood apart. There he found a veritable smorgasbord of grubs to choose from. Due to his continued survival training with the UNSC, Mont recognized two species as ones edible for humans. There was a small stream nearby, so he used that to wash the dirt from the grubs than began to feast on as many as he could stomach. Which was quite a lot. He knew there would be more along the way, so he didn’t bother to take any with him. It was getting dark, so he better find a suitable place to camp for the night. Just as he was packing his gear, a banshee flew over. He had been careful and believed the banshee had not seen him. As the world’s sky grew dim then dark, it was then that he could see streaks of fiery light angling down to the planet below. He knew what that meant. It was wreckage from the battle in space making planet fall. He watched for a short time when he noticed a large fireball shoot over him but, still at some height. He continued to watch the trajectory as it met the planet surface. In an instant there was a large explosion, he felt the shockwaves slightly, then all fell silent. Mont decided this would be the best time to get some rest. He was going to have a very busy day tomorrow. He set his pulse wristband to give three short but hard pulses on his wrist to wake him up.

When the pulses rapped against his wrist Mont immediately awoke. While feeling refreshed, he knew he had only slept for about 4 hours. A day on this planet was only 18 standard hours, so Mont knew he couldn’t sleep his normal routine of eight straight. He again assembled his gear, strapped it to himself and set off with HMG in hands. Mont was about three clicks out when he found a lone banshee, curiously on the ground. It was in an off kilter angle to its normal landing position. He put on his binocular shades and looked to see if the pilot was still inside. Whomever the pilot was, it was no longer there or perhaps had been flung away from the craft when it landed haphazardly. Mont didn’t care. He knew this was a ripe opportunity for him. While he wasn’t fully rated for piloting UNSC air vehicles, much less alien craft, he took this chance to be able to sneak up on the Covies in plain site and bomb the hell out of their trading port. He would never get such an opportunity again and he would likely do more damage with this banshee before dying than he would, trying to infiltrate a guarded facility such as this. Mont managed to cut the branches and vines holding the banshee in its awkward position. Luckily for him, it came down at near perfect landing position, which would allow him to take off easier. Instead of taking all his gear, Mont kept shades, hammer and he’d be damned if he left that HMG behind. The banshee could easily carry the extra weight as it was used to carry fully armored elites. 

He strapped the HMG in and was about to board when he heard a sound. Did he make too much noise freeing the banshee? He knew he would have to investigate. Mont couldn’t take the chance that this was a trap and that he’d be killed before being able to take off. Though, he felt this wasn’t a trap. Any Covie monitoring him would have had plenty of opportunity to snipe him dead. Still, he had to see what the noise was. About 20 feet away from the banshee in some overgrown bush, Mont heard the noise again, though this time it sounded more like a gurgling stream. He got right up to the bush with hammer in hand, when he saw it. An Elite lying on the ground with three of its limbs bent in awkward positions. The elite was gurgling up viscous purple blood. Mont raised his hammer about to strike the Elite dead, when the alien spoke to him. Mont always found it strange that Elites could speak basic. This time was no different. The Elite looked up at Mont and said, “It matters not if you kill me. The Covenant will continue its crusade against humanity.” Before outright killing the Elite, Mont had to know what happened to the him. So he asked. The Elite, no longer caring about life, knowing he was about to meet his end, be it by this human or the massive amount of internal hemorrhaging he had sustained, told Mont that he had been on patrol. He thought he spotted a human and was about to turn back to investigate when all of the sudden a streak of fire clipped his wing and he crashed, being thrown from the banshee and knocked against several hard tree branches before finally crumpling to the spot where Mont had found him.

“This MUST be the same banshee I saw last night,” Mont thought, “He did see me. That could have been very bad for me.” Mont almost felt pity for the Elite. However, he had seen the devastation the aliens had brought upon humanity first hand. So that thought was quickly purged from his brain. He looked at the Elite and said, “Do you have anything left to say or are you just going to keep gurgling your purple ooze everywhere?” The Elite let out what passed for a slight chuckle, then said, “Human, your sarcasm and not seeing the seriousness of your race’s destruction will be your undoing. You…”  At that point, Mont had had enough and quickly brought the hammer down on the Elite’s skull, cracking it like a coconut, spilling the contents within. Mont boarded the banshee, did a few of what he thought were flight checks and started up the banshee. The engines flickered alive and the banshee took a heavy list to its port side. Mont quickly corrected that and was able to gently raise the craft into the air. 

The now short distance between him and the trading port would feel even shorter while flying. His adrenaline began to pump. Mont remembered the basic layout of the port from the mission briefings before the fleet left friendly UNSC space. Three main organic looking buildings that slightly resembled certain seashells from earth, two smaller buildings that were reported to house the port’s forces, a flight control tower and several landing areas around the port proper, that likely would be littered with various craft making trade runs. It didn’t take long for him to notice several tall pillars of smoke in the direction he was heading. As Mont got closer, the revelation of what he was seeing came into view. Wreckage from both space fleets had been pulled into the atmosphere. Many large chunks of debris had plowed their way into and around the port. He was still too far away to see if there were any Covenant roaming around but, he would soon to find out. It came to him that this would explain why a retrieval crew had not been sent out to find the downed banshee and her pilot. He put that thought aside for now as he had a mission to complete. Mont took a wide circle around the port, assessing the damage. Two of the big port buildings had been outright destroyed. The third one was torn in the middle with one half partially flattened by the wing of the frigate he had been stationed on. The flight tower had been knocked over like a tree during a heavy storm. There it laid, cracked and broken in many places with smoke billowing out from most of the cracks. If there had been ships on the landing pads, there were none to be seen or they had been obliterated by the shower of twisted wreckage from the destroyed ships. One of the small troop houses was now a small crater but the other troop house made it through with huge gashes in its walls from shards of metal glancing off the building during the firestorm. This looked to be the only target worth hitting with the banshee. After circling around the port twice to look for stragglers and finding none, Mont started his attack run. Bearing down on the building, he let loose with as many banshee bombs as the ship would allow.  Mont was fairly confident there was no one around and that destroying this building was fruitless at this point. But dammit, he had to destroy something! He switched over to the guns and started firing into the now smoking building, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw several blasts of green plasma heading his way quickly. He had little time to act but spiraled the banshee as best he could to avoid the incoming fire. Still, two shots had successfully hit him and he knew he was going to crash. The EMP blast from those two plasma pistols had temporarily disabled the electronics of the banshee. Able to level out just before the crash, Mont set in for what would be the hardest landing of his life. He thought, “well, this is what I signed up for.” 

Chapter Four: Casualties of War

The banshee crashed hard front end into the ground. It tumbled end over end a few times and came to a rest. Mont, dazed and amazed that he was still alive with just a few bruises and cuts unlatched himself from the banshee.  He grabbed the HMG and got ready for the firefight he knew would ensue. Though it was only 30 seconds at most, those seconds felt like minutes. He couldn’t believe it was taking the Covenant that long to find him and start firing at him. Everything was dead still as he focused his mind. Mont trained his ears toward where he thought the troops would be coming from. Then he noticed it. A lone Grunt running towards the banshee with two upheld plasma grenades in hands. Mont knew this was a tactic used by elites to flush out entrenched UNSC personnel. He also knew he didn’t have time to think about that as he did not know how many troops he was up against. So he lifted his HMG to the ready position with a long feed of ammunition attached and tore through the Grunt with high caliber rounds. The Grunt exploded in a blue haze, fleshy bits and hardened almost armor-like forearms and calves were flung about haphazardly. The plasma grenades detonated immediately after. A group of Jackals, Grunts, two Elites and a single Brute came out of hiding to fire upon the sole human. That was their last mistake.

Mont was so focused, more than he had ever been in his life. He took a lightning quick assessment of all the targets he could see, evaluated their strengths and weaknesses based on his previous training and began to methodically slaughter all the aliens. The Grunts were easy targets and not much of a threat. He didn’t see any snipers, so that meant the Jackals were likewise not a huge threat either. So he brought to bear the HMG on the two Elites first. Ripping into their armor and shredding them apart, both Elites fell quickly in heaps of boiling purple blood. This sent the Grunts scattering in a panic. The gigantic Brute lifted up his enormous gravity hammer, let out a howling battle cry and lunged at Mont. The Brute’s lunge fell short as Mont cut him nearly in two at the midsection. The now bifurcated Brute’s body smashed into the ground coming to rest just inches away from Mont. He then turned his smoking hot gun on the Jackals, exploding them into clouds of purple mist. The few Grunts remaining, while scared, tried to return fire, only to be met with the same fate as their higher ranked comrades. The ground battle took less than two minutes from start to finish. 

He had won. He had taken out the last remnants of the trade port and survived. Mont stood in silence for a moment to see if any more enemy troops would arrive. They did not. Able to finally exhale, Mont took his knees to the ground, setting aside his glowing white barreled HMG and let out a loud glorious roar of victory.

Chapter Five: The Pilot and the Comedian

It was then that he noticed a familiar silhouette in the sky. It was a UNSC Pelican. Mont got the attention of the Pelican when it came around for a closer pass of the trade port. It landed near him and a happy pilot and another marine leapt out to greet him.

“Are there any more with you?” the pilot asked.

“No, it’s just me.”

“I’d ask how you survived but, from the rounds of ammunition we saw being fired in the distance and that HMG you got over there, I think we already know how,” the marine said.

“Are you two all that’s left?” said Mont.

The pilot then dipped his head and quietly said, “Yes, as far as we can tell.”

Mont looked at both of the men and asked them if they knew what had happened to the other trade ports they were sent to destroy.

The pilot spoke again, “Looks like a lot of what happened here happened there too.”

Mont looked puzzled. “How did we get so lucky that our fleet being destroyed in space still managed to take out these ports?”

It was the marine’s turn to respond. “From what Intel I was able to gather, after the frigate exploded…”

“That was the ship I was on!” Mont interrupted.

“Well, like I was saying, after the ship you were on exploded, the destroyer Captains each gave the order to abandon ship, then took evasive action and set course for the other two ports.” said the marine. “The Covenant ships picking up on what was about to happen, tried to move their ships into ramming position. They were only partially successful. All four ships, both our two destroyers and the Covenant ships collided. Our ships were already on a crash course to the trade ports. So most of the wreckage made its way there. Some of your ship must have done the same, by the looks of what’s left.”

“And you’re sure there are no other UNSC survivors?” said Mont.

The pilot spoke up, “We’ve been searching for the past day and a half.” We’ve not seen nor heard any transmissions from anyone. That is, until we found you.”

Mont stood looking at them. “Okay then. Is your Pelican good to make a slipspace jump?”

“No,” said the pilot. “We took damage coming down to the surface. We can fly in atmo but, we aren’t space worthy.”

“Well then, we’ll just have to see what presents the Covenant has left for us,” said Mont.

“I’m ready for a hunt,” the marine chirped.

“Okay, let’s first find some food and drink, then we can look for a ride home,” said Mont.

“We’re already way ahead of you there. Say what is your name anyway?”

“Ferrous Mont, though my nickname is the Iron Mountain.”

“I can see that, man. You’re one steely veined marine!” said the pilot. “I’m Jacen Jimenez  but people call me JJ and that scrub over there is Mack Stewart.”

“Watch who you’re calling a scrub, air jockey!” Mack said jovially. They all let out a hearty laugh.

“Well boys, now that the pleasantries are over, what was that you were saying about being ahead of me?” said Mont.

“Me and JJ found a bunch of food and drink among the ruins of the other trade ports. We stowed it aboard the Peli, in case we found others and if we were going to be here for the long haul.”

“Great! Then let’s look for a ship that doesn’t have any holes in it that will suck us out into the vacuum of space.” Mont said with enthusiasm.

“Well aren’t you filled with sunshine and horse manure!” Mack snarked.

They again chuckled, got on board the Pelican and began to look around what was left of the trade port. With each passing minute they would lose a little hope. Then Mont noticed it.

Pointing in a direction, “Hey, bring us over to that small purple lump over there,” said Mont. 

“Yeah, I see it now,” said JJ.

As they got closer, their hopes had been realized. An unscathed Phantom was parked a click away from the port. Had the Covenant troops Mont laid waste been more cognizant of their surroundings, they would have found and taken off with the Phantom themselves. Another stroke of luck for the good guys! JJ landed the Pelican close to the Phantom. There were no signs of living creatures and no thoughts of ambush. Before they began to transfer goods and equipment from the Pelican to the Phantom, JJ boarded the Phantom to check if it was able to make space and perform slipspace jumps. What now seemed like the longest five minutes of their lives, came to an end with JJ exclaiming “Yes!” and with that, both Mont and Mack knew they would make it home. All three quickly transferred what they needed to the Phantom. 

“You fellas ready to hit the star lanes?!” yelled JJ.

“Hell yeah!” shouted Mack.

The Phantom lifted off. Mont was inside the cockpit with JJ, while Mack was by the closing bay doors. Then a streak of sharp pink shot out at them. Neither JJ nor Mont were able to see it as they were faced away from the projectile. All they heard was a thud coming from the small troop bay. Mont figured it was Mack just moving some cargo around but decided to take a look anyway. As he entered the bay, he found Mack lying in a pool of his own blood. A large Subanese shard had pierced through his chest and was now lodged into the ceiling of the bay, red blood dripping from it. It was too late and Mont knew it.

“Hey, what’s going on back there? You guys starting the party without me?” questioned JJ.

“No man, you better come back here and see for yourself.” Mont said.

JJ put the Phantom on auto pilot then appeared at the doorway to the bay. He looked over to where Mont was standing, to see the lifeless body of Mack and the embedded needle. “Gawd damn it! That’s it, I’m turning this thing around and I’m going to blast them all to hell!”

Normally, this would be something Mont was all for. However, having just survived a space battle, a couple of days trekking on an alien planet, eating grubs for food, and being in a firefight, Mont knew when this fight was over.

“No!”

“What the hell do you mean, no?!” JJ angrily fired back.

“Just what I said. He’s already dead. We destroyed their ports and the UNSC will be back here soon for cleanup. I am not going back down there for what is probably one solitary soldier. Mack’s dead but, we aren’t. Let’s get back home, report what happened and let the UNSC take care of the rest,” Mont stated. He felt the hole in his chest deepening from having to say those words, from having lost a fellow marine and new found friend. 

JJ stormed back to the pilot’s chair. “Well, you can be damn sure I’m volunteering to come back and kick whatever Covenant ass we find left here!”

“I’m sure you will.”

Chapter Six: The Proposition

After having made it back to UNSC space safely and a week’s ordered R&R, Mont was approached by a bald headed man with a tattoo on the side of his head.

“I’m here to make you an offer. Before you decline, I insist you sit down and listen to me,” the slender man said.

Though the man standing in front of him was tall, he was not as tall as Mont who stood a towering 7’1”.

“It’s not often someone tells me to sit down with such authority. What’s your bit?” Mont asked.

“The UNSC a has taken special interest in you after the report of your latest mission. I wonder, is everything true or did you embellish anything?” the mysterious man questioned.

“Every bit of that is true!” Mont growled. “Look pal, you’ve got a lot of nerve coming to me, telling me to sit down, then insult me to my face about a fully legitimate report!”

“Good, I knew I liked you. Luciferrous Montague, how would you like to join the Spartan program?”

“I haven’t gone by that name in a long time. How did you know?” Mont inquired with an upturned eyebrow.

“The Spartan program finds all it needs to know about prospective recruits,” the man replied.

Mont looked with heavy suspicion. “Did you also know my nickname is the Iron Mountain?”

“Yes, of course. Though I have a better name for you,” said the man.

“A better name? I’ll humor you, what is it?” asked Mont.

“Spartan Steel”, said the man.

This made Mont think for a minute. His nickname was derived from his real name and also resembled his home planet’s export. But Steel was a stronger alloy than the element of iron. It also happened to mimic one of the last things JJ had said to him, saying he had steely veins. He liked it but, was that enough to follow the request of someone who had just insulted him and had an air of superiority about him? Well he thought as he had numerous times in his career prior to this, “I wanted more adventure and this is what I signed up for.”

“Yeah, I’m in.”

“Great. My name is Jun.”

“Just Jun?” said Mont with a smirk.

“That’s all you need to know about me. You will soon understand.”

Mont thought to himself, man, this guy sure seems like a whack job but, he also seems authentic. “Okay, when do I start?”

“We ship out in ten minutes. Don’t bother to pack your things. We’ve already done that for you.”

“Oh you have, have you?” Mont responded. “You better not have forgotten my hammer!”

“We didn’t, but we’ve got bigger and better toys for you to play with,” Jun said, while letting out a devilishly sounding chuckle. “You know, you remind me of a friend of mine from long ago.”

“And who is that?” Mont questioned.

“Never mind. If you complete Spartan training, I may tell you about him. Maybe.” Then Jun disappeared.

Mont went on to complete his Spartan training and augmentation, now an even more imposing figure at 7’6” tall. Further specializing in [REDACTED] heavy munitions and learned how to pilot several UNSC spacecraft.

The newly minted Spartan Steel’s armor consists of:

• Armor Core: Mirage IIC
• Helmet: Pilot w/ US/Type E6 attachment 
• Visor: Bryce
• Chest: UA/SATek
• Left Shoulder: SAP/Guardpro MAX
• Right Shoulder: SAP/Guardpro MAX
• Knee Pads: UA/Type VTP
• Wrist: UA/CRA Bracee
• Utility: UA/Pelvic Plate
• Gloves: Rift Kappa
• Armor Coating: Watchdog
• Spartan Number: [REDACTED]
• Service ID Number: [REDACTED]

Spartan Steel’s first tour of duty would be as a member of Fireteam Piercer. The new fireteam was stationed aboard the UNSC Infinity and sent on a mission to Zeta Halo. It has not been seen nor heard from since.

Jun has not yet had the opportunity to tell Steel about his friend.