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A month ago we asked our community to give us their callsigns when we asked them to: explain their callsign and the story behind it.

As always we received some very creative entries. Rhyming banjo musicians, chronicles of Halo history, brief romantic encounters, recipes for pasta and even a cryptic coded message that had to be included as a JPEG because it breaks our article system. Enjoy!

Week 1 Winner:
cruXis aka Tiger

History: About a year ago, my friends and I went to the DFO in Brisbane to do some bargain shopping. I walked into yd. to buy some clothes when a very effeminate guy served me and recommended some clothes I should try. My friends were laughing at me, and that afternoon when we were leaving the DFO, they wrote down my number and gave it to him. I wasn't impressed, but to be honest, I did find it rather funny. I didn't expect to get a message or anything, and it was a good laugh.

The next day while on my break at work, when my phone went off and I looked at the message to find that it said 'Sorry but I think you're a bit too young for me, mister'. I replied, saying that it had all been a stupid joke my friends pulled, and got a reply saying, 'that's ok, you're pretty cute Tiger." My friends found it hilarious, and ever since then I've had to put up with that nickname.

So I guess if I ever had to get a callsign they would all vouch for it to be Tiger.

Week 2 Winner:
Fraser aka Judas

Staff Sergeant Moira Greene was a dedicated, compassionate, scrupulous member of the UNSC 105th Special Forces. To understand how she came to have the callsign "Judas", you need to know a little history...

1961: The first human leaves the Earth's atmosphere.

1969: The first human walks on the Moon.

2004: Hostile alien AI arrives on Earth through a time rip in the Slipstream from the year 2552 and infects the website of an amateur beekeeper.

2080: Human colonisation of Mars and the Jovian Moons.

2160-2170: Human interplanetary wars within the Solar System. Formation of United Nations Space Command. 2163: The Martian Campaign. First deployment of human soldiers from orbit by UN Marine Corps.

2310: Beginning of interstellar colonisation of the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy.

2494-2537: The Insurrection (human interstellar civil war). Orbital Drop Shock Troopers used extensively across many campaigns.

2525: First contact between humanity and the Covenant Empire. Outbreak of the Human-Covenant War.

2531: Declaration of United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1: the "Cole Protocol".

The Cole Protocol was a law drafted by UNSC Admiral Preston Cole to stop the Covenant from finding and dsetroying human planets in the Human-Covenant War. In an engagement with Covenant ships, the Protocol forbade any human vessel from retreating through Slipspace directly towards Earth, the Inner Colonies or any other human population centre, as Covenant technology could track them to their destination. If escape was impossible, human vessels were ordered to wipe all data and self destruct.

The Protocol was highly effective at slowing the advance of the Covenant during the war. Without it, humanity would have undoubtedly been overrun before the actions of Master Chief John-117 and the events of the Covenant Civil War could turn the tide. Using the Cole Protocol, the UNSC successfully hid the location of Earth from the Covenant for the first 17 years of the war. Until one fateful encounter in 2552.

The UNSC Apocalypso was a Prowler-Class Naval Intelligence stealth ship operating deep in Covenant space, secretly listening in on Covenant communications. In 2552, it intercepted and decrypted a messaself destrge detailing an imminent plan to attack and sterilise the planet Troy. The officer in charge of the ship, a young Captain named Moira Greene, was forced to decide whether or not to send a warning to the population of Troy. If she did, the human occupants of the planet would have time to evacuate before the Covenant arrived and murdered them all, but it would also tip off the Covenant that their communication channels had been compromised, giving away a rare strategic advantage in this desperate war.

Captain Greene had family living on Troy. To the surprise of the officers under her command, she made the hard decision: stay silent, and set a course back to Earth.

Troy was glassed. Millions died.

Worse still, Greene had unknowingly breached the Cole Protocol. The message intercepted by the Apocalypso had secretly acted as a Trojan Horse for a malignant Covenant AI that got into the ship's computer and gradually corrupted it from within. When the UNSC Apocalypso arrived at the Solar System, the AI sent out a message informing the Covenant of the location of Earth.

These events partly precipitated the Battle of Earth in 2552, in which large portions of Africa were glassed by Covenant ships and the UNSC Home Fleet suffered devastating casualties.

After the battle, Captain Greene disappeared for a time, rumoured killed in a bus crash. In fact, she was secretly held for court- martial by the Office of Naval Intelligence for revealing the location of Earth to the Covenant. Eventually the court cleared her of all charges, and offered a full reinstatement of her rank and position. However, she was unwilling to face the burden of command again, and instead requested a voluntary demotion and transfer to the UNSC 105th Special Forces: the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.

Greene was accepted into the ODST, and rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant. She was well liked and respected by her squadmates, who considered her an exceptionally steady and level-headed soldier on the battlefield, although prone to bouts of silent withdrawal in quiet times.

She chose the callsign "Judas" for herself, in penitence for what she saw as her two great betrayals: to the people of Earth and to the people of Troy.

Week 3 Winner:
Cat Face aka PastaChief

I'm an avid cooker, and my original idea for a Halo-themed nickname for myself was going to be MasterChef [as opposed to MasterChief] but apparently with the show being recently on and other factors, this isn't the most original of ideas.. so I've given it a slight tweak and enter the arena as.. PastaChief! To sweeten the deal, so to speak, I've included 2 of my favourite pasta recipes that won't poison anyone, I promise!

Click here to print the recipes

I love talking on the headsets to my squad and because of my use of the internet I tend to be a bit 'omg, grenade' or 'i can has sniper rifle', so my callsign would more likely be... wait for it... "HALO...LCAT" :P Yes, it annoys the heck out of my squad and they probably, no definitly, want to team-kill, but I can't stop being me! well, not without strong medication anyway... I was inspired by the cover of the new Klaxons album [surfing the void] and knocked together a new cover for ODST that's... more in keeping with my character

Robert: aka Dublin Chewah

"Dublin Chewah" would have to be my callsign, firstly I am an Irish Ex-pat now proudly Australian but my cruel nickname was because of an extra bit of skin on my ear. So 'Dublin' is to denote my accent and the 'Chewah' bit is not because I am a Starwars fan but because

I have been accused of letting my girlfriend nibble or 'chew' on my ear, ha! I have been associated with this nickname for 15years now, if I win I'll post an image of my ear, ha!

Librar!an: aka Porcupine

They call me Porcupine; I’ll tell you its cause I’m a prickly Bastard who won’t let anyone close to me, but the truth unfortunately… Well lets just say only those who were with me on my first drop know the truth, well them, and now you.

The pod screamed like a banshee as the she dropped through the atmosphere of the unnamed hell we were heading for. Below, the broken city was alight with alien glow of covenant weapons, while ours announced themselves with a cacophony of sound. Down, down, down, down we fell until, with an almighty thud we hit dirt. Weapons ready the team joined, Bear, Arrow, Brains and me, Fresh meat – I wish they’d kept calling me that, I really do. We moved as a team, from cover to cover, dispatching jackals and grunts as we went, fortunately we didn’t see any of the big stuff that forst time out – Unfortunately we rounded a corner of a dirty old building right into a courtyard full of grunts, dancing and singing, they’re funny little buggers until they all turn on you, and turn they did. The courtyard lit with plasma and needles filled the sky – We did the sensible thing and advanced toward the rear…. We ran as fast as we could, firing back at them until we found a good piece of cover. Well, the rest of the team found good cover apparently I wasn’t as well hidden as I thought casue next thing I know I was in a world of pain, some little bugger had managed to hit me in the arse with pink needles – damn them, why pink, its like hey we can kill you with girly guns…. Someone must have been watching after me though cause they didn’t explode, but I was now stuck with hundreds of pink needles sticking out of my….. lower back.

Somehow the others fought off the grunts, medics repaired my rear, but from then on I was always – Porcupine.

Kroenen aka Drunkard:

My call sign would be Drunkard. This isn't to say i am a pisswrek just that when
i do actually get days off from work, i love to grab a bourbon and play online
and well hey... who doesn't?

Frankenturkey aka Distraction:

Regardless of what I'd WANT to be called, I know the rest of the team would end up calling me something along the lines of "Chicken", "Hush", "Crouch", or "Distraction".

Mainly because in all my experience with FPS games those words seem to best sum up my approach. Being a player in his 20s who just doesn't have the time to spend honing my skills and timing I've always been the noob that gets killed first. Thus I have tailored my gaming style to suit: Basically, I'm almost always the last one to run around the corner, and spend a great deal of time cowering / crouching in the corner being quiet. That is of course until I know that I am needed, so I break from the pack, take the other route, distract the other team, and let my team get them from behind... of course this tends to end with me lying helpless and limp on the ground while my teammates are gleefully frolicking away with the flag... but it's all for the good of the team isn't it?

monkey_dude aka [censored]:

My callsign would be S***k***, because I am one and its what I do.

Scone70 aka Iceman:

Because In reality - in the RAAF, it is my callsign. I obtained it in recruit training from an instructor for never similing, i became known to be ice-cold.

Cryptik:

Story behind it:

(get it lame joke I know but I tried)

Zeo aka giraffe:

I'd probably go by "giraffe" for my height and long neck. Picked up the name during high school where people would ask me to scout out their friends over the crowd. I also run a little like a giraffe - lanky and awkward. ;)

Nova:

My call sign would be Nova, and the story behind is that it's the amalgamation of my three Names

TSOB-5FS:

Callsign - TSOB-5FS

TSOB = Tough Son Of a B****
5FS = 5 Finger Salute

Story behind Callsign My Character was 'Born Ready', 'Government Issued' and had a 'Mother' who might as well been a second 'Father' but is a little be suave and shows disrespect for his enemy, hence the 5 finger Salute!

rixar aka Banjo:

Many thanks to Fishpond for this wonderful prize pack!