Today the live-action Halo web series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn premiered. For the last few weeks, Halo Waypoint and Machinima Prime have been releasing short trailers for the series, giving a preview of what the series will hold.

Forward Unto Dawn will air in weekly installments up until the release of Halo 4 on November 6th. The story will lead in to that of Halo 4, as the beginning of the premiere below shows.

The first episode in the series follows the Hastati Squad, a fresh batch of recruits at the UNSC Corbulo Academy of Military Science. More specifically, it follows Thomas Lasky, a recruit that questions orders and believes he knows better than his commanding officer.

The UNSC is at war with insurrectionist colonists in space, and the previews of the series haven’t been subtle in drawing parallels with both the American Revolution and the War on Terror. Anyone with some basic knowledge of Halo cannon, however, knows that insurrectionists are the least of the UNSC’s worries.

As Lasky’s disobedience begins to create friction with his squad mates and instructors, he must decide if following in his mother’s footsteps and joining the UNSC was the right decision. At such a young age, he already seems to have a disastrous past that weighs heavily on him and feeds his angst.