QUOTE
But what if your not importal... What if your not a spartin...
Exactly what I was going to say.
As it is, there aren't anymore then, what, 10 Spartans?(as far as I'm concerned there's only 1, but I've heard otherwise, so bleh).
Well, the Marines seem pretty happy about it

"Hey, let's catch one and ride it!"(referring to Grunt)
Hmm... really, it depends on which difficulty level you want to apply to the situation.
If it were Legendary, then all of us except for the 'Chief would be, well, screwed.
On Easy mode, then as long as you have decent cover somewhere, you're safe(even on Easy mode, a Marine would be in
some danger, due to lack of healing, which the game is pretty much based around).