Johan Helnwein

Johan Egger Helnwein is a marksmen for Fireteam Spades. Originating from the countryside of Germany from a small farm town. Before he would join the military, Johan had moved to to attend college for agricultural studies but with promises of college being paid for he would sign up with the and turn it into a career by joining with the ODSTs and later on the Spartan-IV Program. Johan served with Fireteam Spades on the UNSC Infinity as the designated marksmen under callsign, Spades-Two. Currently stranded on Zeta Halo and the only member of Fireteam Spades not listed as MIA. Johan has taken the fight to the Banished and has engaged in guerilla like tactics with surviving UNSC forces. Johan's hunting like tactics while fighting the Banished has earned him the nickname "The Huntsman".
==Service Record for 79811-56632-JH==
Insignia	Rank 	Date 	Earned
 	Private (E-1) 	November 6th, 2544	Passed UNSCMBC
 	Private First Class (E-2)	November 6th, 2545	Year spent in UNSCMC
 	Lance Corporal (E-3) 	August 13th, 2546 	Returning after the battle of
 	Corporal (E-4) 	December 1st, 2546	actions during the battle of Hwalbalhan
 	Sergeant (E-5) 	August 3rd, 2552 	Actions during the
 	Spartan (S-IV) 	January 7th, 2553 	Activated with the First class of Spartan-IVs.
==Childhood==
Johan Egger Helnwein, was born on May 17th, 2526, in his childhood home in Ebenen, Germany. Born to Maja Helnwein Johan was raised by his mother and grandfather as his own father wasn't present in his life due to having left sometime before he was born. Living in a small town on his family farm. Johan grew up having a normal childhood with his grandfather, Matthijs, who took over the responsibilities Johan's father would have been responsible for and became the father figure in his life. Matthijs was known as an avid outdoorsman who was skilled in hunting, fishing, and would constantly take Johan, sometimes his older sister, on camping and hiking trips. 
What Johan was taught during these trips stuck with him even during basic training where sometimes he would excel due to his grandfather's teaching. After graduating High School and given a fund to get him through the first year of college. Johan moved to Essen to attend its university to study agriculture so he could move back home and start his own farming business. It was only after finishing his first year in college, his jobs barely paying the required bills, and the closure of his family farm Johan found himself wandering aimlessly in life for some time until one day while heading home from work, he passed by a recruitment center and began wondering what his purpose was in life. Always watching the news and wanting to do something to help against the ever-growing threat of the . he joined up with the UNSC Marine Corps. His family originally protested him joining as they believed it was a sure death sentence for him but had accepted that he was a grown adult who could make his own choices.
==Military career==
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====First Deployment/Attack on fortress world Leonidas====
After a grueling thirteen weeks of training for the UNSC Marine Corps. Johan was shipped out soon after graduation and straight to the battlefield to help refill the dwindling ranks. Johan was sent to Leonidas, One of the few remaining fortresses worlds of the UNSC. The Covenant had been fighting nearby on another colony and Leonidas was sending both supplies and soldiers to keep the Covenant back. This had been working for quite some time until a was able to punch through right to Leonidas. The fleet then attacked the planet only an hour after Johans arrival and began a devastating campaign.
The base was put on high alert and all forces were to begin immediate engagement once the Covenant had gotten in. Johan and part of Arrow company had been stuck out in the courtyard when the attack began. Armed with the standard issue assault rifle. He and forty-two other marines went on the defensive. This lasted only twenty-six minutes before being forced back to the tunnels leading to the inner part of the base. Officers had already planned for this and had set up extra defensives inside the tunnels while also rigging them for detonation to slow down the Covenant when the went into effect. 
Already within sixteen hours into the invasion most of the UNSC had lost their foothold and was forced back to the base, where the Covenant planned to destroy the survivors in a single plasma bombardment, with evacuations still underway Arrow Company had been put in charge of helping with the wounded, but failed their objective when a squadron destroyed most of the evac ships before they could take off.
 With the fleet closing in, the final evacuation was called; because many of the soldiers in the base were newly graduated with little to no experience, infighting broke out between UNSC forces to escape as room was dwindling with the remaining ships. During the panic Johan and the survivors of Arrow Company were attacked by Badger Company after realizing there wasn't enough room on the . The two Companies had been ordered to ensure the remaining ships, carrying the last of the wounded, would escape. Most of Badger decided they did not want die on Leonidas and attacked Arrow to ensure their own safety, Arrow had been able to fend off their attackers and escape with a heavy price. Because of the Covenants superiority and the infighting, only three ships were able to escape Leonidas and those left behind were killed in the final glassing.
After escaping, Johan soon came to the realization he had killed the people he was supposed to be fighting with. This sudden break of trust left him cautious about everyone around him. Even not trusting his own company sometimes, seeing people would rather fly than fight if it came down to themselves. 
When survivors had gotten to safety, they were sworn to secrecy to never talk to anyone about what happened on Leonidas under threat of “disappearance” by ONI officials. Those who were part of the final hours refer to it among each other named the incident as “Betrayal Day”. ONI has since removed any evidence of the incident and still keep a close eye on survivors to make sure they stay quiet. 
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A year had passed since Johan joined the UNSCMC and was slowly gaining more and more experience from battles with the Covenant and Insurrection. He had gained many small scars from burns and cuts but was yet to be viciously wounded by the burning sensation of plasma. He had always believed at the time he could handle the pain, letting his naivety of being from a society that was hardened and tougher than most let him think he would fare better than those who were actually hurt. His eventual wounding at the Battle of Actium would take him away from the battle. Ironically saving him from the planet's eventual destruction.
=====The Hercelcia engagement=====
In the month of May in 2545, Johan's battalion was one of the first forces deployed alongside the to stop the Covenant's invasion of Actium. The Battle of Hercelcia was one of the first warzones on the planet between the UNSC and the Covenant. They had already pushed into most of the cities. Three companies of the 21st Infantry Battalion were sent to ensure the safe arrival of the Armored Division by defending a designated LZ. Arrow, Dagger, and Fox Company were sent to Hercelcia to fight on the outskirts where the Covenant were expected to arrive at. Arrow Company was stationed as the first line of defense towards the Covenant.
There Arrow Company's leader, Sergeant Josiah Quinn, decided that instead of meeting them head-on outside the city they would instead lure them into the tighter spaces of the outskirts and attack from there. A squad of ten marines volunteered, Johan being one of them, to go bring the Covenant in while the rest of the Company set up traps by using Satchel charges planted on the abandoned cars and having positions were sent to hide in the buildings overlooking the streets where the Covenant would be lured into a killbox. 
After thirty minutes of setting up, the volunteers returned with the Covenant close behind, Johan and the rest of the volunteers returned with Covenant close behind them. were the first to attack as they ran towards them, while many of the bombers were killed, four suicide bombers had been able to detonate close enough to have some of the satchels detonate prematurely killing thirteen marines in the process. After the suicide charge, the rest of the forces came forward and engaged with the Company. During the beginning of the fight, Johan's rifle began jamming and seeing he didn't have time at the moment to fix it, Johan switched to his sidearm and began firing which only forced him to fix his rifle's issue as the sidearm ammo was used up quickly. By the time his rifle was fixed a fallback was ordered as began firing on the area, destroying three of the machine guns positions. Luckily the other charges were still available and were detonated once the Wraiths were on top of them. Destroying the Covenant's only available support at the moment. Reinforcements were on the way, but they still needed a few more minutes to arrive. During the last few minutes of fighting, flanked their left position, Johan was caught in the flank and was forced to turn his attention to the elites. During the fight Johan was charged by an elite and grabbed by his throat, seeing a live elite up close for the first time, he was forced to act quick and pulled out his service knife and stabbed the elite in his neck and followed up by shoving it through the roof of its mouth once it roared out in pain. After pulling himself together from the encounter Johan was ordered by Quinn to retrieve the detonator from the fallen soldier nearby him in the middle of the street to set off the final satchel charges. While Johan hestiantly disagreed with the order at first, he followed it after being ordered again and building up the courage to run out into the street under instense fighting to retrieve it. Grabbing the detonator. On his way back he was struck in the leg by the ricochet from one of the MG positions forcing him to find cover inside the danger zone before he could set off the charges. After being able to take cover behind a flipped over armored security truck, the charges were set off and wiped out a majority of the remaining Covenant, forcing a retreat. Not only were the Marines able to hold back the Covenant forces, but they were able to cut off one of the Covenants routes, however, this would prove useless when the next day as the Covenant were able to break through two of the other positions and set up their staging areas.
=====Ambush on Highyway 22=====
A few days had passed since the engagement at Hercelcia, UNSC forces were dwindling quickly as they were constantly pushed back and each defense failing resulting the loss of more and more land. Supplies were also dwindling quickly as well, with each plan failing another had to be more desperate than the last in order for a chance to win. Johan, however, would not be around to see the entire battle as he suffered his first major wound. During a supply run to one of the lines the convoy was forced to engage with a squad of on patrol. The convoy made up of six which was quickly cut down to four as two supply hogs were destroyed by Banshee bombs. Johan was stationed on the rear warthogs and began firing at the pursuers. Two of the Banshees were destroyed in the retaliation, but it wasn't enough as another bombardment was fired at them, The Warthogs escaped through the tunnels but lost another in the escape. Trouble would continue to follow as they soon found themselves colliding with a Company of Covenant forces heading towards the line to attack from behind. Plasma and bullets were soon traded between the sides as the Warthogs engaged the enemy being forced to stop and deal with it. While they had already suffered major casualties. They were forced to retreat as the remaining Warthogs were badly damaged and a majority of the remaining supplies were destroyed. Johan's warthog was still on the rear to protect the surviving units. During the escape, however, the remaining Banshees closed in on them and fired hitting, Johan's driver, causing the vehicle to lose control. Johan prepared to jump but the vehicle flipped over and threw him out. One of the drivers noticed and turned around seeing Johan and the passenger had survived the wreck, but the Covenant was still close behind. A was coming towards the two with the gunner and left passenger opening fire on them. The passenger was killed when the turret gunned him down and Johan, already suffering a broken leg, was struck in the chest from a carbine round. The Warthog pulled up and attacked the spectre while the driver checked if either of them survived. Seeing Johan had, he was loaded onto the Warthog and taken back to safety. It was only because of the gunner demanding to turn around to save them that he survived. Johan was later taken to a medical hospital to recover from his wounds. For three months while he healed, Johan began to think on himself. Seeing that the frontlines were too easy a place to die. He wrote a letter to his company commander, requesting to volunteer for Sniper Division. He would be granted this request along with the promotion to Lance Corporal upon his return.
====Sniper training at Camp Hathcock====
Not long after Johan returned to active service, he had signed up to volunteer to join the Marine Corp sniper division, after passing the required tests to enroll. Johan was pulled off the frontline and sent to Earth to train at Camp Hathcock; a former 21st century sniper school named after a following the formation of the UNSC, to train for seven weeks. This would however be an easier task compared to the rest of his class as Johan began mixing his grandfather's teachings with the courses regardless of what his trainers thought of it.
Over seven weeks, Johan was put through intense training to prepare him as a scout/reconnaissance sniper. While he was noted as a skilled marksman when it came to shooting at the range he did excel at the use of the but was given higher recognition when he tested in the open environment even when he was reprimanded a few times for using unorthodox tactics. Most of what he used during training were tips and tricks he learned as a young boy from Matthijis.
At the end of seven weeks, Johan graduated from Camp Hathcock as number two in his class and was designated as a newly trained scout sniper. He was soon transferred to a new company and was sent back to his Battalion being reassigned to Dog Company. Trading out his MA5B assault rifle for a M392 DMR and occasionally the .
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==Johan's Character==
===Personality===
Johan grew up in a hardworking, tough, and active household from spending a lot of time with his grandfather. He is considered to be straight forward with most things. While it might seem, he has little to no room for humor or other types of enjoyment he is quite the opposite. Having a dark sense of humor with very few boundaries, liking to joke mostly about death especially in dangerous scenarios where it seems very possible. Even then, he can come off as a rather stand-offish man who seems to have a dry sense of humor and no tolerance for ridiculousness. The terms of respect given and shown are taken very seriously, as being disrespected can quickly lead to physical encounters with him and the offender. This has resulted in him spending much time in the brig of ships for fighting. 
Johan like many Spartans are considered fearless, but he is considered among the few who have no real fear of death or any dangerous situations as an ideological view of life and death play a bigger role in the mentality of high-risk situations and near fatal incidents.