Cassandra-A096

Chief Petty Officer Cassandra-A096, born Cassandra Astum, is a SPARTAN-III supersoldier, formerly part of Alpha Company, who fought during the Human-Covenant War and after in the post-war years. Born on Asmara, she grew up in Ertuma until the Insurrection forced her family to Endymion which was the victim of a Covenant attack in 2529. ONI had selected her from the few survivors of the attack as a candidate and found her more than willing to join. She was a member of Lynx Team and graduated in 2536 as a specialist in Scouting and Sniping. 
During the War, Cassandra completed several successful operations as part of the Alpha Company before being selected for the Headhunter Program, saving her from the pyrrhic Operation PROMETHEUS. She would participate in several clandestine missions until the death of her pairmate in [Death Year] after which she was reassigned to PERUN Team. In PERUN, she served as the resident sniper and was present at many famous battles. The RL-54 Incident, Operation BRASS RHINO, the Raid on the Forge, the Fall of Reach, and the Battle for Earth are notable.
Cassandra continued to serve alongside PERUN Team under Naval Special Warfare Command. In addition to her deployments as part of PERUN, she also acted as an instructor to early Spartan-IV classes, notably in the run-up to the Second Requiem Campaign.
__TOC__
==Biography==
===Childhood===
Cassandra Astum was born on the colony of Asmara in the Husten System to Andon and Jasna Astum. From an early age, she presented as an exceptional student, particularly in mathematics, and the praise this brought would lead to an unfortunate turn in her personality. She quickly developed a prominent superiority complex and would deride her classmates who scored lower than her. Initially this was thought to be a phase of enjoying competition but it would quickly spiral out of control as Cassandra's gifted intellect would allow her to perform exceptionally for someone her age. 
By age 4, her family and their business had relocated to Endymion due to the Insurrection, something which would unconsciously affect Cassandra as her parents would often complain about the Insurrection. At this point Cassandra’s superiority complex had grown into a substantial ego around her academic abilities leading to her acting out with verbal jabs and sarcasm against classmates and teachers alike. Despite appearances this wasn't usually done with malice and to Cassandra was more a statement of actual fact, something which only annoyed her classmates even more. 
Despite her sheltered life, the arrival of the Covenant on Endymion in 2529 would not protect her or her family as plasma fire rained from orbit. Cassandra and her parents had fled to the evacuation centers where they tried to use their connections to board the ships early but to no avail. The continued bombardments and surrounding combat had pushed Cassandra’s mother and father to try and ensure that at least she would survive and forcibly handed her off to one of the soldiers guarding the shuttle to give her a chance. She was fortunate to make it onto one of the last shuttles as the evacuation center and surrounding areas was turned to glass before her eye, he pleading for her parents being inconsolable.
By the time the shuttles reached their rendezvous point, Cassandra had been reduced to a scared child mourning her parents with seemingly nothing left of her once proud and egotistical demeanor. She was unreceptive to most of the things going on around her including the docking of the ship as it arrived at a new planet. The thing which finally got her attention is when she was approached by agents of the Office of Naval Intelligence who offered her a chance to get revenge on the aliens who burned her world and destroyed her family; she accepted. 
===Training===