Ralph-G299

Ralph-G299 was a of Gamma Company who was raised and augmented as a child supersoldier after his family was killed by raiders during the . A member of Team Jian, he was known for his high spirits and aggression both in and out of combat. Although viewed by many of his fellow Spartans as a bully who enjoyed picking fights and causing trouble, Ralph was incredibly brave and protective of his fellow teammates. Ralph survived the war and remained active as a Spartan operative within the . Ralph was ultimately killed on during a battle with his renegade teammate Simon-G294.
==Biography==
===The Bully===
===="I Want to Hurt Them"====
Ralph was born on the human colony of in 2538. His parents were farmers in one of the planet's many agrarian communities; like most of their fellow colonists, they were well-off enough to enjoy a comfortable life removed from the distant slaughters of the ongoing . An only child, Ralph enjoyed much attention from his parents and was rambunctious and adventurous from a very early age. He spent much of his time outdoors, exploring the woods around his parents' farm and often getting into trouble for straying too far. His frequent sojourns out into the woods turned out to be what saved his life when forces attacked Boundary in 2544. As alien dropships descended on the family farm, Ralph fled into the forest. From his hiding place, he could only watch as foot soldiers butchered his parents. As the furious and heartbroken child prepared to throw himself at the invaders, a stray plasma grenade detonated nearby and knocked him unconscious.
When Ralph came to, he was alone in the forest. Unable to get his bearings, he wandered numbly through the woods for two days before coming upon a road where he was soon found by an emergency police patrol from a nearby town. Colonial security forces had managed to repel the Covenant raiders, but not before the aliens had slaughtered thousands of colonists including everyone from Ralph's small community. With no other family on the colony, Ralph became a ward and was sent to a nearby orphanage. He spent the next few weeks in shock, keeping to himself as he struggled to recover from the loss of his family and every trace of the life he had known. As the months wore on, the energetic boy chafed within the confines of the crowded orphanage. Furious at how helpless he had been to help his family, he turned his grief and anger outwards, picking fights with anyone whose behavior, appearance, or even presence irritated him in the slightest. Ralph soon became a terror for his fellow orphans and even the orphanage staff, doing as he pleased while always slipping out of whatever punishments the staff attempted to dole out.
Six months after the Covenant attack, recruiting agents from the Office of Naval Intelligence arrived on Boundary in search of war orphans to recruit for the SPARTAN-III program's Gamma Company. The officers who canvassed Ralph's orphanage were immediately drawn to the aggressive young boy and approached him with the chance to avenge his parents and take the fight to the Covenant. Although confused by the offer, Ralph agreed instantly. ONI soon arranged for him to be discreetly transferred from the orphanage—to the relief of the staff and other children—to a nearby military facility. From there, Ralph underwent a series of physicals to ensure he could handle the rigorous demands of Spartan training. His first brush with military discipline occurred when he was denied meals for striking one of the doctors inspecting him. The punishment bemused Ralph, mostly because he could not find a way to get out of it. In spite of it, he was as proud and feisty as ever when he was loaded onto a military transport and shipped to the top-secret planet of to begin his training as a Spartan.
===="You Can't Tell Me What To Do"====
Ralph arrived on Onyx along with hundreds of other orphaned children drawn from all corners of human space. ONI drill instructors herded the mob of yelling, fighting children out onto a landing field where they were greeted by Lieutenant Commander and Chief Petty Officer , the heads of the SPARTAN-III training cadre. Chief Mendez quickly ordered the children onto a squadron of waiting for their first test as potential Spartans. In a baptism by fire that had been endured by and companies before them, the Gamma recruits were given parachute units and ordered to jump out of the dropships from a terrifying altitude in the dead of night. The first boy in line on Ralph's dropship refused to jump and simply cowered on the deck in abject terror. Disgusted, Ralph pushed his way to the front of the line and, after only a moment's hesitation, jumped into the darkness. After activating his parachute, Ralph landed safely a few miles from the landing field. Mere minutes after touching down, Ralph got into a fight with a girl he encountered making her way back towards the lights of the military buildings. She surprised him by not submitting quickly like the children at the orphanage had and the two brawled for nearly ten minutes before being separated by drill instructors. Far from being discouraged, Ralph was pleased that his fellow recruits were not like the cowards he had left behind on Boundary.
With the "insufficiently motivated" children weeded out by the night jump, the remaining Gamma candidates were plunged into one of the most grueling training programs in human history. Ralph and the other children, all of them ranging from seven to five years old, spent the next six years learning all manner of military techniques under Ambrose, Mendez, and the rest of Onyx's training cadre. Ralph thoroughly embraced the training, enjoying each successive test and challenge that the drill instructors threw at him. The brutally competitive training environment suited him well, but he was soon almost universally disliked by the other trainees for his violence and lack of restraint when interacting with them. During one hand-to-hand combat drill with a boy who was half his size, Ralph broke his opponent's arm and shin. When a group of the boy's friends ganged up on him as payback, Ralph not only withstood their beating but drove them off after a fierce brawl that he thoroughly enjoyed. He was also unpopular with the drill instructors in spite of his success at combat exercises, acclimating poorly to Gamma Company's strictly regulated military lifestyle. He was punished numerous times for insubordination and often punished further when he attempted to evade the penalties. No amount of punishment work, extra chores, or denied rations seemed to phase him, confounding the efforts of Mendez and the other DIs to break him in. Frequently punished and without many friends, Ralph took his frustrations out on anyone who fell victim to his hot temper. When this outlet failed to satisfy him, he often sneaked off into the woods around Onyx to be alone as he had as a child on Boundary.
===="Don't Get In My Way"====
Ralph's refusal to fully integrate into Gamma Company and its military discipline structure might have been enough to get him removed from the program had his combat and training scores not been so high. Although Ambrose and Mendez considered him one of Gamma Company's problem children they postponed judgement until after the Gamma trainees had been integrated into the tight-knit fire teams that were critical to the Spartan training process. Ralph was assigned to Team Jian, a squad that consisted almost solely of "problem children." Led by the highly proficient Jake-G293, the rest of Jian consisted of Mary-G130, one of Ralph's few friends and a trainee who shared his propensity for starting fights, Terrence-G150, a kleptomaniac who had shared in many of Ralph's punishment details, and Simon-G294, an inept trainee who was known throughout the company for his abysmal scores in nearly every training category. Ralph surprised many by fitting in well with the so-called "problem squad." Under Jake's capable leadership and his positive rapport with Mary and Terrence, Ralph's behavior mellowed considerably and he finally slipped into the military routine expected of all Spartans. With the Gamma teams now frequently pitted against each other in competitive combat exercises, Ralph was able to look beyond himself and cooperate with his team in order to succeed. However, now that he was not the sole deciding factor in his own success or failure, Ralph proved to be a sore loser when it came to facing defeat in the training exercises. He blamed a great deal of Jian's losses on Simon-G294's incompetence and began channeling the energy he had previously spent on indiscriminately lashing out at other trainees into constantly berating and humiliating his struggling teammate. Simon proved to be cleverer than most at evading the abuse, a fact that reminded Ralph of the cowardly weakness he despised and served to provoke him even more.
Jian continued to do only moderately well in Gamma's training exercises, always rating within the bottom half of the company rankings. Although Jake and the others tried to temper Ralph's frustration, they could do little to control him when he lashed out at Simon or members of teams that had beaten them. His harassment of Simon came to a head when the smaller boy, pushed to the limit by Ralph's abuse and frustration at his own failures, began stalking him on his frequent excursions into the forest. Stealing several stun grenades from the camp armory, Simon set up several traps in an area Ralph frequented and lay in wait. He ambushed Ralph with one of the grenades, disorienting him and driving into several of the traps. In spite of his disadvantage, Ralph managed to recover before he could suffer any serious injuries and counter-attacked. Simon clumsily attempted to stun him again with the other grenades, but Ralph avoided the blasts and closed in to attack his teammate directly. With his greater size, strength, and proficiency at hand to hand combat, Ralph quickly overwhelmed his smaller opponent. But Simon surprised him by enduring his blows and continuing to fight in spite of his massive disadvantage. Secluded from the drill instructors and their fellow trainees, the two teammates brawled savagely for nearly two hours. Ralph eventually emerged victorious after breaking Simon's nose, several of his ribs, and nearly fracturing the smaller boy's skull. Although both trainees were punished for "excessive, unauthorized sparring" the incident formed a grudging friendship between the two and alleviated the tensions within Team Jian.
Some time after the incident in the forest, Team Jian was soundly beaten in a training exercise with another team. The opposing team singled Ralph out and worked together to beat him to a bloody pulp. Furious, Ralph conspired with Simon and Terrence in order to get even. Terrence stole several demolitions components from the armory, which Ralph and Simon promptly fashioned into a remotely triggered improvised explosive device. At Ralph's direction, Simon smuggled the explosive into the waste containment unit within one of the camp's outhouses and detonated it when the offending team was inside. Chief Mendez quickly deduced the culprits and Ralph and Simon were both severely punished (Terrence managed to avoid being implicated and none of his teammates sold him out), though they agreed the adventure had been worth the payback.
===="I Feel Great"====
Early in 2551, Ralph and the rest of Gamma Company prepared for the final step in their grueling transformation into Spartans. Although warned of the dangers involved in the procedure, none of the trainees were willing to back out after all they had endured to reach this point. Ralph in particular eagerly anticipated the augmentations; after years of scrapping with his fellow trainees and concerning himself with beating other teams, he was finally being prepared to fight the enemy he had wanted to kill since the moment they had killed his parents. Along with the rest of Gamma Company, Ralph was transported to the . There they were injected with the :
*Drug 8942-LQ99: A carbide ceramic ossification catalyst to make skeletons virtually unbreakable.
*Drug 88005-MX77: A fibroid muscular protein complex that boosted muscle density and strength.
*Drug 88947-OP24: A retina-inversion stabilizer drug. It boosted color and night vision capabilities.
*Drug 87556-UD61: Improved colloidal neural disunification solution, which in turn decreases reaction time.
*Drug 009762-OO: A mutagen that alters key regions of the subject's frontal lobe. Enhances aggression, strength, endurance, and tolerance to injury.
Every one of the trainees emerged from the painful augmentation procedures with their minds and bodies intact. Considering themselves reborn as Spartans, they were taken back to Onyx and continued their rigorous field exercises as they grew accustomed to their enhanced strength and speed. Ralph marveled at the changes to his body; he was soon known for his prodigious strength and striking speed, forcing anyone who sparred with him to wear protective body armor in order to avoid crippling injury. Team Jian was soon locked in a grueling competition with the other squads for the coveted "top honors" position. Though they were eliminated early on, the loss angered Ralph far less than others like it had in the past. His mind was already set on another matter entirely. The Covenant was out there and he was finally ready to face them.
===The Spartan===
===="The More We Kill, The Better"====
Gamma Company was deployed from Onyx as quickly as possible, its teams split up and delivered to multiple fronts across what remained of human space. Team Jian found itself fighting on the embattled colony of , assisting the UNSC Army's fight to drive back a full-scale Covenant invasion. Ralph relished the opportunity to finally meet the enemy in combat; during Jian's first engagement he "scored" the team's first kills when he ambushed a warrior and his lance of Unggoy. Many had expected Jian to be one of the first teams to suffer casualties but the "Problem Squad" proved to be a highly capable unit. As the fighting continued on Oasis, they ambushed enemy patrols, disrupted supply lines, and helped relieve embattled Army and militia units. In the early stages of Jian's deployment on Oasis, Ralph acquired an Army-issue , a weapon he would wield to deadly effect for the rest of his life.
As the fighting continued to rage on Oasis, Ralph easily maintained the highest kill ratio on the team. As spirited and aggressive in combat as he had been on Onyx, he threw himself into battle against the Covenant forces. Although the pain of his parents' deaths had faded somewhat, Ralph hated the helplessness the Covenant had inflicted on himself and all of humanity with their savagery and overwhelming power. He relished being able to fight back against the unstoppable enemy; every one of Jian's victories in the field felt like another chink in the Covenant's impervious armor. But no amount of successful missions from Jian could stop the Covenant onslaught and after three weeks of nonstop fighting the UNSC High Command ordered a full retreat as Covenant warships began to the planet. During the team's final holding action within one of Oasis's cities, Ralph's aggressiveness got the better of him when he recklessly pursued a group of fleeing Unggoy and was ambushed by a Sangheili warrior. Though he killed his attacker, Ralph was cut off from all friendly forces and became pinned down by snipers. With Covenant cruisers minutes away, the rest of Team Jian was ordered to abandon their attempt to rescue their teammate in order to cover the last of the evacuation craft. Ralph was only saved when Simon defied orders and abandoned his position, crawling his way through the burning city streets to flank the Kig-Yar and providing the opening Ralph needed to fall back to safety. Although both Spartans returned to the evacuation zone in time to help fend off the attacking Covenant, the absence of two Spartans had thrown the rest of the team off-balance and—according to the ONI handlers who reviewed the mission—jeopardized the mission. Following Jian's evacuation from Oasis, Simon was disciplined for his actions; the incident raised tensions within the squad over whether they had done wrong by leaving Ralph to his fate. For his part, Ralph was angry both that his teammate had been punished and that the UNSC had been driven off Oasis in spite of the victories they had won on the surface. As Jian was transported to their next theater of war, he realized that he was beginning to feel despondent outside of combat. The thought disturbed him, but he chose to keep the epiphany to himself rather than sharing it with the rest of the squad.
During Jian's next deployment they were paired with another squad, Team Kopis, to conduct urban operations on the embattled colony of Ijkali. Ralph was now fully aware of the thrill he received from combat and though he tried to stymie the feeling during their first few days on Ijkali he found that such efforts merely diminished his performance on the battlefield. Although he kept up a brave front in front of his teammates, the realization of his growing bloodlust frightened him in a way that he had never anticipated. During a mission to destroy sensitive data, Team Kopis was ambushed by a group of Sangheili warriors. The squad's one survivor, Cassandra-G006, was folded in as a member of Jian as they carried on with the fight. Ralph had little time for the shaken Cassandra; though she was Gamma Company's best field medic Ralph considered her too timid and made little effort to help integrate her into her new squad.
===="Spartans Don't Leave Brothers Behind"====
Team Jian's next deployment found it targeting elements of the in the system around the colony of where the local population was highly sympathetic to the rebel cause. Ralph was not pleased by the new theater and yearned to get back to the "real fight" against the Covenant. When Jian and two other Gamma teams raided a series of rebel encampments he had little qualms about killing human insurgents, who he saw as weak-willed parasites unwilling to sacrifice their own cause in the face of the Covenant threat. He had little patience for either Simon or Cassandra, both of whom balked at the idea of fighting this new enemy. When news came that Covenant forces had finally discovered , Ralph was barely concerned at the grave threat to humanity's survival and simply relieved that the new crisis would see Jian deployed on the front lines against the alien juggernaut once again.
With all available Spartans being recalled to reinforce Earth's defenses, Jian was given one last mission on Mamore before they too were slated to be redeployed. UNSC High Command knew that the planet's rebels had acquired several nuclear warheads and tasked Jian with recovering the invaluable weapons and bringing them back to Earth to be used against the Covenant. Dropped into an area that was overrun with rebel militia groups, Jian set up an ambush and took control of the trucks transporting the warheads. But as they maneuvered back to their evacuation zone, Simon was separated from the team and cut off from their support. With hundreds of rebels converging on their position, Jian was ordered to load the warheads onto the Pelican and withdraw instead of striking out to rescue their stranded teammate. Recalling the incident on Oasis, Ralph immediately refused to comply and prepared to hurry back to extract Simon. He was utterly stunned when Jake instead ordered him to stand down and load onto the Pelican. Furious that his teammates would even consider abandoning one of their own, Ralph needed to be restrained by both Mary and Terrence and forcibly loaded onto the dropship. As the Pelican lifted off and left Simon to his fate at the hands of the oncoming rebels, Ralph tried to force his way into the cockpit and was only stopped from hijacking the dropship when Cassandra sedated him from behind.
===="What Happens To Us If It Ends?"====
If Ralph's outburst had occurred under different circumstances he would have been severely disciplined, perhaps even removed from Team Jian entirely for "retraining." But with more Covenant forces pouring into the Sol system every day ONI could not afford to diminish the ranks of its Spartan teams. After a few days in solitary confinement, Ralph was returned to Jian and ordered to prepare for combat deployment on Earth. The entire team was deeply shaken by the loss of Simon. Ralph felt as if a rift had been opened between himself, who would have risked anything to save his teammate, and the others, who had chosen to follow orders and leave Simon to certain torture and death at the hands of the Insurrectionists. Grief and anger over Simon bubbled over into something new: fear. Simon's loss and the memories of Team Kopis's slaughter forced Ralph to confront the very real possibility that he and everyone he knew would be dead by the end of the month. Sullen and withdrawn, Ralph did his best to prepare for the vicious fighting ahead.
===The Hunter===
==Personality and Traits==
Ralph was infamous among Gamma Company for his short temper and cruel sense of humor. As a trainee, he was considered both a bully (for picking fights with children who were smaller or weaker than him) and a fool (for picking fights with children who were bigger and stronger than him). Although his combat scores ranked among the highest in the company, he was frequently punished by his instructors for insubordination and misbehavior and it was not until he was sorted into Team Jian that his relationship with other trainees began to improve. 
==Trivia==
*Ralph's weapon of choice was an , which he named "Fantine" in honor of a fellow Spartan who had died in training.
Category:Gamma Company