Ben-G175

Ben-G175, born Ben Grayson, also known as Codename: TITAN, is a SPARTAN III of Gamma Company, and current lead of Team Kopis. Starting off as one of the Gamma Company, Ben was initially one of the least promising candidates in the program, with a save for his high intelligence and endless drive to fight. Eventually Ben went from a subpar recruit to one of the best heavy assault specialists Gamma Company could hope to have, boasting superior skills in demolitions, handling heavy weapons, and marksmanship, along with a talent for improvisation.
Ben's life as a Spartan would be marked by amazing highs and bitter lows, from going from a runty child to a force of nature on the battlefield, to leading hundreds of marines to their deaths in a failed charge for vengeance. Though they were hard to swallow, it would be the losses that taught Ben the greatest lessons, molding him into a weapon to be used against the enemies of humanity.
===Early Life===
Life before the UNSC is not often spoken of by Ben, though his life was by all accounts happy, his father served in the local garrison and his mother was an ONI Agent. Though the war had left both parents burning the candle at both ends, they nevertheless doted on their young son, who would forever remember his mother’s cooking and the booming laughter of his father.
When the Covenant attacked Actium, Ben’s father had been off duty that day and had decided to take his son to a local park, much to his young son's enjoyment. Ben would look back on that day later in life and remark on it fondly, remembering how his father had held his hand while they fed the ducks, and the careful way the man had guided his young son. However their day was quickly soured with the arrival of the Covenant fleet, and the start of the Battle of Actium.
As the Battle for Actium raged, Ben found his once happy family torn apart; his mother was stuck in a sea of intelligence gathering work and his father was constantly at the front, holding the line in defense of his family. By the time that the Covenant eventually broke through UNSC lines Ben’s father had been dead for days, though the young boy would never know, holding out hope until the second he stepped on  an off-world transport. The last that Ben would see of his family was his mother, who ushered him onto one of the last off-world transports with a rushed goodbye and a promise to join him later. While even though he was a small child, Ben knew she was lying, and spent the entire journey in tears, 
With the invasion of Actium and it’s subsequent fall, along with the death of the only family the young boy knew; Ben was left alone in an orphanage on New Constantinople, his only companions were his fellow orphans l, each of them coming from worlds glassed or being glassed. Ben didn’t spend much time in the orphanage, though he did manage to make some friends, he told jokes to the other kids, he was nice to the younger ones and made sure they were treated well by the older ones, though the boys less than imposing stature hardly helped.
On the day that ONI came Ben remembered how it stormed, thunder and lightning filled the sky, and men in black and grey combed through his orphanage reading from a list and speaking with the children. When his name was called Ben stepped forward and engaged the men in brief conversation, during which they asked him his name, where he was from and where his parents were. The short conversation was followed by a simple question: did he want revenge for his slain loved ones. From then on the young boy's life was a Spartan one, and was loaded along with the other candidates and shipped off to Onyx. From there Ben would begin training of all sorts from dusk to dawn, training him to become a walking death machine for the UNSC.
===Training===
It was said that those from the SPARTAN-II program were some of the most genetically gifted candidates in a SPARTAN program, the best that the UNSC could hope to find, and it was also said that those in the SPARTAN-III were said to be less so. But what Ben lacked in superior genetics, he made up for in drive, passion, and a knack for adaptability and on-the-fly learning, something that was noticed by his instructors. If someone happened to outrun him, he simply found a shorter path, if they were stronger than him, he’d do his best to fight smarter, in his mind, there was always a way around a problem. With this mindset Ben quickly became known as a problem solver and strategist, along with a reputation as a skilled sharpshooter with a knack for heavy ordinance and penchant for full force assault tactics.
While in training Ben showed adeptness for a variety of non-combat skills, including his survivalist training and combat medicine. Ben had so much skill in the latter that he briefly considered putting more effort into his battlefield medicine abilities, but eventually opted to focus on more direct means when it came to supporting his fireteam. Commander Ambrose once remarked that if Ben didn’t want to fight so badly, that he’d have shined as one of their medics. As the candidates began their physical training Ben struggled at first his small frame barely able to compete with the other kids and getting laid out during sparring. Though these losses were hard to take Ben used them as motivation, doing anything he could to triumph over his opponents, and though he would d
When it was time to be sorted into fireteams, like the rest of Gamma Company, Ben was shuffled around to find the best fit, making many friends and a few rivals. Finally Ben was paired with his final team, Team Kopis, and quickly made friends with the other members of his team: Mallory-G032, Arthur-G220, Isaac-G121, and Sasha-G070. While Team Kopis was a close knit unit team, Ben became especially close with Isaac, who came to be considered a brother to Ben. 
Although their friendship eventually grew to be the strongest on Team Kopis, Ben and Isaac initially hated each other, barely able to stand each others presence, much less functioning as a team. Though after a tongue lashing from CPO Mendez followed by several and a wargames victory shortly afterwards, the pair came to have a mutual respect as soldiers, and from there the bond only grew.
When Operation: JAILBREAK occured Team Kopis was one of the many to join their comrades in escaping the perceived tyranny of Commander Ambrose and the DIs, assisting in their comrades in a week long resistance against those that sought to reign in the rogue trainees. Afterwards Ben made his peace with the Gammas who’d assisted in reigning in their unruly siblings, though he’d always joke among Kopis that they would’ve had more fun had they stayed, citing that it be good practice for war games.
===Project: CHRYSANTHEMUM===
When Team Kopis formally designated their team roles, it was no question that Bem would be the Kopis's heavy hitter, becoming the team’s expert in assault tactics and go-to when it came to brute force solutions. This role wasn’t only due to his larger size among Gamma Company and preference for heavy weapons, but also as the most forward thinking (Ben would also add brave, though his squadmates would refer to it as reckless) member of Kopis, who would later go on to wade through the battlefield wielding heavy ordnance and came to value a hammer to a scalpel when it came to battle. The other members of Kopis, Mallory-G032, Arthur-G220, Isaac-G121 and Sasha-G070 become Team Lead, Demolitions, Scout/Primary sniper, and CQC expert respectively. The formation of these friendships left a lasting impact on Ben, leading him to value Kopis as the family that it had grown to be, and more value in his role as Spartan. The amount of emphasis that Commander Ambrose placed on teamwork would also lead to Ben becoming a very good team player, working with whoever he was assigned to with little difficulty.
When it came near time for augmentations, Ben spent much time aboard the Hopeful wracked impatience, and though the images of the SPARTAN-II washouts conveyed the seriousness of what was going to be done to him, he accepted his duty with a new mindset, one that was determined to fight tooth and nail for humanity to the bitter end, something that many of his Gamma Company siblings would do themselves. After the augmentations, the rapid growth caused by his supplements left the young boy, now in the body of an olympic athlete, disoriented like the rest of his comrades and spent much time acclimating to his new body. Eventually through a years worth of training, his comrades and sheer determination, Ben was reforged into a true Spartan, and like most of Gamma Company was shipped off to various warfronts across the UNSC. 
When the Spartans were issued their arms and armour, Ben took little time in modifying his SPI-II to better suit his needs, adding addition munitions pouches, and requisitioning a specially modified BR-55, with an added underbarrel grenade launcher and integrated suppressor. Ben’s choice of loadout was at first considered unnecessary by his team, who thought they’d be deployed behind enemy lines instead of on the front lines.
===The Battle for the Sol System===
Kopis’s first taste of real combat came in the form of the Battle for the Sol System, a true trial by fire. For a week Team Kopis waited on Mars, preparing their defenses and conversing with the men of the 87th Armoured Battalion, whom Kopis had been assigned to support when the fighting started. When the first Covenant dropships finally landed among the skyscrapers of Ganymede on Mars, with assistance from 87th Armored, the fireteam met them with gunfire and high explosives. Team Kopis fought throughout the day, and with Mallory’s clever coordination of their forces nearly turned the tide several times, but would be rebuffed by sheer numbers. It was a hard fought battle, and sadly a losing one which resulted in the eventual withdrawal of all UNSC forces from the city by nightfall, leaving the great skyline to be pillaged by the Covenant invaders.
With the withdrawal of Team Kopis from Ganymede they were deployed to other emerging battlefronts across the once Red Planet. The team participated in numerous Operations in an attempt to stem the tide of destruction that the Covenant left in their wake. It was during Operation: SILVER SHIELD that saw Team Kopis deployed to New Legapsi under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Phillipe Aznable, acting commander of the 41st Infantry Battalion to fend off a Covenant assault at New Paris. During the battle Team Kopis fought bravely, and Operation: SILVER SHIELD was a sound victory; New Paris had been held, and the Covenant had been turned back, buying time for the dying front that was Mars, however victory came with the near total annihilation of the 41st Infantry Battalion during the fighting.
Over the course of the Battle for Mars, Team Kopis fought bravely and tirelessly, though it seemed that their efforts would be all for naught with the capture of none other than Colonel James Ackerson during the Battle of Mare Erythraeum and the loss of the strategically important Oenotria and the annihilation of the 222nd Infantry Battalion. After the capture of Colonel Ackerson and the loss of Oentoria, Kopis was briefly left stranded among the ruins of the mining city, and used all of their abilities to remain unseen, utilizing their SPI to clear a path out of the city.
After fleeing the city, Team Kopis rallied with the other scattered forces in the area, forming a sort of convoy towards Seven Hills, a region of Mars that held one of the few ships left in-planet capable of flight. It was there that Ben learned that Kopis was being reassigned from Mars to Earth. Ben was forced to put his own opinions aside, feeling that there was still a fight on Mars that needed to be finished, but was assured that Kopis would return to finish the fight.
In the aftermath of the battle, Team Kopis was pulled from Mars and sent to Earth, where they would fight the invasion along the eastern seaboard of North America, seeing combat in New York, Baltimore and Salem. It was during the failed Operation to retake the city of Charleston that Mallory was killed by a lance of Zealots, who took her tags as trophies. It was then that a general retreat was called and Ben brashly defied orders to see the death of his friend avenged. These actions would see fellow squadmate Isaac dead as well, something Ben would never forgive himself for, and would influence him greatly.
With the occurrence of the Great Schism, Team Kopis was granted a temporary reprieve as the Covenant tore itself apart. Eventually as the Great Schism intensified, the remains of Team Kopis would be deployed to the , where they would fight their last campaign and though the Op was a resounding success, with the Covenant forces being all but slaughtered, it was not without sacrifice, as the remainder of the 87th Armored would perish during the Siege of Atlanta, dying trying to hold a killzone after getting caught in an ambush. Barely conscious from an artillery blast Ben was unable to assist his team in the conflict, only able to watch as they died under a hail of plasma and he faded from consciousness. The Siege of Atlanta would deeply affect Ben, as he would go on to blame himself for leading the marines to their deaths, and instilling a resolve that he wouldn’t make the same mistake again. After the battle Kopis assisted in cleaning up what remained of the Covenant forces of Earth and Mars, but Ben was wounded by plasma fire during one of his last assignments and confined to an ONI medical bay while he recovered.
===Personality===
As a young Spartan Ben was mature beyond his years, having seen more than any child his age should’ve seen and endured much more. In combat Ben is a SPARTAN through and through, calm, collected and offering the occasional joke, though had a habit of getting too aggressive in the heat of battle. Outside of combat the young man is often quiet unless spoken to, preferring the company of books to people, save for his fellow member of Team Kopis. Though quiet Ben enjoys conversing with all regardless of rank or occupation and could easily be described as kind and almost unassuming if not for the olympic build he possessed.
Ben has also been at times called proud and sometimes overly confident in his abilities, with his team describing him as ‘half a narcissist.’ However he’s always managed to maintain grounded during combat, using his confidence and pride to enforce what he calls a “super-soldier state of mind” (a belief that through sheer determination and willpower, any goal can be accomplished), a bastardization of the term used by the ODSTs. However with age came wisdom, and as Ben left his teens and grew into an adult he would become a more somber individual, with a life of combat turning pride into humility. 
While Ben specializes in heavy weapons and assault tactics, he’s made sure not to slack in CQC, and while being far from the best close combat fighter, he’s tough enough to hold his own against most opponents. A quick thinker and effective strategist, Ben is adept at forming quick and simple battleplans on the fly, and has learned to adapt his strategies in the face of adversity.
As a Gamma Company Spartan, Ben is required to take “Smoothers” to balance out the vicious mental side effects of his augmentations. Should Ben go longer than 12 hours without his medication, he begins a drastic spiral into insanity, starting with irritability and nervousness and turning to paranoia, and extreme rage, during which he’s liable to attack an ally as well as a hostile. Having lived with these mental effects for some time, Ben has grown somewhat used to them, learning how best to cope with the more moderate side effects, and has specialized long term implants that keep him stable.
===Equipment and Loadout===
Like all SPARTAN-IIIs Ben was issued standard issue SPI Mark-II armour and the MA5K carbine. Upon receiving his armor and gear Ben wasted no time in modifying both to better suit his needs as a heavy assault specialist, adding additional armour plating, and many external ammunition pouches, and an assault bandolier fitted for grenades. Ben’s loadout for a mission could vary, depending on the Operation and his role, though the young man was most often seen wielding a BR-55 Battle Rifle, modified with a suppressor and grenade launcher, and the M45E Tactical Shotgun as his secondary, with an M6G Magnum as his sidearm of choice.
Category:Gamma Company
Category:SPARTAN-IIIs