Jonathan Ulan/AAO

Jonathan Ulan was a UNSC Marine Corps Force Recon operative, and rebel commander. Born on in 2512, Ulan joined the UNSC Marine Corps at the minimum enlistment age of seventeen to help try and pay off his family's increasing debts to the government. After he showed exemplary performance and resilience during basic training, Ulan was offered a spot as a Force Recon trainee. Accepting, he was shipped to for selection.
After passing the selection course, Ulan was shipped to multiple colonies over the course of two more years for advanced training. In January of 2531, Ulan officially became a Force Recon operator, and was shipped to Harvest to aid in finally retaking it from the alien alliance known as the . Sent behind enemy lines to sabotage Covenant positions and conduct raids, Ulan was heavily burned by plasma during one of his team's engagements with the aliens. Due to his wounds, he was transferred to the , where he recuperated from his wounds sustained on Harvest until late 2531, when he was redeployed to .
On Mamore, Ulan and his unit were assigned to dismantle the terrorist group . Having heard of the actions the group had taken, Ulan was merciless in working to dismantle the group. Due to the unit's actions, the FLP was effectively defunct after three months of constant operations. For four more years, Ulan worked to eliminate scattered rebel units across the colony. However, also during this time, Ulan saw other UNSC troops beating and executing civilians as spies for the rebels, something that left a deep impression on him for the rest of his life.
In 2537, after a particularly large uprising, Ulan was wounded by a rebel sniper in the town of Fayfield, and sent to a nearby field hospital. The next day, Ulan found out the rebellion had been destroyed in less than a day by unknown means. Seeing how brutal the UNSC could be, he assumed the worst, and began thinking the UNSC had to have done something terrible to stop the rebellion so fast.
With the rebel groups having died down, Ulan and his unit were simply assigned as security details for officials or other low level jobs. This left him time to reflect on what he had seen and done on Mamore for the past few years. The time he had to reflect, coupled with periods of leave on the planet during which he interacted with the populace, shifted Ulan towards the rebel cause.
As he planned to defect, Ulan waited for an opportunity. In January of 2540, he got his chance, when he and his units were deployed to the mountains of to destroy a rebel unit that was entrenched there. During a blizzard on the mountain the Marines were on, Ulan slipped away, and deactivated his transponder, faking his own death.
Wandering for days, he eventually went into the city of New Richmond, where he came across a unit of rebels working within the slums. Joining them, he eventually came into command via both his merit and other means. In 2545, a weapons smuggling operation was foiled by Reginald Harding, and there was a raid on his captured UNSC destroyer, the Revolutionary Fervor by Valerie Sulzer. The two's actions eventually led him to engage in open combat against Project Freelancer, during which he was captured by the agents, and killed soon after his breakout.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
====Childhood====
Jonathan Ulan was born on the colony of in 2512 to Julia and Robert Ulan, two shopowners in the colony's capital. As a child, he displayed exemplary grades and physical abilities far superior to those of his peers. In 2517, he was visited by and , who, unbeknownst to the young Ulan, were looking for possible recruits for the . Engaging in conversation with the Doctor, he was able to converse with her in a far higher vocabulary level than would be expected of a child his age, and was able to adequately explain the real meaning of his last name, which he had picked up as a reader of history, a subject he was extremely interested in.
Although he was flagged as a possible candidate, Ulan was never conscripted, and continued to live out his life, unaware of how close he came to becoming a SPARTAN-II. As a teenager, after a flight in a private aircraft at an airshow, Ulan became determined to be a military pilot, and, to help further his goals, joined a local flight club, moving around the aircraft and helping out with manual labor in return for free flights.
====Enlistment====
However, Ulan's idyllic life was shattered in 2529, when a bad economic recession occurred on the colony, and he was forced to help in the shop, as his parents went deeper into debt. In order to help them get out of debt, Ulan postponed his plans to become a UNSC Navy pilot, and instead joined the as an enlisted member.
===Marine Corps===
====Training====
After he joined, now Private Ulan was sent to UNSC Marine Corps Recruit Depot Kholo, in an isolated area of the planet, for basic training. For three months, Ulan trained at the Depot, eventually leaving as Honor Graduate for his exemplary performance. Ulan's achievements did not go unnoticed by his drill instructors either, who recommended Ulan to attempt to become a Force Recon operator. Knowing it would mean more money to send back to his still struggling family, he accepted to offer, and was sent off planet to the colony of , for the Force Recon selection process.
On Emerald Cove, despite his well built physique, Ulan was pushed to his limits, mostly due to the mental stress that he did not expect. Due to this, as well as the general stress of it, he came close to dropping out on multiple occasions, but due to the help of his fellow trainees, Ulan managed to finish the selection course, and began to continue his training for two more years, earning his airborne wings on at Fort Benning, , as well as multiple other qualifications, before he officially became a Force Recon operator in 2531. After a three week period of leave, Ulan was put aboard the UNSC Nimitz, and sent to fight in the Harvest Campaign.
====Harvest Campaign====
After Ulan arrived on , he and his platoon were quickly put to work against the Covenant. Although not partaking in direct combat action against the aliens, Ulan and his platoon were responsible for scores of alien deaths through raids on camps, as well as hit and run attacks on alien troops. During this time, Ulan developed a penchant for the alien plasma weapons, which, although he never kept any of, he used to great effect against the highly flammable methane pits in attacks.
However, Ulan's time on Harvest would be short lived, as less than two months into his service, he was heavily burned by Covenant energy weapon fire during an attempt to draw a large group of Covenant forces away from another Marine Corps platoon. Due to his wounds, Ulan was transferred off planet to the hospital ship UNSC Hopeful to recuperate.
====Recuperation====
When he arrived on the Hopeful, Ulan discovered that he had heavy burns on a large portion of his torso, and would most likely be out of action for months recuperating from his wounds. Although Ulan hated having to be out of action and away from his platoon for such a long period of time, and as such he petitioned repeatedly to be released early, he eventually came to grips with the fact he would have to stay. In December of 2531, Ulan was finally released, and returned to his unit, which was now deployed to the war torn colony of .
====Mamore====
=====Initial Operations and Dismantling of the FLP=====
After Ulan arrived on Mamore in late January of 2532, he was assigned to his original platoon, which was based in the area around the settlement of Fayfield, which had become a hotspot of the terrorist group Freedom and Liberation Party. Two weeks into his deployment, the platoon began its operations to destroy the FLP. Starting with raids on compounds, the Marines made quick work of cell after cell, foiling multiple operations and gaining valuable intelligence for other units. During one of these raids, Ulan was awarded the Navy Cross for singlehandedly destroying an FLP fireteam that was pinning a group of other Marine infantry down at one of their compounds.
After three months of constant operations, Ulan and his platoon dismantled the final FLP cell in April of 2532. Although the group's leader had disappeared without a trace, there were no cells left to continue operations. Ulan, despite having never killed another human being before, felt little remorse for his actions, stating that he didn't know why anyone would sympathize with terrorists.
=====Interim Period=====
For five more years, Ulan and his platoon continued to be garrisoned on Mamore, aiding in taking out scattered cells as they started isolated uprisings. It was also during this time that Ulan's loyalty to the UNSC began to waver. During a routine patrol through Fayfield, Ulan watched as a group of colonial troops savagely beat a group of Mamorian citizens suspected as spies. Stepping in, Ulan ordered them to stop, but they responded with, "Mind your own damn business.", according to him. After the patrol, Ulan referred the incident to the men's superior, who dismissed the brutality as a "necessary evil". Although Ulan was still loyal to the UNSC after this incident, it clouded his perception of later events for years to come.
=====2537 Mamore Insurrection=====
In 2537, after a period of relative peace on the colony, during which Ulan's platoon was relatively inactive due to lack of any known active rebel groups, Mamore erupted in a massive uprising. Ulan's first engagement during the uprising was a long, hour and a half long firefight with rebel fighters that had swarmed Fayfield in the hours after the first attack of the uprising. During the battle, Ulan took a round to the side, and had to be medevaced, along with multiple other Marines back to their firebase.
When Ulan awoke the next morning, he discovered the uprising had disappeared almost overnight. His perception of military responses to rebels clouded by his previous incident with colonial troops, and the silence regarding how it was actually put down, caused him to fear the worst, that the UNSC had done something horribly brutal and they were keeping it quiet. Two years later, in 2539, he discovered his parents had been killed when Kholo was glassed, throwing him into a deep depression. This was to be the breaking point for Ulan, who now saw the UNSC as a totalitarian regime that could not even protect its own people, and he prepared to defect.
====Defection====
In 2540, Ulan got his chance to defect, when his platoon was transferred to the colony of to eliminate a rebel group responsible for repeated raids on UNSC convoys operating from the mountains. However, as they began roving the mountains, a blizzard swept in, and Ulan, taking advantage of this sudden lapse of visibility, slipped away from his platoon, and turned off his transponder, effectively faking his death.
Having defected, Ulan began a week long trek through the mountains to reach the city of New Richmond. Stripping his uniform of its nametapes, Ulan did as much as possible to try and look like a homeless man before he reached New Richmond. When he finally arrived there, Ulan made his way to the slums, where he assumed there would be a rebel group.
After three days of searching, Ulan found one via propaganda posters circulating around the slums. Making his way to the building, Ulan, along with a group of other recruits, were taken into what looked like a dilapidated apartment building, and extensively interrogated one by one. After the interrogation, Ulan and the rest of the recruits were tattooed with the symbol of the rebel group, issued their weapons, and became fighters of the Insurrection.
====Commanding====
As Ulan stayed in the rebel group, he became dissatisfied with how the current leader and his cohorts were using the group's resources, infrequently launching attacks, and when they did, the attacks were too many losses for so little gain. In 2542, Ulan, malcontent to the point of violence, killed the three men who ran the group via various means, and, with them out of the picture, took command. Although the group's fighters were very much suspicious of Ulan, they decided to allow him to take over, he being the only person willing to take command.
Soon after he took command, Ulan discovered there was an extensive criminal organization within the city's slums, which he intended to tap into for resources and personnel. The criminals, having heard of the death of the former commanders of the cell, which rumor stated had been engineered by Ulan, deferred to his authority out of fear of a possibly brutal retaliation in the event of a rejection.
By 2544, Ulan had taken control of New Richmond's criminal and smuggling underground through threats and other unscrupulous means, and continued coordinating operations against the UNSC. To keep his troops supplied, Ulan used his criminal contacts, including a smuggling operation at Rhodes Collosi Shipwrights, where he procured military grade weaponry from plants there.
====Centennial Bridge Bombing====
However, the smuggling operation was broken up in 2545, when Inspector Reginald Harding interrogated and arrested all of Ulan's plants within the company. Outraged, Ulan made his way to their safehouse near the shipyards, where he began to plan a retaliatory strike. However, while he was planning, he was interrupted by one of his rebels having brought in an urchin by the name of Gavin Dunn. Taking pity on the young boy, Ulan allowed him to stay in the safehouse for the night, before sending him out in the morning.
Unbeknownst to Ulan, however, Gavin had come back in later, and taken evidence of the Major's intent to target the Centennial Bridge as a retaliation. Continuing to contemplate for another day, Ulan eventually laid the plan out to a group of twenty commandos he had picked from the safehouse's garrison. Taking a cargo of seven Archer Missile warheads they had procured, Ulan loaded them into a specially modified surveillance proof truck, and drove it under one of the bridge's supports.
Soon after, his commandos arrived as well, in another truck, and they set up a perimeter as Ulan supervised the arming of the bombs. However, the operation was cut short as Inspector Harding opened fire on the rebels from the bridge, killing seven of the commandos initially before they were able to return fire. As more of his commandos were picked off, Ulan began to flee from the scene, but then an ONI agent by the name of Valerie Sulzer, assigned to kill the Major, began to pursue him.
Holding up a car, Ulan threatened to kill the passenger, causing a standoff between him, Sulzer, and Harding as he tried to buy time for his reinforcements, which he had alerted via a "panic button" on his equipment. However, just as he was about to execute the hostages as Sulzer approached him, Ulan's trigger finger was shot off by Harding. However, as she was about to capture him, Ulan's reinforcements arrived, and he was evacuated from the area before Sulzer could get to him.
Flying in a Pelican to the spaceport, Ulan boarded a rebel controlled freighter along with the remnants of the rebel cell, which flew out of the atmosphere and made a random slipspace jump before the UNSC were able to mount a response to capture and board it.
====Taking of the UNSC Abankin====
As the rebels continued to make slipspace jumps, Ulan made a daring statement, that they were going to board and capture a UNSC destroyer. Setting up a plan, Ulan continued to make random jumps until they were within range of a UNSC warship, and then sent out a fake distress call, to which the destroyer responded. Once it docked with them, Ulan led a team of commandos through the ship to the bridge. Once he was there, he gave an ultimatum to the UNSC personnel aboard: Surrender, or die. Those who did not surrender to the rebels had their sections vented of all oxygen by Ulan.
Once the Abankin had been taken, the rebels moved all of their supplies to it, and Ulan ordered the cargo ship be left there as they continued to use it as a base of operations, renaming it the Revolutionary Fervor.
====ONI Hit====
Soon after Ulan captured the Abankin, the UNSC sent a team of two ONI agents, including Sulzer, to capture Ulan. Breaching the ship, the two quickly moved through the ship, killing any rebels who stood in their way, before forcing their way onto the bridge. Ulan managed to kill one before Sulzer knocked him out, however, she was unable to get him off the ship, as a fireteam of his bodyguards moved in to help him.
Once he realized what had happened, and how many of his close friends were dead, Ulan became merciless and singularly focused on killing the both Sulzer and Harding, plotting an operation to kill them both as vengeance for what they had done. With the loss of a large amount of his personnel due to the raid on the destroyer, Ulan contacted the Humanity Liberation Front, and requested them to reinforce him on his operations. Although the outposts he contacted were initially hesitant, Ulan blackmailed, threatened, or used other morally unscrupulous means to gain the support of the commanders.
====Intelligence Collecting====
Now with the support of the Humanity Liberation Front, Ulan began an intelligence collecting campaign on Harding and Sulzer.
====Operation: KILLING GROUND====
====Harmony Freighter Capture====
====Mamore====
====Europa====
====Capture====
====Death====
==Personnel Profile==
===Relationships===
====Julia Daniels====
====Nicholas Ulan====
===Personality===
==Gallery==