Axton-A428

Petty Officer First Class Axton-A428, full name Axton David Zogby, was a Category-3 of Alpha Company. Known as a troublesome yet reclusive trainee who struggled in team exercises, Axton had a normal background for a SPARTAN-III, having been put into an orphanage after losing everything he knew on . Failing to find a team niche due to his independent spirit, he would eventually show off his sophisticated skills in wilderness survival, which saw Axton being pulled into the . He would have the second-lowest matching in the entire program, though at 56.3% they still made a formidable team.
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== Career Service Vitae ==
== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
Like many Alpha Spartans, Axton's early life was largely unknown, as the destruction of documents on their homeworld to the Covenant's assault left little to find. However, by Axton recalling it or by the few sites investigated in the Post-War Era, some information has been found. He spent almost all his pre-Spartan life in an orphanage in Khmer, having been given up by his parents at a very young age, and was instead raised by the staff there. He apparently never considered the fact he had any parents or that there were other ways to live during this time, and as a result quickly made friends with even the older children. Unlike many other kids his age, Axton wasn't mischievous nor spoilt, but he was curious and was easily led astray by the others.
However, Axton's seemingly-stable world was about to be thrown into chaos. A Covenant battlegroup discovered the planet through a random slipspace jump, and immediately descended on the planet's population centres. When this happened, the staff of the orphanage tried to save as many of the orphans as possible, apparently taking them on an 'excursion' into the city's spaceport. As the group from the second compound were being rounded up to leave, which include Axton, a few Covenant lances burst through the doors and massacred the children, sending the rest running for their lives. He followed another older kid out, eventually meeting up with UNSC forces who escorted them and other civilians to the ships. Even at the spaceport, they weren't safe; the Covenant attacked twice with varying levels of success, with the second attack killing the kid Axton was following. Despite these odds, the UNSC managed to hold them off long enough for Axton to be pushed onto the ship, evading the air strafes and into the safety of slipspace.
Upon arriving on , Axton was quickly placed in one of the orphanages in the countryside. With the loss of so many friends and family, he became extremely reclusive and was known to break down due to him remembering the horror on his homeworld. While it was (mostly) genuine, the increased attention given to him by the staff made him jealous of the other children, and he was frequently bullied in his early years. Though at first he didn't do anything to defend himself, the increasing pressure of revenge eventually led to him to attack those who wronged him while they were distracted or separated; often when they were sleeping. He was even known to steal food and other consumables from the kitchens, with one of the most critical side-effects being an addition for paracetamol. These actions served not only to intensify the hatred of his enemies, but also cost him any friends he had and any hope of being adopted.
On his fifth birthday, a female couple arrived to the orphanage, wanting to take some children in. Normally, Axton's attempts to isolate himself from the rest of his peers made him unpopular for the choice of adoption; however, the couple were apparently charmed by this act and against the recommendations of the employees decided to talk to him. He maintained an lack of care to them, until the conversation changed topic to the Covenant's assault and how there are many others like him across human space. He was even more interested in the so-called 'Spartans', and surprised him when they told him the truth in private; they were there to look for children who wanted to "stop the Covenant from hurting anyone else," and asked him if he would like to leave to take part in that. He accepted it wholeheartedly. After supposedly being adopted in late November, all records of him ceased to exist.
=== Training ===
On the 27th December, 2531, the candidates of Alpha Company finally arrived on , . Though he was one of the first to arrive at the field where the introduction was done, he barely paid attention to it, mesmerised and distracted by the alien environment around him. Mendez's attempts at singling him out got his attention, stimulating him to get back on the pelican. Once aboard the steadily-rising , he and the other children with him were briefly taught how to operate the parafoils they received before being given the option to jump back down to the planet. Although intimidated by the height, seeing so many take the jump caused him to work up the courage to make the drop. His reflexes allowed him to make it down safely, where he was congratulated with a unique prize; a listed number which replaced his surname. For the first time since Hat Yai, Axton felted he belonged somewhere.
For the next five years, Axton and the rest of Alpha Company were pitted against the toughest training regime ever conceived of in the UNSC at that point. Long hours of endurance- and fitness-building exercises were only separated by infrequent snack breaks and schooling to further their knowledge. There was little to distinguish him from the rest of his peers, with the only things his drill instructors thought were worth mentioning were his lack of social skills and his inability to accept losing - a trait many of his peers shared. Nevertheless, they knew that Axton-A428's difficulty with adjusting to a military lifestyle did not make for team leader material, something that and SCPO Mendez kept in mind when designing the initial drafts for the teams.
It was after being assigned into teams and the competitions rose in significance did Axton change his attitude for the worse. The young trainee immediately began bumping heads with his teammates within Team Cobra, against the similarly-reclusive Sonam-A031 and the excelling team leader Marica-A288. The first team-building exercises often ended in fights thanks to his non-verbal attempts to cause tension by hoarding material, ignoring commands, and returning looks of disgust towards his peers. Despite the drill sergeants attempting to promote teamwork among the trio, the team's very first competitive match of Capture the Flag against Team Shark ended spectacularly. Quickly running off, Axton instead began firing his prop rifle against both teams, his poorly-aimed shots only serving to annoy them before his supposed friends and enemies eagerly worked together to knock him out of the fight.
Although his xenophobia towards other human ethnicities would be identified and treated later in training, and subsequent disciplinary actions taught him to respect the authority of the drill sergeants, Axton would not mend any relationships he had with his team. Instead, the young trainee honed his survival skills further and became surprising adept at fighting off the other teams single-handedly, an act that made him an all-too-common visitor of Chief Mendez. While he rarely survived such exercises, the few times he did meant that trainers often had to order him to abandon his post. By the time training began with Semi-Powered Infiltration armour began, however, he was no longer working alone exclusively. Dale-A178 of Team Hyena, already a loner in his own team, had began to follow his example and the two formed a working relationship that was unlike that of any other team. Each would independently identify threats and vulnerable targets, and while Dale began stealing supplies before each match and incapacitate threats, Axton would be the one to hide and stockpile such gains. This would be brought up in one final meeting between the two and Mendez. After conceding that neither belonged in the team-centric culture of Alpha Company, he asked them if they wanted to join the prestigious Headhunter division; he stressed that if they did not accept, he would be forced to jettison them from the program. After much deliberation, both Axton and his partner-in-crime accepted.
Reassigned to a separate facility on the far side of Onyx, Axton and a handful of others would be taken through a course aimed at preparing the young trainees for missions without support from the UNSC. 
== Physical Traits ==
=== Appearance ===
=== Personality ===
=== Skills ===
=== Equipment ===
Category:Alpha Company
Category:Vadumverse Protagonists
Category:Males
Category:UNSC Personnel
Category:ZOD Characters