SPARTAN-D2541

SPARTAN-D2541, also known as Evie, was a Supersoldier in command of Manticore Team, a operating as part of Delta Company. Also operating under the designation Codename: STARBUCK, D2541 acted as the commanding officer of Foxtrot Platoon, made up of about 120 teams and some 200 SPARTAN-IIIs. Serving as a senior non-commissioned officer in the SPARTAN-III Program from her graduation in 2567, Evie was directly involved in nearly all major combat operations the UNSC participated in, being at the elite front of the UNSC's fighting forces and seeing action in the harshest theatres of war the galaxy post Human-Covenant War had to offer. Evie's career was long and decorated, spanning multiple decades during which time her cocky, no nonsense attitude towards her fellow SPARTANs and her superiors became famed within the SPARTAN-III Program.
==Biography==
===Early Life and SPARTAN Training===
Born on the inner colony world of Adrastos, Evie lived in the planet's capital, Monolith, with her parents and two older brothers. In 2548, when Evie was two years old, the attacked the world while UNSC forces attempted to hold them off, while an evacuation took place. The Covenant managed to land a significant amount of ground forces while the UNSC Navy struggled to hold them off, causing considerable civilian casualties. Evie's entire family were killed by a fuel rod burst from a strafing Banshee, she only surviving through sheer luck. A passing company of Marines, escorting civilians to an extraction point, happened upon her and took her with them, their craft one of the few to jump away while the Navy was obliterated. Following this, Evie was sent to an orphanage in .
In 2552, at the age of six, Evie was selected based on her genetic, physical and mental attributes to join the , an initiative to create expendable supersoldiers field them against the Covenant. Evie was visited by an ONI agent, who offered her the chance to go and take revenge on the Covenant, which she immediately accepted. Subsequently she was conscripted to , the fourth batch of suicide soldiers to be fielded against the Covenant Empire. However, the death of and the disappearances of and , as well as the destruction of , halted the training of the candidates for a number of years. Evie, seemingly robbed of her chance to avenge her parents, was returned to the orphanage on Earth.
Delta Company's training recommenced in 2555 with all the former candidates, including Evie, being recalled, in addition to many new candidates as well. As a result of this, most of the candidates were aged six, with many also being aged as young as 4 and as old as 8; out of all of the trainees, Evie was one of the oldest. Beginning training with some 3000 other candidates, despite her cocky and hot-headed nature, she quickly made friends with her fellow SPARTANs. In particular she became close to four other trainees, despite their wildly differing personalities, and during their 12-year long training regime the five formed Manticore Team together. Training was intensive and gruelling, with SPARTAN-254, a class II SPARTAN-II, overseeing and training the young SPARTANs. Regimes involved exhaustive firearms training, hand-to-hand, blade and unarmed combat, survival techniques, tracking, stealth and marksmanship training and above all, teamwork coaching. SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduated in 2567, Evie aged 21 at the time.
===Early Military Career===
====Raid on Majoris-4====
Evie's first proper combat was in 2567, when Manticore Team was covertly deployed to the Theta Majoris System, with the objective being to destroy a Jiralhanae facility on the planet's fourth planet, Majoris-4. The planet's main facility handled a vital component for the manufacture of antimatter warheads, the highly volatile antimatter itself, being the primary target. Numerous secondary targets existed in dozens of mining areas scattered in close proximity to the antimatter manufacturing plant. Deploying to the surface in stealth SOEIV Pods Pods launched from the UNSC Andromeda, Evie led her team undetected to the antimatter containment chamber, where she and Aaron-D157 planted a small, remote detonation explosive device on a concealed panel. Succeeding in leaving the facility, the alarm was raised and the team fell under attack from Kig-Yar snipers and a small number of Brutes. Upon defeating these and enemy reinforcements of several Choppers and a Wraith, and fighting through a mining facility, Evie discovered that the team's designated exfiltration craft, a Phantom in a hangar seven kilometres away, was leaving early as a result of the team's premature discovery. The mission had been to evade detection and slowly make their way to the exfiltration vessel. Evie ordered the team to find transport and, commandeering five Banshees, they sped through hostile territory towards the hangar. Arriving just as it took off, Evie had no choice but to open fire and destroy their chance of escape, firing the fuel rod burst that downed the Phantom. After landing, killing the crew and verifying the Phantom was not airworthy, let alone spaceworthy, Evie ordered Aaron to detonate the explosives. At that moment, however, the Andromeda, flew overhead and deployed a Pelican Dropship to retrieve the SPARTAN team. The Prowler then left undetected and slipped past the considerable fleet in orbit. Once they were at a safe distance, they detonated the device, rupturing the antimatter containment chamber and destroying all primary and secondary targets on the planet, as well as most of the orbital force. Once back at New Quebec, Evie and the rest of Manticore Team were debriefed; Evie praised for her command in difficult circumstances but criticised for endangering the mission and risking the detection of their Prowler.
====Assault on Bellerophon====
In November of the same year, D2541 was involved in a large-scale SPARTAN-III operation on the world of Bellerophon, leading seven Tactical Strike Teams from Foxtrot Platoon against Covenant forces on the world. The UNSC aimed to retake the planet, which had, during the Human-Covenant War, had been a human colony, for its substantial titanium deposits as well as several Forerunner artifacts found by the Jiralhanae. The teams split up and each attacked one power regulator site, which operated the substantial orbital and ground defence grid. These regulators were spread across the entire planet; the SPARTANs had to destroy them before a UNSC invasion fleet arrived in orbit. While most of the regulators were swiftly downed, two of the teams were engaged after achieving their objective, and Piranha Team was assaulted by an unusually large enemy force including a number of Jiralhanae Chieftains. With them unable to deactivate the defence grid and with just minutes before the UNSC fleet arrived in orbit, Manticore Team directly assaulted the now-heavily defended last regulator, single-handedly shooting their way in, setting detonation charges, assisting the besieged Piranha Team and destroying the regulator, and a large amount of enemy forces with it.
While Manticore Team had done this, the three other undetected SPARTAN Teams had successfully found the two struggling teams and repelled their attackers. The seven Teams regrouped, just as the Covenant's main counterattack started; within minutes the thirty five SPARTANs were pinned down and under constant, massive volumes of fire, despite the best efforts of SPARTAN-D2541. Evie laid down heavy covering fire using her heavy machine gun, allowing her fellow SPARTANs to dispatch dozens of approaching foes. Just as their ammunition ran low and the Covenant had nearly completely encircled them, a trio of Sabre-class Starfighters raced overhead, volleys of missiles and guided bombs decimating the Covenant's infantry and armour; the Banshees strafing the SPARTANs' position quickly broke off to engage the more serious threat; at the same time, hundreds more Longsword-class Starfighters and dozens of frigates of various types raced across the sky. The UNSC ground forces that followed captured the immediate vicinity in under an hour, and held the planet within a day, warships providing tactical close-in air support for the ground skirmishes. The battle could not have taken place without the SPARTANs' actions in disabling of the defence grid that would have otherwise torn the fleet apart.
In the wake of the Battle, the Covenant deployed a far greater military force to its border worlds, seeking to ensure they were not so spectacularly routed again and seemingly taking seriously the threat of UNSC counterattacks in the wake of Covenant pushes into enemy territory.
The UNSC's long term supply of titanium ores and production of hardware increased by roughly 20% following the capture of the planet, helping to give the UNSC Navy space to grow into. The Forerunner artifacts that were being excavated were sent to ONI for study and eventual reverse-engineering, in the hope that one day the UNSC would master whatever purpose they were built for and use it against the Covenant.
Delta Company of the SPARTAN-III Program was more heavily involved in offensive infiltration missions against high value targets or enemies, paving the way for larger tactics. It became Manticore Team's trademark tactic to drop in undetected behind enemy lines, sabotage everything and anything vital and vulnerable and leave the world open to an imminent UNSC attack.
===Later Service===
==Personality and Traits==
Three years older than most of her team, Evie showed this through her tough commanding style, extensive experience and maternal-like attitude to her team. Standing at 189cm unarmoured with blond hair and light brown eyes, Evie was at the peak of physical fitness, despite the fact that she was a heavy drinker and described as 'drinking most of her calories'. Though often fierce and stubborn, Evie rarely showed her caring side, most commonly for the welfare of her team, which could be quite endearing. However, Evie struggled to maintain image as a tough CO and thought of this as a sign of weakness, and strived to hide these feelings when she could. Despite her outward frostiness and abundant ferocity, it was noted that Evie held herself with an air of grace, which was reflected in the lithe and agile way she moved, despite often carrying heavy weapons. Evie maintained an extremely close relationship with her team, both personal and professional, on the battlefield and off. She was particularly close to Matthew-D761. Often described as reckless and hot-headed, Evie regularly put herself in danger, either for the sake of her team or completing the mission; while this started out as her not valuing her own life, inspiring her readiness to die for her teammates, later she was prepared to sacrifice herself because of her respect for her team, and the feeling that as their CO it was somehow her responsibility alone. Evie was described as knowing completely who she was, being confident, not questioning herself and having a certain clarity; as being a warrior who could just 'get things done'. Despite being a relatively high-ranking SPARTAN-III, D2541 was hot-headed and cocky, considered one of the best but with a tendency to challenge authorities and get into trouble. Evie was rugged and determined and rarely let anything, including what others though of her, get in her way.
==Appearance==
Evie was rather short for a SPARTAN supersoldier, although easily above average height, standing at 189cm tall. D2541 possessed shoulder-length blonde hair, showing disregard for standard protocol associated with fully armoured soldiers. Evie had light brown eyes, fair skin and numerous tattoos received during her youth, including one on her right forearm and one on her left shoulder. Agile and fairly slim, Evie was in peak physical condition resulting from near-constant battlefield deployments and interbridging intensive training regimes. D2541 received innumerable injuries throughout her serving life, sustained both during training and actual deployments. As a result she possessed multiple injuries and scars as reminders of her exploits; however, this was not something she cared about, as it rarely crossed her mind.
==Vehicles, Armour and Weapons==
Evie most commonly used the M21 Light Machine Gun as her primary armament. Fitting her heavy weapon role, it allowed her to mount sustained fire at most ranges, either engaging armoured and shielded infantry or assaulting light vehicles and fortifications. Evie preferred this over the M247 Heavy Machine Gun as it was much lighter and did not decrease her mobility compared to her teammates. It also gave her the ability to support her fellow SPARTANS by laying covering or suppressive fire, as it was capable of sustained automatic firing. Favouring this weapon, D2541 also commonly used alternatives, such as the BR60 Battle Rifle or MA7C Assault Rifle, when they were more practical. For a secondary weapon she utilised an M12 Submachine Gun, which allowed her to adequately defend herself at short and medium ranges with a compact personal defence weapon. Finally, as a sidearm Evie kept an SM6D Personal Defence Weapon System with a 2x smart linked scope, for backup in case her other weapons were unavailable or out of ammunition. As a SPARTAN, Evie was nonetheless adept in combat at all ranges and a skilled operator of virtually every weapon, be it Human or Covenant in origin.
D2541 entered combat using one of the UNSC's most advanced combat technologies, MJOLNIR Mk VII Powered Assault Armour. Evie's armour was a seemingly random assortment of components, resulting from multiple in-the-field damage, replacements and upgrades. This also allowed Evie, like the other members of Manticore Team, some degree of individuality, while additionally making battlefield identification easier. D2541's helmet was the Mark VII [B] variant, which, aside from some minor technical upgrades, was identical in performance to the standard Mark VII helmet. Evie chose the [R] (RECON) shoulder plates which, while not providing an increased amount of protection, were light and compact enough to allow a full range of movement. She also utilised the UA/COUNTERASSAULT chest plate, which provided an increased amount of protection for her torso whilst also giving increased magazine storage capacity, which was imperative for her roles as heavy/automatic weapon specialist.
Category:AAO Delta Company