Josh-A124

Josh-A124 is a of the . He served extensively throughout the , becoming a seasoned veteran and a lethal sniper. Josh specializes in sniping and stealth operations. In addition, he is proficient in close-quarters combat and vehicle operation. Josh is the second-in-command of NOVA Team, an elite squad of that was deployed numerous times since its creation in and led by John-A222. Josh's call sign in the team is Nova Two. He is attached to the UNSC Navy but with unspecified service to the .
==Biography==
=== Childhood and SPARTAN-III training ===
 
Josh was born in on the human colony of to a family of and distant Polish origins. As a child, Josh was rather short with a strong, muscular build. From early on, he displayed advanced strength as well as admirable intelligence. Throughout his early childhood, Josh's family held residence in . His parents were listed as missing during the Covenant attack on Arcadia in February of , leaving Josh an orphan. He was then conscripted into the SPARTAN-III program as part of the program's . Josh trained along with the other Spartans of Alpha Company at on under and . Josh exhibited a unique talent for picking off distant targets during weapons training. He showed advanced coordination and patience, proving himself to be one of the top marksmen. He, , and select others were recognized as the most efficient snipers of Alpha Company. As the years progressed, Josh grew to be a close friend of fellow trainee John-A222, who had started to take on something of a leadership role in Alpha Company. During augmentations, Josh successfully underwent all procedures and quickly recovered from the enhancements. 
Recognizing his exceptional skill, Kurt Ambrose and Franklin Mendez deemed Josh too valuable to be wasted on suicide missions. While Alpha Company was declared active in , an unknown number of Spartans, including Josh-A124, , , John-A222, and had been extracted from the company. At some point, Josh and the other reassigned Spartans would receive more advanced equipment, including in order to make their combat ability comparable to that of the SPARTAN-IIs.[note 1] After having successfully completed a set of very specific training missions, Josh was placed on a special team led by .
The Spartans still part of Alpha Company would go on to perish during in . 
=== Early military career ===
 
Up until , Josh continued to serve as a Headhunter, completing many objectives directly for ONI. Little is known about this period, although it is suspected that these Spartans were tasked with eliminating insurrectionist leaders who had broken their delicate ceasefire with UNSC. Each deployment, Josh distinguished himself as a Spartan. His impressive service record began to catch the eye of some of some of the most senior officials involved in the Spartan programs. Like his former companion, John-A222, Josh would be recommended for hyper-lethal status.
With the reassignment of selected SPARTAN-IIIs from in 2545, NOVA Team was created as a special operations Spartan team. John-A222 was assigned as its leader with Josh being the second assigned to the unit. Reunited, Josh's role as a sniper flourished under John's command, and a mutual feeling of respect developed among the teammates. In 2546, when was attacked by the , Nova Team was deployed to aid in its defense. It was at this battle that forces first encountered the . Nova Team managed to acquire significant intelligence regarding the vehicle and subsequently received commendations, Josh being given the rank of Lieutenant in the UNSC Navy. The battle is assumed to have been a rare UNSC victory. 
In the next few years, Josh's team fought in the and the . The Spartans aided in defensive and evacuation efforts on both fronts and Josh received a promotion to Lieutenant Commander sometime thereafter in for admirable service. Later in , he and the remaining Spartans were issued the first generation of the improved , known as , for active duty.
In July of , the Covenant finally arrived in the , attacking the colonies of and . Josh-A124 and his team were first deployed on Tribute, where they aided in the defense of . In one of the final engagements of the city, multiple SPARTAN-III fireteams engaged the Covenant assault force in the capital. One SPARTAN-III team stayed behind, holding off Covenant forces so a group of remaining civilians could escape the colony. Although successful, these Spartans would ultimately be killed. The larger would last for several months, ending with the in November.
=== Fall of Reach ===
:Main article: 
After the discovery of a Covenant advance force by in late July 2552, many engagements followed, including the . When this battle ended with the uncloaking of a massive , sixty percent of the was recalled to to aid in its defense. Having been withdrawn from Tribute, Nova Team was among the reinforcements scheduled to arrive by August 15. Upon arrival, the Spartans were immediately deployed to where a Covenant assault was underway. Initially, Nova Team was assigned to slow the Covenant advance while evacuation efforts were organized. This task was left to ODSTs when a local ONI facility was attacked by a strike team. Most of the security forces, officials, and researchers present had already been killed before Nova Team arrived. Josh and his team soon found the remaining personnel being terrorized by a pack of the Brutes. The Spartans moved quickly with John-A222 giving orders for a coordinated strike. John managed to stab the pack Chieftain in the neck while Josh ended a Captain Major with a well-placed sniper bullet. Concurrently, the rest of the team neutralized the remaining hostiles. The team continued special operations in Quezon but was later withdrawn before the city was . 
Nova Team then assisted in the evacuation of along with and after the Covenant initiated an aggressive raid on the city. Here, Nathan-B136, of Nova Team, was injured by . As the metropolis was later glassed, Josh helped his team escort local civilians and military personnel to a public bunker near the city center, where they would wait for hours. In the aftermath of the glassing, the members of Nova Team lit distress flares to signal any nearby search and rescue forces. As the bunker was evacuated, Josh and the other Spartans were picked up by a Pelican and helped responders sweep the city for survivors. At one point, the dropship pilots spotted the blue smoke of a signal flare rising from the ruins of . Here, Josh and the able members of Nova Team helped evacuate the survivors of Noble Team and other stranded personnel. During the remainder of its deployment to Reach, Nova Team engaged in numerous defensive and counter-assault operations throughout . 
: 
In the final days of the Battle of Reach, Nova Team was one of the several that defended the shipyard and pipelines in . The Spartans held off Covenant forces as the remnants of Noble Team transported a high priority package to the dry-docked . At this time, Tyler-B037 of Nova Team was killed by a , and Nathan-B136 perished by fire. As the UNSC defenses weakened, the Nova Team survivors were withdrawn along with some of the remaining UNSC forces. It was shortly after this that and Emile-A239 made their last stand against overwhelming Covenant forces at the shipyard.
=== Defense of Earth === 
:Main article: 
The remnants of Josh's team were deployed to in September 2552 where UNSC forces began to fortify for a final stand against the Covenant. The first Covenant force, led by the , arrived at Earth on October 20. Initially, Nova Team and other UNSC forces engaged in by means of intense urban warfare. Josh and Nova Team engaged in defensive and counter-assault operations against the new Jiralhanae-led invasion force. The fighting was constant until the , , made a sudden slipspace jump above the city, devastating the ground below. In the aftermath, the Spartans were informed that UNSC contact had been lost with a team of ODSTs on a classified deployment. Nova Team was ordered to locate the team and recover their objective, a Forerunner artifact known as the . Arriving at the team's last known location, Nova Team found the ODSTs dead and the artifact missing. The Spartans reported their findings. With scant information regarding the artifact, the UNSC presumed the Conduit destroyed.
The Spartans continued to help resist the Covenant ground forces even as hostile reinforcements arrived. After the loss in , Nova Team was then divided into pairs in an effort to deploy Spartans on more fronts, Josh-A124 serving with John-A222. The pair was relocated, fighting across a variety of fronts in , Europe, and . From October 25 to November 17, they fought in Athens, , and , as the 's fleet arrived. During the , Josh and Nova Team persisted with the rest of the UNSC forces on Earth until the fighting relented.
=== Post-War ===
After the end of the Human-Covenant War, most Spartans were given the option to either supplement the newly-formed of the UNSC or to be assigned to a non-combat role. However, along with Spartan , Nova Team remained unintegrated from the Spartan Branch, serving in special operations for the UNSC Navy and ONI. Retaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander, Josh continued to serve with Nova Team on high-priority deployments.
In late 2552, Nova Team was provided with several upgrades and incorporations to their Mark V[B] armor to field test many features for the future . One such test involved the backwards compatibility of GEN1 MJOLNIR components on the experimental GEN2 suite. Ultimately, the results partially yielded the ability to use certain Mark V[B]-based variants with the GEN2 platform. Data from field tests carried out by Josh-A124 would specifically aid in the development of , after its request for creation.
In March of 2553, Nova Team was assigned to , or "," along with several fireteams. Deployment objectives were to reconnoiter the surface, quarantine areas of potential Flood contamination, and recover any notable Forerunner artifacts. John-A222 led Nova Team skillfully, being assigned the more hazardous objectives. The four SPARTAN-IIIs of Nova Team continued operations on the ring's surface, conducting reconnaissance, providing military support, and retrieving artifacts, until late 2554. 
As postwar conflicts with remaining heightened, Nova Team received increasing deployments against Covenant forces. Josh and the rest of his team found themselves pitted against several rogue groups, including the forces of . Once humanity encountered mechanical in 2557, Nova Team would soon see combat against the Forerunner constructs as well.
By 2558, Josh-A124 was issued MJOLNIR GEN2 along with all other active Spartans. He and his fellow SPARTAN-IIIs saw routine deployments on various planets, including former Outer Colonies. Objectives during the first half of 2558 included eliminating pockets of Covenant control, countering Promethean assaults, and eliminating high-value targets. As efforts to recolonize former human worlds expanded, Nova Team also saw deployments defending important settlements against aggressive Promethean raids.
=== Emergence of the Guardians ===
In October of 2558, Josh's team was tasked with eliminating Rysa 'Vestam, the leader of a growing Covenant faction, in a covert raid on . However, this operation would be aborted when devastating anomalies were reported on five human colonies in the following days. Nova Team was immediately deployed to investigate two such catastrophes, first on and then . After Blue Team was declared AWOL a few days later, Nova Team was considered for reassignment to track the missing Spartans. would instead be issued the objective, leaving Nova Team to continue operations on Ursa IV. 
Once a emerged on , the constructs would be more widely known as the source of the anomalies. The UNSC came to recognize the true threat of the as a Guardian stationed itself over Earth and other human worlds. Scrambling to avoid the attacks, UNSC forces were left scattered, with racing away from Earth. Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris would arrive on while Nova Team would remain on Ursa IV. 
==Traits and personality==
Josh-A124 is known to be a focused and intelligent Spartan, always observant in combat. Like his companion, John-A222, Josh seems to show slight disgust for Jiralhanae.
He is typically stoic, but possesses an often sarcastic sense of humor. His ability to remain calm under fire is remarkable, earning the admiration of John himself. His battlefield prowess is considerable, posing a significant threat to any hostile infantry in the field. Josh has grown accustomed to using stealth to neutralize targets. Regarding his fellow supersoldiers, Josh knows their purpose and takes pride in it. He cares for his squadmates and would quickly risk his only life to keep them protected. When Nathan-B136 and Tyler-B037 were killed, Josh masked his regret with silence.
==Equipment==
Josh's preferred weapons are the /, , and the /, although he has shown proficiency with the majority of . Josh is known to keep an / or an / as a sidearm. He is also capable of using and when the combat situation demands it. His MJOLNIR GEN1 armor was often supplemented with MJOLNIR .
Along with the rest of Alpha Company, Josh was issued cheap Semi-Powered Infiltration armor. At some point after his removal from the company, he was granted a set of armor for testing. This was used in service until 2551 when MJOLNIR Mark V[B] was released into active duty. With his new Mark V[B] armor, Josh continued utilized pieces of the new variant, such as his helmet, along with chestpiece. 
Josh's MJOLNIR Mark V[B] armor is his most notable armor set, featuring his signature SCOUT helmet with a golden visor. The rest of his armor consisted of a chestpiece, spare on his shoulders, and knee guards. His armor also featured a mounted on the left forearm and a horizontal on his chest. Josh is known to have kept a as part of his utility. Josh's armor boasted a Dark Tan coloration with Steel as a secondary color. The image of a flying hawk was displayed on his chestpiece. MJOLNIR Mark V[B] was used by Josh and his team through the end of the war. 
In late 2552, the remnants of Nova Team and Blue Team were issued experimental MJOLNIR upgrades, including firmware upgrades, operational updates, and hardware improvements. These additions served as field tests for components and systems that would later be incorporated into MJOLNIR GEN2 armor. As of 2558, Nova Team, Blue Team, and most other active Spartans are assumed to have transitioned to the MJOLNIR GEN2 platform. As a result, Josh was one of the few issued a full set of VIGILANT-class MJOLNIR along with the system, heavily resembling his Mark V[B] armor. Josh's GEN2 armor also displays his traditional color scheme of a Dark Tan primary color with a Steel secondary.
==NOVA Team==
:Main article: NOVA Team
NOVA Team was an elite squad of SPARTAN-IIIs that was formed by the UNSC Navy in the year 2545. Given his prior tactical experience, leadership, and combat skills, John-A222 was selected to lead the team. Nova Team was deployed on countless fronts throughout the Human-Covenant War such as Tribute and Reach. The squad consisted of six Spartans, comparable to Noble Team. The original members were John-A222, Josh-A124, Adam-B226, Timothy-A025, Tyler-B037, and Nathan-B136. The team call signs were Nova One, Nova Two, Nova Three, Nova Four, Nova Five, and Nova Six, respectively. After the end of the Human-Covenant War, the four remaining Spartans would continue special operations for the UNSC Navy and Office of Naval Intelligence.
==Trivia==
* Along with his talent as a sniper, Josh boasts great skill when driving an .
* The emblem located on Josh's armor bears similarity to the emblem displayed on 's shoulder pauldron. There is no correlation as the Spartans never encountered each other.
== Gallery==
File:A124Pelican.png|Josh-A124 exiting a Pelican
File:A124City.png|Josh-A124 overlooking a city during an urban deployment
File:A124A222(2).png|Josh-A124 with John-A222
== Notes ==
# It is unknown when Spartans removed from Alpha Company first received MJOLNIR armor. It may have occurred immediately following their removal or later upon their integration into units such as Noble and Nova Teams. For Headhunters, it is likely the latter instance. This means there are approximately nine years during which the armor used by Josh-A124 is unknown.
Category:Alpha Company
Category:SPARTAN-IIIs