Ali Thorne

Second Lieutenant Ali Thorne was an (Later an ONI Operative designated 'Phoenix') conscripted within the 65th Battalion of the 304th Shock Troops Division. She is the first known non-SPARTAN to have a symbiotic relation with a smart A.I, designated Harpoc. She participated in various operations during the , some large and some small. However, her most famed exploit is known as the Counterattack of Cascade. During the conflict, she was stranded from her squad soon after her drop. Unable to rendevous, and presuming them (correctly) to be dead, she pushed on toward UNSC Command on Mindoro, allowing the orbital defenses to be re-activated and prevent Cascade from being glassed by the Covenant. However, during this time spent as a lone wolf, she came to possess a classified ONI A.I, known as Harpoc. Due to the fact that possible classified information regarding ONI operations was leaked to her, Thorne was given an ultimatium by ONI. Either die a hero, or live on as a ghost. Picking the latter, Thorne's death was faked, a flash-clone created in her place. Being too valuable of an asset to deal away with otherwise, ONI offered her to join their ranks as an Operative. Her current identity is unknown, as her past was erased from her mind and false memories (In accordance with ONI protocol) implanted in their place. Currently, her only designation as an Operative is 'Phoenix', referencing the nickname dubbed by UNSC remnants on Cascade during it's Covenant occupation. 
== Early Life (2528 - 2546) ==
Ali Thorne was born into a time of great strife and conflict, though to her, it seemed quite far away. Never one for wealth, Thorne was mercifully born to a middle-class family on the outskirts of , . Her home was located atop one of the many rolling hills outside of the city center, with a view of the main connecting Mindoro to Cascade's only natural satellite. Throughout her early life, she never showed much enthusiam for the trades of her mother and father, construction work and secretarial duties respectively. Instead, after a personal experience with the district's infamous mugging problem, she showed great interest in police work. She was motivated to mediate the panic in the poorer districts, spurred on by news of which colony of the day was hit by the Covenant. 
The Mindoro Police Department (abbreviated MIPD) took note, and sent her an application over the extranet. Eventually, after passing multiple aptitude tests, she was granted entrance into the Mindoro Police Academy in 2544, at the young age of 16. Throughout her training as the next generation of law enforcement, Thorne made a promise to herself that she would bring order to the panicking city of Mindoro, indeed, it seemed that everywhere there was someone ready to snap thanks to the discovery of the Covenant. Finally, only a seemingly short 6 months in, she was given every right and privilege given to a rookie officer, and assigned to a handler, Gerard Brady. 
During her time in the MIPD, she found that it was less and less of actually helping people, and more and more about being the beauracrat's personal bodyguard. 'Bodyguard' entailing the arrest and even summary execution of anyone who poses a threat to the highest bidder. She became more and more disallusioned with the cause of justice, Brady only assisting in this regard. 
However, soon Cascade would burn for the first time. In 2546, merely one year into Thorne's career as a police officer, an expose is published showing the government's inaction regarding the Cole Protocol. Many government ships had returned planetside using slipspace vectors that aimed directly at Cascade, instead of bouncing off the nearby star-system, Perianus. Indeed, it seemed quite possible the Covenant already knew where the planet was locacted, but chose not to attack for the moment. Soon after, the majority population of Cascade, already on edge by being quite vulnurable to attack, began protesting and rioting. 
This event effectively puts the entire planet under martial law from the UNSC, thanks to the government's violation of the Cole Protocol, and civilian unrest. As more and more troops arrive daily to keep the peace (and possibly fend off the impending Covenant attack.) Thorne realizes that she's at the precipice of a conflict she's uncertain that she wants to intervene in.
[SUPPLEMENTAL DOCUMENT - BODY CAMERA RECORDING FROM MINDORO, DATED 2546.]
Eventually, due to the military occupation and the fact that Thorne was unwilling to dole out summary judgement to rioting citizens, she was soon forcibly retired from the police force, left in a city still choking on the remnants of it's own ash. 
She soon realized that her home, as she once knew it, was gone. And the only way out was through the UNSC. In late 2546, she walked up to a UNSC Recruitment Stand, and signed herself into the Marines. 
== Early Military Career (2495-2497) ==
Thorne's experience in basic was notably eased, due to her experience in police training. Relatively soon after signing up in mid-2495, Ali Thorne became a full-fledged marine under the 67th Battalion. Throughout her relatively small two years of service under the 67th, she and her battalion assisted larger forces in conflicts both large in small, taking back Covenant occupied outer-colonies and mining facilities. She realized that police-work didn't help people, this helped people.
Category:UNSC Marine Corps Personnel
Category:ONI Personnel