Loic-D066

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Loic-D066 also known as Codename: ABELARD was a of Delta Company. The head of Fireteam Gravity, Loic was a natural leader and incredibly charismatic, in addition to being one of Delta’s highest-rated combatants. Heavily influenced by his parents’ philanthropy in his childhood, Loic, along with the rest of Fireteam Gravity, would defect to the Created in 2558 out of the belief they could truly make the galaxy a peaceful place. Though dedicated to the idea of the Created’s utopia, and preferring non-violent resolution, Loic frequently would bloody his hands in the name of peace.
==Career Service Vitae==
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Born in the midst of the evacuation of New Albany during the as Loic Corbin, Loic's parents, affluent philanthropists from family's grown rich off the world's tourist industry, were able to successfully escape the colony on their private vessel. Determined to do as much as they could, the Corbins were sure to load their substantially sized luxury vessel well past capacity with as many women, children, and injured as they could when they departed the system. Loic's mother, Analise, would in fact go into labor whilst administering first aid to fellow refugees, and was assisted in her delivery by a number of other women who she had saved through her selflessness. His father, James, would name him in honor of his own brother, who had died not hours earlier shielding a woman from plasma fire.
The Corbins would successfully relocate to following the invasion, and set about using their influence and power to provide aid to less fortunate refugees. Loic would grow up on food drives, charity events, and the occasional secret meeting with secessionists that his parents held sympathies for in light of the UNSC's handling of the refugee crisis. In school, Loic quickly distinguished himself as a gifted student, and a natural athlete, though most frequently touched upon was his ability to inspire other children to follow him.
For all his gifts though, Loic could not stop the fate which awaited his loved ones. During the , the Corbins were unable to make it to their designated evacuation site, and were instead forced underground into a glassing shelter. The structure was sound, but even the greatest of architects could not fully protect something against glassing. Huddled amongst dozens of others, both James and Analise would be crushed by falling debris, orphaning Loic overnight. Devastated and alone, when Loic and the few survivors emerged from the shelter and were rescued by a group of the legendary , he was saved from the fate of dying in the glasslands.
Evacuated to rather than Earth, Loic would be spared being witness to another battle, but the life of an orphan was not kind to him either. Where he had been able to inspire the children of his affluent schools to his side in any matter, the orphans of New Carthage instead resented Loic for his former privilege. The way he spoke, the way he dressed, his toys, they all marked him as an outsider and an enemy to them, and for all his honest intentions Loic could not bring himself to understand why they resented him so. The complexities of inherited wealth and all that came with it were as beyond them as they were Loic, but a lack of understanding the root of their grievances did not stop the children from acting on them.
Larger than the other children by often a considerable measure, Loic was able to fend off attacks from children his own age, but when the older residents of the orphanage became involved, he began to struggle. Fortunately for him, and to the detriment of all others, his strength and circumstances won him the affection and loyalty of another similarly gifted child. Mireia Penalver, the last survivor of the Penalver mining dynasty, was targeted for her background as well, but more for the fact that the girl was arrogant, brash, and quick to violence. 
In Loic she saw not only a kindred spirit, but an equal, and quickly inserted herself into his life as his closest companion. The two would both be approached in months following by agents seeking to conscript them into the secretive, and entirely unauthorized, Delta Company. Whilst Mireia jumped at the chance, Loic was hesitant, ever mindful of the UNSC given his parents background, with little interest in something as base as revenge. But the promise of being able to make a true difference in the fate of humanity would sway the boy to relent and accept the offer.
And so, he was gathered up alongside Mireia and shipped to Argus V, stripped of their family names, with D066 and D001 in their place.
===Training===
Alongside so many others, it would be early December in 2553 when Loic and Mireia arrived at the barely finished Camp Ambrose. As with generations before them, the assembled trainees would be loaded into Pelican dropships and flown into the night's sky and ordered to jump with their parachute. Though frightened, Loic immediately rose to the occasion, rousing the other children inside the dropship's spirits, and leading them jumping triumphantly into the night sky. Immediately of course this marked the future Spartan-D066 as a candidate of interest to the leadership of the DELTA Initiative, who began to closely monitor the trainee. He would garner more favor in the first night as well when he successfully defused a fistfight between Mireia and another candidate, Sergei-D167.
Though not formally sorted into teams for some time, Loic quickly assembled one of his own making. Mireia was an easy choice, his strong right hand from the start, frequently working together with Loic even when instructed to do otherwise to sieze victory in games of Ring the Bell, and any number of other training exercises. The next to find themselves drawn into his sphere of influence was Shaima-D164, a kind girl with whom Loic found a kindred, altruistic spirit. The two would bond when they stumbled upon one another and were then caught by instructors whilst smuggling rations to other trainees who'd been denied them as punishment.
As physical regimens became harsher and harsher, Loic failed to falter, only growing stronger and more resolute. In his fellow candidates he failed to find an enemy, easily befriending even some of the most reclusive members of the class. Had Delta been structured as a normal company, intended for mass deployment, he might've even been a candidate for command. But even without the possibility of the whole of the company at his disposal, Loic was all but certain to lead a team of his own.
As combat exercises began, and groups began to form, it became clear Loic's gifts were not limited to his leadership and intellect, as he was also naturally talented as a warrior, and most notably, as a teacher. The next member of their cadre to join them was the meek Akoni-D284. Struggling to keep up with the rest of Delta, Akoni was at risk of failing out until Loic's intervention. Recognizing that his peer did not respond to the DI's methods well, Loic spent his own time re-teaching Akoni all they had learned with a gentler hand, helping the boy find his footing, and making another dear friend. 
By the time initial teams were sorted, and exercises pitched the teams against one another more than simulated Covenant or insurrectionists, Loic was already curious about the true purpose of Delta, but found his suspicions growing by the day. Team Gravity was formed under Loic, with its initial roster of Mireia, Shaima, and Akoni set from the start. Mireia would not cooperate with anyone but Loic, Akoni flourished under him to the point that placing him elsewhere would've been folly, and Shaima and Loic's ability to work off another served to cement her place at his side. The final, fifth slot however, would be a revolving door.
Numerous candidates would cycle through, and while most meshed well in one way or another, bar Sergei-D167 who not only still clashed with Mireia but also intentionally acted out until his return to Team Anion, none were a true fit until Citali-D151. Witty, cynical, but eager to please, the girl would seemingly bond with the rest of Gravity with a natural ease absent from the others. Together, the group proved to be one of the most capable teams in Delta, competing heavily with the likes of Anion, Hadron, and others.
Together, Gravity would endure the grueling training of SPARTAN-III Delta Company, the agony of their augmentations, and the triumph of their graduation. Loic was said to be beaming with pride as he and the others donned their MJOLNIR for the first time, and entered into a training exercise in which they would emerge triumphant. Ever mindful though, when Delta's existence was discovered by ONI, Loic was far some surprised that the training of a company with one intended purpose being the hunting of other Spartans had been less than authorized. 
Still, intent on doing his part to bring change to the galaxy at large, Loic looked toward the future with ambition and hope as Gravity was sent out into the galaxy in order to protect Earth and her colonies.
===In The Service of Earth and Her Colonies===
====DARK DESCENT====
Fireteam Gravity's first foray into combat would be the ill fated Operation: DARK DESCENT. Loic, tasked with the overall command of not only Gravity, but Fireteams Friction and Momentum, both lower performing teams equipped with SPI rather than MJONLIR. With the overall operation focused on stopping the exchange of multiple Covenant warships into the hands of insurrectionist agitators, a deal with enough potential threat to warrant the only wide scale deployment of Delta, tensions were high. Gravity and its two sister teams would be tasked with the elimination of the leadership conducting the exchange.
Inserting in much more dramatic fashion than the likes of Alpha or Beta Company, DARK DESCENT would begin with a UNSC fleet arriving in system in order to deter any immediate escape attempts, while the Spartans of Delta Company would perform HALO jumps from high orbit onto the surface of their designated targets. Intent on covering as much ground as possible, Loic would divide his assets as thinly as possible. Having assessed the situation, it was determined that their targets would be meeting beneath the great warships they planned to exchange, surrounded by their fellows. Given that both Momentum and Friction were outfitted with Delta Company's variant of SPI, rather than Gravity's MJOLNIR, and had notably lower combat scores, he tasked them with targeting and eliminating the insurrectionist leadership and providing long range cover fire. Friction, being a specialized sniper unit besides complied without issue, however Momentum, and it's prideful leader Nazar-D034 took offense to the assignment and saw it as slight towards their capabilities.
Upon touching down Loic would rally Gravity to himself amidst the chaotic opening salvo, and take his first life within seconds. The first to fall to his hands being a human insurrectionist, one hardly any older than himself, would greatly impact him, though not in a manner he would allow to deter his command. Fighting in harmony with his team, Loic lead Gravity in pursuit of the Jiralhanae Chieftain at the head of the exchange through any who moved to stop them, human and alien alike whilst chaos reigned overhead. 
In spite of their efforts however, the brutes had nearly made it to their vehicles in order to rush to their escape craft. Tasking Citali and Mireia with finding a viable firing position to slow them down, Loic then made contact with their sister teams to seek their aid from long range. Friction, bogged down in a heavy firefight after having successfully killed their targets at the cost of the Stanchion rifle that Gravity had such a need of in that moment, could not assist, but Momentum had a window of opportunity. However, whereas Friction had been a team of middling performers with aptitude for sharpshooting, Momentum was simply a band of Spartans who'd only just avoided washing out, and were desperate to truly prove themselves.
Rather than engaging from range, Momentum would rush the Chieftain and his strongest warriors, intent on claiming the victory, and a sense of of worth for themselves. Instead, they found death. The Chieftain, a hardened veteran of the Human-Covenant War and had faced 'demons' before and lived to tell of it, and his similarly bloodied packmates, met the inexperienced Spartans head on. The ensuing brawl was short and vicious, and though Momentum slew the majority of the Chieftain's closest comrades, including one of his sons, they were in the end, outmatched and unprepared. Before Gravity could arrive, they were slewn to the last, Nazar-D034 being the last to die. 
In spite of their wounds, the Chieftain and his pack would meet Gravity head on with no hint of hesitation. This time, it would be the brutes who were cut down to the last, vastly underestimating the immense difference in skill, strength, and firepower that Gravity held over the first demons they had quarreled with. With their targets eliminated, Loic's mission, and the operation as a whole, would be a resounding success, but the deaths of Momentum would only account for half of the losses Delta Company would suffer that day. The failure to keep his comrades alive and in line, and the UNSC's eagerness to throw their lives away so needlessly would begin to strain the young Spartans faith in his alliegances. 
He'd naïvely thought that when Delta had come under the UNSC proper, rather than the rogue ONI cabal that had trained them illicitly up until their discovery by Section 0's investigators, would have had more restraint and humanity. They were soldiers, and Loic knew that meant facing death, but DARK DESCENT, in his mind, could have been solved with simple orbital bombardment. This notion of perceived misuse was shared by all of Gravity in the aftermath, though Friction, now permanently assigned to Gravity as a support unit, vocally disagreed. Together, the two teams would be assigned to the destroyer, UNSC All Out of Options and sent out into the field.
====SHORT STACK II====
After settling in aboard the All Out of Options, both Fireteam Gravity and Friction would be left to their own devices. Such freedom was foreign to the Spartans who would struggle to find meaningful outlets for the time. The young soldiers would fill the down time with maintenance, training, and a prolonged effort by Akoni and Friction’s own Alvin-D060 to lobby the ship’s captain to seek MJOLNIR for use by Fireteam Friction. Whilst Loic threw his weight behind the effort, he already had begun to view it as pointless, believing the UNSC saw Delta, particularly its lower performers, as needless expenditures.
Eventually, the eight Spartans would be granted shore leave on Luna by the All Out of Options’ captain, Helena Zhang, and would for the first time taste life outside of a military structure. Whilst the supercommandos did little more than mill about the port, Loic took the time to notice that even in a hub of military prosperity, many civilians lived in squalor. 
Some had never recovered after the Covenant’s assault, some had always been destitute, but all were suffering. Valentina-D256, one of Friction’s Spartans and Luna native orphaned by the final days of the Human-Covenant War, openly lamented the living conditions and the UNSC’s neglect but was shut down by her Fireteam leader, Yolanda-D049. But Loic listened intently to every word.
In truth, whilst he was friendly with Friction, he harbored many frustrations with several of its members. Yolanda was not brash or prideful, but she was doggedly loyal to the UNSC and viewed the likes of Alvin-D060 and Valentina as more tools than family. More times than he could count, he’d seen her use the former as bait, and keep the latter from thriving out of spite. Farzana-D106 was sharp-tongued, sometimes to the point of cruelty, and the manner in which she interacted with non-Spartans suggested that she viewed herself as above them. Ludvik-D183 was inoffensive, but he never moved to protect the targets of Yolanda and Farzana either.
Alvin and Valentina both earned less chagrin from Gravity’s leader. The former was one of the lowest-performing Deltas, and acted as a spotter for the rest of Friction in light of his lesser marksmanship scores, but approached life with a deal of optimism uncommon in Spartans, and took the misuse and mistreatment from his leader in stride. Something about his dogged determination and optimism endeared Loic to him. As for the latter, Valentina was both capable and kindhearted, and shared in Loic’s beliefs that the UNSC could do more than keep it in line at gunpoint.
The brief leave would give the two teams plenty of time to further bond, with the likes of Miriea finding plenty of common ground even with those Loic was less fond of. But the brief lull would not last, and soon the twin Spartan teams would be tasked with their next host of missions. Placed at the spearhead of the operation dubbed SHORT STACK II, a continuation of the UNSC’s renewed anti-Insurrection campaign. Where the first SHORT STACK, begun in 2554, had been rightly compared to Operation: KALIDEOSCOPE of the pre-war days, being a series of targeted eliminations, SHORT STACK II would have more in common with CHARLMAGNE. 
Deployed in rapid assaults on insurrectionist and secessionist strongholds across human space, Gravity, Friction, and a litany of supporting units to sledgehammers to the structure of the rebellion already weakened by the previous operation. Gravity would often take point in the most vicious of the assaults whilst tasking Friction with the strategic removal of targets from long range. Loic would also notably keep Friction from direct combat wherever possible, instead busying them with civilian rescue and collateral damage reduction for fear or repeating the loss of Momentum during DARK DESCENT. Cautious in his execution of said assignments, none of Gravity’s sister team came to hold any negative sentiment towards their assignments, bar Farzana who held a growing taste for war.
Each successive strike chipped away at Loic’s already fragile loyalty to the UNSC. Every suicide bomber, every mangled civilian, every furious deceleration of defiance weighed on his conscious. He shared these sentiments with Gravity in private moments, with most of the team at the least sympathizing, whereas in Shaima, as always he found someone who truly shared his sentiments. Long hours would be spent between the two discussing the morality of their actions, and their true purpose as Spartans of the UNSC.
SHORT STACK II would culminate in a strike on the insurrection ridden colony of Sarjana. Having seized independence during the Human-Covenant War, the conflict to bring it back into the fold had been a bloody one that had raged since 2553. With the members of the Sarjana People’s Army all but decimated, the last holdouts had buried themselves in the heart of the planet’s capital city and made ready to fight to the bitter end. At the head of the rebels was the veteran insurrectionist, General Jotham Moreau, a vicious freedom fighter active since the days of Operation: TREBUCHET.
His army was a mix of properly trained soldiers, mercenaries in too deep, and conscripted locals from all over the planet, many being only children. Previous attempts to take the city from Moreau had ended in failure and massive casualties, even when a battalion of ODSTs was deployed to capture it. Gravity and Friction would both spearhead the final, victorious assault.
Despite his concerns about fielding a team of snipers in a closer quarters environment such as the interior of Moreau’s fortress, Loic was shut down. Friction would, in fact, be sent ahead of Gravity, to conduct pathfinding and sabotage operations ahead of the full assault. As the team departed, Loic would be wracked by anxiety, fearful of another DARK DESCENT which he would be powerless to stop.
But, Friction did not fail, nor take casualties. Under the cover of night the team successfully infiltrated the city and disabled the vast majority of its automated defenses, and established multiple insertion zones without being detected. When Gravity landed among the first wave of the assault, their SPI clad comrades would be there to greet them, unharmed.
The descent into the warlord’s city however would not go as planned. Fighting in vicious close-quarters combat, the combined Spartan teams fought their way to Moreau’s stronghold within the city, taking special care to take as few lives of the general’s many young conscripts as possible. But as they grew nearer, traps, ambushes, and their opponents became far more frequent, and dangerous. It dawned on Loic that Moreau had pulled the majority of his troops back to his stronghold, leaving the conscripted forces to be cut through by the oncoming assault. Such detached selfishness made the young Spartan livid, and reckless.
During the push into the general’s base of operations, he would have the teams aggressively breach the fortification, and as a result, walk directly into a trap. Well placed charges would detonate at various points, and whilst the Spartans took no losses, several were injured, Akoni was buried beneath rubble, and Loic, Alvin, and Valentina were separated from the others, left to finish the mission on their own. Fighting through the remainder of the insurrectionist’s finest men with ease, it would only be when a boy no older then ten emerged in front of Valentina that more trouble would find them. 
Unwilling to harm such a young child, Valentina would attempt to talk the boy down, and recieve a stomach full of buckshot for her efforts. Before Loic could stop him, Alvin was on the boy, and viciously beat him to death in a rage before scrambling to save Valentina from potentially fatal injuries. Though numb due to the sheer shock, Loic would continue on alone, and corner the elderly insurrectionist along with the last of his men. The ensuing engagement was short, but Loic was sure to inform Moreau of the kind of monster he was before killing one of the UNSC’s most wanted for decades with a bullet to the head.
Though he would not show the worst of it, Loic was free with his feelings regarding the deaths of the many inncovents, children or otherwise in what he saw as a pointless struggle. 
====Operation: LUMINAL BEAM====
Following the completion of SHORT STACK II, Gravity would be immediately retasked. Thanks to some snooping, the team knew of the brewing Imperial War, and were hopeful that they would be deployed against the alien alliance for once rather than human rebels, and whispers of their being tasked to eliminate a rogue Spartan further enticed them. Imagining that they would perhaps be tasked to take down the infamous Simon-G294, a monster whom Loic could easily dehumanize given his laundry list of atrocities in Loic’s eyes, the young Spartan found his enthusiasm for his duty once again. However, when the time came for them to be briefed, the Deltas would be universally disappointed. Not only were they being sent against more human rebels instead of Covenant, but the rogue Spartan they were being tasked to eliminate was merely the wayward product of a desperate late-war project called HERACLES. 
The relegation wounded Loic’s pride and took the embarrassment felt in respect to their previous operation and amplified it tenfold. He’d succeeded with no casualties, killed one of the most infamous terrorists of their time, and yet he was being punished for it. With both Akoni and Valentina still recovering from their injuries, both Gravity and Friction would be a member short, which to his shame, Loic somewhat regarded as a personal embarrassment, not for their being injured, but for his allowing them to be. The All Out of Options would set a course for the destitute colony of Aleria alone, hoping to catch the rebel Spartan off guard.
En route, the members of the Spartan teams would be briefed on Bashir. Holding an impressive service record during the war, his sudden defection in 2554 seemed to come out of nowhere, with only the death of his final surviving teammate offering a possible explanation. From there it seemed he’d aligned himself with anti-UEG groups, and been the target of a kill mission which evidently failed, and since then he’d become a menace to the UEG. Credited with dozens of successful attacks on UNSC troops, and the deaths of several Spartans, including one Xun-452, a fellow member of Project HERACLES, it took little effort for Loic to find a reason to detest the traitor. 
Deploying onto Aleria, the Spartan teams would first make contact with embedded ONI agents. In plainclothes alongside other special forces, the teams were wracked by a sense of anxiety akin to nakedness, Loic, in particular, being quite worried about the possibility of an attack. But such a strike never came, and instead, the teams would move from one agent to another across the planet’s primary continent gathering more and more information to pin down the rebel Spartan’s location. 
Once again, their time among a population as impoverished as that of Aleria had a great impact on Loic. One night, in desperation, a band of young ruffians attempted to rob Citali when they caught her alone. The following scuffle was of course extremely one-sided, but the Spartan was distraught when she accidentally killed the majority of the attempted thieves and suffered a near breakdown in front of Loic and Shaima.
As the two consoled their friend, Loic’s rage towards Bashir grew tenfold, and by the time they learned the location of the rebel’s compound, he had sufficiently demonized the supposed Spartan warlord to the point that he ignored many strange changes. As they approached and inevitably were forced into open conflict, the settlements became better developed, and when they fought, their foes were all adults who focused on the protection of non-combatants over all else. 
The fighting was long and brutal, the Spartans were forced to operate with an abundance of caution as they were only equipped with the weapons and armor provided by the safe houses they’d visited, largely combat vests and dated small arms. Even so, the Spartans would handily defeat the rebels time and time again, driving them back to Bashir’s central compound over the course of a week. Believing the lack of Bashir’s appearance to be a mark of cowardice, Loic imagined the traitor had fled when he saw slipspace capable craft lifting off from the compound for orbit. However, it took mere moments for Citali to spot their target, spotting the flicker of active camouflage a heartbeat before the rebel ambushed her and Farzana. Injuring the two Spartans in quick succession, Loic moved quickly to pursue Bashir, allowing the rebel to lead him on a prolonged chase whilst more ships made for orbit.
Eventually, though, Loic would find his chance, and shoot Bashir several times, wounding him and forcing his subordinates to rescue him at a high cost. Bashir’s rebels then turned the entirety of their might against the Spartans, fielding several tanks and assault aircraft. In response, All Out of Options sent three drop pods to the surface. In one was heavy ordinance, in the other was an SPI-clad Valentina, and in the last, clad in his MJOLNIR, armed with the typically vehicle-mounted M68 Gauss Cannon, was Akoni. 
In seconds Valentina had shot down one of the Hornets sent to destroy her comrades, shooting the pilot through the cockpit, the other falling in seconds to a blast from Shaima’s newly acquired M6 GN/GR Laser. Akoni would dispatch one tank single-handedly whilst rounds pinged off his shields, while the other would be turned into flame by a combined effort between Mireia, Alvin, and Ludvik. Utilizing his friend as both spear and shield, Loic ordered the Spartans to fall in behind Akoni as they blasted their way into the compound.
Inside, the fighting was fierce and messy, each side desperately trying to ensure no non-combatants were caught in the crossfire. At one point, after a support beam collapsed and threatened to crush a number of civilians, Loic would break cover in order to pull the would-be victims from out of harm's way. To his, and the rest of the Spartan’s shock, not a single rebel took the opportunity to shoot him. 
Eventually, a series of well-placed ambushes and traps forced the Spartan strike force to separate, and most notably, isolated Loic. Attempting to find a way back to his comrades, he instead found himself face-to-face with his target, Bashir-501 himself. Before Loic could engage, Bashir pleaded with the younger Spartan to simply hear him out before they went down the path of violence.
Though quick to accuse Bashir of the many monstrous crimes he had been charged with, the traitor had an explanation for each and all of them. His defection occurred when he refused to assassinate a journalist attempting to go public with information about an ONI project, his violence against the UNSC came only after a botched ONI raid left the civilians he had settled with slaughtered, and the slaying of one of his classmates was carried out only after rather than accept defeat and surrender, the UNSC-loyal Spartan attempted to detonate his armor’s failsafe charges in the heart of a refugee camp.
Loic could’ve called the man a liar, but something in his gut told him not to. Bashir claimed to have known something was different about Loic after having seen him in the halls, staking himself for innocents who did not even belong to his side. He petitioned the Spartan to simply let him and his people go, and to look at the people he served and ask if he was truly doing what was right. To Bashir’s surprise, and Loic’s own, he did just that.
Alleging that the resistance was too fierce, Loic ordered a full retreat, much to the chagrin of Team Friction’s members in particular, but all complied nonetheless. Convinced that the galaxy truly was the twisted and corrupted place that he had always been told it was, Loic was utterly silent upon his return to the All Out of Options. Even as he and his team were lambasted for the baffling failure, the young Spartan was lost in thought, desperate for an option beyond being forced to pick the lesser of two evils.
And then, all across the galaxy, his answer came. ’s message would be heard over every frequency galaxy-wide as she harnessed the true power of the Mantle, and offered sanctuary and peace to all those who would join her . Immediately, the Spartans would be ordered to don their armor and prepare for rapid deployment in defense of the UNSC, and Loic did so without question, but with a plan all his own.
===The Mantle's Chosen===
====Defection====
Once the All Out of Options entered slipspace, Loic and Gravity would quietly confer amongst themselves. Loic’s plan was a bold one, but his sentiments were echoed by each and every member of Gravity, either out of a genuine agreement or due to reliance on Loic to form their own opinions. Disillusioned with all the players on the galactic stage, Loic and Gravity made the bold choice to join Cortana in making a new galaxy.
Their first move was to covertly disable the ship’s Dumb AI, throwing the ship into a panic whilst in slipspace. In the commotion of the crew ensuring that the vessel did not exit its transition into a sun, Gravity moved onto their second task, Team Friction. Cornering their support team, Loic pleaded with his comrades to join him and the others, but to no avail. In what would be a short, ultimately one-sided scuffle, Gravity would incapacitate their former comrades bar two.
Alvin-D060 and Valentina-D256 would manage to break away, but the two ultimately came into conflict as the latter begged the former to join Loic. The emotional confrontation ended with Alvin impulsively attacking Valentina, stabbing her once before his shock at his own actions left him vulnerable for Mireia to knock him unconscious.
Though Loic lamented the failure to turn any of his friends outside of Gravity beyond Valentina, he nevertheless eagerly welcomed her into the fold. With the element of surprise all but lost, the Spartan team fought their way to the bridge of the All Out of Options through the men and women they had stood beside hours earlier. Though they avoided lethal force where possible, the tenacity of their opposition frequently left them with no other choice. By the time they reached the bridge of the frigate, many of the crew had already betrayed their fellows out of self-preservation and yielded the ship to the Spartans.
After a lengthy but heated conversation with Captain Helena Zhang, Loic reactivated the ship’s AI and had command authorization passed over to himself. From there, Loic rerouted the frigate to Earth itself. In the interest of security, Gravity then forced all surviving crewmembers who had not changed their allegiances to enter cryosleep, Friction included.
Upon their arrival, the frigate would be hailed by one of the many AI under Cortana and instructed to surrender. Much to the artificial intelligence’s surprise, Loic would answer, identifying himself and pledging loyalty to Cortana. With haste, Loic was given an audience with none other than Cortana herself.
Equal parts pleased with Loic’s defection and appalled, though not surprised, at the existence of yet another SPARTAN-III company, especially one created for little more than personal politics, Cortana would speak at great length with the Spartan. Whilst Loic did his best to conceal it, Cortana was all too aware of her ability to shape him to her will through the subtle manipulation of his pride, and did so eagerly. As a sign of her favor, Cortana saw Gravity sent to a research station in orbit of Saturn in order to be given the five prototype suits of aboard.
Loic would seek to procure a set for Valentina as well, having inducted Friction’s sole defector into Gravity whilst the others were sent to a remote re-education camp, but was ultimately unable to procure her anything more than a number of upgrades to her SPI. Despite her assurances that such an upgrade was more than sufficient, Loic would subconsciously decide to keep Valentina away from direct conflict until she could be properly equipped.
Rearmed and filled with new purpose, Gravity’s betrayal of the UNSC was complete, and Loic would eagerly lead them out onto the Frontier, ready to bring order in the name of the Mantle.
====The Mantle's Fist====
==Equipment==
===Weapons===
Proficient with a wide variety of weapons ranging from kinetic firearms to hardlight blades, Loic’s arsenal, much like himself, was extremely well rounded and variable. It was rare that he would deploy the same arsenal on any given assignment twice, but he did of course have preferences. Partial to the MA5 series, particularly the most modern D-variant, and the limited production XBR55 Battle Rifle, Loic seemed to had a preference for traditional arms over more experimental weapons like the ARC-920 Railgun, though he was fond of Promethean weaponry. The only consistent staples in his arsenal was a slightly modified M6H2 PDWS, and a combat knife.
==Personality==
From the start, Loic has always had a strict sense of right and wrong, and since his induction into SPARTAN-III, his belief in his own choices to be the right thing has not faltered in spite of the many compromises he has made. Every death, civilian or military, every friend betrayed, every comrade lost, is in the pursuit of doing the right thing in his mind, for if it were anything different it would make him a monster.
The drastic severity of Loic’s outlook on morality, as well as his insistence that anyone could be swayed to see things from his point of view and thus relent to his judgment, could very well be simply be the product of a teenage mind. After all, second only to his need to see his actions as morally upright is a deep desire for the approval of those to who he admires. Senior DI’s, AI overlords, it makes little difference so long as they are working in the name of what he perceives to be good.
Unlike other Spartans who are either so detached from the act of killing they do not feel one way or another about it, or those who take pride in it, Loic often takes pride in the lives he has been able to spare. This stems both from his genuine belief that life should be preserved when and wherever possible, and because it serves to reinforce that his outlook is the correct one. Even so, there are exceptions, such as Simon-G294 whom Loic took great pride in having seemingly rid the galaxy of.
Dangerously charismatic, Loic could have, in another life, led a very successful career in politics. Finding friends, or more often followers, was a natural and easy thing to the boy from a young age, and when he could not win over the many, he was sure to win over the right few. Individuals who reject him often leave him puzzled, and ultimately frustrated, even after time and age allowed him to see the galaxy was far from black and white.
Beyond Team Gravity itself, whom Loic regards as a true and genuine family for whom he would happily die, most people in spite of his interactions with them, will rarely be more than a simple acquaintance to him. This never led to him treating them with any level of undeserved scorn, and his altruism towards others is born of genuine goodwill, but there are few he would call his friends. One such example, and one that was most painful for Loic, was Andra-D054, whom he saw as a genuine friend and has been deeply hurt by her refusal to join him.
In the Created, and Cortana in particular, Loic has subscribed to the belief that as AI they would be immune to such vices as greed, lust, and corruption, seeing them as infallible as he has yet to encounter one such as Diana. Cortana and her ilk have had no issue capitalizing upon this, using his reverence and susceptibility to their praise as an avenue to further indoctrinate him into supporting their cause.
When all is said and done, Loic is simply a naïve idealist, unwilling to accept that his own moral compass is not one universally shared. Though kind, well-intentioned, and intent on the creation of a galaxy where his like will never again be needed, ultimately he is an individual with a great deal of deep-seated arrogance and an inability to examine his own biases or consider conflicting views of as truly valid.
==Literary Appearances==
*Halo: Heaven and Earth
==Notes==
Category:Delta Company
Category:SPARTAN-IIIs