Alex-A121

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Alex-A121 was a SPARTAN-III commando of Alpha Company. After surviving Operation: PROMETHEUS at a young age, he was placed in Tau Team and fought in that unit for fifteen years until the Fall of Reach, where it was almost wiped out during the Covenant invasion. Alex then joined Sigma Team for several months alongside the other SPARTAN-III survivors as they made their way back to Earth. He would see action on Hope, the Zenith Complex and Second Sanctum during this journey, eventually making it back to mankind's homeworld in time to participate in its defence. 
After the war, Alex would leave the Navy to join the newly-formed and worked to provide protection for ONI science teams investigating Forerunner sites, eventually forming the elite special operations unit known as Blackwatch. After several years operating as the unit's field commander and a brief stint aboard the , Alex would reunite with his SPARTAN-III comrades to help manage a SPARTAN-IV training facility on . After the began, Alex would serve as one of several Spartan field commanders in the resistance movement on the shield world Bunker.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Alex Nash was born in on the colony world of Eridanus II in 2524. When he was six years old the Covenant launched an attack the colony world, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians within the first few hours. Alex, who was on a school trip that day, was able to escape to a rescue ship with dozens of others, including his best friend Louie. After spending some time living in an orphanage on , he was recruited alongside a number of other children into the . He and Louie ended up in Team Lion, under the command of Nelson-A122.
===Training and Early Deployments===
During training, Alex was often difficult to control. Despite being one of the best fighters, he was easily aggravated, getting into fights with other trainees, in particular. One incident in particular led to the pair of them being locked in the brig, taking the blame for their brawl rather than allowing Chief Mendez to punish the whole of Alpha Company when no one would own up to fighting. Realising that his continued outbursts would only lead to more punishments and possibly the scorn of his comrades, Alex gradually learned to control his temper and became a better Spartan for it. After managing to channel his anger issues into training exercises and completing mission objectives, Team Lion graduated from training as one of the better-performing teams.
Alex participated in a number of missions with Alpha Company after their departure from Onyx. During their first mission, they were sent to put down a large force of Insurrectionists on Mamore. While fighting human foes after years of training to kill Covenant was surprising to some, Alex had no difficulties adapting and eliminated over a dozen foes himself during the operation. While some members of Alpha Company had taken minor wounds, the rebels had been absolutely crushed with no losses on the Spartan side. Over the course of several months, the young supersoldiers would take part in over half a dozen successful operations against both human and Covenant enemies, performing excellently in the field. It was not until the announcement of in 2537 that Alpha would finally meet their match. Alex, who regarded the high-risk operation as little more than a challenge, spend several days shutting down enemy reactors and fending off security forces until they were faced with a massive attack force that quickly surrounded Alpha and launched a devastating attack.
Due to sheer luck and their location on the outskirts of the main battlefield, Lion Team avoided being caught in the Covenant's initial sweep as they moved to completely wipe out the Spartans. While the thirteen year-old Alex protested and was willing to go down fighting with his friends, Louie and Nelson eventually convinced him to join the retreat towards Alpha's alongside Falcon Team and a few other survivors. Though distraught over fleeing the site, Alex helped drag the wounded Dorian-A188 to safety and assisted Martin-A136 and Dan-A105 in planting demolition charges on one final reactor before making a run for their craft. By the time PROMETHEUS was over, only twelve members of the three hundred-strong Alpha Company were left alive, and met with Admiral , Colonel and Doctor Calvin Roe aboard a UNSC Prowler. Once there, they were informed that their survival would be kept hidden and that they would be formed into two new teams: Upsilon and Tau. Alex and the remainder of Lion Team were moved into Tau. Despite losing his family for the second time in his life, Alex was somewhat pleased to be given yet another chance to fight the Covenant, fuelled by his still-burning desire for revenge.
===Fall of Reach===
After NOBLE Team reported Covenant activity on Reach in July of 2552, a number of Spartan teams were scrambled to secure important communication hubs across the planet. Alex and Tau Team were assigned to investigate one such relay. There, they were attacked by a Covenant vanguard force, and pinned down. They were rescued by Sigma Team, a group of SPARTAN-II's they had worked with on Fargat years before. Tau later participated in Operation: DROPKICK as part of Team Two, alongside Nelson-A122, Jordan-A111 and Jax-007. Frank and Dom were killed in the ensuing battle inside a Covenant supercarrier, Leaving Louie to plant the bomb. Alex and Team One secured the bridge, and set the ship on a collision course for three Covenant corvettes that were heading into Reach's atmosphere. During , Alex provided support for the other Spartans from a Falcon, destroying several banshees during an ill-fated rescue attempt at the HQ that left four Spartans dead in the building's demolition. Later, he and the survivors made their way to Outpost Foxtrot Whiskey, where he witnessed the killing of Dr. Calvin Roe by Marco-035. The Spartans then had to face an incoming Covenant force that threatened to overwhelm the outpost, forcing its defenders into a protracted battle, Alex gunning from a Warthog driven by Louie-A199. The Covenant attackers were eventually driven off, though Dorian-A188 was killed in the fighting.
After several days of trying to re-establish contact with their superiors, the surviving Spartans were informed of an offworld evacuation site at the Asźod Shipbreaking yards. With enemy forces closing in and no other way to escape from Reach, Alex and his comrades made their way towards Asźod in a single Pelican dropship, seeking the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. Before they could arrive the cruiser took off, leaving the Spartans stranded. While Alex initially resigned himself to hunkering down and fighting to the death and voiced this option to his team, they soon received a distress call from the ODST team Whiskey-04, who had discovered an intact starship. With no other options, the Spartans flew over the sprawling ship breaking yards, though their Pelican was soon struck by enemy anti-air fire and forced into a controlled crash landing. 
With a small army of Covenant bearing down on them, the Spartans retreated towards an underground hangar where the ODST's had discovered a frigate, the Bright New Day. To give the remaining technicians time to get the ship airborne, Alex and several others moved to intercept their foe and buy time, setting up ambushes and traps across the nearby area as the first wave of Covenant infantry approached. What ensued was a gruelling close-quarters battle as the Covenant threw themselves at the Spartans with reckless abandon. Both Jordan-A111 and Nelson-A122 were killed in the brief but brutal engagement while Alex and the others were pushed back. As the Bright New Day finally launched, Alex and Jax-007 hijacked a pair of banshee attack craft as they flew by and managed to board the frigate before it left Reach's atmosphere. Once aboard and in orbit, the ship made a random jump into slipspace, narrowly avoiding the fleet of Covenant ships moving in to glass the planet.
===Returning to Earth===
The Spartans, ODST's, and surviving crew remained aboard the Bright New Day for several days, making multiple slipspace jumps to evade their pursuers. Eventually, they emerged in the Epitadeus System and saw that the human colony world of Hope was under attack. Though their numbers were delpeted, Kane-098 gave the order for the ship to move in and assist local forces in any way they could. As they neared the planet, plasma torpedoes from a nearby Covenant vessel struck the frigate, and though they destroyed it with a MAC shot the Day was forced to land on the planet for repairs. While most of the plasma damage was superficial and could be fixed, their FTL drive had sustained major damage and a new one had to be found before they could leave the system. Upon landing, Kane had Whiskey-04 guard the ship while the Spartans left in search of a replacement in the nearby city of Port Neandra. Though Alex ranked the highest of the surviving SPARTAN-III's after Reach, he was content with their absorption into Sigma Team. Within minutes of their arrival in the mostly-deserted city, which had recently been hit by an EMP burst, several Covenant Phantoms descended on the Spartans, carrying a pack of bloodthirsty Jiralhanae.
Defending Jax-007 as he attempted to activate a nearby data terminal, Sigma wiped out the enemy infantry and even took down a Phantom, blocking the street before Covenant reinforcements could arrive. Having discovered the location of a nearby facility which housed several partially-dismantled ships and a working Slipspace drive. Making their way there, Alex worked with Jax to detach the drive from its housing while the rest of Sigma fought off pursuing Covenant. They were then able to open up the building's roof, allowing a Pelican piloted by Richard Mack Jr. to enter and pick up both the drive and the Spartans. As they fled, a number of tremors shook the ground as earthquakes erupted all across Hope. After driving off a number of pursuing Banshees, they managed to board the Day with he FTL drive, which the ship's engineers began to install as the Frigate took off. Shortly after they escaped into orbit, Hope imploded and revealed a portal leading to a dyson sphere. With the drive still being put into place, all the Spartans could do was watch from a distance as the surviving UNSC and Covenant forces continued their battle on the newly-discovered planet.
Shortly afterwards, a human prowler exited Slipspace near the Day and drifted past, seemingly without power. Alex and the other SPARTAN-III's remained aboard while Marco, Kane and Jax took a Pelican out to investigate. After some time, their comrades revealed that they had met an old ally, Elena-071, on board and were heading to the unknown world on a scouting mission. The remaining Spartans continued repair operations aboard the Frigate until they were contacted via an emergency transmission from Kane and the others, and immediately headed to assist them on the planet. Joined by Whiskey-04, Alex and the other SPARTAN-III's arrived in time to assist Marco-035 in eliminating a large Covenant force that had landed on the planet. After commandeering several Ghosts, they fought their way through a nearby forest, mowing down Covenant infantry as they descended a steep hill. Upon linking up with Elena and the others, Alex helped set up a number of C-12 charges along the hill's base, and set them off as enemy armour arrived. With Elena having secured the Forerunner data she had been sent to acquire, the Spartans retreated and boarded a Pelican, fleeing the new world and once again leaving any UNSC forces to fend for themselves. Elena abandoned Sigma Team upon reaching her ship and departed into Slipspace, though Marco insisted they not pursue her directly. Having gotten the Bright New Day in the best condition possible, Kane had the frigate exit the system, heading for the nearest naval rally point.
Shortly after their escape from the Zenith Complex, the Day encountered Battle Group Cossack, a naval task force led by Captain Jeanette Nisha. Despite Sigma Team's plans to return to Earth, Nisha recruited them for Operation: MOBY DICK, a dangerous operation to infiltrate a Covenant stronghold deep in enemy territory. While some of the Spartans voiced their doubts about the veracity of Nisha's orders privately, Alex and the rest of the team were happy to strike back against their foe after losing so many comrades on Reach. Using Nisha's prowler, the UNSC Theseus, as a temporary base of operations, Alex, Martin and Kane joined an platoon known as Oscar-Nine in raiding a Covenant outpost on the glassed world of Harpa, stealing an enemy Lich and taking numerous Unggoy prisoners in the process. This would be their way of infiltrating the Covenant fortress, known as 'Second Sanctum'.
Accompanied by Louie, Jax, and Oscar-Nine, Alex was chosen to join the infiltration force and successfully approached the Covenant moon, forcing their Unggoy prisoners to transmit clearance codes that would allow them to land close to Second Sanctum. Taking advantage of the relatively lax security on the ground, Alex and the other Spartans managed to enter the fortress undetected in a stolen while Oscar-Nine rigged the surrounding area with explosives, which they soon detonated to cause a distraction. With the base now on high alert, Alex and the other Spartans waited for most of Second Sanctum's garrison to deploy before beginning their own attack, advancing into the fortress and killing all who stood in their way. This would be the signal for the rest of Battle Group Cossack to move in and assault the fortress, throwing the surprised Covenant defenders into disarray. In the crucial moments that followed, Alex and his comrades took down as many anti-aircraft cannons as they could, giving the rest of Sigma Team a chance to land safely.
The Spartans soon reunited, and while Kane, Marco and Jax went to rescue human prisoners being held in the base Alex and his fellow SPARTAN-III's continued to sabotage the fortress and its defences. Eventually the Spartans were able to fight their way into Second Sanctum's command room and engaged its commander, Field Master Yorru 'Talanee, in battle. Though 'Talanee and his bodyguards fought furiously, even driving the Spartans and their Marine allies back for a time, Alex was able to slip by and launched an ambush that wiped out most of the Sangheili. Soon after, Martin killed 'Talanee himself, leaving Second Sanctum firmly in human hands. This victory would be short-lived, however, as a small Covenant fleet soon arrived in-system, scattering the UNSC ships in orbit. Soon the order was given to retreat and Alex and his fellows retreated to their stolen Lich, which they used to provide air support for their allies as thousands of Covenant troops bore down on the fortress. Unwilling to leave their allies to die, the Spartans continued to rain down fire on enemy forces until a hail of anti-aircraft fire critically damaged the Lich, forcing it to land to the north of Second Sanctum.
Now trapped on the moon's surface, Alex and the others resolved to fight to the death as Covenant troops slowly encircled the downed Lich. The Spartans soon ran low on ammunition, forcing them to take weapons from the dead as the situation worsened. Thankfully, a last-minute Longsword airstrike disrupted their foe's advance long enough for a pair of Pelican dropships to land and extract the survivors, returning Sigma Team to the Bright New Day. As the Spartans escaped, Captain Nisha sacrificed herself and the Theseus to destroy Second Sanctum in a nuclear strike, buying the Day time to jump into slipspace alongside the only other remaining UNSC vessel, the Illustrious. Though the Covenant fortress was destroyed, almost the entire human attack force had died in the process. Aware that vengeful Covenant pursuers were likely already tracking them, the Bright New Day and the Illustrious split up soon after, making several random jumps into slipspace. Despite their losses, Alex felt satisfied at having finally struck back against the Covenant after years of fighting defensive actions. With supplies dwindling and mechanical problems aboard the frigate mounting, Kane finally gave the order for the Day to make one final slipspace jump towards Earth.
===Battle of Earth===
By the time Sigma Team arrived in the Sol System on November 1st, the Covenant had already begun their . Realising that the already-weathered Bright New Day would stand no chance in a straight fight against Covenant capital ships, the Spartans decided to try and make a run straight towards Earth. As they approached, the ship attracted the attention of a Covenant cruiser in orbit, forcing the crew to immediately abandon ship as Kane-098 set it on a collision course with the alien vessel. Both Sigma Team and Whiskey-04 chose to depart via the ship's SOEIV's to reach the planet's surface faster, and escaped barely a minute before their frigate was destroyed. 
Adjusting their trajectories as they descended, the group landed close to the city of Moscow, in Russia. Slowly regrouping as they tried to contact HIGHCOM or any other form of UNSC authority, they found that the Covenant had landed nearby and had besieged the nearby city. Unwilling to allow the civilian populace and local UNSC forces be slaughtered, the Spartans and ODST's moved in to provide assistance. A bloody battle ensued as they fought from block to block against a -led force many times their size and slowly lost troops to the seemingly endless alien tide. Alex distinguished himself in the melee, taking a from a fallen foe and putting its blade to good use after running out of ammunition. His fellow Spartans set up killzones in narrow streets and laid landmines in the path of oncoming troops. While this slowed the Covenant for a time, they soon began airlifting in infantry to clear out the human resistance. In the fighting that followed, most of Whiskey-04 was killed and Alex sustained minor injuries. Seeing that they were about to be overwhelmed, the survivors retreated to the city's outskirts as a Covenant corvette moved in overhead. As they departed via Pelican dropship, permission was given for a HAVOK tacical nuke to be fired upon Moscow. While this utterly destroyed all Covenant forces within the area, it also inflicted irreparable damage on the ancient city. To Alex, this made it clear just how desperate the situation had become if HIGHCOM were willing to sacrifice so much just to kill more Covenant. 
Alex and the others were transported to ONI's PILLAR Base, hidden beneath Mount Everest. There, their injuries were seen to and they were granted access to suits of the newly-developed MJOLNIR Mark VI armour. With the Covenant striking at multiple locations across the planet, Sigma Team was split into two groups as the SPARTAN-II's moved to defend locations across the Asia while Alex and his brethren moved towards South America. Taking charge of their three-man group, Alex was alerted to a distress call several days later by Captain Frederick King, a high-ranking ONI agent. As it turned out, he had been leading an officially-sanctioned operation to evacuate thousands of citizens from Earth in Phoenix-class colony ships in case the planet fell, though upon departure their vessels had been attacked and downed in the Pacific Ocean. With a CCS-class Battlecruiser bearing down on King's group, the SPARTAN-III's utilised a stolen Phantom to track and eventually board the Covenant ship and disable its weapons before detonating a HAVOK nuke within its hangar, tearing it apart and saving thousands of lives. While disgusted by the ONI agent's willingness to abandon Earth in its time of need despite the pragmatism involved, he put saving the civilians first as the Spartans oversaw their evacuation to safe zones in Argentina.
After heavy fighting across the globe, a sudden within the Covenant and a newfound alliance with Sangheili Separatists soon ended the Human-Covenant War after decades of fighting. Sigma Team would be reunited shortly before a memorial ceremony in March of 2553, though shortly afterwards Alex, Martin and Louie would be recruited by ONI for several projects and split up. Due to the abundance of sites discovered towards the war's end and shortly afterwards, ONI required capable soldiers to lead its in exploring potentially dangerous sites.
===Blackwatch===
After two years accompanying numerous ONI science teams on various missions, Alex came into contact with the virulent alien parasite known as on an uncharted world. During the exploration of Forerunner ruins on the planet, an unwary scientist accidentally triggered the release of Flood specimens from a storage facility, which immediately attacked and overwhelmed most of their team. Alex was able to swiftly intervene and hold back the tide of foes long enough for the survivors to escape to their ship, joining the rest of the crew as they took off. Shortly after, the entire site was vaporised by a tactical nuclear weapon - a standard procedure for RCT's encountering an uncontrollable Flood outbreak. Following this mission, Alex would file a report noting how underequipped his team was and requested that consideration be given towards a dedicated group for responding to incidents such as this. To his surprise, Alex was contacted by his ONI handler shortly after and informed that he was being made leader of this newly-created group, codenamed 'Blackwatch'.
Initially thinking that Blackwatch would be a standard special operations group, Alex was surprised when his handler introduced him to a squad of SPARTAN-IV commandos, hand-picked to work alongside him in hazardous environments. He initially struggled with this, as the far more normal upbringing and attitude of his new comrades was a far cry from the duty-focused Spartans he had spent his life working alongside. Despite this, he soon warmed to his new team, who treated him with a great deal of respect due to his status as a SPARTAN-III. Blackwatch would soon prove itself in combat after an unwary survey team on provoked the wrath of the installation's Sentinels, jeopardising a promising expedition. Alex and his team soon dispatched, and after rescuing the surviving scientists were able to confirm that they had come perilously close to breaching a site containing Flood specimens. The area was soon quarantined, and the Spartans commended for their quick and decisive actions.
When not protecting science teams or scouting potential Forerunner sites, Alex and Blackwatch would remain in the Sol System, working out of Denegroth Station on to test new MJOLNIR variants in live-fire exercises. Alex enjoyed these visits, and used the time to catch up with Louie, who was the station's Spartan Commander. In early 2557, Alex was temporarily assigned to work with Louie and Martin-A136 as rumours of an Insurrectionist bomb threat at the unveiling of the Navy's most advanced vessel, the , had been picked up by ONI. The trio spent some time reminiscing over their early days in Alpha Company before the ceremony began, but soon discovered an intruder with a satchel of explosives on one of the ship's exterior gantries. Martin quickly disposed of the terrorist, throwing himself over the side of the ship to secure the bombs and almost plummeting towards the city below before Alex caught him. The explosive devices were quickly disposed of, and the Infinity's unveiling ceremony went ahead without further issue. Following this, Alex invited Martin into Blackwatch, and was happy when his friend's transfer request was approved.
The next few months were some of Blackwatch's busiest yet, as news of a massive spike in Forerunner artefacts passing through the black markets of alerted ONI to the discovery of an uncharted world, supposedly teeming with ancient alien ruins. Working on information garnered by undercover BRUTUS agents, Alex led Blackwatch on a top-secret mission to Venezia, where they ambushed a prominent 'relic hunter' under the guise of being a group of wealthy independent traders. After subduing and interrogating the man, Blackwatch were able to seize the coordinates of a world the dealers referred to as 'Treasure Chest'. Blackwatch and a small battlegroup of UNSC ships were immediately dispatched to the planet, with Alex placed in charge of the groundside operation. It did not take long to find a massive excavation site in Treasure Chest's southern hemisphere, and before the assortment of rebels and smugglers could flee the Spartans descended on them, backed up by a company of Marines. A lengthy battle ensued around the excavation site, which had uncovered a massive Forerunner facility and hundreds of priceless artefacts. The scale of the smuggling operation surprised even Alex, as many of the items were carefully catalogued and labelled, ready to be shipped off to Venezia and other worlds for secret auctions. More terrifying than that was the discovery of preserved Flood , kept in stasis pods and ready for offworld transport. 
Thanks to the efforts of Alex and Blackwatch, the smuggling operation on Treasure Chest was swiftly shut down. While it appeared that they had not send any Flood specimens away from the planet, it was soon discovered that those running the operation had been given heavily classified files regarding the purpose of many known Forerunner devices, and even Flood containment and disposal protocols that Alex himself had helped write. Realising that there was likely someone within ONI selling this information for a price, Alex reported this to his superiors and had Martin remain on Treasure Chest to help oversee the cleanup operation while the rest of Blackwatch pursued the smugglers elsewhere. Their search led them to , where an illegal auction of Forerunner items was supposed to take place. The Spartans landed several kilometres away from the site and made their way to the abandoned quarry being used to hold the auction on foot. By the time they arrived, however, the site was mostly abandoned, with half a dozen crates of Forerunner artefacts having been left behind. With all signs pointing towards the smugglers having been warned in advance, Alex had Blackwatch set up a temporary headquarters on Tanuab III until ONI could send a retrieval team to bring in the artefacts.
That night, Blackwatch's safehouse was assaulted by several platoons of corporate mercenaries, backed up by several heavily-armed Sparrowhawk attack craft. Though the sudden attack took him off-guard, Alex soon led a counter-attack, killing over twenty foes before personally bringing down an enemy aircraft. While his aggressive strategy had driven most of the mercenaries off, Alex was taken aback when three of his fellow Spartans were killed, one after the other. The fifth member of the team, Nikita Varro, suddenly dropped off of TEAMCOM as the mercenaries began to airlift the Forerunner contraband out via Pelican, covered by their remaining Sparrowhawks. By the time Alex returned to the ruined headquarters the mercenaries had departed, leaving behind many bodies, including three Spartans. A cursory investigation of the bodies made it clear to Alex that his comrades had been shot dead at close range, leaving Varro as the primary suspect. Alex spent the rest of the night by the bodies of his teammates, utterly distraught at having been betrayed by someone he had the utmost trust in.
Alex was picked up by an ONI retrieval team the following day, and after submitting a detailed report on the failed operation requested that he be assigned to pursue Varro and the shadowy mercenary group responsible for killing most of Blackwatch. His request was granted, and within a week Alex was leading a team in tracking down the perpetrators. While the corporation responsible for funding the mercenaries was never discovered, the group were found on attempting to sell the Forerunner artefacts. After three days of surveillance Alex spotted Nikita Varro among the mercenary group and immediately ordered an attack on their location. Backed up by a platoon of battle-hardened ODST's, Alex's force swept into the enemy compound with little resistance, killing all in their path. Intent on taking down Varro himself, Alex moved ahead of the group and caught the treacherous Spartan taking off in a civilian shuttle. Unable to board the aircraft, Alex briefly pursued Varro on foot and managed to blow out the shuttle's rear thrusters with a . After successfully downing Varro's ship, Alex approached the crash site just as Varro emerged from the shuttle, badly wounded. Utterly defeated, Varro immediately asked that Alex kill him, but Alex refused to do so until his former teammate revealed the reasons for his betrayal. When Varro revealed that he had let the rest of Blackwatch die in exchange for a multi-million credit offer in exchange for the stash of Forerunner artefacts, Alex shot him dead. With the retrieval operation deemed a success, Alex returned to Helios Station over Mars to be debriefed. There it was decided that Blackwatch would be disbanded, and Alex moved to a different role within Spartan Operations.
===Aboard the UNSC Infinity===
Alex was transferred aboard the in December of 2557. Instead of joining an existing Spartan fireteam, he took on the role of a senior advisor and trainer for Spartans during their simulations. This suited Alex well as he came to terms with the tragic deaths of his former team. With decades of combat experience Alex proved to be a harsh instructor with extremely high standards during training exercises, though he constantly emphasised the importance of teamwork and loyalty based on his past experiences with other Spartans. Somewhat ironically, Alex always took to the field alone during his time aboard the Infinity, working better as a solo operator while on missions.
In February of 2558 the Infinity made its return to the Forerunner shield world , which it had first visited the prior year. Intent on eliminating the forces from the world and establishing a long-term human presence on the installation, the supercarrier easily punched through enemy lines before deploying numerous Spartan fireteams to secure landing sites on the shield world's interior. Alex remained aboard the Infinity during the first few hours of the conflict and awaited contact from their groundside forces before joining them. While the initial stages of the UNSC invasion went well and reinforcements were soon deployed to back up the Spartan fireteams, casualties soon began to mount up as Covenant forces dug in, prompting the start of what looked to be a difficult military campaign.
Troubled by reports of Spartan deaths, Alex was granted permission to deploy to Requiem's surface and was covertly dropped off by an transport close to enemy lines. Using his own skills as an infiltrator and an active camouflage module, Alex struck out on a long-distance reconnaissance mission, periodically reporting enemy movements back to the Infinity as he moved towards the nearest Covenant encampment. It was there that he picked up evidence of Covenant forces working alongside constructs. Having seen enough, Alex quietly placed several C-12 charges around the base and would have escaped undetected were he not spotted by a Promethean Watcher. The construct soon alerted his fellows, who converged on the Spartan's position immediately. Forced into a fighting retreat, Alex experienced his first taste of battle against the Prometheans, felling numerous Watchers and Crawlers and he fell back beyond the blast radius of his explosive devices.
With a horde of enemy combatants bearing down on him, Alex was forced to detonate his C-12 charges early, obliterating the base and bringing the cave complex crashing down on his foes. Having barely reached the edge of the blast zone, Alex was nearly buried alive by the cave-in and made it to the surface with seconds to spare. Having singlehandedly buried a Covenant encampment, Alex began the long trek back to his landing zone. En-route, the Spartan realised he was being followed from afar, and correctly surmised that it was by a group of camouflaged Sangheili warriors. Aware that his chances of survival were low if they ambushed him all at once, Alex took a detour into a mountainous area, traversing a narrow, winding crevice before clambering up into a secluded recess. Within minutes he caught signs of his foe pursuing him into the mountains, and Alex sprang his trap, using the last of his grenades to great effect as he ambushed the Sangheili in the crevice. With the tight confines rendering their numbers useless, several of the warriors were quickly dispatched by Alex in close-quarters, forcing the rest back. Seizing an enemy blade, Alex pursued the two survivors, duelling and killing one before the leader leapt from the shadows. Narrowly avoiding a mortal wound, Alex and the enemy commando fought for some time until he briefly gained the upper hand, flinging his foe down the mountainside. Having sustained several injuries, Alex didn't bother to confirm the kill and fled to his exfil point, returning to the Infinity aboard an Owl by daybreak.
Due to his wounds Alex was confined to the ship's medical bay for five days, having sustained a large plasma burn to the right side of his chest from his duel with the enemy commando. To Alex's surprise, several SPARTAN-IV's came to visit him and wish him well, even those whom he had been particularly hard on during training. By February 13th he was cleared for active duty and returned to the field with a repaired suit of armour. Alex's involvement in the rest of the Requiem Campaign was fairly minor, consisting of supporting Spartan fireteams in their operations across the shield world before all UNSC forces were recalled to the Infinity, having forced most Covenant forces into a full retreat. Shortly after, Requiem was destroyed after it was sent hurtling into the nearby sun, which immediately went supernova. The Infinity barely escaped into slipspace in time, officially concluding the campaign. The supercarrier soon returned to Earth, where Alex received orders to return to Denegroth Station on Europa. He was given a brief but heartfelt sendoff by those Spartans he knew aboard the Infinity, and was proud of his brief stint aboard mankind's most advanced warship as he departed.
===Denegroth Station===
Upon returning to Denegroth Station, a remote Spartan training facility far away from any of Europa's settled areas, Alex began work as one of the site's senior trainers. Working alongside his old comrades Louie-A199 and Martin-A136, he spent several months devising a series of gruelling training exercises for newly-augmentations SPARTAN-IV candidates, intending to push them to the same limits he and the rest of Alpha Company had been many years prior. The trio of SPARTAN-III's became particularly infamous for the intensity of their training exercises, occasionally changing the parameters of a test unexpectedly to simulate unforeseen circumstances in a combat scenario. During this time he received an upgrade to his GEN2 suit, swapping to a set of hardy armour while keeping his old helmet. 
In late May, while hosting Sigma Team at Denegroth Station, Alex and the others were shocked by the arrival of three of their old comrades: Dan-A105, Eugene-A133 and Chris-A189. Having thought all three dead during the destruction of the Materials Group HQ in New Alexandria six years prior, Alex learned that they had survived and escaped Reach, tricked into working for a shadowy group posing as a legitimate ONI deep cover operation for years before their eventual reinstatement. Though his old friends had done terrible things in their time away from the UNSC, Alex was glad to see even a few living Spartans of his generation still standing, even if he was forced to act as a minder for the trio while they were reintegrated into the military for active duty.
===Created Conflict===
In October of 2558, Alex was still stationed at Denegroth Station and planned for the Spartans stationed there to undergo a protracted training exercise in a remote area of Europa. Alongside his fellow SPARTAN-III's, he was joined by Sigma Team member Jax-007, who offered up his formidable close-combat skills for the exercise. While things went well at first, the training session was cut short when a galaxy-wide message reached the Spartans, broadcast by the AI known as . This message was a warning and declaration of war as a faction of rogue artificial intelligences known as the launched an assault on all known colony worlds. The Sol System was one of the first hit, with a massive attack being launched on Europa and the other Jovian moons containing UNSC military bases. Unable to contact the orbiting UNSC Peacemaker, which almost immediately fled into slipspace, Alex and the others were forced to take cover in a makeshift bunker as the area was struck by a protracted bombardment by attack craft and an orbiting . 
Taken completely off-guard, all of the SPARTAN-IV's participating in the training exercise were killed in the attack, leaving Alex distraught as he and the older Spartans had only survived by making it to shelter in time. As the bombardment began to subside, Alex and she surviving Spartans launched a counterattack, shooting down a number of Phaetons as they retreated. With their vehicles destroyed, the Spartans embarked on a long trek back to Denegroth Station. By the time they arrived, however, the Spartan training facility was in ruins, having sustained a serious attack by the Created's Promethean forces. Needing transport to get off the planet, the Spartan team entered the base and encountered a lone survivor: Spartan Ianto-G200. The young Spartan revealed that the Created AI had killed the Spartans stationed in the base by infiltrating the suit of one Spartan and taking it over, forcing the supersoldier to gun down his allies before detonating his MJOLNIR suit's reactors when pinned down. Faced with a horrifying fate if they connected their suits to any networked devices, the Spartans opted to abandon Denegroth Station before enemy reinforcements showed up, commandeering two APC's for a long trip towards the nearest city. Alex was hit hard by the loss of the base he had called home and all of his trainees, and swore revenge on the Created as they drove away.
==Skills and Abilities==
As a chemically-augmented SPARTAN-III, Alex's combat skills far surpassed that of any regular human soldier. While proficient in most forms of weaponry he preferred to get up close and personal with his foes, favouring shotguns, knives, and the occasional stolen energy sword. Alex was known among Alpha Company for his ferocity in combat and was reprimanded several times during training for his brutal nature towards both drill instructors and fellow trainees. As with the other Alpha Company survivors, Alex's skills only improved as he got older and the war against the Covenant dragged on. 
In addition to his combat prowess, Alex was skilled in demolitions and was a superb marksman compared to regular UNSC troops. It was not until the end of the Human-Covenant War that he began to show talent as a leader, however. Alex became a capable field commander in his years leading 's to Forerunner sites and proved himself while leading the initial Blackwatch team on various operations. his knowledge of the Forerunners and Flood greatly surpassed that of most Spartans in the field, to the point where he was called in on occasion as a special advisor to exploratory teams.
==Personality==
As with most trainees of Alpha Company, Alex had lost his parents to the Covenant at a young age. This, coupled with the intense training received from a young age made him incredibly violent, even by Spartan trainee standards. While he followed orders competently, his hot-headedness and anger issues were a constant source of grief during his years on Onyx as Alex was easily provoked into fighting other trainees. After repeated incarcerations in Camp Currahee's brig, he was taught by to channel his rage wholly towards the enemy instead of rising to the taunting of others. He would eventually form close bonds with his squadmates, trusting them completely as they ventured into the field. Due to the horrendous losses Alpha Company suffered during Operation PROMETHEUS, Alex kept a close eye on his comrades and took the decimation of Tau Team during the Fall of Reach particularly hard, though he worked to suppress such feelings to focus on the goal ahead. Such was Alex's dedication to his fellow Spartans that the sudden betrayal of one of his Blackwatch teammates came as a genuine and world-changing shock, leaving him in partial denial until his former ally confessed his intentional treachery, leading to his immediate execution.
Not one to keep his opinion to himself, Alex would be the first to speak out against orders he had an issue with. His outspoken nature and occasional brashness was kept in check by his lifelong friend Louie-A199, whom Alex saw as a brother and would - as he often admitted - freely give his life for if the situation required it. To most others, particularly non-Spartans, Alex's no-nonsense attitude and lack of patience towards those he deemed not up to his standards did little to gain him much respect. His years serving with Blackwatch and time aboard the Infinity slightly softened his disposition, though like some of his SPARTAN-III brethren he rarely strayed from a mission-focused, detail-oriented mindset that left little room for levity. Nonetheless, he valued teamwork and skill in the field and would occasionally compliment those he served with.
Like some Spartans, Alex grappled internally with the purpose of his existence for some time following the end of the Human-Covenant War. Having been raised as a child soldier for the purpose of embarking on what he eventually learned were suicide missions, life in peacetime was a foreign concept to Alex. With no particular care towards politics or the ethics of the program that had turned him into a Spartan, Alex genuinely believed that his only place was on the battlefield, fighting alongside other Spartans.
==List of Appearances==
*Vigil (2531-57)
*Flight (2552)
*Losing Hope (2552)
*Gaining Faith (2552)
*Understanding (2557)
*Halo: SIGMA (2558)
==Behind the Scenes==
*Alex was originally based on a friend of the author, alongside several of his other prominent SPARTAN-III's.
Category:Sigmaverse Characters
Category:Sigmaverse
Category:Sigmaverse Spartans
Category:Sigmaverse HCW
Category:Sigmaverse PW
Category:SPARTAN-IIIs
Category:Alpha Company