Andra-D054

Andra-D054, also known as Andra Kearsarge by personal preference, is a Delta Company sharpshooter known for her well-meaning but conflicted temperament, and a rapport with aliens and rebels. Born at the end and too late to participate, her growth did not come until the . She was the daughter of deceased Viktoria K. Bradford, adopted daughter of Callum-B042, protégé to fallen Joshua-G024, and partner of Merlin-D032. Originally assigned to Team Boson, she served as the unit's designated sharpshooter and bomb technician. Andra's team graduated from their Spartan training on Argus V and became stationed on with Internal Investigations Unit 419.
Following two desertions from Team Boson, Andra-D054 was reassigned to supporting assassination unit VIOLET-III during the Imperium of Clarity conflict and later Operation: RUNIT DOME. The power vacuum of the Created crisis drew a desperate Andra into Ryder Kedar's Task Force Phoenix, and the Covenant remnant Cleansing Blade coalition, against key proxy forces. Embedded with the Kru'desh Legion under their rogue Spartan-III commander, Simon-G294, she fought in Stray's War and at Bethsaida before returned to the UNSC, becoming part of Callum-B042's Fireteam Stallion. With the 2560s UNSC disorganized, Andra joined as a Pale Zone remote observer for ONI Bravo 2-7 and Blackjack Company to disrupt enemy upstarts and investigate frontier targets of interest.
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==Career Service Vitae==
{| class="unsccv" style="padding:0px; border-radius: 0 0.5em 0 0.5em;"		
;Andra-D054 
;Junior Lieutenant / SR 31
NAME: K. Bradford, Andra
SPARTAN #: D054
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UNIT: VIOLET-III - Team Boson
ROLE: Sharpshooter/Support
ENLISTMENT DATE: ██████████
LOCATION: ██████████
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GENDER: Female
BIRTHPLACE: Sigma Octanus IV
BIRTH DATE: 06 November ████
BLOOD TYPE: O NEG
HEIGHT: 188 cm, 6' 2" 
WEIGHT: 103 kg, 228 lb 
;ASSESSMENT:
From Sigma Octanus IV, Andra Kearsarge B. (Andra-D054) is a SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduate and sniper of defunct Ferret Team Boson. Andra suffered selective mutism in training, speaking only to a familial few and authority figures. Overcoming her setbacks, she became an outspoken, prideful young woman inspired by her late Army Ranger mother. Proficient with bombs, electronics, and social rapport for aliens and rebels, Andra is an erratic, but respected covert ops specialist employed by ONI Section Four as a remote observer on frontier worlds and for neutralizing dangerous Forerunner mysteries. Despite her longtime romance with Merlin-D032 and odd allies, commanders rely on her proven, unshaking loyalty in a time of disorder.
Further file addendum suspended due to CREATED activity.~
;SERVICE HISTORY:
*SPARTAN-III DELTA COMPAN: TEAM BOSON
**Marcus-D005 training accident
**VIOLET-III skills reevaluation
*INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT 419
**Arizona scorched hive operation
**New Phoenix outskirts evaluation
**Southern California refugee evaluation
**Alaska Jiralhanae pack activity
**Seattle military-industry Spartan cross-training
**Recovery of asset ALTER EGO, Greater Rio bomb concern
**PAX RIVER CADET ACADEMY psyop investigation
*IMPERIUM OF CLARITY conflict: VIOLET-III
**Battle of Montak
**Battle of Bineb II
**Soul Ascension boarding action
**Invasion of Iradu
*Operation: RUNIT DOME
**Test Station Tsiolkovsky raid
*CREATED conflict
**TASK FORCE PHOENIX assignment
**Asphodel Meadows raid
**KRU'DESH LEGION attaché mission: "Silent Garden Race"
***Gilgamesh Station incident
***Battle of Le Havre
***Battle of Archangel's Rest
**Bethsaida Conflict
*AVERY JOHNSON MILITARY ACADEMY/TEAM STALLION
**Iratus incident
**Pursuit of Ryder Kedar
**"Spartan prison" liberation operation
;COMMENTS:
*Born Andra Bradford, during the reintegration process she requested a change of surname to her mother's maiden name, 'Kearsarge'. Associated with unresolved childhood trauma, the request was granted.
*According to multiple ops handlers, Andra's relationship with MERLIN-D032 borders on workplace fraternization. No action has been taken on this front to avoid further complications with TEAM BOSON as a whole.
*During her duration with SPARTAN-III DELTA COMPANY, Andra failed HEADHUNTER screening due to poor psychological profile. Some complaints resolved following training with TEAM XIPHOS of GAMMA COMPANY; reconsideration for HEADHUNTERS is open. JOSHUA-G024 expressed particular high praise of Andra during the training period.
*Symptoms regarding 'selective mutism' appear relatively resolved by APRIL 2558. Continued exposure to civilians and areas of increased conversation appear to be helping. No signs of regression at this time.
*FRONTCOM expressed concern about her extended interactions with the Kru'desh Legion and Far Harvest, however, CALLUM-B042 claims her loyalties remain uncompromised. RADM Markko Kallas blocked further inquiries upon her transfer to BRAVO 2-7, and further questions on the death of CALLUM-B042.
===Earned Ranks and Certificates===
Insignia	Rank 	Date	Circumstance
 	Petty Officer Third Class (E-4)	2557	SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduation.
 	Ensign (O-1) 	2561	De facto field-commission validated without OCS process.
 	SR-31 Spartan (O-1) 	2562	Spartan Operations equivalent rank while at Avery Johnson Academy.
 	Lieutenant Junior Grade (O-2) 	2565	Promoted following acclamation period with ONI Bravo 2-7.
Insignia	School 	Period 	Recognition
 	University of Meridian (Transit Campus)	2565 - 2567	Bachelor of Art in Interstellar Colonial/Systems Literature
===Activity Log===
==Biography==
===Formative Years (2545-2552)===
Andra Bradford was born , to military parents Sergeant Viktoria K. Bradford and First Lieutenant Neville Bradford in the city of on the world of . Incapable of staying beyond the duration of her maternal leave, Andra's mother returned to her work as a combat medic, leaving the newborn in her husband's care. Employed by the Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) department as a communications analyst, Neville worked close to home allowing him to raise his daughter, only leaving her with a babysitter during his rare business trips.
Andra entered school early in as part of an accelerated education program, becoming a well-liked student with noted interests in mathematics and colonial history. Under her father's child-rearing, she developed an outgoing tomboyish personality with a competitive streak she applied to all activities, often leading to disciplinary issues over roughhousing classmates. Her father also broadened her horizons by introducing her to firearms, teaching her to swim, signing her on to preschool choir, and visiting some of Sigma Octanus IV's famous museums and amusement parks.
The happy memories of early childhood did not last for Andra as the Human-Covenant War finally hit home for her on December 11, 2550. Andra only met her mother during brief breaks from her extended deployments; their relationship was distant but caring so it came as a shock when two officers arrived on their doorstep, informing the Bradfords of Viktoria's death during the defense of . Neville refused to take Andra to the brief funeral service that followed and returned a day later, drunk and leaning the shoulder of , a family friend and coworker. After that day, Andra and her father rarely discussed her mother. Neville threw himself into his work to avoid the onset of grief and depression but was ultimately consumed by it. At school, Andra's classmates and teachers treated her with caution, wrongly assuming she was grieving when Andra was more upset she didn't feel enough; she chose to keep her classmates afar to not anger herself.
Neville's mental and emotional health continued to deteriorate as he developed a dependency on sleep medicine and psychoactive substances, reaching a point of throwing dishes at Andra while intoxicated. At work, his failing job performance led his superiors to suspend him from work. On the outs with his Air Force command, Neville sent Andra to school on before drinking alcohol in excess and turned his pistol on himself. Andra returned from school to find neighbors and emergency services surrounding her home as her father's corpse was removed. Picked up by Child Protection Services, Andra was transferred to the Jasmine Hope Youth Treatment Center in the colonial-capital city of with only a duffel bag and backpack of personal items as the rest was liquidated per wartime law.
As a favor to Andra's parents, Naiya Ray saw Andra off at the orphanage and promised to return, however, she never got the chance. With the war effort eating up resources and finances, the Jasmine Hope YTC suffered from an overflow in new orphans along with food shortages and cheap amenities. By the first month's end, Andra was just another face in a sea of parentless children, many of them offworlders with survival stories that only further isolated her when without similar trauma. Reverting to a defensive hostility, Andra pushed others away in favor of drawing pictures under a tree in the orphanage courtyard. The only time caretakers encouraged Andra to play with other children, she sent six boys to the nurse's office after they made her the main alien in "Kill the Split-Jaw." Over a year, Andra chased away five different foster parent prospects; her only acquaintance was a boy sleeping in the bunk bed above her, nicknamed "Legs" for kicking her head in the mornings.
A major change arrived on , when Dr. Reyna Zhou-Romero, an ONI civilian consultant, approached Andra with a proposition of joining the SPARTAN-III Program after finding the girl's medical records in a colonial database. Apprehensive and shy, Andra slowly responded to Romero after admitting she believed in Andra's strength, motivating the girl into action. Romero left the orphanage on a positive note, promising to return for Andra. On April 24, 2552, Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Korn arrived to retrieve Andra and deliver her to the UNSC Eternal Flame where she was kept in with other recruits while SPARTAN-III Gamma Company completed training. However, the in November 2552 almost sunk the program and Andra's future as a Spartan.
===Delta Company (2553-2557)===
Arriving over the ONI preserve world of Argus V on , Andra and another 150 recruits aboard the UNSC Eternal Flame were thawed from cryostasis. Due to her inexperience with the thawing process, she like many others puked and tried to hide from other children and attending medical personnel. Among the twenty children in her booth, Merlin-D032 and a few select others took note of her apparent shyness.
[...]
*Upon first arrival, Delta Company was delivered in batches (100 kids per)? Merlin and Andra were in the same cryo station leading to an awkward first introduction. Andra crawled into a corner due to her trauma of crowded people even as other trainees stared at her antics from getting out cryo. The trainees were briefly given a look at their new Argus V home from orbit via a observation deck demonstration. They were then delivered to the planet below via Heron drop craft? Much of the staff at Camp Ambrose was private military rather than ONI, the PMC(s) involved in Delta's training were Vanguard Corporation (CB is okay with retconning Vanguard or retooling them in some manner?) and Stone Eagle Services via ONI Section 0's leader, Admiral Bruening. Rear Admiral Utah's transfer to the UNSC Ordinance Commission helped fund Delta Company through shell companies, in particular the acquired Weaver Interstellar Interests, the company belonging to a young Zach-D111's deceased father.
*Daniele-D003 and Marcellus-D070 became particular good friends through Marcellus's slightly much younger brother and fellow Spartan, Marcus-D005 (Dani and Marcus shared a room in the pre-team formation days), and thought leaders among Delta Company (Marcellus is the oldest Delta on record?) in its early days as among the eldest recruits. They mostly became friends after helping to break up a playground fight a few weeks after the first batch of trainees arrived at Camp Ambrose without requiring trainers to get involved.
*Andra and Merlin got into their fight weeks into training when Merlin approached the lonely girl much as other children had but overstayed his welcome and set her off. They fought and Merlin won barely, the two were put through some light physical punishment by trainers and then sent to Dr. Romero's office where she served as their conditioning counselor for the rest of pre-training (education and physical conditioning) before Spartan training. Andra and Merlin became close friends through their sessions and relied on one another (leads to the fraternization in later years), because Romero was playing favorites seeing a daughter in Andra and guilt in not being able to save/help Merlin's mother and then making him a Spartan trainee. (Note: Let it be known that Merlin is company-infamous for being accident-prone.)
*Andra and Merlin briefly shared a common bully in the form of Hector-D105 (sand-hair kid with a selfish but idealistic streak, expected the best of himself and others, born leader but his narcissism held him back - it might have gotten him killed later on). Hector later shared a bunk room with the two, they made peace at some point in training but it was always a lingering compatibility issue.
*Tradition - Spartan-III Initiation Jump Night. Andra didn't want to jump and nearly stopped but Andra was pushed when the line didn't budge and they briefly held hands before falling into the open night. Merlin got some scraps from hitting trees and landed on his knees due to not paying attention to the parachute lesson before going up into the jump night, he had to briefly be rehabilitated before joining other Deltas in training.
*Jefferson Korn personally selected the makeup of Team Boson himself along with 2/3 other teams (Team Entropy? Team Anion?) that became his counseling responsibility at Camp Ambrose. Korn personally selected Daniele-D003 from their prior encounter in San Diego-Tijuana. He selected Roxanne-D107 due to seeing something familiar between the two of them. Andra-D054 and Merlin-D032 he originally tried to split up, but agreed to keep them together after counsel from Dr. Romero and Andra's early incompatibility with Team Anion (only friends with Merlin and Roxanne) while Shima-D011 could work with Team Boson but lacked synergy. Zachariah-D111 was a late arrival to Delta Company but as the youngest and a tough spirit, appeared likely to get along and grow quickly with a group like Team Boson who was a mostly laidback group before the tortures of Delta Company training began.
*Team Boson was paired with Team Entropy (Shizuko-D081's team) for bunking following the team assignments where it was 10 children to a room with hammocks. Team Entropy was made up of Hector-D105 (notable Delta Company bully), Elena-D101 (notable for being responsible for the "death" of actual mid-training washout Marcus-D005 - this would earn her a bad luck stigma, despite her friendly-turned-bitter personality), Mika-D036 (blunt girl, she and Merlin were friends from first arrival on Argus V, she didn't like Andra), Itaru-D051 (a trainee sniper like Andra, known as a "young Jun-A266-type", was as good as Andra as a sniper, maybe better - lacked Andra's versatility). Shizuko was the Team Entropy leader and got along well enough with Team Boson but was known for being matter-of-fact and "cool" in the same manner that Daniele was, she did often seem distracted though due to still trying to remain a big-sister figure for her little brother, fellow trainee Daiki-D217 who was known as one of the Delta Company tricksters.
*Andra spent a lot of time falling behind and being unmotivated unlike the rest of Team Boson and requiring her team to help bridge her personality shortcomings. Her lack of communication and performing the bare minimum got her the nickname "Rag/Doll" from the trainers. Andra eventually learned to bottle her emotions up in a way she could thrive in Delta Company as a late bloomer with assistance of therapy from Dr. Romero.
*Delta Company food was laced with controlled amounts of growth hormones to induce measured, early puberty and age growth in the Spartans since there were concerns that Delta Company would not receive enough training and growth time to prepare them for their creators' needs (the Utah-ONI coup attempt against the ONI Osman administration).
*Delta Company traditions were much like other Spartan traditions in that they embraced being wild children. One item of note was that Delta Company trainees were only allowed 2 minutes of hot water in a shower per day, but they could have as much cold water as they wanted. Unfortunately this included Camp Ambrose's temperate winters too. Daiki-D217 found a technical glitch in the water management system (a trick by the training AI Delphi/Oracle meant for Daiki to get him in trouble due to the trainers' awareness of his antics). Merlin used the trick to get Team Boson unlimited hot water eventually to the notice and frustration of other Delta teams who noticed lower quality warm showers. This eventually erupted into targeted prank wars against Boson by other teams, Merlin was beaten up in a shower room by Team Anion's Sergei-D167, breaking Merlin's arm (the fiasco earned Merlin the nickname "Showerhead"). During Merlin's absence, Team Boson was known for an extreme mean streak lead by Andra-D054 that coincided with her increased training participation and performance as she started picking more fights but also showing more prowess as a Spartan trainee.
*Andra's increased performance coincided with Team Boson becoming among the upper quarter percentile in performance among Delta Company teams. Andra as a sniper was often paired with Merlin due to the convenience of their high compatibility, however, Andra was also known to have a somewhat bitter rivalry with Shima-D011 as some of the best sharpshooters in Delta - but also because Merlin had a long-running crush/fancy for Shima (common language in Mandarin, Andra got jealous among other concerns). Andra turned out to be a better sniper due to her versatility for other physical activities thanks to her father's raising her an athlete. Shima and Andra rarely had anything good to say to one another but their rivalry was productive as they avoided trying to sabotage one another after the Sergei-Merlin "Showerhead" incident as it could breed more bad blood between Anion and Boson.
*Merlin's story about nearly drowning/not knowing how to swim occurred at some point between the first and second year of Delta Company training (2554/2555).
*Delta Company's training was led by Spartan trainers: Kyle-B115, Ren-172 (CB is considering retconning this - probably make him a washout from a S-III company or S-II Class II washout), and Harald-077. Kyle and Ren were acquired via Operation: INCOGNITO as a administrative excuse why those Spartans were unavailable for deployments. Harald-077 was assigned over from ONI Section 0. Kyle-B115 was already in Admiral Utah's employ and became the center of Delta's training regime (the only S-III trainer - he was the heart and soul of Delta Company). Harald-077 was more of a traditional trainer, taking after known training expectations of UNSC Marine Corps (I'll have to talk to Shivly about this more since he wants to apply more of his military experience in describing how Delta Company was trained compared to what is currently written down on the site.)
*(See the Delta Company notes for general condition and training notes I think, or look at Loic-D066, D042 did a much better job at a wholistic article about Delta Company training).
*One of the motivation factors employed in Delta Company's training was to use "rogue Spartans" as a training motivator. The trainers provided Delta Company with extensive target dossiers regarding such targets like Simon-G294 and Lancaster-205 among others to encourage a "us vs. them" unit cohesion among Delta Company against other Spartan units. This would explain Team Boson's single-minded and reckless pursuit of Simon during the events of Imperium of Clarity border conflict. 
*Some of Tide's narrative additions: Delta Company training eventually transitioned from stationary assignment at Camp Ambrose, to seasonal training FTXs for weeks and months on end in the Argus V wilderness (Delta Company's Camp Ambrose was established on a wilderness preserve world. It made for a good hideaway for training Delta, and unlike other Spartan programs trained on Onyx or Reach, had essentially an entire wilderness planet to themselves. The Spartans would train in the field across different terrain and combat scenarios in this manner as it was cheaper than always relying on the very small Camp Ambrose War Games simulation gym. Delta Company would be sent out to pursue retreating, larger PMC trainer forces similar to a "mobile" version of the Spartan-II program's Capture the Flag training events against Tango Company. This training method gave Delta Company early practical training experience in larger scale infantry operations or combined arms maneuvers if they got access to some armored vehicles or aircraft. This also gave Deltas a chance to receive in-field tutoring from ONI counselors who would deliver leadership instruction to Spartan team and squad leaders out of the back of an IFV/command tent sort of deal.
*Delta Company received a variety of training environments and scenarios. They received zero-G training at an abandoned orbital station near Argus V among other locales.
*Team Boson and Team Entropy were put on an two-week investigation freeze after a live fire training exercise. Elena-D101 accidentally managed to tip over a machine gun and gravely injure Marcus-D005. Marcus was transferred from Delta Company's ranks pre-augmentation, and sectioned off for private recovery and tutoring in a non-Spartan role. Delta Company was told Marcus died, resulting in a stigma towards Elena and spent much of the rest of Delta Company training as a pariah, led by the antagonism of Marcellus, Marcus's brother. (Note: This was by Shivly's request, not all the details are fresh in my mind of this event. One of the notable items I recall from this event was that prior to: Elena had a crush on Marcus making this incident slightly more tragic.)
*In one of the late winters of Delta Company's training, Rear Admiral Utah paid a direct visit to Delta Company to see how her investments had been paying off in training (Commander Colton Vieira? - CB's commanding officer character - was running Camp Ambrose as the facility commandant/training commander). Utah saw herself as a "more humane" Ackerson having worked under Ackerson and find his vision for Spartans: dispensable, large unit tactics, suicide/shock trooper roles as impractical and wanted to combine lessons learned from the Spartan-II and Spartan-III programs together. During her visit, she requested to visit with the best teams in Delta Company, having a personal dinner and private assessment tour of their training, and getting to know the best among the company. Team Boson was in attendance for this dinner and was one of three teams there that she personally considered acquiring as her personal guard as part of her coup plot against Osman. (Team Boson? Team Hadron? Team Anion?)
*Like Utah, other funding benefactors (shareholders if you want to call it that...) were also supposed to get first request on what Spartans they might want for their personal agendas. Treating Spartan teams as benefactor giveaways...? I forget who went to who. Team Emergence was meant to go with Admiral Bruening. There's a list somewhere somehow about this.
*One of Utah's major contributions to Delta Company came in the form of equipment and resources. To make sure that Delta Company was to be provided for, she syphoned off powered armor to Delta Company warehouse stockpiles through shell companies that were eventually transferred over to Argus V via the UNSC Eternal Flame, the former Phoenix-class assault ship that first brought Delta Company to Argus V. Jefferson Korn served as a go-between manager and captain of the Flame in this role and increasingly was away from Delta Company during the last year of Delta's training as he sought to collect all manner of training equipment and gear or otherwise intended for the coup plot, augmentation resources for the Spartans, and stockpiles of different SPI and MJOLNIR armor variants - referred to as "hand-me-downs" because it was mostly made up of armor acquired from Covenant War-era stockpiles. Many Deltas were able to trace former owner names in their armor (This is a collaboration opportunity by borrowing armor from canon characters or Fanon OC characters. I highly encourage reaching out to people for this.)
*The augmentations used by Delta Company is not currently set-in-stone. We've got the traditional Spartan-III augs from Project CHRYSANTHEMUM we've discussed as an easy option. The other option is to use Delta Company's modified, but slightly similar augmentation suite mentioned on the site page for it (the cocktails and modifications are sort of a hybrid between IIs and IIIs augs). Personally I want to just use regular Spartan-III augs for my Deltas. I'm willing to leave this up to personal preference.
*The Cybernetic Neural lace for Delta Company should come from Imbrium Machine Complex by my personal preference but I'm willing to negotiate this.
*Team Boson due to high scores were among a few that got first grab/trial at using Mjolnir armor. They got to use them a total of 2/3 times on Argus V as part of their final training phase. Team Boson used the armor in an "infiltration event" training wargame mentioned on the Delta Company page, someone got a snapshot of Team Boson waiting to begin the op (the photo where Andra and Merlin are sleeping upright back-to-back) - that training event was against either the PMC Opposing Force or against a Delta Company team in Mjolnir or in SPI. They did fight other teams on a few occasions in SPI, and possibly 1 or 2 instances in Mjolnir (they painted theirs black-and-green with blue visors). Their final graduation requirement was to defeat the augmented hunting wolf-dogs from Project ANUBIS, one of Utah's other supersoldier programs. I have not determined whether Team Boson fought and won against the augmented dogs in SPI or Mjolnir armor yet. The wolfdog packs should be still a challenge regardless, maybe they were also with a PMC Opposing Force team as well during that final exercise.
*Delta Company's final phase of training was frozen mid-process when the rest of ONI discovered the coup. Callum-B042 was tracking Jefferson Korn through the Inner Colonies as part of an internal affairs sting operation, Kyle-B115 supposedly (King/D042 hasn't told me whether this is still canon or not with Delta Company?) went to Callum to tell him to stop looking into Jefferson Korn. But unfortunately, Callum's closeness forced Admiral Bruening's hand and he gave up the entire coup as if it was his own discovery to prevent rousing of suspicions as being one of the silent benefactors behind Delta Company, and the chief inspector investigating the Delta Company conspiracy when ONI Section 0 didn't know what it was. Bruening took Callum off the case, arrested Utah for treason and blackmailed her through scrambling data records, he had one of his own AI kill Delphi while the AI was mid-network transit between Earth and Argus V. He forced Jefferson Korn to go into hiding on Earth in Rio de Janeiro. He then handed Delta Company over to Osman to take management of next steps. Breuning proceeded to quietly retired after the whole fiasco to really remove any suspicions, becoming a commandant of Falkirk's defense forces and eventually a local businessman/politician. He managed to acquire several Delta Company teams post-conspiracy that became useful to him during his rebellion against the Created Crisis on Falkirk.
*After training completion, Delta Company was shipped out to different assignments in late summer of 2557 (August/September), the last thing the company did together as a whole was the party atop the crashed UNSC frigate mentioned in the Argus V page, Merlin and Andra went swimming by themselves that night. Merlin got stung by a jellyfish and had to sleep off the incident.
*A few days after graduation, Team Boson was shipped out to the UNSC Infinity to begin Ferret training under VIOLET-III for what was intended to be a frontier-assignment against Brute factions under the command of UNSC Army (MP) Major Kyser Duceppe.
*At the same time, the larger company-wide unit mission: Operation DARK DESCENT (needs new name that doesn't sound so tacky - I was thinking DEAD DROP personally?) ended as a success but at great cost by Delta Company standards despite having a survival rate much higher than prior suicide operations by other Spartan-III companies. 10 Spartan deaths?
*Daiki is one survivor - goes rogue after being thought dead (survived briefly with 3 ODSTs but eventually alone and recovered by Far Harvest Legion/passerby freighter. Daiki's entire team died except the leader - Jardon-D156, Team Quasar. Team Entropy are all killed except Shizuko, another survivor + survivor's guilt, becomes a Headhunter. I forget who the other casualties are?) Death count is variable depending on discussions with D042 on what needs to be done about creating a better Delta Company-wide narrative. Team Accretion also lost 3 members, leaving Deryck-D096 and Riya-D396 as the only survivors among them.
*VIOLET-III was deployed to the DARK DESCENT incident site post-deployment with an ONI Recon/post-op assessment unit to inspect the performance of Delta Company and other factors; this visit gave Team Xiphos their impressions for how they would tutor Team Boson before going onto their Ferret deployment (they would be sent to Earth instead because Joshua-G024 is a yandere softie of some magnitude, he shattered Merlin's right arm and ribs in a training accident requiring the team to stay in human space - for Andra's protection and his own selfishness).
*One of Tide's thoughts was that ONI didn't know what to do with Delta Company once they discovered them. One suggestion Tide has was a large number of them were sent to Trevelyan and Paxpolis to learn under Lucy-B091 and Tom-B292 where there's not much action, they can't do much damage, and they're under considerable monitoring by ONI, and they're still useful...)
*In the meantime, the relevant Delta Company participants beside Admiral Bruening who escaped without too much suspicion... Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Korn went into hiding in Rio's alien refugee zone, facilitating part of the alien nuclear threat in early 2558. His criminally-created Smart AI, Kathy, hacked into and stole the contents of the training AI, Delphi's leftover memories from an ONI database, using it to provide Korn with Delta Company's hidden resource caches that would later help fund his Far Harvest Legion. Rear Admiral Jazmine Utah was sent to Midnight Facility by Osman. Utah spent a few years in Midnight Facility until a possible Created prison break on the facility - it was King's idea, I'm still shaky on the details at this point. Captain Colton Vieira disappeared into the Argus V woods, its unknown what happened but he's presumed dead. He may have commit suicide, per CB. There's a few ideas I have for him - he was eaten by his ANUBIS wolfdogs that are not an invasive wild species on Argus V, which Jefferson Korn and Daniele-D003 later discover upon visiting the world as part of the Far Harvest Legion. Another is that Johnson survived, and is discovered by Korn and Daniele-D003 surviving by controlling the wolfdogs and wherever that narrative plot thread might lead. If he died, Johnson's neural lace being pulled from a dog's gut/bones would be the tell tale sign.
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*Augmentations:
**8942-LQ99: A carbide ceramic ossification catalyst to make skeletons virtually unbreakable.
**88005-MX77: A fibroid muscular protein complex that boosted muscle density and strength.
**88947-OP24: A retina-inversion stabilizer drug. It boosted color and night vision capabilities.
**87556-UD61: Improved colloidal neural disunification solution, which in turn decreases reaction time.
*Cybernetics:
**Spartan neural lace: Post-Covenant War model from Imbrium Machine Complex, comparable to initial procurements for S-III Gamma Company and the Spartan-IVs.
===Reintegration (2557)===
Team Boson awoke from cryosleep aboard the UNSC Infinity in early November 15, 2557, with Spartan-IV commander Sarah Palmer and an Army liaison officer with Naval Intelligence, Major Kyser Duceppe, in attendance. Informed they were separated from company-wide operations like Operation: DARK DESCENT (or DEADDROP, considered a major casualty event for post-war Spartans w/ 10+ Delta Company casualties), Team Boson was to fulfill a previous mission billet outlined by stripped Rear Admiral Utah as a infiltration-and-security unit responsible for VIPs (in particular of Utah herself, along with another separated Team Hadron). Within the new integration format, Team Boson was to receive three-to-five weeks of initial assessment and reintegration training from Naval Intelligence minders, Spartan-IV veterans, and Headhunters from Gamma Company as primary tutors: VIOLET-III/Team Xiphos' Joshua-G024 and Amy-G094.
As part of integration, Team Boson were given limited security clearance to learn about their pasts under supervision of ONI psychiatrists, and limited emancipation - including backpay in monetary credit and personal monthly stipends per allowances made by late-Vice Admiral Parangosky before her retirement in regard to Spartans. Training with Xiphos was wholistic, reinforcing existing skillsets and shoring up increasingly apparent shortcomings compared to other S-III companies following Onyx's destruction and training outlined by the few Spartans available to Utah's operation and the private military companies her collaborators relied on. Training included folding Boson's members into WarGames matches in Infinity's combat simulator, theory and tactical simulations with Spartan tablet games, and odd training scenarios. Such scenarios included crawling through the Infinity sewer system, undercover exercises hiding from the Headhunters among Infinity's permanent crew population, and sprints from ship front-to-back. Team Boson's quarters were in the back of the UNSC Infinity in proximity to the Forerunner Slipspace engine possibly exposing the Spartans early to Silent Garden exposure though this was not identified until much later.
Early in training, ONI considered Team Boson to be split up into a Headhunter (Andra and Daniele) and limited-size Ferret teams (Merlin, Roxanne, and Zach), but psychological issues among the team limited those plans. Boson was eventually noted as a large Ferret team supporting ONI Section Four's Xenotech Exploitation and Section Three Delta-6 Division (Army Rangers) operations. Josh-G024 took a particular interest and care in the growth of Andra-D054 and argued against deploying Boson to the colonial frontier against ongoing anti-Brute operations. By compare, Amy did not show such favoritism but noted healthy impressions of her Spartan students. While Major Duceppe supported Josh's views and was set to become the Ferret team handler, lacked sway with ONI Section Three to override the planned deployment at the end of the year.
Joshua took drastic measures, noting Andra's emotional entanglement with Merlin as a weak point, and severely wounded him during a training "accident" that radically changed Section Three plans for the unit. Due to a severe Mjolnir-augmented kick shattering Merlin's loaned SPI armor, Team Boson's deputy was put out of service commission for several months missing the deployment window - suffering from injuries including extreme microfractures along his right arm, a dislocated arm socket, and three broken ribs including severe organ damage. Merlin's injuries were severe enough that Merlin would have to undergo intensive surgery with cloned organs including bone, and remedial augmentation therapy to return to military service. The time estimate extended to a little more than three months.
With Merlin out of commission, the entirety of Team Boson was removed from quarters aboard the Infinity and transitioned to Earth service at the recommendation of Major Duceppe and Joshua-G024 under the revised command of the URNA Army reservist and anti-alien operations unit, the "Exterminators/Coyotes." The URNA unit lost its Spartan-IV fireteam in 2554 (consequence of Bombing of Philadelphia) and was unable to requisition a replacement unit from Spartan Operations branch due to most Spartan units on frontline service, rather than internal security duties to the extent that the Exterminators were relying on Seattle-based private security augmented forces (corporate Spartans) to fill the mission capability gap.
Duceppe brought Team Boson, now "Ferret Team 26," down to Earth and based them in New Phoenix following the Didact attack in July 2557 where the Exterminators were also based. Team Boson landed in Caracas via space elevator and Condor-flight into New Phoenix where Boson's first assignment was support of Hellbringer units eliminating "badland/glassland squatters," Covenant remnants made up of mostly Yanme'e and Lekegolo specimens stranded on Earth and not in Covenant remnant detention centers like Rio de Janeiro. As part of this assignment, Team Boson was broken up into individual pursuits and rotations across North America to fulfill mission openings and continue Ferret training.
In December, Team Boson participated in alien removal/relocation operations in the central-Southwest/Midwest of North America (Great Basin region) along with surveillance training/missions of low-contact local communities, mostly people who refused to leave Earth during the Covenant's planetary invasion in 2552 and hardy offworld colonists who moved out of megacities to avoid overcrowding but with little representation or socioeconomic options as "disenfranchised" people. The survey missions were also of note as many stranded people attempted to enter the New Phoenix Exclusion Zone before the UNSC Army was ready to end quarantine of the megacity. During their stay, Team Boson continued mock simulation training within New Phoenix, witnessed the presence of Silent Garden essences left by composed civilians, participated in a Christmas celebration, dealt with a local terror cell's nuclear weapon convoy hijack (?), and encountered a civilian Mammoth homestead.
Around New Years', Merlin's initial recovery completed but led to a tragic encounter with locals where he shot a toddler due to an overpenetration incident with his firearm. He sought out emotional counseling with Joshua-G024 despite their mutual animosity. Zach was shipped out to Baltimore to investigate hacking and potential subterfuge activities by colonial UNSC personnel who became teachers at Pax River Cadet Academy. Merlin and Andra were given priority for long range patrol/winterization training with Army Rangers through the North American Rocky Mountains (Alaska, Washington, British Columbia, the Dakotas). Daniele and Roxanne were shipped to California and Washington for undercover population and complex technology skills training including learning about offworld colonist culture and training with UNSC Air Force reservists and PMC Spartans.
January 6/7th, 2558, the bombing of DCS Rio Station including the deaths of four ONI civilian employees, more than a few security officers, and the severe wounding of Bless-G189, a solo Gamma Company DCS operative. Due to the apparent presence of offworld subversive forces integrated with surveyed alien residents (Covenant Asylum Zone/Low Benefaction) - Team Boson, minus Zach, was shipped out to Rio to investigate along with the Exterminators to bolster the depleted DCS presence.
===Earth Tour (2557-2558)===
*New Phoenix, Arizona, North America
**New Phoenix Outskirts (Tucson, Flagstaff, and Phoenix)
**MARSH FLASH Badlands (Arizona Backroads)
**"Somewhere near Old Route 66"
*San Diego-Tijuana, Greater California, North America
**Coronado Refugee Popup District (Prefab Township)
*Greater Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
**Low Benefaction (Rio Alien Refugee Zone)
**Atlántida (Pontoon City)
*Seattle, Washington, North America
**"Somewhere near Kirkland"
**"Small Town Rockies" (Mountain Town - Bigfoot Incident)
*Anchorage, Alaska, North America
**"Merlin's Heritage"
*Cleveland, Ohio, North America
**Old Cleveland?
*Boston, Massachusetts, North America
**117 Institute
*St. Mary's County, Maryland, North America
**Patuxent River Academy of Military Science
*Mombasa, Kenya, East Africa
**Dar-es Salaam Outskirts
**New Mombasa/Mombasa Island/Annex
**Voi Excession (Ark Portal)
DT Team Boson Mk5.png
===Imperial War (2558)===
Beginning with the Montak Incident, the arrival of naval forces belonging to the Imperium of Clarity in the UEG-occupied star system and a formal declaration of war by their head of state, Imperial Admiral Toru 'Makhan, the UNSC found itself locked in battle with the post-Covenant polity by mid-August 2558. Team Boson, now only formed by Andra and Merlin, was assigned to the fight upon finishing their probation, arriving at the staging point on New Syracuse in the care of Lieutenant Commander Frendsen as a part of VIOLET-III. With Major Duceppe's departure, Team Boson was reassigned from Ferret deployments to Headhunter support operations with VIOLET-III, particularly for Team Boson's old mentors: Amy-G094 and Joshua-G024. The reunion was short-lived as Team Boson was assigned their old friend and Headhunter-in-training, Shizuko-D081, as its new temporary leader to replace the rogue Daniele-D003 and insuring they wouldn't turn rogue as well.
Due to Shizuko's trauma from losing her prior Spartan team in Operation: DARK DESCENT, her compatibility proved an underlying issue for Team Boson, characterized by Andra's confrontations and Shizuko's scarceness. Upon meeting the Imperium in battle on Montak, Team Boson's mission to protect UNSC Army landing sites went sideways as Imperium anti-aircraft emplacements brought down their troop carrier, knocking Andra unconscious. Team Boson regrouped at the crash site, holding their position against Imperium scouting elements until a UNSC Army armor unit arrived to assist, including a Mammoth siege vehicle. Andra lost her helmet and received a concussion from the crash-landing leading Merlin to acquire her another from recovered UNSC casualties. It was also found that Imperium ground forces deployed an extensive shielding dome, trapping coalition ground forces within the Imperium fortifications while the opposing fleets duked it out in orbit. The Army armor unit, battered by their landing, decided to regroup with remnants of the 101st Shock Troops Battalion, an ODST unit that included the embedded Team Xiphos. The 101st was already engaged with a downed element from the 'Mdama Covenant remnant's Kru'desh Legion, sent to support the Imperium of Clarity's incursion into human territory while serving as an emissary in their mission to find allies in their own campaign against the UNSC.
Team Boson, alongside Army Rangers and Cyclops-mechanized walkers, almost overran the Kru'desh crash site when part of the shield dome came down thanks to the timely work by other UNSC elements, led by Cain-131 and Aleksandra Zaytseva. However, the loss of the overhead obstacle also allowed Kru'desh aerial reinforcements led by Simon-G294 to reinforce and route the UNSC charge. Merlin attempted to kill one Kru'desh squad leader, the young Tuka 'Refum, but retreated upon realizing his team was in danger. Andra caught up to Simon at the Mammoth and attempted to kill him, however, Simon claimed the upper hand due to his close-in superiority and greater experience in fighting Spartans. Because Andra was so focused on Simon, she failed to account for his Sangheili personal guard who captured her, waiting for Simon's kill order. He never got the chance however as coordination between Amy and Shizuko managed to pull Andra to safety. Forced to retreat and abandon the Mammoth siege vehicle, the combined Army-Marine force moved closer to the edge of the shielding dome and away from the alien defensive emplacements. Upon realizing that it was Simon-G294 who tried killing Andra, the conditioned hatred for Simon caught the entire Spartan-Delta team in a frenzy. They abandoned their defensive position and commandeered a Mastodon to chase after the Kru'desh Legion, last seen heading towards the inland refineries.
By daylight, Team Boson crossed into the refinery valley only to witness Swords of Sanghelios forces battering against the Imperium command element on a desert flat. Merlin designated his team's stealth satellite to fall on Simon's stolen Mammoth in hopes of killing him with a kinetic strike, however, the assassination attempt failed to kill Simon and his command element including Shinsu 'Refum, Simon's direct superior in the Covenant Remnant. The attack did damage the Mammoth's controls, forcing Simon's forces to guide the Mammoth into the refinery's safety, clear of further attacks due to the presence of civilians. Slipping between the shifting battle tides, the UNSC frigate Grand National flew in to give the Sangheili forces some air support, bringing along another combined-generation Spartan support unit, Team Harrier, of which included two more graduates of Delta Company, Sven-D340, and Oliver-D030. Relieved of their cliff overlook by Team Harrier, Team Boson took heavy weapons and descended towards the refineries with the intent of killing Simon for themselves. After fighting their way through the refinery, between civilians and aliens, the team came just short of Simon's escape via an Imperium teleporter, unknowingly with the satellite module in hand. Reassigning themselves to civilian evacuations, Team Boson witnessed the arrival of Simon's CCS battlecruiser Soul Ascension as it glassed the plains of Montak, incinerating both Sword and Imperium forces. Team Boson negotiated with a freelance freighter pilot, Elena Zaytseva, to take civilians and the Spartans into orbit, free from the Covenant Remnant's onslaught.
Once reunited with UNSC forces and the Battle of Montak won, the UNSC pushed the offensive into Imperium territory, targeting the Unggoy colony of Bineb II. Regrouping with the UNSC Maya and Lieutenant Commander Frendsen, Team Boson was subjected to a verbal rant regarding how poor the unit behaved and undermining their marginal successes during the Battle of Montak. Frustrated but patient, Frendsen informed the team that they were being temporarily transferred out of VIOLET-III command into the services of Fireteam Stallion, led by Callum-B042, as Joshua-G024 informed Frendsen his team could not be responsible for Boson during Team Xiphos's deep-strike deployments. With Stallion, Team Boson assisted Callum's unit in defending hallways and hangars aboard the UNSC Maya when Imperium boarding parties attacked the ship. Catching the attention of Rear Admiral Hawkins, the senior naval officer requested a conference with the young Delta Company unit and ordered them on a risky operation. Their orders were to detonate a HAVOK tactical nuke inside the Unggoy civilian settlement on Bineb II in an attempt to force the local government to surrender and weaken the resolve of the Imperium military forces. Team Boson deployed to the planet's surface by way of stealthy Owl gunship and proceeded to fight their way in and out of the Unggoy city, pursued by heavy Unggoy resistance. Unable to escape the city in a timely manner, the Spartans went ahead and detonated the weapon while they were still within the kill zone. They were thrown about by hurricane-level winds but survived the detonation mostly unharmed, eventually regrouping with their ride outside city limits.
The Unggoy civilian government subsequently surrendered, leaving Imperium forces to retreat from the now-lost colony. However, Team Boson's Smart AI, Althea, was unknowing aboard the Soul Ascension as part of the ONI satellite module. After managing to gain temporary cyberwarfare dominance over the Soul Ascension, she disabled the alien warship and sent out a rescue request to the UNSC logistical convoy that Simon-G294 preyed upon. Receiving the distress signal, Merlin negotiated with Rear Admiral Hawkins for permission to go after the Smart AI in an attempt to right a mistake he made days before. With Hawkin's hesitant support, Team Boson boarded the disabled Soul Ascension. Fighting deck to deck, they tracked their AI's distress signal only to get caught in a trap laid by Simon-G294. While Amber-G330, a fellow rogue SPARTAN-III under Simon's command, attempted to capture the invasive Smart AI, Simon went to confront the invading Spartan team only for everyone to converge at the Smart AI's prison. In a standoff, the assistance of UNSC warships outside firing into the disabled Soul Ascension allowed Team Boson to gain the upper hand in the battle frenzy.
Andra and Shizuko fought against Amber, Tuka, and their warship defenders while Merlin gave chase after Simon into the depths of the Soul Ascension. In a protracted one-on-one fight, Simon managed to get the upper hand by throwing the AI module at Merlin. Merlin caught the container but was forced to surrender when Simon held a gun to his head. However, anger blinded Simon as he offered Merlin a rare rant of how Spartans continued to hunt him only for Andra to catch up and use the vulnerable exchange to ambush the rogue. She dislodged Simon's prosthetic arm and freed Merlin forcing Simon to retreat, venting the Spartan pair and their AI from the Soul Ascension's hangar bay. Shizuko escaped on her own and rescued her team in a commandeered Kru'desh space Banshee. Relieved of their digital saboteur, Simon's forces were able to regain control of their ship despite suffering heavy damages from the UNSC convoy and barely escaped the battlespace.
Upon regrouping with the UNSC Maya, Team Boson and the rest of the battlegroup received no opportunity for rest and relaxation. Instead, a surprise arrival of a forty-strong Imperium naval battlegroup appeared in the Bineb system and the Maya-led force could do little more than retreat into Slipspace. Instead of running back to human space, they pressed inward towards the Imperium's capital world, Iradu. Based on risky capability assessments from Admiral Lin Zhi on the chances for victory or defeat, the remnants of the UNSC Sixth Fleet sought to gamble their continued survival on an all-out naval assault in hopes it would force Toru 'Makhan to sue for peace.
With Shizuko and Merlin shook by their near-pass with Simon-G294 and his lot, Team Boson agreed to go under stasis while Andra was attended to in the medical ward after extent complications brought on by an untreated concussion mixed with battlefield fatigue. Althea, the recovered Smart AI, was handed off to Commander Frendsen. At the turn of August into September 2558, the UNSC Sixth Fleet and their Swords of Sanghelios allies converged on the final target. Iradu would fall, or they would all die trying to make sure the Imperium would not see another tomorrow. Sixth Fleet Spartan forces deployed f aboard Pelican gunships with Broadsword escort into the capital city to secure a perimeter around Toru 'Mahkan's palace. Meanwhile, a secretive ONI Security-ODST task unit led by Prowlers Corps commander Rear Admiral Ryan Samson discretely entered the palace using a captured orbital translocation station. With gunfire support from the UNSC Grand National and the Broadsword attack runs, defensive guns were destroyed as the Spartan forces including Team Stallion, Harrier, and Boson landed on the palace's western approach. An all-out assault, but a clean fight all the same. It was only upon securing the outer perimeter that they began to run into complications. First the Samson contingent fell out of contact as they passed into the deepest chambers of the palace proper.
Alien reinforcements continued to buffet the Spartan forces from beyond the palace gates and preventing the group from penetrating deeper into the government building. Forced to adapt, Callum-B042 directed Harrier to reinforce the palace's east side alongside Marines, Boson was to continuing holding the western approach. However, an unexpected request from Admiral Zhi shifting the ground game once more, pulling Team Stallion from the palace for a securement operation on the teleporter station once used by Samson's unit. Without their most formidable Spartan team, the security perimeter would be even harder hold. Andra, Merlin, and Shizuko thought it would be difficult but manageable; that is, until a familiar shadow, the Soul Ascension descended from the embattled sky above. Callum called for the younger Spartans to do their best as his team left for their transport back into orbit; for the Deltas however, it sounded like another impossible request ahead of them.
[...]
===Created Interruption (2558-2559)===
[...]
[...]
===Joining Chancer V (2559)===
Despite their best efforts to assassinate the Syndicate leadership aboard the fortress-station Asphodel Meadows, the raid was a complete failure with the deaths of the UNSC special assault team. Andra was captured as the only survivor by they Syndicate's enforcers David Kahn and Tatiana Onegin. Tatiana offered Andra a chance to join the Created but she refused even under threat of a Syndicate re-education facility. However, Kahn chose to turn rogue and freed Andra with assistance from the embedded ONI spy Argo 'Varvin.
Andra begrudgingly joined her fellow escapees aboard Kahn's private shuttle Eagle's Claw as Kahn enlisted their assistance to reunite with his Spartan-III daughter Cassandra-G006. Contacting Cassandra, their parties traveled to the frontier colony Fell Justice and convened at a nightclub where Andra met the former mercenary William Hargrove and Zoey Hunsinger, acting captain of the blockade runner Chancer V. However, Syndicate forces ambushed the reunion and in the ensuing gunfight separated Kahn from the larger group eventually overwhelming him with Tatiana personally finishing him off. Andra and Argo joined Cassandra's group and escaped the colony aboard the Chancer V, but Andra found difficulty cooperating with her new allies as she wanted to return to the UNSC. She was overruled by the group to seek out the rebel commander Redmond Venter in hopes of finding the Chancer V's missing original captain, Gavin Dunn.
Venter's last known whereabouts was on Talitsa; the colony recently became a Created stronghold after the short-lived UNSC occupation and Venter's doomed rebellion. Cassandra later confronted Andra during their Slipspace transit concerning Cassandra's desertion and Andra's loyalty to the UNSC. While their worldviews differed, they agreed to work together temporarily in fighting the Created. Upon arriving over Talitsa, the Chancer V was intercepted by a Created Guardian Custode operated by the former CMA medical logistics Smart AI, Malekh. Unlike other Created and Syndicate forces, Malekh sought to reconcile her enemies and offered the crew a tour of Talitsa led by Cassandra's old friend and local journalist Karina Larina. Andra joined Argo and Cassandra on the tour while Hargrove guarded the impounded starship and a ticked-off Zoey sought out another Spartan-III deserter, Simon-G294, in secret.
Cassandra's group completed their tour only to learn of Zoey's run-in with Venter's surviving rebels and the UNSC Sixteenth Fleet planned an attack on Talitsa but were heading into a trap to Andra's horror. Andra wanted to warn the fleet but was overruled by Cassandra who saw the futility in warning them instead choosing to go after Zoey. Andra disagreed and ran off into the alleyways forcing Cassandra's group to give chase. When the Sixteenth Fleet did arrive, Andra and the group watched together in terror as a combined Created-Covenant-UNSC coalition fleet ambushed and decimated them. The military still landed ground forces despite the losing battle, catching the Chancer V crew including Karina amid a battle between Created and UNSC forces. Their escape turned complicated upon encountering Venter's Second Vanguard survivors led by the so-called "Simon Venter" after the elder rebel commander adopted the rogue Spartan as his next of kin.
Andra tried to kill the rogue Spartan on instinct but Cassandra stopped her choosing to talk as both groups wished to escape Talitsa alive. Karina was also reunited with her boyfriend Thomas Koepke who was with Simon's group. However, the reunion was cut short as retreating Orbital Drop Shock Troopers led by Lieutenant Justin Davis entered the alleyway pursued by Created automatons. While suspicious of each other, the two Spartan deserters and ODST officer were able to unify their survivors in trying to escape the embattled colony. Venter and his longtime host, Judith Ives, let Zoey escape on her own as the former two were caught on the way to the Chancer V by Tatiana and the Smart AI Avalokiteśvara in the body of a Promethean Knight. Executed by Tatiana, the Created announced Venter's death alongside their victory over the UNSC invasion while Judith was relegated to a Created re-education camp.
UNSC ground forces across Talitsa chose to surrender in the face of unsustainable losses while the UNSC Sixteenth Fleet was losing in orbit when a Cleansing Blade fleet led by the Sangheili warlord Shinsu 'Refum came to their aide, overwhelming the Created coalition fleet. Using the distraction, Zoey was the first to make it back to the Chancer V and with Hargrove's assistance flew the freighter to Cassandra's embattled position. Syndicate enforcers and Created automatons pressed in on Cassandra's group as their haphazard teamwork began to slip. In response to the clearly stacked odds against them, Shinsu ordered a plasma torpedo bombardment of Talitsa population centers to distract the Guardians and create an escape window. Simon grabbed Andra as a destroyed building fell on them from a torpedo strike, in the chaos Andra tried again to kill Simon but his rebels and alien reinforcements led by Tuka 'Refum from his Kru'desh Legion stopped and subdued her. Pulled from the rubble, Andra returned to Cassandra's care and joined their group and Davis's ODSTs aboard the Chancer V while Simon and his rebels escaped aboard his groundside battlecruiser Soul Ascension. Together, the Cleansing Blade and UNSC Sixteenth Fleet survivors regrouped under Shinsu 'Refum's leadership away from Talitsa.
===Kru'desh Legion (2559)===
Briefly reunited with the Chancer V crew, Andra felt conflicted between her improving opinions of them and the conflicting, familiar presence of UNSC troopers. Andra found her brief time with Cassandra eye-opening but upon being recognized by Lieutenant Davis, Andra parted ways and returned to the UNSC as the Chancer V and other escaped starships concentrated around Shinsu's assault carrier, the Redemption of Sanghelios. Reunited with newly-promoted Commander Ryder Kedar, he received and debriefed Andra aboard his prowler Absalom on developments since her disappearance from the Asphodel Meadows raid.
Ryder reassigned Andra to his Task Force Phoenix where she spent many days reintegrating into the UNSC remnant community parked in the carrier hangar bay. Andra also spoke to Ryder on Cassandra's behalf, hoping her good word could get the Spartan deserter reinstated but Cassandra turned down Ryder's subsequent offer of recommission instead for a advisory role to the UNSC and Shinsu's coalition. Unfortunately, Andra's encounter with her other Gamma Company acquaintance, Amy-G094, went even worse as the older girl had few good words for her former pupil and deceased partner's legacy. Hera instead suggested to Ryder he send Andra on a new unwanted assignment: Task Force Phoenix liaison and spy inside Simon-G294's Kru'desh Legion. Andra strongly argued against the orders due to her complicated history with Simon but accepted her role in disgust while keeping in mind the contingency that if Simon became a threat to Ryder's agenda she was to assassinate the rogue Spartan.
Simon was not excited about Andra's assignment when Ryder proposed it to him, easily spotting the spy ploy but accepted the miserable girl upon Ryder's insistence of her usefulness and reasoning that the UNSC wanted to be in Shinsu's good graces and saw Simon as a potential mediator. Motivated by a complicated sense of guilt towards Andra and his role in her previous failed raid, Argo also parted ways with the Chancer V crew to join the Kru'desh Legion by picking a fight with a Cleansing Blade Sangheili officer and got himself conscripted into Simon's penal force. Andra became a Kru'desh Storm warrior upon her induction while Simon promoted Argo over her as a Kru'desh Major based on prior knowledge of Argo's frontier mercenary past and assigning him as Andra's chaperone to keep her safe and compliant. Simon then assigned Andra to the reconstituted Vanguard Squad of Insurrectionist survivors. Vanguard Squad proceeded to ambush Andra with assistance from Simon and Argo, branding her with their Insurrectionist tattoos on the neck and arm as preparation for a Insurrectionist summit at Gilgamesh Station.
Simon employed his adopted namesake and the good word of a pirate lord Commodore Jerrold Campbell to get his legion a seat in deciding future Insurrectionist efforts towards the Created. Hoping to rally their factions to Shinsu 'Refum's war banner, Simon centered his negotiations around the fallen Second Vanguard and targeting peace factions and Created proxy forces also in attendance. While the rebels politicked, Andra joined Vanguard Squad as Simon's escorts aboard Gilgamesh Station only to run into her old friends from Delta Company's Team Gravity. Convinced by the Created's promise of a better galaxy, Loic-D066 and his team discovered Andra among Simon's entourage and tried to convince her to join them as well. However, from Andra's prior encounters with the Created and the seeming death of Merlin-D032, she rebuffed her former friends as Argo spied on their conversation.
After surviving an assassination attempt against him, Simon learned of Team Gravity's presence and enlisted Andra for an assassination mission against the United Rebel Front general Angel Nnamani. Andra refused requiring the pair to settle their differences of perception with a short fist fight. Andra proceeded with the spacewalk assassination inside Nnamani's station apartment but Team Gravity apprehended her before she could escape causing a fallout in the URF's leadership between Simon and the Created-aligned General Hayden Kaleyi as they accused one another of the assassination plot. Simon confirmed he brought Andra along to the rebel summit due to his obligations to Shinsu 'Refum and Ryder Kedar but outed Team Gravity's presence on the station at Kaleyi's invitation. At an impasse, Commodore Campbell suggested Andra's public execution by Simon as a resolution to the spy games. Pacified by neural collar, Andra was brought before Simon and a bloodthirsty audience hoping to see her death. However, the continued public bickering between Simon and General Kaleyi revealed the latter's allegiance to the Created and his rejection of Insurrectionist values that the crowd turned on their former general.
As Gilgamesh Station descended into coup and civil war, Andra was freed and Simon ordered her to finish off Kaleyi but was only able to witness his demise as Captain Mohsin Shah executed him instead. While not privy to all the plot details beforehand, Andra helped directly cement Simon's takeover of the URF much to her own frustration. Angered over being duped again, Andra confronted Simon at gunpoint after the Gilgamesh Station incident in his quarters only to arrive under-equipped against Simon and his Kru'desh security detail. Rather than punish Andra for insubordination, he agreed to treat Andra with more dignity and promoted her to "First Lieutenant Andra Kearsarge" as Simon prepared his new hybrid military force to invade the human research colony of Le Havre.
Le Havre was a barren world once secured by the UNSC Navy, but after the Created takeover the ONI research expedition accepted fealty to the Created and continued their research under their guidance and protected by a Promethean automaton force. Simon chose the world for attack after his Smart AI companion Juno "heard" possible rumors that Forerunner secrets related to a Silent Garden node could save him from his mysterious wasting illness. Shinsu 'Refum's main fleet similarly began their own assault of the Free Domain stronghold on Franconia where another Silent Garden node was identified by Grono 'Yendam's faction with assistance from a Forerunner ancilla 589 Curious Puzzle who similarly despised the Created's new rule.
Andra joined Vanguard Squad on Le Havre's surface in a week-long Kru'desh mechanized siege against the Created robots but met tough resistance especially from the nearly-impenetrable Forerunner arcology resting above the Silent Garden node Simon wished to capture. Stuck in the muddy trenches, Vanguard Squad took a non-fatal casualty, Ramirez, and was ordered along with other Kru'desh troops to retreat for a orbital bombardment by the Soul Ascension. Using its energy projector, the CCS battlecruiser blasted the arcology with concentrated fire for five minutes before the rest of the legion continued their assault but already things were beginning to wrap up per the experience intuition of the squad's senior Sergeant Job Okafo. Returning to camp, Andra spotted Simon's gunship return from his failed assault on the new breach formed in the arcology. Despite protests from Argo and Juno, Andra pursued Simon to their groundside command center, furious that he left her in the field. Andra instead found Simon grilling his relieved Sangheili field commander, Major Ier 'Barun, for holding back their mechanized forces to deal with the dwindling Promethean automatons leaving Simon and their air forces without ground support and causing the failed charge. Simon promoted Captain Shah to lead the next charge despite the rebel officer's lack of command experience and requested a diversionary display of ordinance from Campbell's warships as the Soul Ascension lacked enough power to product another beam attack.
Andra found herself perplexed by Simon's contradictory appearances as a experienced battle commander and a half-dead drifter. Despite her baiting presence, Simon did not turn Andra away as he continued his plans, turning the dilemma into a brutal lesson about military strategy and allowing Andra a front seat while Vanguard Squad joined other Kru'desh forces back in the field. Simon contacted the Colonel Elena Ritter of the former UNSC Marines acting as the local security, threatening over an open channel that if she didn't surrender the arcology he would allow his legion to pillage the inner-town without remorse. Andra considered whether to murder Simon then for his declaration but realized it was futile, his death would cause the Kru'desh to attack. Many of Simon's adjuncts were disturbed by the declaration including Andra but few voiced objections especially as a former Captain Archibald Turner of the declared their surrender and the death of Colonel Ritter. Accepting the surrender, Simon had Ier receive the defenders' weapons as he called off their attack. Despite the difficult fighting conditions, The Kru'desh Legion only lost sixty-four soldiers seizing Le Havre.
Andra joined Simon, Juno, Tuka, and Mohsin in the Forerunner crypt beneath the Le Havre arcology but upon entering the main chamber Juno revealed the extent of the Silent Garden as quantum data repository linked to the greater Forerunner . Activating the facility overwhelmed the party in a holographic light display, overwhelming them as their minds were exposed to sensory input directly linking to the Cleansing Flame-Free Domain battle on Franconia. Andra, like her compatriots, were separated by hardlight fog and shown manifested physical apparitions. Simon was shown a vision by the Forerunner, Wanderer, of his so-called destiny to capture the Covenant colony of Archangel's Rest and cure his fatal disease. Andra witnessed many of the actions by Task Force Phoenix but was drawn to a kneeling Merlin-D032 who, despite reunited across light years, attempted to strangle Andra out of rage after suffering from Silent Garden exposure in Franconia's jungle for days and mind games by the Free Domain AI, Diana. Regrouping just in time, Simon and his team attacked Merlin in the shared subspace forcing Andra's friend into a grapple with Tuka before retreating in confusion. The group attempted to escape the chamber only to confront the Free Domain's leader, Amber-G330, but Juno managed to shutdown the Le Havre node, cutting them off from Franconia.
In the disconnect chaos, Althea was able to achieve temporary network supremacy over Diana forcing her and Amber to retreat through the facility's teleportation grid and leaving a couple lit plasma grenades for Merlin only for Cassandra to throw herself between the explosion, gravely injuring herself but saving her fellow Spartan from harm. The battles of Franconia and Le Havre were won by the Cleansing Blade but left many of the victors in a contemplative mess. Fresh from her encounter with Merlin, Andra retreated to the Soul Ascension's library upon returning the ship to sulk over her latest betrayal.
===Battle of Archangel's Rest (2559)===
After awakening from a three-day coma induced by his vision in the Silent Garden, Simon returned to the usual affairs of running the Kru'desh Legion but made time to confront Andra and her mental health on advice from Mohsin and Juno. Despite reports she wasn't eating, Simon found her hiding in the dark alone surviving off ration packs. Andra explained to Simon who Merlin was to her and the day she lost him to the Created, admitting she hoped the day she might find him would be the greatest moment in her life but it turned into a nightmare.
Hurt by Merlin's betrayal, Andra demanded to hear Simon's life story after he suggested he related to her suffering. Simon obliged, offering a rare account of fighting in the Second Mamore Insurrection, of being abandoned by the UNSC, hiding with Rat Pack, and joining Redmond Venter. Simon explained how he became disillusioned by the UNSC and Insurrection and found his way into the Syndicate and . By telling his story including the Bombing of Philadelphia, Andra came to understand Simon in too much detail but also empathized with her childhood specter. Simon finally admit to Andra he was dying from his Forerunner illness and that the mission to Archangel's Rest would hopefully lead to a cure to his ailment. Parting with Andra, Simon's words had won him the Delta's sympathy and broke her loyalty to Ryder for the final time even despite Juno's concerns he revealed too much.
Upon regrouping over Franconia, Shinsu was visited by an envoy of the Arbiter, Fira 'Demal, who sought to join Shinsu's fleet as a representative of the Swords of Sanghelios. Curious Puzzle and Grono 'Yendam risked a mutiny in the brief peacetime and Althea was separated from Merlin for debriefing by Deep Winter and Juno. Deep Winter also mediated a call from Zoey to Simon upon returning to dock, reporting her inability to visit Cassandra and her condition from saving Merlin. Motivated by his former friends' distress, Simon ordered a landing party to the Task Force Phoenix encampment aboard the Redemption of Sanghelios. Despite not being a part of Simon's away team, Andra managed to join them after Mohsin overruled Juno's attempts to keep her on the Soul Ascension. Simon's party marched into the UNSC encampment but soon found themselves unwanted and surrounded by an unruly mob as Merlin-D032 was the first to jump them demanding to know where they took Althea, failing even to recognize Andra among their number.
When Mohsin ordered Andra to lift her weapon in the event the UNSC mob attacked the Kru'desh, Merlin froze in shock and finally recognizing Andra. He was quickly restrained by Simon's security detail until Ryder arrived with his Spartan-IVs from Fireteam Phoenix and spoke to Simon, clearing up their misunderstanding despite the animosity between the two. Tuka and a security detail went with Zoey to see Cassandra as Andra was brought back to the UNSC fold feeling out of place by Ryder's usual smugness and Merlin's distance. Reuniting with Merlin and Callum-B042, she found herself raging against the two as they recounted their own experience getting back to allied territory. Callum spoke but Merlin continued to avoid Andra out of his own cowardice. A Cleansing Blade officer returned Althea to Merlin amid their reunion via Juno's machinations. Andra decided she felt replaced and couldn't handle her fellow Spartans' presence anymore, disappearing into the crowd despite Merlin's late attempt to catch her. After drifting through the UNSC encampment for several days, she quietly rejoined the Kru'desh Legion and learned that they were headed to Archangel's Rest as planned but Simon would not lead the battle group while the rest of the fleet pursued a Forerunner , Gilboan Citadel.
[...]
The combined Cleansing Blade battlegroup tasked by Fleetmaster Shinsu 'Refum to take Archangel's Rest was met with an ambush by the former UNSC supercarrier , completed and commandeered by former UNSC forces on behalf of their new Created masters. The Cleansing Blade battlegroup fell under the Eternity's onslaught, however, not without forcing the supercarrier to retreat from the system after taking severe damage. Andra, aboard Simon's Soul Ascension, crashed into Archangel Rest's frozen surface, stranding the hybrid invasion force on the planet alongside its Created-aligned residents, the regal House Baran and its loyal subjects. Under a seasonal blizzard, Simon ordered his forces to abandon the Soul Ascension wreckage and march towards Baran Keep with intention of laying siege no matter the cost as not only was his life on the line but the rest of the Kru'desh Legion. Through a long convoy led by a Gallu command lifter, the Kru'desh marched and drove through exhaustion and snowed out terrain for days on end, receiving ambushes and scattered enemy attacks along the way.
A particularly bad ambush led by Loic-D066 of Team Gravity drove uncertainty through the Kru'desh Legion ranks after losing a Scarab in exchange for the death of Team Gravity's Shaima-D164. Finally brought within reach of the Baran Keep, Simon ordered the invasion force to prepare for a siege but struggled with the potential of mutiny among his ranks while so close to the Created's stronghold and suffering harassment from hologram-based propaganda attacks. A mutiny led by one of Simon's more trusted officers, Ier 'Barun, was dispatched by the larger majority of Simon's loyal forces and ended with Ier and his plotters sentenced to death as an example to future mutineers. With morale low, Simon knew he had to attack soon or further mutinies and desertions would follow. He ordered Kelo 'Demal, a Sangheili runner, back to the Soul Ascension in hopes that the engineers left there would get the battlecruiser in operating order by the time of battle though unlikely.
The next day, Simon promised the Kru'desh to lead the assault personally and made to do so just as his Jiralhanae auxiliaries under Chieftain Alaric deserted the force for the Created line and required the siege assault to begin in haste. Simon led the charge while Andra stuck around at the Gallu headquarters, not knowing her role in Simon's crusade would soon become much more direct.
DT Goodbye Andra 1.png|"Goodbye Andra": Andra-D054 (center) with Moshin Shah (left) and Urei 'Caszal (right) seeing off Stray (foreground) in the Battle of Archangel's Rest.Source Filmmaker artwork "Goodbye Andra" by .
The long march.png|Simon ordered the Kru'desh Legion to march on House Baran through an inhospitable winter after the Soul Ascension's crash.
Navi Eternity in shadow.png|The Created-commandeered UNSC Eternity supercarrier waiting for the Cleansing Blade battlegroup near Archangel's Rest.
====Alternate: Stray's Shadow====
In a different series of events surrounding the fateful Battle of Archangel's Rest, Simon-G294 did not say goodbye nor did he put on his armor to enter the opening charge outside Archangel's Rest.
===Stray's War (2560)===
[...]
===Avery Johnson Academy (2561)===
[...]
==Character==
===Personality===
Andra suffered through much turbulent childhood trauma often which defined her but always found some will to overcome such limitations. Raised by her military father often on his own, Andra took after him as a toddler with a verbose, boyish personality and incurred trouble in school. While she came to resent her father's substance abuse and suicide following her mother's death, Andra carried both their characters with her even when she forgot their names and faces. Her early upbringing likely defined her future capabilities persisting through challenges capable of breaking many adults, particularly Spartan-III training and the blizzard march in the Battle of Archangel's Rest. Andra took after her mother in later years after finding her ONI personnel file, perceiving her mother as a positive role model while rejecting her father's demise. However, her parents' deaths also cursed Andra as unresolved grief and isolation warped into a persistent case of selective mutism during time at the orphanage and continued through training and her teenage years.
The anxiety disorder plagued Andra and required continued attention from Spartan-III program recruiter Dr. Zhou-Romero who Andra latched onto as a maternal figure. This common behavior towards her close relationships, while unhealthy, became a baseline for Andra in her emotional recovery. She pursued and jealously guarded her few, close bonds like her fraternization with Merlin-D032 and dogmatic loyalties toward select Spartan comrades and several superior officers. Despite its toxic environment, Spartan-III training proved an adapting influence on Andra and normalized her post-traumatic stress amongst likeminded war orphans. The crucible of Delta Company also forced Andra to develop a strong perseverance from pent-up emotions and a childhood of fighting back. She became quick to compartmentalize herself, showing surprised instructors a late-training transformation into a motivated, vocal trainee yet in reality remained an introverted girl who avoided interaction whenever possible. Andra could become loud and expressive on pure requirement, but her voice and attitude could disappear into unresponsive silence when pulled from her comfort zone or into a uncomfortable situation.
It wasn't until after Spartan training Andra had the opportunity to mellow out in her tutelage under Headhunter Joshua-G024 and her Ferret assignment on Earth. Her fiery personality remained a natural defense mechanism towards uncomfortable situations even as increased socialization with civilians helped to end her anxiety disorder while attending Pax River Military Academy. Amongst her friends she became even cheery, expressive, and with an appreciation for physical contact. By the end of her first stay on Earth, she seem to find some self-confidence and manifested as the most loyal, sometimes nationalistic Spartan in Team Boson especially after two of her friends deserted. However, her attitude and mute spells continue to persist as changing galactic events forced her adaptation once more. The Created crisis destroyed her UNSC and separated her from trustworthy allies. Forced to collaborate with aliens and rebels, Andra adjusted herself by no easy measure and managed to find new comrades among her former enemies.
Participating in Stray's War changed her overt personality very little, but Andra began to increasingly question her prior universal perceptions and recognized a greater humanity within all kinds of people around her. While her loyalties remained with the UNSC from family and legacy, her desires became more selfish and her ideals reminiscent of the freedoms her rebel friends espoused. She also developed a post-trauma fear of powerlessness from her multiple incidents of capture and manipulation. While this sense of helplessness did not readily manifest like her prior anxiety disorder, Andra lost her enthusiasm for military operations and sought to make something else of herself on the post-Created frontier. After learning from multiple Headhunters as mentors, Andra had real potential to become one herself. However, she turned down the opportunity during unit reorganizations deciding she wanted a future in observation and communications rather than as a regular, even if elite, trigger-woman.
She followed Callum-B042 into his unofficial "retirement," pursued a formal education in colonial literature, set up a home on the frontier, visited the places her former enemies called home, and kept her handlers at a distance. Despite the independent streak, Andra remained loyal to the Unified Earth Government because she still held onto her childhood memories of relative peace and time on Earth. Having some luck and experience in identifying lax mission officers, she managed to carve a comfortable space in the post-Created UNSC for herself. The general prosperity she found in her past still held value and remained better than the unknowable future offered by other, more dangerous factions vying for power in the emergent galactic cold war - even when the dangerous future tempted her wearing familiar faces.
===Physical Appearance===
Andra is a short Spartan, standing just above average humans and able to blend in among the regular civilian population to the benefit of her undercover and plain clothes operations. Before her Spartan augmentations, she was quite an athlete with a preference towards swimming, running, and football. However, her augmentations thinned out her form into an unhealthy, boney physique for several years reinforcing her "Doll" nickname among Delta Company. Born and raised on Sigma Octanus IV, she can trace her distant lineage back to Earth's North American and East European regions with a pale skin complexion worsened by increased time inside power armor and a lack of sunlight.
Despite her pale features, Andra has less skin blemishes compared to other Spartans due to her role as a Spartan sniper and staying mostly out of direct combat. However, she's earned her fair share of scars from combat with time. Her facial features include a light sprinkling of freckles and her most noticeable left cheek scar made by Tatiana Onegin during Andra's capture aboard the Asphodel Meadows. Like her parents, Andra has standout blue eyes and dark brown hair though she occasionally dyes it different colors, inspired by her late mother.
Andra often wore her hair up in a ponytail or cut it as a short bob to stay within military regulations but let it grow out in her adults years, using a smart skullcap to compensate the neural bridge between her power armor and neural interface. Andra also sports a number of tattoos, a black Insurrectionist fist between her shoulder blades and another on her left forearm gang-branded during her initiation into the Kru'desh Legion and the Second Vanguard. Despite returning and remaining loyal to the UNSC, she did not remove the markings out of respect for her rebel allies and instead added custom subdermal tattoo ink to her left arm also inspired by her mother. These temporary tattoos often depict UNSC iconography as a sign of her history and continued Spartan service. Andra enjoys wearing a mix of baggy and form-fitting clothing for maximizing personal comfort and the ability to integrate everyday wear with her combat gear like throw-on plate carriers and covering over her Mjolnir body glove.
For her armor, Andra has a strong respect for the UNSC Marine Corps' Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and often uses ODST equipment out of personal preference on her power armor. She used to favor borderline-urban and camouflage schemes using black-and-green and black-and-white as her armor colors before the Created crisis but swapped to red and purple as she allowed herself more room for personal expression after the trying events of Stray's War.
Physical Measurements:
*2558:
**Height: 175 centimeters | 5 feet, 9 inches
**Weight: 79 kilograms | 174 pounds
*2565:
**Height: 188 centimeters | 6 feet, 2 inches
**Weight: 103 kilograms | 228 pounds
===Personal Effects===
*"Lemon & Lime": Two modified M6I/U machine pistols acquired by Andra during her first time on Earth. She nicknamed them "Lemon and Lime" for their khaki- and olive-colored finishes. She often lent them to teammates.
*Remote Holo-Puck: After graduating from Spartan-III Delta Company, Andra received permission from ONI Section Three to research her parental history as part of her contractual emancipation. Andra saved the personal records of her mother, Viktoria K. Bradford, on a hologram puck she often keeps on her person.
*Photographs: Laminated copies of Andra's favorite images. One of Team Boson during post-augmentation, power armor training. Another of Andra walking side-by-side with Joshua-G024, her mentor from VIOLET-III. The second image was given to Andra as a parting- and late birthday-gift from Amy-G094, Joshua's best friend.
*Soda Bottles: Known for her sweet-tooth, Andra often kept a tray of soda bottles in her footlocker. A strawberry-lemon soda remained in her luggage, unopened during the Created conflict as a birthday gift from her VIOLET-III superior officer, Derek Frendsen. Rumor suggests it was the last strawberry-lemon soda aboard the UNSC Infinity for almost three years.
*Master Chief Plushie: Children at heart, Andra and her friends in Team Boson acquired children's products during their Earth-stay to reclaim their lost childhoods. She slept with her Master Chief plushie on occasion but eventually set it aside. Team Boson offhandedly referred to the plushie as "Master Fluff."
*"Red Viking": The SRS99 anti-material rifle is Andra's signature weapon but rarely used against soft-body targets, rather for anti-armor/anti-vehicle purposes in her skill of demolitions. It took Andra time to try weapon personalization due to training stigmas around attachment to equipment. She did color her equipment after graduation, but it wasn't until after Stray's War Andra grew attached to "Red Viking."
===Nicknames and Callsigns===
*"Andra Ross": Andra's cover name while in brief attendance at the Pax River Military Academy. Masquerading as a senior year cadet, she helped probe a potential Insurrectionist plot and revealed a promising, former Delta Company non-recruit. She continued to use the pseudonym after the Created crisis while undercover.
*"Dee-Fifty-Four": Andra's Spartan tag generated a dozen offhand nicknames over the years and was used most by superior officers to command Andra's attention when she behaved out of turn.
*"Doll": Originally a demeaning nickname favored by drill instructors for Andra's poor training performance and quiet voice, it was eventually adopted by her fellow Delta Company trainees. Even after overcoming her anxiety discord, Andra is still associated with the hated nickname but made occasional exceptions for friends.
*"NDRA/D054": Andra's TEAMCOM four-letter designation.
===Quotes===
==Relationships==
===Family===
*Viktoria K. Bradford: Andra's often absent mother and a UNSC Army Ranger medic deployed to far-off battlefields until she died in the Battle of Minab in 2551. Andra adored her mother but had a hard time understanding their relationship especially after Viktoria's death. Salvaged ONI records stored on a holo-puck became Andra's way of rediscovering her mother, even emulating after Viktoria after her long absence. From Viktoria's memory, Andra tried being more assertive, vocal, and passionate about military service, and took her mother's maiden name out of respect for the parent she didn't remember.
*Neville Bradford: Andra's father who raised her mostly by himself while working as an Air Force signals intelligence officer. Neville was a compassionate parent who encouraged her adventurous growth and prepared Andra for her unforeseen future of hardships. Her aggressive, tomboyish personality and early physical talents manifested from his nurturing. However, his short battle with depression and substance abuse before his suicide complicated and soured Andra's memory of Neville taking many years for her to make peace with his legacy.
*Callum-B042: A Spartan-III Headhunter operative with a regrettable past of violence, Andra met Callum during the Imperium border war and reunited with him while stranded from the UNSC during the Created conflict. After disappearing on mission to liberate Spartans from a Created reeducation facility, Andra helped him cover up from ONI while he adopted her in kind so "she always had a home to return to." Callum's post-brain surgery migraines worried Andra due to her past trauma but he remained a responsible father, treating her as his eldest child. After imparting his military knowledge to Andra, she returned to ONI service among the deadliest Spartans of the 2570s.
===Team Boson===
*Merlin-D032: Merlin, Team Boson's deputy and scout, is Andra's childhood best friend and love interest from Delta Company despite starting on aversive terms, thawing in the eve of their Spartan training initiation. As a pair of introverted trainees, they earned each other's loyalty and to their superiors' concerns, a growing fraternization, during and after training but remained together in Team Boson as a sniper-spotter team due to their reliable cohesion and some officer sympathies. Andra was disturbed by Merlin's disappearance and violent reunion during the Stray's War, teaching both a harsh lesson about distance even as they accepted their mutual attraction. They've remained loyal and pursued their relationship in later years even as they accepted the distance they once feared to pursue their own interests.
*Roxanne-D107: Andra's best friend, other than Merlin, and the only other girl in the original Team Boson. Roxanne was Andra's first friend in Delta Company despite opposing personalities: where Roxanne was exciting, Andra was shy. Despite this, the two shared many common interests and traveled together during their shared military career. Andra coined Roxanne's nicknames, "Rox" and "Roxxy." Roxanne's desertion came as a personal betrayal to Andra but they reunited as friends against the Far Harvest Legion. Their mutual time away from the UNSC softened their reunion compared to other encounters with Team Boson.
*Daniele-D003: Team Boson's team leader, better known as "Danny." Andra never had siblings but considered Daniele the closest thing to an older brother. Andra saw Daniele as a deserving, talented team leader with a unassuming thrill-seeking streak but found difficulty connecting like with Roxanne and Merlin due to a lack of mutual distance. Their mutual quietness put ease in his presence and always ready to execute his orders, even relying him as a guardian against her bullies. However, Andra lost any sense of knowing Daniele after his desertion but was wistful to know why he left. Their surprise encounters after the Created crisis made them conflicted adversaries in the new balkanized galaxy.
*Zach-D111: Team Boson's youngest member and Andra's surrogate little brother, born "Zachariah." The two bonded over long nights of weapon and uniform maintenance with their shared eye for details and love for weaponry. Zach was the quickest to tease Andra in Team Boson but respected each other, especially for their common sense of UNSC patriotism. Andra felt saddened but proud when Zach transferred into the Project BRUTUS black operations unit. Unfortunately, the two failed to keep in touch and found their renewed friendship strained by differing opinions of their rogue teammates following the Created crisis.
*Shizuko-D081: Team Entropy's former leader and a Spartan-III Headhunter who served alongside Team Boson. She and Andra were not close in training from quiet personalities, rarely interacting despite sharing bunkrooms; still they were easily considered friends. Andra had a hard time speaking to Shizuko due to their distance and often put them on the wrong foot, especially about the deaths of Team Entropy. The two often messaged after the Imperial War and became closer during the power vacuum left by the Created conflict. Andra privately referred to Shizuko as "her sister." Shizuko was Andra's first frontier contact for help in later years, especially regarding the Far Harvest Legion and Shizuko's younger brother, Daiki-D217.
===Delta Company===
*Team Entropy:
*Team Anion:
*Team Gravity:
*Team Hadron:
*Loic-D066:
*Daiki-D217:
*Saul-D313:
===Spartans===
*Fireteam Stallion:
*VIOLET-III:
*Amy-G094 "Hera": Joshua-G024's best friend and fellow VIOLET-III teammate, self-renamed "Hera" after Joshua's demise. Andra often looked to Amy as an older sister even when Amy maintained professional distance compared to Joshua who obsessed over Andra's tutelage. After Joshua's death, their friendship soured as they dealt with his passing in different ways. Hera came to despise Joshua's memory as Andra fought to defend it. During the Created conflict, Hera and Andra's relationship was on especially poor terms, even earning her a descriptor of "Frendsen's attack dog" from Andra. Hera later abandoned the UNSC altogether for Kropotkin rebels without input from Andra but they were able to briefly part on better terms after meeting on Kropotkin years later.
*Cassandra-G006: A Spartan-III deserter and frontier doctor, Cassandra-G006 came into contact with Andra after David Kahn, her father, recruited both to fight the Created-commandeered Iskandar Syndicate. Though Andra developed and hid a deep, respecting care for Cassandra, she struggled to admit it over their often differing worldviews. Andra's brief presence drove a wedge between Cassandra and her friends aboard the Chancer V. However, after tempers cooled with distance and her saving of Merlin-D032, Andra accepted Cassandra as a positive but wary influence in her life and even as a friend.
*Joshua-G024: Andra's often-cynical, personal mentor from VIOLET-III. While an aggressive teacher for her teammates, Joshua-G024 shared a overt sibling relationship with Andra born from similar childhood experiences and trauma. Joshua cared, even dotted, about Andra potentially to an obsessive degree, sometimes engineering selfish machinations to keep her team out of harm's way. His behavior towards Andra wasn't subtle and appeared even as violent action towards Merlin-D032, or as noted to by Frendsen as "living vicariously innocent through her." His death weighed heavily on Andra, much of his teachings continuing to shape Andra's views on galactic affairs. It's possible her distancing from the UNSC realized Joshua's own wishes even after his death.
*: A childhood family friend who saw Andra off the first time to the orphanage and a different life...
*Nicoline Folasade: A former Delta Company prospect who Andra met at Pax River Military Academy...
*Ryder Kedar: An ONI-assigned Spartan-IV and the commanding officer of Task Force Phoenix, Ryder first recruited Andra out of VIOLET-III for his Asphodel Meadows raid using wit and faux charm to earn her trust, and later caused her distancing from the UNSC military. Andra briefly crushed on him but Ryder's continued manipulation and suicidal mission assignments soured her, especially when forced to join the rogue Simon-G294's Kru'desh Legion. Working with Simon finally shook any loyalties she had for Kedar, and her feelings only soured with his betrayal of the UNSC and later return with few repercussions.
*Simon-G294 "Stray": The infamous butcher of his fellow Spartans and Bombing of Philadelphia, Simon-G294 was a motivating target and educational example for many Spartans, particularly Delta Company including Andra, to take down. After several close encounters during the Imperium conflict where they nearly killed one another, Andra's view on Simon seemed to shift little by little. Her overt exposure to him while assigned to his Kru'desh Legion by Ryder Kedar as a so-called UNSC advisor firmly ended her dislike of him. Instead of being a target to kill, Simon became someone to understand as a fixture of her extreme curiosity. Andra was the first person Simon opened up to regarding his real motivations to desert from the UNSC, however, their comradery remained circumstantial and interactions often violent.
===UNSC Forces===
*Jefferson Korn: Team Boson's training counselor for three years and Andra's retrieval officer. Andra looked upon him as a superior worthy of respect but rarely interacted with him beyond receiving orders and visiting his office when she received disciplinary action, typically for insubordination or unsanctioned violence. He inspired Andra but there was always a uncertain degree of suspicion in their relationship. His reemergence as a pirate lord on the post-Created frontier put her and Korn on opposing sides as his ambitions threatened Andra's friendships and the fragile stability of post-Created politics.
*Kyser Duceppe: Team Boson's former Ferret handler and Internal Investigations Unit 419 investigator (UNSC Army Military Police). His laidback command earned Andra's favor and set her expectations for other UNSC officers, an insubordinate expectation other superiors struggled to reign in. Their interactions were cordial and uniquely emotive but cut short after members of Team Boson deserted and Duceppe's ferret unit was dissolved. Duceppe and Andra often traded messages during her time with Frendsen's unit as Duceppe signed her transfer to VIOLET-III before retiring, and apparently her transfer into ONI Section Four. As a parting gift, Andra gave Duceppe two turtles named after the Martian moons. She often wondered on his whereabouts in contemporary times.
*Derek Frendsen: VIOLET-III's commanding officer and thus Andra's until her own transfer shutdown Team Boson. Their relationship never extended beyond professional even when both made attempts to be amicable only to be rebuffed by poor Created-era timing. After weeks passed aboard the UNSC Infinity without news of Merlin-D032's status, her desperation drove her to rage against Frendsen and they had a falling out. Andra negotiated out of his unit with Ryder Kedar's encouragement after losing faith and trust him. Frendsen came to regret Andra's departure as another strike of his failing with VIOLET-III and the legacy of Joshua-G024's death but time heals all wounds...
*Paul Reisinger: A former UNSC Army Ranger sharpshooter who served with Andra's mother and later alongside Andra until his death in the Asphodel Meadows raid.
*Markko Kallas: Andra's newest commanding officer, a mysterious ONI rear admiral inside ONI Section Four with a ghoulish face.
===Artificial Intelligence===
*Delphi:
*Althea: The gifted Smart AI at first assigned to Team Boson, then VIOLET-III before being directly left in the care of Andra-D054 and Merlin-D032. After Merlin's poor handling of the Smart AI during the border war with the Imperium of Clarity, she was permanently made Andra's responsibility. Extended exposure to Andra's neurology encouraged Althea to model herself after Andra, traumatizing the girl. Subsequently, Andra developed a relative mistrust of Smart AI during and after the Created conflict. Althea and Andra share a competitive streak after some reconciliation, sharing in interests but unable to stand their shared headstrong personalities. During their brief retirement to Furthest Point, Andra worked as a electrical technician for Althea's "Althean Communications Incorporated."
*: The late Smart AI and ship director of the UNSC Infinity. Following Merlin's disappearance during the Created uprising, he made attempts to counsel Andra through her trauma, becoming her unsolicited life coach and much-needed confidant aboard the UNSC Infinity. She dubbed him "Alarm Clock" out of spite but found his interventions a welcome change to her depressive rut after the disappearance of Merlin and the death of Joshua-G024. In long days and nights of monotony, his dry wit and prodding prevent her from regressing back into her childhood mutism. He indirectly pushed her to sign up with Ryder Kedar's task force, after broadly prompting Andra to be proactive.
*Juno:
*Kathy:
*Grytha:
===Aliens===
*Argo 'Varvin: A former Sangheili Special Operations Majordomo and spymaster for the Office of Naval Intelligence, Argo and Andra share a history dating back to the slums of Rio de Janeiro and aboard Atlántida. After Andra's assassin team failed in the Asphodel Meadows raid with Argo as an unfortunate witness, he felt indebted to the Spartan's survival and followed her into the Kru'desh Legion to keep her out of trouble during the Created conflict and Stray's War. Andra found Argo a reliable ally but felt confounded by his strange, sometimes inconsistent loyalties to her. Argo never honestly stated his reasons but felt Andra's amusing innocence made for a selfish return for his abandoned sense of honor/purpose. After the Created crisis, their communications were sparse but professional and she often saw him as a well-traveled, experienced voice of reason in a rapidly-changing and confusing galaxy.
*Re'n Clorfen: A lost San'Shyuum youth lightyears from home...
===Rebels===
*Mohsin Shah: Simon-G294's seasoned Insurrectionist deputy over the Kru'desh Legion and Second Vanguard.
*Ragna Aasen: A patriotic rebel child-soldier Andra forged a peculiar friendship with during the Battle of Archangel's Rest and Stray's War.
*Vanguard Squad: Simon-G294's personal Insurrectionist unit, reorganized from remnants of Redmond Venter's Second Vanguard. After entering Simon-G294's custody on orders from Ryder Kedar, she joined the new Vanguard Squad. They often alienated Andra from the group due to her overt UNSC allegiance and mutual political distaste, but they accommodated her to their twisted standards. Andra never quite viewed the squad as family but saw them as a safe space in a rapidly-changing galaxy. Even after leaving the Kru'desh Legion, she kept and modified her Insurrectionist tattoos rather than remove them. She often introduced herself to Insurrectionists with ranks she received while in the unit. 
===Civilians===
*Dr. Reyna Zhou-Romero: Lead recruiter and psychiatrist for the short-staffed Spartan-III Delta Company, Dr. Romero made several recruiting visits herself for the supersoldier program including Andra's successful induction. Dr. Romero became personally involved in Andra's development and recovery from selective mutism during Spartan training where they developed a surrogate mother-daughter bond allowing Andra some respite from her hardships. Even after separation, Dr. Romero kept close track of Andra and retooled a research Smart AI, Althea, to protect the Spartan where she could not though the AI gift proved a deep complication in Andra's life.
*Zoey Hunsinger:
*Karina Larina and Thomas Koepke:
*Kaye Hira:
*Lydia Gott:
==Trivia==
*Despite her anxiety disorder, Andra was a talented singer as a previous member of the Sigma Octanus-based Bright Rock Beginner Girls’ Choir #4 in her childhood. Andra took after her mother with the hobby, singing on rare occasions.
*Andra guards her head before climbing out of bottom bunks in case someone has a rogue limb that might hit her. Her time at the orphanage and Delta Company made her paranoid around bunkmates.
*Andra's fear of powerlessness, while unassociated with her prior anxiety disorder, is set off at the sight of neural collars causing her to involuntarily recoil.
*Andra and Merlin's favorite show is Odd One Out; Andra's favorite character(s) are Spartan-1337 and Patchwork, Merlin's favorite character is Inaka Dream.
==See Also==
===Notable Links===
*Althea
*Callum-B042
*Delta Company
*Joshua-G024
*Merlin-D032
*Simon-G294
*Team Boson
*Viktoria K. Bradford
===Literary Appearances===
===Non-Canon Appearances===
*Delta's Path
**Delta's Path/Slip
*DT 2022: Small Village
*Halo: Heaven and Earth/Alternate Interrupt
**DT 2022: Stray's Shadow
*User:Distant Tide/Happy Safari
*Survival of the Fittest: Season Seven
*The Weekly Submissions (Distant Tide)
==Gallery==
==References==
Category:Distant Tide
Category:Females
Category:Delta Company
Category:SPARTAN-IIIs
Category:Humans
Category:SPARTAN