Shannon Hambleton

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Captain Shannon Hambleton, formerly known to her peers as Shannon-150 and operating under Codename: MISSIONARY, was a trainee who washed out of the experimental . The eldest member of the program, Hambleton was known as being one of the most well-rounded Spartans in her class, which contributed to her nickname "Fives" among her peers.
Ultimately, despite all the effort she put into her training, Hambleton's older age proved to be her undoing. She experienced severe muscle spasms when something went wrong when installing the nerve implants, saved only by the installation of her reinforced bones. Confined to a wheelchair for most of her career, she assisted the in developing several new variants for . Fortunately, her superiors would eventually take note of her tactical skill and allow her to serve as an officer in the . Rising up to command the UNSC Artemis, she would innovate a number of tactics that would become standard for the battlecruiser's operation and earn an impressive kill-count throughout her career.
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== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
Born on the inhospitable mining world Green Hills, Shannon was the eldest child of Tushar and Pernilla Kaur, a couple who worked for a small mining group as a miner and doctor, respectively. Living outside the environmental filter of Labog Precinct, the Kaurs owned a property where they lived and worked, and it was here that Shannon and her sibling would spend the majority of their early lives. While her mother was a frequent appearance in this period and indeed paid her some attention, much of it was directed at training her to take on her future responsibilities. The lack of affection from her mother would initially be seen as a as a prize to be won, completing the tasks she was given to the best of her young ability. Her workload would only grow as she grew older; by the time she was five she was already looking after herself and her baby sister.
This regimen of keeping her busy at the expense of educatgion would see Shannon always obeying her parents with no questions. Having learnt how to speak Bengali at the expense of English, she would eventually be allowed to run messages between her parents and their friends in the city, being awarded with pocket money and their affection.Unknown to her, but her parents were involved in the district's and the handwritten letters she carried were instructions on how to damage hold on the planet. While waiting around for them, she would often try to socialise with the older street kids, although most attempts would see them chase her away from what they saw as 'their' territory. She did make some friends; one Claude Boyd would become her closest friend after he saved her from a man who tried to lure Shannon away. The twelve-year-old boy would act as her guardian angel, keeping an eye on her and keeping her company while Shannon repaid him with food. Eventually, Boyd would teach her a few moves in escaping from strangers, believing he'd become guilty if anything happened to her.
When she was finally enrolled into school, Shannon was immediately recognised as being far more mature than the others, with her discipline making it difficult to have fun with the other children. She isolated herself only towards the teachers, always attempting to escape from mandatory classroom games as she never felt like she was accepted by her peers. However, this only attracted the ire of the older children, making fun of her by calling her the 'ghost girl' and bullying her in the playground. On one occasion, Shannon was ambushed while under a tree she liked to hang around by more than seven older boys. However, she managed to beat down three of them before she fled. Despite constant punishments from the teachers and principle, incidents still occurred and she soon became known as someone who shouldn't be messed with. Indeed, she became even more introverted when just weeks before her sixth birthday, when she lost contact with Boyd; he wouldn't show up in their usual meeting places, nor seem to respond to any notes or calls she left for him.
In mid-, Shannon would discover an unfamiliar , who both made a beeline for her. Wrongly-assuming they meant her harm, Shannon would evade the pair for a four and a half weeks, taking different paths home through previously-hostile parts of the city to get home. Unfortunately, on at least three occasions she was forced to either fight-off or escape from some of the city's aggressive urchin gangs, unknowingly being watched by the pair of strangers. It was not until she came home that she learned why they were here; the pair were supposedly friends of her parents who had recently arrived on the planet. Still not trusting the new strangers, the woman would try and open her up, but it was the man's somewhat awkward phrasing and posture would actually draw her into a conversation. Convinced he was hiding something, she would learn that the man's name was "" and he had a background in the military. While pestering him, he would eventually decide to play her a game with a deck of cards, and asked her to guess which ones he would pull out. She managed to guess all of them correctly, which appeared to only slightly impress him. Over the coming week, he would continue to test her with games intended to assess her intelligence and physical development, the purpose being completely lost on the young girl. She would come to enjoy his company, although she would be haunted by the last words she heard him say: "you are everything she is looking for."
Eventually, while walking home from school less than a month later, Shannon would be intercepted by a pair of ONI agents. Noticing a pair of strangers following her, she took off running through the alleyways of the city, although she would make it home. While she was drugged and taken off-world, her confused flash-clone would go missing for eight days before the local police department found the mutilated body of the six-year-old girl - a discovery that would send her grieving family off-world, unable to comprehend why someone would murder their child.
=== SPARTAN Training ===
Shannon would be forcibly woken up in a by a group of uniformed men armed with .
==== Augmentations ====
== Physical Traits ==
=== Appearance ===
=== Personality ===
=== Skills ===
As a SPARTAN-II trainee, Hambleton never stood out as being particularly well during hands-on training for combat. While she never usually required any help from her drill sergeants, she never excelled anywhere either, with someone always being better no matter how hard she tried. This mediocrity, as well as a lack of personal weaknesses, saw her being transformed into the 'jill of all trades, master of none' of the SPARTAN-IIs. In training exercises, she could be trusted as an assistant to specialists such as snipers, where she could simultaneously spot, snipe, and cover her teammates. She could fulfil any position Team Silver needed, from grenadier, to hacker, and even a second-in-command if needed. This made her opponents uneasy fighting her unit, as while they weren't one of the higher-performing teams, they could not easily predict what they had previously planned to do. While she will occasionally exhibit some reservations, her inbred loyalty will see her accept any task given to her. Ultimately, this was never meant to be, and she was never able to return to service as a commando.
Instead, Shannon's keen tactical mind would be exploited as a captain in the UNSC Navy. She was a radical if cautious commander who praised mobility and outflanking her opponents, firmly believing that avoiding shots is far better than simply tanking them. Where she differs most from the current breed of naval officers is in her non-standard activation of slipspace drives, which she uses to feint opponents, conduct micro-jumps to safety, and even completely absorb weapons fire from Covenant vessels. She knows how to best make the use of her ship's position, systems, and angle to survive in scenarios where many others simply haven't. While she trusts her crew, she has a tendency to run them very hard, making her unpopular among new members. However, she treats those she knows with respect, and repays those with obvious talent with recommendations for promotion.
Unknown to most, Shannon is an excellent researcher and engineer, particularly in the craft of armour composition and shipbuilding. She is familiar with many pieces of confidential technology, as she was part of the design team on a number of MJOLNIR permutations and subsystems, and worked closely with Misriah Armoury and the Reyes-McLees Corporation for a number of spacefaring vehicles. She may dislike such work, but her experience is second to only the likes of Robert McLees himself.
== Notes ==
Category:Females
Category:Class I Spartan-IIs
Category:ZOD Characters