Erin-G174

Spartan Erin-G174, originally tagged as Erin-B110 and formerly identified as Erin McAlister, is a Beta Company recruit who later underwent Gamma Company's training and augmentation procedures, now serving as a Gamma Company graduate within aboard .
Originally conscripted as the youngest of the Beta recruits, Erin struggled with many of the requirements she was expected to meet. She became afflicted with an at-the-time unknown illness during her third year of training, and at request was put on ice until a cure could be discovered. When she was eventually woken from her cryosleep, the delay in her treatment left her unable to graduate with the rest of her unit. She was offered a second chance as part of Gamma Company, where her previous experience as a Spartan recruit allowed her to excel early on and achieve success as the leader of Team Glaive.
Her time in charge of Team Glaive was short-lived, however. At the war's conclusion, Erin's fireteam was disbanded. Alone, she was thrust into a VIP protection role in the for a brief time before being invited into the after her actions following the Dar es-Salaam incident. Despite early tensions, Erin would eventually become close friends with her partner Sintu.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Erin McAlister was born on April 3rd, 2535 on the colony of as the only daughter to a single mother. Her mother would later abandon her at an orphanage in before Erin developed any long-term memories of her. Erin's early life was mostly uneventful, as her homeworld was attacked while she was still very young and, as such, she was mostly left unaffected by the incident. Following the attack on New Harmony, Erin was evacuated from the planet and temporarily brought to the Campus on Luyten. Upon being approached by recruiters for the , she agreed with little understanding of the challenges ahead.
===Beta Company===
====On Ice====
SCPO Mendez: "Our budget is tight enough as it is. We can't maintain a dedicated team to look into one dying recruit."LT Ambrose: "I'm not asking for a team, but I need you to talk to her. Deep Winter has assured me Section Three's more than willing to 'foot the bill.'"— Kurt Ambrose convincing Franklin Mendez to not give up on Erin.
===Gamma Company===
====Awakening====
"When I first met you, you told us we were needed, we were special. It was our duty to become Spartans and save everyone. I don't care how long it takes me, I won't give up. I'm going to be a Spartan, sir."— Erin-B110 to Kurt Ambrose after being informed she couldn't graduate as part of Beta Company.Kindling
====The First Week====
On July 9th, 2545, Erin assembled with the rest of the Gamma Company candidates as their training officially began. While Erin didn't recognize any of the other children's faces within the crowd, the initial kickoff still invoked an experience of deja vu for the young recruit.
Unlike the rest of the crowd, Erin was prepared for the upcoming test.A Phoenix Unfurls Her Wings Having performed the test once before and further trained with the gear in the time since, Erin aced the preliminary exam with ease. Her success was rewarded with a new identification tag, G174, cementing her position among the 343 qualifying trainees. Her time as a Beta was officially over.
Erin-G174 graduated Gamma Company as the team leader of Team Glaive.
====Battle of Mars====
===Post-War Operations===
====Ceasefire====
"Sir, Glaive hasn't been as effective as we were hoping; I'll concede that. But it's still a team. My team. Pulling Bless for some DCS job isn't going to help us bounce back."— Erin shortly before being informed that the entirety of Team Glaive is being disbanded.
The declared between the UNSC and at the end of 2552 left Gamma Company with no immediate objectives. Many Spartan-IIIs expecting to fight after leaving Onyx never got to see the conflict they were training for.
In an attempt to swiftly resecure human space, many Gammas were dispatched to lost or unprotected colonies while the UNSC began peacekeeping and diplomatic operations. To meet the expectations of , many fireteams including Glaive were temporarily or permanently fragmented and the constituent Spartans relegated to individual tasks. Erin-G174, partly due to her additional two years of experience, was among those chosen to remain primarily on Earth during this heightened period of uncoordinated activity.
Erin-G174 found herself tasked with three major responsibilities early on. She quickly found herself in a public facing role, acting as a propaganda piece as she escorted key individuals to the critical early interspecies summits. Clad in pristine , Erin was often caught in press photographs standing beside ex-Covenant leadership as part of an ONI Section Two campaign to improve public opinion of the ceasefire. The identity of Erin and other Spartans in the same situation were heavily obfuscated in an attempt to mask their inexperience on the battlefield.
Outside of public appearances, Erin-G174 was also operating as a liaison between UNSC and local peace efforts in the Sol system. Refugees from both sides of the conflict were settling down across Earth and Mars, primarily in cities in South America and Africa, and tensions between the existing and incoming populations were high immediately following the war. Various enforcement agencies, including the , claimed jurisdictional responsibility for handling problems that arose from the immigration crisis, but their efforts to maintain security often conflicted with the UNSC's, ONI's, and UEG's efforts to facilitate cooperation with the ex-Covenant groups.
Finally, Erin's handler recognized her value due to her connections with the rest of the Spartan-IIIs. Off the record, Erin was also tasked with "reaching out" to select Betas and Gammas that, due to the hasty restructuring, have become difficult to contact through official channels.
====Dar es-Salaam Incident====
====Anvil Initiative====
After spending nearly two years in the Diplomatic Corps, Erin received an invitation from fellow Diplomatic Corps Spartan to participate in the newly formed . After spending another month in contemplation, Erin eventually accepted the invitation, recognizing that it was her best opportunity to get transferred away from the public eye and put her training to good use.
While on , Erin was partnered with the known only as Sintu. Initially, Erin felt insulted by the assignment, becoming easily frustrated with the dishonored Sangheili and his difficulty communicating. These frustrations escalated as Sintu refused to be truthful in his identity to Erin. She filed requests for a new partner four separate times; all were denied.
Driven mainly by a selfish desire for easier communication, Erin spent months teaching Sintu a modified version of the she was taught during her years of Spartan training. While it could never completely substitute vocal communication, the system helped facilitate an easier exchange of simple concepts. While Erin still remained insistent in finding a better partner, Sintu began to develop a bond with the person willing to help him, but failed to convey the appreciation. During a visit to the station by the Spartan-IV Jet Thompson, the visitor helped Erin understand Sintu's perspective, even if the Sangheili was still reluctant to share details about his past.
By the time of Thompson's visit, Erin was already embracing her newfound freedom of expression now that she was no longer under the joint jurisdiction of ONI Section Two and the Diplomatic Corps. Her formerly green-and-black armor had been personally customized further with vast accents of purple, red, white, and orange.
==Personality==
As a child, Erin McAlister was a free spirited and determined individual. If she wanted something, she was not prepared to quit before she earned it. She was also respectful of adults, even if they obstructed her ability to accomplish her own goals; internally she saw their rules as just another challenge to circumvent, but never directly opposed them. She however struggled with maintaining a calm demeanor, and was quick to anger, excite, or upset. In the mid-2540s, Erin was overjoyed to have an opportunity to say one last goodbye to her company graduates, and she nearly started a fistfight with a fellow candidate after he lost his footing due to turbulence and landed on her.
During the first two and a half years of her Gamma Company training, Erin developed a very arrogant attitude as a result of already completing the training as part of Beta Company. She incorrectly assumed she was a naturally gifted savant, and was severely humbled when meeting her first new challenge. Early on, this arrogance put her at odds with the other recruits, however a conversation with later convinced her to direct her knowledge towards helping the rest of the company perform their best.
By the time of her graduation, she saw herself much like an older sister to the rest of the company. She saw it as her responsibility to make sure they all succeeded, and was prepared to take the blame for their failure at every opportunity.
Immediately after the war, Erin's position as a propaganda figure and diplomatic attache left her feeling ill-utilized, like her capabilities as a Spartan were not being recognized. However, as always, she respected the authority of her superiors and performed the tasks she was assigned to to the best of her ability, even if she personally disagreed with them.
==Non-canon and dubious canon sources==
===Survival of the Fittest===
Two copies of Erin-G174 participated in Survival of the Fittest Season 8.
As part of Fireteam Blue-Echo, Erin was portrayed as an unarmed, biologically nine-year-old Gamma trainee. Her teammates consisted of 's Katin 'Zulmar, 's Rasyuus, and Erin's canon teammate Bless-G189—written by . After accepting equipment from both Rasyuus and Bless, Erin attempted to prove herself useful by climbing the tower at the Banished Outpost near the Vanguard river. From the top of the tower, she received sniper fire from 's Nelc and became separated from her team. She briefly reunited with Bless while trying to save the latter from 's Tobias Lensky and 's Gilberto Vargas, but was unsuccessful. She was able to kill Lensky with his own pistol, but ultimately succumbed to a beam rifle shot from Nelc. She finished in 77th.
As part of Fireteam Blue-Juliet, Erin was portrayed as a Gamma Company graduate, wearing new Mark VII MJOLNIR. Her teammates consisted of 's Is 'Ontom, 's Decipitus, and 's Arriane Doppler, a duplicate of fellow Gamma Company graduate Hari-G055. Her fireteam spent the first phase looting the UNSC outpost along the Vanguard river, and successfully avoided combat. While there, Erin unknowingly witnessed the fighting her younger self perished in on the other side of the river. Her fireteam also encountered 's Delvin-A125, the last survivor of his fireteam. Blue-Juliet agreed to an alliance with Delvin just prior to the conclusion of Phase 1.
This agreement was short-lived, however, as Erin broke off the alliance almost immediately upon learning of Delvin's most recent kill, the unarmed child Addison Solaski, written by . Delvin escaped from the resulting firefight when Blue-Juliet became nearly overwhelmed by attacking Aggressors, securing the ghost he was awarded for being on the winning team. Blue-Juliet survived the engagement with the Sentinels mostly unharmed, as Decipitus was able to successfully neutralize the main Enforcer Sentinel threat. The fireteam then secured a vehicle of their own, a Shadow, with the intent to modify it with Decipitus's Gauss weaponry.
==Trivia==
==Appearances==
* A Phoenix Unfurls Her Wings
* Kindling
===Non-Canon===
* Survival of the Fittest
** Season 8 (Fireteam Blue-Echo, Top 77) (Fireteam Blue-Juliet)
==References==