James Corbett/Old Version

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James Corbett, callsign John Charlie, was a renowned United Nations Space Command orbital-drop shock trooper credited with thousands of kills in hundreds of battles as both a sniper and rifleman during his extensive. Unlike most ODSTs, James befriended over a dozen SPARTAN-II's and III's, partially due to the fact that he was not a member of the anti-SPARTAN 125th ODST Division, but actually the 127th ODST Division for most of his career before being transferred. James also befriended an Unggoy ship commander, Reja'iri, an act seldom performed by humans.
==Biography==
===Childhood===
James Corbett was born on December 22nd, 2528, on the UNSC colony planet Vol. His father, John Corbett, was a defense contractor with Haverson Security while his mother, Evelyn Crowe, was a part-time hairdresser. He had an older brother, Darren, and three younger siblings, Gerald, Lee, and Byron.
From an early age, James, as with his older brother Darren, were neglected by their parents due to their busy lifestyle and the two would often get into trouble around their neighborhood. When James was seven and Darren twelve, they took their air rifles and pretended to hold up a homeless man as if he was a bank teller, having never been taught values. After a surprising lecture from the homeless man, James' ideals changed drastically, though only temporarily. By age thirteen growing neglect due to three younger siblings induced James to enter a local gang where he became a raider of enemy strongholds, including a local Insurrectionist camp. Within days, the gang, which operated more like a rebel group, assigned James to ride in a pickup truck fitted with an M38 Light Anti-Air Gun and raid said Insurrectionist base and attempt to steal munitions to aid in a planned assault on the small UNSC base in the area. Armed with a T17 Assault Rifle, James "scored" two kills that night.
As the months went on, the raid on the UNSC base was canceled as drug dealing within the gang had flourished At age fourteen, James raided an enemy gang outpost with two other gang members, again armed with a T17. However, upon entering the backyard of the lot, an enemy gang member shot him in the leg, smashing his left femur. To his avail, backup arrived and relieved James just in time. Realizing the path James was following, nineteen-year old Darren brought him to his house in the country where James began attending a prestigious high school, at first against his will, though he eventually consented and by his sophomore year was playing freeball, a fast-paced form of gridiron football. By his junior, he would maintain a 3.2 grade-point average and would become popular as an extremely talented freeballer. By his senior year, he became highly interested in joining the military despite being recruited by dozens of colleges with a full scholarship to most. Influenced by his friend Nicholas Anderson, James enrolled in the Vol Officers' Academy after graduation.
===Training===
Once at the school, James was put through an intense four week conditioning program, filtering out 30% of all entrees. This program included the infamous Raymondo, a four mile obstacle course with no time limit, only requiring that you finish it. James just barely finished the course, almost bailing out twice. Over the next three years, James underwent intense schooling, physical, and strategic training for the preparation of being a Marine officer. When it came to physical courses, James' extremely large and powerful build pulled through many times. At the age of 21, however, his left arm was severed in an accident where the troop-transport hog he was on the rear of violently flipped, landing on James. Using modern flash cloning technology along with the construction of synthetic bones, his arm was fortunately replaced in just eighteen days. He went on to graduate VOA in a class of over 3,000. However, these years proved to be difficult for James, as a life as a gang member gave him a lack of discipline. He was determined to change this by joining the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Corps. He applied to the ODST Academy the day of his graduation from the Officers' Academy, and was accepted, though almost not. He, along with 150 other applicants from the VOL were transported to Fort Bay, Reach for training. After six more weeks of grueling training including sniper school, James finished the course and was assigned to the 127th ODST Division and stationed aboard the cruiser UNSC Troy of the UNSC 14th Fleet.
===First Service Years===
Once aboard the UNSC Troy, Lieutenant Corbett was put in charge of Combat Team Bravo (a.k.a. Bravo Team), a group of twelve ODSTs. Within just a few weeks of James arriving on the ship, the fleet received a distress signal from a nearby planet. As the fleet was already en route to another system, the 14th sent a detachment of eight ships to help the colony that was being assaulted, Suddara. The flagship of this newly formed battlegroup was the UNSC Troy.
====Battle of Suddara====
Once Battlegroup Troy arrived close enough to Suddara, the ships engaged the Covenant ships, which outnumbered the current defenses nine ships to four. To combat the enemy, the battlegroup split into three groups, two down the middle, one from "above", three to the right flank, and two on the left, though these two, including the Troy, were going to try and land soldiers in the capital city and secure it. As the battlegroup carried out the plan, the Covenant group took notice too early and engaged the "above" ship and the two ships with four of their vessels and the other five set up a strategic assault on the other nine UNSC warships. The frigate with the Troy realized what was happening and engaged the Covenant, an obviously suicide move. The frigate was quickly boarded and disabled, but this move allowed the Troy to drop twelve HEV's, including James', in a slow swoop over Vega City, the planet's capital. To assist the assault, two Albatrosses were deployed to set up a firebase along with two Pelicans for support. In just a few moments, the HEV's landed with zero casualties. The dropships arrived soon after, setting up a base of command just outside the city, though the nearest HEV landing spot was over one and a half miles away, which was the Lieutenant's.
Luckily for the UNSC ground forces, there were less than three hundred soldiers spread throughout Vega City, which was spread out over 20 square miles, which included suburbs. James' second-in-command, Corporal Tim Kuhn, along with another member of Beta Team, Private Isabelle Castillo landed near the Lieutenant. The three temporarily formed Fireteam Alpha and began a recon of the area. In just a few minutes, they were caught an enemy lance of Kig-Yar footsoldiers backed by a sniper using a jet pack to traverse the rooftops of the dozens of two- and three-story buildings in the city. The first shot of the skirmish was a missing shot from the Covenant sniper aimed at Private Castillo. She reacted by taking cover behind the rubble of a fallen building, and the other two took cover behind an standing building. With a few well placed bursts from his BR55, James had downed two of six of the Kig-Yar on the ground, and a flash-bang grenade from Corporal Kuhn had temporarily disabled the sniper, allowing the fireteam to move in. The well-trained ODSTs made quick work of the remaining ground troops. They entered the building that the sniper was on top of and ascended to the roof, killing the single enemy. The team ran a quick check on the nearby buildings for any Covenant presence, but instead of finding an enemy, they found three high school-aged boys and a man in a building. One was armed with an M3A3, another with a T17, and the other two were unarmed. Two of the ODST's gave them their M6B sidearms to compensate. The group of rescuees said that there was trouble with evacuation because over a dozen city entrance blockades were set up too early and made leaving the city very difficult, and any anti-air that Colonial Militants set up was subdued by assaulting Spirits and Phantoms, trapping thousands in Vega City borders. The group then moved on, not only attempting to clear out the Covenant, but also searching for survivors. 
The now larger Fireteam Alpha returned to its patrol, but this time yelling for survivors every once in a while and occasionally searching a building. After about an hour, the group took a break because the civilian members were exhausted from the 120-degree heat(Farenheit), but the ODSTs were fine thanks to cooling systems built into their Body Suits. Approximately five minutes into their break, two Mongooses arrived at their position with portable M247 machine guns welded behind the driver's seat for additional firepower. The drivers of the four-wheelers lent the two civilians armed with sidearms their MA5B's to maximize the the fireteam's efficiency, and the group moved on with the Mongooses up front and everybody else behind them. But their trek was short lived when a distress signal from the nearby Combat Team Foxtrot was picked up by James' comm device. The group rushed to their position, with the four civilians in the rear because of their lack of protective armor. However, this group of Covenant soldiers was much stronger: one Sangheili Major, one Minor, and eight Unggoy. The Combat Team was reduced from eleven and a Warthog to just four and no vehicle support. As Fireteam Alpha began to take their positions, an Unggoy lobbed a Plasma Grenade, sticking Corporal Kuhn. He whispered "take us home, James," just before being killed, words that James would remember to his death.
After just a few more seconds of trading fire, Isabelle took a fast pair of carbine rounds to the face, killing her instantly. Fortunately, the pair of Mongooses pulled through, killing the Sangheili pair and two Unggoy each. However, a last minute firing on James by a Needler put heavy damage on his knee just as more Covenant forces arrived. Two of the teenagers helped him into a building with large window openings in the front, and the rest of the UNSC force followed. The two Mongooses weren't of much use now and they were abandoned, but not before each driver accelerated and jumped off followed by one of the gunners throwing a grenade at the Mongooses, detonating their engines and remaining ammunition for the M247's. After nearly thirty minutes of fighting, the UNSC group prevailed, but only with Lieutenant Corbett, two of the civilians, and one of the other Marines surviving. Minutes later, the group was picked up by a Pelican which took them to the firebase, which was soon evacuated by the sole remaining ship of Battlegroup Troy, the UNSC Queen Victoria, and the ship jumped out of the system, but luckily, the Covenant ships stayed to glass the planet. Though the battle was a failure, it would be the first true conflict for James.
===Covenant Assault on Earth===
After two years and a number of more battles, including the Battle of Reach, Lieutenant Corbett had ended up in control of Sierra Company aboard the Nairobi Rapid Deployment Platform, which as the name implies, is intended to get soldiers to the surface in a short amount of time and is in geosynchrous orbit over Nairobi, Kenya, Earth.
When the Prophet of Regret's Fleet made an assault on Earth, James was stationed not far from the Covenant assault on New Mombasa, specifically on the Dubai Orbital Defense Platform. However, before it could deploy any soldiers, three Covenant boarding craft latched onto the station, deploying over fifty soldiers. James led a group of seven other ODST's and seven Marines to the nearest boarding craft location. However, there progress was cut short when a group of two Sangheili and nine Unggoy attacked the assault team. James, armed with an M90 from the nearest armory, took down both Sangheili while the others in the team took out the rest, sustaining only one casualty. The team pressed forward and ended up in the second floor of a hangar bay which one of the boarding craft had entered through. Eight Marines and two ODST's were pinned down by almost fifteen Covenant soldiers who were on the ground. There were still two half-prepared Pelicans still docked which made for a troublesome obstacle. An M247 and AIE-486H were set up to work around the ships and helped out the UNSC soldiers. However, a Jiralhanae Chieftain armed with a Fuel Rod Gun was leading the Covenant force, and needed to be taken out. James and another ODST got on top of a Pelican to try and get a better angle on the hostiles. Luckily, a Jiralhanae lobbed a Spike Grenade up near James, who threw it right back, killing four enemies. Unfortunately, success was short lived when another Jiralhanae threw up another Spike Grenade, by this time with a delayed throw. The grenade detonated without James even having a chance to react and his right knee and right hand/forearm were heavily injured.
Still needing to protect himself, he armed his M6G and began firing at the Covenant still below him, though his partner was killed by the blast. If things weren't bad enough, an explosion from outside the station greatly rattled it, knocking an unprepared James off of the Pelican. When he hit the ground, he hit with his right leg first which damaged the anterior cruciate ligament and double-fractured his Tibia. Luckily, adrenaline started to swarm through his body and he continued to fight until the UNSC force proved victorious in the small engagement. Right after the end of the skirmish, James went unconscious, but was rushed to the nearest medical station by a corpsman, who administered an intravenous drip then waited until he was stable enough to operate on his badly hurt knee. Hours later, he awoke to find that he was about to be put back to sleep for surgery.
Within days of being put back into active duty, he would be assigned to the frigate UNSC Buffalo of the emergency UNSC Home Fleet. Just after this occurrence, the Covenant made a massive final assault on Earth, beginning the 2nd Battle of Earth. However, this time, they were prepared for the enemy and had enough ships for multiple battles which included Cleveland, Ohio; various areas in Pakistan; Voi, Kenya; Fallujah, Iraq; Antartica, and others. When one ship of the fleet came into orbit right over Cleveland, the Buffalo did the same thing. It prepared to deploy two Pelicans, which carried twelve Marines, two ODST's, including James at the lead of the assault along two Cobras. They reached the suburb of Parma, Ohio, just a few miles south of Cleveland. Within moments a Covenant infantry detachment ambushed the platoon, pinning them down in a commercial parking lot. A Banshee came in overhead from the east, opposite from where the Covenant attackers were, but oddly engaged the Covenant. It, along with the platoon easily obliterated the opposition.
When the Banshee landed near the UNSC-controlled position, the pilot was revealed to be a second-generation SPARTAN-II, Travis-379. The group then pressed onward through suburbs, with the destination non-Covenant secured Old Cleveland. Their trek was short lived when two Phantoms and a Vampire escort cut off the group. The Cobras transformed into their stationary form and began firing on enemy forces, supported by infantry. James, who was armed with an MA5K with a grenadier attachment, fired a grenade aimed ten feet in front of an enemy Ghost, hitting ground right behind it but flipping it. The other was quickly taken out by the cannon of a Cobra. With the help of the new ally, this enemy group was also taken out, though Travis' Banshee was shot down by the enemy Vampire. Travis had said that the Covenant are attempting to gather people not only from Cleveland, but also from the suburbs to attempt to find something. The group, which now had eleven footsoldiers, commandeered a few civilian vehicles in the parking lot and began to travel west since that was where the previous group of Covenant soldiers came from.
After a short, danger-enriched trek, they arrived in the town of Elyria, where they found that citizens had gathered weapons and supplies and had secured a small area. Here, the group stayed to look for a functioning radio (the radio in Travis' suit had stopped working hours earlier) and to find a leader, if there was one, of the militia. They found out that the group formed about a month ago and had begun collecting as many weapons as they could for another Covenant invasion. When the Covenant did invade a second time, they rallied here in Elyria, where they have been safe so far. They also found out that Put-in-Bay, a small island town approximately 45 miles to the northwest, had been assaulted by Scarabs armed with large mining devices, which were likely looking for the artifact. The squad then radioed for a transport to take them to the island, where they could try to stop the attack. In about twenty minutes, an HMH-460 Canary Helicopter arrived, which met up with another HMH and a Pelican to take eight of the squad members and an additional sixteen soldiers to Put-in-Bay.
thumb|right|South Bass Island, the main island of the town of Put-in-Bay. The runway is outlined in red and Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial in blue.The group was dropped covertly (the dropships came in within fifteen of the surface) at the southern point of the island. James split the group into two, with the two ODSTs, Travis-379, and five of the Marines go up the eastern coast (Alpha Squad) and the remaining Marines would go up the western coast (Bravo Squad). Once Alpha Squad arrived at the coastal runway, they noticed that Covenant forces had set up a camp on the flat piece of land, along with a Wraith facing away from the squad, about twenty yards away. Using his fast speed on foot, Travis sprinted towards the Wraith, and attached a two kilogram brick of C12 plastic explosive from a member of the group, and ran away as quickly as he could before the timed detonator on the charge went off. He got to safety with a few seconds to spare and watched the vehicle explode into a giant field of shrapnel. The explosion caught the attention of the Kig-Yar camp guards, who alerted the outpost of the squad. James took cover behind a boulder on the banks of the island and began firing bursts of ammunition at oncoming forces along with the other ODST, Lance Corporal Danielle Robinson, who was right next to him. She was armed with a much longer ranged SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, which allowed her to pick off shielded Kig-Yar with ease.
After reloading, James hung his body out from the left side of the boulder, but was hit by a sniper in his shoulder. After applying BioFoam to allow his shoulder to function properly and recover from the burn of the shot of the enemy sniper rifle. With the burdening sting of the chemical, James and Danielle ran down the shore while partially crouched as fast as they could. When they arrived at the enemy armory, the Lieutenant grabbed a satchel of eight incendiary grenades and proceeded to lob them at the oncoming alien attackers. He scored over fifteen kills, then he proceeded to the AA battery with Lance Cpl. Robinson, both armed with the two Fuel Rod Guns from the makeshift armory while the rest of the squad fought off the outpost belligerents.
After a few minutes of traveling, the pair of ODSTs had come across a small military comm station, from which they could report their progress. However, the radio had been taken out of the small room, likely by the Covenant. Shattering glass startled the pair, and James noticed that the small window facing Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial, a three hundred and fifty foot-tall column, and when he took a quick glance at the tower, he noticed that there was another sniper on the observation deck. Just then, the rest of Alpha Squad came running out of the brush, which was only now just two Marines and Travis. This changed fairly quickly when the sniper scored a direct shot on one of the Marine's left eye. They hurried into the station where Travis, who was armed with an M99B "Stanchion" Gauss Rifle, set up his weapon on the window sill, then quickly took aim and fired, turning what was once a sniper into a splash of purple entrails before the foe could get one shot off at the SPARTAN. The group then rallied with the full-powered Bravo Squad, who reported no enemy encounters.
The combined group checked the remainder of the island, an action which did them no good, as the mining Scarabs had already left without even digging. They found a second comm station, which did maintain a radio system, and the group used it to call for a transport, but the radio's power had been cut. The team had to wait it out for the next three hours before a UNSC Air Force-operated Pelican flying over spotted the group. The Pelican pilot said that all forces were to be brought to the nearest UNSC base or outpost to wait for new orders, while Travis was ordered to go to New Cleveland and to spy and relay any new data to command, a mission he would succeed in, but find little new information. By this time elsewhere, the Battle of Installation 00 was raging on, and most Covenant activity had been contained, except for Cleveland, which had too many hostiles for any nearby force to attack at the moment. This would be the last time James saw any combat in the Human-Covenant War.
===End of the Human-Covenant War===
On February 6th, 2553, James, along with hundreds of other UNSC personnel, attended an awards ceremony to commemorate those who had done great achievements in the Battles of Earth, Reach, and a handful of others. James earned a Silver Star for his effort at Put in Bay, a Human-Covenant War Participation Medal, and a Purple Heart for his injuries on the Nairobi RDP. On April 5th, he and his oldest brother, Darren, visited the Hillside Memorial where James left a picture of his graduating class from ODST training, a third of which didn't survive the war.
====Post-War Cleanup====
After a few months of rest, James had been ordered to travel to the colony of Festa, a partially glassed planet twenty-five light-years from Earth. There, he and three hundred other UNSC personnel worked to reestablish order and build shelter and farms which would supply the citizens of Festa with clean water and food. The group had literally rebuilt the town of Fenson Village in just one month, which had a population of over 4,000, many of which were homeless before reconstruction began.
When the group was released to return to their respective homeworlds for a short time, James knew from his brother that his was glassed and most of the family perished. He stayed behind with Danielle Robinson, who was also in the group, and the two worked with locals to build a small city center, which would include a small day care and orphanage. The building was completed in about two weeks. Druring this time, James and Danielle began to develop a brother-sister bond, and the two shared much of their story before joining the military, but James did have trouble with convincing Danielle of his freeball career. When the two finally returned to Earth, they were both awarded the Post-Traumatic Restoration Medal for restoring the lives of others from the burdens of conflict. Since both Lt. Corbett and the now promoted Corporal Robinson were made homeless by the war, the two stayed in an apartment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the next few weeks.
====Augmentation====
During this downtime, James received a message saying that he had been elected by ONI to receive a number of light augmentations. He happily accepted the opportunity and was transported via ferry to the planet of Rhonos, ONI's new temporary base of operations. In order to attain the highest success rate, James was put through a rigorous physical training program similar to that of the SPARTAN-III program. Challenges ranged from subduing multiple foes in hand-to-hand combat to the final 34 mile mountain trek. Out of the 140 applicators for this program, only sixty-five finished the two-month course, including James. The next step was to endure the operation. Though it much less complex than SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III, 15% were expected to either die or become crippled. A number of small changes were made, including the grafting of advanced material throughout most, but not all, bones and the injection of a complex synthesized protein into primary muscle masses, both of which are much like SPARTAN procedures. James was one of the many that survied, and after a number of physical tests, the procedures proved to be a great success. He was able to lift one-hundred thirty percent of what he could before and could run impressively faster, small changes that would make a large difference on the battlefield.
===Return to War===
Soon after James had returned from these procedures, the Great Civil War had begun. James was assigned to an assault force that would engage Union makeshift warships near the Torah Asteroid Belt.
====Battle of Tora Asteroid Belt====
Within days of the beginning of the war, James had been deployed from a Mako-class Corvette via shuttle to an installation on a five-mile asteroid filled with rebels. James led a team of specialists into the commercial wing of the station and set up barricades and eliminated nearly twenty-five rebels before a platoon of counter-terrorist Marines arrived to secure the station. Since there was an additional frigate in system, James' squad and two others quickly departed to secure another smaller station in-system before exiting for future operations.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF JAMES W. CORBETTBeloved Husband, Father, Grandfather, and Great-Grandfather.April 27th, 1935June 9th, 2009
Category: Halo: Infinity
Category:ODST