Ashley Coeman

Ashley Coeman ( 12120-15025-AC) is an agent of the Special Investigations Division (ONISID) and former ORION operative. Prior to joining ORION, she was a member of Port Violet Police on and a leading member of the department's crisis team. Her skills and reputation earned in Port Violet PD soon hailed her as a hometown hero. Her name eventually made its way to the offices of the , and sent a representative to recruit her into the inter-service Counter-Terrorism Reaction Force (CTRF) under the command of the newly formed Joint Task Force Polaris.
Unbeknownst to her and other members, the CTRF was a control group monitored by to survey potential candidates for Project ORION. She would join ORION in 2503 during its final phase, being only one of few non-military personnel to join the program.
When Project ORION was shut down in 2506, she chose the option to retire rather than continue her military service. Originally planning to return to Minister and be reinstated into Port Violet SWAT, she instead accepted an offer to join ONISID.
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==Biography==
===Early Life===
Ashley was born the youngest of two children to Jens Coeman and Anika Coeman (née Rasmussen) on February 22, 2478 in the agricultural district on . Ashley was born in the middle of the decade long Straussman Drought, which threatened the agricultural output of tens of millions of acres of farmland throughout the region. This region was largely void of corporate influence, instead managed by a tight-knit council of farmers, including her father, that maintained the land together. Unfortunately, the onset of the Straussman Drought saw an increase in the risk of a corporate take over from companies like and . 
In order to prevent the devastation of the entire farm, Ashley's father was forced sign a contract to take subsidies from and lease them fifteen percent of their land, who was one of many corporation that had already been slowly encroaching upon and buying out land throughout the region. When Ashley was four years old the drought worsened, and most of the family farm had been irreversibly destroyed. With the farm's sustainability shattered, her father filed for bankruptcy.
However, the filing enacted a hidden clause in the contract with Oros Trade, who quickly took action by seizing another thirty-percent of the farmland. Jens fought the seizing of land, only to fail and witness more than half of the land being surrendered to Oros. Her father continued to fight, contacting members of the council only to be met with the news that most of the farming communities had already given in to the corporations or sold their land and moved off-world. Disillusioned with this news, her father received an offer from Oros to sell the remaining land for thirty million credits. But her stubborn father refused, continued to fight a futile war. 
Oros gradually seized more land over the next seven months using corporate loopholes in the contract. By October 2483, more than ninety percent of the farm was lost. A broken Jens Coeman received a final offer to sell the farm for less than half of the original offer, or else an eviction notice would be sent to the Coeman family within two weeks. Backed into a corner, he could do nothing else but accept the offer.
With everyone gone, the Coeman family moved off-world and settled on the inner colony of in February 2484. Using the money from the sale, her family bought a reasonably large plot of land outside the city of Port Violet. Within two years, the new Coeman Farm enjoyed newfound prosperity and thanks to Minister's colonial corporate regulations, experiencing a greater level of economic and personal freedom than they originally had on Mars.
===Port Violet Police Department===
As Ashley reached adulthood, she was faced with two choices: remain on the family farm, or attend the regional college. While she performed well in school, she had no major ambitions to look towards and had no further interest in furthering her education. Though that mindset did leave her future up in the air, she also had no desire to keep working in the field with her family, deeming it to be too solitary for her own comfort. Ashley yearned for the sights and sounds of the big cities, thus liberating herself and escaping the confines farming. She'd decided her future month before she graduated from secondary school by applying to the Violet Provincial Police Academy. She'd arrive at the academy two months later in June 2496 and graduated in January 2497.
She would be inducted into the Port Violet Police Department and her first assignment came as part of her field training. Partnered with a senior officer, her field training came during a rough period of Minister's history, exposing her to the harsh realities of what Port Violet law enforcement is. As her training continued, the stability of the city worsened. Ashley would participate in the Maaserin Square riots in April 2497 and took a grazing wound to her leg from stray gunfire when the riot police line broke. The riots had nearly destroyed the reputation of Port Violet PD, and so many had begun to believe that anarchy would set in that Minister's Colonial Militia was brought in to end the chaos.
The aftermath of the riots had brought a great deal of attention to not only Port Violet, but Minister as a whole. Maaserin was only the beginning of a larger conflict for Minister, and it would be the catalyst in drawing out the more sinister and extremist groups from the shadows. In the summer of 2497, Ashley would be introduced to the Insurrection, and it would hit her close to home.
As the Insurrection finally came to the doorstep of Minister, the attacks started out small. Military targets were the priority, probing the defenses of Minister by hitting Militia barracks and bombing UNSC airbases. These inconsistent, but coordinated strikes alarmed the government and set the colony's alert level to the highest it's been since the Inner Colony Wars. The first major civilian attacks did not come until July 2497. By this time, Ashley's field training has been fast-tracked, placing her as a full-time officer though she would remain partnered with her field training officer for the time being, as Port Violet's manpower was stretched thin. She and her partner would patrol the streets during the Market Farmer's Festival, being held in the heart of the Marketplace District and placing them directly in the crosshairs of Minister's greatest tragedy.
By midday, the Marketplace District was full of thousands of people, browsing the various goods provided by the colony's local producers. While patrolling the crowds of the festival, Ashley unexpectedly reunited with her father, Jens Coeman, who was hoping to sell most of the Midjaaroogst (Mid-year harvest) before Minister's long winter set in. After reconciling and promising to visit soon Ashley went back on patrol. She was no more than a few meters from her father's booth when an explosion erupted out from below her and sent her flying forward into a concrete wall. When she awoke, the bomb had torn a grisly hole 50 meters in diameter, almost completely decimating the entire district. As she struggled to get up, her partner was nowhere to be found and was alone aside from a few unresponsive bodies and some gravely injured civilians. Her first thought was to help those around her that were injured, but she suddenly remembered that her own father was here and rushed to where his booth had been. After what felt like hours digging through rubble on her own, she finally found her father and pulled him to safety. Ashley tried to ignore her father's disemboweled body and instead focused on comforting her dying father in his last moments. In an adrenaline rush of grief and guilt, she apologized for leaving home, for not visiting sooner, and for many great deals of other things. But using his last words, Jens had proclaimed and reassured his daughter that there was never a prouder parent than he was of her.
In the aftermath of the attack, her father, her partner, and nearly three thousand other civilians were killed by the blast. And while Ashley was in the hospital recovering from the concussion she received, an extremist secessionist group known as the Dancing Flame took responsibility and carried out additional attacks, leaving the colony in a state of panic and fear. But fueled with newfound resolve and a stirring desire for revenge, Ashley would risk her life and career to become the architect of their demise.
===Dancing with Flames===
===Joint Task Force Polaris===
With the insurrection on Minister quelled, a sense of normalcy began to return to the colony. By 2501, martial law had been lifted and the colonial government planned for a renewed election cycle for the first time in four years. With their leadership eliminated or incarcerated, and their support dwindled to only a few hundred people, the Dancing Flame fled back into the shadows, their fire all but extinguished. 
And though this chapter of her life had come to an end, her contribution to the dismantling of the Dancing Flame had sparked the interest of higher authorities. Ashley was now hailed as a hometown hero, and the next stage of her life would set her on a path that would decide her life for many years to come. 
Ashley would resume work in the Port Violet Crisis Team in early April 2501, though her reception was not what she had initially expected. In order to keep her self and her friends and family safe from retaliation, her role in the takedown of Dancing Flame was kept secret. There were no ceremonies held, no exchanges of congratulations were given. She could not blame them, as everyone including her had wished for a permanent return to normalcy, and by keeping the centerpiece that brought down the Dancing Flame would ensure that this new normal would continue unhindered. And so for the next four weeks, Ashley was confined to the boring, routine desk jobs as to not arouse suspicion. But as the turn of the month came, she had gotten bored of her new position and would be confronted by a pair of men in black offer an opportunity similar to her former occupation and a much-needed change of scenery.
After presenting their offer to her, Ashley received an unmarked and encrypted datapad. She was urged to read the contents of the pad as soon as possible as the encrypted data would erase itself in seven hours, and the pad would become permanently locked out. Intrigued to learn more, Ashley raced back to her apartment where she felt secure and read the datapad. 
The encoded information presented her with Joint Operation Polaris, an inter-service task force under the command of the UNSC Navy to conduct deep infiltration and sabotage of dozens of insurrectionist and secessionist factions throughout the Colonies. Ashley would learn that she was but one of one-hundred and thirteen individuals thoroughly vetted and selected to take part in this joint operation. While the candidates could elect to not participate, they were strongly encouraged to accept and would be rewarded handsomely for their service, ranging from monetary compensation to early retirement. The candidates listed came from all branches of service within the military, and even included those (Ashley included) from the private and public sectors deemed of exemplary stature.
Further reading provided a list of what is expected from Polaris. Candidates will be required to receive an injection of the 4772-N7 Nightshade serum, a neural-altering mutagenic drug that claimed to provide an individual with enhanced reaction time and a resistance to all forms of interrogation techniques that may be employed by insurgent groups. 
===Project ORION===
===Spears of Madrigal===
===The Long Road...===
===...And What Comes After===
==Personal Life==
==Personality and Traits==
===Skills and Abilities===
===Quotes===
==Career==
===Career Service Vitae===
===Equipment===
==Relationships==
==Appearances==
*Blackbird
Category:Commonwealth Human Characters
Category:ONI Personnel
Category:Spartan-Is
Category:Commonwealth SPARTANS