James Gregory Cutter was born on July 12, 2479, on the inner colony of Reach. After completing school, Cutter's father pushed for James to get a proper degree, but James instead joined the UN colony logistics office. Cutter's father became even more enraged when James joined flight school, calling his son, nothing more than a trucker. On September 15, 2500, Cutter entered the UNSC School of the North Star on Earth where he studied astronavigation and political science. Four years later on June 19, he was sent to the officer candidate school to learn command and navigation. On November 16, 2507, Cutter entered service as a Lieutenant and Junior Navigation Officer aboard a diplomatic attaché, the stick, attached to the UNSC brilliant shores. On January 9, 2514, he was transferred to the UNSC final summit and appointed Chief Navigation Officer. Five years later on August 8, 2519, Cutter was a again transfer this time to the UNSC Glasgow, promoted to the rank of commander and given command of the colony freighter. On May 22, 2524, he was awarded the bronze star for his actions against terrorists in the Epsilon Indy system. Prior to captaining spirit of fire, Cutter would serve aboard six total ships and sometime after his service on Glasgow would be promoted to the rank of captain and given command of another ship. Cutter was also known to have participated in Operation Trebuchet during his career and anti-insurrection campaign that lasted from 2513 until the outbreak of the Covenant War in 2525. At a time unknown, Cutter was married to a woman named Mary and the two had a daughter, both lived on reach. Though Cutter was a dedicated family man, he would end up having an affair with a woman on tribute, producing his son named Daniel. At the onset of the human Covenant War, captain Cutter was handpicked by Vice Admiral Preston Cole to command the support ship UNSC spirit of fire, attached to Battle Group D, Third Fleet. Cutter arrived on his new ship on August 8, 2525. From early in his career, Cutter was known to prefer engaging non-offers, believing strongly and getting to know and earning the respective ones men, believing that quote, they'll give you 200% when the time comes. When given command of spirit of fire, Cutter kept this tradition alive, often walking the ship at night to check on his crew. The respect he earned also extended beyond his ship as inner colony coffee houses were known to offer him free coffee beans for long deployments. His command of spirit of fire also allowed Cutter and his father to reconcile. Cutter's father was brought aboard to tour the ship after which the old man found himself impressed with his son. I guess you knew something after all, your mom would be proud. It's all the old man said, but it was enough for Cutter. On January 30, 2528, Cutter was offered command of the marathon class heavy cruiser, the UNSC prophecy. Cutter turned it down however as he liked how his command of the spirit often kept him near reach and rarely sent along deployments. The downside of this decision however was that Cutter would be unlikely to be offered such a prestigious promotion ever again. Also by 2528, future fleet admiral Terrence Hood was serving under Cutter as his executive officer. Cutter would have a lasting effect on Hood who would be commanding the UNSC Roman Blue two years later. In January of 2530, Cutter met the smart AI Serena who had replaced his previous AI. Serena was known to be sarcastic and somewhat abrasive but she and Cutter would work together well. Later that same year, Sergeant John Forge was transferred to the spirit by Admiral Cole himself after an altercation with an officer. The officer had been harassing John's relative, Gillian Forge, and his daughter Lucy. Because of this, Cole overlooked Forge attacking a superior officer. On board the spirit, Cutter recognized Forge's ability and often trusted him to head operations. On January 3rd, 2531, Cutter was given orders to deploy near harvest and assist the UNSC prophecy. Upon arriving, they found the crews are heavily damaged and leaking radiation. The spirit fought off local covenant forces in space while teams led by Sergeant Forge headed in to destroy Navdata and rescue survivors. Sadly, the spirit arrived too late and any survivors died to deradiation poisoning. By February 4th, the spirit had been assigned to investigate covenant activity on harvest. Around this time, Professor Ellen Anders had been assigned as a civilian consultant by Oene. When she arrived, Cutter was briefed on the professor's assessment of Oene's surveillance of covenant service activity. Cutter set a team led by Sergeant Forge to investigate. After making an entry in his captain's log, stating that though harvest had technically been reclaimed, the covenant worked likely to back down, he contacted Forge on the surface. Forge confirmed high covenant activity and was ordered to pull back to Alpha Base. Unfortunately, the base had been overrun and Forge was forced to take it back. Spirit of Fire provided air support during the final assault. Once Alpha was secure, UNSC forces were able to investigate the Forge when her site the covenant had previously been interested in. Professor Anders was sent down to personally investigate and upon returning to the spirit, informed Cutter that she had found a forerunner map that pointed to the colony of Arcadia. Cutter was initially reluctant to leave considering the ongoing covenant activity on harvest, but was soon convinced. He contacted Admiral Cole and was allowed to redeploy. On February 9th, the spirit arrived over Arcadia only to find the capital of Perth under attack. Cutter deployed spirit forces to aid in the evacuation before focusing again on the covenant's main activity on Arcadia. From here on out, they would also be aided by Spartan team Red. The covenant had constructed a giant energy dome over a forerunner site. Anders suggested using plasma rhinos to take down the shield and Cutter gave permission for her to be on the surface to tune the rhinos accordingly. Once the dome was broken and the covenant inside eliminated Anders under guard from Forge, again investigating the ruins. It was here that she was kidnapped by a massive elite, the Sunhealy Ripomormy, also known as the Arbiter. Forge and Red team sped that to the spirit after informing Cutter of Anders' kidnapping. Once on board, Forge insisted on giving chase while Red team leader Spartan Jerome 092 suggested destruction. Cutter went with the former. On February 23rd, the spirit arrived over an unknown planet in an unknown region of space. They were immediately engaged by Gerald Hanna forces, but soon found themselves under attack from an alien parasite known as the Flood. Eventually the spirit was dragged into the planet where Flood and now Forerunner sent Nils engaged her forces. Upon emerging within the world, a shield world as the Forerunners called it, the spirit once again engaged Codna forces and was eventually able to recover Anders. From there, Anders informed Cutter of what she had learned while captured. The shield world contained a massive fleet. She suggested using the spirit's slip space drive to cause the shield world's artificial sun to go supernova, destroying the planet and anything within. The plan was ultimately a success though Sergeant Forge was forced to sacrifice himself in order to carry it out. After the spirit escaped, the crew spent the next two weeks investigating ways to manufacture a replacement slip space drive, monitoring the area for covenant activity, and ensuring no flood infection had found its way on board the ship. By March 11th most of the crew had entered cryo and Captain Cutter would follow soon after. On February 10th, 2543 the spirit of fire was classified as lost with all hands, it changed from its previous classification as MIA. The reason was never made publicly available. 28 years passed with little to no activity. However, in early 2559, Captain Cutter was awoken from cryo along with the rest of his crew. He finds a recorded message from Serena, explaining that she is no longer around, but had left programs and messages in place to awaken the crew in the event of a number of predetermined scenarios. Cutter finds a ship over a mysterious alien artifact known as the Ark and soon after, under attack from a group composed of alien species calling itself the banished. How did the spirit drift so far in so little time? What is this mysterious installation and what interest does it hold to these banished? Many questions must be running through Cutter's mind and answers will only come in time. Hey guys, thanks for watching. If you liked this video, please consider giving it a thumbs up, subscribing and sharing it around. You are the reason I get to keep doing this, so thank you, profusely thank you. If you want to dive deeper into Halo's lore, head over to the Halo Archive. It's a lore based community that welcomes everyone from experts to rookies. No matter what you're working knowledge, you'll be sure to find a friend and a good time.