Winter Adams

## Winter Alexei Adams

Out of Armor

In Armor

## Physical Description

Winter’s build isn’t particularly unique. Essentially, he looks just like you’d expect an ODST to look like. His arms are well built, with good definition on the upper chest area, with broad shoulders and a muscled back. His lower abdomen sports a fairly well defined six pack and and little to no fat on the love handles. He can mostly be found in formfitting clothing, which only accentuates his build. Winter’s legs are well muscled and lean from years of running and exercise. Defining facial features include a sharp jawline, a lazily kept stubble (He doesn’t like beards, but also doesn’t like to shave it all off), piercing eyes and prominent brow. His hair, just like his stubble, never changes. It’s always kept in an messy Ivy League style.

## Personality

Winter is the kind of guy to capture the attention of the room and keep them entertained long enough for you to ignore the fact that he’s also getting the number of every girl in the room. His natural smile draws the party towards him. Most times he’s quick to a joke and even quicker to a drink. Winter has always been a flirty type, though the military has limited his choices in relationships. If you grab him a drink, he’ll be quick to crack a joke, and make you forget that you bought him the drink in the first place.

If you get to know his long enough, Winter is also a huge geek. In his free time, he scours the known universe for insight into history of any kind, be it alien or human. He could waste hours of your life retelling the stories of famous conflicts such as World War Two, or describe the First Battle of Harvest in excruciating detail. In short, Winter is a party geek, quick to a joke, quicker to a quick fact, and never afraid to let his inner geek shine out into the dark.

## Biography

Winter Alexei Adams was born to a middle class family in 2526. He lived a happy childhood in the suburbs of Southern California, in the United Republic of North America on Earth. He was raised up to be a good kid. He was always respectful to his elders whether related to him or not, always avoided fights (unless there was no way to avoid it), and stayed in school to keep the parents proud (not to say that he didn’t have his fair share of adventures with his friends). Most nights, he would stay awake and listen to the sound of crickets chirping in the canyon just behind his house. On nights with blackouts, he would sneak out and climb up to the roof of his house, just listening to the world around him and staring up at the stars in amazement. He would hold his thumb up in front of him and imagine the trillions of stars behind that small appendage, just waiting to be explored. He knew that he had to get there someday. He knew his destiny was in the stars, he just had to make it happen.

Throughout his academic career, Winter excelled in all of his classes with top marks. He took a particular interest in History and milestones for Humanity. At the time, what really caught Winter’s eye was the fact that there was a war raging. As he watched the news of planet after planet being glassed by genocidal aliens, Winter knew he had to enlist as soon as he came of age. Although he had been offered multiple full-ride scholarships to a number of prestigious universities, Winter turned them all down in favor of enlisting. His parents, although not completely in agreement with his decision, were supportive and acknowledged that he was a grown man who could do what he wanted with his life. Thus, Winter joined the Marines and spent the next few months in basic training.

After graduating basic training, Winter’s dream of going to space had become a reality. He was sent on his first deployment to a planet called Mesa. By the time his unit had arrived to fight, however, the battle was already lost. The Covenant, though they had sent a relatively small fleet, had blown straight through the planetary defenses and had begun an invasion. As Winter’s unit arrived, they were immediately fired upon by Covenant cruisers. Luckily, the small escort retinue attached to the troop transports provided ample cover fire. While the escorts drew the cruisers away, the remaining transports landed and deployed their cargo to rally points and firefights raging all across the planet. For the next four months, Winter would witness the horrors of war up close. All those years of reading about combat never prepared him to experience it for himself. After only one day in combat, Winter had already grown tired. Seeing his friends die in front of him and crushed his spirit. He felt he had made a mistake. But at the same time, something within him rose from the rubble of his shattered view of existence: If not for himself, then for them. Winter's mindset had shifted from one of self-preservation, to one of sacrifice. If he would die so that others would live and fight on, so be it. Soon, this new mentality would be put to the test.

During one particularly bloody engagement, Winter and his unit had been cut off from the main force and were under heavy fire. Multiple casualties had been sustained and evacuation was nowhere in sight. As he returned fire, two of Winter’s squadmates were caught in an explosion, blown back from grenade blast two feet into the open area. Against his better judgement, Winter threw down his rifle and rushed out to retrieve his fallen comrades. He grabbed them both and dragged them both back to cover under intense fire. He returned unscathed, and his squad chastised him for the action. One witness even stated that he saw a plasma burst headed straight for Winter’s head, but it just phased through. This legend earned him the nickname “Ghost” to his comrades. However, after all was said and done,his heroics earned him a battlefield commision to Sergeant, as well as a bronze star. The new promotion wouldn’t mean much, however, as the planetary invasion still trudged on.
The Siege of Mesa was a lost cause. Through the valiant efforts of the units deployed to the surface, all surviving civilians were able to be evacuated off-world. Now came the hard part; the fighting evacuation of all military personnel on-planet. Slowly but steadily, the planet fell to the Covenant. Winter was evacuated, along with the surviving remnants of his unit. He didn’t know who had stayed behind to protect them, but all he knew was that he was one of the lucky ones. As soon as their ship docked in friendly space, Winter was approached by ODST recruiters. He, along with a select few, had been chosen to become ODST’s for their actions in combat. At first, Winter was hesitant to leave his unit behind. But after a little discussion and persuasion by his squadmates, he was shipped off to ODST training school to become a helljumper.

After months of retraining, Winter was deployed to the Battle of Ballast with his newly formed unit. His unit was dropped in close proximity to the UNSC HQ on-planet to hold the perimeter as the personnel and equipment were transferred offworld. The firefight began with a massive Grunt charge, supported by Jackals snipers. When the ODST’s held the line, Brutes were sent in to crush the resistance.When they were also rendered combat ineffective, the Covenant finally sent in the Elites to crush them. This was when the perimeter began to fall. As the unit’s position was overrun, Winter was able to make a last stand with another ODST. Just as all hope seemed lost, reinforcements burst through the enemy line, effectively breaking the siege and rescuing the survivors. The remaining ODST’s made their way to safety and were transferred onto ships and sent back to Reach. By all accounts, the Battle of Ballast was a UNSC Victory, albeit a small one.

After Ballast, Winter would return to Earth for R&R and reassignment. This time, his unit was assigned to the UNSC In Amber Clad. As the Battle of Earth began, Winter and his unit were deployed to New Mombasa to assist in securing a landing site for further reinforcement to the city. However, his transport was damaged on approach, leaving him and the surviving members of his squad to fend for themselves as they moved their way to friendly forces further in the city. Winter and his squad fought small skirmishes around the outskirts until they were alerted to the activation of a slipspace portal within the city. There was no time for their unit to regroup with their ship, so their priority then became survival. His unit was able to find shelter in the highway tunnels nearby. After the squad emerged, they found that the fleet above them had been engaged by a new, larger invasion fleet, and more hostiles had been deployed within the city. Realizing their position, Winter’s new mission was to secure his team safe passage out of the city to regroup with remaining UNSC forces nearby. After a short ambush, he was able to procure a Phantom from a small group of covenant forces. The unit escaped the city and regrouped with UNSC forces rallying outside the city.

Winter spent the rest of the war fighting in small skirmishes around the African Continent. Once the war was over, the first thing he did was go home to check on his family. In his absence, Winter had missed much of his home life. Both of his parents had passed away in a car crash, with one of his brother’s taking care of their ancestral home in Southern California. His brother had raised a family; a life he had come to envy and wish for himself. Winter’s other brothers, to his dismay, had followed his lead and enlisted after he did. They were all either MIA or deployed to the far reaches of the universe. Once his visit with family was over, Winter regrouped with his unit, who were on shore leave in Australia. During this time, Winter took full advantage of his weekend passes to party as hard as he could, celebrating life and partaking in the fruits of the land. He even found a girl to help him forget the troubles of war for a night. Unfortunately for him, the girl he had slept with turned out to be a colonel’s daughter. This resulted in Winter’s demotion back to Private and reassignment to the Outer Colonies to assist in peacekeeping and recolonization operations. Once the operations were over, Winter returned to Earth for reassignment.