Jorge-052

"Guess I've gotten soft in my old age. Way I figure it, if mankind's as doomed as everyone says it is, the least we can do is help each other along, y'know? Waste of time fighting to save humanity if we don't even know how to be human."

- Jorge-052

Spartan-052, born György Őrszem and later Anglicized to Jorge, was a chemically and cybernetically augmented Spartan-II super-soldier that participated in much of the Human-Covenant War as well as the ongoing conflict with the. He is noted as having been one of the Spartans to see more action against human opponents than alien, his record detailing his involvement in multiple anti-insurgency operations from his first active duty mission to serving alongside - a period spanning nearly three decades. Despite his reputation as a rock-solid soldier and combat multiplier, his unusually opinionated and vocal nature elicited exasperation from certain superiors and even contempt from fellow Spartans, and his potential as a PR figure was rendered low by his belief in colonial right to sovereignty. His assignment to NOBLE Team essentially swept him under the rug after an incident following the Battle of Skopje, and he operated separately from fellow Spartan-IIs for several years. He participated with distinction during the Fall of Reach and attempted to crush the Covenant advance by activating a modified Slipspace drive to destroy a Covenant, an action thought to be suicidal; however, he survived the teleportation and was captured by , then handed over to Insurrectionists. He would fight his way to freedom, securing transport back to Reach, but dooming the rebel settlement at Dwarka to destruction at the hands of the Covenant in the process. The weight of that loss plus the discovery of Reach's destruction would be carried for years, as Jorge slowly but surely drifted from total loyalty to the UNSC to the point where continuing to serve it without question became intolerable. He ultimately faked his own death, retreated to a brief period of anonymous solitude, then returned to warfare in order to neutralize Soren Raske, a former Spartan-II turned terrorist. Though publicly memorialized as having died in the Fall of Reach - his survival having been covered up in order to use him for operations requiring absolute secrecy - Jorge lived to see Reach partially restored and assisted in the Second Battle of New Alexandria to prevent the detonation of a NOVA bomb in 2602.

Early years
In 2509, a fiercely independent-minded young veterinary graduate student named Anna Toulson astounded her family and colleagues by “running off” with Antal Őrszem, a farmer with little beyond high school education and a very rough grasp of the English language. Their romance, thought to be a spiral into disaster, ended with the both of them settling down in a settlement near the frontier town of  in the spring of 2510; the birth of their first child occurred a year later. György Őrszem was named after his deceased paternal grandfather, and received no recognition beyond disdain from his maternal grandparents, who viewed the arrival as a final blow to their efforts at severing the union between his mother and father. Anna's father, Colonel Jack Toulson, pressured her to change the boy's first name to something English out of contempt for Magyar culture – viewing Reach's population of East European colonists as poor and ignorant dirt farmers – but Anna refused to relent. György grew up without really knowing his grandparents, as they remained stubbornly aloof for the duration of his early life.

It became apparent early on that György was destined to surpass other children his age, both physically and mentally, as he accomplished developmental milestones months before they were expected and demonstrated intelligence as well as creativity. Walking, talking and other feats were performed prematurely, and Anna quickly learned that she would be dressing him in clothes fit for children a year or more his senior. György quickly caught onto learning both English and Hungarian, and could converse intelligibly in both languages by his second birthday, to his father's great pride. The kiva proved an excellent place for the boy to exert his unusual vigor, as there were plenty of outdoor activities and other children to play with.

By the time György was three years old, his mother and father had begun quarreling over his impending education; while his mother favored having him tested so he could attend a school suited to his uncanny abilities, his father was adamantly opposed to having the boy's education handled by the state. Antal's dislike of the Earth-based government, rooted in generations of suspicion and mistrust of martial authority, motivated him to keep his family as uninvolved in government-run institutions as he could. However, this quarreling would all be for naught, as both Antal and Anna were killed when their vehicle skidded on an icy road late one night as they drove back from an outing. György survived the crash with little more than cuts and bruises thanks to a child safety seat, and was made a ward of the state after the Toulsons refused to accept him into their lives. He was placed at St. Elizabeth's Children's Home in Szeged, a city near Pálháza, and would not meet any of his living relatives again for the rest of his life.

Candidate 052
"So... we're here to stop everybody from fighting and killing each other?"

- A newly-recruited Jorge to Dr.

Unknown to György or his late parents, Dr. Catherine Halsey had been covertly keeping tabs on his development since birth, as his exceptional genes made him one of the few children she could utilize for the Spartan-II Program. In late summer of 2517, recruiters disguised as inspectors arrived at St. Elizabeth's and administered a few quick, simple tests designed to determine whether or not György would be one of the final seventy-five subjects accepted. Their decision was ultimately to remove him from the list, as his “shrinking violet” disposition and desire for affection – a byproduct of being passed over by adoptive parents multiple times – made him less appealing than other, more aggressive candidates.

However, failure to acquire left Halsey with an empty slot that needed filling. With the deadline for a complete roster approaching, she chose to visit Candidate 052 in person, having just returned to Reach and dismissed Jacob Keyes from her service. She visited St. Elizabeth's under the guise of searching for a child of her own, the necessary paperwork and clearance supplied by ONI and eliminating the weeks or months of preparation that would normally be required. Her initial impression of György did not stray far from her recruiters' assessment, as he practically clung to her thinking she was interested in taking him home with her, but as she questioned him about social order and his knowledge of the Insurrection, he began to open up and demonstrate a keener understanding of the ongoing conflict. When she asked him if he would like to make the fighting stop, his response was a firm “yes.” After concluding that György's gentle nature could be groomed into something more useful, Halsey added him to her list and elected to escort him from the orphanage herself. Her presence there was purged from official records immediately afterward; György's time there was also purged, his existence at St. Elizabeth's reduced to a string of classified data in ONI's clutches. Halsey changed his name to Jorge as a finishing touch, dropping the Magyar spelling and pronunciation for efficiency's sake. As he left little imprint on the world, there would be no flash-clone replacement.

Upon arriving at the military complex,Jorge was separated from Halsey and taken to a holding area with the other children, where he would remain until the brief induction ceremony on September 23, 2517. Though the experience was a jarring one and quite different from the fantasies of home and family that his young mind had entertained, he was one of the few children to remain calm during Halsey's announcement of their new purpose; though unable to grasp the extent of her meaning, the prospect of protecting Earth and its colonies appealed to his media-skewed sense of heroism, his young mind having been filled with ideas from superhero comics and action vids. Devoid of the sorrow that plagued other candidates, who had been torn from their families, Jorge was a starry-eyed conscript with little idea of what he was really getting into.

Boot
"I want to grow up and do everything Doctor Halsey says we’re supposed to do. We’re going to be heroes. The best soldiers ever in all of history. Everything we’ve been through will be worth it. The Insurrectionists won’t be hurting people anymore. Everybody will be happy."

- Trainee 052, in a 2519 writing assignment

Like the other candidates, Jorge experienced extreme physical and psychological discomfort during the first months of the transition from a normal life to that of a Spartan trainee. However, he was noted by Halsey as possessing an uncanny level of endurance, able to continue when most others were unable to move from pain or exhaustion. His adaptation to the severe regimen progressed satisfactorily as his impressionable mind adjusted to the indoctrination process and his body became accustomed to the strain put upon it. He developed close friendship with two trainees in particular, and Maria-062, who had been his teammates during their first test on the "playground." Their success in that exercise, as they were the fourth team to complete the challenge, led to bonding during what little free time the trainees were allowed by their trainers. Maria, one of the youngest trainees and one of the most devastated by removal from her family, often incurred the wrath of other children due to her emotional outbursts, which brought the wrath of down upon them all; Jorge took it upon himself to lighten her load by shouldering a portion of her responsibilities in exercises, and established that he would use his size and strength to defend her against attacks. Though Maria eventually outgrew her vulnerability, her bond with Jorge remained close due to the mutual trust they shared.

Though the brutal experience served to bring out Jorge's aggression and alpha-male tendencies, he did not easily assume positions of leadership, preferring to follow the whims of other trainees who had established themselves as reliable. As Halsey began to single out leaders from the group and scrutinize them more closely, he felt traces of jealousy toward those she "favored," and pushed himself to perform better in order to attract her attention. Despite the heavy emphasis on remaining focused and eschewing attachments beyond loyalty to the cause, Jorge's somewhat fanciful perception of Halsey as the mother he had always wanted persisted throughout his childhood, prompting him to behave somewhat uncomfortably when dealing with her favorites - especially. The imagined rivalry never came to a head, but Jorge remained baffled by her extreme interest in John, Fred, Kurt and Jerome, and pined for validation and approval from her in spite of Mendez's efforts to beat such sentiments out of him. This longing evolved into proper respect over time, but a filament of attachment would always linger in Jorge's view of the doctor; his connection to Mendez bore no such embellishment, though he came to regard the man as a role model instead of a despicable tormentor.

Jorge, Kirk and Maria were eventually sorted into Gold Team along with trainees Calista-141 and. Their "activities" ranged from the daily grind of exercising and Mendez's schemes to combat simulations against Marine fireteams, usually armed with stun weaponry but occasionally equipped with live rounds. Jorge found his niche as Gold Team's heavy weapons expert, his larger size and upper body strength enabling him to utilize weapons as hefty as the M41 rocket launcher earlier than most of the other children. He was specially educated as a translator along with Maria and several other candidates, his expertise being Magyar. His boisterous personality and sense of humor did not atrophy, but his focus and dedication to the Spartans' indoctrinated ideals solidified as he grew older and matured into a teenager. For all intents and purposes, he belonged fully to the UNSC, having accepted his lot as a sacred charge and possessing no ties to his former existence. In 2522, he was reprimanded for arguing loudly with Ralph-303, who had been reminiscing about his old home and family to Daisy-023 and ; Jorge viewed their preoccupation with their origins as a distraction, as he lacked any such severed links and believed wholeheartedly in Halsey and Mendez's mission. This devotion to the core ethos of the Spartan-II Program made him one of the most dutiful trainees, if not one of the most blindly loyal.

In 2523, Jorge became aware of a romantic relationship that existed between Kirk and Maria when he accidentally discovered them together in a utility closet. As the debacle involving 's romantic indiscretions still loomed over them all, particularly what had happened to, Jorge ultimately remained silent on the issue, though it drove a wedge between himself and his best friends. His own attachment to Maria, thought to be a big-brotherly sort of affection but laced with something more, suffered from the slip of trust between teammates and he became alienated from her as well as Kirk despite their gratitude after he refused to rat on them. Dr. Halsey questioned Jorge about the sudden shift in Gold Team's dynamic, though she knew full well what was happening between Kirk and Maria, but Jorge refused to divulge any details even to her. The conflict between his immense sense of duty and his personal feelings disturbed him greatly, but he moved past it and continued to train with his teammates, albeit minus the deep emotional bond that had connected them previously.

Augmentation
"How do you feel, 052?"

- Catherine Halsey

"... er... taller, ma'am."

- Jorge-052

In March of 2524, Jorge and the rest of the Spartan-II candidates reported for a series of augmentation procedures designed to enhance their physical strength and durability as well as their reflexes. The following chemical and surgical procedures were administered:


 * Occipital capillary reversal - submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of the retinas; produces a marked visual perception increase, with risk of retinal rejection and detachment as well as permanent blindness.
 * Carbide ceramic ossification - advanced material grafting onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable; risk of white blood cell necrosis or uncontrollable growth spurts and bone pulverization.
 * Catalytic thyroid implant - platinum pellet containing human growth hormone implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues; risk of elephantiasis or suppressed sexual drive.
 * Muscular enhancement injections - protein complex injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time; risk of fatal cardiac volume increase.
 * Superconducting fibrification of neural dendrites - alteration of bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction, yields a 300% increase in subject reflexes and produces marked increase in intelligence, memory and creativity; risk of Parksinson's disease and Fletcher's syndrome.

Due to the risky and experimental nature of the procedures, thirty of the seventy-five trainees died on the operating table, while twelve were rendered incapable of continuing service by either illness or deformity. Jorge suffered cardiac arrest during the muscular enhancement injections, but was successfully revived and able to complete the augmentation process on time. He was able to reunite with Gold Team after recovering enough to move on his own, and learned from Maria that Kirk wouldn't be joining them. Upon learning what had really happened to Kirk, whose bones had been twisted so horribly he was now unrecognizable and confined to a neutral-buoyancy gel tank, Jorge deeply regretted the grudge he'd held against the other boy and took it upon himself to offer comfort to Maria despite the breach of professionalism that entailed. The months of intensive therapy and exercises that followed served to distract them from their loss, as they adapted to their new bodies and applied the incredible abilities the surgeries afforded them to their military training.

By August 2524, Jorge had fully recovered from the augmentations and was regarded as one of the strongest Spartans, his body having responded exceptionally well to the muscular injections despite his brush with death. His role as Gold's heavy became more prominent as he was now able to handle a wider variety of weapons, most of which a normal soldier couldn't dream of carrying around for long periods of time. His penchant for detaching mounted turrets and wielding them against trainers made him a formidable opponent, particularly with the rest of Gold available to compensate for any vulnerabilities. He and Maria overcame their previous alienation and became known as one of the most close-knit teams of the unit during two-man exercises, a development which met Halsey's approval and resulted in a restored trust between the two Spartans. Despite this, the shadow of Kirk's fate hung over them both, and prevented any unwanted emotional distractions from arising between them.

First Deployments
Following the successful capture of Insurrectionist leader Robert Watts by Spartan Blue Team, Jorge and the rest of the Spartan-IIs were introduced to a new threat: the Covenant. The unexpected raw power and destruction the alien empire had demonstrated at Harvest profoundly affected the young Spartan, as he and the others had never before encountered such an instance of loss, even in all their studies of humanity's past wars and atrocities. Now a Petty Officer Second Class, Jorge quickly galvanized his fear and wonderment into a deep-seated rage and prepared to shoulder the responsibility of fighting not only the human insurgency, but a genocidal alien menace as well.

While en route to the Chi Ceti IV testing facility that would introduce the Spartans to Project MJOLNIR, Gold Team participated in anti-Insurrectionist operations on Jericho VII. As this was Jorge's first deployment, the experience was one of purpose and validation, and the Spartans suffered no casualties throughout the mission. The mechanical efficiency with which he dispatched rebel footsoldiers would not come to bother him for many years, but a definite sense of unease colored his thoughts after the fighting was done; since the rebels wore civilian clothes and had integrated themselves in local communities, it was a far different experience than fighting uniformed and professionally armed opponents. This did not hamper his enthusiasm, however, and he remained resolutely committed to the ethos Halsey and Mendez had instilled in him.

Upon reaching Chi Ceti IV, Jorge and the rest of his squad were fitted with MJOLNIR Mk IV powered assault armor, which melded the culmination of humankind's technological innovation with the Spartans' augmented physiques to render them near-invincible. Though clumsy at first in MJOLNIR's force-multiplying shell, Jorge quickly acclimated to the armor's strength and speed enhancing properties. During the trip back to the UNSC Commonwealth, he deployed with the others to destroy a Covenant vessel that was attacking the UNSC ship. Jorge did not make it to the Covenant ship, and witnessed its destruction while floating in vacuum awaiting pickup. Learning that Samuel-034's death had brought about the Covenant vessel's demise impacted him greatly, as Sam had been a charismatic presence among the Spartans and a good friend to Jorge. He attempted to give John-117 a deck of playing cards that Sam had given Jorge when they were children, as Sam had been John's best friend, but John admonished Jorge to keep the cards and focus on stopping the Covenant above all else in Sam's honor. Sam's sacrifice instilled in Jorge the resolve to willingly give up his life to protect others, more so than any amount of training could have done; it also motivated Jorge to become more extroverted, in order to fill the void left by the late Spartan's strong sense of camaraderie.

Operation: REVOCATE
In February of 2526, Gold Team was assigned to recover data which pertained to the Covenant attack; the stolen data included a number of highly sensitive ONI files detailing UNSC colonial defenses as well as other classified items. Jorge and his teammates were dispatched to the colony of Paradise Falls with orders to secure the data and eliminate the two Office of Naval Intelligence defectors responsible for the theft. Despite grim expectations, as Paradise Falls had festered with rebel activity since the late 25th century, the Spartans were able to land successfully without encountering any opposition. Maria, now Gold Leader, ordered the team to split and rely on the they had deployed before landing in order to hunt their two targets. With Cal acting as their reconnaissance, the remaining two pairs of Spartans made their way separately through the city of Lazy Acres, using the sewers to easily traverse the distance and avoid the storm raging above ground. They then commandeered a Pelican dropship that had been repurposed as a rescue vehicle and used it to transport the entire team to the Insurrectionist base which had been constructed in the foothills several miles away, where the defectors had traveled to hand over their information.

Infiltration went off without a hitch, the rebels proving little to no match for the Spartans. Having expected a team of ODSTs at worst, the Insurrectionists were ill-equipped to resist the edge provided by the Spartans' training and MJOLNIR armor. While Jorge, Maria and Malcolm pursued the targets, Cal busied herself sabotaging the surveillance network, scrambling rebel comms, and setting off explosives. As predicted, the defectors and their high-ranking hosts attempted to flee in all the confusion, heading for a specially-prepared shuttle; Gold Team cut them off from their exit and trapped them in the section of the facility that connected to the hangar. The former ONI agents died before the Spartans could even shoot at them, having ingested instantly lethal poison. Gold Team succeeded in capturing the three Insurrectionist officers present and retrieved the data, though one of the prisoners, Captain Bernard Franklin, attempted to sway the Spartans by insisting that the UNSC was planning to let the aliens burn entire colonies as a way to measure Covenant strength and tactics. His frenzied plea went unregarded by the Spartans, though Jorge would come to dwell on Franklin's ravings later in the war; the Insurrectionist's claims that the UNSC would allow colonies of lesser value to be conquered, that the government the Spartans had been taught to regard as the absolute authority in their lives would willingly sacrifice millions of civilians, seemed ludicrous at the time. Gold Team departed Paradise Falls with the data and three prisoners in tow, and the mission was deemed a critical success.

Harvest
In the final months of the Harvest Campaign, Gold Team participated along with several other Spartan teams in the UNSC's effort to liberate the former colony from Covenant control. Though hardly a reunion, the presence of so many Spartans led to many brief encounters between Spartans who had not seen one another in years. Due to the demand for Spartans in operations spread across the planet, teams were split and reorganized to suit various needs, and Jorge found himself grouped with several Spartans he hadn't had contact with for a long while. One of these Spartans was Daisy-023, and though the two of them had shared a less than cordial acquaintance in their training days, they quickly bonded while busy repelling the Covenant. The fight at Harvest dragged on throughout the winter of 2530 and the early spring of 2531, with the alien empire's tenacity only increasing the more the UNSC chipped away at its hold. During the Battle of Fólkvangr, in which UNSC forces attempted to oust Covenant troops from the ruined city of Fólkvangr and failed, Jorge's team split in order to accomplish several key objectives; while Jorge and Arthur-079 left to procure a FENRIS warhead from the wreck of a crashed Pelican, Daisy assisted the few Marines that remained and attempted to evacuate them. When Jorge and Arthur returned from their assignment, having been assisted by the newly-arrived John-117, they discovered that the Marines had been wiped out and Daisy killed in action. Her death affected Jorge deeply, but he elected to prime the nuke instead of grieve. The three Spartans departed Fólkvangr with Daisy's body in tow and left the Covenant to burn there as the nuke detonated, wiping out the aliens' foothold in that sector.

The loss of Daisy weighed heavily on Jorge's conscience, as he had protested her decision to assist the Marines on her own, but did not press her to change her mind. While Sam's death had been something to mourn from a distance, Daisy's demise was painfully close; when the ONI came to collect her corpse and armor, John-117 handed over the teddy bear trinket Daisy had kept on her person to Jorge instead of the operatives, a move that echoed Jorge's own attempt to give 117 Sam's playing cards years ago. Jorge accepted the toy, unable to refuse something that had been a part of his dead teammate, even if it did count as a forbidden item on the battlefield.

Fortunes of War
"I'm proud of what I am, really. But sometimes I think about the others. All those men and women fighting and dying for their families, their friends, all their reasons why they volunteered to fight in the first place. And here we are, fighting because we don't know how to do anything else. If I didn't know better... I'd think there was something wrong with that."

- Jorge-052

Following the conclusion of the Harvest Campaign, Gold Team returned to fighting the Insurrection; the next decade of Jorge's active service would be more heavily influenced by his actions against human foes than by combat with the Covenant, though he lost none of his desire to fight against the alien menace. As the Human-Covenant War escalated, the various factions which comprised the Insurrection took advantage of the chaos and aggravated existing weaknesses in the UNSC's hold on both Inner and Outer Colony worlds. The UNSC, unable to maintain order and keep the Covenant at bay simultaneously, relied on the Spartans to address sources of unrest through precise application of force and sabotage. To this end, Jorge was frequently fielded against insurgent elements; this near-exclusive use of Spartan-052 in humanity's civil war would come to shape his personality and outlook in ways that the Office of Naval Intelligence had not predicted.

During the late 2520's and early to mid-2530's, the occasions during which Doctor Catherine Halsey was able to interact with the Spartan-IIs outside of combat scenarios dwindled to the point where she never met them unless she was involved in one of their missions. Jorge's last real conversation with her was in 2532, when she was present during one of Gold Team's debriefings; her curiosity about the Forerunner artifact Gold had unwittingly encountered during their mission overshadowed any meaningful exchange they might have shared, however. Despite this, she did remember to acknowledge his nearing twenty-first birthday, a surprising move on her part due to the detachment she had instilled in her trainees regarding such "trivial" matters. Though it was mostly placeholder banter as Halsey fished for more details on the Forerunner artifact, Jorge did appreciate the gesture and they parted cordially.

As the years passed and the war on both fronts intensified, Jorge became increasingly more sensitive to the suffering of his own species, especially when dealing with civilians. Though seven years of training had molded him into a top-tier special forces operative and separated him psychologically from the rest of humanity, his experiences with fellow humans - whether they were refugees evacuating besieged colonies, or civilians encountered during his missions against the Insurrection - served to cultivate a sense of dissatisfaction with the way his status as a Spartan made him unable to relate to the people he had pledged his life to protecting. While most Spartans accepted their separation from others, as their conditioning rendered them near-incapable of prioritizing attachments beyond military service, Jorge found that his own inability to really empathize with civilians bothered him on a personal level. Over time, he slowly modified his own behavior by taking cues from other servicemen and studying their interactions with civilians; though awkward at first, he quickly adapted to this new approach and began to grow comfortable with playing both the professional killer and the empathetic guardian. This change manifested in other ways outside the battlefield, primarily regarding Jorge's perception of himself as his childhood indoctrination clashed with his natural intelligence and observations. The messy, brutal conflict with the Insurrection hardly swayed his belief that violent rebellion was wrong, but the political ideologies and concepts the war brought to the Spartan's mind took root and formed deep-seated opinions that were a far cry from the absolute black-and-white views that had been drilled into him as a child. By 2538, Jorge was noted by superiors and fellow Spartans to possess a surprisingly lenient attitude toward colonial independence, a viewpoint that occasionally resulted in heated words between himself and some of the more hardline Spartan-IIs. His own private beliefs regarding the Insurrection in no way softened his approach to deterring their efforts, but he still remained unusually vocal in his support of the concept of colonial sovereignty. Of his teammates, Maria was the most receptive to his opinions, and the two of them would often muse between themselves on the nature of their lives which had been completely rewritten on account of the war with the Insurrection. With the Covenant threat looming, there was no room for regret - yet a subdued sort of sadness came to dwell behind his efforts to appear and act more human, as clearer understanding of his own purpose and the events that necessitated it increased with age and experience.

In 2542, Jorge and the rest of Gold Team were removed from action for a two-week period in order to undergo psychiatric evaluation as well as a thorough series of medical exams; though none of them exhibited any health problems, the Office of Naval Intelligence deemed it wise to provide mental and physical care for even the robust Spartan-IIs, as their psychology and augmentations set them apart from normal humans and necessitated occasional observation.

Captive
"It's a shame you won't help us, Jorge. Your abilities could be used for so much more than killing. Think of what we could build! Haven't you ever thought of what you could accomplish if you actually tried creating something instead of destroying? The UNSC wanted to shove me onto a shelf and forget about me - here, I have purpose. You could, too."

- Soren Raske

Recovery
"The implants utilize nanotechnology to regulate malignant neoplasm in the event that conventional surgery is insufficient for complete removal. Your condition is remarkably similar to - however, your response to chemotherapy so far has been poor enough to warrant further measures. Your reluctance to accept further cybernetic implantation has been noted, but please understand that we are trying to help you. This will save your life."

- Dr. Kendra Chopra

Breaking Point and Desertion
"You want to know what makes a Spartan crack? Realizing no matter what they do, no matter how hard they try, humanity's going to keep on breaking itself down and spilling its own blood. That no matter how many times they save us, no matter how much they sacrifice so we can have a second chance, we're gonna take that chance and stomp it into the dirt because we can't quit killing each other. Spartans aren't machines, they're people, and people can only give so much to something that doesn't give a shit about them. It's human nature. It ain't what people like to believe about their legendary heroes, but it's the truth – what the hell was ever wrong with needing a damn break from fighting all the time? I think the problem here is you're expecting someone who's been under unnatural stress all their life, giving the best of themselves when the rest of us would've given up, to be your perfect warrior when what he clearly needs is to be as far away from the front lines as possible."

- General Lloyd Church

The Hunt for Jörmungand
"Are you so keen on finding this guy because he's a genuine threat, or because you're still torn up about Dwarka? I'm not putting my life on the line for your issues. If we're going to catch him, it's going to be as a favor to the universe, not so you can get all touchy-feely."

- Janissary James



A Spartan Apart
"The reports will say otherwise, as they always do, but the truth is that Spartan-II has always been and will continue to be a dangerous experiment. What the program accomplished had never been done before, and you can't predict every subject's behavior based on parameters far beneath their full capabilities. What happens when one grows a conscience? What happens when they start listening to it, getting ideas? Sierra-052's sympathetic tendencies may endear him to civilians, but they distract him. Eventually he's going to apply that bleeding heart to the bigger picture, and then we won't just be censoring every pro-autonomy word that comes out of his mouth. What we're dealing with is a time bomb. God help us all if it goes off in the wrong direction."

- Codename: SURGEON