Tyler-A319

Black

"Go to hell."

- Tyler after killing a in hand-to-hand combat in the Second Battle of Deston.

 Tyler-A139, born Tyler Raymond, is a of the. He is specialized in Reconnaissance, sniping and hand-to-hand combat. He is the leader of Gauntlet Team, an elite team of SPARTAN-IIIs and one SPARTAN-II that is known to have fought in many battles since. His callsign is Gauntlet One.

Early childhood and Spartan-III training
"There really are some impressive Spartans in Alpha Company. Tyler and Clyde are two of them."

- addressing Tyler and Clyde.

Tyler was born on November 11, 2520 on the planet of Deston. He was born to parents Nicholas and Sarah Raymond. His father was a Sergeant, so he rarely ever saw him. As a child, he had brown, straight hair and black eyes. Since he was a child, he had superior aiming abilities, as demonstrated while playing games like paintball or shoot the rock. When the attacked Deston in 2530, his father was killed in action and his mother was shot in the back by a  wielding an. However, when his mother was killed, he took the fallen M40 Pistol of his deceased father, and executed the Grunt with only shots to the head. Although the Covenant were unsuccessful in taking over Deston, Tyler had lost both of his parents, making him an orphan. However, in 2531, he was picked up by LCDR Kurt Ambrose and  to be enlisted in  of the.

Tyler was trained with other trainees of Alpha Company on the planet of. He had shown expert marksman and leadership abilities, as well as in reconnaissance and hand-to-hand combat. Like most of the other recruits, Tyler passed the given to the S-IIIs. However, he was one of the few Alpha recruits who had fully benefited from the augmentations, given that he had the genetic markers needed for the S-IIs.

His first mission was in 2536, on the planet of, where some Covenant activity was detected in a forest. Tyler was assigned as leader of squad Alpha-One, along with some other Spartan-IIIs, including Clyde-A307. The mission was successful, with a Covenant base found and destroyed. He also found a Covenant weapon, the, which was never documented on before. This mission proved that Tyler was indeed a great leader and that his team was the best weapon he got.

"Tyler, Clyde, Carter, Jun, all of 'em. They're special guys. We can't send them into suicide missions. We need them to fight alongside the S-IIs."

- SCPO Franklin Mendez talking to LCDR Kurt Ambrose. referring to the "cat 2"s, special Spartan-IIIs that were on par with the Spartan-IIs.

Tyler continued participating in other missions, finally earning the rank of. He then was pulled out of Alpha Company, along with many others like Clyde-A307, John-A222, Varun-A077,, ,  and many others. All of them were considered as "cat 2s", a name given by LCDR Kurt Ambrose to those S-IIIs who were on par with the S-IIs, however confused by many others as a nickname for SPARTAN-IIs of the second class. They were formed into different teams, with the S-II Carris-137 being in Tyler's team, now termed as Gauntlet Team. After, all the Cat 2 members were given. He continued participating in other Insurrectionist and Covenant missions.

Tyler later participated in quelling the insurrection on Algerion IV, in August 2537. Gauntlet Team and NOBLE Team were sent together to suppress the Insurrectionists on the human colony world of Algerion IV, an industrial planet. There were some indications that they were stealing weapons from the nearby weapons industries, such as Arcane Weapons. After reaching there, the two teams found out that a branch of Arcane Weapons themselves were producing weapons for Innies, since its manager was a former Insurrectionist commander. NOBLE and Gauntlet were given the green light to kill any Insurrectionist presence. The operation was a success for Gauntlet, but no so for NOBLE, as one member of the team was killed by an Insurrectionist wielding a shotgun.

Battle of Roost
"Your work is simple; Take over one of those Covenant ships, and blast the others to bits, literally. Sounds easy enough? It's time you Spartans did something notable."

- to Gauntlet Team on their briefing.

After the success of the Operation: CLEAN SWEEP, all the teams were given, the extremely advanced armor given to S-IIs. Shortly afterward, the UNSC discovered a Covenant assault on the colony world of. Not wanting to risk the planet falling into Covenant hands,  ordered Gauntlet on a risky mission; board a Covenant ship, take over it and use it to aid the UNSC ships in the space battle. Gauntlet Team was provided with a, the UNSC Edge of Life and the AI 'Alpine'. Using this, they traveled to the Covenant fleet and secretly boarded a, since it has no shields. Using Alpine's intellect, Gauntlet was able to kill most of the crew and take control of the ship. Gauntlet then proceeded to attack the Covenant assault force. Alpine had a tough time using the plasma cannons on the Covenant ship, and couldn't direct all of them properly. Nonetheless, this tactic helped the UNSC fleet greatly against the Covenant ship, destroying all but one destroyer. However, their victory was cut short when a total of 7 Covenant ships jumped in-system. They were quickly identified as three destroyers, three frigates and one carrier. The carrier opened fire on the captured corvette, disabling the ship and destroying a part of Alpine, which caused huge amount of memory to get erased. Gauntlet was unable to confront the new forces, and the UNSC ships were all destroyed, including the Rear Admiral's ship, the CMA Heracles. They quickly abandoned the bridge and ran towards the docking day, running past Covenant soldiers and attacking them using hit and run tactics. They got into the prowler and abandoned the corvette. They cloaked the prowler and watched in secrecy as the Covenant then proceeded to glass Roost. It was in this battle that Tyler got to know about defeat, and swore that he'd try his best to save humanity, even if it meant the death of him and his team.

Battle of Algolis
In 2548, the Covenant attacked the human colony world of, one of the Inner Colonies. While the UNSC forces tried to fend off the Covenant ships using the 2 stationed around Algolis, a lone Covenant corvette secretly escaped the battle, entered the planet's atmosphere and started deploying troops. Their target was the  designated T12A, on the capital city of Seidō. The Covenant forces were focused on the destruction of the facility, as it contained a powerful prototype exoskeleton, the. Gauntlet was assigned to the protection of the facility and if possible, the destruction of the base. However, they were too late due to their Pelican crashing before their LZ due to Covenant AA fire. By the time they neared the facility, the marine called had used the prototype armor system and held off the Covenant forces in the area, sacrificing himself and the suit as he initiated the suit's self-destruct mechanism.

Gauntlet then proceeded to destroy the Covenant AA cannon, using Carris-137's G4H Anti-Vehicle/Infantry Rocket Launcher. Then, they proceeded to board the Covenant corvette, which was very near to the ground deploying troops. Using stolen Banshees, Tyler, Clyde and Carris proceeded inside the ship. They quickly found the reactor room and with the help of Alpine, initialized the overload sequence. However, Alpine stated that if they initialized the sequence right then, the trio wouldn't have enough time to escape the ship. Alpine volunteered to stay in the Covenant ship's system, initializing the sequence right after the Spartan left the ship, destroying the ship and killing the AI.

Fall of Reach
After the, Gauntlet were transported to Reach to receive their new and a new AI 'Anon'. On July 14, 2552, the UNSC's stronghold planet was attacked by two Covenant fleets, the  and. They attacked the city of. Gauntlet Team was assigned to help evacuate the civilians, along with and Echo Team. They used many of them piloted by a single Spartan to maximize the number of ships reaching the city. Tyler was separated from the rest of the team due to his craft taking a hit at the engine by a Covenant. He soon met up with a group of who assisted him in finding more civilians. Soon, Tyler linked up with his squad mates and the other two teams. The other two teams evacuated the civilians out of the city as the Covenant glassed it. Gauntlet, however were to find a new ship to leave Reach. The team then split to find a usable spacecraft.

Tyler then proceeded towards the. There he found fighting off Covenant invaders after the  had left the planet. He tried to assist him by secretly killing Covenant invaders using his sniper rifle, but to no avail. After Six's apparent death, he heard the sound of a ship's engine and saw that the rest of his team had indeed found a ship, their own prowler, the UNSC Edge of Life. He boarded the craft, running through the Covenant soldiers as they focused on taking down the prowler. Tyler then took control of the ship and searched over nearby areas for any survivors, finding, a splinter team of the bigger Red Team, which was sent to Reach's surface to prevent the Covenant from disabling Reach's. Then they proceeded to go to Reach's atmosphere. To their horror, they found that most of the UNSC fleet was destroyed, with the Covenant easily destroying any UNSC ship still fighting them using a new technology of plasma beam. Gauntlet then searched the area for any derelict, working UNSC ship, resulting in them finding floating in space, his armor's oxygen levels dangerously low. Tyler then found the, the ship which contained their prowler, the UNSC Edge of Life. They boarded the derelict ship, took over their prowler, and then set course for Deston, a planet which once survived the Covenant assault and Tyler's home world, not knowing that it too was soon going to come under attack.

Personality and Traits
"If there is anyone in Alpha who has a strong determination to his mission, it'd be Tyler."

-, referencing Tyler.

Tyler was known to be very determined, but yet was friendly. leader had remarked once that Tyler "is a guy who's willing to give up his life for completing his mission or to keep his team alive". He was the one who constantly made jokes to keep up the team's confidence, much like.

Tyler also has knack for sniper rifles, he was able to kill three Jackals in one shot during the Fall of Reach. He is also good at hand-to-hand, such that he even beat his trainer, LCDR Kurt Ambrose in one training session during his childhood. Although Kurt had underestimated him and let his guard down, making it easy for Tyler to win, he still was proficient at hand-to-hand combat. His other specialties include reconnaissance, assassination, hacking and piloting.

Equipment

 * Tyler was issued the Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor Mark I in 2536, like all other SPARTAN-IIIs of Alpha Company. The armor, while not powerful as the, was still superior to the . It sported that were designed to mimic the Covenant's . Later, all the "cat 2" SPARTAN-III teams were issued SPI Mark II armor, an improved version of the original armor which had more amount of oxygen supply and featured more oxygen supply.
 * In 2540, all the "cat 2" Spartans were issued with this armor. This made them fully on par with the S-IIs. It had 90 minutes of oxygen supply, protection against radiation and EMP and most importantly, increase in strength and reactor time. Later, he was given the Grenadier variant of the armor which featured prototype energy shielding that would later be incorporated in his next armor.
 * Just like other SPARTAN-IIs and "cat 2", Tyler was issued with the Mark V variant of the MJOLNIR armor. This armor had a lot of upgrades over his previous armor, the two most notable being the more powerful energy shielding and the ability to carry an AI in the armor using his neural interface. Just like, Tyler's Mark V armor was so much damaged after the Battle of the Orbital Installation that he was issued the new Mark VI armor, even though not a year has passed since wearing the Mark V.
 * In 2540, all the "cat 2" Spartans were issued with this armor. This made them fully on par with the S-IIs. It had 90 minutes of oxygen supply, protection against radiation and EMP and most importantly, increase in strength and reactor time. Later, he was given the Grenadier variant of the armor which featured prototype energy shielding that would later be incorporated in his next armor.
 * Just like other SPARTAN-IIs and "cat 2", Tyler was issued with the Mark V variant of the MJOLNIR armor. This armor had a lot of upgrades over his previous armor, the two most notable being the more powerful energy shielding and the ability to carry an AI in the armor using his neural interface. Just like, Tyler's Mark V armor was so much damaged after the Battle of the Orbital Installation that he was issued the new Mark VI armor, even though not a year has passed since wearing the Mark V.
 * Just like other SPARTAN-IIs and "cat 2", Tyler was issued with the Mark V variant of the MJOLNIR armor. This armor had a lot of upgrades over his previous armor, the two most notable being the more powerful energy shielding and the ability to carry an AI in the armor using his neural interface. Just like, Tyler's Mark V armor was so much damaged after the Battle of the Orbital Installation that he was issued the new Mark VI armor, even though not a year has passed since wearing the Mark V.