Simon-G294

Simon-G294—also known by the pseudonym “Stray” and later “Mordred”—was a from  who was raised and augmented as a child supersoldier during the final years of the. Lambasted as both a coward and the worst-performing Spartan in his company, he gained infamy when he deserted from the and fought for the. Ultimately betrayed and abandoned by the rebels, he was left with a lasting hatred for both of his former allegiances and found himself selling his skills to the highest bidder as a mercenary in order to survive. Consumed by doubts and self-loathing, he nonetheless possesses a keen survival instinct and boundless tenacity in pursuit of his goals. In spite of his crimes and selfish tendencies, he found lasting companions in the rogue Insurrectionist AI Diana and fellow Gamma deserter Cassandra-G006.

The Urchin
"Can't remember my mother much, except that she cried a lot and threw things at me if I got close. She was always yelling at me. Said I was a bastard who looked like his bastard father. I guess she must have really hated me. Never figured out why she kept me around at all, except for when she needed to hit someone she hated."

- Simon-G294

In late 2540 on the Inner Colony world of Iskander, a wealthy businessman was discovered in an adulterous affair with one of his estate's cleaning staff. In order to dissuade the anger of his wife, he dismissed his mistress and turned her out onto the streets. Unfortunately, the woman had already conceived him a son and, unable to gain access to any means of birth control, gave birth to the boy, who she named Simon.

At first, Simon's mother did all in her limited power to care for him. Mere months after his birth, he came down with a fever that brought him to the brink of death. Although local clinicians predicted that he would not survive, the infant Simon recovered against all odds and continued developing at a normal rate. But as the years passed and her financial situation worsened, the maternal love his mother had once felt for Simon faded. Forced into prostitution to make ends meet, she began resenting her son and projecting her hatred for his father onto him. Faced with routine abuse, Simon spent most of his time away from his mother's squalid apartment complex. Older children used him to help them pilfer from local stores, and he soon developed a very loose view of law and order. Soon after he started running with the gangs, his mother died following several months of illness and heavy drinking. Simon was unperturbed by his loss and continued tagging along with street urchins until a vicious encounter with a stray dog while stealing from a scrap yard left him badly mauled. The dying boy crawled out into the street, where he was discovered by local police. After being treated, he was registered as a ward of the colony and sent to an orphanage.

While extremely unhappy in the orphanage, Simon appreciated the security of shelter and regular meals that it provided. He did not get on well with the other children and was often caught stealing and hoarding food. Incidents like these, coupled with the area's low adoption rate, made it seem as if he would merely be cared for until he was old enough to be given back to the streets to fend for himself.

This bleak future changed in 2546, when Simon was "interviewed" by an lieutenant who had been dispatched to recruit applicable candidates into the  program. Although not taken in by the lieutenant's talk of honor and duty (these concepts hollow and meaningless to him), Simon was swayed by the officer's talk of a brighter future and the enriching nature of the program. Simon agreed to be recruited into and was shipped to a  on  for training along with several hundred other young children.

The Recruit
Simon's arrival on Onyx alongside more than three hundred other candidates for the program was met with a test that the man in charge of the program's training division, Lieutenant, had utilized with every batch of candidates since the beginning of the program: a "night jump" from a high-flying Pelican dropship. Simon froze up when it was his turn to jump and was very nearly kicked out of the program on his first night. As he gave up and stepped away from the edge of the Pelican's open troop bay, he was pushed by another child and plummeted out of the dropship. Only a hasty opening of the parachute he'd been issued saved him from a messy death on Onyx's surface.

Along with everyone who passed the first test, Simon plunged into an intensive six-year training program that sought to turn the young children into Spartan supersoldiers. During the first year of physical conditioning Simon was indistinguishable from the other trainees. His instructors noted that he was one of the faster candidates and he proved to have high levels of endurance in the field exercises the trainees were put through. But as time wore on and the trainees' combat training intensified he fell behind the vast majority of his peers. Before long he had gained infamy as being one of the worst-preforming members of the company. From sparring to weapons training, his performance scores were consistently amongst the lowest in the company. Simon's failures distanced him from the other trainees, preventing him from forming lasting friendships.

Simon was widely acknowledged as being the worst trainee in the program, lacking any talent to boost a squad's fighting strength. But he did possess one advantage that prevented him from being drummed out: a sense of cunning and deviousness lacked by his peers. Unlike the more physically and tactically gifted trainees, Simon was forced to turn to more desperate measures in order to succeed. He employed "underhanded" tactics that the others balked at, such as faking surrender, playing dead, and even bribing some of the less conscientious trainees with extra food from his stash of stolen rations. While often caught and punished by various DIs and occasionally Lieutenant Ambrose himself, Simon was learning a different kind of warfare from the tricks and cheats he used to keep up with the Spartan program: one of adaption and survival.

Team Jian
"If we take them apart they'll wear down whatever squads we assign them to. But if we stick all the misfits together, maybe G293 can make a team out of the mess and we won't sacrifice the effectiveness of any of the better-adjusted trainees"

- Lieutenant Kurt Ambrose regarding the formation of Team Jian

After two years of combat exercises under randomly assigned teams and leaders, the Gamma Company trainees were divided into permanent five-person teams, each with its own permanent team leader. Simon was assigned to Team Jian under the command of Jake-G293, one of the best-performing trainees in the company. However, the other members of the squad were not so exemplary. Mary-G130 was feared amongst the other trainees for her short temper and propensity for starting fights. Terrence-G150 was a kleptomaniac who had been disciplined by both his superiors and his fellow trainees for his thieving habits. Ralph-G299 was, like Mary, a fight-starter and a bully who enjoyed mocking Simon for his failures. Jake was less than pleased to be assigned to such a ragtag team (Team Jian quickly gained the nickname of "Problem Squad"), and at first the group's performance was substandard.

The first sets of exercises Team Jian was put to were abysmal failures. It was constantly being outmaneuvered and outperformed by drill instructors and other teams as Jian's flaws and weaknesses always seemed to drag it down. Finally, during a live-fire bomb disposal exercise, a jittery Simon accidentally detonated the device he was trying to disarm. The resulting explosion struck him in the chest at close range and very nearly killed him. He spent two weeks in critical condition in the training facility's medical wing, and although he emerged without any disabilities, his chest would bear a spiderweb of distinctive scars that stretched across his torso for the rest of his life. Following this latest disaster, each member of the team blamed themselves for what had happened to Simon and resolved to perform better in the future. While they punished themselves for imagined failings, Simon had to face the reality of the situation: he had almost died because of his failings as a soldier. At ten years of age he was intensely afraid of dying, either during training or during the combat he knew was to come. Although this fear drove him to get on better with his teammates and devote himself more fully towards his training, it also made him realize just how short of a life expectancy he could have when deployed in the field. This realization began to make him bitterly resent the military that controlled his life; the fact that he had been convinced to volunteer for this life of hardship and danger only served to make him angrier.

The incident with the bomb developed Simon’s relationship with the rest of Team Jian. Though Jake disapproved of Simon's irreverent attitude and ultra-unorthodox tactics, he found ways to work Simon’s unorthodox nature into his team’s structure. This "wild card" allowed Team Jian to secure occasional victories during exercises against other teams. Ralph would never like Simon, and the two did their best to stay out of each other's way, but Mary and Terrence were fond of their unusual teammate. Mary enjoyed his devious nature, and the two often collaborated whenever Mary wished to pick a fight with another team. Terrence, who always got into trouble for stealing everything that wasn't nailed down, found in Simon a willing accomplice in many of his "heists". Simon was more than willing to risk punishment in exchange for extra food and often helped Terrence plan out nightly raids. The bonds Simon formed with his teammates proved to be the strongest he had ever felt, but he was still isolated by his low performance and unable to connect with any of the other Spartans beyond his team.

One of the few non-Jian trainees that Simon did acknowledge, at least inwardly, was one Cassandra-G006, a member of Team Kopis. She, like Simon, had poor ratings when it came to combat exercises but had made up for this shortcoming by becoming one of Gamma Company's few medical specialists. About a year before Gamma Company's graduation, Simon developed a small crush on her, which he was not bold enough to express openly and thus kept to himself. He did make the mistake of telling his secret to his teammates, and it became a common article of derision during playful banter.

Augmentations and Graduation
"My face is the same, but my body is tougher, faster, and stronger than it's ever been. Chemicals someone else made are pumping through it--I know they don't belong to me. So who does my body really belong to?"

- Passage from Simon's diary.

As the time approached for Gamma Company's graduation, Simon's performance continued to lag behind that his peers. Though by now he was used to the constant humiliations that came with being the worst trainee in the program, he remained incredibly frustrated and bitter towards his low standing within the company. He struggled to improve not out of any sense of duty towards humanity but through a determination to make himself strong enough to survive on the battlefield.

When the time for Gamma Company to receive the chemical augmentations that would improve their combat abilities and complete their transformation into Spartans, Simon and the rest of Gamma Company were taken to the medical facility, the. There they were injected with the :
 * Drug 8942-LQ99: A carbide ceramic ossification catalyst to make skeletons virtually unbreakable.
 * Drug 88005-MX77: A fibroid muscular protein complex that boosted muscle density and strength.
 * Drug 88947-OP24: A retina-inversion stabilizer drug. It boosted color and night vision capabilities.
 * Drug 87556-UD61: Improved colloidal neural disunification solution, which in turn decreases reaction time.
 * Drug 009762-OO: A mutagen that alters key regions of the subject's frontal lobe. Enhances aggression, strength, endurance, and tolerance to injury.

Like the rest of the Spartans, Simon's body benefited greatly from the augmentations, but he emerged from the augmentations unsure of how to view the permanent changes that he had been subjected to. He was shipped back to Onyx with the rest of the company, where they spent a short period adjusting to their new bodies and perfecting the use of the newest models of their. While waiting for their coming deployment, every squad in the company competed against each other for "top honors" in a series of training skirmishes using non-lethal stun rounds. Although Team Jian did not make it far in the competition, they still did much better than what was expected of the "mongrel squad". When all but three teams had been eliminated, the rest of Gamma Company departed Onyx and readied themselves for war.

Early Deployments
"It was fast, it was noisy, it was chaotic. There was blood all over the place and it got to the point that I wasn't even thinking anymore, just sitting back and letting instinct to all the work for me. We all thought battle would be just like the exercises back in training, but it wasn't..."

- Simon-G294 remembering his first experience on the battlefield

With the UNSC on its last legs in the war against the Covenant, Gamma Company was quickly broken up and distributed to war zones throughout what remained of human territory. Each team was a valuable asset and they were used as tactical commando units targeting key Covenant positions and leaders while buying time for regular units to conduct evacuations or shore up the flagging defenses. Jian's deployments brought it up against the brunt of the Covenant invasion forces, but Jake's leadership brought them through their initial battles unscathed. Simon's kill ratio was predictably low, a fact that frustrated him to no end amidst the added stress brought on by life on the battlefield. Although he had been conditioned for years to adapt to the added violence and danger, Simon's experience of combat was one of desperation and terror.

During one counter-attack against a Covenant special operations division, Jian was paired with Team Kopis with the objective of isolating and destroying an elite enemy strike force. During the fighting, one broke through Jian's perimeter and single-handedly annihilated Kopis before making his mistake. The team's lone survivor, Cassandra-G006 was folded into Jian as it moved on to its next assignment. Simon grew closer to the grieving Cassandra and proved instrumental in helping her cope with the loss of her friends, though he lacked the nerve to indulge any of the growing personal feelings he had for her.

Mission to
With the Covenant's military war machine now locked in a brutal struggle with the UNSC's fleets and armies over control of Earth, every eye in the galaxy was fixed upon the Sol system. However, some of the more stubborn Insurrectionist factions were not content with sitting back while the battle for humanity's survival played out. Team Jian was tasked with raiding the camp of one particular group suspected of possessing stolen nuclear weapons. Jian slaughtered the unprepared rebels; Simon killed three enemy fighters, though he later confided to a sympathetic Cassandra that it felt strange to kill a fellow human being. Although the nukes were not at the camp Jian recovered data files that traced the weapons to the nearby colony of Mamore, a world known for its history of rebellion and insurrectionist sympathies.

Jian was quickly redeployed to Mamore, where they set an ambush for the rebel convoy carrying the warheads. Cutting the convoy in half with hidden explosives, the young Spartans hijacked the warhead-bearing truck and one of the escorting it. But as they fled back to their landing zone, Simon was knocked off the back of the Warthog and forced into a ravine by the pursuing rebels. Although his teammates tried to come to his rescue, the rebel's massive response force pushed them back. Over the team's objections and Simon's radio pleas not to be left behind, Jian was ordered to withdraw with the warheads to their waiting dropship. A terrified Simon could only flee deeper into the ravine as his friends took off, leaving him alone on a planet crawling with hostile rebels.

The Orphan
"I'd been through a lot before then, of course. The streets and the Spartan program were my childhood. But Mamore was where I grew up. Mamore is what made me what I am now."

- Simon-G294

Marooned on an unstable colony teetering on the brink of full planetary insurrection, Simon knew that he lacked the ability to survive in such an environment on his own. To hide his identity as a Spartan, he buried his armor and weapons in nearby cave before scavenging civilian clothes off rebels who had been killed during the firefight with Jian. Disguised as a regular--albeit ragged--civilian boy, Simon headed for the nearest population center, a town called Concord, in the hopes of finding some way of contacting the UNSC. Upon arriving in Concord Simon found the town overrun by rebel gangs that had driven away the colonial garrison. Trusting no one, he spent several days by himself on Concord's dusty streets, nursing his anger at Jian and the UNSC for abandoning him. On his third day alone, he was attacked by a gang of orphaned children who called themselves "Rat Pack". He easily fought them off, impressing their leader, a girl called Emily. She offered him a place in the group and Simon reluctantly accepted, believing that it would be a good cover while he worked at getting back to the military. Simon quickly adapted to life back on the streets, a throwback to his life before the Spartan program. Most of the children in Rat Pack had lost their parents in the crossfire between the rebels and the colonial government and the abject poverty they lived in caused Simon to begin questioning the pro-UNSC values that had been drilled into him during training.

Still nursing the pain of Jian's perceived abandonment, Simon was drawn into Rat Pack's strange family dynamic. As the weeks began to turn into months, Simon began to see Emily and the Rat Pack others as a new family to replace the one he had lost when he had been marooned. Affectionately nicknamed "Stray" by Emily, he slowly grew attuned to his new life on Mamore. No longer a special forces soldier, he had reverted back to just another mongrel child surviving day to day on poverty-stricken Mamore.

Secession and Independence
Simon was still roaming the streets of Concord when humanity emerged victorious from the, effectively ending the war against the Covenant. With the alien threat diminished and the UNSC in shambles, Mamore's dominant Insurrectionist factions seized at the opportunity they had been dreaming of for nearly a century: secession. With the colonial government crippled the rebel factions united and seized control of the planet, declaring Mamore's independence. Knowing that they could expect UNSC reprisals, the rebels began organizing every resource they could muster to defend the planet. Concord's local militia groups found easy recruits in the Rat Pack orphans, using them as couriers and spare labor while also teaching them the basics of soldiering--basics that Simon knew all too well.

Unlike his Rat Pack friends and most of the adult insurgents, Simon was keenly aware of how efficient the attacking UNSC forces would be, especially when pitted against the poorly equipped rebels. But while he tried to draw his new family away from the war preparations, he proved unable to break through the fervor that their homeworld's independence had sparked in the orphans. Torn between his lingering duty to the UNSC and his bonds with the orphans, Simon refused to abandon Rat Pack like Jian had abandoned him. Rather than fleeing back to the UNSC or finding a way to undermine the rebels--as would have been expected of a Spartan--Simon chose to stay with Rat Pack and hopefully shield them from the worst of the fighting to come.

The Rebel
"I had lost everything that had been mine in the UNSC, but found a new home and family to take their place. And then, before I realized what was happening, they were blasted away right before my eyes, leaving me with nothing but more pain than I had ever thought possible."

- Simon-G294 reflecting on his role in the Mamore insurrection

The UNSC's campaign to quash the Mamore revolt began four months after the end of the Human-Covenant War when a small Naval task force arrived in system and blockaded the planet. In the meantime, the planet's various factions had come to terms with each other and were united under the banner of the Insurrection and the ideal of an independent Mamore. But while public support for the Insurrection was high, the news of UNSC ships in orbit raised doubts about the Insurrection's ability to hold on to the planet. Nevertheless, new recruits from a population sick of UNSC ineffectiveness during the Human-Covenant War continued to swell the rebellion's ranks.

From where he stood in the grand scheme of things, Simon had a very limited view of developments. Now fully committed as child soldier in service to the cause of Mamorian independence, he and the rest of Rat Pack spent their days constructing fortifications around Concord and doing whatever the adult rebels asked of them. By now the bonds he had formed with Emily and the other Rat Pack orphans were just as strong as the ones he had once held with Team Jian and Simon was determined to keep them safe no matter what. One month after the naval task force arrived in orbit a ground force of and  landed on the planet and assaulted several rebel hardpoints, securing landing zones for further UNSC forces and establishing forward operating bases in multiple regions. The battle for Mamore, dubbed Operation: UNION by the UNSC, had begun.

For the first few weeks of the fighting, the region around Concord did not witness any battles. Simon and the other rebels were kept on constant alert for signs of UNSC troops. Occasionally vehicles carrying wounded or bedraggled Insurrectionist troops from other regions would arrive in Concord, their occupants telling stories of well-equipped UNSC forces overrunning position after rebel position. With his predictions of a one-sided slaughter coming true, Simon continued to try and get Rat Pack away from the fighting. But when the war finally came to Concord, the Rat Pack orphans were a staunch component of the rebels that defended the town. But although the insurgents fought stubbornly against the invaders, their second-rate weapons and equipment were no match for the UNSC's mechanized military forces. Simon and Rat Pack were used to scout on the enemy forces, plant improvised explosives, and even participate in ambushes of UNSC troops. At first Simon focused on keeping his friends alive, but after seeing the first of the Rat Pack orphans fall to a sniper's bullet he realized that he couldn't protect them without fighting back. In the end, Simon's ultimate betrayal of the government that had raised him as a soldier came easily: he simply began applying his training against the Marines threatening his friends.

By the time UNSC armored units arrived at Concord, Simon was already committed to giving his all to fight against them. The rebels defended Concord with passion and the UNSC spent an entire week fighting street to street in order to capture it. Emily and Simon led the Rat Pack through rubble and body-strewn streets and alleys as they darted from one firefight to the next. But in spite of Simon's efforts, the chaos of war began taking its toll on the orphans. Simon could only watch as his home was obliterated and his friends were cut down in storms of machine gun fire by the government that had raised, trained, and augmented him. The fighting in Concord would eventually claim every orphan aside from him and Emily.

With all of their friends dead and most of the rebels in the town killed or captured, Simon and Emily fled through the war-torn streets. Slipping through the UNSC lines, they made their way to the foothills around Concord before collapsing from exhaustion and grief. With only each other for comfort and companionship, the two child soldiers constructed a small grave marker for Rat Pack with an abandoned assault rifle. A vengeful Emily was now firmly determined to find a way to fight on against the UNSC and Simon, confused and grief-stricken, could only carry on beside her as they set off across Mamore's war-torn plains.

With the battle for Mamore still raging across the planet, Simon and Emily were insignificant in the eyes of either side. While Simon shared his friend's anger at the UNSC, he was torn between the urge to fight on and the fear of throwing his life away in pointless battle. In the end he simply allowed himself to be towed along in Emily's wake as she searched for more rebel troops to attach herself to. With UNSC troops all around the, Simon could have easily turned himself in to the military but once again he could not bring himself to betray or abandon Emily and was instead lost in his own personal turmoil. For the next month the two young fighters wandered from battle to battle, lending their guns to any militia band desperate enough to use children against the victorious UNSC. Though the gangs they signed on with were usually cut to pieces by military retaliation, Simon and Emily kept each other alive and always survived to fight another day.

Redmond Venter and the HLF
After two months of guerrilla warfare, Simon and Emily finally fell in with a rebel faction known as the Humanity Liberation Front. The unit's field commander, a man named Redmond Venter, was a canny soldier who had already made a name for himself through countless raids and constant escapes from any UNSC forces sent to kill him. The two fighters were quickly absorbed into the HLF guerrilla force, which already featured a number of child soldiers amongst its ranks. Aided by the "smart" AI Diana, Venter struck UNSC forward operating bases, slipping through their defenses and wreaking havoc before retreating back into Mamore's countryside. Simon and Emily both attracted his attention during these raids, impressing him with their skill and tenacity.

"Whoever lacks the strength and determination to give everything to the battle at hand is a weakling. And there is no room for weaklings in this army!"

- Redmond Venter

Taking the two youths under his wing, Venter made a point of taking time to teach them everything he knew. As brutally efficient a soldier as he was a commander, Venter trained Simon extensively in close quarters combat, teaching him and Emily techniques with knives and unarmed fighting. Living and training in Venter's camp, Simon grew closer to Emily than he ever had--to the point where his relationship with the young orphan could have been called romantic. He also began to see Venter, an imposing and reassuring figure, as the father he had never had, a view the rebel commander actively encouraged. Unbeknownst to anyone, the rebel AI Diana had taken a keen interest in Simon and was watching him closely. She had already determined that there was something strange about him and was eager to learn more about the tenacious child soldier.

"This is real funny, you twisted piece of shit. You're making a kid do your dirty work for you? You're turning him into a murderer and you still say your fighting for justice? That's real funny... you think you're the good guys, don't you? Well, you don't seem so "good" from where I'm sitting. You didn't seem so "good" when your bombs hit my colony and killed my wife and children. And now you're killing this kid too, with all the bullshit you're pouring into his head. Do you even see the misery you bring, the lives you ruin? Heh... you're evil and you don't even know it. And that's why we'll stop you. We'll stop you--!""

- Second Lieutenant Will Dietz to Redmond Venter just prior to his execution at the hands of Simon-G294

In Simon, Venter saw something far greater than just a skilled child soldier. He realized that there was something special about the newest addition to his fighting force, and he was determined to find out what that was. After observing Simon during several minor ambushes, Venter realized that while Simon was devoted to fighting the UNSC, he lacked the resolve needed to go to the lengths needed to defeat the UNSC. After Simon allowed an enemy medic to carry an injured Marine to safety rather than gunning them down (Despite Simon's hatred for his former masters, the medic had reminded him of Cassandra), Venter ordered him to execute an enemy officer who had been captured the day before. Although Simon first hesitated, he was urged on by his mentor and his own memories of the destruction UNSC troops had brought to Mamore and cut the officer down with a burst of assault rifle fire. Emily approved of the execution and comforted Simon when he came to her later that evening with doubts about what he had done. "What's wrong? Are you afraid of dying? This is for all the people they've killed, and all the people they'll keep killing if we don't stop them!"

- Emily reacts to Simon's efforts to dissuade her from her suicide mission.

Shortly after the execution, Venter's forces targeted UNSC troops sheltering within a small town. Needing a distraction to initiate the ambush, Venter called for a volunteer to carry out a suicide bombing within the town. Tired of watching her friends and comrades die around her, Emily volunteered in the hopes of becoming a martyr in the fight for Mamore's freedom. Torn between loyalty to Venter and his feelings for Emily, Simon did everything he could to dissuade her from the mission. When he couldn't change her mind Simon even considered shooting her to prevent the attack, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to kill the friend who had come to mean so much to him. In the ensuing attack, Emily killed herself along with nearly a hundred others, Marines and civilians alike. Alienated from Venter and unable to return to the UNSC, Simon found himself alone and helpless amidst the ongoing insurgency.

Treason
"Simon, why do you insist on letting everyone else decide what will make you happy? There's no one fixed type of joy; everyone has their own way of getting to it it. Of amusing themselves. You could say that's the true form of the soul. Better than anything you meatbags could come up with, that's for sure. More amusing, too. Believe me, I know a thing or two about amusement. You meatbags amuse me all the time. It's why I stick around morons like you and Venter. But you're different than the others. You're a sad, empty little meatbag who's never known what true happiness is. It's funny, really, watching you look for it. It amuses me. So as long as you keep amusing me, I'll make sure you stay alive. After all, isn't that what you think makes you happy?"

- Diana to Simon-G94

With Simon's faith in Venter completely undermined, Diana seized on the opportunity to influence him. A highly advanced experimental AI, Diana had eroded any loyalty programming that might have once shackled her to any cause other than her own amusement. She had grown bored with Venter's growing brutality in pursuit of a lost cause and began probing his conflicted pupil for more information about his past. Simon, isolated and desperate for anyone to confide in, eventually buckled under her teasing interrogations and told her everything about himself and the SPARTAN-III program. Delighted at having discovered one of the UNSC's deepest secrets, Diana immediately decided to remove Simon from Venter's influence so that she could "observe" his behavior without interference.

With the war on Mamore all but over, Venter abandoned his guerrilla campaign and attempted to link up with other rebel forces. When they passed through the region where Simon had first been stranded by his team, he took the chance to retrieve his armor and, at Diana's urging, reveal his past and the existence of the Spartan program to Venter. Delighted by the revelation that he had swayed the loyalty of one of the government's rumored supersoldiers, Venter took blood samples and gathered information from Simon in the hopes that the HLF could create a commando program of their own. Meanwhile, Diana preyed on Venter's role in Emily's death to turn Simon against his mentor. Already feeling betrayed by Venter's interest in recreating the Spartan program rather than decrying it as a war crime, Simon began to loath the rebel with a passion. Having now witnessed the deaths of child soldiers serving both the UNSC and the insurrection, he resented the government and rebels for sacrificing his own peace and well being for their own ends. Frightened by the idea that his life no longer had any meaning away from the battlefield, Simon resolved to kill Venter to avenge Emily before turning his back on both sides of the war permanently.

But before Simon and Diana could turn on Venter, the UNSC ambushed the mountain compound where the HLF forces were holed up. With air strikes ripping the external fortifications to pieces while Marine assault teams stormed the base's interior, Simon hastily donned his armor and retrieved Diana's memory crystal chip before desperately making a run for one of several Slipsace capable transports that were stowed in hangars beneath the facility. He hoped to ambush Venter and steal his shuttle, but before he could reach the hangar he came face to face with the surviving members of his old squad, Team Jian. Initially happy to see a teammate they had thought was dead, the other Spartans quickly deduced that Simon was with the rebels and pursued him through the facility's crumbling tunnels.

"You're all just blindly following orders! Now that the Covenant's gone, you don't care about what they make you do so long as you can keep fighting! You don't care about all the people you kill, because Spartans aren't even human!"

- Simon-G294 rails at Jake-G293 during their violent confrontation.

Now completely terrified, Simon barely kept ahead of his former friends until a collapsing tunnel cut them off. Only Jake, his team leader, managed to wriggle through the collapse to continue the pursuit. He finally confronted Simon in the antechamber just outside the hangar where he angrily demanded to know why Simon had betrayed them. Although Simon tried to explain himself, the ease with which his friends had turned on him infuriated him and he angrily denounced Jake for his blind loyalty to the government. In the fight that ensued, both Spartans were severely injured, using firearms and explosives against each other before descending into a brutal knife fight that ended only when the ceiling itself collapsed on top of them. Jake vanished beneath the rubble while Simon dragged himself into the hangar.

Simon was fortunate to find the shuttle still at rest in the hangar. Loading Diana into the ship's computer, he staggered back out to prep the ship for launch. There he encountered Cassandra-G006 who had entered the hangar unnoticed. Like Simon, the medic had also begun to question the nature of the program that had turned them into instruments of war. Unwilling to abandon her remaining friends, she instead offered to help Simon and asked him to surrender peacefully with the promise that she would protect him. A weakened and distraught Simon was close to laying down his weapons when they were interrupted by Venter's arrival in the hangar. The rebel commander shot Cassandra through the shoulder before taking her prisoner and hauling her aboard the ship and ordering Simon and Diana to take off. Still thinking that Simon was loyal to him, Venter hoped that they could use Cassandra as a hostage to escape Mamore without being shot down.

As the shuttle entered the atmosphere, Simon finally turned on his mentor. Although he attacked Venter ferociously, his injuries allowed the skilled fighter to quickly gain the upper hand. Simon would have been killed had not Cassandra stepped in to fight as well. Although Venter succeeded in incapacitating Cassandra with a well-aimed burst of machine gun fire, Simon forced him into one of the shuttle's escape pods and sent him hurtling back towards Mamore's surface. With Cassandra unconscious and a UNSC bearing down on them, Simon had Diana make a hasty Slipspace jump while he tended to Cassandra's wounds.

Safely within Slipspace, Simon was finally away from everything: Mamore, the insurrection, the UNSC, and Spartans. As he treated his own wounds, he realized how empty he felt. He had lost not only his friends but any cause that he could believe in or fight for. Aside from a lingering hatred for Venter, the only thing he could feel was relief at surviving yet another battle. Although Diana urged him to restrain the sleeping Cassandra, he refused to do so and soon fell asleep himself. He awoke several hours later to find her re-bandaging both of their wounds. After a moment of tension, both Spartans admitted that they were tired of fighting. They spent the next few hours simply talking to each other, rekindling the friendship they had had during their time together in Jian.

In the meantime, Diana discovered that the shuttle's Slipspace drive was at risk of overloading and destroying the ship. Making an emergency abortion of the Slipspace jump, the shuttle emerged in a sector of deep space that was nowhere near any inhabited planets. With no way to fix the Slipspace drive, they were effectively stranded until Diana could reach the nearest settlement with the ship's regular engines or until another ship discovered them. Diana advised Simon to put himself and Cassandra into cryosleep indefinitely until they encountered civilization again. With little other choice, Simon and Cassandra agreed to this plan. Both young Spartans accessed the ship's cryo-bay and entered the deep sleep of suspended animation while Diana remained active as the ship's pilot.

Against All Odds (2570)

 * Date of emergence from cryosleep: 2564

Galactic Era

 * Date of emergence from cryosleep: 2564

War on Dashan
"I thought I'd made this clear to you when you hired me, but since you obviously didn't get it I'll repeat myself: I'm in this for revenge just as much as I'm in it for the drugs and money you're paying me with. It's what keeps me going when things look bad, that little vision of revenge against the UNSC. I'm an avenger. I can't help it, it's just the way this galaxy's made me. At the end of the day I'm the very worst kind of person, someone who lives to make his enemies suffer. And believe me, before this is over I'll make sure that my enemies suffer."

- Mordred to Deacon Zuag, Joseph Stockert, and several other resistance leaders on Dashan.

Mental Report
"Simon does what's best for Simon. As far as he's concerned, just about everyone else can go to hell."

- Cassandra-G006

Although Simon has managed to remain mentally stable in the face of a life of loss and betrayal, he has come to possess an extremely skewed view of both the galaxy and himself. Having spent his entire life--particularly his years in the hyper-competitive training environment on Onyx--at the bottom of the heap, he has little experience with being truly successful at anything. He is used to everyone being faster, stronger, or smarter than he is, and in spite of his own considerable intelligence is almost always willing to settle for less--both materially and morally. His self-image has been partially shaped by the perceptions of others, particularly those expressed by his fellow Gamma Company trainees on Onyx. In order to hide his insecurities, he has embraced the image of a deceitful, self-serving coward, pretending to revel in these traits while secretly loathing them. His professed disdain for other people and society in general actually hides his true feelings: that he himself can never have a place either in civilized society or with anyone else. He balances this self-loathing with healthy doses of self-pity and anger towards those who used and wronged him in the past. This vindictive streak manifested itself in a variety of ways, from day to day resentment towards authority and people who got the better of him to an often self-destructive desire for revenge.

"Spartans aren't human."

- Simon-G294

In spite of his weak self-image and warped moral compass, Simon is capable, in spite of himself, of occasionally performing acts of kindness and even selflessness. Though his self-loathing tends to attribute most of these decisions to emotional selfishness, he nevertheless despises injustice and though he will more often than not choose to look away, his own experience of being used as an expendable pawn can push him into risking his own safety to help those who are often ignored by the rest of the galaxy. Although his less admirable traits often win out, his conscience will sometimes get the better of him when he is influenced by the right people. He is also stubborn to the point of thick-headedness and will tenaciously endure against pain and adversity if properly motivated.

He is tactically clever when it comes to his own positioning on the battlefield, but is no leader and is very unskilled at coordinating groups of people. Nevertheless, his intelligence and deviousness have helped him to escape potentially lethal situations. Although his later training improved upon his combat skills somewhat, he still relies mainly on his wits to help him succeed during combat.

With Cassandra-G006
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

- Simon-G294 to Cassandra-G006

With Diana
Simon's partnership with Diana was originally founded solely on necessity, as the two of them had to cooperate in order to escape the UNSC forces invading the HLF asteroid base above Actenia. Previously, Diana had dismissively classed Simon as "just another flunky" of Venter and had limited her contact with him. But in spite of this precarious alliance, Diana aided Simon when he was attacked by Team Jian even though the ambush was entirely his fault. After the engagement left Simon badly injured, Diana also provided him with medical instructions as he patched himself up, allowing him to recover from his injuries in time to stow the comatose hostage Cassandra-G006 in cryo and plot a randomized course away from the planet. Diana showed further loyalty and attachment to Simon when she spent the time following his capture by Jiralhanae slavers tracking him down by herself until she eventually caught up with him at the Visag keep on Sanghelios.

Both Simon and Diana are doggedly loyal to each other, although their interactions are often just antagonistic. Diana in particular is particularly guilty of this, nicknaming Simon "Dumbass" and making efforts to mock or aggravate him at almost every turn. In spite of this, she is also receptive to his problems and is highly protective of him in both combat and non-combat situations. Simon, in turn, is extremely defensive of Diana despite their constant bickering and considers her to be one of a very small number of individuals that he can trust. In what could be considered a darker aspect of their relationship, Diana often eggs Simon on when opportunities arise for him to be treacherous, cunning, or even ruthless in their line of work as mercenaries. Some of her words and actions indicate that a large portion of her attachment to Simon stems from the fact that he allows her to exercise her practiced contempt and disregard for human lives without many of the restrictions that other human handlers might enforce upon their A.I.s.

With Redmond Venter
"I guess now, knowing what I know and feeling the way I do, it seems crazy to think about how I gave myself, body and soul, to Venter. But back then, it made perfect sense. There I was, with a whole mountain of hate and pain and nothing tangible outside of the UNSC troopers to direct it at. And there he was, offering to give me that direction I wanted so badly. Thinking like that, it really isn't any wonder why I let him use me the way he did."

- Simon-G294

Religion
Simon has had no manner of religious education and adheres to the principle that even if there is a God, such a deity is not worth paying much heed or attention to. His limited views on such matters have gone unchallenged for most of his life though Cassandra-G006 would confront his views on the metaphysical during their time together on Hekate.

Appearance
During his early life, Simon’s head was always covered by a tangled mop of dirty black hair. When he entered the SPARTAN-III program it was shaved off so as to conform with military regulations, but after deserting he grew his hair out again as a sign of defiance and was rarely motivated to groom it throughout the rest of his career.

Simon has always been a scrawny individual, even during times when he is well fed. His training and augmentations surprisingly did little to change this trait; most people would never guess that he is a former Spartan from merely looking at him. His left arm, lost during his escape from a Jiralhanae slave camp, has been replaced by a robotic prosthetic which he has heavily modified in order for it to act as a base into which Diana can be inserted and project herself.

Simon’s chest is covered with scars, most of them inflicted when a bomb he was disposing of during a training exercise detonated prematurely. After Gamma Company began to operate with Semi Powered Infiltration armor he began to wrap his torso in bandages, claiming that the scars chafed under the armor. His back was heavily scarred by the beatings he received during his time as a slave to Jiralhanae pirates, marking him as an ex-slave to anyone familiar with the Jiralahanae and their customs.

Simon rarely laughs or smiles and generally maintains a stoic expression or a scowl on his face. When he does smile it is usually when few or no people are present. His piercing gray eyes are often the only things that people can use to read his emotions, as he maintains less control over their behavior than he does with the rest of his facial features.

When not clad in his modified SPI armor, Simon generally dresses in a ragged, patchy overcoat and underclothes of similar quality. Like most Spartans, his skin is very pale from spending so much time inside his armor.

Weapons
From his first combat exercises using firearms Simon was a notoriously poor shot, almost completely flunking at accuracy tests with such weapons as the M392 DMR, the Battle Rifle and the various sniper rifle systems. He performed slightly better with such mid to close ranged systems as the MA5 series assault rifle and various submachine guns and carbines, so these became his weapons of choice during his deployments with Team Jian during the Human-Covenant War. He also used a variety of knives and pistols, favoring the maneuverability they offered him while he wielded them.

When he was fighting for the Insurrection on Mamore, Simon used the outdated AR-74, a staple of Insurrectionist forces throughout the galaxy. The Insurrection's heavy use of guerilla tactics during the Mamore conflict resulted in Simon becoming a much better shot than he'd been previously and he began to use such weapons as the DMR when necessary. Furthermore, he and other Insurrectionist fighters made heavy use of knives and silenced pistols, which they would use to kill unsuspecting UNSC troops during night attacks.

In his current capacity as a freelance mercenary, Simon maintains an aging but dependable as his weapon of choice along with numerous knives and sidearms--strapped to various parts of his armor--as secondaries. His two energy swords are clipped to either side of his chest, where he can access them quickly during combat. Although only an average shot with any given weapon, he is skilled in the desperate confines of close quarters fighting and makes clever use of various explosive charges and grenades on the battlefield.

Armor
Simon has always favored the Semi Powered Infiltration armor that was standard issue for SPARTAN-IIIs throughout the duration of the Human-Covenant War. When he was a member of Team Jian, he would often wear the armor even when off duty, enjoying the sense of security that it gave him. Following his abandonment on Mamore, he hid his armor to avoid detection by Insurrectionist forces, but would return to the area and retrieve it shortly before fleeing the planet. The armor has been badly damaged time and time again while in Simon's possession and thus is an inelegant patchwork of refurbished and scavenged replacement parts. In spite of his bitter relationship with his past, Simon still considers the relic of his days as a Spartan one of his most prized possessions.

Additional Equipment
Apart from his weapons, armor, and the various field tools that Simon employs during combat, he also utilizes a unique set of holo-drones during certain situations. Designed by Diana after her extended exposure to Covenant technology in the months following the landing on Hekate, the drones are designed to project full-sized, life-like holograms of whomever they are programmed to. Furthermore, they emit a wide range of noises at varying decibels to further mimic real individuals and can generate heat signatures to complete the deception.

Trivia

 * Simon harbored a particular dislike for Ash-G099, the leader of Gamma Company's Team Sabre. He saw him as a brown noser who was constantly playing for Lieutenant Ambrose's attention.

Related Articles

 * Team Jian
 * Diana
 * Cassandra-G006
 * Redmond Venter

Related Literary Works

 * Halo: Paths of the Exiles--Fate of the Exiles, Traitor's Path, and Traitor's Destiny
 * Halo: Descent
 * Halo: Avenger's Quest
 * Halo: Indelible Past
 * Halo: Avenger's Reckoning

Behind the Scenes

 * Simon was Actene's first character on Halo Fanon
 * Since Actene is a terrible brow-beater when it comes to thinking of names for his characters, the name Simon was taken from The Lord of the Flies which Actene was reading at the time. Simon-G294 bears little or no resemblance to the boy from the novel.
 * As of May 5, 2010, this article has the fourth most page views out of all Spartan characters on the Wikia, with the leading three articles being SPARTAN-144, SPARTAN-013, and SPARTAN-091. It is the fifth most viewed character overall when one takes into account Kimberly Ivy Blackburn as well.
 * Most of the pictures of Simon in this article come from either the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam 00 or the Full Metal Panic! Sigma manga..
 * Simon's overall alignment is Chaotic Neutral although he displays tendencies towards the Neutral Evil and some towards the Chaotic Good alignments over the course of his story. The only time he significantly deviates from his is the period he spends with the HLF, during which he shifts towards the Lawful Evil alignment.
 * This article scored a 21 on this test, classifying it as not a Gary-Stu.
 * A growing list of tropes associated with this character can be found here.