Allison Spurgeon

"This peace is a five-year intermission at best. The Covenant's successors are varied and far-reaching; we need to be ready for when they come for us again."

- Spurgeon was vital to the UNSC's rapid remilitarization of its Navy immediately after the war.

Allison Spurgeon ( 00681-30422-AS) is a and current  (DCNO) succeeding  after he was  in the final months of the war. Spurgeon is a veteran of both the and, earning a reputation for commanding battle groups with brutal efficiency and cunning that was prone to strife among her fellow Navy officers. Spurgeon's unpopular, yet effective strategies caught the ire of leadership in 2544. For most of the war, she had become an irremovable thorn in the Covenant's war effort. Their frustrations in failing to eliminate her finally reached the tipping point in the aftermath of the Battle of 19 Caelum in which she was denoted the Butcher of Ardent Valiance after causing the complete destruction of the fleet of the same name. The Covenant prepared to launch an overwhelming force to annihilate her fleet, but fortunately for Spurgeon she was recalled to in 2545 to aid in the organization of the.

She commanded her infamous battle group from the UNSC Hades Anthem, an for nearly a decade until it was destroyed during the  by an. With the situation on Earth grim, Spurgeon would be evacuated from the battle by an  to a  and briefed on a  for the continuation of the human race in the event that Earth was lost.

Spurgeon would return to Earth after hostilities in the Sol system came to a close. She and would reorganize the badly depleted Home Fleet over fears of the  breaking the fragile truce between the two species. When tensions began to cool, Spurgeon was in the running to take command of the UNSC Theseus but was later appointed as second-in-command.

When Spurgeon was appointed as Deputy Chief, she also inherited a number of Admiral Whitcomb's classified projects, including his brainchild,. When reports of the destruction of and  reached, she already found herself at odds with Hood, who wanted the project quietly shut down as not to provoke humanity's new  as claims of a human "planet-killer" began to circulate across Sanghelios and greatly concern their leadership. Despite her objections, Hood overruled her and ordered NOVA to be decommissioned and its details sealed away indefinitely. In 2555, Spurgeon was approached by to restart the program in secret, this would be the beginning of a long-running partnership with ONI that would grow her ambition.

Early Life
Allison was born on December 29, 2497 as an only child to  Elsa Sloane and prominent UNSC Naval officer, Gordon Spurgeon who was a member of the. Though she was born on the world of, Allison would be raised on Earth in  as her family permanently relocated there to continue their political and military careers. This would put Allison is close proximity to some of the most powerful and influential people in human space, who she admired and would greatly affect her future career decisions. Growing up on Earth, Allison would meet her childhood friend, who was the son of a representative from the. The two would develop a very close bond, eventually evolving into a romantic relationship as teenagers. As they reached adulthood, their affection for each other began to conflict with their career paths. Richard wanted to follow his father's footsteps and champion peace between the Outer Colonies and Earth, inheriting his family's charismatic personality. Whereas Allison would soon be attending the. Knowing that contact between the two would be harder to achieve over the next couple of years, they would break off their relationship on good terms. Though they would go their separate ways, the two would keep correspondence with each other for the next several decades.

While at Luna OCS, some of her peers quietly accused her of nepotism, as her acceptance had been fast-tracked by the academy, possibly by her own father who had noticed her enthusiasm to join the Navy. Despite peer pressure and nasty rumors, Allison focused on her studies more determined than ever to succeed. A year into the academy, Allison took an interest in analyzing strategies used by both UNSC and navies, intrigued by the guerrilla tactics implemented by some separatist groups. Using a mix of slipspace ambushes and baiting their own ships some insurrectionist groups managed to score rare victories against UNSC battle groups, inflicting humiliating defeats on what was considered an invincible force at the time. Years later, Allison would copy and intensify these strategies, using them against the Covenant to devastating effect.

"was horrified. So convinced the war was his fault that he put a bullet in his head. Some still refuse to admit it, but he also predicted more than just the insurrection. If only he knew how right he was."

- Allison, learning about the Covenant, November 2526.

Allison noticed that data recovered from coupled with the, humanity was leading itself down a path to perpetual civil war, that thought was reinforced when TREBUCHET would expand to other Outer Colonies, the number of insurrectionist uprisings would inflate even more, creating an endless cycle of civil unrest. Diving deeper into the Carver Findings, she learned of the prediction that the Insurrection could only be interrupted or postponed by the arrival of a greater force. Carver indicated that this "greater force" included but was not limited to: the complete fracturing of human space into multiple interstellar states and extraterrestrial intervention and/or invasion.


 * "If the colonies cannot be stabilized by military involvement, only a greater force (natural or unnatural) can bring an end to human strife."

Allison would finally understand his ominous prediction five years after graduating from Mare Nubium Academy in 2520, where should would be briefed about a new threat that demanded the destruction of humanity; the Covenant.

Battle of 19 Caelum
"Humans - soulless creatures made of deceit and dishonor. These blasphemous pests have destroyed one of our most distinguished fleets! Find this nishum and crush her! I want her head paraded through the streets of the holy city!"

- Supreme Commander Moro 'Yaasanee enraged after learning of the Fleet of Ardent Valiance's destruction.