Samuel-B256 (TPF)

Samuel-B256 is a SPARTAN-III program supersoldier. Conscripted into the Beta Program in 2537, Samuel became a SPARTAN and the soldier that he would need to become. Only focused on fighting the Covenant, Samuel was viewed as a lone wolf that didn't work well at all with anyone else. Samuel was pulled out of Beta Company and placed in a specific team where he would train to become more specialized. He joined a special branch in the Navy Special Weapons where he became a sniper.

Throughout the Human-Covenant War and Post-Covenant conflicts, Samuel deployed with one other person as a sniper element team for hunting down crucial Covenant infrastructure around occupied planets. Samuel took command of Team Specter where he led the element team across the Galaxy in both time periods, he was able to survive the Human-Covenant conflict by the skin of his teeth and incredible luck. Samuel still deploys as the leader of Team Specter as of 2560.

Early Life
Samuel Ecgtheow was born on May 17th 2530 to Lucas and Alexandria Ecgtheow. Being the son of a farmer, Samuel was raised in a tight household with his parents. At a young age, Samuel learned the life of a farmer and what he would need to do in order to be a successful farmer. Due to their location on New Harmony, Samuel was disconnected from the rest of New Harmony and anything that was happening. A game Samuel got extremely good at was hide and seek and would hide from his mother as she would chase him around the farmland.

When the Covenant came in 2537, Samuel was unaware of what was going on. His father prepared himself with a large gun while his mother instructed him to go to his best hiding spot. Hearing a loud boom as Samuel ran, he ran into a shed where he made himself a makeshift bunker and waited for his mom to find him. Following the instructions of his mother, Samuel waited in the farmhouse until instructed otherwise.

Getting hungry then thirsty, Samuel left his hideout to get food and water. Seeing his home on burned down, Samuel went to investigate what happened and where his parents went. A group of UNSC ODST soldiers stumbled upon the farmhouse and located Samuel looking for his mother. An ODST noticed a man and woman dead, picked up Samuel and told him that his parents were at the pickup location. Unknown that his parents were killed, Samuel went on with the ODST and headed to the evacuation area where he left the planet without his parents.

Now an orphan of the Human-Covenant War, Samuel was lost, scared and ultimately timid of everything around him. Looking at screens, tall people arguing with themselves and intercoms in the ceiling, Samuel was scared. Crying his eyes out each night screaming for his parents, he had no luck and later started fighting the staff. Getting creative, Samuel found a way to tie up the doctor's shoes and watch one trip and fall. Getting their key off their belt, Samuel attempted to break out of wherever he was and failed when security caught him.

The orphan was then given the opportunity to join a program that allowed him to get back at the Covenant. The Covenant was the only word that Samuel knew he hated. Before the recruiter finished his talk, Samuel was willing to join whatever it was that he would need to do to fight the Covenant. He didn't know where he was going, he didn't know what his future would be, all Samuel knew was that he was going to have a chance to fight the Covenant.

Conscription and Training
Arriving at Camp Currahee on Onyx, Samuel pushed himself away from the other violent kids. The training began the next day where Samuel learned more about himself than he ever did in his life. Physical conditioning, mental toughness and psychological strength were built into Samuel. At first, he resisted such training and fought back against the instructor called Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez. However, Samuel went on to learn that it was creating himself to be mentally tough and never fail in battle against the Covenant.

No Spartan is a great Spartan without teamwork and soldiers willing to fight alongside him. Samuel was not a team player, in simple games such as capture the flag, he would let his team be bait so he could win. Never telling anyone of his ideas and plan, he often found himself alone and never having support. Unlike the other young Spartans, Samuel was able to excel moving by himself, becoming a near impossible candidate to catch. He often got into fights with other candidates for not sticking with his team and excelling as a group.

Weapons training made Samuel learn how to become accurate with a MA5K Carbine. Due to his nature, he instinctively turned the rifle to the side, threw it at a rock, put it in water then fired the weapon. Instead of the other candidates who prized their carbines, Samuel felt there was nothing special except for it being a pile of junk. He remembered the ODST who rescued him had a much lengthier gun. Unknown to what it was, Samuel wanted to use it and become the best at operating that weapon system in a firefight.

The MA5K Carbine is not effective at longer ranges and it's for sure not a strong weapon, seeing the other candidates have the same weapon, Samuel was not fond of that. Seeing that he needed a much better weapon to kill the Covenant, he became an expert at longer ranges with a Carbine. His accuracy went up, staying further back allowed Samuel to have a better battle IQ and win more situations than he was able to comprehend. As he went further back from the frontlines, the more comfortable he felt.

Samuel never completed the final test for his SPARTAN-III Beta Company training. Thinking he had been expelled from the training, he struggled with the concept that he lost and failed his parents. However, he was wrong. Samuel was one of the extremely select few that were pulled out of the Company to receive more advanced training. With information from Lieutenant Commander Ambrose, Samuel was ready and determined to become the fighter that the UNSC needed him to become.

Augmentations
Project CHRYSANTHEMUM was the project that would give Samuel his powers and abilities as a Spartan. The augmentation process was said to be successful on all subjects and Samuel was ready for the upgrades. Seeing his chance to live longer and kill more Covenant soldiers, he accepted the augmentation without a second thought and begged for it to work. Arriving at UNSC Hopeful, Samuel was prepared for whatever is to come next of him,

The Project includes the following drugs:


 * 8942-LQ99 - "carbide ceramic ossification catalyst" drug.


 * 88005-MX77 - "fibroid muscular protein complex" drug.


 * 88947-OP24 - "retina-inversion stabilizer" drug.


 * 87556-UD61 - "improved colloidal neural disunification solution" drug.

Stronger, faster, quicker and deadlier; Samuel became the soldier he needed to become for the UNSC. His bones are impossible to break, strength was off the charts, eyesight was stronger than ever before and he was able to react to a situation faster than he could comprehend. All of these traits would be put to great use, allowing Samuel the chances he would need to kill as many Covenant soldiers as he could.

Along with the augmentations Samuel received, he was given a SPARTAN Neural Interface that would allow him to access and have an artificial intelligence inside of his head. Learning that this was the reason people were arguing with themselves, Samuel wanted to put himself in a position to have an AI. Due to being a terrible electronics user, the benefit of having someone else would greatly benefit him in the field of battle. However, he never got one.

Specialty Training
While the rest of the Company went on for Operation: CARTWHEEL, Samuel stayed on Onyx for more training. He wasn't a technician or an explosive experts, Samuel is a sniper and a spotter. Learning how to become a sniper, Samuel took his new role as a means to kill as many enemies as he could before they could ever find him. The training put Samuel's accuracy to the test. Seeing there wasn't anything else he could be, Samuel executed his tasks on a day to day basis to make himself become a fundamental and crafty sniper.

Learning all aspects of sniper warfare, Samuel trained himself in close, medium and long, counter sniper training and extreme ranges. With setting up a spot, he learned how to hide himself in an environment and what locations are best for using as a sniper's location. Sticking to his fundamentals and not pushing for the rare shots, he learned that his training and environment would force him to adapt. Samuel took the least amount of classes in spotting since he felt that was not worth it for him.

No matter how much he protested, Samuel grumbled his way through the rest of spotting classes. Tracking enemies, calculating their movements and using that information to make an informed shot allows Samuel to make the right one. Instead of being a mindless sniper who waste his ammo on Unggoy, he saves it to move around the irrelevant forces and sets up to kill his target. Spotting allows Samuel to distinguish who is his enemy and who isn't since Sangheili tend to wear similar armor but with distinct differences that show their rank.

Team Specter
Samuel-B256 was paired with Mathilda-B079, another sniper that Samuel met during his specialty training. The two were not happy to be working together, both wanted to be by themselves and hunt the Covenant. However, that changed as the two began to know one another. They shared a similar background, both losing their parents and wanting revenge on the Covenant. Since the two saw themselves as lone wolves, they didn't talk and make friends with the other candidates during training. The two forged a friendship over their common goal.

The team name was from Mathilda's childhood, she was afraid of a Specter in her room that her father would come and chase away. Since Specter means ghost, the two Spartans agreed that the name would fit their team the best. Team Specter holds two Beta Company Spartan snipers that want to inflict the most damage against the Covenant before they are killed. That was the goal of each member in the small team, the motto of the team was One Shot, One Kill.

The field leader, Samuel-B256 would report to an ONI Section Three officer named Lieutenant, Junior Grade Stephan Ferguson. The officer would provide the intelligence, mission and objectives for the two SPARTAN-IIIs he was told to command. Known to be a sniper hunter element team, Team Specter would be deployed for assassinations and executing high value targets. Not wanting to fail their officer, the two snipers worked together to execute their missions to get their next then the next.

Operation: SILENT SERVANT (2546)
ONI has taken note of the Freedom and Liberation Party. Ever since Alpha Company put them down in 2537, select few Beta Company Spartans have been deployed in assistance of shutting down the party for good. In 2546, Operation: SILENT SERVANT was launched to assassinate key leaders of the FLP, destroy supplies that are being shipped to the party and ensure they would no longer be a threat during the Human-Covenant War.

Team Spectre and Samuel were deployed onto Mamore where they scouted out the numerous targets, picked which ones were needed to be assassinated and study the supply lines that would help them find more powerful people inside of the FLP. Samuel was eager to get into the fight, make a difference and show to ONI that he is worth the investment they put into him. Team Specter spent their time preparing for their first kill and the excitement they would have.

Tracking the FLP to a safehouse in the mountains of Mamore, Team Specter continued to inform their commanding officer what they were looking at and hoping to get orders. When Lieutenant Ferguson authorized Team Specter for lethal action against the leader, it would be the first of many times that he would see the success of the sniper team. Receiving their orders, Samuel and Mathilda were ready to fire upon their enemies and showcase their abilities to fight.

Set up from about 1,200 meters away, the two SPARTANs were able to hit three out of three High Value Targets (HVT)s inside of the compound. Seeing the death of their targets, the two were content with their abilities and immediately reported their intelligence to Lieutenant Ferguson. Being ordered to only track shipment supply and mark their locations, the two SPARTANs gathered intelligence on shipyards, housing structures and warehouses that would allow ONI to launch a much stronger attack against the FLP in the future.

Operation: SILENT SERVANT was a success for Team Specter. It allowed the young Spartans to understand how to work behind enemy lines and also taught them how to be a functional team. Samuel began to get used to having a partner to work alongside in the field, her insight proved valuable and kept him alive longer. Both kept each other in check to prevent one from making a mistake and blowing the operation early. With their first confirmed kills, Team Specter slowly moved up the ladder for harder targets to take on.

Operation: RIGHTFUL DAWN (2547)
Following the success of Operation: SILENT SERVANT, Team Specter and ONI began to analyze another target. Cassidy III came up on the radar for ONI Section Three when United Rebel Front personnel when their sensors picked up more activity than there needed to be on the colony. Wanting to keep classified technology, Lieutenant Ferguson sent Team Specter to investigate the colony and thin out the Rebel population. Orders were looser, the ONI officer wanted to see the SPARTANs work with much boarder objectives.

ONI needed Cassidy III to be ready in case the Covenant were to ever find Earth. The ability for the planet to stay hidden proved valuable to them, with the United Rebel Front on it, it could jeopardize their backup plan. Samuel and Mathilda descended to the planet with the objective of driving down the URF's fighting numbers. Not focusing on civilians, the SPARTANs would only focus on the fighters and make the others leave due to the deaths of their close relatives.

The two SPARTANs worked tirelessly around large encampments of enemies, engaging the enemy, using them as bait then taking out another. The tactic worked extremely well since they always knew they could get another fighter in the midst of the campaign. However, the URF adapted and so did Team Specter. Switching to night raids, they were able to test their abilites as close quarters combatants. Able to use their upgraded vision and faster reflexes, the two SPARTANs were able to disarm and kill enemies without having to fire a gun and expose themselves.

In the settlements they attacked, people moved away and to much larger settlements where they could be safer. Driving out the little factions, Samuel and Mathilda were able to secure the designated areas that ONI needed them to recover. Along with securing the area, the two set up new sensors for ONI to monitor activity in case they were to ever come back. Once testing the sensors and seeing them work, Team Specter reported to Lieutenant Ferguson that they had accomplished the mission and were ready to be picked up.

The URF on Cassidy III felt they were being attacked by Ghosts. In the four months that the SPARTANs spent on the ground, Samuel was able to hide and evade enemy patrols that would attempt to look for them. Lieutenant Ferguson was more hands off with Team Specter and allowed them to make their own decisions. Allowing the two to mature in combat, Samuel was able to become a smarter and much more educated leader on the decisions he would make in the combat field.

Operation: URGENT TEMPEST (2548)
Team Specter and ONI had been working on a way to deplete the Covenant of their plasma supply. With limited Headhunters and Grey Team on a mission, Lieutenant Ferguson's small team would be deployed in their first fight against the Covenant. The objective of the mission is to disable major reactors across Ealen IV. Along with disabling them, Team Specter would study how Covenant forces would rebuild them and give ONI an idea on how to use Covenant technology to their benefit.

Ealen IV would not be the way that Samuel and Mathilda wanted their first mission to go. They wanted to hit Covenant leadership, behead them and drive fear into their enemies. But, Lieutenant Ferguson was able to piece together two high value targets that were spotted on the planet overseeing the plasma reactors. Using their precise sniper skills, the two SPARTANs were able to disable a plasma reactor then study the Covenant repairing it. The two took extensive notes on the tasks and what buttons were pressed through their spotter scopes.

Their first HVT came early in their deployment, a Sangheili Field Marshall. Samuel was extremely excited, he wanted to kill the Sangheili but turned to look at Mathilda and told her to take the kill shot. Remembering that she saw her dad get killed by a Sangheili, he wanted her to take out the first one. Acting as a spotter, Samuel was able to give Mathilda a clean killshot on the Field Marshall. The two soon left the area and relocated as the Covenant tried to understand who took a shot.

Their second HVT came along extremely late in the deployment, another Sangheili Field Marshall who oversaw the training of Special Operations Covenant troops prior to deploying into UEG controlled space. Reports told Team Specter that the Field Marshall was liked and respected among the Covenant, taking the Sangheili out would deal a blow to the morale of the group. Samuel, with the help of Mathilda was able to execute the Field Marshall. The two were able to evade numerous patrol parties then get pulled off of Ealen IV.

Returning back from Ealen IV, Team Specter gave valuable information on how the Covenant worked their plasma reactors, took out two very powerful Sangheili and came back alive. Lieutenant Ferguson was worried that he wouldn't see his small team again due to dangers and the amount of risk. However, he was glad to see the two SPARTANs prevail and get their first assassinations on the Covenant.

Operation: HYPER ANGEL (2549-2550)
Insurrectionists activity began building on Harmony. With the major success that Team Specter had on Ealen IV, Lieutenant Ferguson deployed them with two objectives, investigate and hunt. ONI and Lieutenant Ferguson were confident in Team Specter in their ability to work behind enemy lines and break up leader positions. The two SPARTANs have proven themselves in the past three years as dependable and reliable soldiers that can accomplish the goal set forth in front of them.

Team Specter was dropped off on Harmony with their two objectives and told to give updates down the road. There was no timeline for the operation and they were the only two, the freedom felt awkward for them since they worked with leadership guidance for quite some time before getting their own mission and free will. Samuel began to take control of the missions and began to apply the lessons he was taught by Lieutenant Ferguson. He slowly became the leader that Team Specter needed.

Samuel and Mathilda were deployed to a continent where they came across an extremely large enemy encampment. The official ONI report is that the encampment disappeared, Samuel and Mathilda wiped out the entire enemy encampment, taking out all enemies and destroying their supply. The SPARTANs were able to use all of their skills and training to take out the encampment. Once clearing through the encampment, the Insurrectionists learned that one of their encampments went dark and nothing was coming out.

Team Specter was given supply and sent back reports to ONI, Lieutenant Ferguson was concerned when he learned that his team wiped out an enemy encampment. Samuel moved into the stronghold of Harmony where he could study and prepare an attack on the Insurrectionists meeting in a windowed room. Launching an attack, they were able to take out three HVTs and flee the area before they could react and fight. When the Insurrectionists found where the SPARTANs fired from, they found rival signs.

Samuel became the mastermind behind Team Specter and the success on the ground. Working with Mathilda and Lieutenant Ferguson's advice, he was able to make the right judgement call. Many decisions that Samuel made, he felt that he was making the right one based on the time and the circumstances. Returning back to UEG controlled space, Samuel was notified by Lieutenant Ferguson that he had made the right calls and that his actions were far more impressive than he had ever seen.