Tyler-A319

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 Tyler-A319, born Tyler Raymond, also known as Codename: AUGUSTUS and Gauntlet One was a  of the. Born on July 8, 2524 on the relatively important planet of Deston, Tyler's life changed when the Covenant attacked the planet. Although the UNSC managed to defeat the Covenant, Tyler lost both of his parents, and was one of the survivors of his city. ONI, who had been keeping a record of him since the evacuation, secretly approached and recruited him in the SPARTAN-III Program, Alpha Company. He was taken to the planet Onyx where he trained for years before undergoing augmentations and becoming a super-soldier.

However, Tyler was soon after a few missions removed from the Company, since he already was significantly superior to other kids of his age before his recruitment, and thus possessed the required genes to fully benefit from the augmentations. Tyler and many other such removed candidates were divided into teams and given the MJOLNIR armor, the armor used by the SPARTAN-IIs which Tyler and the others gained the ability to wear after the augmentations. Tyler was assigned as the leader of GAUNTLET Team.

Since then, Tyler had participated in various missions throughout the Human-Covenant War, and became a decorated veteran of the war. Tyler was regarded as one of the best snipers ever in the SPARTANs along with others such as, and Josh-A124. He was also specialized in reconnaissance, sniping and hand-to-hand combat. Tyler served under the UNSC Navy, but also had clearance to, under the branch, due to Gauntlet possessing the prowler the UNSC Edge of Life.

Early Life and training
"There really are some impressive Spartans in Alpha Company. Tyler and Carter are two of them."

- addressing Carter and Tyler.

Tyler was born on July 8, 2524, on the planet of Deston. He was born to parents Peter Raymond and Snigdha Verma and had an elder sister Shreya. His father was a First Lieutenant and his grandfather was a Commodore in the Navy, so he had a natural interest in the UNSC. 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 shoot the rock. His dad regularly took him to aiming practice with a crossbow, since he wanted Tyler to be an expert in sharpshooting, something himself wasn't good at, being a close-quarters expert. As such, Tyler developed a talent for aiming and also had a deep relationship with his father, unlike his sister who was more towards her mother.

When the attacked Deston in 2530, his father, who fought the invaders was killed in action and his mother was shot in the back by a  wielding a. His sister, who went out with her friends then, was not to be seen. Tyler, in a state of fear, went and hid inside a wardrobe in his home. That was when a squad of ODSTs led by Richard Jones entered the building to kill the Covenant forces. Tyler, after hearing that the Covenant were killed, came out of the wardrobe. Just before the ODSTs got him out, Tyler took his dad's M4D pistol and his dog-tags, along with his mom's combat knife. Tyler, along with a lot of other civilians, were evacuated to Coreilis, another city on the other side of the planet, the part which the Covenant hadn't attacked.

Although the Covenant were unsuccessful in taking over Deston, Tyler had lost both of his parents, making him an orphan. All the refugees were given shelter for about three months before the economic situation on Deston worsened, causing the refugees to be transported to instead. Tyler had almost lived one whole year on Tribute at an orphanage when he was picked up by LCDR Kurt Ambrose and  in 2531, to be enlisted in  of the.

Tyler was trained with other trainees of Alpha Company on the planet of. Although the first years were merely training and teaching new things, the later years were more focused on presenting different exercises and puzzles for the recruits to solve. Most of them were individual assignments, but later, teams were formed, to teach the concept of teamwork. Tyler was assigned leader of squad three including Clyde-A307 and Caren-A293. He had shown expert marksman and leadership abilities, as well as in piloting and hand-to-hand combat. LCDR Ambrose had personally shown his interest in him due to his sharpshooting skills. 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, since he had the genetic markers needed for the S-IIs.

Augmentations
Just like all other SPARTAN-IIIs of Alpha Company, Tyler received the following biological augmentations performed on the SPARTAN-IIIs, under Project CHRYSANTHEMUM. Tyler and many other S-IIIs had the necessary genetic markers for the SPARTAN-IIs, allowing them to fully benefit from the CHRYSANTHEMUM biological augmentations. They were pulled out of the suicide missions, given advanced gear and were deployed as normal SPARTAN-IIs.
 * 8942-LQ99: Carbide Ceramic Ossification Catalyst - The subject's skeleton becomes virtually unbreakable, and can resist impacts much more than the normal human body can. Allows survival from higher heights.
 * 88005-MX77: Fibroid Muscular Protein Complex - The subject's muscle density increases greatly, enhancing physical strength of the body by a factor of three.
 * 88947-OP24: Retina Inversion Stabilizer - The subject's color sharpness is significantly improved, and the vision in dark areas is heightened. Makes the subject virtually see in the dark clearly.
 * 87556-UD61: Colloidal Neural Disunification Solution Multiplier - The subject's reaction time is greatly improved, and the time taken to react is decreased by 300%. Allows the subject to more easily dodge bullets and plasma bolts. Reaction time decreases, even more, when adrenaline pumps through the subject's blood.

Gauntlet Team
Tyler's hard work in his missions finally paid off, when he earned the rank of. This was unusual, as only a few members of Alpha Company had received officer promotions. Before he could question the Lieutenant Commander though, he was pulled out of Alpha Company, along with many others like Clyde-A307, Nick-A077, Caren-A293,, , John-A222 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. Tyler's team was renamed as GAUNTLET Team, Dave's team as ECHO Team, Carter's as NOBLE Team and John's team as NOVA Team. New members like Carris-137 and a few years later Varun-173 were added to his team, officially making it multi-branch. After, all these new teams were given the , as with the other teams, beginning from the Insurrection on Algerion IV.

Operation: VENOM
Tyler's first mission was in 2536, on the planet of, where some Covenant ships were believed to be landing, indicating a possible base. Designated Operation: VENOM, Alpha Company's three-hundred Spartans were instructed to carry out a seek-and-destroy mission, ordered to neutralize the Covenant on the planet. Since this was their first real mission, Tyler was given the rank of and his squad was mixed with that of Dave-A119 to form Alpha-Three. All set, they traveled to the planet using several and landed on the planet.

As soon as they landed, all the teams were ordered to search the planet. The UNSC wasn't risking any chances of getting spotted, so stealth was the Spartans' only best option. They searched the planet for a long time, going through forests, passing rivers but all staying together. While crossing a jungle, they encountered a group of eleven Grunts and eight Kig-Yar, with a single Sangheili Major leading them. The group hadn't spotted them yet, so they made a plan to take them out quietly. After about half of the Grunts at the back were quietly eliminated, Tyler took out his sniper rifle and emptied its magazine into the elite's chest and head, killing it instantly and alerting the other aliens. Satisfied that the elite was down, the Spartans hit them hard, killing all of them within half a minute, all quietly. They continued their search. After nine hours, they discovered blue flames on the horizon. This alerted everybody, as blue flames were a sign of Covenant. They continued to the end of a forest when they spotted a Covenant base, with a huge CCS-class cruiser at the top.

Sneaking quietly, Alpha-One and the other teams slipped through the Covenant who were guarding the base and quickly entered the structure in which the reactor powering the entire base was located. They used their, set a timer for sixty minutes, and escaped the base. When they were far away from the Covenant base, they signaled the UNSC for pick-up. Boarding the Condors, they escaped the planet's atmosphere before the nukes exploded, destroying the Covenant base completely. The mission was successful, with the Covenant base completely neutralized and new Covenant weapons found, including the, which was never documented on before. After this mission, they were given promotions and assigned to permanent squads.

"They called us by some name.. some "cat 2". Not sure why they come up with such names"

- Tyler, reacting to the nickname for the 'special' S-IIIs of Alpha Company.

Insurrection on Algerion IV
In August 2538, Gauntlet Team, Echo Team, and NOBLE Team, after they were given the Mark IV suits, were sent together to suppress the Insurrectionist activity on the human colony world of Algerion IV, an industrial planet. They had to do it quickly and stealthily, so the three teams were sent to the surface of the planet. They all landed in various parts of the city and were separated from each other. They regrouped after about twenty minutes, with some of them even having to fight some insurgents in order to reach the rendezvous point. The Spartans steadily advanced into the city, which was infested with insurgent patrol squads and vehicles. The innies were on high alert, seemingly indicating that they knew of the UNSC's presence here on the planet. They fought and neutralized the innie squads they encountered, using suppressors to avoid giving their location. Radio silence was maintained, and the Spartans only communicated using hand signals.

The Spartans stumbled upon the many weapon industries present in the northern section of the city, which had little to no innies patrolling. Carter suggested that the insurrectionists were probably stealing weapons and ammunition from these industries, while Dave said that maybe the industries themselves were allied with the innies. The latter was proven to be right when they found out that many of them, including Arcane Industries, a major manufacturer of the the UNSC uses in practice matches, were actually directly supplying the innies with weapons and ammunition. The Spartans were given the green light to take down these factories but were instructed to stay low.

The Spartans did their job effectively, taking down all of the rebel industries by destroying their generators, which were crucial for the functioning of the industries. They used mines and explosives to blow up the heavy ammunition, successfully depriving the innies of arms. Then they were ordered to take down the Innie base in the eastern part. During the journey, the Spartans were ambushed a lot of times by Innies, who were notified of their presence now. Realizing that stealth was no option, the Spartans opted for speed and ran towards the Innie stronghold. Nearby, they found some stripped down warthogs, which they used for quicker transportation. They still had a few M19 missiles left along with three M41 launchers, so the Spartans attacked the base directly, using their heavy ammunition to take down the barracks and the warehouse, while they dealt with the infantry.

Destroying the base, Pelicans were sent to pick them up, and the Spartans were requested to clear the LZ where the Innies had set up some surface-to-air missile launchers, or SAM launchers. The Spartans attacked them and after a brief fight, the Spartans killed the insurgents and they retrieved their weapons. Soon after, the Pelicans came down and evacuated them and the weapons. The mission was considered a huge success, and the Spartans were promoted too. This was their first mission after the new teams were formed, and they had done really well.

Attack on Kőszeg Communications Facility
"The insurgents have taken over the Kőszeg Communications Facility. Our job, infiltrate the facility and do to them what they did to ours, sneak in and kill 'em."

- Tyler, briefing the mission to the team.

In 2540, during the Human-Covenant War, the insurrectionists stationed on Reach launched a surprise attack on the Kőszeg Communications Facility located in the Kőszeg Canyons and took over it. In response, a squad of UNSC Marines were sent to attack and take over again but were all killed due to the insurgents' seemingly having more soldiers and firepower. Since Gauntlet was stationed in Reach in order to get upgrades to their armor, they were sent to take over the facility, rescue its hostages and kill the insurgents.

Reaching the Facility, Tyler and the rest of Gauntlet were ambushed by a large amount of Insurrectionists, prompting Clyde to use his rocket launcher at the innies, taking them out. Just before entering the facility, Nick-A077 resisted and tried to escape them stating that he was not 'the UNSC's pig' and 'did not want to work like slaves under them'. Tyler, who tried to change his mind, was attacked by Nick and the two engaged in a short fistfight, with Tyler eventually gaining the upper-hand. When Tyler tried to convince Nick, he tried to escape, but accidentally triggered a mine present a few meters away from him, causing it to explode and send Nick flying, down into the canyons. Losing a member even before the mission actually started worried Tyler, and he was very much sad about Nick's death, however, the rest of the team persuaded him and they continued into the facility.

Unknown to the Spartans, Nick-A077 had actually survived the fall, having escaped the planet by using a stationed nearby. Meanwhile, the Spartans took over the facility very soon, as probably most of the innies present were those who ambushed them. Gauntlet went in and retrieved the hostages, as well as securing the entire building, killing some more innies. Then, they sent a report to the UNSC ship in orbit about their success, and requested for more protection for the facility, guarding it until the forces arrived. Later, in their mission report, Tyler marked Nick's status as Missing in Action (MIA), unaware of his survival.

Operation: JACKDAW
"Report says that there is a UNSC Research Facility down there, where they're developing a new variant of MJOLNIR armor. The enemy shouldn't get their hands on it, or anything else in the facility. That's our mission"

- Tyler, briefing Gauntlet about the Operation.

Operation: JACKDAW was a short mission involving Gauntlet. Friday Shield was an insurrectionist R&D station in the asteroid belt of a system whose one planet was inhabited by Innies. The scientists there were developing a new prototype powered armor using the information obtained by an MJOLNIR Mark IV suit obtained by unknown means. If it soon went into production, the Innies would become a big threat to the UNSC, after, and maybe even before the HCW ended. Therefore, Gauntlet was sent in to retrieve the prototype to keep it safe from enemy hands and also study it to know the extent of the Innie's knowledge on the Powered Assault Armor concept.

Gauntlet Team was provided with a, the UNSC Edge of Life. The AI 'Alpine' was introduced to the team, who proved to be useful in controlling the prowler. For this mission, one member had to go in without MJOLNIR in order to wear the armor, so Caren opted to do the part. Entering the station stealthily, Tyler and Carris went towards the armory, while the rest went to download intel on the enemy, neutralizing all guards they encountered. On reaching, Tyler and Caren inspected the armor before deeming it safe to wear. He took help of Alpine in installing the armor on Caren. It wasn't heavy compared to their MJOLNIR armor, but definitely so with respect to the ODST and Marine's standard BDUs. Sporting a green tint and a solar-colored visor with the software Tactical View (The insurgents' version of VISR), the BUCCANEER was so much like MJOLNIR, yet so different. It had prototype integrated thrusters on the back and less armor at joints, hinting its perks towards agility and maneuverability instead of speed and strength.

Meanwhile, Clyde, Varun, and Carris made their way to the control center. The room was full of hardworking scientists, save for a few armed men, who were taken out quickly. Instead of directly attacking, they opted for a more peaceful way and showed themselves, offering a better position in the UNSC. Those who tried to resist and quickly attack were neutralized, while some willingly stepped up, suggesting that many insurgents might be willing to join the UNSC after all to fight the bigger extra-terrestrial threat. After downloading various pieces of information regarding insurgent hideouts and fleet capacities, the trio along with the technicians proceeded to rendezvous with Tyler and Caren.

After meeting up, everything was pretty quick. Gauntlet called for extraction while taking down many other guards who were informed of their presence and ordered to kill on sight. Soon, their prowler came in controlled single-handedly by Alpine, who decided to park it a little farther from the station to avoid detection. The scientists got onboard and the ship took off, leaving the system and entering slipspace, headed towards Reach.

Operation: GUARDIAN LANCE
One of the very few missions in Tyler's career that consisted of little to no combat, Operation: GUARDIAN LANCE was a small, simple operation with a single purpose; retrieve Covenant technology from glassed human planets. Gauntlet's location was the colony Jericho VII. As it was a non-combat mission, not much is known of the mission. Gauntlet was sent to the planet to scout the planet's surface and retrieve Covenant weapons and machinery. Gauntlet managed to bring back various Covenant things, out of which two pieces of equipment were labeled as '83.788-C' and '77.312-C'; the Jackal shield generator and the portable Grav Lift. Their work would be later instrumental in the Human-Covenant War as ONI Section Three was able to reverse-engineer the Covenant's energy shielding for the MJOLNIR Mark V Armor using the samples brought back by Gauntlet, as well as improve humans' anti-gravity technology after studying the grav lifts.

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.

In 2549, the UNSC discovered an incoming Covenant assault on the colony world of. This discovery was done by the and its commanding officer. Not wanting to risk the planet falling into Covenant hands, Rear Admiral Veredi ordered Gauntlet, who was in the ship on a risky mission; board a Covenant ship, take over it and use it to aid the UNSC ships in the space battle.

Using their ship, 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 a 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 fighting them using hit and run tactics. They got into the prowler and abandoned the Corvette. Tyler, operating the prowler, cloaked it and watched in secrecy as the Covenant then proceeded to glass Roost. This battle was an important incident in Tyler's life, as he then truly felt regret for the first time that it was his failure that the UNSC lost the planet to the Covenant. As such, he began training more and more out of his helplessness and angered feelings, improving his skills.

Battle of Algolis
"It's done. The Covenant will never step their foot onto ever again."

- Tyler at the end of the Battle of Algolis, after destroying the Covenant corvette.

The Covenant attacked the human colony world of, one of the Inner Colonies, in 2550, in what people considered a largely unexpected event that quickly turned into a huge battle in space between the UNSC and the aliens. While the UNSC forces tried to fend off the Covenant ships using the two stationed around Algolis, a lone Covenant corvette secretly escaped the battle, entered the planet's atmosphere and started deploying troops. Their target was the weapons research facility, designated, in 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, who received a new member, Varun-173, 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. Quickly taking all the ammo and equipment they need, Gauntlet wasted no time and rushed towards the facility on foot. 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, as per the new orders received by them from the commanding officer in the UNSC fleet in orbit around the planet. The AA Cannon was in the heart of the city, where the Covenant presence was maximum, so the team was given a couple of Gauss Warthogs to counter the enemies. They drove towards the cannon, crashing through the barricades made by the Covenant. Upon reaching the cannon, Clyde used his G4H Anti-Vehicle/Infantry Rocket Launcher and destroyed the exposed core of the cannon, effectively disabling it.

Then, they proceeded to board the Covenant corvette, which was a few blocks away from their position. The Corvette had come very near to the ground in order to 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 to receive new upgrades to their MJOLNIR Mark V suits, as well as some training and practice. However, the situation changed when on July 14, Reach 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, was to find a new ship to leave Reach. The team then split to find a usable spacecraft.

Tyler then proceeded towards the, in hopes of finding a ship. However, his efforts were in vain, as there was no ship stationed there which was in proper working condition; the last one being the, which had left before Tyler entered the area, and all the other ships over there were heavily damaged, practically useless. After a small mistake that alerted the Covenant nearby of his presence, Tyler was forced to fight the alien army all alone, using stealth and his sharp-shooting skills. After a long time, when his ammo almost ran out, Tyler opted to retreat and searched for a way out of the area quietly.

Hearing the sound of a ship's engine, Tyler turned to see an Eagle-class light cruiser, having a shark teeth design on its prow. Just then, his COM channel clicked, and Carris-137 spoke, confirming that the ship was indeed piloted by Gauntlet. Running, Tyler reached the ship while also dodging plasma fire from a couple of Banshee fliers. As soon as he entered, he strapped himself to a seat in the next room after the hangar bay, as the ship turned and attacked at the Covenant infantry and aircraft. The ship launched its missiles, hitting the Covenant force and wiping them out, while its 40mm cannons destroyed the Banshees. After the engagement, Tyler proceeded towards the bridge of the ship, meeting up with his team members, inquiring them about what happened and vice-versa.

Regaining his command and captaining the ship, Tyler began a search for any more Spartans in the vicinity. He then intercepted a faint distress call of Beta-Epsilon, a splinter of the SPARTAN-II and the later  on Reach, who were stuck in a UNSC Outpost, surrounded by the Covenant in all directions who were yet unaware of the Spartans' location. Marking it as their objective, Tyler ordered to go for a quick retrieval of the Spartans, without largely engaging the enemy. Accordingly, the ship changed course and accelerated towards the outpost. The launched a couple missiles to make a distraction and keep the enemy occupied, and quickly hovered near the outpost. Tyler radioed them to hop on, and after they did, just as quickly escaped the area as they had arrived.

After a brief conversation, Gauntlet learned that the four-member team of Spartan-IIs was originally defending the, but found a nearby UNSC outpost that had valuable information regarding the location of Earth and other colonies. In order to enforce the Cole Protocol, the four Spartan-IIs, better known as Cobalt Team led by Saran-097 moved from the generators to the outpost.

The Spartans then moved to their new priority; finding an UNSC ship with a functional slipspace generator, when Varun pointed out that their original Prowler, the UNSC Edge of Life was still docked with the and they could use it to leave. Agreeing with the plan, the ship set course to the UNSC ship in Reach's orbit. On reaching there, the Spartans understood that the UNSC's situation in space was very bad, as most of the UNSC ships were either destroyed or critically damaged, unable to fight back. They entered the UNSC Euphrates and reached its hangar bay, where their prowler was stationed. Boarding it, they exited the ship and initiated the slipspace drives of the ship, with a course to Deston, the planet which had already survived a Covenant invasion and was Tyler's homeworld.

Second Battle of Deston
"Deston's already damned lucky to survive the Covenant once. Let's just hope the luck is still good enough."

- Tyler, when the Covenant attack Deston for the second time.

In September 2552, Tyler's homeworld, Deston,tf was attacked for the second time by the Covenant, who were then at the peak of their power, having discovered a Halo ring recently. This time their force was considerably larger, under the direct orders of the Prophet Of Regret. Deston, however, too had improved over the years, after the first battle. More ships were in orbit to defend any incoming threat, and in place were newer, more efficient Super MACs, just the preceding model to the ones used on Reach and Earth, which were the best. The Covenant, however, did not stop from attacking it, even though they had a lot fewer ships than during Reach. As soon as the battle began, a few Corvettes reached the surface from the other side of the planet, dedicated to sending many troops of Covenant soldiers to the massive Great Sand Plains present on the planet, as well as the nearby city of Zander.

Gauntlet Team, Sage Team, Echo Team, and a fourth, as-of-yet unknown Spartan were sent to the surface of Deston to remove the Covenant presence. Upon meeting, the third team was found to be Team Corvo, a five-man Gamma Company Spartan team. These three teams were first supposed to enter Zander and defend the Athens Testing Facility since the Covenant seemed to be interested in obtaining the MJOLNIR suits. After the defense, the Spartans replaced their broken armor pieces with new ones in the facility, while the Gammas wore their Mark V suits for the first time. After that, Sage and Echo were to fight the Covenant in the city, while Gauntlet and Corvo were to go to the huge desert, along with a large Marine force under the name of Foxtrot Company, and investigate the ruins and find out why the Covenant were very interested in it.

All the human soldiers were sent in various Albatrosses, with the four Spartan teams together in one. Nearing the city's ground, the Spartans' Albatross was unfortunately shot down by a. Upon crash-landing, all the Spartans survived, owing to their armor, and began towards the Testing Facility. By the time they reached, the Covenant had just reached and began a skirmish with the Marines. The Spartans secretly pounced on the aliens from the back, taking down most of them by surprise and distracting the rest, only for them to be gunned down by the Marines. After then, the Marines continued their defense, while Tyler and the other Spartans received their factory-fresh Mark VI armor. Tyler chose a blue colored one, with green detail, complete with enhanced visor zoom and improved weapon sight sensitivity. The rest of the Spartans too received the Mark VI armors, including Corvo who were using SPI Mark II until then.

With the first phase of their mission, The Spartans along with Foxtrot Company used a variety of ground and aerial vehicles to exit the city and enter the huge desert area. They were attacked by three pairs of Banshees but were destroyed and the humans to arrive the destination unscathed. Reaching the ruins, they found that although the Covenant was in the desert, they hadn't found the ruins yet, possibly searching for it all the time.

The Spartans and many Marines entered the complex, while the rest were put on defense. As they were investigating the interiors, the Marines outside were attacked by a big army of Covenant soldiers, led by the Sangheili Field Marshal Jez 'Varum. Leaving most of the Covenant soldiers under his command to fight the Marines, Jez led a secret task force of Zealots to kill the Spartans and Marines inside. Tyler entered a large room with a control panel and was trying to understand the signs when Jez ambushed them, managing to kill Julia-B047. During the brief conflict, a Jackal accidentally activated the complex, which was, in reality, a Forerunner portal to a distant shield world known as the Repository. Everyone who was within the complex's perimeter too was transported to the world, hundreds of light-years away.

Battle of the Repository
The Forerunner site, on activation, used highly advanced slipspace technology to transport the humans and Covenant forces to the Repository far away seemingly within hours, although many faced nausea and dizziness. On arrival, everyone was scattered all over the portal's other end, another vast Forerunner site, but comparatively much bigger. Most of the UNSC soldiers managed to regroup and followed the Spartans, who too were confused by where they were. Just then, they were greeted by 371 Repentant Instigation, who introduced itself to be the Installation's Monitor. The humans followed the Monitor inside the Forerunner complex, to the map room.

Inside, Repentant showed them the map of the planet and told that they were teleported here from Deston. Upon being asked, Repentant revealed that the Repository was a testing facility for the long-annihilated Forerunners to try out newer weapons and warships. Repentant told them that the Forerunners created the Halos to kill the parasitic life-form known as the Flood, and also told that the planet was notable for being the manufacturing site of the first Guardian, a machine originally intended to be a fighting vessel, which became the prototype for future, differently-purposed ones. While Repentant was telling the tale, Jez 'Varum and his Zealot task force were secretly listening to them too, originally intending to ambush them. However, the actual story of the Forerunners caused them to realize the lies of the Covenant, especially Jez, who was doubtful of the Covenant since the beginning.

Just then, Connor-G074 spotted Jez and alerted the humans of the aliens' presence. Trying to prevent a firefight, Jez walked out, in a surrendering fashion. Tyler signaled the enthusiastic Connor to halt and demanded Jez's purpose, to which he replied that he'd been listening to them and feels regret for having believed the Covenant. After it was clear that none of them were about to fight, the rest of the Sangheili came out and proceeded to ally with the humans.

Realizing that the Covenant would become immensely harder to defeat if they laid hands on the Forerunner warships and weaponry in the shield world, Tyler formulated a plan to kill the Covenant and destroy the warships. He asked Repentant for the location of the Guardian and the means to activate and control it without revealing their intention with it. Not doubting them Repentant told the Guardian was in the vast desert, under the sand, and the only way of reaching it was through an underground passage. While it had insisted on coming with them to show them the passage, Tyler refused it and asked it to stay, to not let it know of their intention to it. He asked on the way to activate and control the Guardian, which the Monitor gladly explained, having someone to talk deeply about the machines after millennia of isolation.

After going outside, Tyler told the humans and the Sangheili of their plan. Gauntlet, Corvo and a few of the Sangheili along with Jez would go for the Guardian, excluding Jack-B157 who would stay with the rest of the forces and engage the Covenant on the ground, in hopes of distracting them. Tyler then began what he and many others would later call 'Operation: RECLAIMER', after hearing the word during their conversation with the Monitor, and gave the green signal to start the mission.

Tyler's squad used a couple of Warthogs to travel to the desert, having uploaded its location on the NAV markers. After reaching there, they began searching for the underground passage. Before they could find it, a large Covenant force, including a pair of Hunters and some Wraiths began a battle with the Spartans. While Gauntlet and Jez were fighting, Corvo stealthily evaded the forces and began searching for the passage. Finding it, they wasted no time and opted to sprint through the passage, ending up in a two-story-high room, which looked like a control center, seemingly that of the Guardian, with an unusually large screen.

Knowing how to initiate the Guardian, Corvo immediately activated it. The room shuddered as the Guardian rose, using anti-gravity machines on the top to clear the sand. Everyone felt a sense of vertigo but as the Guardian stabilized itself, hovering in the air, overcame it. The Guardian's weapons activated, automatically target-locking all the living beings on the ground within a five-kilometer radius. Safely removing the target lock from its allies before the firing sequence began, Corvo fired the weapons. The Guardian used high-precision hardlight and gravity-manipulation weapons, killing all the locked targets before they even had the chance to react, while huge hardlight cannons all over the 'hands' of the Guardian took care of the Covenant cavalry.

Meanwhile, thousands of light-years away, due to the fight between the Covenant and the UNSC on Installation 04, the Flood on the ring was accidentally released. Around the same time, due to the activation of Alpha Halo, all the other Forerunner installations in the galaxy immediately turned on, under the protocol of eradicating the Flood completely again. 371 Repentant Instigation, who was alerted about the activation too, believed there was indeed a widespread Flood infestation on various planets the Forerunners knew of, including Earth (known to him as Erde-Tyrene). The Monitor, panicked, quickly tried to launch the Warships buried underground, capable of destroying entire cities within a few minutes.

When the ground started shaking, the remaining Spartans and Sangheili were confused before being advised to get onboard the Guardian by the Corvo, which they did hurriedly, with various platforms under the sand dunes falling suddenly, to their doom. Using grav lifts on the Guardian's surface turned on by Corvo, they launched themselves several times before entering an opening near its control center, running through a small passage before falling through a vent, falling right in front of the Gamma Spartans on the deck.

As the warships rose from the sand, the situation was understood quickly; Repentant was going to send those unmanned ships to the many planets and annihilate all the so-called "aboriginal species" on them, which could also possibly include humans. Realizing the lives of billions were on the balance, Jez suggested to attack the warship to try and destroy them. Agreeing with him, Tyler ordered it. Locking onto the three-dozen relatively-smaller-sized warships, they opened fire.

The hardlight weapons did not do much to dissipate the warships' energy shields. The gravity-manipulators, however, were another story. The highly-intense directed gravitational waves created within an infinitesimally small time interval shattered the energy shield like a needle touching a soap bubble. The hardlight weapons then had a devastating effect on the hulls of the ships, tearing down through various metres of armor and damaging various systems and anti-gravity thrusters, with a couple of the ships no longer able to sustain flight and fall into the deep abyss below formed due to the huge hole through which the warships arose.

This invited the wrath of Repentant, who, enraged that the technology he was devout to protect was being destroyed, ordered all the Sentinels on the Guardian. With less than ten warships remaining, the remaining either completely disabled or destroyed by the mighty fighting machine, the Spartans enjoyed a moment of triumph, short-lived due to the arriving Sentinels. The small machines grouped together in clusters of hundreds, overlapping their energy shields to create a powerful, big one. Since the gravity waves emitter was exhausted, and it would take a long time before it could be restarted, the Guardian's weapons could not penetrate the Sentinels' shields. Receiving heavy fire, the Guardian began taking a lot of damage. On observing that the shields of the clusters dropped at the time of firing, a targeting solution was derived to make the hardlight projectiles hit just as the shields were down. This caused a lot of Sentinels to go down bursting into flames, but there still plenty to take down the Guardian.

Just then, the team received a message on the COMLINK from Jack, who told them there was only one way to end the battle, and he knew how. Without answering any questions, he immediately requested everyone onboard to quickly exit the vessel, and run away from the Guardian as far as possible. Without thinking, they set the machine on automatic fire targeting the sentinels and disembarked, with hopes that the Sentinels would be busy in taking down the Guardian and not notice them. After running for about two kilometers, they received a video broadcast on the UNSC E-Band from Jack. It showed him, a few Marines and various other members of Jez's squad, on the deck of a UNSC ship, with everyone in a bad shape. Jack's MJOLNIR was heavily damaged and blood was oozing from his ears. Jack announced that they were too injured to continue fighting, and the only way to stop the battle was to fly the UNSC Sansad, the ship that crash-landed on this planet seventy-five years ago, right into the Guardian with the Sentinels all around it, and overload its reactors, creating chain explosion that'd destroy everything nearby.

The team then saw far away in the sky the ship headed towards the Guardian. The Sentinels, on spotting it, opened fire on the ship, highly damaging it, but it was still bound for the Guardian. It crashed at the heart of the Guardian, right below its control deck. It waited for five seconds, before exploding, turning into a huge fireball and taking down a huge lot of Sentinels who wandered too close. This caused the gravity weapons on the arms of the Guardian to lose its safeties and overload. Everything that was not engulfed in the explosion began getting attracted towards it, and the rest of the Sentinels and whatever part of the Guardian that was left got sucked into itself, as another explosion followed, and another. Then came a huge shockwave that spread far, hitting the Spartans and pushing them as far as five kilometers, in the same direction, knocking them out.

Waking up after approximately forty-three minutes later, the Spartans and Sangheili soon regrouped and gave the rendezvous coordinates at the same Forerunner structure as before to their allies. Taking another hour to reach there, they linked up with the remaining UNSC forces and Jez's soldiers. Going back inside, they met a furious Repentant. Jez tried to slowly calm him down, but given his behavior, it was evident that sweet-talking was not the way. Fairly enough, Repentant went rogue and attacked the people with his laser 'beam' eye. This erupted into a quick firefight, resulting in the Monitor getting damaged by a grenade at point-blank range. Believing he would no longer attack, this time they tried to slowly explain that the Monitor was mistaken, and there was no real threat, all of them unknown to the fact that while there was indeed a big problem, it had been averted by  right in time.

Feelingly seemingly convinced, 371 Repentant Instigation refrained from the hostile behavior, and agreed to send everyone back to the same planet they came from. Repentant warned that the return process might take a longer time than when they reached here, due to the damage sustained and won't be able to bring such a large number of people again. After going on rounds and doing one final check-up, they were all ready, as they entered the teleporter. The same dizziness feeling took over, and before long, they disappeared into thin air.

Return and Journey to Earth
On returning back to Deston, seven days after the Second Battle of Deston first started, everyone quickly exited the building to their surprise, the surroundings were still the same. Evidently, the Covenant had been repelled for the second time on a human colony, a rare event to occur. Tyler broadcasted a message on FLEETCOM, stating their coordinates and their status, requesting for evacuation. It was answered by the UNSC Trial By Fire. The communications officer of the ship stated that they were soon about to leave the system for Earth, in a worried tone, and that they would send a few Albatrosses to rendezvous with them.

After boarding the Albatrosses along with the Sangheili, Tyler and the others took a brief amount of rest after days of continuous fighting. Soon then, the craft entered the hangar bay of the ship, after which the Spartans reported to the ship's Commanding Officer (CO), Captain Debra Cauthen. On arriving, everyone on the deck froze and looked upon the Spartans as they entered and greeted the Captain by a salute, which she returned. The Captain informed them that they've set an immediate course towards Earth. When she was asked why, Captain Cauthen revealed that the Covenant had found the location of Earth, much to the Spartans' shock, even though they showed no kind of such fear on the outside. Before leaving, Tyler also informed that they had found a few new allies in the form of the Sangheili, and assured that even though he trusts them, he'll always keep an eye on them, in case they decide to suddenly attack the ship's crew.

The Spartans then went to the crew quarters, having a few beds specially allotted for them, and took rest. Tyler, who was exhausted, took a two-hour nap. During this time period, the UNSC Trial By Fire scouted the Daron system for any more Covenant ships in hiding. Tyler was quickly alerted when Captain Cauthen sent a transmission to the Spartans, indicating that they found a small Covenant outpost on one of the asteroids in the system's asteroid belt, and she wanted a few volunteers to raid and kill any Covenant forces left. Corvo came ahead, prompting Gauntlet to stay while they'd go and encounter the aliens, seeing that it was just a small outpost with a few phantoms docked and a small freighter ship that was small enough to dock inside the UNSC ship., possibly comprising of Kig-Yar pirates. Tyler accepted their request, and let them go, continuing his sleep.

Soon later, he was slowly woken up by Caren. She informed him that Corvo was successful in their mission, and now they had to go to cryosleep, as the ship was about to enter slipspace. Tyler got up, readied himself and went to the cryo-chambers with the rest of the Spartans. Corvo had commandeered the Covenant freighter with help from Jez and docked it inside the Trial By Fire so that the Sangheili too could sleep in their cryo-chambers. As everyone went into cryosleep, the ship transitioned into slipstream space, making a few random jumps before adjusting the final direction towards Earth.

Battle of Earth
On October 24, 2552, the Trial By Fire entered the Sol System, with full speed towards Earth. By then the Covenant fleet had already attacked, and the war was already on. As soon as the ship exited slipspace, the crew was woken up by the ship's AI. During the two hour journey from the edge of the system to Earth, the Spartans and the various companies of Marines quickly suited themselves up and got their gear ready. Nearing Earth, Captain Cauthen called the Spartans to the bridge again. There, she informed that she just made radio contact with the lead ship in the UNSC Home Fleet, who responded that they were going to need the Spartans for groundside engagements. Cauthen advised the Spartans to get ready quickly, to which Tyler replied that they already were. She ordered them to go to the docking bay and board a pelican such that as soon as they enter the atmosphere of Earth, they can quickly enter the planet. She would inform them of their mission later since FLEETCOM was busy then, but told the Spartans to be on the Pelicans just in case.

When they neared the planet, Cauthen sent them a message that the team was to be split into two. One would go to the Ladakh Valleys, while the other would go to the coastal city of Goa, both in Union of Indian States. Both the missions were to enforce the Cole Protocol while killing the Covenant invaders. Tyler opted to take Gauntlet to the Ladakh Valley with a few Sangheili, while Corvo and the other Sangheili would be led by Connor to Goa. Both of them set off in their separate Pelicans.

Gauntlet's mission was to rescue a squad of Marines and various technicians pinned in a weather station in the Ladakh valley by incoming Covenant forces, and at the same time see to it that the Cole Protocol was enforced, whether by them or the Marines already present.

Physical Appearance
Tyler-A319 was one of Alpha Company's tallest Spartans, standing at approximately 211.7 cm (7 ft approximately) alone while unarmored, as of 2557. Born to parents of British and Indian origin, Tyler was a mix of both cultures, even though he exhibited more traits of his father than his sister Shreya Verma, who was given her mother's surname while Tyler was given his father's. After the Battle of Deston and Tyler's indoctrination into the SPARTAN-III program, the regular training and exercises put much strain on Tyler's body, as with the others. Over time, however, his body slowly began to adapt to the grueling schedule and began improvements. he quickly shot up in height during his teenage years, around the time Alpha Company's training was nearing completion and were about to begun deployments. As the war progressed and years passed by, Tyler began to become more and more strong, toughened from the dozens of battles that he fought through his lifetime. He used to train a lot in between missions, whether alone doing physical exercises, or practicing along with his team-mates.

Tyler's body was heavily built up, thanks to his special traits which allowed his body to completely use the CHRYSANTHEMUM augmentations given to him at the age of twelve years. Similar to the S-IIs, but on a smaller level, Tyler's body at the age of 14 was equal to that of a 22-year old gymnast. As his age increased, Tyler's facial features began to develop. He started sporting a small beard by the end of 2554. By the end of the Post-war Era, he had a full-grown beard, and hair out of military regulations. Though he was advised by many to get it trimmed, Tyler objected them all, preferring to let it stay.

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

-, referencing Tyler.

Being indoctrinated in childhood after losing his family and training till he became a ruthless warrior, Tyler always held immense allegiance and loyalty towards the United Nations Space Command. As a child whose both father and grandfather were officers in the USNC, this was naturally expected. It grew after joining Alpha Company and becoming a Spartan, participating in various battles. He never once doubted his allegiance and remained devoted to his cause. Tyler was known to be very determined to his mission, seeing to it that his mission is always accomplished successfully. 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 always considers his mission as the main priority, followed by the safety of his team and then his own. Generally, he can be considered as a perfectionist, but in reality, he isn't one.

As a leader, Tyler cared about the team's safety first before his own, resulting in many times hurting himself to make sure his teammates are okay. He always cares about others more than himself, as his belief is that one should serve others more than serving oneself. While not necessarily a bad trait, since many people have it, it's rare to be found in a Spartan. Furthermore, after the betrayal of Nick-A077, Tyler had since felt guilty that it was him who was responsible for his team mate's betrayal. He is always unable to cope with the deaths of close people, as seen after the Battle of the Orbital Installation when he had to undergo a psychological evaluation in order to check his stability. This was later diagnosed as the "Allen's Syndrome", a type of disorder till now found in military commanders mostly. Due to the syndrome, Tyler feels high guilt for the deaths or injuries of his teammates or those working under him, often blaming himself for the unfortunate events that happen.

Tyler always spent time making friends with fellow soldiers on the battlefield, in order to give them hope and courage. Although he often makes jokes to keep the team's spirits high much like, he is unable to talk openly to non-Spartans except for a few close ones and good friends, such as Jez 'Varum and Daniel Averill, one trait that has been observed in. He is known to keep his feelings for himself, rarely sharing them with anyone other than his teammates, and he mostly shared them with Caren-A293.

Skills
Tyler's most notably known for his expertise in sharpshooting. In Spartans, the best-known snipers were only a few, and Tyler was one of them, along with others like Linda-058, Jun-A266, or Josh-A124. Definitely, his childhood experience with crossbow shooting was proven to be very useful to him. During training, he was the winner in the shooting ranges competitions various times, losing only to Josh and Jun. Seldom did anyone in the company other than these three get the first rank in such exercises. Such was the proficiency they had, and that benefitted the UNSC well in the upcoming years of war with the Covenant.

Tyler always tried to save as much ammunition as possible for his sniper rifle, but that did not necessarily mean he tried to reduce his kill count. He'd always try to take multiple targets at once, whenever he got the chance to do so. For instance, during the Fall of Reach, when Tyler was pinned down without backup, he took out four Kig-Yar at once, with the bullet going through each of their heads and puncturing through the brains, killing them instantly. While he has shown clumsiness in trying such shots more than once, Tyler was always persistent on those, stating "Kills and bullets matter, number of tries don't", a phrase that has been commonly used throughout his career.

Besides sniping, Tyler's other skills included hand-to-hand combat and tactical thinking capabilities. Tyler was known to be extremely lethal when it came to fighting with a combat knife. Tyler also mastered in the use of the katana, a highly unusual thing for a Spartan. After showing interest in the weapon after seeing it in many classes taught to him by Eternal Spring during his training. Tyler was known to kill unarmored Kig-Yar, Unggoy, or even Brutes, stealthily with his knife, not making a sound and dropping them instantly. On the other hand, Tyler was a suitable leader, as his thinking skills were very fast. This, however, led to a few disasters, as thinking his next move quickly made him prone to mistakes, such as almost losing his life to a Mgalekgolo Hunter during the Battle of Roost. However, Kurt-051 and Franklin Mendez had argued that his leadership skills outweighed his quick bursts and blunders, and thus found him to be a good leader for the future Team Gauntlet.

Although Tyler was highly skilled in what he specialized, he does have his fair share of flaws, in combat or otherwise. While his quick thinking was a boon to him, it was also a bane, becoming as dangerous as almost risking his own life in combat. He rarely ventured into fields beyond his expertise; even though he was trained in all aspects since his childhood, he did not take risks of that sort. His basic strategy was "move in and kill, neutralize enemies, secure the objective and hostages, uphold the mission". Thus, even though he was highly effective on his own, as a "lone wolf" that SPARTAN-B312 was known for, with his team he was stronger and harder to fight. His team gave him more motivation to go on, and that was something he lost heavily whenever any of his teammates died. He was poor in tech infiltration and codebreaking, a subject he frowned upon various times, and usually tries to avoid such activities, rather leaving them to his teammate Carris-137.

Kurt-051
Like most other Alpha Company trainees, Tyler looked upon Kurt with great respect and admiration. After all, he gave them a second chance, to fight back the ones who slaughtered their worlds. When he first saw Kurt, he was impressed and amused to see the man in full armor, looking like the title character in the children's stories his mother used to read to him. Wanting to stay with Kurt was the sole reason Tyler made the jump to prove that he's fit to be an Alpha Company recruit.

Over the years, Kurt too began to like the man. He was strong, fast, and a swift fighter. Tyler was the third-ranking Spartan in Alpha Company, and that got Kurt's attention initially. Since then, Tyler never stopped in impressing Kurt during training exercises and routines, facing competition from others such as John or Carter. It was Kurt's trust in Tyler, that made him select him as team leader, and later to be made a real Spartan team, complete with MJOLNIR. Needless to say, Tyler had a close relationship with Kurt, and when he heard of his commander's death, Tyler felt very sad and mourned a lot, unable to think that the man who made him he was, who molded his thoughts and personality during the entirety of his childhood, was gone.

Clyde-A307
A dear friend for life, Clyde was the second child he met after his initiation into Alpha Company and the jump-test, in which he succeeded, earning his rank as a recruit. If that wasn't enough to spark a friendship, Clyde and Tyler were placed in the same three-recruit team, along with Caren-A293. And thus their bond grew, a deep teammate-childhood friend relationship between Tyler and Clyde.

Quotes
"Fighting for the UNSC is my only job, no matter what I fight, humans or Covenant. Serving the UNSC and fight till the end is all that I care about. It's because I'm a Spartan, and Spartans never die."

- Tyler-A319, regarding his priorities.

"Life's hardest choices are the ones that force you to question your own moral code."

- Tyler-A319

"I'm proud of you, kid. Proud of you all. You've earned your rank as Spartans."

- Tyler-A319 to Connor-G074

"I do not shed tears for the loved ones I've lost. It's because with each tear, the part of me that is theirs is lost. I just keep it all to myself, because I never want to lose them, or anyone else I love."

- Tyler-A319, reflecting on the people he's lost through his life.

Trivia

 * Just like the members of NOBLE, Tyler and his team members were given officer ranks so they can have the authority to change their mission parameters.

Appearances

 * ''Novum Acies Chronicles
 * Analysis
 * Cosmos
 * Halo: Reclaimer

Creator's Notes and References

 * The author originally intended his plans with Tyler at Fall of Reach and other battles to be implemented in his Dave-A119 page. However, they were later changed to Tyler. Even the AI User:S-D379/Anon was supposed to be used for Dave.
 * Events like the Second Battle of Deston and Operation: RECLAIMER was originally going to be used as a canon expansion for Team Gray, but was later changed.
 * As such, the author made an alternate version of this character to put down all the original ideas he had for Tyler.
 * Tyler's real-life images are of the American actor Chris Evans.