Joshua-G024

"I thought if we lived long enough the world at last would be lost. Like the dying world the newly blind inhabit, all of it slowly fading from memory..."

- SPARTAN-G024

SPARTAN-G024 was a member of the SPARTAN-III Project from Gamma Company. He was born into a life of extreme neglect and poverty, due to the heroin addictions of his parents. His sister was his parent for the first few months of his life, but, she was later killed in a riot. Joshua would later be picked up by the local Social Services, and placed into a Care Home. Due to Josh's frosty demeanor, he wouldn't be placed into Foster care, instead staying in the Care Home for the majority of his non-SPARTAN life.

He would be bullied due to his intense introversion, by a small group of older children. Josh would later retaliate, and brutally beat the boys, before a ONI Inspector would break the fight up and offer Joshua a place in a "special school." Joshua would accept.

On Onyx, Joshua would be made the leader of Team Xiphos despite his introversion which seemed to vanish while in the field. Xiphos would garner a sterling field report in the training exercises under his leadership. His team would excel in Close-Quarters Combat, and Stealth-esque missions, which was seen as an impressive feat, due to them being polar opposites in terms of Combat. It would be due to this flexibility, that Josh and his Team, would be temporarily cycled out of Gamma Company by ONI for certain missions with the intention of re-joining his Gamma Company comrades for the main company operation.

His most prominent mission under ONI's command, would be Operation:Contagio Purgatio which was supposed to be a simple Snatch N' Grab mission, but would turn out to be a fight for survival against both the Covenant and the Flood. During Contagio Purgatio, Xiphos, with the exception of Josh and Amy, would be slaughtered by the combined force of the Flood and the Covenant. The ordeal left Joshua in Hospital for several months, and left a lasting impression on Joshua, turning him from a devout Roman Catholic into a Nihilist.

After Josh and Amy recovered from their wounds, ONI would keep them under their wing, and turn them into "Headhunters" along with the survivors of Team Sword. They would be folded together under the banner of VIOLET-III. He would gain the call sign of "Violet Actual". VIOLET-III would then be sub-divided, with Josh and Amy retaining the namesake of their old team, and the other two IIIs under their old namesake.

Career Service Vitae
(as of 06:00 Hours, 1 January 2570) Joshua

Codename: VIOLET Actual, ZEALOT.

Full Name: Héroux, Joshua

Blood Type: AB+

Height: 198.78 cm

Weight: 93 kg

Rating:Lieutenant (LT/O-3)

Unit: Office of Naval Intelligent, SPARTAN-III Program, Gamma Company, Headhunter Division

Born: Auxerra, France, Federal Republic of Europe, Earth

Gender: Male

Citizen: Terran

Age: 33 (chronological), 21 (physical)

Occupation: SPARTAN-III supersoldier

''Born into a poor family, he's had it tough for most of his life - this seems to strengthen him in some ways, if not restricting him in others. His lack of communication outside of the field is worrying, though his latest psyche eval suggests he has minor Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, this is probably down to OPERATION: CONTAGIO PURGATIO where he lost most of his team, excluding Amy. She seems to be the real reason he's still standing. He is an exceptional field officer, having never failed a mission since being placed into the Headhunters, it's a wonder he wasn't moved into them sooner. His career highlight to-date has got to be the elimination of the notorious Colour Gang, he seems to relish taking down traitors, probably due to his unshakeable loyality to the UNSC - it's amazing, even after he finds out he's a suicide soldier, he's still loyal. Remarkable. He's far from expendable now; he's one of ONI's best killers, we can't afford to lose him. Not at all. Not now. Not after everything he's done."

Early life
Joshua was born into one of the worst slums of Auxerre, France, which by the 26th Century had become a sprawling Metropolis. He was born into a small poor family, his parents were both Heroin addicts and paid him no heed, due to that addiction. It was his sister, Bella, who practically raised and looked after him, unfortunately when Josh was four months old, she was killed during a riot between rival gangs. Two Months later, Josh was picked up by Social services as his parents neglected him almost entirely. When a Social Worker came to collect him, he was found sleeping while cradling: The Book of Joshua. When taken back to the care home; he was named Joshua because his only possession was the book.

Josh became a loner from the age of three, as this was when it is normal for toddlers to begin to "socialise", due to the neglect he suffered, he was unable to form any kind of social bond, and as such, Josh retreated into his own world of fantasy. His abnormal social patterns where picked up on, and attempts were made to try and correct the issue. But Josh didn't respond to any stimuli. It was due to this social awkwardness that enabled a group of boys, aged eight-to-ten, to bully him. The bullying was relentless, and often left Josh battered and bruised. The inability of the social workers to intervene with the abuse, caused Josh to harbour misanthrope style tendencies, and a general lack of respect for all authority.

The bullying reached its zenith when Josh was six. He got into a fight at the Care Home with the three bullies. It started when the "main" bully attacked Josh; and hit him in the face. Another of the bullies attacked him, this time however, Josh was able to halt the attack, by grabbing the bully's arm and breaking it. He then swiftly knocked that boy out, with a kick to the face. The fight then raged on for a while, with blows being dealt and blocked. Josh then headbutted the smallest bully, and broke his nose. He then proceeded to attack the main person responsible for his years of torture and torment. He punched him in the neck and face and was about to deal the killing blow, when an ONI Inspector came and stopped it. He then talked to Josh, and asked if he wanted to come to a special school. Josh hastily agreed, and was sent to Onyx later that week.

Induction into the SPARTAN Program
After being recruited Joshua, like all the other SPARTAN Candidates, was then taken to Onyx; where he was briefed by Lt.Ambrose about how he could become a Spartan like him. Joshua, never hearing of the SPARTAN stories, asked what a SPARTAN was; Kurt then turned round with an astonished look on his face, told him the story of the SPARTANs. After Kurt told the Gamma Company recruits the story, Joshua was completely indoctrinated into the program.

Training
"Ahahahaha!"

- Upon seeing the trainee refusing to jump.

The first test for the new Gamma Company 'Volunteers' was to perform a night jump out of the Pelican's they had arrived on. He, and the nineteen other trainees, clambered back on board in a mad rush. He was fifth in line to jump out, when the boy in front of him refused to jump, he burst out laughing. When Mendez shot him an approving glare, it give him even more determination and confidence to jump out. When he was at the ramp, he jumped out instantly and without thinking. The blast of air took the wind out of him, and gave Josh a burst of adrenaline that he would come to love, and would increase his desire to be in the field - many suspect that it was this burst of adrenaline that made him such a capable leader. After landing on the ground he felt that he had accomplished something was determined not to fail and become a SPARTAN.

Academically, Joshua was fairly bright. Excelling in English Literature, Philosophy and French. Joshua would harbour a great interest towards literature from the 18th Century onwards. He was very interested in philosophical novels, with each of them leaving a lasting impact on him. After Contagio Purgatio, Albert Camus' Absurdist novel L'Étranger would become his new Book of Joshua, as Joshua saw parallels between himself and the protagonist from L'Étranger - Meursault. Another book which Joshua would hold in high esteem, would be the existentialist novel The Trial by Franz Kafka. These two books would be the main focus of Joshua's free time after the operation - his French copy of L'Étranger would be covered in his scrawls and he made various interpretations of the work.

"Trial by Fire" exercises
His first 'Trial by Fire' test; was also the first one the SPARTAN-IIIs had in teams. Joshua was put in a Squad called Xiphos with: Amy-G094, Maria-G173, Colin-G092 and Andrew-G143. He only liked Amy because he had been paired up with her before. Their objective was to kill all the other S-III Teams using Tactical Training Rounds (TTR) ammunition. Their first kill was Team Sword, though they weren't the first team killed, that was Team Javelin. Xiphos met very light resistance, until they found Team Katana, Katana completely overwhelmed them; and Xiphos finished fourth behind: Jian, Katana, Gladius and Sabre. This cemented Josh as the Squad Leader for Xiphos, as under his command they finished highest, and with Maria as the Squad Leader, they finished in their worst position - Fourteenth.

The last 'Trail by Fire' Exercise, Xiphos stayed near the D.I Camp - hoping to find any stray S-III Teams. Team Kopis found them; and they quickly struck a deal. Capture the Camp Listening Post as every S-III had a chip in their suit so they could track them, but, they never made it to it. While they tried to figure out a plan two S-III Teams, Sword and Bayonet ambushed them; Josh's team was able to take Sword team but Bayonet proved too much and overwhelmed them both. Joshua's team graduated later that year. He was now an Official SPARTAN

Augmentations
When twelve years old, Joshua and Team Xiphos took and survived the biological enhancements like all the other S-IIIs from Gamma Company did. To complete their transition into S-III soldiers, they were injected with the following drugs:


 * 8942-LQ99: A carbide ceramic ossification catalyst to make skeletons virtually unbreakable.
 * 88005-MX77: A fibroid muscular protein complex that boosted muscle density and strength.
 * 88947-OP24: A retina-inversion stabilizer drug. It boosted color and night vision capabilities.
 * 87556-UD61: Improved colloidal neural disunification solution, which in turn decreases reaction time.

In addition, the following drugs were injected into the Spartans. They were illegal, but their trainer, Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose felt that they were necessary for Joshua and his fellow SPARTAN-IIIs to survive.


 * 009762-OO: a mutagen that alters key regions of the subject's frontal lobe. Enhances aggression, strength, endurance, and tolerance to injury. Negative effects include a loss in rational thinking and tactics. This is counter-balanced by the anti-psychotic and bipolar-integration drugs.
 * 009927-DG: miso-olanzapine. an anti-psychotic. Counters the mutagen's properties.
 * 009127-PX: cyclodexione-4. a bipolar-integration drug. Counters the mutagen's properties

Personality and traits
"Throw it away, 'cause I have the patience to watch you go down."

- An example of Josh's callous statements towards his assassination targets.

In private, Joshua was a very introverted person - showing very little to no outward emotion towards either his teammates or to psychiatrists during his regular evaluations. This is due almost entirely to his parents; and his self-inflicted isolation during his youngest years. He did not make any attempt to form any friendships with any of his trainees. During class and free time, he would spend his time alone reading. However, a member of his squad, Amy, would make regular attempts to form a friendship with him. She did succeed. Josh would begin to talk to Amy, and would find they had been raised in similar circumstances, though Amy's upbringing was not as harsh as Joshua's. This would cause him to have a level of respect towards her, and would later open up fully to her. They would become firm friends, and Amy would often spend her time with Josh. He would secretly harbour romantic feelings towards her. But would not tell her about them for years.

In the field, however, Joshua was a different person entirely. His introversion seems to vanish under the stresses of combat; it left the trainers dumbfounded, but they later learned to not question it. He is a ruthless leader, and this quickly made him one of Gamma Company's best leaders, and this led to his team being selected by ONI, along with Team Sword to be cycled out temporarily, with the intention of having them re-cycled back into Gamma. This, of course, did not happen. During Cognatio Purgatiio, Xiphos was killed in almost its entirety, with only Josh and Amy surviving. The mission left Josh even more introverted, and Josh would not to Amy for the duration they were in hospital.

Despite Josh knowing he was little more than a "expendable" soldier, he was still deeply devoted towards the UNSC, and took great pride in the fact he had been trained to defend the UNSC to the death.

Religion
Josh was raised a Roman Catholic, as he attended a Catholic Orphanage. His first possession was the Book of Joshua, of which he would hold dear. Josh would pray to God daily, and often before training exercises and operations. He would be one of the few trainees to attend Sunday Service/Mass on Onyx, as many of the trainees forgot their religion once they arrived on Onyx; he would often serve as the altar boy for the service. He enjoyed his time as an altar boy massively, and it would be a fond memory; even after he lost his faith.

Opertation:Contagio Purgatio had a cataclysmic effect on Joshua's faith - it destroyed it. After seeing the Flood with his own eyes, and seeing what they did to people made him apathetic towards God, and eventually with the death of his team, turn away entirely from God. This left a hole in Joshua, as his faith had kept him going for so long. However, Joshua would turn towards philosophy, and while he would be by nature a Nihilist, he would love the philosophy's of Albert Camus, and Franz Kafka.

Service history
Joshua has taken part in over 50 Missions in his career to date;

Missions under ONI
Due to Xiphos'  exemplary performance in training, ONI decided to use their services on a temporary basis, before re-cycling them back into Gamma Company. The Team were to be issued the new experimental Mk. III Semi-Powered Infiltration (SPI) Armour, in addition, they were given the opportunity to use any weapon in the UNSC's vast arsenal. They were to act primarily as an intelligence-gathering team, though, due to their "non-existence", they would be used in deniable ops, to assassinate Rebel Faction leaders, as well targets within the UNSC itself. Despite this newly garnered importance; the team would still be classed as "expendable" to the ONI Top Brass. And, for most of the infiltration missions, they would have a limited time to exfiltrate.

Battle of New Asia.
Joshua's first mission under ONI. Joshua, his Team and an additional S-III team who had also been picked by ONI - called Team Sword - where sent down to the Planet's surface; to retrieve data on the Covenant from the University, the planet had been overrun by Covenant forces and the UNSC could only afford to spare two small strike teams. So, Xiphos and Sword where sent in via Long Range Stealth Orbital Insertion Pod (LOIEV) from Slipspace by the UNSC Outta Time. The Outta Time would proceed to the planet exactly one hour after Xiphos and Sword were launched, so as to be there when the SPARTAN-IIIs were expected to have completed their mission.

At first the mission was going according to plan. Xiphos had reached the rendezvous point and waited for Sword before heading out. They reached the University without incident, but, when Xiphos began to extract the Data the fighting outside picked up. Sword, who where outside the University and where providing cover for Xiphos, were taking a beating by the advancing Covenant Legions, but were not sustaining casualties, asked Xiphos for assistance. Josh proceeded to send Amy and Maria out to help. They too realised that the window for extracting was diminishing by the minute, began asking Josh to allow a retreat. Josh was unwilling to allow a retreat, without the data, though, Andrew quickly retrieved the data, after this request and Josh ordered the much needed retreat.

After an hour of constant running, fatigue began to set in, and the Covenant caught up with them. In the ensuing firefight, Sword lost two members to advance Covenant assault teams. Josh had his team melt into the forest and positioned them in such a way that the Elites couldn't see them. When the Elites moved past, he and his team grabbed them and quickly killed them with their K-bar knives. Just after killing his Elite; a Seraph fired and hit near his position, causing him to lose consciousness, but, not before he had been told that the Pelicans where on station and awaiting their arrival. When he awoke, having been carried by Colin, he was at the Pick-Up Zone and was walking up a pelican ramp, when Sword came running out of the woods, one last member of Sword was killed by a sniper shot to the head.

The mission was declared a success, and Xiphos were continued to be under ONI's command, while the survivors of Sword were kept by ONI as Headhunters.

Operation:Contagio Purgatio
"I'm alive...and I find it nauseating."

- After extraction.

Rebirth: Headhunter
After Joshua and Amy recovered from their horrific wounds, ONI decided to keep them under their guidance, so as to have access to two of the best trained killers in UNSC Space. Josh and Amy would both be placed into the Headhunter program - an ultra secret assassination wing of the SPARTAN-III project, not even their peers or Kurt knew of its existence.

Due to their already sterling performance record, and actually witnessing combat, Joshua and Amy would be made, temporarily, trainers of the group, before being placed into the rigorous compatibility tests, to see if they could work effectively together. This was superfluous, as Josh and Amy already had a strong connection, forged on the anvil by both their combat together and their already close friendship, and this would be reflected in their score - 99.87%. The highest of any Headhunter pair.

Due to their high compatibility rating, Josh and Amy would be placed into a separate "Division" of the Headhunters - VIOLET-III. VIOLET-III would be a four man group of two Headhunter teams. They would be joined by Team Sword's survivors, John and Clara, who had also scored incredibly high on their tests - third in the section. Xiphos and Sword would often be sent on large scale missions, acting as both Rapid Response Units, and Scouts, for the counter-invasion of a planet, they were somewhat unique in that respect to their other Headhunter compatriots.

However, they would still be used on deep strike missions - both in Covenant space, and Insurrectionist space. Disrupting communications, assassinations, etc. They would also be used to assassinate corrupt UNSC officials, their deniability gave ONI a golden opportunity to get rid of UNSC officials supplying the Insurrectionists information, or worse: The Covenant.

VIOLET-III, and specifically Team Xiphos, would earn an incredible reputation, and quickly became the stuff of legend in both Human and alien space.

Behind the Scenes
This article was made during the author's first year on Halo Fanon, while under the name ODST Joshie and during that period, the author was very unoriginal with names, with "Joshua" being used primarily for names. Since rejoining the site, the author intends to keep this article the only article with the name, and has even changed his article which bore his name, to Micheal Montag, just to have some originality.

The author considers this his most original, and has been subjected to a massive re-write. It its original format, it was intended to be a bog-standard SPARTAN-III, who served with Gamma Company and then went on into the after war years, before being brought to train SPARTAN-IVs in the Necros era. The author found this quite limiting, and so decided to remove the article from the Era, and expand him. So he has now become a Headhunter, with philosophical inclinations.

The article scored a 20 on this test classing him as not a Mary Stu.