Bailey-132

Lieutenant Bailey-132 (callsign Sapphire One), sometimes jokingly referred to by his squad as Honeybee due to his yellow armor, was a Class I SPARTAN-II supersoldier and the leader of Sapphire Team. He was also the older brother of SPARTAN-038.

Training
Not much is known about his life prior to entering active service. It is known that he was friends with his later squadmates. It is also known that he was good friends with (and possibly harbored romantic feelings for) a female trainee, Adeline-009, whom was killed by the, as her body reacted violently to the ceramic bone grafts, causing extreme disfigurement and killing her due to the shock and the violent spasms resulting from the intense pain this caused. Bailey exited the recovery room after his augmentation was complete (against the wishes of the medical staff) to go looking for Adeline, as he was curious as to why she was not there as well. Bailey ended up witnessing her death, and instinctively tried to run over to her, but he was caught and dragged back to the recovery room with great difficulty by ONI personnel, who strapped him down to his bed in order to prevent him from running off again.

Following the incident, Bailey became extremely reclusive and antisocial, as opposed to his previously outgoing and optimistic personality. Adeline's death may also have played a role in his PTSD.

Battle of Chi Ceti IV
"Uh, why is it yellow...?"

- Bailey upon seeing his brand new suit of.

Upon completing their training, Bailey and the rest of the SPARTAN-IIs were sent to to recieve the MJOLNIR Mk. IV armor. Unfortunately, this trip was complicated when the SPARTANs arrived to find the the planet under attack by alien invaders known as the.

The SPARTANs were forced to put their training to the test and fight their way to the into an underground research facility, where they were given their new armor. Bailey's armor specifically had recieved a number of special modifications, courtesy of the Delta-3 Division, an ONI cell which had recruited him several years earlier for unknown reasons.

While leaving Chi Ceti IV, a team of SPARTANs was forced to board a Covenant warship and destroy it from the inside. While this succeeded, the SPARTAN was killed in the process. While this took a toll on the other SPARTAN-IIs, Bailey was mostly apathetic towards Samuel's loss at the time, simply viewing it as just another casualty of war.

Early Harvest Campaign
After returning to, Bailey and his team were sent with to the colony of. Upon arriving in the, they found the breadbasket world of Harvest to be mostly and beginning to suffer the effects of nuclear winter. Battle Group X-Ray also discovered a in orbit above the colony, which they quickly destroyed at the cost of thirteen of their own ships.

After a shortlived search for survivors on Harvest's surface (which were quickly called off upon learning how horrifyingly thorough the Covenant had been in their ruthless genocide of the population), UNSC forces began to establish bases on Harvest's now frozen surface, in preparation for ground operations that would be conducted with the intent of taking back what was left of the colony from the remaining Covenant forces on its surface. Sapphire Team was attached to the aptly-named "Utgard Base"; a particularly large base located less than two kilometers from where the city of had once stood.

Though the Covenant's forces were initially disorganized and easily defeated, this changed when a group of arrived above Harvest after patrolling the fringes of the Epsilon Indi system. These ships forced Battle Group X-Ray to hastily pull back away from the planet and regroup, leaving UNSC ground forces suddenly without valuable orbital support assets. Confusion spread and UNSC troops quickly became disorganized. To make matters worse, the Covenant began deploying fresh ground troops, and those already on the ground were able to operate more cohesively thanks to tactical support from their ships in orbit above.

Sapphire Team was quickly deployed to key locations in order to provide assistance to UNSC with whom contact had been lost as Battle Group X-Ray fought to regain control of the situation in orbit. They left their commanding officers speechless; they were able to engage Covenant troops head on and win almost effortlessly, succeeding with ease where even the best of normal human soldiers would struggle.

But they also further proved that the SPARTAN-IIs weren't invincible. On March 30, while aiding a company of marines holed up in the charred remnants of a small city, Sapphire Team was ambushed by a large number of, and Bailey and Jared-011 were split off from the rest of Sapphire Team. The two SPARTANs were able to hold their own against the Brutes for a few minutes, but were soon overwhelmed, and Jared (whose mental stability had recently come into question on several occasions) deserted, leaving Bailey to fend for himself. Although Bailey eventually managed to kill all of the Brutes, he was shot in the right shoulder with a at point-blank range, pinning him to a wall, the group of marines that he and Jared were attempting to protect had been butchered, and his helmet was knocked off, preventing him from radioing for help. He remained pinned to the wall for nearly an hour before he was located, and was forced to wait another half-hour until a arrived to bring him back to safety. Jared was never found.

Sapphire Team was forced to wait until Bailey had recovered to see more deployment. He suffered extensive damage of the nerve, muscular, and connective tissue in his shoulder, and was left with limited feeling in his right arm. He also began suffering from moderate post-traumatic stress disorder. But thanks to the enhanced regenerative abilities of his augmented body, Bailey was ready for combat again on April 9.

On April 10, Sapphire Team was back on the battlefield. By this time Battle Group X-Ray had regained a hold on the situation in orbit, but many marines remained missing, and Sapphire Team was sent to help recover them. While patrolling an area in which contact with a group of marines had been lost from a pair of, the SPARTANs spotted signs of Covenant activity near a cliff, and landed to investigate. They traced alien footprints in the snow to a cave opening near the cliff's edge, which they cautiously entered. As they made their way deeper into the cave, the natural stone walls gave way to an artificial metal tunnel, with architecture not resembling that of any human or known Covenant designs.

Further down, the tunnel opened into a large cavern. To their astonishment, within this cavern they discovered Brutes using captured human civilians to help them access a large alien structure. Bailey did not hesitate to open fire on the Brutes, ordering Ryan-144 to take out the leading the group. Once the Chieftain was dead, confusion erupted amongst the aliens, and Sapphire Team moved in to engage them. Unfortunately, the Brutes began to slaughter their prisoners, and the SPARTANs were only able to save one of them. This survivor, a dirty, emaciated fourteen-year-old girl, had to be forcibly pulled away from the mutilated corpse of a four-year-old female, which was later identified as the body of her younger sister. She tried to attack the SPARTANs, not believing that they were human, but she stopped when Bailey removed his helmet and showed her his face. The girl passed out from exhaustion moments later, and Bailey was forced to carry her back to the Falcons. The SPARTANs returned to Utgard Base, where the girl received medical attention and ONI personnel questioned Sapphire Team about what they had seen in the cave.

Two days later, on April 12, the Covenant had appeared to have begun to withdraw their troops from the colony's surface, and the UNSC believed that victory was nearly at hand. However, the next day, exited  above Harvest, and immediately began to deploy ground forces. When these forces landed, UNSC marines discovered that a new alien species, which were soon nicknamed, were replacing the Brutes as the commanders of the Covenant's troops. The Elites proved to be far more disciplined and potent foes for Sapphire Team, but the SPARTANs still managed defeat them all the same.

After the arrival of the Elites, the situation on Harvest regressed into a bitter stalemate. The UNSC fought the Covenant for months on end without making any considerable progress. Even Sapphire Team was unable to tip the battle in the UNSC's favor, despite frequent deployment all across the planet, and a new member, Rachel-088, filling the hole that had been left by the loss of Jared-011 by early September.

Meanwhile, Bailey began to talk frequently with Addison Solaski, the girl whom Sapphire Team had rescued from the Brutes in the cavern. Bailey had taken pity on her, as everyone she knew had either died in the cavern or had been vaporized when the Covenant glassed Harvest, and she was to be held in military custody indefinitely due to the then-largely unknown alien technology that she had seen during her time as the Brutes' prisoner, as well as her knowledge of the existence of the SPARTANs. But as they began to talk with eachother more often, Addison became an outlet for expressing his thoughts, and he began to confide in her his feelings about the fight against the Covenant, Jared's desertion, and life as a SPARTAN in general. As time went on, romantic feelings developed between the both of them, and Bailey was unsure as to how to address these feelings, not believing that a relationship with Addison would work. This resulted in anxiety for Bailey, and after a few months, it began to noticeably impact his performance in combat. This would nearly cost Sapphire Team their lives.

In November 2526, Sapphire Team was sent to extract a squad of whom had been deployed to retrieve a group of high value individuals (ONI personnel, specifically, though this was not disclosed to the ODSTs or Sapphire Team) whose Pelican had been shot down by Covenant anti-aircraft fire. Though the ODSTs had managed to successfully retrieve the high value personnel, they had become pinned down by a large force of Covenant troops that had been drawn to the area by the Pelican crash.

Throughout this relatively simple mission, Bailey made multiple bad calls, ultimately resulting in Sapphire Team being flanked and pinned down themselves. Fortunately, the ODSTs at the crash site managed to push back the Covenant troops attacking them, thanks to the Elites (who now already recognized the significance and potency of SPARTAN supersoldiers) diverting much of their heavier troops towards eliminating Bailey and his team. The ODSTs, led by SSgt Viktor Kidrov, were able to flank the Covenant forces attacking Sapphire Team and allowing the SPARTANs to fight off the enemy, saving their lives.

Though there was now no doubt in the minds of his teammates that something was bothering him greatly, Bailey refused to admit that anything was wrong. However, Rachel asked Addison if she knew about anything that may have been bothering Bailey, and through this Addison realized that Bailey reciprocated her feelings for him. Addison soon confronted him and told him about her feelings. Despite Bailey's doubts about maintaining a relationship with Addison, he agreed to give it a try anyways.

The conflict on Harvest dragged on without any progress being made by either side for the next several years, with Sapphire Team seeing frequent deployment. However, in February 2529, Sapphire Team was sent to the colony Roleath, which intelligence suggested was the next target of the Covenant's genocidal campaign, aboard the UNSC Enola Gay.

Personality & Traits
Bailey was typically reserved and cynical, especially towards non-SPARTANs. He had a tendency to exploit his high rank and security clearance nearly to the point of outright abuse, and he was particularly foul-mouthed as well. He also usually viewed non-SPARTANs as anywhere from considerably incompetent to completely and utterly useless all-together. All of this gave him a tendency to alienate those whom were not familiar with him.

However, he was always deeply concerned for those he knew well, whether they were SPARTANs or not, often putting their wellbeing before his own. His subordinates respected and trusted him for this, despite his generally condescending attitude.

He often felt duty-bound to look out for those he saw as weak, but this was mostly out of pity, rather than any sense of justice or feelings of compassion.

In combat, Bailey was ruthless and animalistic. He prefered to engage foes at close-range, in order to "see just how much [he] effed up the poor son-of-a-bitch." If angered enough, he would to go into berserk state, and would not return to normal until his foe had been annihilated and his bloodlust had been satiated. Thankfully, this was a rare occurance.

Bailey also exhibited minor signs of OCD, mostly in his obsessive need to keep his equipment in the best condition possible, going to lengths far beyond those required by military protocol in order to achieve this.

Off of the battlefield, Bailey was aloof and quiet. He kept to himself, usually practicing Zen meditation, running combat exercises, cleaning his equipment, or spending time alone with Addison.

Despite his cynical, introverted personality and often elitist attitude, Bailey valued human life, and was less comfortable killing other humans than the alien soldiers of the Covenant, though he still would do so without question.

Trivia

 * He was known to be a member of ONI's Delta-3 Division, though it is relatively unknown as to what purpose he served for them.
 * He was promoted to Lieutenant prior to his graduation from training, as per the conditions of his "loan" to the Delta-3 Division. The reason for this has not been disclosed by the Delta-3 Division, but despite being a commissioned officer, Bailey was still for the most part treated like an enlisted soldier (aside from being addressed as "sir" by enlisted troops).
 * His first language was German, being of primarily Germanic descent, though his name was Irish, so he presumably had Irish ancestors as well. However, he spoke English without an accent, as he learned the language by ear at a young age by listening to native speakers. He also spoke French and Hungarian fluently.
 * The unusual yellow paint job on Bailey's Mk. IV armor actually helped mask his heat signatures (though only marginally), and also reduced the suit's radar cross-section by absorbing radio waves. This was part of a series of tweaks that the Delta-3 Division paid the Damascus engineers to make to his original suit. The yellow color results from the composition of the paint and the application process, and cannot be painted over or altered with dyes as the former negates the radar-inhibiting effect and the latter severely reduces the heat-masking properties. Bailey would use a yellow paint job on his later-generation MJOLNIR suits, however, the paint on those lacked the specialized effects that original suit's paint had, and was purely aesthetic in nature.
 * Bailey used the MA5B ICWS or in combination with the  or  almost exclusively. He would use other weapons without hesitation if a situation demanded, but he would always revert back to his MA5 and M6 as soon as he could.
 * He was issued the MA5B and M6D by the Navy in 2525 on Chi Ceti IV, and recieved his own factory-fresh MA37 and M6G from William Hughes as a "gift" in 2529 during the Battle of Roleath.