User:Zensun/Nathan Tanner

Nathan Tanner was an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper and member of the 22nd Tactical Battalion during the Human-Covenant War. He was present during several battles, such as the Battle of Cleveland and the Second Battle of Mombasa.

Physical Characteristics
Master Sergeant Tanner is far from the perfect specimen of human physical aspects, standing 172 centimeters tall and built in a wiry, subtle fashion. His hair is commonly kept in a crew cut and shaved regularly to maintain this, while Tanner maintains little in the way of facial hair. An easily visible scar runs along his jawline, from a Spiker round fired at close range that just missed his braincase. A grim set usually occupies his jaw, and his eyes have been hardened by years of combat.

Equipment
Nathan Tanner favors a slightly modified Orbital Drop Shock Trooper's body suit, one with a knife sheath on the right shoulder plate, welded in place so that the knife's sheathed blade would point upwards. He prefers the firepower offered by the MA5 series of assault rifle, and the size of the magazine certainly helps this view. When Nathan goes into battle, he also has a medical kit dangling from his belt at the small of his back and a sidearm stuck in a leather, custom-made holster on his left hip.

History
Master Sergeant Tanner was born and raised in what was once central New York, in one of the more industrial sections of New York City. His father fought in the war, while his mother was an ONI spook--not that he knew it, of course; but he did know that she was out and about quite often. Tanner was raised by his grandparents as a result, since his father was off fighting on some distant planet, and his mother... doing whatever it was she did. So he lived a relatively average life, if the life of a child whom almost never saw his parents could be called average.

Shortly after Nathan's eighth birthday, he received word that his father had been killed in action. At the funeral, the child swore he'd join the UNSC Marine Corps and avenge his father, but of course this chance didn't come until 2549. He officially joined the Corps not a moment after his eighteenth birthday, spent the next six weeks in boot camp and was issued an MA5B. The next four years were hard and long, but Nathan, through sheer determination, came through three of them almost unchanged physically speaking. He'd seen most of his friends die on multiple occasions, and it was a wonder he wasn't suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

During the middle of Nathan's third year as a Marine, he volunteered for the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper unit, trading in his Marine body armor for a black bodysuit and the dropships he usually rode in on for a Human Entry Vehicle, or HEV, as he learned to call it after a time. Not much later after what he saw as fading into the black, Nathan finally encountered Brutes on the battlefield; he was shot and quite nearly in the head by one. Master Sergeant Tanner eventually survived the battles of Cleveland and of Mombasa miraculously, killing more than his fair share of aliens with a BR55 Battle Rifle or an MA5 assault rifle. The war ended not soon after, the Elites picking up and leaving while the Covenant simply disappeared from Nathan's awareness and his planet. The scars the alien alliance left run deep, though: bit deep into his soul, his emotions, and killed what had once been a young, funny child. All that remained was a grim soldier, ready for the next alien force to come along, so that he could kill them too.