Merlin-D032/Timeline

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To keep track of key dates in Merlin-D032's life and to establish a common narrative thread for the major points in Distant Tide's storylines.

2543

 * 23 October: Merlin Ljang Boyd is born to Rebecka Boyd and Cedric Ljang on the UEG Inner Colony, .
 * 06 November: Andra Kearsarge Bradford is born to Neville Kearsarge Bradford and Viktoria Rapla-Bradford on the UEG Inner Colony of .

2550

 * 11 February: Merlin learns that his parents have been killed in the service of the over the course of the last year. Like his parents, Merlin resolves that he will eventually fight the . Surprising those around him, he took his parents' deaths well.
 * 12 December: Andra and her father, Neville, learn that Andra's mother had been killed in combat on the planet of . Andra's father begins to drink excessively and experiments with mind-altering drugs. He is not aware that he has begun physically abusing his daughter in his drunken rage. Andra starts fighting with other children to cover up the physical signs of abuse.

2551

 * 26 January: Neville Bradford finally gets sick of living life. he commits suicide with a family-owned handgun while Andra Bradford is at school. Andra comes home to discover her dead father while sporting a new set of bruises from another schoolyard brawl.
 * REDACTED:  occurs when a Covenant expeditionary force arrives over the colony world. Merlin and other orphans staying at the Vallejo City-Base Foster Care Center are moved to a nearby underground bomb shelter to wait out the attack. The battle ends in victory for Human forces, Merlin misses the chance to see aliens.
 * 06 November: On Andra's eighth birthday, Andra is revisited by, a friend of her father's who worked in ONI's Signals Intelligence department. Ray is being forward deployed to another colony world that isn't Sigma Octanus IV; Ray promises to adopt Andra once the war is over and they can live together.

2552

 * 19 January: Andra Bradford, now a depressed and lonely girl, is approached by Doctor Reyna Zhou-Romero, a psychiatrist and head recruiter for the DELTA Initiative. Doctor Romero assessed Andra was a perfect candidate to become a member of SPARTAN-III Delta Company based on the child's latent talents and potential. While Andra's piss-poor attitude made Romero uncertain, she wanted to give Andra the opportunity to prove herself. Andra agreed with some lingering apprehension.
 * 24 April: Andra is picked up from the Jade Hope Youth Treatment Center in the colonial city of by ONI forces tied to the DELTA Initiative. While Andra felt guilty for breaking her deal with Naiya Ray, being alone in an orphanage for a year had built up the girl's rage. She wanted the chance to fight the aliens who took her mother and thus she left with the ONI personnel. She's put in cryogenic stasis for the long trip ahead of her. Two months later, Sigma Octanus IV is attacked by the Covenant but the battle is a tactical victory for the UNSC.
 * 21 June: Merlin Boyd is approached by Doctor Romero and Lieutenant Jefferson Korn at his Ballast orphanage. They test Merlin's comprehension skills and assess him wholistically as a Spartan candidate and find him decently-qualified. Merlin also displayed impressive intuition during the meeting and guessed that the ONI officers wanted something from him out of the ordinary. Merlin agreed to become a Delta Company Spartan. Romero returned Rebecka Boyd's college ring to Merlin as a parting gift.
 * 04 July: Merlin goes to his old home in the Crimson Tide district of Vallejo, Ballast where he finds a new family moving into the residence. The family's only son, a UNSC Marine by the name of "Gunther", stops Merlin from causing a ruckus. Merlin had thrown himself into his studies over the course of two months as he was worried that ONI may never come back to get him. Merlin is picked up from the orphanage by ONI officers later that night led by Lieutenant Korn. He is put in cryogenic stasis for a long trip to join Delta Company.