Erin Coney

"Zealots don’t quit, Spartan, they just come back twice as mean and four times as crazy."

- Erin Coney to Ion Team.

"Parangosky has always had her own little black ops agents aspiring to be more. She gives them power, and uses theirs for her own ends until they outgrow their usefulness, and then kills them off before they can become threats. But THORN was the first, and Parangosky didn’t recognize when she had grown beyond her control."

- Captain Aaron Gibson on Codename: THORN.

Erin Natalia Coney has spent more than half of her chronological life in suspended animation, but seems to have made up for it in the time out of cryo with the uncanny ability to become involved in sensitive operations. Originally enlisting as a volunteer in Project: ORION, she was transferred to the Office of Naval Intelligence Section 0, then Section III, before ultimately being embedded in the Marine Corps to aid in SPARTAN deployments. She’s been known by different names to different people, including her ONI codename, THORN, and operator designations Ion Actual and Royal Actual. After overseeing her assigned teams during the Battle of Earth, Coney took a position aboard the exploration carrier Themistocles as controller for teams operating in the farthest regions of reclaimed UNSC space.

Early Life
Though many records have been restricted by the Office of Naval Intelligence or have been mysteriously deleted [investigation pending], Erin was born in Toronto and had six older brothers. Unsurprisingly a tomboy, she became part of a street gang with most of her brothers. Though she was spotted at several ‘rumbles’, Erin was only caught once, warding off police officers with a baseball bat before being taken down with a taser.

Enlistment and ORION (2491-2506)
"Always be mindful of what you do. Some claim war dehumanizes us, turns us into monsters. But it isn’t an excuse for what a person does. We are always accountable for our actions. Remember that, will you?"

- Advice given to Erin by a Sergeant Gabriel.

After her primary education, Erin opted for the military as a career and was accepted into the UNSC Marine Corps. Scoring high in basic training, she was offered the chance to join an experimental program dubbed ORION, and quickly agreed. Receiving additional Special Forces training, she was sent to Reach to conditioning for the first augmentations.

Easily the youngest ORION member at seventeen years old, Coney was more than conspicuous amongst the array of experienced Special Forces personnel. She was taken as something of a joke and soon washout by the other candidates, but found a friend in Demichev, a giant of a man from Vladivostok. The two were an odd coupling, but their combined effectiveness during training exercises could not be denied. As Erin proved her abilities, she became more and more accepted by the others, growing especially close to fellow candidate Marvin Mobuto.

One night early on, she had been standing watch for nearly an hour before wandering to an observation platform, meeting a soldier she hadn’t encountered who claimed to be permanently assigned to the station. They talked for a while, the Sergeant drawing her attention to the stars and gave her advice she would never forget. Before leaving, he identified himself as Sergeant Gabriel. When another DI questioned her who she’d been talking to, he informed her that no Sergeant Gabriel was stationed at the facility. Convinced no unauthorized person could have gotten in, she would speculate on the encounter for years.

Erin not only coped with the augmentations, but unlike many others she immediately displayed incredible results. Once ORION was green-lighted for active service, they were deployed in Operation: CHARLEMAGNE. Though successful, Erin was forced to make a choice that would save thirty civilian lives aboard the hijacked transit station, but spelled death for Demichev. Mourning his death later, she didn’t know this would only be the first of many difficult decisions that lay ahead of her.

Her last operation carried out for ORION, and the program’s last operation, was KALIEDOSCOPE. Project: ORION’s record had attracted the attention of, at the time, Captain Margaret Parangosky of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Parangosky had been quickly climbing ladders within the Office, and like many of its other officers, she was looking to siphon off assets for her personal objectives. Parangosky ensured that Coney would be the one doing the groundwork for the assassination of as a test of her ability to remain subtle. By eavesdropping, pickpocketing, and discreetly interrogating and murdering a United Rebel Front agent, she learned that Ander would be driving in an unmarked but unprotected truck on March 13th, and relayed the information back. Avery Johnson would be dispatched to carry out the actual assassination, but Parangosky knew Coney was more useful.

A meeting was arranged, in which Parangosky pointed out ORION was a sinking ship, and offered Coney a place in the Office of Naval Intelligence. Though reluctant to leave the program behind, she knew Parangosky was right, and agreed to join.

Early Service with the Office of Naval Intelligence (2506-2525)
"If I knew then what I was getting into, I might have shot her then and there. It would have saved more people than just me a lot of trouble."

- Years after leaving ONI behind.

After officer training and honing her variety of tactical and combat talents, Erin was promoted to Major and outfitted with low-profile NEMEAN body armor, which was designed to protect against shrapnel and bullet impacts, fireproof, and virtually incapable of ripping, though the bludgeoning force of attacks was not decreased. Operating under the Codename: THORN, she became Parangosky’s hidden blade, killing and destroying where such actions were needed. Not all were for Parangosky’s personal gain, in one instance, Coney commandeered an Insurrectionist freighter bound for a colony that had been completely fortified by the Insurrection, taking over the world and blocking slipspace entry points. She landed it according to their flight plan, and left the docking bay it was in before detonating the explosives that lined the ship. She ran rampant for three days, destroying their supplies and killing their leaders as she saw fit before stealing a ride out. This left the Innie defense broken and easy for the UNSC to launch an invasion.

Only a few months before first contact at Harvest, Coney was assigned to assist TREBUCHET by finding and destroying the Insurrectionists’ supply of explosives. It was uncharacteristically detailed, but Coney was relieved not to be carrying out another assassination so soon. Before leaving, however, she glimpsed the codename REDSHIRT in an attached section of the briefing. Assuming this was an agent she would be meeting with and had to be kept off record here, she pushed it aside in favor of other aspects.

While transiting to Tribute’s surface, she was reunited with another ORION, Avery Johnson. Though Coney was nervous about being recognized, she told him she was working with civilian contractors and even enjoyed catching up, however briefly. Going their separate ways, over the next two days Erin would discover not only a stock of explosives, but a full lab able to produce it for other cells elsewhere, and data that implicated one of ONI’s Section 1 personnel. Destroying the lab and supply with some of their own explosives, Erin then returned to a safehouse to transmit the data. As soon as she had, a man ambushed her with a garrote and knife, but Coney reversed the attack and killed him, though wounded several times. His personal data pad was wiped clean, but the fact that he had been able to gain access to an ONI safehouse and his data pad was the same manufacture as Coney had been given led her to suspect this was REDSHIRT.

Human-Covenant War (2525-2552)
"I should have known you’d become a thorn in my own side."

- Parangosky to Coney.

After this, Coney became increasingly distrustful of Parangosky, and with extensive research connected REDSHIRT to her. Apparently, REDSHIRT had been a possible agent for Parangosky’s use, and his final test was to eliminate Coney. While unable to formally prove it, Coney now worked against ONI’s head as much as she did for it.

Battle of Kholo and Dismissal from ONI
When the Covenant attacked the planet, Erin had already been in the system. She was working with two SPARTAN-IIs, Vinh-030 and Isaac-039, remotely supporting them from onboard a Prowler. With the SPARTANs trapped in the capitol city’s underground after it was glassed, Coney made a daring rescue with the help of ODSTs from the 11/6 Shock Troops commanded by Captain B. A. Felton, coming in low on stealth-coated Pelicans to drop off Scorpions, which then made a counterattack on a squadron of Wraith tanks led by Field Master Vract ‘Aeramee. After recovering Vinh and Isaac, they fell back to the Prowler and jumped out of system.

Several weeks later, she found out that Vinh was pregnant with Isaac’s child. Sworn to secrecy by Vinh along with the medic who examined her, Otis Len, Erin had Vinh discreetly transferred to Reach after she refused to abort the child. The son, later SPARTAN-III Dyne, was placed in an orphanage where Erin would keep tabs on the child and later suggest him for the SPARTAN program.

The rescue, however, broke almost all protocols related to Prowler operations. Parangosky called a meeting, during which Erin kept thinking of the knife she had concealed on her person. She was quite surprised when instead of an assassination attempt, Parangosky had her demoted and dismissed from the Office, something she had wanted for a long time.

Until the Battle of Earth, Erin would be stationed on to help Commander Kurt Ambrose recruit and train Gamma Company. Here, she befriended Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker and learned how to play poker, while dealing with the antics of the candidates, namely Sam-G019, Marcus-G228, Sepia-G330, and especially Dyne-G217 and Kodiak-G114, all from Team Machete.

During their augmentations, Sam and Marcus were listed killed to become part of the Headhunter program, under the moniker Archer Team, while Kodiak, Dyne, and Sepia became Ion Team. Erin would be the overseer for both teams, neither knowing of the others’ existence until a few years after the war ended.

Operation: ETERNAL SPIRIT
"Command believes the Elites want to gain glory by wiping us out on the ground. You killed a Field Master, that’s going to make them seek revenge and for now they want to do it in person. But we make them think we’re winning, they’ll pull back and dust this place without a second thought. They need to think that until we really can defend ourselves."

- Erin to Kodiak and Dyne

In the first combat operation Coney had officially seen in years, she would be stationed at Ryu Base in Japan to oversee Ion Team’s deployment and provide tactical and logistical support. She was surprised by their orders, with the SPARTAN team securing what was rated a secondary objective. With a bit of investigation, she found they were purposely being kept out of the fight, believed to be overfunded and ‘green’ supersoldiers. While she attempted to have the orders changed, Ion’s objective came under attack by Sangheili special forces and ultimately had to fall back. Kodiak made a mistake however, trying to make up for it by taking out an Elite Field Master. Though he slayed the Field Master, it was a close fight and Sepia was badly wounded, requiring medevac by a Falcon squadron led by Mikiya Ryougi.

This made her task to get them reassigned even more difficult, having to cover for their blunders. After telling them off royally, Kodiak and Dyne were placed in Recon & Recovery until further notice, while Sepia had to recover in a.

Through the course of the operation, she advised Ion Team as they set up artillery, fought off intruders in Ryu Base, and collaborated with Inferno Team.

To cover for Ion, records were stricken of their presence completely, leaving them unremembered for their heroics as a Covenant Supercarrier moved in on the city. Erin called together a ragtag force of dropships for a counter-attack, led on the field by LTJG Angel Yasunaka aboard Bravo 029. Dyne piloted a Pelican with Sepia as copilot, while Kodiak would help deliver a FENRIS nuclear warhead to the structurally vulnerable spine of the carrier. In the assault, Kodiak’s Pelican was shot down, and briefly Erin believed she would die as the carrier fired its glassing beam, but Sepia’s remote camera spotted Kodiak on the ship with the weapon intact. Kodiak got under the shield, avoided Banshee fliers, and detonated the device on a timer, himself surviving by jumping into Tokyo Bay. In the aftermath of the battle and the war, they couldn’t help feeling like heroes.

Post-War
After the war was relatively uneventful for Erin, as she and Ion Team were assigned to military exploration aboard the UNSC Themistocles. But being on the far edges of reclaimed UNSC space, they were called to assist combat operations from time to time.

TGL-49 Expedition (2574)
Though Erin had evaded ONI’s influence before, she was unable to avoid being assigned a black op in 2574 to eliminate a number of loose ends from Covenant/UNSC interactions. She would have to be listed as MIA for the duration, and so an accident would be staged during a Pelican transit. But before this could take place, a Flood outbreak occurred and the planet was evacuated. In the rush to get personnel and equipment off-planet, Erin, Kodiak, and Dyne were left behind.

Knowing the UNSC couldn’t risk a pick-up, Coney decided to make for the site where ONI had placed a stealthed freighter for her use, the UNSC Nightshade. Using a Cougar AFV to get to a firebase known as Checkpoint Two, they found their evacuation had come too late. As Kodiak and Dyne began the preflight for a Pelican, Coney used a rope to rappel down into the underground hangar shaft and pilot it. As more Flood forms appeared, the two Gammas retreated, but Coney took off without them. After she’d protected them so long from ONI’s dealings, she knew it would be more merciful to let them die than draw them in. However, the flight was short lived, as Dyne had never had the chance to fill the Pelican’s fuel tanks. Though they resented her betrayal, Ion rescued her because she was the only one able to fly the ship.

As they approached the freighter’s hiding place, a heavy mist of Flood spores permeated the air, while Erin had lost her helmet and now had no filter for. Kodiak would be forced to carry her inside the Nightshade, but she forced herself to get the ship running. Ion Team was forced to fight off the arms of an early-stage Gravemind holding the freighter down with a pair of rocket launchers, before lifting off and leaving behind a Shiva warhead to incinerate everything within range. Fortunately the Nightshade was stocked with a wide assortment of ONI tech, including a rebreather which could eliminate low-stage Flood infection like the spores she had inhaled.

Personality and Traits
An eager soldier, Erin earned her reputation in ORION as courageous but levelheaded, but lacking experience. Parangosky took a chance transferring her to ONI, curious to see if she could adhere to morally questionable orders. Decisions, some of which Erin had to make herself, like this after essentially growing up in a unit that left no man behind proved painful, but Coney passed these trials satisfactorily.

Growing resentful after learning Parangosky had specifically placed her in some of these situations, Erin gradually abandoned trying to save everyone and instead focused on protecting those closest to her. These were the Spartans under her command including Royal, Ion, and Mirage Teams, and friends like Pete Stacker and Jeff Gossard. Erin was fiercely aggressive when dealing with perceived threats against those she cared about, not above blackmail or murder to defend them. Parangosky had taught her something useful in the end.

Otherwise, Erin was generally amiable towards other service men and women, and an excellent strategist. Despite repeated displays of her abilities, she rejected promotion several times in order to continue to look after ‘her’ Spartans.

Hobbies
"You want some advice, Kodiak? Don’t ever play cards with Lieutenant Erin Coney."

- Pete Stacker

After Stacker introduced her to the game, Erin’s long service trading bluffs with other Intelligence personnel made the game almost easy against Onyx’s DIs, and after a few times even Ambrose avoided being roped into a game. Erin also had a partiality to fine wines.