Amanda-208

"Caution is the eldest child of wisdom."

- Amanda-208

Lieutenant, Junior Grade Amanda-208 (full name Amanda Carinae Burchard) is a SPARTAN-II Commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command, a Junior Officer of the UNSC Navy and an operative of Section One, Office of Naval Intelligence. Though among one of the four unlucky candidates of the second class to be crippled to varying degrees by the augmentation procedures (elephantiasis in the legs in her case), Amanda was eventually freed from her condition by amputating the infected legs and replacing them with Thermopylae-grade prosthetics and assigned as a field operative of Section One, carrying out a fair amount of intelligence, reconnaissance and direct action operations on a number of fronts, including Ballast, Draco III and Earth. Following the end of the war, she was permitted to accompany Laszlo-108 on Operation: SAVIOUR, until it was called off in 2596. At present, she has assumed the role of commanding officer of Argonaut Squadron within the 117th Special Operations Regiment.

Behind the scenes

 * 'Amanda' is a popular name meaning "worthy of love"
 * 'Carinae' was the name of an exclusive neighborhood in ancient Rome. In-universe, it's also the name of Amanda's maternal grandmother (Cassandra-075's mother).
 * 'Burchard' is a surname, stemming from the Germanic terms burch, meaning "protection", and hard, meaning "hardy" or "brave".
 * Amanda is similar to Catherine-B320 in some ways; both have one or more prosthetic limbs, and are both capable hackers and intelligence specialists. However, most of this was unintentional, as Amanda was initially planned to have a different skill set.
 * Amanda's status as a Section One operative is a tribute to the author's trademark character, Laszlo-108, who was previously a Section One operative until it was changed to the Covert Operations Group to allow for more writing freedom.

Related Pages

 * SPARTAN-II Class II Program
 * Kevin-G321
 * Albion Company
 * Laszlo-108
 * Cassandra-075
 * Ronald Church
 * Project THERMOPYLAE