User:Rangerkid51/Benjamin-B314

"Mankind will never fall so long as I'm still breathing."

- Benjamin-B312

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

- Benjamin-B312, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(Lieutenant) Benjamin-B312 (born Benjamin Samuel Watson, Jr., later renamed Benjamin Alexander Brisbane), most notably known as Ben-B312 or Noble Six, (also referenced in ONI files as Codename: ANTIOCH) is a SPARTAN-III Commando, special warfare operator, and a member of the UNSC Marine Corps and UNSC Naval Corps, as well as a former member of the SPARTAN-III contingent Beta Company and the Spartan team NOBLE.

Early life (2524 - 2534)
"It's cool, Dad's job, isn't it?"

- Leon Watson

"He's defending and protecting entire colonies, Leon. That's, like, more than a billion people. That's one of the coolest things anyone can do."

- Ben Watson, Jr.

Benjamin Samuel Watson, Jr. was born on February 1st, 2524 in The Commonwealth of Texoma in the Great Plains Territory of North America, the son of Ben Watson, Sr., then the commander of , and Dr. Anne Watson, who was a prominent member of both the UNSC Medical Corps and ONI Section 1. Ben was born during the Insurrection, however his father's ship was not a frontline ship.

Ben's 3 younger siblings Leon, Kenneth, and Claire were born in 2526, 2528, and 2530. In 2534, when Ben was 10 years old, Ben Watson, Sr. had become the ships's captain and had the Guinevere transferred to the Insurrectionist frontline, but did not see any "action" until six months after the transfer. UNSC FLEETCOM had assigned both Guinevere and the corvette to the battlegroup defending Arcadia, where they were delivering troops, weapons, and other military supplies.

"I wonder if my parents are still out there somewhere...."

- Ben Watson, Jr's personal journal

However, en route, the two ships were attacked and raided by a Covenant battleship. When the ships never reached Arcadia, UNSC investigated, and later found the wreckage of a UNSC Corvette at what was to be the midway point between Reach and Arcadia, along with more than a dozen destroyed Bumblebee escape pods that matched the same ones in the Guinevere's manifest, but no wreckage matching a Frigate was ever found. Both Captain and Dr. Watson were declared MIA, and Ben didn't see either of them ever again for nearly forty years. He and his siblings were placed in the care of their father's brother.

The Orphanage (2534 - 2537)
"By then I had lost all hope; My parents were missing in action, probably dead, my only known uncle was dead, and the Insurrectionist attacks and Covenant attacks weren't gonna let up anytime soon. Those three stays in Juvie didn't help much. For many nights I layed in bed wondering why I shouldn't just end it all, and let me tell you, I tried several times to do just that, only to find myself waking up in a hospital bed a few days later. To be honest, if that ol' warhorse hadn't shown up, I might not even be here right now."

- Ben Watson, Jr. Personal Journal

Unfortunately, more tragedy struck the Watson children a mere seven months after being placed in the care of their uncle; he was diagnosed with a rare and violent form of Brain Cancer, and only one year after his diagnosis, he died. Ben and his siblings were then placed in the Reach orphanage. Ironically, Ben's placing in the orphanage was the first turning point in his life - for a tremendous military oppertunity was about to come to, not just him, but his brothers and sister as well.

In the three years that they lived at the orphanage, Ben slipped into a long and brooding depression. He would eventually run away from the orphanage and join a street gang, whose influence made him shave his hair and dye it black, and engage in fights, store robbings, and open public hostility. Due to this, Ben was arrested and forced to serve time at the Reach Juvenile Detention Center three times as well. He would also make repeted attempts to commit suicide.

The SPARTAN-III Program (2537)
"Where are you taking us?"

- Ben talking to SCPO Franklin Mendez

"To your future, son."

- Mendez

In 2537, when he was 13 years old, the orphanage was visited by Franklin Mendez, who took several hundred of the orphans, including Ben and his siblings, for what he said would be, a "top-secret ONI evaluation". But when they boarded the Pelicans, Mendez informed them that they were going to be apart of the next generation of Spartans. Ben had heard stories of the SPARTAN-II super soldier, known as the "Supermen of the UNSC", but be believed them to be a myth. Mendez informed him that they were not to be training him as a SPARTAN-II, but as a SPARTAN-III; these Spartans would be faster, stronger, and better in battle than even their existing Spartan counterparts. The training would take place on the remote planet Onyx.

"You have been called upon to serve. Many of you have lost your family because of the Covenant, and I want you to get a chance to strike back. With mine and Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez' guidance, you will become the best that we can make you. You will become defenders of Earth and all her colonies....and you'll do it as Spartans."

- Lieutenant Commander Kurt (-051) Ambrose, at the Indoctrination of Beta Company

When the Pelicans dropped him on Onyx, Ben learned that the man who was training them, Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose, was a SPARTAN-II himself. He told him and the rest of the recruits that they would become the defenders of Earth and all her colonies (which, Ben later, learned, was the same propaganda that Dr. Catherine Halsey used on the SPARTAN-II's years before.)

Not long after the Lieutenant Commander gave his speech, the trainees got back onto the pelicans; their fist task was to do a night jump out of a Pelican when it became dusk. When Ben passed this test, the "real training" began. For the next five years, Ben would slowly become a Spartan.

Becoming a Spartan (2537 - 2542)
"These exercises are designed to test your endurance. If you can't endure these, then you can't hope to endure on a battlefield, can you?"

- Lieutenant Commander Ambrose to Beta Company recruits

The training that the Lieutenant Commander put them through would be simple, but hard and rigerous. They began with usual exercises, not unlike those done by professional wrestlers of the 21st century. Push-ups, sit-ups, running laps, obstacle courses, and the like all became commomplace for the trainees at Camp Currahee. To maintain his determination, Ben, who now went by the callsign "Benjamin-B312" (or simply "Ben-312"; he also sometimes referred to himself as Sierra Beta Three One Two) earned the reputation of being the first one at the training site and the last one to leave. This constant regimen soon changed his scrawny build to that of an olympic athlete within a year's time.

When they moved on to weapon training, Ben became a skilled gunsman, but took exceptionally well to the M392 Designated Marksman Rifle, getting over thirty headshots at a time during several target practice sessions. He would also learn to handle Covenant weaponry and various kinds of turrets better as well.

As he improved his shooting skills, Ben began tinkering with his DMR, adding an infrared scope and improving its rate of fire to that of an SMG. Taking his weapon to Lieutenant Commader Ambrose, the LC liked the weapon, allowed its use, and within a few years, several members of Beta Company had the new M392A Designated Sharpshooter Rifle.

Ben eventually became the leader of Fireteam India, which consisted of him, fellow future NOBLE team member Catherine-B320, Jacob-B217, Mikayla-B307, and Damon-B198 (but Ben still continued to maintain connections with his siblings, now known as Leon-B247, Kenneth-B066, and Claire-B132, and with Fireteam Foxtrot.)

Ben, as Team India's leader, became its driving force and its rallier, being tough but easy to get along with. With Ben's guidance, Team India passed multiple exercises with top honors, and Ben himself received commendations as well.

In 2542, after 5 years of hard training, Ben and Team India graduated with top honors. Ben, along with with the rest of Beta Company, went to the UNSC Hopeful to participate in Project: CHRYSANTHEMUM: the augmentations that would make him a true Spartan.

Ben, along with his siblings, and the rest of Team India, would survive the augmentations, and was battle-ready for anything the wars would throw at them.

Beta Company
ONI initially planned to have Ben pulled out of Beta Company to use him as their own personal assassin, but both Lieutenant Commander Ambrose and SPCO Mendez agreed that Ben was too valuable of an asset to Beta Company to give to ONI for now, so they replaced Ben with a flash clone. ONI would utilitze the flash clone of Ben, not realizing they'd been fooled until Operation: TORPEDO nearly 3 years later when the flash clone died in action.

Operation: GUNSLINGER (2543)
The first known operation that Beta Company participated in was Operation: GUNSLINGER in early 2543. ONI officer Colonel Peter Longstreet had discovered a Covenant fortress, which also was revealed to be a prominent Covenant armory as well, on one of the moons of Arcadia, where the Covenant had been launching attacks on the planet from. Beta Company's mission was simple: neutralize the fortress.

Beta Company arrived at the moon aboard the at 0600 hours. 1 hour later, the whole of Beta Company hit dirt, and were met with heavy resistance. An entire invading army occupied the fortress; this was the prelude to no less than an all-out invasion of Arcadia.

Advancing on the fortress from their LZ, th initial resistance were only cannon fodder Unggoy and Kig-Yar, which did not present much opposition, but soon became a thorn in Beta Company's side as their numbers grew. As their advance continued, so did the numbers of the enemy: Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Lekgolo, and even the insectoid Yan'me began fighting them on the field of battle, and while Beta Company did not suffer any casualties, many injuries were suffered, including Ben himself, who broke his foot after it was caught beneth a downed Shade turret.

Ignoring the pain, Ben ordered his team to keep fighting through to the fortress no matter what, while he would buy his fellow Spartans some time; a AA gun had been set up several meters south of the Fortress and was firing on the Walls of Jericho. Hijacking a Ghost, Ben rode to the outpost, killed the guards, and rigged explosive charges in the Ghost, which destroyed the gun. As he exited the now leveled AA bunker, however, a Sangheili Fire Team ambushed him and prepared to have him brought to the fortress for questioning. Using speed and strength that only a Spartan could muster, he backhanded the Sangheili holding him in its midsection and quickly killed it with his Combat Knife, then stole its Plasma Rifle and killed the others.

As Ben rejoined his team, the battle got uglier. A Covenant cruiser had arrived with reinforcements and was also sending Banshees, Seraphs, and even Daemons to bomb them. Realizing that remaining to prolong the battle would be suicide, he radioed Walls of Jericho and asked them to evacuate them within 30 minutes.

Thinking quickly, Ben came up with an idea. He radioed every other Beta Company Fire Team on the moon, telling them to retreat to Walls of Jericho, while his team reamained to destroy the objective. Their fellow Spartans were initially reluctant, but agreed.

Knowing they had limited time, Team India hastily carried out Ben's plan: they rigged a Warthog with 5 BULLDOG Heavy Duty Nuclear Warheads (which, combined, could destroy the Fortress 5 times over) and drove the Warthog through the army of Covenant, into the Fortress, and into the Fortress' center. Quickly setting the detonation timer for 1 minute, they ran out of the fortress and radioed for evac.

However, the Pelican that arrived for them was shot down by Banshees. Searching quickly for a way off the planet, Ben saw a Phantom dropship barely lifting off at the Fortress' small landing platform. The Spartans raided the dropship, killed the Covenant onboard, and escaped before the following explosion destroyed nearly the entire battlefield they had just left. Operation: GUNSLINGER was a success, but Ben couldn't help thinking that it was a little too easy.....

Assault on Tower Base
"What we have here is failure to communicate."

- Ben-B312, assessing the situation on Olympia.

Not long after Operation: GUNSLINGER, contact with the human colony Olympia was lost. The destroyer was sent to investigate, only to return badly damaged a week later. It returned with a message from Insurrectionists: "Olympia is ours now. Come and get us, if you dare." This began a yearlong campaign to retake the planet from the Insurrectionists.

1 month after Operation: GUNSLINGER, Beta Company arrived at Olympia aboard ONI Battlegroup Alpha (Walls of Jericho, Samoa and Manchuria), and were inserted on the planet's surface at the ONI Tower Base, where the Rebel presence was lowest.

After killing the Rebels at Tower Base, Beta Company made it their primary staging point for retaking Olympia. While searching the base, Team India discovered one last small squadron of five Insurrectionists holding the barracks. After a brief firefight, four out of five were dead, while they held the fifth for questioning.

The captive rebel told them that they held various outposts on the planet: bases, villages, factories, etc, but that their main theater of operations was in New Byzantium, the capital city, under the direction of Generals Robert Patton, James Dixon, and Marty Oates.

Operation: THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
Not long after the capture of Tower Base, Ben hacked into the Insurrectionist computer network (with Kat-B320's assistance) via the (still operational) computers at the base. The Insurrectionists held six major bases of operation outside of New Byzantium: a ship breaking yard, a factory, two large military camps, an airfield, and an armory. Ben relayed this to the rest of Beta Company, and the whole contingent, with the assistance of Colonel Longstreet, were split into their teams to scout the planet for the six targets. This mission was codenamed Operation: THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR.

Not long after India and Foxtrot left Tower Base, India decided to search for one of the two military camps, Camp Tanglewood and Ft. Gibson, and actually found one, which was identified as Ft. Gibson, heavily fortified and situated several miles upward from a beachhead. Landing at the beachhead (because any other LZ would be too hot), Team India linked up with a garrison of ODSTs from the Samoa and began the long hike up the road from the beachhead to the fort. The Insurrectioninsts deployed many troops to attempt to halt the march of the oncoming Spartans and ODSTs, but to no avail.

Upon reaching Ft. Gibson, Team India learned that Ft. Gibson was the Insurrectionists' planetary stockpile of contraband UNSC Military weapons, vehicles, and other gear. It was also more heavily fortified than previously thought. Fighting through waves of Insurrectionists, India managed to wreck havoc in the base, destroying two AA Mass Drivers, a little less than half of their Armored Tank Division, and even a stolen Covenant Locust Walker.

When India almost had the battle won, Ft. Gibson began evacuating. While Ben at first thought this was unusual, he soon learned that General James Dixon was present at the Fort, and was attempting to flee with his Elite Guard before being killed. As Dixon and the guards fled for an escape Pelican parked only a few meters away from the base, Ben rushed into Ft. Gibson and found several intact SPNKr Missle Launchers. Taking one, and giving the others to the rest of his team, they fired the missles at the departing Pelican, bringing it down.

As the Spartans prepared to leave, thinking part of their mission was done, a Frag Grenade was thrown at their feet, momentarily draining their energy shields but relatively unaffecting them. The Spartans turned around to find Dixon, alive, a Grenade Launcher in his hand. The Insurrectionist General turned and ran into the base, chasing Dixon all the way to the command center before cornering him and finally landing the killing blow when Ben fired several rounds from his DSR into the General's chest. As Dixon choked out his last breaths, he smugly replied: "Well done Spartans. You got me. But guess what: I'm taking you with me, 'cuz I've just initiated the lockdown of this base, and I've also set this place to self-destruct in 5 minutes. You know the old saying: What goes around comes around." before finally dying.

Finding themselves in a tight bind, Team India desperately looked for a way out before time ran out. Using the stolen Missle Launchers, they attempted to blast their way out, but the now locked-down base prevented that. With that, they returned to the command center, where Kat attempted to override the Lockdown, but firewalls had been enabled to prevent this. They quickly searched the General's body to see if he had a password written down anywhere, but to no avail.

With a little over two minutes before the base was set to self-destruct, Ben thought of a last-ditch plan and radioed Colonel Longstreet onboard the Walls of Jericho, explaining their dilemma. Longstreet ordered a scan of the base's automation system and concluded that it was a little older than the UNSCs was and could be overridden by a "smart" A.I. Ben proceded to state that they didn't have an A.I, but Longstreet transmitted a fragment of the shipboard A.I. on Walls of Jericho, known as Kaval, into the Ft. Gibson database. With less than a minute to spare, Kaval brought down the firewalls and disabled the lockdown, allowing Team India to leave the base, steal a Warthog, and ride back down to the beachhead for evac. Moments after riding out, Ft. Gibson exploded. A Pelican picked them up soon afterward. This mission was later codenamed Operation: TIDAL WAVE.

Discovering the Traitor
However, moments after they lifted off, three Insurrectionist Sabre starfighters came out of the sky and opened fire on Team India's Pelican, bringing it down.

When Team India awoke, they appeared to be in some kind of UNSC fortress...and their captors were Sergeant Major James Avery and Rear Admiral Ted Dinsmore.

"So answer me this, Dinsmore: Does that make you more of a backstabbing son-of-a-bitch than Watts?"

- Ben-B312, taunting the traitorous Rear Admiral Dinsmore.

At first believing them to be their saviors, Ben would soon learn the truth: Dinsmore, Avery, and the entire ONI and UNSC Personnel who were on Olympia before had betrayed the UNSC and defected to the United Insurrectionist Front (The official name for the unified organization and all of its extremist groups.)

It was revealed that Dinsmore, who had previously been Vice Admiral Margaret Parangosky's right hand in charge of ONI, had been demoted and exiled to Olympia as punishment for secretly arranging an attack on a high-value Covenant capital ship, the Seeker of Truth (which would prove futile, as an entire fleet awaited the battlegroup and wiped it out), against orders not to. Angry at the ONI, believing them to have become weak and cowardly, Dinsmore didn't take well to his new job running the ONI on Olympia, as the Insurrectionists controlled more than half the planet; Dinsmore had little real power. In secret, Dinsmore, believing he was taking matters into his own hands, rallied the standing UNSC troops on planet, led by Sergeant Major Avery, and entered into an alliance with the Insurrectionists, who promised him a spot among the leaders of the entire UIF if he gave them control of Olympia. In this, they staged a coup where the Insurrectionists invaded New Byzantium and "overpowered" the UNSC soldiers there, and ended up "killing" the Rear Admiral. In reality, the now defector Dinsmore would operate in secret, and had total control over the entire planet.

Shocked at this act of betrayal, Ben tried to escape from his restraints as Dinsmore explained a bigger plan: he and Robert Watts would gather the entire UIF fleet and launch an attack on the planet Reach, one of the UNSC's most vital colony worlds; their only problem was that they did not know Reach's exact location, and they planned to get that information from Team India, who, of course, refused to speak. Dinsmore would then resort to torturing them; the restraints that held the Spartans had been electrified, and whenever Dinsmore gave a certain command, an electrical charge went through the Spartans, and Dinsmore could control the intensity of the charge.

For nearly thirty minutes Dinsmore had gotten nothing out of the Spartans, who had shown extraordinary resillience to the charges Dinsmore was sending through their bodies. As he prepared to increase the charge to its most lethal setting (which contained the same amount of energy in lightning bolts), ODSTs began storming through the underground base. As a firefight ensued, Dinsmore and Avery fled from the room, and a group of UNSC-faithful Marines entered, with Colonel Longstreet. When Team India asked how he found them, he replied that the IFF transponders on their captors showed them as UNSC Personnel, and that too many things did not add up. Releasing their restraints, Longstreet and Team India quickly headed for the surface for evac. As the firefight ended, Team India learned that Sergeant Major Avery had been killed; Rear Admiral Dinsmore, however, had escaped.

Turning the Tides
After returning to Tower Base, Team India was briefed on a new discovery, and a new target: The Olympia Penitentiary, a high-security prison which was under control of the Insurrectionists, and held a great number of civillians, including Governor Harry Jefferson (thankfully, ONI had secretly evacuated most of Olympia's civillian population in the weeks before Beta Company arrived.)

Ben would relay the revelation of Rear Admiral Dinsmore's betrayal to the other teams, and they all agreed that leaving Dinsmore alive was too dangerous. Beta Company initiated Operation: PUBLIC ENEMY - the search for Dinsmore.

Over the next 9 months, Beta Company would successfully neutralize Camp Tanglewood (Operation: SWITCHBLADE), the Airfield, the Armory, and the ship breaking yard (Operation: ROCK BOTTOM), bringing them closer to retaking Olympia.