Cassandra-G006

"I'm broken. I think we all are, us Spartans. We're trained to fight, raised to live on the battlefield and nowhere else. I know a thousand ways to patch up a human body, but I can just as easily take every one of those ways and turn it into a weapon to kill someone. I aim down my sights and cut someone down and I don't feel anything, even though I know that's not some simulation or a target on a range, that's a life I'm just snuffing out. I want to feel something, but it's just not there. It's so much easier to take a life than it is to save one. I can do both. It's what I am, it's what they made me. It's the cross I have to carry, and I take it willingly. All I can do is pray that in the end I save more lives than I take."

- Cassandra-G006

Cassandra-G006 was a from Gamma Company who was raised and augmented as a child supersoldier during the final years of the. Although she was noted for having poor combat scores during training, she was made remarkable by her innate talent as a and was considered the best practitioner of combat medicine ever produced by the Spartan program. Despite her skills, her first squad was wiped out by the Covenant and she was transferred to Team Jian. Later, she would become an unwilling deserter when she was caught up in the traitor Simon-G294's efforts to elude forces. Instead of continuing the fight with her former teammate, Cassandra instead chose to use the opportunity presented by Simon's rebellion to strike out and find a life outside of the military system she had been raised in. More self-aware than many of her fellow Spartans, Cassandra clearly recognizes what has been done to her and her friends by the UNSC's indoctrination and training; she hopes to one day reconcile her existence as a Spartan with her desire to live at peace rather than war.

"I'll Give Everything to Save Her"
Cassandra was born in April of 2540 on the Outer Colony of Illios. Her mother, Dara Engel, was a mechanic at a UNSC-run munitions factory and one of countless cogs in the desperate war machine keeping humanity's fleets and armies supplied as the continued its relentless conquest of Earth's colonies. Cassandra did not know her father, who had abandoned Dara during her pregnancy and left the desperate young mother to eek out a living for herself and her daughter on her meager factory wages. In 2542 the factory was dismantled and moved off-world to protect its production capabilities form the threat of the Covenant. Thousands were left unemployed, Dara included.

As Illios's economy faltered and the local government began cutting off support for its impoverished citizens, Dara resorted to increasingly degrading odd jobs in order to feed herself and Cassandra. When the young Cassandra became sick with one of Illios's native swamp viruses, Dara made deals to sell her organs on the black market to pay for medicine. The rushed, back-alley surgery left the young mother hospitalized and near death. Without any money to cover hospital expenses, Dara was threatened with imprisonment and loss of custody of her daughter. But she was saved when a missionary priest named Gerard Powell took pity on her and paid her medical bills out of his own pocket. Powell had heard of Dara's plight through his wife, a doctor working at the hospital where the woman was being treated. Dr. Chloe Powell and Gerard realized that the young woman would be no better off once she left the hospital and offered Darra a job as a maid in their modest home in exchange for room and board for herself and Cassandra.

Cassandra spent the next few years in relative comfort, cared for by her mother and looked after by the Powells. Deeply invested in the Christian faith that had driven him to missionary work, Gerard took the time to endow Cassandra with a deep sense of spirituality. Intrigued by Gerard's religious instruction, the young Cassandra admired the fervor with which her mother's savior taught the Gospel. However, one day before her lessons an unseen Cassandra observed Gerard and Dara exchange a passionate kiss. Mortified and confused by what she had seen, Cassandra felt deeply betrayed and lost faith in Gerard's religious teaching. Though she never revealed her discovery she distanced herself from Gerard and instead found solace in observing some of Chloe's simpler medical instruction vids.

In 2545, a Covenant assault fleet launched a surprise attack on Illios. Bypassing the colony's meager defenses, alien ground forces swarmed major population centers and began to slaughter the inhabitants. Gerard and Chloe were killed when troopers stormed their home. Dara managed to slip Cassandra to safety before being hauled off by a scavenger, leaving the terrified girl to wander the streets as the city was butchered around her. She was spared the fate of thousands of other citizens when a squad of whisked her away from the combat zone. Less than twenty-four hours later, Cassandra had been evacuated from the planet, leaving every trace of the life she had known behind on the falling colony.

The newly orphaned Cassandra soon found herself adrift amongst millions of other refugees in one of the hastily constructed camps thrown up by the UNSC on a nearby colony. With only minimal food and shelter from a -run orphanage, Cassandra spent most of her time moving about within the camp as she struggled to come to terms with the loss of her family. Her attempts to grapple with the pain by reconnecting with the God Gerard had taught her about proved futile; after a few visits to several makeshift places of worship erected by other refugees, Cassandra dismissed religion and instead found herself facing the problem of Covenant and its efforts to eradicate humanity. Furious at how helpless she felt in the face of the aliens' overwhelming power, Cassandra lingered in the orphanage and grew distant from the other children. Cut off from everything she had once held dear, she had no outlet for all the grief and anger building up inside of her.

Cassandra was rescued from her spiral of despair by the arrival of Naval Intelligence agents seeking to recruit war orphans into the top-secret SPARTAN-III project's Gamma batch. The agents passed Cassandra up when they first began canvassing the orphanage, looking instead for candidates who showed more notable signs of anger and aggression. When one interviewer finally spoke to the quiet young girl, he was surprised at how quickly she leaped at the offer to fight the Covenant. Cassandra and several other candidates were quickly transferred to a "rehabilitation program"—a front for ONI's Spartan recruitment activities—where they were held for a few months before being taken off-world and transported to the ONI training facility on Onyx that would become their new home.

"I Won't Turn Back"
Cassandra arrived on Onyx alongside hundreds of other orphaned children drawn from all corners of human space. ONI drill instructors herded the mob of yelling, fighting children out onto a landing field where they were greeted by Lieutenant Commander and Chief Petty Officer, the heads of the SPARTAN-III training cadre. Chief Mendez quickly ordered the children onto a squadron of waiting for their first test as potential Spartans. In a baptism by fire that had been endured by and  companies before them, the Gamma recruits were given parachute units and ordered to jump out of the dropships from a terrifying altitude in the dead of night. Those who couldn't jump were immediately weeded out of the program. Although terrified, Cassandra comforted herself with thoughts of her mother and completed the jump test.

With the "insufficiently motivated" children weeded out by the night jump, the remaining Gamma candidates were plunged into one of the most grueling training programs in human history. Cassandra and the other children, all of them ranging from seven to five years old, spent the next six years undergoing rigorous military training under Ambrose, Mendez, and the rest of Onyx's training cadre. Cassandra spent her days enduring military drills, exhausting physical readiness training, and combat exercises that ranged from hand to hand combat classes to live-fire simulations. Although she proved that she could handle the demands of the training—acclimating to every new challenge and proving herself a capable shot—her performance significantly degraded when the drill instructors began pitting the trainees against each other during field exercises. The Gammas were encouraged to be aggressive and competitive, attitudes that did not suit Cassandra in the slightest. Her hatred for the Covenant remained, but the aliens were a distant enemy, removed from Gamma Company's day to day training. She couldn't muster up the aggression to be truly competitive against her fellow trainees, whom she saw as part of her new family. Discouraged by her poor performance, she was terrified by the thought of being dropped from the program altogether.

Despite her training difficulties, Cassandra caught the eye of one of the drill instructors, Aspen-B145. A trainee from the SPARTAN-III's who had chosen to remain on Onyx as an instructor rather than graduate with the rest of his company. An expert in medical science, Aspen discovered that Cassandra had a natural talent for combat medicine. Along with fellow trainee Seung-ah-G218, Cassandra became part of a miniscule cadre of medical experts amidst the combat-oriented Spartan project. Under Aspen's extensive tutelage, Cassandra proved herself to be adept at handling a variety of medical emergencies even amidst the stress of combat. Aspen taught Cassandra to harness her emotions and control her body to promote accuracy and precision under duress. The former trainee incorporated many combat exercises, such as marksmanship and hand to hand combat, into Cassandra's training, boosting her combat scores while continuing to hone her abilities as a lifesaver. During a routine combat exercise, Cassandra's medical knowledge paid off when she administered aid to a critically injured Dyne-G217, cementing her reputation within Gamma Company as a truly invaluable asset on the battlefield. Shortly after this incident, the Gamma trainees were sorted into permanent squads. In keeping with the "fireteam as family" model the SPARTAN-III program strove to achieve, almost all of the Gammas subsequent training would be performed within these tightly-knit squads. Placed in Team Kopis, Cassandra quickly oriented herself to the new routines. Becoming fast friends with the other members of Kopis, she realized that the smaller circle of people she could rely on allowed her to better seek help in the areas she was week in. Bolstered by this new confidence, she continued to improve in her training as the years marched on.

After nearly seven years of intensive training, Commander Ambrose deemed Gamma Company fully ready to receive the extensive chemical augmentations that would complete their transformation into Spartans. Chief Mendez and the other instructors conducted a series of technical lectures that schooled the trainees on the effects the augmentations would have on their bodies, as well as the risks involved in the procedure. They offered the recruits one final chance to opt out of the augmentations and be removed from the programs. But having come so far and endured so much, Cassandra found the idea of backing out unthinkable. Her feelings were shared by the other trainees; out of the 330 candidates left in the program, none refused to undergo the augmentations. In 2551 Gamma Company was taken off Onyx for the first time since the beginning of their training and transported to a medical facility aboard the. There they were injected with the :
 * Drug 8942-LQ99: A carbide ceramic ossification catalyst to make skeletons virtually unbreakable.
 * Drug 88005-MX77: A fibroid muscular protein complex that boosted muscle density and strength.
 * Drug 88947-OP24: A retina-inversion stabilizer drug. It boosted color and night vision capabilities.
 * Drug 87556-UD61: Improved colloidal neural disunification solution, which in turn decreased reaction time.

Aside from the standardized enhancements, the trainees of Gamma Company would be the only Spartans to ever be augmented with compound 009762-OO. This mutagen altered key regions of the subjects' frontal brain lobes, enhancing aggression, strength, endurance, and tolerance to injury. Lieutenant Ambrose had personally authorized the use of the illegal drug in the hopes of increasing the Gammas chances of survival on the battlefield; however, the mutagen's effects were known to increase in response to stress, driving the Spartans into animalistic, instinct-driven states unless suppressed by the proper counter-drugs. Although Cassandra and her fellow Gammas knew little of the specifics behind the frontal lobe augmentations, the consequences of the illegal alteration would return to haunt them in the coming years.

Alongside her fellow Spartans, Cassandra marveled at the changes the augmentations had wrought on her body. With heightened strength, speed, and perception, the Gamma trainees had truly moved beyond the realm of mere human potential. To recognize their graduation Commander Ambrose presented each trainee with their own personal set of, the unique stealth-combat suit worn by every SPARTAN-III. But while she was amazed by her new abilities, Cassandra also felt troubled by the transformation she had undergone. For the first time since beginning training she began to truly question the ramifications of what it meant to devote her entire life to warfighting. Nevertheless she kept her misgivings to herself and joined the rest of the team to participate in a company-wide tournament to compete for top honors. Though Team Kopis was swiftly eliminated from the brackets, the tournament helped the squad come to terms with their new capabilities and the true deadly potential of a coordinated Spartan team. Team Kopis and the rest of Gamma Company were soon given deployment orders and transported off of Onyx towards the distant battlefronts in the desperate war against the Covenant.

"How Are We Supposed to Beat Them?"
"We're all in this together. I won't let you guys down."

- Cassandra-G006 to the rest of Team Kopis prior to the Battle of Tribute

Cassandra and the rest of Gamma Company had lived and trained on Onyx for the majority of their short lives; leaving the forested world behind was an exhilarating step into an embattled galaxy that they were meant to save from the Covenant. Alongside her teammates, Cassandra both anticipated and dreaded her first foray into real combat. Uncomfortably aware that she was Team Kopis's weak link, she braced herself to endure the realities of the brutal war against the Covenant. Team Kopis did not need to wait long for its maiden assignment: alongside Team Jian the newly-minted Spartans were deployed to the embattled colony of where UNSC forces endured a protracted siege by Covenant warships. Kopis and Jian inserted into the foothills around Tribute's capital to harass Covenant forces massing to assault the population center. During her first week of combat on Tribute, Cassandra was surprised to experience feelings of exhilaration she had never experienced during training. Worried that her augmentations affected her more than she knew, Cassandra buried her feelings and did her best to support her team as they ambushed Covenant patrols and coordinated artillery strikes against the aliens' forward outposts. Both the young Spartan and the rest of her team were surprised at her performance: rather than dragging Kopis down, Cassandra proved to be a level-headed asset both in and out of combat. Though relieved to find herself worthy of her friends, Cassandra privately worried about her lack of reaction to the bloodshed she witnessed and carried out. Anxious to maintain her performance, she buried her feelings and fought on. Despite the Spartans' relentless attacks, the Covenant offensive showed no signs of relenting and the UNSC prepared to defend Casbah City from a.

As Kopis and Jian helped cover the retreat of Casbah City's civilian population, they were suddenly beset by coordinated teams of warriors determined to take the heads of the "Demons" who had killed so many of their comrades. The Spartans fought fiercely and drove back the initial assaults, but the Covenant forces soon threatened to overwhelm them. After saving an injured civilian woman from a warrior's blade, Kopis's team leader Irving-G226 ordered Cassandra to help treat her aboard a medical dropship. As Team Jian received orders to pull back from the evacuation zone, Team Kopis remained behind to cover the remaining evacuation shuttles. Cassandra desperately tried to rejoin her team only for Irving to order her to stay on the departing medical dropship. Cassandra and Team Jian were taken to a staging area just outside the city where ONI agent Erin Coney confirmed her worst fears: the rest of Team Kopis had perished defending the evacuation zone. The surviving SPARTAN-IIIs were swiftly evacuated from Tribute and sent to a naval staging area in a nearby system.

The aftermath of the Casbah City evacuation marked the most bitter point in Cassandra's life. In spite of all their training and determination, Team Kopis had been unable to turn the tide of the battle or even survive their first battle. Beginning to believe that victory against the Covenant was impossible, a deeply shaken Cassandra could only force herself to continue with the knowledge that she owed it to her friends to fight on in their memory. After a hasty psychological evaluation, the doubly-orphaned Spartan was reassigned to Team Jian, where her new teammates did whatever they could to help her integrate into their ranks.

"We Have To Hold Onto Something"
"Don't you dare start holding us back with all that mopey survivor's guilt crap. I've only got enough patience for one failure on this team, and Simon's got that spot locked down tight. You throw us off balance, even a little, and I don't care what the others say, I'll sort you out the hard way."

- Ralph-G299 to Cassandra-G006

In the aftermath of the Londor battle Cassandra kept to herself whenever possible, passively resisting Team Jian's efforts to integrate her into their squad structure. Jian had a reputation in Gamma Company as a group of tightly-knit troublemakers and Cassandra—still grieving for her lost fireteam family—felt deeply uncomfortable around them. Team leader Jake-G293 ordered his squad to give their new member some space, but Cassandra's quiet melancholy irritated the hot-tempered Ralph-G299. Ralph began accosting and haranguing Cassandra at every opportunity, trying to bully his fellow Spartan into snapping out of her malaise. It took the combined efforts of the rest of the team to force him to relent and after a fierce team debate they forced Simon to "diplomatically" persuade Cassandra to cooperate before the start of their next mission. "Look, I can't pretend to know what you're going through but you have to give us a chance to help you. I know we act crazy all the time, but we're a good group. We take care of each other. They've always looked out for me, even Ralph. They'll look out for you, too, if you let them."

- Simon-G294

As Simon, himself a low-scoring near-washout, tentatively reached out to Cassandra she was forced to reconsider her reaction to Kopis's demise. Ashamed to think that she was wasting her friends' sacrifice by failing to act like a Spartan, she relented to Simon and the rest of Team Jian's efforts to integrate her into the squad. Though she couldn't help but feel like an outsider among the troublemaker squad she did her best to socialize and fit into their routine. En route to Jian's next deployment aboard a UNSC destroyer, she began spending time with her new teammates on the warship's firing range. During their hours on the firing line she found the rhythmic marksmanship exercises to be an almost meditative way of taking her mind off of her grief. She accepted help and advice from Jian's sharpshooter, Terrence-G150, and was surprised to find that his unorthodox approach to tutoring her helped improve her aim in ways that years of Onyx drill instructors never had. By the time the destroyer arrived at yet another battlefield on the colony

As UNSC forces on Barrier fought to stem the tide of yet another Covenant assault, Team Jian was deployed in defense of an broadcasting station that had been turned into a headquarters for ONI's  division. While the broadcasting station's primary purpose was to coordinate and monitor military and civilian communications channels, ECB journalists were also working with ONI agents to broadcast propaganda messages to Barrier's civilian population. Interacting with the journalists they were charged with defending was the Spartans' first extensive contact with civilians since they had disappeared into ONI's shadowy military system over five years ago. After realizing that one woman reminded her of her mother, Cassandra became deeply uncomfortable and began avoiding the civilians for fear of dredging up long lost memories. As Jian intercepted Covenant kill teams sent to assault the broadcast center Mary and Ralph grew irritated with the increasingly fantastic claims of the propaganda messages transmitted from the building. Cassandra however understood why even ECB's blatant lies might help comfort a population living in terror of the Covenant juggernaut. After over a week of heavy fighting the Covenant forces retreated, marking a rare win for the UNSC defenders. With combat operations on the planet dying down, Team Jian was reassigned to an ONI counter-insurgency task force operating on the outlying colony of. They would be trading their familiar Covenant foes for a new, more unsettling enemy: human.

"A Spartan Shouldn't Be This Helpless"
Team Jian arrived in the Mamore system to find only a handful of UNSC forces left defending it. With the planet's long-simmering resentment against the Earth government once again boiling over, most UNSC troops were evacuated and sent to bolster the defenses of Inner Colony worlds while Mamore's colonial government lost more ground to rebel militia groups by the day. The agricultural colony's slide into open rebellion was of little concern to the UNSC's high command, which was preparing for a massive Covenant offensive against the Inner Colonies. ONI's only reason for deploying Spartan assets to Mamore in the first place was to prevent the rebels from getting their hands on advanced UNSC military technology. These political distinctions meant little to Cassandra and the rest of Team Jian. Mamore was the first time they had been ordered into battle against human enemies. It was a scenario they had often trained for on Onyx, but the horrors they had witnessed in battle against the Covenant had accustomed them to a more monstrous foe. Cassandra in particular felt deeply uncomfortable at the prospect of killing fellow humans.

Briefed aboard an ONI Prowler in orbit over Mamore, Team Jian was ordered to raid a remote military research facility on the surface that had been taken over by rebel militia groups. The facility's primary purpose had been to develop biological weapons targeting specific Covenant species; ONI feared the rebels would re-purpose the research specimens there for use against human targets. Deployed to the foothills surrounding the facility, Jian split into two groups: Jake, Terrence, and Ralph would assault the more heavily fortified entrance while Cassandra, Mary, and Simon infiltrated through the facility's drainage system to destroy the laboratories. The first part of the raid went off seamlessly and Cassandra and the others slipped into the facility while the panicked militia fighters mobilized to deal with the unexpected attack. Once inside the laboratory complex, Cassandra located the main research center. Although she had neither the time nor the expertise to understand most of the research center's work, she found herself troubled by suspicions that the bioweapons had never been intended to target Covenant forces and that they were intended for use against humans from the beginning. But there was no time to reflect on her misgivings; after planting explosive charges at key points throughout the facility, she regrouped with Mary and Simon as they rejoined the rest of the team and fled back towards their extraction point in stolen Warthogs.

But the rebels mobilized forces faster than Team Jian had anticipated. Hounded on all sides by mounted pursuers, the Warthogs took heavy fire from enemy vehicles. One blast struck Cassandra's Warthog and threw Simon from his position on the LRV's turret. Sitting in the passenger seat, Cassandra could do nothing for her teammate but replace him on the gun as Mary drove on. They regrouped with the rest of the team at the extraction point and were preparing to head back out to rescue their stricken friend when they received an urgent directive from ONI to immediately withdraw. Although horrified at the prospect of simply abandoning Simon on a hostile world, Team Jian could not disobey a direct order. Cassandra and Mary were forced to restrain a mutinous Ralph as their Pelican lifted off, leaving Mamore—and Simon—in the dust.

For most of Team Jian, the loss of Simon on Mamore was a devastating new experience. For Cassandra, it was yet another friend and teammate lost in a war that seemed to have no victories. As the Spartans struggled to cope with the fact that they had left a comrade behind, they learned the reason for their sudden withdrawal: a Covenant fleet had discovered and Earth. All available Spartans were being recalled to defend humanity's homeworld in what many believed would be the UNSC's final stand. Cassandra found herself welcoming the news of this catastrophic development. She was swiftly losing all faith in victory and was relieved by the idea that she would most likely die before the bitter end.

Personality and Traits

 * Gavin Dunn: "I thought you said she was a medic!"
 * Simon-G294: "She's a combat medic. A Spartan ''combat medic. She'll blow a hole through your guts one minute and then patch you right back up in the next because she thinks that's what God wants her to do."
 * Gavin Dunn: "Oh, great. Does she do lobotomies, too?"
 * Simon-G294: "Yes."
 * —Gavin Dunn and Simon-G294 discussing Cassandra.

Cassandra is incredibly perceptive, even by Spartan standards. Her keen knowledge of the human body allows her to pick up on slight behavioral details and use them to get a grasp on an individual's emotions and intentions. Despite such an analytical talent, she is also one of the most compassionate and empathetic Spartans to emerge from the grueling and insular training process. Although she suffered greatly from the loss of so many of her friends during and after the Great War, their deaths gave her a unique perspective on the violence she and her brethren were so skilled and capable at inflicting. Rather than existing simply as highly qualified soldiers, she believes that Spartans can find a purpose beyond the mission provided by their military superiors. Unlike so many of her brethren, Cassandra has no difficulty communicating and connecting with non-Spartans, be they military personnel or civilians.

Skills and Abilities
"You kill again, I kill you."

- Cassandra to the renegade Simon-G294

Although the trainers on Onyx only provided Cassandra with basic training in field medicine, her natural talent for the work and her desire to advance as far as she could pushed her to move beyond simply mastering the simple techniques taught by the drill instructors. Under the tutelage of Aspen-B145 and the guidance of Deep Winter, Cassandra learned not only more advanced methods of treating wounds but also how to work wonders with the limited medical resources available to her on the battlefield. When Gamma Company was deployed against the Covenant, Cassandra earned the respect of her peers by saving the lives of dozens of fellow Spartans, UNSC personnel, and civilians on the battlefield. She was known for using the equipment in her medical satchel to heal wounds that had been deemed impossible to treat without trained surgeons in advanced medical facilities. With her departure from the UNSC and its military chain of command, Cassandra has only increased her expertise in many different medical fields as she strives to save as many lives as possible amidst the brutality of endless war. In addition to her comprehensive knowledge of human anatomy, she has expanded her studies into the physiology of the many former Covenant races she encounters on the galaxy's fringe.

"Don't tell me all that time you spent praying was actually some sort of mental practice for how to kill things better..."

- Simon-G294, observing Cassandra in combat.

During her training on Onyx, Cassandra had particularly low combat scores that rivaled even those of the infamous Simon-G294. Her focus on field medicine caused her to devote less time to honing her combat skills, though the supportive environment of her team kept her prepared for the combat-oriented challenges Chief Mendez would throw at the trainees. Following Gamma Company's deployment Cassandra's battlefield experiences, particularly the loss of her team, served to develop her fighting prowess further; true improvement, however, came following her departure from the UNSC. Simon taught her aggressive close-quarters fighting techniques he had learned from the Insurrectionist commander Redmond Venter while the dangers of the fringe gave her experience in surviving without the tools and advantages of deploying as UNSC special forces. Although many from Gamma Company refuse to believe the change, Cassandra is a highly competent fighter as well as a field medic. She prefers to use pistols in order to keep her hands as free as possible and is a crack shot with the. She also makes use of knives during close combat, using her anatomical knowledge and natural precision to deliver quick, devastating cuts to vulnerable body regions. Cassandra's personal convictions mean that she will refrain from killing her opponents whenever it is possible and practical. She will target non-lethal points on the body and often carries a modified M6 loaded with tranquilizer rounds. Nevertheless, she remains willing to fight and kill aggressively in order to save lives and protect those close to her.