Andra-D054

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"A sniper's job is to shoot from afar; instead, I'm disarming an IED under hostile gunfire. Fuck my life."

- Andra-D054

Andra-D054, also known as Andra Kearsarge by personal preference, is a once trained by the illicit SPARTAN-III Delta Company from a young age. The resident sharpshooter and explosives technician of Ferret Team Boson, she later transferred into the Spartan, Team Massachusetts. Regarded by many as an exceptional sniper, Andra is often associated with the likes of her best friend, Merlin-D032, and her late mentor, Joshua-G024.

Born on the colony world of in 2545, Andra spent her formative years raised almost entirely by her ONI-employed father until Andra’s mother died fighting in the concurrent. A downward spiral of alcohol, medication, and domestic violence eventually led her father to suicide and turned Andra into a war orphan. Proving too emotionally volatile for foster parent prospects, the selected and recruited Andra to become a SPARTAN-III child-soldier.

Andra graduated after four years of training with Delta Company in late 2557, during that period she struggled to find a niche among her fellow trainees and overcome her persistent depression. Adapting to her hardships and emotional scars, she graduated as Team Boson’s primary sharpshooter and joined ONI’s after Delta Company dissolved. For a year, Andra and her team provided specialized military assistance to politically-sensitive ONI operations on and around Earth before dissolving in 2558 due to several desertions in Boson’s ranks. Following her reassignment to ONI’s Headhunter program, Andra and Merlin-D032 deployed together to the edge of Human space, completing dangerous missions critical to the national security, primarily fighting Covenant remnants and.

The sudden arrival of the and the fall of the  destroyed any lasting sense of stability Andra felt. With the death of Joshua and the disappearance of Merlin to parts unknown, Andra finds herself working with unorthodox individuals to fight against the Created’s new galactic order. Her first steps begins with doggedly investigating the Created's new vassal states, including the Iskander Syndicate.

Kill Count
"List of confirmed kills performed by Spartan Andra Kearsarge on behalf and in the service of the, the , and Humanity."
 * Human: 0


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Biography
"SPARTAN-D054, I'll be straightforward with you. Your talents are withering away with your current fireteam. VIOLET-III can help you achieve the lofty heights ONI and I believe you're capable of."

- Joshua-G024 pitching to Andra-D054 a possible transfer into Headhunter unit, VIOLET-III.

The Military Brat
"Umm. My dad was in Signals Intelligence. My mom served in the Army as a combat medic. I think our family went back several generations on 'Oc-Four' but I don't know much beyond that."

- Andra-D054 reflectin on her origins. References to Sigma Octanus IV by colonial slang.

On, Andra Kearsarge Bradford was born to Viktoria Rapla Kearsarge-Bradford and her husband, Neville R. Bradford. An Army Specialist and combat medic, Andra’s mother could only stay with Andra for the duration of her maternal leave. After guaranteeing her daughter’s stable health, she deployed once again to the frontlines to fight against the encroaching, leaving her husband to raise their only child on his own. Andra spent her formative years in the care of her doting father, employed close to home by the as a SIGINT analyst. While he often traveled, Neville was a constant presence in his daughter’s life along with the family nanny, Julie, who often took care of Andra for days on end.

Andra’s early childhood was rather innocent, raised on the colony world of in her hometown of. Her planet was a, far from the invading aliens and horrors of the. With her father, she went to the amusement park, paid visits to Sigma Octanus IV’s many famous museums and participated in her preschool choir. He even took her to the firing range and taught her firearms discipline. Upon starting school in as part of an accelerated colonial education program, Andra showed a love for Math and History and talent for swimming and running. Characteristically, Andra was tomboyish youth, taking her father’s rearing techniques to heart and participating in roughhousing and violent schoolyard games like “.” Occasionally, she even managed to win against older boys by weaving past them while they distracted one another in wrestling matches on their way to the hilltop. Andra was not a popular student but got along with her teachers and classmates fairly well.

The good times could not last, however, as the reality of the Covenant War finally hit home for Andra. On, a pair of officers arrived on her home’s doorstep to deliver grave news to Neville Bradford. His wife was dead, killed with the rest of her unit by atmospheric Covenant artillery fire while attending to her unit’s wounded inside their forward-operating base. Seeing her father collapse in shock, Andra punched an officer’s knee in confusion only to cry into his shirt upon hearing the actual news. Andra stayed home with Julie while her father attended the brief funeral service. He did not return until the next afternoon, drunk and leaning on one of his fellow officers. From that day onward, Andra avoided discussing her mother with her father at Julie’s recommendation.

In the days that followed the announcement that Specialist Kearsarge-Bradford had fallen in combat, Andra’s father began meeting with medical practitioners to find a way to quell his grief. He threw himself into his work, started to lose sleep and fell into a spell of deep-seated agitation about being in his own house. For Andra, she found difficulty understanding the loss of her mother – a woman she only met twice in her youth on the rare occasion she came home. Her classmates and teachers started to treat her with extreme caution and some started to avoid her altogether. Rumors spread that Andra was a bad luck charm; anyone who risked getting close to her might lose their life or a loved one. It did not help that the school counselor kept trying to bring up how Andra felt about the loss of her mother, rather than talking to the girl directly and requested that she be exempt from extracurricular activities for a time. It frustrated Andra and she learned to be dodgy to compensate, eventually, things returned to normal, even getting back on the junior cheer squad, but her home life continued to deteriorate.

Andra came to believe the rumors about herself as her relationship with her father quickly descended into a case of domestic abuse. Experimenting with psychoactive drugs and neural inhibitors, Andra’s father failed to control his paranoia and depression and found a new reliance on alcohol that proved detrimental to his mental and social health. He became emotionally high-strung, throwing objects across the house and staying awake for hours on end. At work, his behavior became descriptively tense and impulsive to the point he came under investigation. By Christmas, he was throwing objects and hitting his daughter as well, leaving scars and bruises. Andra lost her respect for her father but refused to tell anyone about the problems happening at home, turning to schoolyard fights as an alibi for her injuries and to vent her self-pity and rage. The cheer squad subsequently removed Andra for her aggression. Finally put on a leave-of-absence, Andra’s father reached a turning point in his career at ONI, facing final termination.

The combination of job stress, his fractured family, the loss of his wife, and the experimentation with alcohol and drugs finally took their toll – while Andra was at school on, Neville in a drunken stupor collected his from a closeted lockbox and shot himself in the head. Andra returned home later that day to find a crowd of neighbors and a family friend,, gathered outside her household. Military Police and first responders removed her father’s dead body from their home, covered in a white sheet. By committing suicide, Andra’s father had turned his only daughter into a war orphan.

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Biography
"SPARTAN-D054, I'll be straightforward with you. Your talents are withering away with your current fireteam. VIOLET-III can help you achieve the lofty heights ONI and I believe you're capable of."

- Joshua-G024 pitching to Andra-D054 a possible transfer into VIOLET-III.

The Military Brat
"Umm. My dad was in Signals Intelligence. My mom served in the Army as a combat medic. I think our family went back several generations on 'Oc-Four' but I don’t know much beyond that."

- Andra-D054 describing her past, referencing her home world's slang, during a conversation with Merlin-D032.

Born on the, Andra Kearsarge Bradford grew up a military brat on the planet of , one of the UEG. Her mother, Specialist Viktoria Rapla Kearsarge-Bradford, was an combat medic on extended leave from the front lines to give birth to her first and only daughter. However, she shipped back out to fight against soon after. Andra spent most of her formative years raised by her doting father, Lieutenant Neville R. Bradford, who worked for the as a SIGINT analyst. Due to his desk job, he often took long business trips but was a constant presence in his daughter's life nonetheless. When neither parent was available to care for Andra, an ONI-vetted nanny named "Julie" babysat the young girl, sometimes for days on end.

Andra enjoyed going to the amusement park with her father and participating in her preschool choir; she began her grade school attendance a couple years early in. In her classes, teachers described her as an enthusiastic student with a love for Math and History. Her physical education course exposed her latent talents for swimming and running. Andra was described as "smart and expressive" early on by her teachers and was noted having little trouble participating in the more violent, boy-oriented schoolyard game "." On the rare occasion, she even won against the tougher and bigger boys by weaving past them while they were distracted. She got along well with her classmates but avoided the boys from King of the Hill because her presence often put them off and they would rough her up given the chance. On the family side, Andra's father often took Andra to local museums and even taught her how to fire her first rifle at a private gun range out in the countryside.

The good times could not last however, given the ever-present. Eventually, the Covenant would find more Human colony worlds and destroy them. This reality hit Andra especially hard a month after her fifth birthday when on, a pair of UNSC Army officers arrived on her home's doorstep to bring grim news to Neville Bradford. His wife was dead, wiped out with the rest of her unit by Covenant artillery fire – Specialist Kearsarge-Bradford likely succumbed immediately to the super-heated plasma while attempting to protect the body of one of her wounded comrades inside their bombed-out forward-operating base. Upon seeing her father break down in tears in the doorway, Andra actually attempted to punch one of the officers in the kneecap in her childish fear and confusion but ended up crying into the officer's shirt after he grasped her in a hug. Andra was left at home with her nanny when her father went to attend the brief funeral service and did not return until the next afternoon, drunk and bruised from a suspected bar fight. From that day on, Andra avoided talking about her mother with her father at the recommendation of her nanny.

In the days that followed the official announcement that Andra's mother had fallen in combat, her father began seeing psychiatrists and medical doctors to find a way to forget his grief. He threw himself into his work and actively avoided going home at first as he could not sleep and felt a deep-seated sense of agitation while there. For Andra, she was cared for by the nanny and continued to attend school as normal, however, her treatment there changed drastically as adults and classmates started to handle her with a sense of fragility like she was a thin piece of glass, or, a nuclear warhead. Instead of letting her continue her regular physical fitness course, she went to the school counselor instead. For her first times meeting with psychology specialist, Andra felt bored rather than engaged with the woman as she seemed interesting in talking to Andra about how she felt about the death of her mother rather than just trying to talk to Andra. Andra did not want to talk to the counselor on any topic, to begin with, and eventually, she went back into normal school activities to her delight. However, classmates continued to alienate Andra as rumors spread of her supposed curse. The rumors warned that people that got close to her had a tendency to die.

In time, Andra came to believe this too as her relationship with her father quickly collapsed into a case of domestic abuse. Experimenting with psychoactive drugs, Andra's father attempted to control his mood and ability to pay attention at work with a new reliance on alcohol that proved detrimental to his mental and social health. At work, his coworkers and supervisors began describing him as "prone-to-anger" and "impulsive" as insomnia and grief continued to dominate his waking hours. During a brief Christmas at home with Andra, alone, he went blind with rage over the previously held knowledge that his wife may have been dead for several months longer than had been reported. Minab's location across and the military's own stretched logistics were falling behind on accounting their dead civilians and soldiers – the lack of effective communications meant that families could go months and even years without hearing about the whereabouts of their loved ones. That anger turned to Andra as the only other person alive in the household at the time. Starting with a smashed vase, by the end of the holidays, Andra was sporting some new scars and stitches for a few more. She told concerned classmates and teachers that the injuries came from falling out of a very tall tree but continued scarring did not convince some. Out of a false sense of obligation, Andra continued to hide her scars from concerned adults and got into fights with boys to give herself an alibi. Subsequently, her actions got her kicked off the junior cheer squad, an activity she really enjoyed for the few months she took part in it. At work, Andra's father took mandatory leave while a review board discussed the deterioration of his workplace effectiveness and future actions involving his employment with the Office of Naval Intelligence.

The combination of job stress, his broken relationship with his daughter, the loss of his wife, and the bad mix of alcohol and drugs finally took their toll – on, Neville removed his from a locked box in his closet and downed a bottle of liquor from the household pantry. Andra returned from school that day and found a crowd of neighbours and a family friend,, standing outside her house as Military Police and first responders removed the body of her father from the house, covered by a white bed sheet. While Andra was at school, he commit suicide in a drunken fit. Thus, Andra Bradford was a war orphan.

Spartan Evaluation
"You were selected for a reason, Andra. You may not believe yourself to be strong, but you are. I believe you are. You just don't know it for yourself yet. Let us show you – join our program and become a Spartan."

- Dr. Romero recruiting Andra into SPARTAN-III Delta Company.

The Unified Earth Government's Child Protection Services soon acquired Andra and plopped her into the foster care system, moving from her home city of to the colonial capital of Sigma Octanus IV,. There was no chance to say farewell to her far-flung home. No time to say goodbye to her few friends, teachers, and acquaintances. Julie, Andra's nanny, failed to show up on the last day Andra was in town to say goodbye. The exception to the norm was a hasty farewell and a promise to come and visit from Lieutenant Naiya Ray who stayed with Andra the night after her father died; ultimately, she had to leave too as the UNSC needed the Lieutenant to return to work. Andra wanted Naiya to adopt her but she held her tongue the day she returned to ONI.

Andra left most of her possessions in her parents' home upon leaving as her new caretakers explained that their orphanage was full of parentless children; many could not bring their belongings with them. While Andra initially threw a fit, she begrudgingly accepted their explanations and took only a small backpack containing her most prized possessions. Everything else was acquired by ONI soon after, soon to be auctioned off with the funds redirected toward the war effort. Everything she once owned was now forfeit for a greater cause, though, one that she did not understand or care for. In some ways, all she had left to her name was herself, her memories, and the horrors leading up to her father's suicide.

Andra did not get along, staying in the Caracas-based orphanage, known as the "Jade Hope Youth Treatment Center." The war against the Covenant drained much of the resources and finances used to keep the orphanage functioning leading to food shortages and cheap amenities. Within a month of arriving, thirty more children arriving soon after Andra from planets far from Sigma Octanus IV. Many were solemn and quiet or loud and angry, embittered by the theft of their homes and their lives by the Covenant. They eventually mellowed out, however, growing accustomed to the orphan culture at the Jade Hope. Andra failed to adapt, outright refused, and shooed away those that tried to communicate or help her. She didn't want to get along and she rejected the presence of others in favor of an old pack of crayons and a stack of abandoned sketchbooks in some musty corner of the orphanage's overcrowded playroom.

While Andra wasn't the best artist, she found a certain degree of comfort and solitude in the open courtyard behind the orphanage and in the colors on her draw pad. She drew under a random oak tree in that courtyard while other children played active games like kickball and basketball. Adults tried to get Andra to participate with her fellow orphans but she continued to refuse; only doing things when ordered and only completed her tasks to the necessary satisfaction before returning to her silence. Andra didn't trust authority figures and found no solace in children like her, or rather, unlike her. For a war orphan among war orphans, Andra felt alone. She never witnessed the horrors of the Covenant and the only monster she knew to exist were her personal demons: her father and her warped childhood.

Andra just could not fit in, and thus, she did not. Over time, her caretakers grew content to leave her by herself as long as she didn't show a need for adult management. Rather, caretakers grew more concerned with keeping others away from her as she developed a pension for violence very similar to the behaviour she picked up during her father's period of alcohol abuse. She was too violent and too quiet to visit with potential foster parents. She chased off everyone through her actions and silence; it became natural for her.

Lieutenant Ray came back once in November 2551 to visit with Andra but quickly left after finding the girl unreceptive to her visit. Andra dearly wanted the woman to adopt her but still said nothing. Andra lived at Jade Hope for almost a year without anything notable happening. She ate, slept, walked, and drew her way through the days and months. The only person she felt any feeling for was the nine-year-old boy sleeping in the bunk above her own in their air-conditioned tent dormitory. She referred to him sparingly as "Legs" during their time as bunkmates because he had a tendency to smack her in the face with his legs in the morning.

Her silence and obscurity may have chased everyone else off but it also brought about the attention of the Office of Naval Intelligence, again. Without knowing it Andra was in their spotlight once again after her father's suicide, but this time for another matter. The Human-Covenant War was still raging beyond Sigma Octanus IV even though Andra had long since stopped carrying. SPARTAN-III Gamma Company was nearing its training completion and a fourth company was entering its first recruitment stages. In, Andra was approached by a Doctor Reyna Zhou-Romero from the SPARTAN-III Program with a proposition that would change her life forever.

Accompanied by a young ONI field officer named Lieutenant Jefferson Korn, Doctor Romero approached Andra as someone just wanting to talk. To the Jade Hope caretakers, she informed them she was following through on an ONI policy to check in on former children of ONI officers, to Andra, she introduced herself as a recruiter and ONI civilian contractor in an effort to appear transparent with the distrustful and silent girl. In reality, Romero took a particular interest in Andra's case among the Spartan candidates she agreed to investigate and potentially induct into the as the organization’s lead recruiter at the time.

Andra was a physically capable candidate in Romero’s opinion, one Lieutenant Korn agreed with on a glance at Andra’s athletic background. While Andra was not maintaining her physique over the year she came to know her orphanage as home, her previous school records determined her as a talented young girl. Andra had the genetic markers qualified for Spartan augmentation as well as the physical capabilities to perform well in training. The only caveat was her attitude – Andra’s depression had warped her once outgoing personality, making her distrustful of others and segregated from the outside world. Her lack of interaction with people had taken a toll on her speech; to the degree, she reacted surprised at the sound of her own voice. Andra was lost in her self-pity and required significant therapy if she hoped to make it through Spartan training.

Romero could not afford that and marked Andra down as a potential candidate but not one for immediate acquisition, the girl was simply too volatile. Knowing that Andra would probably not meet the characteristic standards of the SPARTAN-IIIs, Romero still offered the girl an opportunity to join the program as a formality. The doctor really liked Andra from their brief interactions, however, under current administration, she was afraid the potential trainee would wash out within weeks of joining. She made note of the girl's incompatibility in her personnel report – an inability to work on a team, a lack of effective communication skills, and an emotional instability – but went on to express that she saw great potential in the girl and wanted to bring her onto the program nonetheless. If not with the SPARTAN-III Program, maybe a counterpart organization picking up SPARTAN-III washouts such as Project DEMOPHILUS.

Andra proved sharp and observant during her short conversation with Romero though always distant, hiding her emotions behind a composed and disinterested mask. When asked to become a SPARTAN-III, Andra froze and hesitated before agreeing reluctantly. She wasn't aware of what she was getting into, however, Andra wasn't like most recruits for the next generation of the SPARTAN-IIIs, Delta Company; she was a war orphan, knew about the Covenant but never encountered them. Her hatred was not as strong as other orphans were. What attracted Andra to the program was Romero's words, promises of being able to do more with her life and believing in Andra. A long time had passed since Andra last heard anyone say Andra was worth believing in. If it didn't make Andra trust Romero, it at least got her interested.

Doctor Romero, Lieutenant Korn, and Andra Bradford disengaged their meeting on good terms. In the time that would lead up to Andra's acquisition by the Office of Naval Intelligence, her internal determination began to grow. Her ability to talk with others remained limited; however, she found herself more willing to engage in schoolyard activities and took to chores set out by her caretakers with a determination that wasn't there all the months before. She told no one of her meeting with the ONI agents out of respect and request by said agents. On April 24, 2552, ONI agents led by Doctor Romero returned to the Jade Hope Youth Recruitment Center to acquire Andra. They informed the caretakers with a lie claiming that Andra was moving to an ONI-approved care facility off world as to groom her into a military officer based on the will of Andra's deceased parents. While it was a half-truth since Andra was leaving Sigma Octanus IV, it led to protests from the caretakers who wanted ONI or the UNSC to help correct the lack of resources the orphanage had to care for the other orphans at the facility. Romero and her security team informed the facility it was a matter of national security and there would be no arguments.

By the end of the day, Andra was safely secured in a cryogenic stasis pod in the direction of a temporary ONI holding warehouse on another colony world until SPARTAN-III Gamma Company completed their own training that year on the colony world of. Ultimately, Gamma Company would complete their training but Onyx fell in November 2552 by throwing the SPARTAN-III Program's funding and logistics into chaos. Andra would not wake up from cryostasis until March 2553, almost an entire year later and just as the Human-Covenant War ended.


 * FULL NAME: BRADFORD, ANDRA KEARSARGE
 * SERVICE #: D054
 * UNIT: NAVSPECWAR/SPARTAN-III DELTA COMPANY/CABIN 005
 * ENLISTMENT DATE: 04/24/2552
 * LOCATION: JADE HOPE YOUTH TREATMENT CENTER
 * STATUS: ACQUIRED
 * GENDER: FEMALE
 * BIRTPLACE: ENFIELD, SIGMA OCTANUS IV
 * BIRTH DATE: 11/06/2545

The First Batch
"Now—now this is the Law of the Jungle, as true and as old as the sky? ...the Wolf that keeps it shall prosper, and, the Wolf that shall break it must...die?"

- Andra-D054, misquoting "The Law for the Wolves" by Rudyard Kipling.

Exiting on March 10, 2552, the UNSC freighter Give Me More ferried the hibernating bodies of the first 150 Spartan prospects to their destination. The secret colony world of Argus V. Slowly thawed out on their approach, many children's reactions upon waking for the first time in six months or more was a sensation to puke up their badly aged lunches from months before.

There were twenty children in Andra's cryogenic chamber, including herself. The presence of a bunch of unknown, strange young boys and girls from unknown backgrounds and in the nude put Andra on edge as soon as she regained control of her stomach. Naked and confused, Andra defined herself to others quickly as a girl who wanted to be invisible. She tried to sneak her way into the shadows of the chamber but it only drew attention to herself though no one outright called her out for it. Soon after exiting their pods, the children met UNSC drill instructors in a formal, friendly manner that was far more relaxed than what Andra had expected before going into hibernation. Provided generic clothes and tasteless protein bars for an impromptu early breakfast, the children were then marched to the observation deck to get their first view of Argus V, what was to become their new home.

While surrounded by other children, Andra still felt a sense of hesitant hope that she could make something new of herself as part of the SPARTAN-III Program on Argus V. In the first days, Andra would become acclimated to her new home, or to the best of her ability. Camp Ambrose, the training camp located on Argus V for the SPARTAN-IIIs, was supposedly the world's only settlement and the rest was wilderness for miles in every direction. Andra's dorm, Cabin 005, plopped her with nine other prospects between the ages of four and eight in the same room with beds running from end to end. Uncomfortable in that setting, Andra did her best to avoid Cabin 005 except for sleep so she would not have to socialize with the other roommates. Within two days, Andra once again established herself as a quiet girl who just wanted to remain alone, and for a time, she was. The drill instructors told all the children to stop using their last names as they were now the property of the UNSC, their past lives forfeit. Andra found no problem with that given the past she wanted to forget and quickly became comfortable with her new designation "Andra-D054."

Things were far from easy for Andra but she made herself at home as best as she could. Participating in exercise lessons and advanced education courses to get the children conditioned for the intensive training program that would soon follow. However, before all that, Andra had a run in with a boy named Merlin-D032.

One of the boys originally from Andra's hibernation chamber, Merlin-D032 was a fellow child who joined Delta Company without experiencing the horrors of the Human-Covenant War firsthand. Similar to Andra, he was relatively quiet, seeking to stay out of the spotlight as the Spartan prospects began to form a social structure in the social vacuum of Camp Ambrose. Merlin and Andra were self-made introverts, avoiding attention; however, Merlin was far more open and curious. He made friends of his roommates in Cabin 003 and got along with most. However, in some misguided sense of "loners stick together," he decided to talk to Andra was a good idea. He remembered Andra from the cryogenic chamber and that seemed to stick out to him. Merlin approached Andra and struck up a one-sided conversation as Andra continued to try to ignore Merlin so he would leave her alone, however, after bringing up parents, Andra's pent-up rage over her childhood finally came to the surface and she struck out violently against Merlin. Neither previously trained in combat but the aggressive bout left both children bruised and with wounded pride. They began avoiding one another.

Invited by Doctor Romero to work in her clinic as a helper, Andra continued to avoid her fellow Spartan prospects during the acclimation period. Helping the psychiatrist made Andra feel as if she had a purpose in Delta Company at a time she was still trying to find her footing and the interaction with Romero reinforced Andra's trust in the woman as a maternal figure. Under her guidance, Andra began to show signs of improvement in her personality - displaying a good sense of humor and new positivity and from time to time, speaking broken English from her lack of using her capacity for speech in a while.

A week before Delta Company was to go into Initiation Romero gave Andra a warning. She would not be able to help the girl any longer and that she needed to surround herself with friends she could trust or she would soon fail as a Spartan. Recognizing the severity but not the reasons for the warning, Andra was hesitant but took the doctor at her word. Romero recommended Andra reproach Merlin as someone she was at least acquainted with. Upon rapprochement with Merlin-D032, Andra attempted to interact with him with an open mind even though he himself had become apprehensive of her in kind. The two eventually warmed up, developing a working friendship over the little bits of personal history and conversation they built up. Their friendship going forward would become an important element in securing Andra's survival in Spartan training in the years that would follow.

Spartan Crucible
"She's like a fragile little doll. She's got talent but that shit-poor attitude is going to wash her out. Maybe she'll make it through. Dunno. That's for her to decide."

- An assessment of Andra-D054 by one of her drill instructors on Argus V.

Somber Graduation

 * -| Spartan=

Spartan's Inventory
]-->

 Warzone Boss= In a later update to the deck aboard the, Spartans and other Human targets were introduced as Boss Takedown-type adversaries to test the adaptability and stability of Spartans and other Infinity personnel when fighting more human foes, such as  and Insurrectionists.

One such simulated enemy type is Andra-D054, referred to as "Insurgent Spartan" in the adversary database or "boss_Insurgent-Spartan-3-Delta." Based loosely on combat data retrieved from Andra-D054's MJOLNIR suit black box, Andra's and her limited training inside the simulation deck, the Insurgent Spartan is depicted as Spartan of similar stature and capabilities as the real-life Andra-D054. The Insurgent Spartan is easily identifiable by her navy blue-coloured and the swarm of  she deploys as support elements.

Based on Andra-D054's own likeness, the Spartan simulation is equipped with a similar technical build to Andra's own suit. This includes the and the armour abilities, , and. The simulated Spartan carries an as her primary weapon and a submachine gun,, as her secondary. Interestingly, Andra-D054 rarely, if ever, used either of these weapons during field deployment.

During simulation, the Insurgent Spartan deploys to the Warzone maps, , and. While Andra-D054 is most in her element in an urbanized battlespace, the crowded and spacious streets of most urban Warzone maps minimize the Insurgent Spartan's advantages rather than improves on them. Instead, for balancing reasons, the Insurgent Spartan deploys in environments that are more natural and programmed to stay to the edges of the combat zone and to take on straggling Spartans and other UNSC personnel rather than get into a close quarters fight where she would be easily disposed of.

Based on her programming, the Insurgent Spartan will seek out high and strategically viable vantage points to hunt for Spartan operators that come to seek her out, similar to Kig-Yar sharpshooters. During these periods, she will go into active camouflage and stay still and hidden until her active camo runs out. This camo can run for about a minute-in-a-half. During that time, the only identifying feature is the faint glow of the Insurgent Spartan's primary weapon in. Meanwhile, her swarm of drones will fan out over a wide area and shoot with their own machine guns at any potential hostiles approaching nearby. When shot at, the Insurgent Spartan will wait for her shields to break or her active camo to run out before retreating from her vantage point. In that time, after taking some damage, she will deploy several Hologram decoys in random directions before disappearing herself and moving to a new vantage point on some other point on the edge of the Warzone map. Her drones will typically stay in the same place until she has found a new vantage point and then slowly fly over to that new location on the battlefield.

Breaking the Insurgent Spartan's shields allows a brief amount of time where she becomes stunned where she can die without retaliation. Her drones do not come with energy shielding and will go down easily, about the same time-to-kill as a. During simulation, the Insurgent Spartan will not shoot unless it can guarantee that it will land its mark, typically a headshot, however, her firing is slow and methodical and can be dodged somewhat easily using thruster packs or sprinting. Spartans going against this simulation receive recommendation to work as a team to defeat the Insurgent Spartan or to take her down using strategy rather than close quarter engagements as unlike most Warzone Bosses the Insurgent Spartan has rather low health and shields. The best way to eliminate her is from a distance by destroying her drones from afar; sending in decoy targets to distract her and kill her once detected, or, use heavy vehicles to destroy her.

In Warzone, the Insurgent Spartan is worth 25 points to the team that defeats her and awards the person to land the final hit a. The Insurgent qualifies as a regular Boss-type adversary. During Warzone, getting close to the Insurgent Spartan may lead to the simulated enemy spouting a few different lines of dialogue but occasionally humming to herself. She sounds significantly younger than she looks. She is also one of the most mobile, non-vehicle equipped bosses in Warzone.

Warzone Loadout= "That was supposed to be me? Today just keeps getting stranger."

- Andra-D054's response after fighting the Insurgent Spartan.

The Insurgent Spartan's loadout takes inspiration from the kit employed by Andra-D054 in the field. However, instead of her personal weapons such as M6I/U sidearms or an, the equipment, and weapons used by the simulated Spartan are designed specifically as a problem to be encountered and defeated through intuition and problem-solving skills that are integral to any soldier's survival abilities. Thus, the Insurgent Spartan's combat style is far more lethal, less adaptable, and more pronounced. In contrast with Andra-D054, the simulated Spartan is far less versatile compared to her real-life counterpart.

Warzone Quotes= "One shot. Hopefully, one kill..."

- The Insurgent Spartan.

"Target identified."

- The Insurgent Spartan upon spotting a new enemy approaching her.

"Target Eliminated."

- The Insurgent Spartan eliminating a target.

"And stay dead!"

- The Insurgent Spartan eliminating a target.

"Multiple hostiles approaching."

- The Insurgent Spartan upon spotting multiple enemies coming toward her.

"Now, this is the Law of the Jungle..."

- The Insurgent Spartan.

"Repositioning!"

- The Insurgent Spartan before transitioning to a new spot on a Warzone map.

"Damn. My cover's blown!"

- The Insurgent Spartan when fired upon.

"Joshua taught me better..."

- The Insurgent Spartan before transitioning to a new spot on a Warzone map.

"Hmm-ymm-mmm-ymm-hmm-ymm-mmm-ymm..."

- The Insurgent Spartan humming to herself quietly.



Physical Appearance
"And you're sure she's a Spartan? She looks like a skeleton..."

- Major Kyser Ducepte commenting on Andra-D054's physique.

Standing far below the average height of Delta Company and previous Spartan generations, Andra-D054 is not a giant like that of her peers. She's far taller than the average female among humans and a little taller than the male average, however, her six-foot-flat height makes her stand out less and allows her to blend in better among average humans. She is one of those Spartans that is better prepared to participate in undercover operations because of her unsuspecting physicality. She is tall but she does not stand out. Andra is also traditionally light for a soldier, just like many other Spartans. Her body is lengthy and while lined by lean muscle, it is very thin - almost to the degree of being medically concerning. Her former caretaker and Ferret mission handler, Major Kyser Duceppe, often worried about his subordinate's physical health and described her as "a skeleton" upon their first encounter. However, given her augmentations, abnormal appearances, as having a pronounced rib cage are not unheard of. Without bodily augmentations, she expected to be around five foot, seven inches – only a half foot difference from her actual size.

Andra spent more time outside armor than in during her initial training and follow-up deployments and thus lacks the signature pale-skinned look of other Spartan super soldiers. For most people looking at Andra, they assumed she was an indoor-social recluse and simply kept to herself. Her verbal and personal shyness also play a part in her ability to becoming unassuming in public spaces. Andra has long brown hair that can appear black or brown depending on the light of the area she is in, however, it is more commonly described as black. On several occasions, Andra put minor blue and red highlights in her hair. During initial Spartan training, instructors prompted her to cut it to chin length and let it fall to the sides of her head to meet hygiene standards. After graduating from SPARTAN-III Delta Company, she allowed herself to grow her hair out once more, even though she often deals with helmet-hair from sweat and dirt sticking to her body and leaving her mane dangling in all sorts of directions. To mitigate this, she will wear a skullcap when the convenience arises. Andra has adopted some civilian social customs including a slight fashion sense – rolling her hair, putting it in a ponytail, and cutting it in ways that are popular with civilian youth.

Like her fellow Spartans, Andra not one for often wearing service uniforms and prefers civilian clothes instead, a characteristic dating back to her childhood and having a dislike for formal wear. She often dresses in tighter, form-hugging clothes but also displaying some retention to military sensibilities - wearing fire-retardant materials among other factors. Andra will bundle up in colder climate as her thinner frame makes her more susceptible to lower temperatures. Also because of her sharpshooter background, Andra is not often involved in close quarter combat and is significantly less scarred or marked from combat than her teammates. Andra, like other Spartans, also has bodily and facial features descriptively older and yet younger at the same time, creating a sort of "Spartan-baby face paradox" as it's something that most Spartans experience after being augmented where their appearance achieves a sort of.

Personality Assessment
"I'm fucking done...no more of – shit; I'm sick of it all! I can't fit in anywhere! All because...those assholes...!"

- Andra-D054's releasing her pent-up rage before Dr. Reyna Romero.

Growing up in a military household, Andra's early years were not too different from other military children living in the era – her mother was often away for years on end, serving on battlefields far from home as a combat medic. Her father worked in Naval Intelligence's SIGINT division and took many long business trips with Andra often left at home raised by government caretakers. The death of Andra's mother during the Battle of Minab shook her family dynamic and brought out the ugly side of her father. The sudden loss of his wife drove him to the bottle and mood-altering drugs to avoid the onset of a deep depression, however, the mix of psychoactive drugs and alcohol made for a nasty combination. With no self-control, his drunken spells turned violent leading to collateral damage including Andra on occasion; it was not long before their family fell apart. Andra got into fights at school to cover the bruises from domestic-abuse and grew increasing quiet as time went on – developing into a case of Selective mutism.

The day Andra returned from school to find her father dead by a self-inflicted gunshot was one of the worst days of her life and would become engraved in her memory. Without friends or close family to turn to, Andra disappeared into the UEG's over-taxed foster care system only for the Office of Naval Intelligence to identify her as a potential candidate for the SPARTAN-III Program. The loss of her parents put Andra on a dark path, one that might have led to suicide if her own depression and trauma reached a breaking point. However, joining the Spartans ended up as her salvation, giving her the friends and mentors she needed to begin down a path towards recovery.

Andra struggled in the first few years of her training with SPARTAN-III Delta Company, constantly failing to find a place in the company. The environment and stimulation from training to become a Spartan helped her minimize her post-traumatic stress and seek to become the warrior she wished herself to be. Andra's transformation was a product of her pent-up emotions warping into a fierce dedication to persevere – the repetition of beat downs finally got the better of her. To many of her instructors, Andra was an overnight, unexpected success – displaying herself as a talented and intelligent young woman with a fiery personality intent on seeing herself succeed. This new Andra was bombastic and vocal with her thoughts, at least with her instructors and those she has feels close with inside Delta Company. Outside of her comfort zone, however, she remains a quiet and fickle girl who avoided interaction with others. As quickly as she could become loud and expressive, Andra's voice and attitude could transform into silence when approached by someone she does not know.

Andra’s personality mellowed out after their initial training ended, however, Andra retains that fiery personality below her mask. During combat and training, this quirk is most raw and visible. Andra is at her best under fire and in combat, she has a sharp eye for detail and a quick-witted mind built for snap decisions that make her a talented sharpshooter, one of the best of Delta Company maybe. She takes orders and suggestions well and managed to compartmentalize her past trauma enough that it rarely affects her daily routine. While her personality can vary wildly, she is an introverted individual at heart. She is slow to trust others and since losing most of the people she cared for, she has come to close herself off to just about everyone outside her bubble. The dissolution of her original Spartan team and subsequent tragedies in her post-training life have continued to shrink that bubble of trust. The one consistent figure in her life has been Merlin-D032, someone she considers her significant other. Their relationship, border lining on fraternization is made complicated by their Spartan upbringing. The two Spartans have proven inseparable to a fault and care for one another deeply.

Merlin-D032
"We’re best friends. I’ll always have your back."

- Merlin-D032 reassuring Andra-D054 that he'd stand by her.

Andra and Merlin first became acquaintances during the days following the arrival of Delta Company's initial batch of recruits on Argus V. Compared to their future partnership; their introduction did not begin on a positive note and escalated into a wrestling brawl triggered by Merlin's naive and overbearing curiosity. While the first of many fights among Delta Company recruits, the duo's clash would help mellow out their misunderstandings and establish a friendship to last. When Andra arrived on Argus V, lasting nightmares of her father's abuse and eventual suicide plagued her ability to interact with others. Merlin's friendship played a healing role for Andra, providing her with a friend she could steadily rely on for comfort and support.

Merlin and Andra struggled together through the training of SPARTAN-III Delta Company, nearly washing out on several occasions. While Merlin was a decent recruit among the Spartan hopefuls, his continued friendship with Andra-D054 cost Merlin his chance to stand out among his peers. The drill instructors took special note of the two's budding relationship and tried to divide them up in hopes of shaking their overreliance of one another. As time went on, Merlin started to rely on Andra in his own way, using her as a voice of reason and calm away from the hostilities he encountered on all sides. Even when briefly split between Spartan training teams Boson and Anion, the separation did little to break their habitual co-dependency of one another.

Even after their permanent assignment to Team Boson, Merlin, and Andra were exceptionally close, having a friendship even more privy within to their "new family." Their close proximity over four years of training helped to cement their friendship and developing it further into a mutualistic partnership. Merlin's relationship with Andra is one based on mutual trust and commitment to each other's wellbeing; vocally, they have described each other as their "best friend." Even as best friends, Merlin and Andra's relationship is not quite platonic as hints of romantic feelings have surfaced between them. The lack of social maturation as Spartans previously prevented deeper ties though exposure to civilian life has certainly changed that.

While on combat assignment, Merlin often assists Andra as her spotter in their hunter-killer sharpshooter team. She shoots the targets while Merlin identifies them. Merlin's talents for land navigation and scouting further augments Andra's capabilities to eliminate targets. Together, they received some of the highest shooting marks in the entirety of Camp Ambrose and SPARTAN-III Delta Company. When their team fractured towards the end of, Andra and Merlin stuck fast to one another and began training to become a Headhunter team.

Joshua-G024
"Josh? Uhh...what can I say about him? He's a great Spartan, a great teacher...he's an ass to Merlin. I think he's a good guy but...I think he might be more messed up in the head than I've ever been..."

- Andra-D054 describing Joshua-G024 to Major Kyser Duceppe.

The relationship between mentor and student for Joshua-G024 and Andra-D054 always seemed strained. First meeting aboard the in late, Joshua-G024 was the leader of Fireteam Xiphos and a member of the , VIOLET-III. In contrast, Andra just graduated from SPARTAN-III Delta Company weeks before and was only beginning to learn how the galaxy had changed since she became a Spartan. Josh would be one of the first individuals to introduce her to.

Joshua was from the bloodied SPARTAN-III Gamma Company and experienced his ; long lost its luster. That said there were a number of similarities between the two Spartans that caught Josh's attention enough that he took the young girl under his wing. Upon reading Andra's declassified personnel file, he found striking similarities to his own experiences before becoming a Spartan including losing his parents at an early age to drug addiction. Also detecting the same latent talents seen by ONI during her recruitment into Delta Company, Josh saw Andra as a kindred soul and a Spartan with wasted opportunities.

Imparting his knowledge and experience to Andra, Josh applied a greater focus on combat tactics, close-quarters fighting, and expanding on her insurgent-like fighting style in an attempt to cover up her shortcomings. Andra greatly flourished and enjoyed the tutoring she was provided, however, her opinion of Josh was one of apprehensive appreciation. On one side, he greatly improved and expanded on her combat prowess and intelligence, on the other, his blunt attempts to pass on his worldview and recruit her into VIOLET-III continued to frustrate Andra. His vocal dislike of Andra's best friend, Merlin-D032, and his continued cynicism about the life of a Spartan did not earn him goodwill with her.

Even divided by an age difference of eight years, the two Spartans were relatively close, like that of close friends. To Andra, Joshua played a brief but positive and lasting role in her life, teaching her the skills needed to survive in the post-Covenant War era and the that followed. Upon learning of his death in late from his teammate, Amy-G094, Andra mourned his passing and wished she had the chance to tell him how much his lessons and friendship meant to her. She continued to feel a mild regret toward his death, having missed an opportunity to say goodbye. Following his death, Amy-G094 presented Andra a rare photo taken of Joshua-G024 smiling. Andra has kept it among her personal effects ever since.

Reyna Zhou-Romero
"You were selected for a reason, Andra. You may not believe yourself to be strong, but you are. I believe you are. You just don't know it for yourself yet. Let us show you – join our program and become a Spartan."

- Dr. Reyna Zhou-Romero recruiting Andra-D054 into Delta Company.

In analyzing surveillance data of Andra Bradford and her personnel file as the child of a employee, it was found that Andra's emotional state was far more fractured than most Spartan candidates considered by the DELTA Initiative, the ONI sub-organization created to form SPARTAN-III Delta Company in secret. Doctor Zhou-Romero, the Initiative's lead psychiatrist and departmental head on recruitment, decided to personally investigate Andra's case to guarantee proper recruitment and an assessment of the young girl's character.

Doctor Romero found a girl broken by her recent past: the loss of her mother on, the abuse and eventual suicide of her father, and a state of self-imposed quarantine from other orphans and foster children. Though shaped by the horrors of her youth, Andra agreed to become a Spartan after coaxing and reassurance on Andra's strengths from Doctor Romero. Andra, becoming Andra-D054, would go on to prove her hidden strength to Doctor Romero and others after suffering many intensive training hardships.

During that time with Delta Company, Andra was able to escape her self-imposed isolation to build new relationships with others, including a distant but positive friendship with Doctor Romero who took a special interest in assessing Andra-D054's mental state and making sure she stayed afloat in training. Doctor Romero became something of a maternal figure in Andra's life, meeting consistently through her stay at Camp Ambrose to discuss Andra's daily life, training, and other topics of relevance for a growing Spartan. Andra enjoyed her encounters with Doctor Romero as it was a time away from harsh drill instructors and the sometimes overwhelming interactions with her fellow Spartan recruits.

Even after training, Andra would remember and appreciate the positive, bolstering effect that Doctor Romero had on her time in. Andra ended up building a small but strong network of friends and compatriots among her fellow Spartans, however, she believes that it would not have been possible without the support of Doctor Romero. In her eyes, the psychiatrist was the first person to believe after her parents died. Even though she did not meet again with Doctor Romero after graduating from Delta Company, the doctor has continued to collect tabs on Delta Company Spartans including Andra as part of her continued work in analyzing the children of SPARTAN-III Delta Company.

Team Boson
"If I cannot bend the will of HEAVEN, I will move [bend the will of] HELL."

- English translation of Virgil's Aeneid, book VII.312, quoting Hera, queen of Mt. Olympus. Unit Motto of Team Boson.

Andra-D054 was assigned to the Spartan training unit known as Spartan Team Boson during her intensive training on the secret military colony world of Argus V. While moved between Team Boson and another Spartan training unit, Team Anion, temporarily, Andra found her niche in Team Boson where she was paired with fellow Spartan trainees Merlin-D032, Daniele-D003, Adryn-D111, and Roxanne-D107. Andra was never a people person and her relationship with her team was strained to begin with and only improved over time due to the efforts of her teammates and Andra acting on her own accord to reach out and make connections.

Roxanne-D107 was the only other girl in the unit and became akin to Andra's best female friend, and, when not figuratively attached at the hip to Merlin-D032, she could often be found hanging around and talking to Roxanne who was easily one of the most easy-going and positive members of Spartan Team Boson and even the entirety of SPARTAN-III Delta Company. Nothing seemed to get Roxanne down in Andra's eyes and her ever-cheerful demeanor gave Andra someone to latch onto in the super-serious realm of Spartan indoctrination. In time, the girl rubbed off on Andra, providing her with the motivation and confidence to eventually take steps to break out of her comfort zone and to find enjoyment in the presence of others. Roxanne's socialite-like behavior and easy-going nature made her good to hang around during social gatherings. As Andra occasionally described her jokingly, "she's my safety Rox!"

Andra's relationship with the other boys in her unit was positive but not as concrete like that with Merlin-D032 who became her first friend in the unit and her best friend in the entirety of SPARTAN-III Delta Company. Daniele-D003 was the team's acting unit commander and fireteam leader; his enthusiasm and dedication to training was a disliked trait among the rest of Team Boson and drove Andra crazy with how far behind she always seemed to be behind him in everything they were trained in on Argus V. Andra would not find out till later that her talents were very well-known to her superior officers and an interest to dissolve Spartan Team Boson in favor of a Headhunter unit made up of Daniele-D003 and Andra-D054. In retrospect, Andra felt this partnership would have been poisonous for both Spartans, as much as she respected Daniele and considered him akin to an older brother. Andra's relationship with Daniele became soured after he deserted the UNSC as did her relationship with Roxanne, however, the distaste was instead confusion in referring to the latter individual.

Adryn-D111 was akin to a younger brother to Andra. She and Adryn both shared a primal rage hidden by years of pent-up anger and at times it would often boil over. They found a common friendship in one another for talking about fighting and killing aliens and how much they hated their drill instructors. Andra was vocally objective to his eventual reassignment to Project BRUTUS when Team Boson was dissolved because Roxanne and Daniele had deserted in the Autumn of 2558.

Overall, Andra cherished her relationship with Team Boson as it had been her family for three or more years during and after training to become Spartans. They used to be such a tight-knit group that trusted one another. Their break-up left a sour taste in Andra's mouth and was a subject she actively avoided discussing with others, even Merlin-D032 who had a similar reaction to her own.

Quotes
"I trusted someone once. He...my dad; he stole my childhood then went and offed himself."

- Andra-D054 vaguely describing her strained relationship with her late father.

"Alright, Merlin. 'To War,' I guess?"

- Andra-D054 off-quoting a late UNSC officer before heading out to her new combat assignment with Merlin-D032.

"Now—now this is the Law of the Jungle, as true and as old as the sky? ...the Wolf that keeps it shall prosper, and, the Wolf that shall break it must...die?"

- Andra-D054, misquoting "The Law for the Wolves" by Rudyard Kipling.

"Andra Kearsarge Bradford. Nice to meet you."

- Andra-D054 properly greeting Merlin-D032 for the first time.

"I've suffered a lot, I recognize that now. Without you or our Team, I can't imagine how I would have kept this all together. I've thought about how things turned out - I'd change things in my life, but I admit, I'd do it all again if it's with you guys."

- Andra-D054 reflecting on her past during a chat with Merlin-D032.

Trivia

 * Andra-D054's real middle name, "Kearsarge" follows the same thematic convention employed by some Japanese Light Novel writers with naming female protagonists after famous warships as it is believed to make the character more powerful, popular, and interesting. Kearsarge is a reference to the USS Kearsarge, an Mohican-class Sloop-of-War that served during the American Civil War on the Union side. The ship had several famed successors that also shared its name which they all exist in reference to Mout Kearsarge in the American state of New Hampshire. Andra's use of "Kearsarge" over her real surname, "Bradford" is based on her narrative dislike for her deceased father.


 * Andra-D054's portrayal by her creator, , is a mixed bag including images from multiple sources. Most prominent include British actress Kaya Scodelario and her portrayal as Teresa Agnes from the Maze Runner series, the character Jess Black from the video game Far Cry 5, the character Rita Vrataski from the manga All You Need is Kill, a younger Mikasa Ackerman from the anime Attack on Titan, and the female Division agent from promotional artwork for the video game Tom Clancy's The Division.


 * Andra-D054 had her name chosen by Distant Tide after playing with alternate spellings of the name Andrea. Andra seems to be a female variation on the masculine name of Andrew and seems to originate from Europe. The actual meaning of the name may refer to "man" or "warrior," however, the latter choice between the two definitions is supposed to encompass the being of Andra-D054 as to emphasize her growing into a warrior spirit.


 * After Ferret Team Boson collapsed, Andra-D054 was paired permanently with her teammate, Merlin-D032, in a new two-man called "Team Massachusetts", named after the state of the same name. The decision to go with this was taken from placing the first initial of each Spartans' name and producing the two-letter acronym that the is shared with the state. Team M-A, or better known as Team Massachusetts.

Appearances

 * Delta's Path
 * Distant Tide's Weekly Submissions
 * Halo: Corporeal Delta
 * CBrando's Atlanta RP
 * RP:Imperium

Development Notes
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