Felix-116

{|style="width:100%; font-family:Ebrima" "I still get the nightmares, you know. Every time they, it feels like I'll wake up and the galaxy will be a different place all over again."

- Felix

Lieutenant Commander Felix-116, born Felix Martel, is an operative of the classified, and the first augmentee of the. Following medical complications that arose from ORION's unstable experimental procedures, he was placed into cryonic suspension due to the fatal nature of his illness. He remained in stasis at age 19 until he was awakened in 2525 upon the request of. Offered a fleeting chance at survival, Felix agreed to undergo the risky augmentations as a possible cure to his seemingly untreatable condition. He made a full recovery and was subsequently reassigned to 's covert, as part of the top-secret Spartan VELOX Unit. Leading a team of SPARTAN-IIs denoted to have been killed during augmentations, Felix has spearheaded over 176 ONI operations throughout the majority of the before the unit vanished on  in 2551.

Early Life (2472—2487)
Born as the eldest of three boys, Felix was raised on his parents' modest-sized farm far from Eridanus II's major cities. The Martels were a hardworking family who never had more than what they had to get by, but it was Abigail Jollenbeck and Caden Martel's yearning that their sons receive the opportunities they never had themselves. The younger brothers, Astor and Thomas, respectively wanted to become a space engineer and a scientist, but Felix had his mind set to stay on the farm. Although his parents wished he would do more with his life, they chose to respect his decision, however Abigail insisted that he attend school given the abundance of learning centres within Eridanus II's rural sprawl. In the meantime, Caden taught Felix how to tend livestock, operate the farm's lone, and fire the hunting rifle used to fend off the local wildlife.

In 2482, the Martel farm was visited by one Lieutenant Colonel Michael Thornhill, a wealthy UNSC officer who had purchased the nearby estate and bought out many of the farmers in the vicinity. He offered the family a contract with a substantial salary, in exchange for entering his employ and allowing him to develop their land. Abigail vehemently declined the offer, something that did not put the Martels on friendly terms with him. At the time, Felix did not understand his mother's dislike for the Colonel but nonetheless heeded her warnings to steer clear of him. He did, however, often observe Michael's teenage son Hector, a newcomer to his school, spending most of his time away from Colonel Thornhill's lavish estate.

By the mid-2480s, tensions were building between the and, and the UNSC's elevated presence on Eridanus II was the cause of much resentment as the possibility of war appeared on the horizon. Felix noticed that his peers had become unruly regarding their -approved education, and had even turned their hostility outright toward Hector. As whispers of rebellion began to circulate the colony, its population became one of mistrust and division; in 2487, Felix's family was amongst several to come under suspicion of evoking insurgency, and Colonel Thornhill, seemingly convinced of the rumours, sent his hired muscle to torch the Martels' farm in the dead of the night. Felix, who tried to stop the men, was roughed up for his efforts, and watched in horror as his father was beaten to death for shielding him. Abigail soon found him after pulling an injured Astor out of the burning farmhouse, and was about to run back in for Thomas when Hector arrived. Having stolen one of Thornhill's water trucks, the antisocial youth extinguished the flames quickly enough to get the youngest Martel out alive, although he was unable to save the farm or its crops. In the wake of the calamity, Felix had to stand down against his mother, who furiously reviled Hector for what his father had done.

With Caden dead and the lack of evidence to prove Thornhill's involvement, Felix's family was at a dangerous tipping point. Their livelihood was gone and the last of their savings went into ensuring Astor's recovery at the local hospital. Not long after, Abigail was arrested for conspiring against the ; Felix stubbornly refused to believe the accusations until she confessed the truth to him. His brothers were placed into the state's care, and he was given one option by which he would be allowed to see them again—disavow his mother and her actions, enlist at, and join the UNSC to prove his trustworthiness. With his life upended, the 15-year old accepted the terms.

As the ship was about to leave Eridanus II, Felix was surprised to find Hector on board as well, awaiting deportation from the colony they grew up on. The older boy informed him that he had murdered Colonel Thornhill in an altercation following the arson incident, something which both awed and horrified Felix. In spite of the circumstances that brought them together, the two of them came to a profound realization that day—that the galaxy would be no kinder to them than Eridanus II had been—and the realization would bring forth an unlikely friendship between them in the coming years.

Studies at OCS and Naval Career (2487—2491)
Although Matthias Gavilán, the CMA's consul on Eridanus II, requested that Felix be sent with Hector to on, his superiors decided instead to have them transferred to the  on , given the circumstances of Colonel Thornhill's death as well as the charges placed against Abigail. In addition, both boys were enrolled into Accelerated Education, by which they would graduate in two years instead of the usual four. Despite the excessively advanced curriculum and demanding training regimen, Felix took to his studies with vigour, rising to the top rankings of the highly competitive AE class. His professors would observe him spending a lot of his time outside class with Hector, practicing hand-to-hand combat by day and perusing the academy's libraries late into the night.

Felix became RNOA's youngest graduate in 2489, having completed his education at age 17 with honours. Unbeknownst to him, the had taken note of his stellar academic performance, and shortlisted both him and Hector for the. With the written permission of the CMA's Head Marshall, Felix was allowed to return to Eridanus II and visit his brothers, both of whom remained as wards of the state until they became legal adults. He was happy to see Thomas adjusting well to his new life and receiving the finest education funded by the CMA; Astor, however, was a source of concern as he became markedly dour in the last two years. The reunion took an unpleasant turn when Felix tried to explain that he could not arrange for Abigail's release from prison, and the brothers parted company on less-than-friendly terms. Felix visited his mother not long after, but their conversation ended in mutual disappointment between them.

Troubled by the state of his family and feeling powerless to change its course, Felix soon left Eridanus II and threw himself into active service. Having been approved to operate under NAVSPECWAR, he received a Lieutenant's commission the following year and fought to contain the ever-increasing threat of war from the Outer Colonies' growing insurgencies.

Project ORION and Health Issues (2491—2492)
In early 2491, the CMA secretly renewed the long-abandoned, with ONI providing data and resources in support. Felix was briefed on and accepted entry into the project along with 64 others. The candidates, listed as volunteers of "phase 1", immediately began training and received augmentations in April. Following the procedure, Felix was among the few approved for field-testing the project's effectiveness in live combat situations. Although they continued to receive training in the meantime, the selected operatives were placed under the CMA's authority with no official record of their ties to ORION, suppressing dissent and targeting perceived threats to galactic peace.

Throughout 2491, Felix participated in eleven covert operations, on one of which he prevented the bombing of a UNSC academy his brother Thomas was attending. The academy's headmaster, one Commander, was thankful to the ORIONs for their efforts, and was later briefed by ONI to keep quiet about what he had witnessed. However, they agreed to recognize Felix's selfless act by awarding him the Silver Star, in hopes of improving public support for colonial administration in the Outer Colonies. Around this time, Felix developed a romantic attraction toward fellow ORION Jess Morley, who had saved Thomas' life during the terrorist incident at great personal risk.

Late in the year, Felix began exhibiting signs of insomnia and minor loss of memory. Although the program physicians correctly deducted that the symptoms were a side effect of his augmentations, it was not long before he was wracked with depression and loss of coordination and was removed from active duty. On January 7, 2492, he was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare degenerative brain disorder that nearly impossible to treat. Due to the rapidly progressing nature of the disease, Jeromi was brought in and attempted to counteract the effects without success. After ten days, Felix's body was deteriorating and he had begun to experience experience dementia; the Commander estimated that he had two months to live at best. With no other choice available, ONI quietly withdrew Felix from the ORION project and placed him in cryonic stasis, hoping their investment could still be of some use in the future. He would remain within one of their deep storage facilities for nearly three and a half decades, never again to see the life he was leaving behind.

SPARTAN-II Testing and Reassignment (2525—2531)
"You could make enough of a difference to matter, Felix. My Spartans will undergo augmentations in less than a month, and many of them will not survive. But with your cooperation we could curtail the losses, and every Spartan we can put on the battlefield will save that many more lives."

- Dr. Halsey implores Felix to become the first SPARTAN-II

In early 2525, was poring over the notes of the ORION project and came across some records of Felix's participation. Intrigued, she gained access to his file and soon figured out what had become of him. She then contacted Jeromi, now a four-star Admiral, with instructions on an augmentation experiment involving some of his Binobo chimpanzees. With ONI's permission, Halsey also had Felix's cryotube discreetly transferred aboard Jeromi's research ship, the, while she oversaw the proceedings in person and filled the Admiral in on as much as she intended him to know; although he was not happy about the arrangement and remained unaware of the fine details regarding the , he agreed to go along with her plan under the guise of a "hypothetical" experiment.

Felix was brought out of cryonic sleep on February 18. He was met by Halsey and Jeromi, who informed him of the circumstances surrounding his "cure"—the series of risky augmentations that had a shot at reversing the effects of his disorder was also part of a test for Halsey's research. Felix was dismayed to hear that he would not be discharged should the experiment be successful, but with some coercing from Halsey, who hinted at the imminent breakout of, he reluctantly agreed to her terms. The procedure began later that day, and for the second time in his life he endured a series of gruelling augmentations while Halsey patiently awaited the results of her experiments.

After sixteen days of procedure, Felix awakened on March 6. Although his body was still experiencing some residual pain, he was surprised to find himself more clear-headed than he had ever been. He quickly discovered that his physique had surpassed the results from ORION by a wide margin, and that his reflexes had become exceptionally fast. Halsey informed him that his illness had been nullified, but also cautioned him that his ORION augmentations lingered in his system and could cause medical complications in the future. After completing her evaluation on him, she departed for Reach.

Needing some time to get used to his restored and enhanced body, Felix spent much of his time on board the Hopeful in solitude. He learned from Jeromi that Astor went on the run after breaking his mother out of prison in 2496 and joined the with her; conversely, Thomas had become a reputable UNSC scientist and made significant contributions to its  and  divisions in the last thirty years. Felix's momentary excitement at the news did not last when Jeromi ruefully informed him that he was not to make contact with his brother, as per ONI's orders. Several weeks later, an officer from 's arrived to escort Felix to his new detail. Learning what had become of ORION and its operatives, he quelled his despair at all he had lost and steeled himself to face the threat lurking on the precipice of humanity's borders.

Trivia

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