User:Charles Harbaugh/Charles-097

'If there was a single Spartan I would ask to get behind enemy lines without getting spotted, gather every bit of Intel we could ever need, and get back in one piece it would be him.' John-117 to Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez

Childhood

 * Charles was born on Europa, one of the Jovian moons and raised in an orphanage until age five when he was taken in by the principal of Educational Facility-812, one of many outside of the large metropolises. He was known among the students for his neon green eyes and bright blonde, almost white hair. During his time in the school Charles mostly avoided the other students, preferring to work alone even during group activities. He also had a tendency to remain outside even in the extremely cold temperatures, usually around negative thirty-three degrees Celsius. All the people born on Europa had a strange resistance to the cold that other people lacked, thanks to the constant snow fall and ice-buildup of the planet.
 * Charles would commonly hide inside a small tunnel he carved in the snow mound beside the front door of the school itself and watch people as they walked by, much to the dismay of the principal. A few months after his sixth birthday, Charles encountered a very strange looking man when he was hiding inside his snow-cave one day. The man had a disheveled look about him and was glancing around and muttering to himself. Charles saw that the man had a pistol inside his jacket and knew that no one, not even police in that area carried guns because of safety concerns due to the high number of childcare facilities. Charles decided to follow the man as he boarded the monorail into the nearby city.
 * When they arrived, Charles followed closely and listened to the man's muttering. He said something about being late to an important meeting with his boss and talked about when the attack would go down. That was all Charles needed to hear to know that this guy was a bad man as he called them. He had overheard the teachers talking about them when he'd snuck into the teachers lounge and learned that the bad men were attacking people all across the other human planets because of the military. Charles hated the idea of people attacking the military just because they were having a hard time helping everyone. The man walked down a dark alleyway away from a lot of the buildings when something reacted inside Charles' mind. His instincts told him that the man had to die, and this was the time to do it.
 * The young boy managed to slip his hand into the man's jacket and pull out the pistol. Charles then found an old soda can and a partial can of biofoam in the snow, so he set about crafting a silencer. He started to question himself at first but instinct took over and finished the work. The can, now tentatively on the end of the pistol, was filled with the biofoam which was beginning to harden. Charles cocked the gun as the man turned around after noticing that his pistol was gone. The man got down on his knees and pleaded to the boy to return his gun, glancing around as though he was scared and making a point of being quiet. Charles closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
 * The pistol went off without a sound, but the bullet pierced right through the makeshift-silencer and embedded itself in the man's head. The gun had flown out of Charles' hand, bruising his hand and the rear-sight caught his cheek, cutting him slightly enough to bleed. Charles took off for the school, crawling back into his tunnel where he silently cried, only upset because his heart told him his parents would have been proud.

Kidnapping and Conscription

 * Several weeks later Charles was chosen by the Office of Naval Intelligence (AAO) as a candidate for the SPARTAN-II Program because of his actions beforehand. Doctor Catherine Halsey and then-lieutenant Jacob Keyes were sent to observe and evaluate him to see if he would be right for the program. Keyes was amazed when Dr. Halsey told him why Charles had come to ONI's attention and why he was last on the list of candidates, so amazed that he almost shouted about the news of an Insurrectionist cell existing on the moon so close to the Mother Planet as he termed it. Halsey silenced him before anyone heard and informed him that the cell had been quietly put down but that it was not their concern and that they needed to observe Charles at the school. They assumed the roles of a married couple looking for a school to send their children to; the principal told them to talk with one of the teachers who was very polite and told them about Charles' behavior with the other students. She assured them that the other students were all very polite and loved their classes before leaving to take care of something. The doctor and Keyes then observed a man walking through the snow outside carrying a folder under his arm. They saw what appeared to be a blur behind the man in the blizzard which was picking up. Then the folder disappeared from under his arm. The man stopped and began frantically searching through the snow for it. Keyes saw another blur over by the swing set and then it was gone. But as he watched suddenly the young boy appeared on one of the swings, clutching the folder in his tiny hands.
 * His training went smoothly like the others although from then on he had an appreciation for working with a squad compared to working alone. However it was found during his training that he was best deployed on his own, whether to gather intelligence or disable defenses.

Spartan-II