SPARTAN-091

Early Life
SPARTAN-091, Jared, was born on Earth 41 years before the Covenant invasion. He was recruited into the SPARTAN-II program at the age of six, and assigned to Team 16, Edward-077 and Randall-043. These three trainees soon became close friends, and they relied on each other throughout Basic. During his training, it became apparent to 091's instructors that he was naturally gifted with a talent for long-range weapons. When he was first tested, he scored above all other previous records for target-shooting in the United Nations Space Command, and set a new galactic record. After his basic training was complete, Jared was quickly transferred to the Reach sniper school, and rapidly became proficent with every scoped weapon in the UNSCDF arsenal.

Teenage Years
At fourteen, Jared was given the standard SPARTAN-II biological upgrades. He fortunately survived the operations and mourned the loss of the others in his class who were not so fortunate. On November 27, 2525, Jared was given a suit of MJOLNIR Mark-V armor as his own, and was assigned to Orange Team, a group of lone SPARTANs similar to Gray Team that included SPARTAN-014, Adrian, SPARTAN-054, Angel, and SPARTAN-027, Joey. On his inaugural mission, OPERATION HIGH NOON, Jared was sent to neutralize a rebel insurgent base that had been a thorn in ONI's side for a long time. He easily succeeded, wiping out all terrorist resistance there, and re-capturing a prototype-weapons cache that had been stolen from Reach by black-market gun-runners. As a reward, Section-III gave SPARTAN-091 the SRS-AM5 from the stolen cache. He treated this weapon with the utmost respect and care, modifying it to perfection. He later used this custom weapon in the Human-Covenant Wars.

Later, Jared worked with ONI "Iota" operatives to hunt down and neutralize an United Liberation Front leader by the name of Jonas Selkers. It was during this operation that Jared recieved the distinctive scar on his right cheek, given to him during a knife fight with Selkers' bodyguard, whom he killed soon afterward.

Adult Life
At twenty, Jared had his first encounter with the gathering of xenophobic alien races known as the Covenant. This encounter came on the Outer Colony world of Kearsarge, a planet ravaged by several bloody civil wars between the colonists. Thanks to SPARTAN-091, and several divisions of Marines, the UNSC was barely able to repel the aggressive aliens. Jared-091 assisted in the mop-up operation, and was awarded the UNSC Medal of Valor for his actions.

Contact was briefly lost with SPARTAN-091 during OPERATION WILLING STRENGTH, a covert ONI operation against a Covenant Special Ops unit on planet New Bremerhaven, a barren colony world on the Inner Rim. Jared was trapped on the planet when a UNSC dropship pilot panicked and left him and his squad of Iota Operatives behind. After a harrowing pursuit through the polluted scrap-lands of New Bremerhaven, Jared located an outdated civilian Slipspace transport.

With the help of the surviving Iotas, Jared was able to patch together the ship's reactor and escape from the planet. On June 23, 2534, he reestablished contact with his ONI handlers and was assigned to OPERATION WITCHHUNT, locating and destroying Covenant supply bases with the help of a Navy raider battlegroup. Successfully completing many missions, 091 was critically injured during action in the Zeta Doradus system, and evacuated to the ONI Medical Facility above Reach. There, he spent three months healing, and, at his request, was transferred back to OPERATION WITCHHUNT. The operation continued for several years until Captain Julius Norman, the commander of the Navy battlegroup, was killed in action above Azura IV.

Jared-091 was then moved to OPERATION KINGSNAKE in 2545. He narrowly completed this action against the ULF, eliminating many rebel leaders, and twice evading capture. The SPARTAN was promoted to Petty Officer, Second Class, and awarded several honors for his work.

Several years later, Jared, hardened from countless actions against Covenant and ULF forces, was contacted by the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was to report to Reach immediately for a special assignment. When he arrived on April 19, 2550, he was given the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer and asked by ONI Colonel James Ackerson to locate a Covenant forward base in the Polaris Arm. Supposedly, the enemy was researching a new and dangerous technology that would allow them to slip past orbital defense grids. Senior Chief 091 immediately accepted this mission, and left for the Polaris Arm in a UNSC Corvette called the Valiant Triumph.

ONI Operative
What Ackerson had not told the Spartan was that he was signing his life over to ONI Section III. In a cunning system of illusions and double-backs, Ackerson faked Jared's capture and subsequent death. In reality, upon arriving in the Theta Polaris system, the Spartan was drugged and taken to a nearby ONI prowler. There, he was informed of his transfer to ONI and that all of his orders would come from Section III from now on. He was listed as "KIA" on the Spartans' roster, and was not present when the others of his team were briefed on their mission to capture a Prophet, or at the resulting battle at Reach. Doctor Halsey truly believed that Jared had been killed, as ONI used one of their most advanced AIs to cover up any trace of other information.

After being returned to ONI HQ, he was outfitted with the latest version of MJOLNIR and put through a rigorous skills inspection course, which he passed with flying colors. Ackerson ran the Spartan out on several controversial black ops that involved the termination of rebels and UNSC personnel. In October, ONI HQ recieved a distress call from Manheim, a major colony world in the Inner Colonies. When the threat was analyzed, Ackerson, with Vice Admiral Parangosky's permission, dispatched a team of Iotas along with Jared to the colony. The Iotas were detected by the Covenant blockade, and their prowler was immediately destroyed by plasma fire. Jared managed to escape a similar fate by hiding in a debris field in orbit above New Orion, Manheim's capital city. After several days, he made his descent to the surface, covered by a meteor shower. Upon landing, he made his way to a UNSC IFF transponder signal and linked up with the surviving crew of the UNSC Myrmidon, the only human ship to survive the orbital battle.

Manheim Campaign
Along with the Myrmidon's crew, Jared was able to initiate a successful guerilla war with the Covenant invaders, striking various weak points and retreating back into the rolling tundra of Manheim to regroup and resupply. The conflict continued in the fashion for quite some time, raging on until near the close of 2552. Then, the Covenant Civil War completely upset the balance of power. The Covenant armada that was stationed over Manheim was made up mostly of Sangheili military personnel, moved to that location by the Prophets, who wanted them out of the way. When news came down to the Elites of the Civil War, they attacked and destroyed all of the other races' ships, sufferin minimal losses. On Manheim's surface, an Elite visionary named Sesta 'Laramee initiated a cease-fire with the remaining Human guerillas. Officers who objected to this truce were quickly moved out of the way by the Fleetmaster of the Sangheili armada. Together, the Humans and Elites cleansed Manheim of Covenant Loyalists, running into mysterious and dangerous Forerunner technology along the way. The exact nature of this technology remains classified by ONI command. Jared and 'Laramee became good friends during this drawn-out search and destroy mission, and the two remain close to this day. After Manheim was cleared, a portion the Myrmidon's navy and marine personnel were put back on to their vessel with a Sangheili repair crew. The rest were loaded into the Sangheili ships, and with some persuasion from Jared and the UNSC commanding officer, Sylvie Grey, the armada headed for Earth.

The Second Battle of Earth
When the joint task force arrived at Earth, SPARTAN-117 and Miranda Keyes had already departed for the Ark, leaving Lord Hood to coordinate the remaining defenses. Since most of the Brutes had joined the Prophet Truth in his journey to the Ark, a lesser amount of Loyalist forces were present on Earth, easy pickings for the Sangheili battlegroup and the UNSC Myrmidon's crew. Lord Hood welcomed the reinforcements with open arms, and immediately deployed Jared to the Chicago Industrial Zone, where heavy fighting between Brutes and Humans had continued for several days. Along with the ODSTs from the 101st ODST Battalion, Jared succeeded in turning the tables on the Brutes, allowing the UNSC forces in the area to launch a major counterattack. With the North American situation stabilized, SPARTAN-091 was transported to Sydney, where he provided protection for High Command's remaining officers for the duration of the battle. When the survivors of the Ark battle emerged from the Slipspace portal, Jared expected to meet up with John and discuss old times. He was deeply saddened when the most courageous SPARTAN did not return, and fell into something of a depression when he realized that he was one of the last of his kind. After some extensive therapy, he later visited the Human-Covenant War Memorial to pay his respects to his fallen brothers and sisters. He is unofficially credited with scratching the service numbers of his fallen brothers and sisters into the memorial.

Post-War Life
Jared did not attend the memorial's commissioning on March 3, 2553, as he was given a brief leave by High Command. During this leave, Jared chose to visit his hometown, which was located near the Hartsfield-Atlanta Space Transportation Terminal, a large district in the southeast of the former United States. When he arrived there, he discovered that his parents, whom he barely remembered, had been killed during the Covenant attack, and his hometown had been partly glassed. Asking around, Jared learned that most people did not remember his parents ever raising a child. The few that did said that the boy had died around the age of eight from a heart failure. After wandering around the Terminal for a few days, the SPARTAN was contacted by Miles Jaeger, one of the ODSTs that had worked with him at the end of the war. The Lieutenant invited him to go to Washington with some other members of the 101st ODST Battalion, an offer that Jared readily accepted. During this trip, he met an ONI Lieutenant and scientific researcher named Lauryn Alden, who was also on a brief leave. She became fascinated by his life's story, and the two promised to contact each other regularly after leaving Washington, vowing to remain close friends. On May 21, 2554, SPARTAN-091 was returned to duty, needed to combat the Insurrectionist threat that had finally raised its ugly head again.

Axeblade
From May 21 to June 25, 2554, Jared fought a desperate campaign against the small number of Innie forces that still remained. The terrorists had infiltrated several levels of government and threatened to destroy or eliminate certain people and equipment neccessary to effect the UNSC's recovery. SPARTAN-091 completed several dangerous anti-terror operations, raiding a safehouse, taking down a secondary leader, locating and securing a suitcase nuclear bomb, and other such missions. But, in August, the Insurrectionists made good their threat, destroying one of the main terraforming plants near New Mombasa with a nuclear device. After a long series of negotiations, the Insurrectionists were allowed to leave UNSC control and settle a new planet, which they named Independance. Jared-091 was returned to Earth to have his AI, Juliet, removed and deactivated, as she had reached her maximum "healthy" operations length.

Rejuvenation
Unfortunately for ONI, Juliet refused to let herself be removed, instead grafting herself directly to Jared's neural network implant. This process, while harmless to the SPARTAN, prevents any other attempts to separate the two, as High Command did not wish to accidentally kill one of their last supersoldiers in a risky surgery. After the process was completed, and Jared was deemed in no significant danger, he was called to Sydney, where he was assigned to OPERATION: Rejuvenation. On this operation, he was attached to a frigate called the UNSC Long And Dark December whose mission it was to scout out colonizable worlds and report them to High Command. Sestas 'Laramee, now a Shipmaster, accompanied the December on her journey in his ship, in hopes of finding Forerunner artifacts and promoting inter-species cooperation. Jared discovered that his friend Lauryn Alden was in charge of the frigate's research detatchment, and the two were reunited. New Forerunner technology was eventually found on one of the survey worlds, but the UNSC/Sangheili forces that tried to recover it came under heavy attack by Forerunner forces led by a inactivity-crazed AI. Eventually, the technology was recovered, and with Juliet's help, the AI was subdued. For a period of six months, the journey around the edge of UNSC space continued, until finally, the December returned to Earth to make its report. Jared, when he returned, was given a surprise birthday party by his old friends, the first actual party he had had since he was six. After walking Lauryn home, Jared was struck by a drunk driver and severely injured. He was immediately rushed to the hospital, where he was placed in intensive care. The drunk driver disappeared under suspicious circumstances, and was later found dead in an alley. The incident was blamed on gang connections.

Jared recovered after several weeks of treatment and returned himself to active duty. In 2560, he was contacted by his old ONI officers and assigned to train a young ONI agent by the codename of Talon.

Liberty
As it turned out, ONI was not finished with the Insurrectionists. After recalling SPARTAN-091 once again, the newly-reformed Section-III office authorized him to conduct assasination missions in and around Independant space. For the period of two months, Jared did just that, working with ONI operatives to terminate many former leaders of the Insurrectionist movement and carry out several insurgent strikes on the infrastructure of Independance. The people of the "free" colony, already suffering under the effects of a trade embargo by the UNSC, and now faced with the deaths of their leaders and collapse of their economy, grudgingly surrendered themselves to UNSC government. Brought back into the fold, the UNSC graciously granted the world a post on the Planetary Council, and placed no restrictions on free trade. In 2556, Jared was allowed to return to reserve duty, and took an extended leave on an ONI psychological evaluator's orders.

New Hope Catastrophe
After about two years of normal service, in 2569 Jared was allowed to have a year's worth of shore leave, which he spent in the Sol system with some of his ODST and Marine Corps aquaintances. However, in 2570, the Office of Naval Intelligence called Jared into their service once again. This time, though, his job was more crucial than ever. Due to unknown circumstances, two rival scientific and medical companies, Phade Technology Industry and Acumen Science Laboratories, had allowed an experimental Flood strain to escape containment on a Far Rim colony world. New Hope, recently established by the Rejuvenation project, was overwhelmed in a matter of days, its entire population either killed or hideously transformed. ONI needed all the help it could get to contain this atrocious outbreak, and it summoned all of the SPARTANs it had connections with, Jared-091 included.

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Further information withheld, pending organization of Classified/Declassified sections of the archives

Indigo
After another stint in OPERATION: Rejuvenation, Jared was transferred to the military colony world of Arcturas, where he, along with the surviving SPARTAN-IIs and -IIIs, was responsible for the training of the newest addition to the long-lived program, the SPARTAN-IVs. Jared had command of an Advanced Reconnaissance/Sniper Support specialty training group that he later commanded in the fight against the Necros. After their training, this unit was designated as Indigo Company in the Third Battalion of the program by High Command. The company grew to respect and almost revere the senior Spartans who commanded them, and tried their best to follow their examples. During this time of relative relaxation, Jared was able to face his past and come to grips with the losses in his life, strengthened by Lauryn and his SPARTAN-IVs trainees. He laid his depression to rest and focused at the task at hand, pouring himself into his work as a training commander. Though he modeled his methods, as the other SPARTAN-IIs did, after Chief Mendez, he tried to be more approachable as a commanding officer, allowing the trainees more room to grow and learn from his experiences. Upon their graduation, Jared took control of Wellington Platoon, the highest-performing unit within his company, and also the unit which he had taken a deep fatherly interest in. Working from the field, Indigo brought valuable data back to HighCom, mostly regarding Necros biology and social structure, as well as technology and equipment. Members of Wellington Platoon even managed to pilfer a small weapons dump on a Necros-occupied planet, capturing two intact Necros firearms that were brought back to a research lab for study. Stonewall Platoon, under the leadership of Lieutenant Webster, a former ODST, also performed excellently, taking part in a series of daring missions to the outer Necros colonies.

Physical And Mental Characteristics
Jared can be distinguished by his relative good looks, dark brown hair cut in a "high-and-tight" military hairstyle, and deep gray eyes. Whenever he looks at something, he seems to be analyzing it for a weak spot or easy headshot placement, a sort of "sniper's stare" that is shared by others of his specialization. Despite a regenerative process he has recieved, Jared still has a small distinctive scar on his cheek, given to him on one of his first operations. He keeps his body and skills in constant tip-top shape, and usually spends his off time at a local gym or firing range. While this does nothing for his popularity among UNSC personnel, those who have served with him understand that he works only to keep his mind off of what he has been through. Jared is a deeply loyal and respectful individual, who keeps most of his thoughts and ideas to himself while obediantly following orders. This behavior has earned him the reputation of being "quiet", and attracted ONI's attention. Because of his unquestioning loyalty, Jared was labelled a "stooge" by Ajax-013. His calm personality belies the sadness that lurks below the surface, as he realizes he can never have a normal life. Often at odds with the more aggressive and outgoing SPARTANs, Jared still respects them as the brothers and sisters he never had.

Human-Covenant War

 * MJOLNIR MARK VI Powered Assault Armor
 * SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle
 * M6G Semi-Automatic Pistol
 * BR-55XR Battle Rifle

Necros War

 * MJOLNIR MARK VII/Scout + Variant Powered Assault Armor
 * SRS99G-S2 AM Sniper Rifle
 * MA6A Personal Assault Rifle System

Quotes

 * "Hey, slow down and let's think before we go charging headlong into that mess. Look at how their deployment's weak on the right flank, near that tower.  A few well placed rounds, we're in, and they're none the wiser."  --Jared-091, advising a more aggressive team member.


 * "I'm no Linda, but I bet you that I can clear that LZ before we even touch the ground." --Jared-091, commenting on the difficulty of landing on an unsecured spacehead.


 * "No, let me go check it. I'm more quiet than anyone else here, and I don't have the temptation to kill every single Grunt I sneak past."  --Jared-091, on close reconnaissance, with a sidelong look at Ajax-013.


 * "Welcome to Basic, recruits. Before we begin, I believe there are a few things you should know.  Lesson Number One: Don't die.  Lesson Number Two: Don't ever let me hear you or see you when we're out in the course.  Bad things happen when I see you.  And, lastly, Lesson Number Three: Don't be stupid."  --Jared-091, addressing his cadre of SPARTAN-IV trainees during their initiation on Arcturas.

Trivia

 * Jared's name translates from Hebrew as "Descendant".
 * Jared was incorrectly portrayed as a Gray Team SPARTAN in the docudrama Heroes of Humanity: The Story of the Spartans. After being contacted by the UNSC Public Affairs office, the filmmaker fixed this error.
 * In the late 2600s, Jared-091 was a leading character in the Saturday morning sim-vid show Sierra Squad, a fictionalized series that was loosely based off of the SPARTAN-II's Covenant War exploits.