Layla-B101

"One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind that visor..."

- Layla's ONI Handler, circa 2555

Layla-B101, also known by the callsign of BLUEBELL, was a SPARTAN-III Commando of, serving in the secretive unit for many years during the Human-Covenant War. Having survived the glassing of her planet, Layla was eventually recruited into the program at a young age and was noted for having exceptional qualities among the recruits for Beta Company. After completing more than two specially assigned training missions, she was taken away from her peers in Beta Company, along with several others, and placed into a special training facility on the far side of Onyx, where they underwent a rigorous physical and mental training regime that would see them broken into separate teams after three months.

After the selection process was completed, Layla was paired with Grantley-B130, whom she had gotten on with very well, being the highest matching pair within the 'Headhunter' Unit, which had been whittled down to just seventeen members. Following their augmentations in 2541, the Headhunters were put through another two years of supervised field exercises on Onyx until they were ready to be dispatched into combat, most of them being under ten years old. Layla and the other Headhunters were first deployed in early 2541, being assigned with Grantley on various deep-cover missions behind enemy lines.

In spite of several losses over the years, the Headhunters remained active throughout the war, Layla and Grantley being one of the best teams within the unit, with a knack for both infiltration and evasion while sabotaging Covenant structures behind enemy lines. It is for this reason that the Covenant began deploying Sangheili SpecOps teams to eliminate the Spartan threat, leading to several deaths amongst the unit, though the pair were able to defeat their would-be ambushers on more than one occasion. In 2546, however, while on a mission to sabotage a Covenant refuelling station, Layla was forced to stay behind after a thruster malfunction, urging her partner to escape while she faced certain death against a vastly superior foe.

Her supposed valiant last stand, however, was in vain, as she ended up being captured by the enemy. Rather than face execution, as any normal human would have done, Layla was spared by a Sangheili shipmaster, who brought her back to, as both a prize and a sort of pet. While on the planet, the young Spartan endured years of torture and humiliation at the hands of her captor, who would often speak of Covenant victories over humanity and the massacres that occurred in order to break her spirit. While she tried to remain strong, Layla became slightly unhinged by her ordeal, becoming consumed with revenge against the Sangheili, her captor in particular.

In 2551, while the Shipmaster was away fighting, Layla took her chance to escape from the Keep where she was held, with the help of a young Sangheili whom she had befriended while in captivity. With his help, she was able to stow away on a Covenant capital ship that was departing the planet with a small amount of food and water. Though her accomplice was discovered and killed, Layla was able to escape from Sangheilios alive, remaining hidden and emerging only to find food, though in the end she was forced to kill and eat a grunt to stay alive. When the ship arrived at it's destination, a human colony that it began to attack, Layla escaped via a Sangheili orbital insertion pod, killing it's original occupant and making it to the surface unharmed.

Landing in the wilderness of the colony world, she was eventually picked up by a squad of Marines. The Spartan, at this point highly mistrustful and almost feral in her mannerisms, overheard them planning to detain her for transport to ONI. Upon hearing this, she butchered the entire team using a plasma pistol she had stowed away. Layla fled for some time, pursued by Covenant and Human alike, until she was finally caught by an unknown SPARTAN-II, who calmed the former Spartan down until she allowed herself to be handcuffed, and transported offworld. Once the Office of Naval Intelligence was informed that a SPARTAN-III that had been declared MIA had escaped from enemy captivity, Layla was interrogated extensively on what she knew about the Sangheili homeworld, though she had learned little, and was put through an intense psychiatric workup, the results of which declaring that she was mentally unstable and required rehabilitation.

Layla was finally cleared for active duty in July 2552 around the time of the. Though she did not participate in the battle, she remained within the Epsilon Eridani system on a stealthed prowler, until the order was given to assist the naval ships covering Tribute. Leading a squadron of modified Sabre fighters, Layla assaulted a Covenant CCS-Class battlecruiser, eventually boarding it and storming the bridge. To her surprise, the Shipmaster was the same one who had held her captive for five years. Killing everyone else, the Spartan exacted her revenge on her captor for some time before finally killing him and completing her mission by making the battlecruiser open fire on it's fellows, drawing Covenant attention away from the evacuation fleet while she escaped.

For the remainder of the Human-Covenant War, Layla remained on Earth, fighting against the Covenant when they invaded. Once peace had been officially declared, ONI decided to put the mentally unstable and Elite-hating Spartan to work, sending her in along against isolated enemy outposts. This had the dual purpose of both destroying enemies and disposing of a possibly volatile asset if she were to be killed. In 2556, she was taken to the UNSC Point of No Return, where she met up with Hank-136 and several other supposedly unstable soldiers, being told that they would be sent on deep-cover missions far behind enemy lines, something that Layla, recalling her Headhunter days, gladly accepted.

Early Life
Layla Farkas was born on the outer colony world of Prospect, on April 14th, 2533. The colony was known for it's great prosperity, Layla's parents being quite wealthy. As such, the first few years of her life were spent living in luxury, being given whatever she wished for. This was not to last, however, as in 2537, shortly after her fourth birthday, the Covenant attacked the Colony, alien infantry massacring civilians as they invaded the capital with little resistance. While heading to the spaceport, Layla's parents were gunned down by a Sangheili warrior, who was about to turn his attention to the little girl before a large metallic pod struck the city street metres away.

Once the doors had sprung off, a figure stepped out and, after a brief fight, was able to bring down the alien with multiple shotgun blasts. The man introduced himself to Layla as an ODST, and offered to take her to safety. Still in shock over the sudden death of her parents, she accepted and travelled with him to the spaceport, the trooper defending her from enemies all the way. Once they had reached the relative safety of the port, which was still defended by UNSC forces, the man removed his helmet and introduced himself to Layla as Henry McNair, calming her down as she cried. Eventually, McNair placed Layla on an evacuation ship, waving her a goodbye before heading off into the fray. Though only four years old at the time, Layla never forgot the profound impact that day had on her, and resolved to be just as strong as the trooper who saved her.

Layla spent several months in an orphanage on an inner colony world, mourning the deaths of her parents and interacting with few others. While in the orphanage, she ended up getting into several fights, still being used to getting what she wanted and being perceived as rude and bossy by the other children. This came to a head when she ended up fighting with another girl,, who was a few years older than her. Though the fight was broken up, the two of them had beaten each other almost senseless. After being forced to spend several days in isolation to think about what they had done, Layla and Catherine apologised, and soon became good friends, the former seeing the latter as a sort of big sister.

In 2539, Layla and many others at the orphanage were given the opportunity to get their revenge on the Covenant, agents from the interviewing various children and encouraging them to join up. She accepted, and was brought to Onyx along with 417 others to begin the intense training that would forge them into Spartans.