Cassandra-G006

Cassandra-G006 was a from  who was raised and augmented as a child supersoldier during the final years of the. Although she was noted for having particularly poor combat scores in comparison to her fellow trainees, she was made remarkable by her innate talent as a and was thought to be the best practitioner of combat medicine ever produced by the Spartan program. Despite her skills, her first squad was wiped out by the Covenant and she was transferred to Team Jian. Later, she would become an unwilling deserter when she was caught up in the traitor Simon-G294's efforts to elude forces. More self-aware than many of her fellow Spartans, Cassandra clearly recognizes what has been done to her and her friends by the UNSC's indoctrination and training; she hopes to one day reconcile her existence as a Spartan with her desire to live at peace rather than war.

"I'll Give Everything to Save Her"
Cassandra was born in April of 2540 on the Outer Colony of Illios. Her mother, Dara Engel, was a mechanic at a UNSC-run munitions factory and one of countless cogs in the desperate war machine keeping humanity's fleets and armies supplied as the continued its relentless conquest of Earth's colonies. Cassandra did not know her father, who had abandoned Dara during her pregnancy and left the desperate young mother to eek out a living for herself and her daughter on her meager factory wages. In 2542 the factory was dismantled and moved off-world to protect its production capabilities form the threat of the Covenant. Thousands were left unemployed, Dara included.

As Illios's economy faltered and the local government began cutting off support for its impoverished citizens, Dara resorted to degrading odd jobs in order to feed herself and Cassandra. When the young Cassandra became sick with one of Illios's native swamp viruses, Dara made deals to sell her organs on the black market to pay for medicine. The rushed, back-alley surgery left the young mother hospitalized and near death. Without any money to cover hospital expenses, Dara was threatened with imprisonment and loss of custody of her daughter. But she was saved when one of the doctors at the facility, Gerard Powell, took pity on her and paid her bills out of his own pocket. Realizing that Dara would be no better off once she left the hospital, Gerard offered her a job as a maid in his modest home in exchange for room and board.

Cassandra spent the next few years in relative comfort, cared for by her mother and looked after by Gerard and his wife. As deeply invested in his Christian faith as he was in his medical practice, Gerard took the time to endow Cassandra with a deep sense of spirituality. Intrigued by Gerard's religious instruction, Cassandra saw her mother's guardian as a mentor and developed a curious fascination with his medical profession as she attempted to emulate her hero.

In 2545, a Covenant assault fleet launched a surprise attack on Illios. Bypassing the colony's meager defenses, alien ground forces swarmed major population centers and began to slaughter the inhabitants. Gerard and his wife were killed when troopers stormed their home. Dara managed to slip Cassandra to safety before being hauled off by a scavenger, leaving the terrified girl to wander the streets as the city was butchered around her. She was spared the fate of thousands of other citizens when a squad of whisked her away from the combat zone. Less than twenty-four hours later, Cassandra had been evacuated from the planet, leaving every trace of the life she had known behind on the falling colony.

"Where Was God When We Needed Him?"
The newly orphaned Cassandra soon found herself adrift amongst millions of other refugees in one of the hastily constructed camps thrown up by the UNSC on a nearby colony. With only minimal food and shelter from a -run orphanage, Cassandra spent most of her time moving about within the camp as she struggled to come to terms with the loss of her family. Her attempts to grapple with the pain by reconnecting with the God Gerard had taught her about proved futile; after a few visits to local churches and synagogues, Cassandra dismissed religion and instead found herself facing the problem of Covenant and its efforts to eradicate humanity. Furious at how helpless she felt in the face of the aliens' overwhelming power, Cassandra lingered in the orphanage and grew distant from the other children. Cut off from everything she had once held dear, she had no outlet for all the grief and anger building up inside of her.

Cassandra was rescued from her spiral of despair by the arrival of Naval Intelligence agents seeking to recruit war orphans into the top-secret SPARTAN-III project's Gamma batch. The agents passed Cassandra up when they first began canvassing the orphanage, looking instead for candidates who showed more notable signs of anger and aggression. When one interviewer finally spoke to the quiet young girl, he was surprised at how quickly she leaped at the offer to fight the Covenant. Cassandra and several other candidates were quickly transferred to a "rehabilitation program"—a front for ONI's Spartan recruitment activities—where they were held for a few months before being taken off-world and transported to the ONI training facility on Onyx that would become their new home.

Personality and Traits
Cassandra is incredibly perceptive, even by Spartan standards. Her keen knowledge of the human body allows her to pick up on slight behavioral details and use them to get a grasp on an individual's emotions and intentions. Despite such an analytical talent, she is also one of the most compassionate and empathetic Spartans to emerge from the grueling and insular training process. Although she suffered greatly from the loss of so many of her friends during and after the Great War, their deaths gave her a unique perspective on the violence she and her brethren were so skilled and capable at inflicting. Rather than existing simply as highly qualified soldiers, she believes that Spartans can find a purpose beyond the mission provided by their military superiors. Unlike so many of her brethren, Cassandra has no difficulty communicating and connecting with non-Spartans, be they military personnel or civilians.

Skills and Abilities

 * Gavin Dunn: "I thought you said she was a medic!"
 * Simon-G294: "She's a combat medic. A Spartan ''combat medic. She'll blow a hole through your gust one minute and then patch you right back up in the next because she thinks God told her to"
 * Gavin Dunn: "Oh, great. Does she do lobotomies, too?"
 * Susano: "Yes."
 * —Gavin Dunn and Simon-G294 discussing Cassandra.

Although the trainers on Onyx only provided Cassandra with basic training in field medicine, her natural talent for the work and her desire to advance as far as she could pushed her to move beyond simply mastering the simple techniques taught by the drill instructors. Under the tutelage of Aspen-B145 and the guidance of Deep Winter, Cassandra learned not only more advanced methods of treating wounds but also how to work wonders with the limited medical resources available to her on the battlefield. When Gamma Company was deployed against the Covenant, Cassandra earned the respect of her peers by saving the lives of dozens of fellow Spartans, UNSC personnel, and civilians on the battlefield. She was known for using the equipment in her medical satchel to heal wounds that had been deemed impossible to treat without trained surgeons in advanced medical facilities. With her departure from the UNSC and its military chain of command, Cassandra has only increased her expertise in many different medical fields as she strives to save as many lives as possible amidst the brutality of endless war. In addition to her comprehensive knowledge of human anatomy, she has expanded her studies into the physiology of the many former Covenant races she encounters on the galaxy's fringe.

"Don't tell me all that time you spent praying was actually some sort of mental practice for how to kill things better..."

- Simon-G294, observing Cassandra in combat.

During her training on Onyx, Cassandra had particularly low combat scores that rivaled even those of the infamous Simon-G294. Her focus on field medicine caused her to devote less time to honing her combat skills, though the supportive environment of her team kept her prepared for the combat-oriented challenges Chief Mendez would throw at the trainees. Following Gamma Company's deployment Cassandra's battlefield experiences, particularly the loss of her team, served to develop her fighting prowess further; true improvement, however, came following her departure from the UNSC. Simon taught her aggressive close-quarters fighting techniques he had learned from the Insurrectionist commander Redmond Venter while the dangers of the fringe gave her experience in surviving without the tools and advantages of deploying as UNSC special forces. Although many from Gamma Company refuse to believe the change, Cassandra is a highly competent fighter as well as a field medic. She prefers to use pistols in order to keep her hands as free as possible and is a crack shot with the. She also makes use of knives during close combat, using her anatomical knowledge and natural precision to deliver quick, devastating cuts to vulnerable body regions. Cassandra's personal convictions mean that she will refrain from killing her opponents whenever it is possible and practical. She will target non-lethal points on the body and often carries a modified M6 loaded with tranquilizer rounds. Nevertheless, she remains willing to fight and kill aggressively in order to save lives and protect those close to her.

Behind The Scenes

 * A growing list of tropes associated with this character can be found here.