Riker-012

"It is better not to speak, and let men consider you a fool, than to speak and confirm their suspicions"

- Riker-012, quoting President Abraham Lincoln

SPARTAN-012, or Riker Abrams by name, is a SPARTAN-II Commando. He specializes in orbital and airborne drops, as well as commando missions.

"Lucky" Few
"You have been called upon to serve, you will be trained...and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the Protectors of Earth and all her Colonies"

- Dr. Halsey to SPARTAN recruits

Taken as one of the 150 candidates for the SPARTAN-II Program, Riker became one of the 75 to be accepted. The training was hard, but despite his young age, Riker was surprisingly not one to give up, only having to be "prompted" to continue by trainers a few times. During the years of training the Spartans went through, Riker did not make many friends among the Spartans; Ajax-013 and other loners he saw as enemies almost, while he revered John-117 and his ilk, was uneasy around friendly Spartans like Kurt-051, and had varying degrees of infatuations and crushes with the female trainees. Interestingly enough, Riker's sole, true friend was Lavernius-108, who was himself a rather cheerful Spartan. Exactly how they managed to strike up a relationship is unknown, as at first Riker hated Lavernius, but later he came to like him: according to Riker, it began when Lavernius helped save Riker from a scrape with another candidate, one named Edward-077, and the friendship later grew from there. One of Riker's more raucus acts while in training was an attempt to stop Joe-124 and Ajax-013 from stealing Chief Mendez's cigars: Riker found the two's stealing the cigars rather disrespectful to Mendez, so in an attempt to teach them a lesson, he replaced several of the cigars with carefully disguised dynamite. Unfortunately, before the other two Spartans could come and steal the cigars, Mendez himself walked in and lit a "cigar", which nearly killed him. Riker was quickly found out and severely punished, not only by Mendez but also by John-117 for nearly killing his fellow Spartans. Riker managed to survive the augmentations, and it is thought that this is what brought on Riker's strange mental state of silence, the ever serious and silent appearance that he kept, only to be broken by extreme emotion at odd times; of course, this was never proven. However, Riker himself once stated that he was silent for those that would never again speak, meaning those that had died in augmentations. The irony in this statement, however, is that Riker himself was thought to be among those dead by all other Spartans. Riker was one of a few Spartans that were officially killed in the augmentations, but were in fact kidnapped by ONI to serve their own purposes, becoming a member of the group named the Leonidans.

The Leonidans
The Leonidans, sometimes referred to unofficially as "ONI's Hands", was the term used to describe four Spartans - Jared-091, Leonid-144, Lavernius-108 and Riker-012 - that were abducted by ONI immediately following augmentations and officially classified as killed and, in Lavernius' case, wounded. ONI then proceeded to use these four Spartan's for countless covert operations, all of them kept secret form all but the highest of the UNSC's top brass, and each one operating under the false impression that they were the only Spartan to have been abducted. The tales and lies of ONI had major effects on Riker's mind, with the fact that he had not made his peace with Lavernius before his "death" playing heavily on Riker's mind for years to come. Riker continually worried about what Lavernius' last thoughts before his "death" would have been, and whether or not he would have accepted his apology. When the four Spartans were first kidnapped, they were all sent to separate ONI facilities and rigorously trained, furthering their knowledge in stealth, technological warfare, hacking, information stealing, etc. This secondary training lasted for one year, and then the four were sent out, beginning their long history of missions.



Quelling the Valhalla Rebellion
"If we were augmented to be better, someone did the reverse on the Innie's brains"

- Riker-012

As with all the other Spartan-II's, Riker's original purpose was to take out the growing rebellions on border territories. However, while most were reassigned quickly to combat the Covenant, Riker was one that was kept on his original mission, if only very briefly. After being given his MJOLNIR Mk. IV armor, he initiated a series of lightning quick commando missions, Riker was able to eliminate two small rebellions in the border territories, while they then moved on to destroy a stockpile of illegally made nuclear weapons that were in the hands of another group of rebels. However, Riker's major challenge came with the world of Valhalla. Already fully seceded from the UNSC, the Valhalla Regime had suppressed all opposition in massive prisons, and had armed their small armada of ships with illegal nuclear weaponry as well as top-of-the-line stolen technology, allowing them to counter all of the former attempts by the UNSC to bring them down. So, ONI sent Riker in to quell the rebellion in a stealthy manner: entering the system in a small stealth ship, he arrived undetected, and after a week's time he had managed to destroy the rebellion's dry docks, rendered their nuclear arms depo inert, and in the end assassinated their leader. Sending out a slipspace signal, a UNSC fleet moved in and destroyed the opposition, while Riker left just as stealthily as he'd come.

Battle of Jericho VII


Riker operated on Jericho VII as an elite commando, completely secret to most UNSC forces on the planet, save for a few ONI spooks he was assigned with. Their mission was to eliminate an Elite that appeared to be commanding the ground operations, and had gathered along with a large amount of forces to excavate a Forerunner artifact (the UNSC did not at the time have knowledge of the Forerunners nor their connection with the Covenant; the artifact itself was never seen by Riker or the others during the mission). The mission ended in failure, however, with the several missed shots in the assassination attempt killing his aids, not the commander himself. Shortly thereafter, Riker and all other forces were recalled to the UNSC fleet in space as the Covenant glassed the planet.

Battle of New Constantinople
Sent along with other UNSC forces for the New Constantinople engagement, Riker was present in the ground battle. His mission was to eliminate several key figures within the Covenant military, as well as eliminate an under-construction Scarab. For the prior objective, Riker managed to sneak into range of the Covenant's command center and eliminate two Sangheili Fieldmasters using a Stanchion Rifle; while the infiltration had been easily done, the Stanchion's smoke trail alerted the Covenant of his position, and Riker was forced to fight through three dozen Unggoy, a line of Kig-Yar and five Sangheili in order to escape. In completing the second objective, Riker was forced to use the utmost stealth, yet combine it with speed as well. While a contingent of Marines distracted Covenant forces, Riker infiltrated the construction site and planted explosives at key locations, intent on not only destroying the vehicle but burying the camp as well. The mission was successful, with the Scarab being destroyed and the camp, along with its' inhabitants, being buried. Sadly, in the overall view of things, the battle was a failure, with a Covenant victory overall.

Battle of Midway
Midway was a large planet, populated by a number of people equal almost to that of Earth. Set behind a seemingly impenetrable line of defense planets, it was thought protected; however, a large Covenant stealth fleet managed to sneak through the line, and unleashed an invasion force upon it. Part of the emergency forces diverted from the defensive line, Riker led several air raids on the major Covenant encampment, and even managed to destroy one of the Covenant ships. In the end, the Battle of Midway was a surprisingly easy victory; the reason soon became evident, as the Covenant swiftly captured three of the under-manned fortress world that had been holding the line.



Siege of New Istanbul
Arriving with the reinforcements that were attempting to break the siege of New Istanbul, Riker first moved in to assist with the freeing city of Terusto, before moving on to destroy two Covenant supply lines before moving on to free up the Neo-Ural Mountain range complex, within which hid most of the residence on the planet. Once the complex was freed, Riker, along with assistance from Team Alpha, moved on to attempt to eliminate the large Covenant forward command base and the leadership there. However, before they could complete their objective, the Covenant began glassing the planet, and they had to be evacuated immediately.

Second Battle of Tejas IV
Tejas IV long served as a fortress-command world on one front of the Human-Covenant War. It had withstood multiple assaults from Insurrectionists in earlier times, and had even withstood one assault from the Covenant already, as well as having launched multiple assaults back into Covenant territory. However, nothing lasts forever. Sent with a large force to rearm and resupply at the outpost before moving on to attack a nearby Covenant world that was reported to be relatively unprotected, the fleet arrived to find Tejas IV under attack from a huge assault force, only to be outmatched by later attacks such as seen at the Battles of Reach, Earth, and the Forerunner Installations. Though outnumbered, outmatched, and out of all form of supplies, the fleet joined up with the defending UNSC forces and attempted to drive back the Covenant forces. Unfortunately, half the UNSC fleet forces were soon destroyed, while ground troops fared only slightly better against their innumerable foes. With all commanding officers tied up in the space battle or the defense of major cities, Riker took forward command into his own hands: giving orders, the UNSC got the better of numerous Covenant forces, managing to pull off explosive ambushes, a few air-supported assaults and countless strike missions, many spear-headed by Team Alpha. Still, it was not enough: with the space battle going badly, the ground troops evacuate; as they pulled out, the last of the UNSC ships exploded into a flower of fire, signaling Covenant victory.

Siege of the Atlas Moons
The Atlas Moons, six moons that surrounded the desert world of Atlas, had been besieged for some time before being taken over by the Covenant. However, the UNSC did not want to lose the world to the Covenant, due to the tactical position of the Atlas system, and the fact that it had long served as a major dry dock for the UNSC. So, a reclamation mission was launched: a large fleet of ships was assembled, poised to take out the Covenant fleet, while a large military force was readied to retake the planet and moons themselves. Riker was reassigned from his then-current offensive in the Eros Asteroid Field to the fleet that was to engage in the Atlas Moons conflict. Arriving in system with the rest of the fleet, Riker and several squads of ODST's were dropped in HEV's to the surface of Atlas itself, with the mission of denying the Covenant the use of a recently finished trio of ground-to-space Energy Projectors, capable of decimating the UNSC space fleet easily. The ODST's and Riker landed, quikcly taking care of a small Covenant reconnaissance group that had spotted them on their way down; unsure if the rest of the Covenant forces had been alerted to their presence, they decided on a three-part strike, the ODST's splitting into two groups while Riker served as a third. Each of the three group then made their way towards their respective targets, with Riker advancing completely alone, heading for what intel had told them to be the most heavily guarded of the three weapons. Armed with a Sniper Rifle, a Battle Rifle, a handful of grenades and the satchel charges needed to destroy the emplacement, Riker carefully and tactically began to eliminate the enemy personnel, starting by killing the commanding Sangheili Ultra officer at range with his Sniper Rifle. Once his Sniper Rifle was out of ammo, Riker moved in closer, quickly and efficiently taking out the Kig-Yar and Unggoy cannon fodder with his grenades and Battle Rifle; with only a few Sangheili warriors left, Riker quickly eliminated all but one, with this remaining warrior engaging Riker in close-quarters combat. After a short struggle, Riker managed to bash the Sangheili's skull in, and quickly set the charges on the Energy Projector; fleeing the scene, enemy reinforcements soon poured in, only to be killed when the explosives went off. Surprisingly, the Siege of the Atlas Moons was, in the end, one of the few successful land and space battles of the Great War.

Massacre of Troy
While ONI had secretly cracked the then-current Covenant message encryption program, they did not wish to immediately alert the Covenant of this, so they secretly evacuated the planet of Troy that was about to be attacked. Since Troy was relatively defenseless, and the Covenant knew this, any form of major resistance would be deemed as counter-productive to the deception: so, Riker was sent in to secret infiltrate a Covenant ship, the program it to head into the midst of the fleet and self-destruct. Using a top of the line stealth ship, Riker managed to maneuver close enough to a ship to perform a EVA maneuver into one of the hangars, and from there began to make his way through the ship. Since the mission was to be a complete and total stealth mission and made to look like an accident, Riker's journey was made slightly difficult: sneaking through the shp, he was forced to maneuver around numerous guards and, even with the help of the stealth cloaking system he'd been granted, the job was no easy task. When at last he reached the bridge, it was here that he was able to reveal himself: after eliminating the Sangheili commanders there while cloaked, Riker killed the Unggoy and Kig-Yar outright, since no one would be sent to check before it was too late. Reprogramming the ship for a course into the fleet where it would self-destruct, Riker escaped via an escape pod, from which he was soon extracted by an ONI Prowler. The Covenant ship exploded, taking several ships from the small fleet with it, and though the planet of Troy was lost, the infiltration mission was deemed a success, and the Covenant never suspected sabotage instead dubbing the explosion Unggoy stupidity.

Siege of Paris IV
The Siege of Paris IV was a major conflict in the Human-Covenant War, beginning when a small Covenant fleet made a wrong slispace jump that took them to the UNSC colony of Paris IV instead of the repair station they'd been wanting. There, the UNSC had been amassing a large fleet to attack the Covenant with, and the Covenant were quickly engaged by it; before the end, several of the Covenant ships were forced to the planet for repairs, while all the remaining Covenant ships were destroyed. However, over the course of the space battle, all the UNSC ships were either destroyed or horrendously damaged, and the only slipspace signal transmitter on the planet was destroyed by the landing Covenant ships. With no hope of reinforcements for the UNSC, and with Covenant reinforcements still a long time coming, the Covenant quickly took the offensive, creating large controlled zones around their five damaged cruisers. While a quickly made strike by the Air Force managed to take out one of the ships, the others were quickly reinforced. Arriving on Paris IV shortly before the battle as a layover stop until his next assignment, Riker-012 quickly assisted in several missions against advancing Covenant forces, attempting to push them out of their occupied territory, and even carrying out a few solo missions. Soon enough, however, the commanding officer of the defending UNSC Marines, General Esau Werner, ordered a mission to attack two cruisers via a diversionary attack on a third: while an older marine sergeant named Avery Johnson was to lead the attack on one cruiser, Riker was appointed to lead the other attack. Once the diversion had drawn away the majority of the defending forces, Riker and his group of Marines quickly and quietly took out the guards around the gravity lift and entered the ship. Splitting into three groups, each with explosives, Alpha Team headed to the engines, while Bravo headed to the vehicle/ship depot, and Charlie (with Riker) went to the bridge. At first, all went smoothly, until Bravo slipped up and alerted the ship's crew to their presence. Moving double-time, Bravo planted their explosives, killed the encroaching enemies and then escaped. Charlie and Riker managed to make it to the bridge, only to find the supreme commander of the Covenant forces on Paris IV, Holy Commander Ameigh Broley. Riker and Ameigh dueled while Charlie planted explosives; in the end, Charlie Team was unable to properly set the explosives, so their team's extraction time was severely cut, and they were forced to leave immediately, with Riker's duel interrupted near its' climax. While Riker and Charlie Team fled, Alpha radioed in: save three members, all were dead, with the remainder about to die and the explosives still not set. Riker quickly ordered Charlie to extract, then grabbed a Ghost and drove the length of the ship, the clock ticking down; when he arrived, he killed the Covenant troops - though he was too late to save Alpha Team - and quickly set the explosives. With little time to spare, Riker deemed his only choice of escape was to jump the Ghost from the cruiser's highest hanger at top speed on the fool's chance that the anti-grab systems could help break the fall enough to keep him from breaking his entire body upon landing. Managing to jump from the ship just as the explosives went off, the force of the resulting explosion severely threw him off course: trying for the best scenario, Riker attempted to manipulat the Ghost towards a nearby river, but when he could not totally do so, he jumped. When Riker regained consciousness, he found himself onboard the UNSC Ensemble with his right arm, left hand and a few ribs broken, and bruises everywhere else. Upon debriefing, he found that his mission and Sergeant Johnson's had been a success, and that the third cruiser that had been targeted for the diversionary attack had, in a struck of luck, been destroyed as well. However, almost immediately after the completion of the mission, a large Covenant war fleet had arrived, and the fifth grounded cruiser joined the fleet and Ameigh Broley - who had escaped the doomed cruiser Riker had destroyed - had ordered the planet's glassing; the planet was immediately evacuated, and the few ships left withdrawn.

Battle of Reach
Riker was present on Reach during the battle, as ONI had deemed that every available Spartan-II would be required for the mission to eliminate the Covenant hierarchy; because of this assumption, they recalled all Spartan-II's, including their secret operatives. However, one of their operatives, Spartan-091, never made it, and against all ONI plans none of the three S-II's were never revealed to their Spartan-II brethren.

Riker's mission was very simple: destroy the main base on Reach, containing enormous databases on all kinds of UNSC data, ranging from protocols to weapons designs and more. After disabling the hastily erected auto-turret defenses the Covenant had set up by destroying their power generator, he managed to hijack a Spirit and ram through the main chamber; while the Spirit managed to take out most of the database equipment, Riker quickly set a small tactical nuke and escaped before it destroyed the entire complex

While one of the two other operatives, Leonid-144, escaped on board a Covenant ship, the second - Lavernius-108 - escaped via a small prowler bound for Earth. He was, however, not alone, as Riker sent out a distress call and was also picked up, and for the first time since training the two Spartans met, both realizing that ONI had weaved quite an elaborate lie around the both of them's "deaths". Each Spartan, while glad the other was actually alive, began to wonder what else ONI might have lied about.

First Battle of Earth
Carried to Earth aboard the sub-prowler from Reach, Riker was present when the news was given to HIGHCOM that Reach had been glassed. Riker would never forget the terrible looks upon the faces of those present. When the Covenant arrived, Riker immediately led a strike force from Rome Station to a Cvoeannt cruiser serving as a command vessel, both to acquire intel from the ship's computer systems and to blow the cruiser itself. While the cruise was successfully destroyed, the intelligence data could only be partially transferred, revealing very little in new, or understandable, Covenant intel.

Second Battle of the Sol System
"Only guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things your eyes saw, and lest these things depart from your heart all the days of your life. And you shall make them known to your children and your children's children"

- Verse from the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible

On Earth's surface at the start of the invasion, Riker held out against Covenant invaders in London, barely escaping death when London Station was destroyed and plummetted into the Thames River. Moving to Paris, invasion forces were successfully repelled through lightning strikes and ambushes, after which Riker moved on to former Germany. Here he stayed till the end of the battle, pushing towards Berlin, which was won back shortly before Covenant Loyalist surrender. After the battle, he was present for the mass memorial that was held to honor those that had died fighting in the war. After Lord Hood finished his speech, Riker did not follow him to the hillside memorial outside New Mombasa's wreckage, but instead stayed at the Fallen Heroes Memorial and mourned.

Reclamation Missions
Riker and the rest of the Spartan II's were heavily involved in freeing the Covenant Loyalist held worlds. He was deployed onto dozens of missions, ranging across several solar systems and consisting of both missions to recapture UNSC worlds and to take over Brute worlds, but he was, in fact, not present for the final attack on Doisac.

Operation: SAVIOR
Riker was one of the first of the Spartans to suggest a rescue mission for John-117, beginning to avidly propose it almost immediately after the capture of Doisac; he even planned to go by himself if none of the other Spartans would come. Once Lord Hood officially requested it and allowed the Spartans to carry out Operation: SAVIOR, Riker quickly came on board, being the third Spartan-II to do so.

Battle of the Mirror
"Whatsoever you reap, so to shall you sow"

- Riker, referring to Team Beta after the Battle of the Mirror

The Destruction of Just Caretaker


In 2572, the radical Prophet of Salvation broke away from the United Sangheili Republic, taking with him a large number of followers than then formed a new faction, known as the Covenant Reborn. They prepared to launch a war against the Alliance of United Races, using a lost stockpile of Covenant warships, including the massive space station known as the Just Caretaker. Salvation and his army of Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar and Unggoy (stolen from the USR colony of Alagaesia) posed a practical threat to the AUR, but they underestimated them and believed they would amount to nothing: until three colonies of the USR fell to the Covenant Reborn did they even plan any form of retaliation. Bringing together a small strike force, the AUR sent them to destroy the Covenant fleet, but the pitiful strike force was outnumbered; it was quickly beaten and nearly destroyed, and quickly fled back to the AUR. The AUR feared that the Covenant Reborn might become a full-blown insurrection soon enough, and they were especially fearful of the Just Caretaker and the possible repercussions of an entire space station on the rebels side. So, they sent out a message to Riker-012, operating on Operation: SAVIOR at the time, ordering him to slip in and cause havoc with the station - destroy it if possible - while the AUR prepared a larger attack force. Riker quickly jumped to the Nephtyr System where the station was currently located, but his prowler was spotted, and after a short dogfight it was shot down: Riker preformed an orbital drop, jumping from the ship as it plummeted. Landing in the city, Riker began a single-man guerrilla campaign against the forces of Salvation. After managing to destroy quite a few ammo, weapon and vehicle depots, Riker captured a Scarab and began to destroy the station in that manner: it was only after the combined efforts of an attack by an elite group of Jiralhanae and the destruction of the Scarab that Riker was knocked out and captured, brought before Salvation to be interrogated. When he would not talk, he was thrown into one of the many prison cells on the station, to be executed in the morning. However, that time never came, as just when the execution was about to begin, the AUR fleet jumped into system. Riker managed to break away from his captors, escaping into the station's maze-like paths, and eventually came to one of the many on-station Energy Projectors, which he fired at several of the major ships before setting up as a trap to kill his pursuers. As the confusion ensued, both on station and in space, Riker prepared to deal the final blow to the movement: finding the Prophet of Salvation himself, he battle his Honor Guards, then took Salvation and tossed him into the nearby power core to the station ; this set the power core into an unstable state, causing an imminent self-destruct. Riker found it to be impossible to escape the station conventionally in time though, and therefore he was forced to escape unconventionally: taking a large piece of the station’s metal walls, he waited for the station to self-destruct, the explosion hurling him away from the station, and towards the nearby planet of Osiris III; the landing was hard, but the piece of the Just Caretaker Riker rode on managed to save him from any major injuries. Riker was soon retrieved, treated, and back on his mission to find John-117.

Kilo Commander
"No man is an island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend or thy own were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in makind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee"

- The poem For Whom The Bell Tolls by John Donne

Though most of the Spartan-II's pulled out of Operation: SAVIOR at the first call of the UNSC for them to come and serve as commanders and instructors of the Spartan-IV's, Riker held out, being the last Spartan-II besides Ajax-013 to withdraw from the operation. When he at last did, reluctantly, he took command of Kilo Company, was given the Seventh-Gen AI Susano, and began instructing the new Spartans according to the specifications of the program; occasionally, he would break from the program's rules to teach something that he had been taught in the S-II Program and deemed important, but the IV's were not being taught. In the end, Kilo Company graduated alongside the rest of the companies, their specialty being orbital and airborne insertions, just like Riker.

"I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are evil"

- Riker-012

When augmentations took place, all but one SPARTAN-IV survived. This one Spartan, by name Clyde-K102, was a member of Kilo Company, and his passing was greatly mourned by all the other members.

Operation: DEVIANT
Riker was merely a spectator of Operation: DEVIANT, just as all the other commanders, watching and reviewing Kilo Company's work and giving out orders to what should be done next.

Third Battle of Linna
"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, not give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much"

- Excerpt from Cry, The Beloved County

Second Encounter
"You stand there now, standing as if you were the last hope of the universe. You are. You are told you do not know fear, you do not know pain, you do not know any of these things... but you do, and that is what makes you Human. But remember, it is only through facing these things and overcoming them that we can grow stronger.


 * After the Great War, I am told that Lord Hood dedicated the memorial near Voi to “those that journeyed into the howling dark and did not return.” He then said “For their decision required courage beyond measure, sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight, our fight, was elsewhere. As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten”. Remember those that went before you; remember the other Spartans, the one's who blazed the path through the darkness you now face and died in their effort: let them not have died in vain!


 * You face now a foe unlike any the galaxy has ever known: neither the Covenant, nor the Flood, nor anything else can match with those we now face. Your fear of them is not unfounded; I have seen many a horror, but never one such as them. Even now, the Darkness you must face awaits, hungering for all our flesh, to devour us and feast upon our fear. But we will not fall! We will prevail! Now, for the AUR, for Earth, for Mankind, and for the fallen Spartans, CHARGE!"

- Riker-012 to Kilo Company before engaging the Necros force at the 

The Final Battle
"Sons and daughters of heroes, my brethren! I see in your eyes the same fear that would grip the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails; when we forsake our friends and break all bounds of fellowship: but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered souls; but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear in this universe, I bid you to stand, Spartans, heroes of Men!"

- Riker-012 to Kilo Company at the final battle of the Necros War

Appearance
Riker had brown-black hair, usually kept near bald though, and his eyes were a deep gold-brown. His skin was the base white of a Caucasian, but he had a good tan as well. Riker usually had a small bit of short beard on his chin, and (although almost never seen) there was a large scar across his chest where he'd been cut during melee practice in his youth.

Mental Report
Riker is strong, silent and loyal, and while a natural leader, he never presses for command, taking on the role as needed. Though he'd never say it verbally, Riker has extreme loyalty and respect for his Spartan-II brothers and sisters, both Class I's and Class II's; oddly, however, while other military officers are respected as well (if not quite as much), Riker disrespects the Spartan-III's, once calling them “pathetic excuses” left from a “failed attempt to recreate the II's” as “cannon fodder”. While Riker is usually unemotional, even for a Spartan, he does at times have brief moments of extreme emotion; he was once recorded as having told 23 jokes in a row, and when he heard that John-117 was MIA after the Battle of the Ark, he was said to have mourned his fallen brother.

Dreams
Riker always believed heavily that dreams served a purpose; that each and every single one had a message, a lesson to be learn within it. As such, he was always very attentive to his dreams, recording them in an audio jounral that he kept as soon as he awoke.

Out of all of his dreams, Riker had a small amount that were consistently recurring. One of these was a dream common among all the Spartan-II's: the brief flashes of memories from his childhood that he had would be warped and contorted as they were thrown together, creating a false childhood in this dream. The dream would almost always end with a collection of memories of Dr. Catherine Halsey, who all the Spartans considered something of a mother figure.

The most common dream of Riker's began shortly after the Battle of Reach: it was a perverted version of a trial, sentencing him to death for “abandoning” Reach instead of drying there. When Riker would attempt to argue his case, the “witnesses” would speak, all of them the battered, broken and bloodied bodies of all his Spartan brothers and sisters that had fallen at Reach. When at last he was sentenced guilty, Grey Team would walk in as three executioners and encircle him: they would then pull out shotgun's and fire, at which point Riker would awake.

Riker's second most common dream, consistently recurring during the Necros War yet still not enough to beat the years and years of the Reach trial dream, was another grim nightmare: the same every time, save that more and more of the people he knew would be included, the dream would always begin with Riker in the middle of a dark room, without any night-vision. As he'd move on, he would hear a noise, and whirling around would see a friend, either another Spartan-II or one of his Spartan-IV's, rushing at him: however, something would look slightly off about them, so Riker would be forced to shoot them when they didn't stop charging. But, when they would fall, they would seem as normal, and they would ask why he had killed them; after usually two repeats of this, Riker would find himself in a large room filled with light and a hillock in the middle: once Riker had climbed to the top of the hillock, all of the sudden all the people he held dear would charge him as the three had before, and one by one he would be forced to kill them, until at last he was left standing there alone. But as he stood on the mound of his dead comrade's bodies, he would here maniacal laughter, and they would rise again to kill him: on and on the dream would go, till at last Riker would be unable to hold them off and they would manage to kill him.

Relationships
On the surface, Riker appears to be extremely distanced from all lifeforms, especially Humans. However, despite the appearances due to his silent and serious nature, he does connect well with Humans when necessary, though he does not do so often. As for the general ideas and misconceptions about Spartans, Riker hates the ideas and lies, such as those that "Spartans never die", and that the Spartans aren't entirely Human. With regular Humans, he is uneasy, as they don't regularly view life the same as him, and even with his fellow Spartan-II's he's not entirely at home, with the more friendly Spartans making him uncomfortable with their constant attempts at friendship and humor, while loners such as Ajax making him feel less unique; oddly enough however, he became quite friendly with Lavernius-108, but Riker lived with a false regret for 25 years as he and Lavernius had come to a serious disagreement prior to augmentations, and neither had forgiven the other prior to the augments, after which both Spartans thought the other dead. The Spartan-III's, once he became aware of them, became the subject of his contempt, as he saw they as attempts to make cheap clones of the Spartans, beings that were seen as symbols for the UNSC's freedom. However, he did form bonds with Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091, as he viewed them as the last of their generation, survivors like himself.

Riker's relations to the various species of the Covenant varied: he never learned to trust a Jiralhanae, viewing them as mindless living weapons just wanting to kill, and the San'Shyuum he also distrusted, due to how they were the ones that ordered the war in the first place. The Unggoy, the Kig-Yar, and the Yanme'e were usually ignored by Riker, though he always kept a careful eye on the Kig-Yar, knowing of their treacherous nature. The Sangheili and Lekgolo, however, Riker looked up to due to their sense of honor, and their powerful combat natures, and liked to fight by their sides. The Huragok Riker admired simply for the technical prowess, but he never truly interacted with them.

AI's were a mixed bag for Riker, as he would like them or hate them judging on their actions and personalities. After joining the S-IV Program, Susano and Dante were immediate friends, while Baphomet, Nemesis and Themis are the subject of his spite and retribution.

With the SPARTAN-IV's, Riker instructed Kilo Company personally, many times contradicting the teachings of their Spartan-III teachers. While he would at times speak with the members of the other companies, his main focus was on his own company, and teaching them to the best of his abilities.

The Vorenus and their disciplined natures impressed Riker, but at times this nature went too far and made him find them annoying as well. The Vanguards and their intentions, however, he found admirable.

The Plainsfierians, while usually possessing a similar sense of honor as the Sangheili, were not always the best of Riker's allies, as despite their sense of honor and stealth capabilities, their shape-shifting abilities and at times arrogant natures unnerved and annoyed Riker.

The Machina Riker regarded with respect and awe, their massive, weapon-mounted forms being a source of inspiration and, in a reinforcement situation, joy to the Spartan.

Love
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick"

- A verse from the Book of Proverbs in the Bible

Riker-012 has fallen in love twice, not counting the teenage crushes that he had on the female Spartan-II's: these were soon crushed, of course, as those he was infatuated with (most the girls, such as Linda, Elise, and Alice) politely said they weren't interested in him, while Melanie went so far as to threaten him that he shouldn't ever mess with her if he valued his life and dignity to any degree.

Riker's first true love was Olivia Holm, an ONI spook that operated as Codename: SHISA that Riker worked with a good deal during the 2530's and 2540's. An attractive, smart young woman with a witty sense of humor, she had short black hair and purple-grey eyes, and over the course of a dozen missions Riker came to love the woman. Riker constantly fought battles within his mind about whether he should engage in a love relationship: he was a Spartan, a hero of the UNSC, and he believed that falling in love would distract him from his mission. It was inevitable, however, and he fell deeply in love with the girl, only for her to be killed by Covenant forces during the Battle of Chaos. Riker mourned her death, feeling a sense of loss greater than he'd felt since deaths of his friends during augmentations.

Riker's other love was

Equipment
"The weapon cannot make a man a warrior, but a warrior can make a man a weapon"

- Riker-012


 * MA6A Individual Combat Weapon System
 * M73D Carbine
 * Battle Rifle 09 Scoped Rifle
 * Sniper Rifle System 99G-S3 Anti-Material
 * Sniper Rifle System 40A-O Anti Material/Anti Vehicle
 * M98 Compact

Strengths and Weaknesses
Riker's specialty is orbital drop combat; his primary skill is to drop in with a battalion of ODST's, clear a landing zone for reinforcements, then go out on commando strike missions. Riker is also a good leader, and is quite capable of making and carrying out detailed plans. Preferring to use medium to long range weapons, he works best outdoors in non-enclosed spaces (i.e. plains, etc). Riker also has a near unwavering sense of loyalty for his comrades.

"No one's perfect; whoever says so just lied"

- Riker-012

Riker's gifts are also his curses. While his attention to detail is superb, it can at times go too far, leading to over-planning and micro management. In addition, Riker's long range ballisitc skill is offset by his lack of skill in close combat, and while he can remain concealed at range, stealth in close quarters is one of his shortcomings. Finally, his sense of loyalty has nearly gotten himself killed multiple times, heading back into combat zones to save a fallen soldier.

Quotes
"If I ever say even one cuss word to you, prepare yourself to be beaten within an inch of your life if you do anything else to me"

- Riker-012 to the candidates of Kilo Company

"I do not claim any religion. However, I do not believe in chance or evolution either; I believe there is indeed a God out there that created all this for a purpose. I find the view of Christianity both plausible and appealing, but I will not claim it. At least not right now."

- Riker-012 when asked if he claimed a religion

"Destiny and Fate are not the same. Destiny is what will happen, regardless of what we think will happen; destiny is the future's version of history. Fate is what we see: our fate may or may not be our destiny. Fate can be changed, Destiny cannot. But in the end, all Fates lead to Destiny: I suppose, to use the phrase, that all roads lead to Rome"

- Riker speaking about Fate and Destiny


 * Riker-012: "Susano, I need those reports NOW"
 * Susano: "My name is Terrence Hood and you will address me as sir Spartan"
 * Riker-012: "Susano, you're not Hood and you're MY support AI, not the other way around"
 * Susano: "Well, I care to disagree"
 * —Riker-012 and Susano arguing with one another early in their career

"Everyone's mind is a lovely little mess in their own special way"

- Riker-012, speaking on the Human psyche

"Courage is the ability to face what you're afraid of; without fear, courage can't exist"

- Riker-012

"He who fears nothing, loves nothing, and if one loves nothing, what joy is there in his life?"

- Riker-012

Trivia

 * Riker's name is a two-part reference: his first name, Riker, is an obvious reference to his physical basis William Riker of Star Trek: The Next Generation; his last name, Abrams, is a reference to J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost, Cloverfield, and the 2009 Star Trek movie.
 * Riker was originally intended to be written as a regular member of the Spartan-II Program, not a kidnapped agent of ONI; this was later changed to allow for more writing freedom, as well as to avoid canon issues