Bodark-B076

"You will hear thunder and remember me, The sky will be the color of hard crimson, And your heart, as it was then, will be on fire."

- Anna Akhmatova

Bodark-B076 is a SPARTAN-III supersoldier formerly part of Beta Company who fought During the Human-Covenant War and after in the Post War years.

During the War, Bodark was selected from among the best of Beta prior to OPERATION: TORPEDO where most of Beta had perished. She was selected for the 'Cat-2' program and placed into PERUN Team, a Cat-2 team geared toward high speed, high value target elimination operations. Prior to the Fall of Reach, PERUN was sent on numerous missions targeting HVT's including individuals, infrastructure and military targets belonging to the Covenant and Insurrectionists.

In 2548 PERUN received a 'Smart' A.I named Shtorm. He became the team A.I for PERUN and would act as their main support and handler for the course of the War until 2555 when he was slated for final dispensation. When Reach was attacked PERUN was re-tasked from counter insurgency on Tribute and deployed planetside to support UNSC Forces on the ground.

During the Fall of Reach they saw action in the Battle of Szurdok Ridge alongside the main armored force. After the appearance of the Long Night of Solace they retreated from the area and to the city of Manassas when reports came in of Covenant forces building outside the city.

After the Battle of Manassas Bodark and PERUN were evacuated from Reach aboard the UNSC Sentinel, a Stalwart-class Frigate, to Earth. From there PERUN were supposed to be deployed on several sabotage and assassination missions against the Covenant. However prior to deploying the alarm was raised that the Covenant had found Earth. PERUN was deployed on numerous back to back operations in support of larger UNSC Operations in the Southern Asia, the Middle East and North African regions.

Following the end of the war and the establishment of Spartan Branch what remained of PERUN was absorbed into the Branch. However they were charged with conducting sabotage operations against Covenant Remnant Groups and force assessments from 2553-2556 however all these operation came to a halt with the Battle of Requiem in 2557 and the Attack on New Phoenix.

After New Phoenix, Each member of Perun were individually re-tasked, Bodark in particular was tasked with conducting vehicular warfare war games alongside Spartan IV's to train them for the upcoming Requiem Campaign. Prior to the Requiem Campaign she was issued a new 'Smart' A.I, Kadia. The two got along easily with Kadia's more laid back and fun personality helping Bodark with reigning in her anger issues. During the Requiem Campaign Bodark was attached to several armored groups.

Childhood
Born on New Harmony on August 28th 2528; Svetlana Rusakov was born to a upper middle class family in the city of Tyumen. Her father was the owner of a large interplanetary shipping corporation while her mother was formerly a lawyer but she quit due to the amount of malpractice and illegal dealings her firm was involved in. Both of Svetlana's parents raised her with a strong sense of hardwork and firm morals which would come to define her in her later years.

As for Svetlana herself she was quite different from other children age. She had a distinct tomboyish nature and quite the temper. she often pushed people away as she was repeatedly bullied for her oddly colored eyes, as such she had few friends and those she did make were through her physical activities where she excelled far beyond what others of her age and even older. However these traits almost always led to her getting in fights due to which her parents taught her to reign in her anger and not to waste it on petty things like playground quarrels. While the fights stopped and the arguments silenced Svetlana only became more of a societal outcast, while she had a few friends who truly cared for her most just kept her at an arms length out of fear.

For the first years of her life, despite their work, Svetlana was cared for deeply by her parents. They would always try to find time for her to teach, play or even just talk to her, all these led Svetlana to prioritize her family above all else, regardless of the situation. However this would not last long, when she was 8 the Battle of New Harmony had broken out as the world came under attack by the Covenant. Her parents and her were rushed to the closest space port along with other civilians however once they reached the shuttle there was only so much space left, and so they placed her on the shuttle and told her they were going to look for more people to help, by the time Svetlana felt the shuttle lifting it was too late. She saw her parents tearfully waving as plasma streaked above them burning the world around them, all Svetlana could do was helplessly watch with her eyes glued to where they stood as a bolt of plasma decimated the port.

By the time the shuttle, which was destined for Reach, arrived on the planet ONI agents were already waiting to extract Svetlana. However when they approached her she was still standing in place, right where she watched her parents die. When they called her name she refused to respond or even acknowledge the name, when they tried again she lashed out and used her nails to scratch one of the agents across their face, when they backed away she growled out that Svetlana was gone, that she died on New Harmony with her parents. With a look of unbridled fury in her eyes she stated her name was Bodark, a creature to haunt the dreams of those who took her family from her, While at first they refused after much deliberation if it would bring her in they agreed to call her Bodark from that day.

Training
"They're your team, you work with 'em because you sure as shit ain't getting through this program without them, they're all the family you got left"

- Chief Petty Officer Mendez to Bodark-B076 after nearly getting into a fight with her team

Bodark, formerly Svetlana, was taken to Camp Currahee on Onyx where she met with the other candidates of Beta Company. Like other members of Beta Company Bodark held strong motivation fueled by her desire for revenge against the Covenant, however hers was distinctly more prevalent when compared to others. This was first made clear just after she had been brought to Camp Currahee. When faced with the huge armored man that she would come to know as Lieutenant Commander Ambrose she was decidedly apathetic to his presence however when told that they were being given a chance at revenge and that they could leave if they wanted, she didn't move a muscle.

The first of the constant years of tests to come began with them being loaded into a large dropship and being given large, heavy backpacks with a series of straps and clips keeping them firmly attached. As they sat in wait the order came clear as day, if they wanted to stay and fight, they needed to jump and while some hesitated Bodark didn't, she marched straight up to the large man when he called out Trainee-B076 and jumped.

Upon landing, her and the other cadets made their way back and were given a meal and then sent to their barracks as reward for their dedication. While most of the others spoke with each other, exchanging stories and names about themselves Bodark was a good deal more reserved when talking to others but their stories were at their heart very similar, most were either already orphans or were made orphans by the War and their endgame was all the same, Revenge for those they had lost. In the days after they had begun their brutal training from countless hours of PT to mind numbing theory based courses. In PT Bodark ,as a result of her previously well developed physical abilities, seemed a natural fluctuating from the front quarter to the head of the pack. The same could not be said about her theory classes where her already present anger issues made her less than stellar performance all the worse.

As the days wore on they were assigned into teams. Bodark was assigned to Team Kilo along with Jericho-B257, Arlo-B135 and Jamie-B295, Bodark was appointed team leader which while initially didn't seem bad, as the weeks drudged on Bodark would constantly push herself and teammates as far as she could as a result of her determination. This would continue right-up until they began to introduce more Combat Oriented courses. While her initial blunt force approach seemed to work her constant hard going began to wear on her teammates which lead to their performance dropping much to her ire.

Particularly in CQC training she performed somewhat above what was expected despite her less than nuanced fighting style and approach to combat. However it was here that she would meet Adrian-B143, another promising CQC combatant who actually seemed to know a fair amount about fighting however this was put to the test against Bodark's savage style of throws, pummels and locks aimed at beating the life out of opponents as quickly as possible. The two would frequently clash on the mats and while Bodark won most of the time, it became clear that her style and size wouldn't let her keep her advantage for much longer.

Broken Team
As the years of training continued there was a marked improvement in the skill and proficiency of the trainee's. Despite the progress made since their formation Bodark grew increasingly annoyed with her teams inability to meet her standards and in one particular instance in 2541 of Arlo and Jericho failing to beat their respective opponents in CQC she lashed out at them calling out their incompetence and calling them disgraces which nearly pushed them to start trading blows had it not been for the intrusion of one of the instructors to restrain Jericho and SCPO Mendez restraining Bodark and pulling her aside for reprimand. He made it abundantly clear that she wouldn't get through the program by herself and that they were the only family she had left. The last part in particular had a lasting effect on Bodark which would see an impact on not only her training but also her sociability with clear contempt being held by her teammates.

As a result she formally resigned from leadership of the team in the days after the incident leaving Jericho to take the leader position. While bewildered by her actions the rest of her team was still wary until they had noticed the extent of her withdrawal. She would no longer push them at all preferring to push herself alone and at the same time she had almost stopped speaking to anyone.

In one particular incident after she had successfully beaten her opponent, Adrian-B143, he made a remark about not being surprised that a family would be happy to be rid of a monster like Bodark, at that moment Bodark had leaped back into the sparring area and began to beat, bruise and nearly break Adrian's bones until she was forcefully restrained by instructors but by then he was unconscious and bleeding substantially. However in the aftermath the other candidates visibly avoided her only exacerbating her seclusion.

Eventually this began to be detrimental to the team as a whole as they began to lag behind in even basic trials like Ring the Bell which lead to her being taken for Mental Examination. It was here she was made aware of what exactly she had done and why they had reacted the way they did, she had been unaware or unwilling to entertain the idea that others weren't as willing to push themselves to and past the brink as she was. She was so aloof to this she didn't realize that she had begun to push them away with her extra training, harsh reprimands for failure and uncompromising attitude, and when they finally 'left' she was left confused and alone, when she realization became clear that it was her fault she was determined to not lose the closest thing she had to family.

Reconciliation
The next day in the barracks she had approached them and to their confusion she seemed uncomfortable but after a moment she finally spoke and to their surprise she apologized for her behavior and promised to try and make up for it, while Arlo was skeptical and Jericho tenaciously accepted her apology the first to actually forgive her was Jamie who despite her initial distaste for Bodark did realize the benefits of pushing themselves to and past their limits.

Over the next few years Bodark's consistent, although not always successful, attempts at being more of a team player did go a ways to improving relations with her team with Jericho eventually beginning to trust her and Arlo, with some prodding, doing the same while Jamie had forgiven her only a day later and would go on to become Bodark's first true friend. As the years trudged on however she did improve her relationship with her team, joining in conversations, making the occasional quip or joke and even laughing more openly with them, namely when they were forced into extra PT as a result of Arlo's constant complaining. eventually she started calling them, even Arlo to a degree, her friends and later family.

Scarred Mind
However while she did improve her relationship with her teammates Bodark did have a slew of her own issues which as the years progressed, especially in her teens, became more exacerbated. Namely of these were her continued attempts to distance herself from her past, while others had at best fleeting memories of their past and some even tried to hold on to their memories Bodark actively tried to detach herself which started when she had begun to use Bodark as her real name as opposed to Svetlana. Further attempts included dying her hair silver and speaking English more and more as opposed to Russian. This was not lost on Instructors or Psychologists who while initially worried it would lead to further issues in her combat effectiveness were proven wrong as her performance only seemed to get better.

Focusing the Anger
Despite the concerns about her mental state she continued to push herself alone and sometimes the others would willingly tag along and try to keep up. She would go further and further namely in her CQC training where she spent extra time training and learning several different fighting styles in order to clean up her less than coordinated current style which others were beginning to pick up on and exploit. While she would at times attempt to mix the styles she often found little to no success until in her last two years where she found some success in doing so.

Outside the Combat Training and PT courses she had also found a particular fondness and interest in Vehicular Warfare in the last few years. Bodark showed uncharacteristic levels of interest in the classes and their focus on how to identify weaknesses and design flaws in Covenant vehicles, exploit them and take them out among other courses such as vehicle operation and maintenance. Her skill became apparent in practical training where she would land her shots with surprising accuracy in all listed weak points and she would even go so far as to find new ways to defeat the vehicles in her spare time such as utilizing their advantages against them which along with her obvious skill earned her a place in advanced sessions dealing with utilizing the environment to their advantage and how to utilize a range of vehicles to work together seamlessly however training and learning about these tactics would occur alongside wider scale classes of advanced offensive and defensive driving and ambush tactics.

In their last four years Kilo had gone from a embattled, arguing and conflicted team to one of the closer teams in the Company. For Bodark especially she became far more sociable although this only extended into her immediate team as she exhibited her old silent, intimidating and serious demeanor when interacting with other cadets.

Graduation
After several years of training the Spartans of Beta Company underwent their augmentation procedures on the UNSC Hopeful as part of their Graduation. After the augmentations Bodark and her team all woke to their greatly increased size, speed and strength, however this growth spurt did lead to several days of rehabilitation for the Spartans to adapt to their newfound capabilities before the teams were put into competition for Top Honors to find the true standouts from among the Company.

Bodark's team performed well in Marksmanship and Cyber Warfare as well as in Demolitions thanks to her teammates. In team based exercises however her team was outplayed by others as. When it came to the CQC courses however was where Bodark was the one to shine among her squad. She quickly rose through the ladder as many expected, displaying her newfound mastery in several fighting styles and Spartan CQC. As a result by the time she had neared the top her progression had slowed as she went against other well trained CQC Specialists in the Company. However it was not until the final five that she found herself fighting Adrian-B143, the same person who was nearly beaten to death in a blind fit of rage at Bodark's hands, the difference this time was that there were no restrictions and no one to stop her.

The Fight
The two studied each other carefully looking for any gaps in attention or form, the first strike came from Bodark who made a move for a right hook to cause Adrian to block with both arms while she used her right leg to kick his left knee causing him to stumble slightly before leaping back to avoid a follow up strike. Adrian, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of winning again, closed the gap between them and used his slightly smaller size to negate Bodark's advantage of using her legs to weaken him, as the two grappled and traded blows it actually seemed like Adrian's nimble size may give him a chance at victory had it not been for his over exuberance in the last few blows where he attempted to bring a spin kick down on her head only to have it caught in a lock preventing him from moving. As Bodark held his leg she shifted her momentum and used her left leg to hit the back of his right knee causing him to collapse as she placed her right knee in the small of his back and brought her full weight down on him causing him to howl in pain as she continually dug it in. As he attempted to grab at her she used the moment to lift his leg up and have him dangling upside down as she pinned his arm to the floor with her left foot and began to land several heavy blows to his face and abdomen and then striking his throat with a swift hit causing him to violently gag and continuing with several strikes to Adrian's chest and head, using the same savage form she had used before but in what could almost be called a controlled form as she targeted his solar plexus and bringing his head down on her knee fracturing his nose and nearly knocking him unconscious before being restrained by instructors as Adrian coughed up blood and was hardly conscious, the Cadets around her watched in morbid curiosity and a degree of approval as Adrian was rushed to the infirmary to be treated.

Bodark would go onto take 2nd in Top Honors in the CQC field as she began to further include her old rage fueled savagery into existing forms which took form mainly in her last match. B312 had been matching and even outwitting her in several maneuvers but near the matches end he fought far more reservedly and opted for well placed hits, he had her head in a lock between his legs to which she retaliated by shifting her weight and and forcefully rolling her self over and bringing B312's head down on the mat stunning and disorienting him. She followed up with her own relentless barrage of punches as she kept one of his legs pinned preventing him from effectively hitting back, she would try to finish the fight with an elbow into his solar plexus however he evaded causing her to catch herself on her arms before hitting the ground allowing him to deliver a matching ending blow to the side and then back of her head which along with her head striking the mat, knocked her unconscious.

She did however manage to take Top Honors in the Vehicular Warfare field with her vast knowledge of design flaws and weakpoints in Covenant Vehicles as well as her skill in driving, maintaining and destroying UNSC vehicles which made her stand head and shoulders above her peers in the final tests for Top Honors in the field.

Operation: CARTWHEEL
Just as their Graduation ended Kilo along with the rest of Beta Company were being assembled for their first mission, their target was a Covenant Base on a far away moon. As preparations continued the anxiousness ran high through the Company including Kilo and Bodark.

The mission kicked off with Beta being deployed via SOEIV's to surprise the Covenant forces. Kilo was deployed two clicks north of the facility along with two other teams and was tasked with targeting the Garage and Armory in support of the teams targeting the Comms Relay and the main force targeting the Supply Depot. Bodark along with Jericho and Arlo had landed around the target area but Jamie was off course by half a click and had landed near a large rock formation overlooking the base. After blowing a hole in the wall near the Garage, Bodark took point in covering Jericho while he hacked the doors to get them in.

Once they had broken in Bodark finally got a first hand view of the source of her years of pain and anger. From what she could see there were Grunts, Jackals and a few Elites trying to get the vehicles moving, she wasn't going to give them the chance. While Arlo and Jericho took cover near the entrance after sealing it, Bodark opted for a different approach firing off rounds from her M319 to disable the vehicles as she weaved between cover feeling shots of plasma scrape her armor as she closed the gap to dispatch several Grunts and Jackals with her knife as they tried to get to the vehicles but she cut them off and she even managed to kill a couple of Elites with her M319 with a well placed shot into the gun carriage of a Wraith before a massive door slammed down in front of her.

Unknown to her Jericho and Arlo were keeping up as best they could trying to make sure she didn't get herself killed in her anger, picking off hiding targets which she had missed. After a good deal of reprimand from Jericho as they checked their section of the Garage they set to work. While Arlo set about planting the charges around the Garage they were interrupted by the sounds of Covenant forces trying to break in from the outside. Bodark was sent outside to flank them from the east entrance while Jericho struggled to keep them locked out.

As she rounded the structure she spotted the group trying to break in, three Minors and one Brute supported by a trio of Jackals. She was going to opt for a quick attack from the roof of the building but in her attempt she failed to check where they were looking, when she peeked and let off a round killing two of the Jackals and shorting the shields of the rest she was quickly fired upon to her surprise and had her M319 damaged, with no other choice and knowing she needed to stop them getting in she threw one of her grenades as a diversion and leapt down on the last Jackal quickly slitting its throat with a quick slash of her blade before moving to engage the Minors who were still recovering from the blast.

She closed the gap as fast as she could and managed to kill one of the Minors, knocking its head up with a right uppercut followed by jamming her blade in the roof of its mouth. As she turned to meet the next she was nearly knocked back by an attempted kick to her chest which she met with grabbing the offending foot and redirecting it into the Minor behind her knocking it back and finishing by snapping the foot, not wanting to waste anymore time and get back to her team she finished them off with a burst to their skulls with her MA5K. However as she turned to leave she was blind sided by the Brute which has leapt at her throwing her backwards, she quickly recovered and stood to meet the Brute, dodging several blind punches thrown by the brute as she relentlessly beat and slashed it, suddenly however it lashed out with a loud howl and struck back out in surprising speed throwing Bodark at the sealed garage doors with a thud. Feeling her anger come back full force Bodark threw her knife at the charging brute, striking it in the knee making it stumble as she side stepped and grabbed its head with both hands and beat it repeatedly into the metal door, covering it with blood before it managed to kick off the door but Bodark was ready to meet it. As it lashed out with another blind punch she grabbed the arm and used the brutes momentum to flip him to the ground before trapping him in an arm bar with her legs crushing down on the brutes windpipe, they glared at each other with an almost primal hate with Bodark watching from above as the Brute breathed its final struggled breaths while its body flailed uselessly. As she stood from the corpse and made her way to grab her rifle and rejoin the team she was surprised by a lone Elite with a sword but before she could respond it was sent to the floor by a sniper round fired by Jamie some ways away in the rock formation to their north. After a few minutes Jericho and Arlo exited the Garage due to Arlo after some mistakes having placed the charges and Jericho no longer being able to keep the Covenant locked. As they withdrew toward their Calypso Exfiltration Craft ,with Jamie guiding them out of the base and picking off patrols in their way, Bodark was met with a degree of reprimand from all her teammates even Jamie when she joined them boarding the craft but as the charges detonated in the distance, the chain reaction destroying the whole garage, they did commend her for holding them back and giving them time.

While her teammates talked with the rest of the company about all their team had done she opted for her usual quiet and uncaring demeanor but it was broken by the occasional snort or lighthearted eye roll much to the surprise of others and it was there, along with her team, listening to them chat and even taking the plunge to chat a little herself, her story about the Brute being a particular one asked about although no story quite outshone Cody-B042's of having finally proved himself in combat.

She felt at home, for the first time in a long time she felt truly at home, the anger and the pain were there, they always would be, but for that one night she felt some semblance of calm. Even in the infirmary when she was being checked for concussive damage along with Jamie due to her rough drop, Jericho and Arlo made a point to check on them and when Jericho and Arlo were on Bodark and Jamie returned the favor. This was her family and she knew that now better than ever.