SPARTAN-D761

"A cold, stealthy hunter whose proficiency at long range continues to amaze. He puts on a silent face made to look like he's completely free of emotion. But behind that facade he's lonely, scared and confused."

- SPARTAN-D761 perfomance report SPARTAN-D761, also known as Matthew, was a SPARTAN-III Supersoldier in Manticore Team, a fire team operating as part of Delta Company.

Early Life and SPARTAN Training
Born in early 2550 in London, Earth, Matthew lived with his parents and was the youngest of three brothers. Leading a relatively normal life, in late 2552 during the Battle of Earth this was changed as Covenant forces assaulted. Watching from inside a cupboard which his mother had hurriedly hidden him in, he looked on as he father, trying to protect his family, was brutally slain by a Brute Chieftain followed by the rest of the pack. It was unknown why Matthew was able to remain undetected but he was found the week after, a considerable distance away, by UNSC infantry, covered in dried blood and dirt and holding in his hand an M6G Pistol with an empty magazine. It was unlikely that he used the weapon due to his extreme young age; the weapon's origins and Matthew's reasons for possessing it were completely unknown. Having no belongings beside and only a name tag to identify his first name, Matthew was put into an orphanage as soon as the battle was over, where he grew up among others like him and said very little.

In 2555, at the age of five, Matthew was selected based on his genetic, physical and mental attributes to join the SPARTAN-III Program, an initiative to create expendable supersoldiers field them against the Covenant. Matthew was visited by an ONI agent, who offered him the chance to go and take revenge on the Covenant, which he immediately accepted. After this he was conscripted into Delta Company, the fourth batch of suicide soldiers to be fielded against the Covenant Empire.

However, Delta Company's conscription has begun in 2552, with all the former candidates and many new candidates as well. As a result of this, most of the candidates were aged six, with many also being aged as young as 4 and as old as 8, with Matthew being one of the youngest. Beginning training with some 3000 other candidates, despite his troubled and nature, he eventually made friends with his fellow SPARTANs. In particular he became close to four other trainees, despite their wildly differing personalities, and during their 12-year long training regime the five formed Manticore Team together. Training was intensive and gruelling, with SPARTAN-254, a class II SPARTAN-II, overseeing and training the young SPARTANs. Regimes involved exhaustive firearms training, hand-to-hand, blade and unarmed combat, survival techniques, tracking, stealth and marksmanship training and above all, teamwork coaching. SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduated in 2567, Matthew aged 17 at the time.

Personality and Traits
Matthew's parents and two siblings were killed by Covenant forces when he was two years old, which profoundly affected his personality and behaviour. He remained silent and largely introvert, during training and after being silent even by SPARTAN standards. Matthew said very little, speaking only when he needed to but constantly thinking and analysing, and choosing to let his actions speak for themselves. Stealthy and silent, Matthew was a expert at covert operations, stealth tactics and concealment, favouring doing so without the burden of a team and seeming to match his silent nature. Matthew did not especially like working as a team and, although he saw its importance and benefits, wholly preferred working independently. Matthew could be cold and merciless at times in regard to fighting, though never vengeful, and this demeanor did not interfere with his making of objective combat decisions. Most often, however, he seemed merely pensive and slightly sad, an enigma which his teammates never fully understood. He was plagued by a sense of inadequacy stemming from early childhood and constantly strived for self-improvement, compounded by the fact that he never communicated about his issues, his past or his emotions. It was confirmed that Matthew suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder as a result of direct exposure to the death of his family, suffering symptoms including flashbacks, insomnia, uncontrollable emotions and a constant alertness or inability to relax (hypervigilance).

Vehicles, Armour and Weapons
Matthew most commonly used a SRS99-AM Rifle as his primary weapon, as he had a love of sniping and found that it brought strange peace to his often troubled thoughts. His sniping abilities were often compared to those of SPARTAN-058, though he felt, rightly, that he was not up to her standard. As soon as his skills were compared to her, seeing this as a kind of insult to her and knowing he wasn't as proficient as she was, he began to deliberately miss shots during training, enough so he wouldn't stand out but not so many that he would be re-allocated from sniping. Matthew was also exceptionally skilled at using weaponry such as the BR55HB SR Battle Rifle and M392 Designated Marksman Rifle, the former of which he greatly preferred. However, his teammate and electrical specialist SPARTAN-D1694 was armed mainly with this mid/long range weapon, so Matthew stuck to his niche as extreme long range marksman.

Matthew's secondary weapon was an M12 Submachine Gun, a lightweight yet powerful compact personal defence weapon that allowed him to properly defend himself at medium and close range. This was especially important for Matthew as his Sniper Rifle was not an ideal CQB weapon, despite the fact that he frequently achieved one shot kills from the hip. The M12 was small and light enough for him to carry, while powerful enough to deal with shielded and armoured infantry targets should his sniping position be discovered. Sometimes, however, when better range or power was needed, Matthew elected to carry an MA7C Carbine, which was more powerful though larger and less concealable.

As a backup defensive weapon, SPARTAN-D761 carried a single M6G Personal Defence Weapon System, which he relied upon should be primary weapons be unavailable or out of ammunition. Matthew was a skilled user of this weapon and could achieve headshots from comparatively long range, merely applying his sniper skills to a different weapon. It was unknown if this was the same weapon that Matthew was found with as a child, though it seemed unlikely.