Maria Agapova

"'Back off, or I will personally show you the meaning of 'dead in the water'!' "Private First Class Maria Agapova is an ODST in the UNSC Marine Corps, and a former Insurrectionist combatant.

Childhood
Maria was born near the Antarctic Circle of Arcadia on August 4th, 2517 of Russian and Greek descent. As a child, Maria was always more independent, a trait forced upon her by her abusive father. Maria didn’t make many friends outside of hockey teams and never performed well in school, outside of Literature and various arts.

When Maria was nine, her father got moved to the city of Abaskun, and they moved north. Their home was in a small town a few miles north of the city, where she joined the local hockey team and school system. It was here that she met her two closest friends, Dmitry Melkov and Ivan Sinitsin.

In the following 5 years, they would become extremely close friends, and Maria would come to take a romantic interest in Ivan, an interest he shared in return. Her father would also become more abusive, and would require more from her. Eventually, she stopped coming home frequently, often staying night at Ivan’s home. Despite this, she felt extreme guilt knowing that there was nothing she could do the help her own mother.

In the year 2531,Maria's home planet of Arcadia was attacked by the Covenant after they were led by an artifact located on Harvest. In this attack, Maria's mother was killed, but her father got away. A year after the initial invasion, Maria was dead as far as records were concerned. What happened in this year are a closely guarded secret.

Arcadian Insurrection
In late 2532, Maria enlisted in the ranks of the Arcadian insurrection, who were desperate for firepower. She wasn’t deployed immediately, despite showing an apparent skill with weaponry, as well as a great capacity for tactical comprehension. She would instead continue to train for three years, until she was eighteen. She would go on to lead a section of troops for three years, a four-section platoon for six, and would command a four-platoon company for four more years.

In 2549, the Covenant came back to Arcadia, intent on finishing what they started. Maria had saved most of her company from the glassing, escaping through the use of a stolen evacuations shuttle. From there, they went to the outer colony of Marais.

Marais
Following the fall of Arcadia, Maria’s remaining troops were without a higher command, and without much else, many of them returned to a civilian life, leaving her with seven still willing to follow her command. on the planet, there were still insurgent groups, and lots of friction among the people, especially within the Southern and Central States of the colony. In response, Maria’s remaining soldiers acted more so as vigilantes than insurrectionists.

Over the next six years, the team would indirectly cause protests and riots against the UNSC, but when they saw that many of the rioters were beginning to take up arms, they changed their stance to a more neutral one. This change eventually led to the team's number dropping to three. The remaining three became peacekeepers, though still primarily against the UNSC. Maria would take on the mantle of “Blue Jay”, while the other two made her operations possible.

In 2559, after four years spent as the Blue Jay, her teammates were killed in actions, their hideout assaulted by UNSC and ONI forces, consisting of ODST, Armored ONI Operatives, and a single Spartan IV clad in green and red armor.. The two had ultimately sacrificed themselves, allowing Maria’s escape in the hopes that she would continue their work, but she instead moved to a whole new colony.

Trost
She relocated to Trost in early 2559, after moving away from Marais. Upon arriving at the forerunner planet, a forerunner geas became active within her, the spirit of the young, soon to be lifeworker known as Guardian of Fleeting Dreams. Initially, she continued her work as the Blue Jay, but on a much smaller scale, and soon would effectively retire for a short time.

She lived among the civilian populations for years, and evacuated when the flood outbreak grew too extreme to live on the planet. She returned after the team UNSC activated a nearby Halo ring, purging the planet of it’s parasitic occupation. When she returned, she saw the destruction caused by the flood, and her anti-UNSC sentiment was re-kindled.

She first joined a new player to the insurrectionists on Trost, and one that was, in the the beginning at least, pretty small. The leader, Shepherd, was recruiting at a fast rate, and Maria was given command of a section. She operated outside of the Hand’s known operations, avoiding their usually terroristic methods and attacks.

In late 2562, she was in charge of occupying a UNSC outpost on the day that the Red Hand launched a large-scale attack on the city of Kairoh, led by the Shepherd. She did her job, preventing the forces from being able to help the city, though the operations was still a failure, Shepherd being killed in battle. After this, what was left of the Red Hand went into hiding, and Maria went to a new group.

Colonial Reform Syndicate
Making her history well known when getting involved with the CRS, Maria started out as the second in command of a larger cell, about the size of a platoon. In early 2563, when the prometheans attacked Trost, the team’s leader, as well as most of the cell, were killed in combat. In the months that the UNSC had disappeared, effectively abandoning it’s people and troops, she was once again reminded of why she was against them.

In the aftermath, Maria had taken charge of the group, leading them in small attacks on UNSC patrols. She was recognized as an effective leader, but was disliked by those under her command. She kept her team under her command through pay, and a respectable share of the loot, winning over the more important members of the team.

Later that year, Her team was attacked while taking refuge in an abandoned UNSC outpost, Maria escaping as the only survivor, now surviving two encounters with Spartans. She escaped to a secondary location, and was placed in charge of a new cell, again, about the size of platoon.

This base was soon attacked again, but this time, things turned out differently. After an intense Close-Quarters fight, she met Ivan for the first time on over 30 years, finding out that they were on different sides of the war. Ivan managed to convince her to desert the insurrection, and enlist in the UNSC. In exchange for her freedom, she was able to give over valuable information to UNSC command regarding troop positions, and local military strength.