Andra-D054

"The Spartans gave me a purpose in life, I was nobody before they recruited me. Nobody. Just another war orphan after my dad offed himself. They gave me a new start. They gave me a family. They gave me everything I have."

- Andra-D054 to Cassandra-G006.

Andra-D054, also known as Andra Kearsarge by personal preference, is a Delta Company commando with a standing reputation as a temperamental subordinate with ongoing traumatic stress and fraternization concerns. She was the protege to late SPARTAN-III, Joshua-G024, and partner and significant other of fellow Spartan Merlin-D032. Originally assigned to Spartan Team Boson, she served as the unit's designated marksman and bomb technician; recent performance reviews have encouraged the Spartan Headhunter community to consider her recruitment.

Born too late to participate in the, Andra graduated from initial Spartan training before becoming a. Stationed on in support of Internal Investigations Unit 419, she participated in several high-profile missions in North and South America. Following two team desertions and Team Boson's reorganization, Andra-D054 was attached to the assassination unit, VIOLET-III, during the border war with the Imperium of Clarity and subsequent ONI frontier investigations.

During the, Andra was acquired by Task Force Phoenix following a squabble between superior officers and deployed on missions to neutralize key support structures, particularly the Iskander Syndicate.

Father's Daughter
"My dad was in Signals Intelligence. My mom served in the Army as a combat medic. I think our family went back several generations on Sigma Octanus-Four but I don't know much beyond that."

- Andra-D054 reflecting on her past and family.

Andra Bradford was born, to military parents Sergeant Viktoria K. Bradford and Lieutenant Neville Bradford in the city of on the  world of. Incapable of staying beyond the duration of her maternal leave, Andra's mother returned to her job as a combat medic, leaving the newborn in her husband's care. Employed by the ONI Signals Intelligence as a communications analyst, Neville worked close to home allowing him to raise his daughter, only leaving her with a babysitter during his rare business trips.

Andra entered school early in as part of an accelerated education program, notably becoming a well-liked student with interest in mathematics and colonial history. Under her father's childrearing, she developed an outgoing tomboyish personality with a competitive streak she applied to all activities, often leading to disciplinary issues regarding roughhousing classmates. Her father also broadened her horizons by introducing her to guns, teaching her to swim, signing her on to preschool choir, and visiting some of Sigma Octanus IV's famous museums and amusement parks.

The happy memories of early childhood did not last for Andra however as the Human-Covenant War finally hit home for Andra on December 11, 2550. Andra only met her mother twice during brief breaks from her extended deployments; their relationship was distant but caring so it came as a shock when two officers arrived on their doorstep informing the Bradfords of Viktoria's death during the defense of. Neville refused to take Andra to the brief funeral service that followed and returned a day later, drunk and leaning the shoulder of, a family friend, and coworker. After that day, Andra and her father rarely discussed her mother. Neville threw himself into his work to avoid the onset of grief and depression but was ultimately consumed by it. At school, Andra's classmates and teachers treated her cautiously, wrongly assuming she was grieving when Andra was upset she hadn't felt enough; she chose to keep her classmates afar to not anger herself.

Neville's mental and emotional health continued to deteriorate as he developed a dependency on sleep medicine and psychoactive substances, reaching a point of throwing dishes at Andra while intoxicated. At work, his failing job performance led his superiors to suspend him from work. On the outs with the, Neville sent Andra to school on , before becoming drunk and turning his pistol on himself, attempting suicide. Andra returned from school to find neighbors and emergency services around her house as her father's corpse was removed. The death of her father promptly made Andra a war orphan and a ward of the state. Promptly picked up by Child Protection Services, Andra was transferred to the Jasmine Hope Youth Treatment Center in the colonial-capital city of with only a duffel bag and backpack of personal items as the rest were seized and liquidated per wartime law.

As a favor to Andra's parents, Naiya Ray went to the orphanage to see Andra off and promised to return, however, she never got the chance. With the war effort eating up resources and finances, the Jasmine Hope YTC suffered from an overflow in new orphans along with food shortages and cheap amenities. By the first month's end, Andra was just another face in a sea of parentless children, most of them offworlders who saw their homes destroyed and their survival stories only isolated Andra due to her lack of shared trauma. Reverting to a defensive hostility, Andra pushed others away in favor of drawing pictures under a tree in the orphanage courtyard. The only time adult caretakers encouraged Andra to play with other children; she sent six boys to the nurse's office after they made her the designated alien in "Kill the Split-Jaw." Over the year, Andra chased away five different foster parent prospects; her only acquaintance was a boy sleeping in the bunk bed above her, nicknamed "Legs" for kicking her head in the morning.

A major change came around, when Doctor Reyna Zhou-Romero, an ONI civilian consultant, approached Andra with a proposition of joining the SPARTAN-III Program after finding the girl's medical records in a colonial database. Apprehensive and shy, Andra slowly responded to Romero after admitting she believed in Andra's strength, motivating the girl into action. Romero left the orphanage on a positive note, promising to return for Andra. On April 24, 2552, Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Korn arrived to retrieve Andra and deliver her to the UNSC Eternal Flame where she was kept under with other recruits while SPARTAN-III Gamma Company completed training. However, after the, the SPARTAN-III training colony, in November 2552 almost ended the program and Andra's future as a Spartan.

Personal Momentos

 * " "Lemon & Lime" ": Two modified M6I machine pistols acquired by Andra during her stay in New Phoenix. She nicknamed them "Lemon and Lime" for their khaki- and olive-colored finishes. She often lends them to Merlin-D032.
 * " Remote Holo-Puck ": After graduating from SPARTAN-III Delta Company, Andra was allowed to research her parental history through an ONI database query. Personal records of her mother, Viktoria K. Bradford, were saved to the hologram puck.
 * " Photographs ": Laminated copies of Andra's favorite images. One of Team Boson during post-augmentation, long-range reconnaissance patrol-training. Another of Andra walking side-by-side with Joshua-G024, her personal mentor from VIOLET-III. The second image was given to Andra as a parting- and late birthday-gift from Amy-G094, Joshua's best friend.
 * " Soda Bottles ": Known for her sweet-tooth, Andra often keeps a tray of soda bottles in her footlocker. A strawberry-lemon soda remained in her luggage, unopened during the Created conflict as it was a birthday gift from Derek Frendsen, her superior officer in VIOLET-III. Rumor suggests it was the last strawberry-lemon soda aboard the UNSC Infinity for almost three years.
 * " Master Chief Plushie ": A child at heart, Andra and her friends in Team Boson collected toys and child products during their stay in New Phoenix in an attempt to somewhat reclaim their lost childhoods. She still sleeps with the plushie every night.

Nicknames and Callsigns

 * " Doll ": Originally a demeaning nickname favored by drill instructors for Andra's poor training performance and quiet voice, it was eventually adopted by her fellow Delta Company trainees. Even after overcoming her inhibitions, Andra is still associated with the hated nickname.
 * " Dee-Fifty-Four ": Andra's Spartan tag generated a dozen short-hand nicknames over the years and its predominately used by superior officers to command Andra's attention when she turns insubordinate.

Joshua-G024
"Andra-D054, is one full of potential. She is leagues above in quality and stature than her teammates, but I'm not convinced she, or they, see that. It is, in my view, imperative that she be reassigned from her team, Boson, to the Headhunter division. As such, I suggest she be requisitioned to us in VIOLET-III to be trained further."

- Joshua-G024 assessing Andra-D054's potential.

Andra studied under Lieutenant Joshua-G024 from late 2557 until his death in late 2558. While she concluded his tutoring played a positive role in her growth as a warrior and Spartan, their relationship was always strained by Joshua's overt cynicism. His negative worldview, poor opinion of the Spartan programs, and aggressive treatment of her teammates, particularly Merlin-D032, left her uncertain of his guidance and presence.

While Joshua failed to minimize his cynicism around Andra, he found a rare kindred soul in the girl after finding similar circumstances in their youth from rough, non-Covenant-related childhoods and unrecognized talents during training. Developing an appreciation for Andra akin to a young sibling, Joshua selfishly sought to protect her perceived innocence, engineering reasons to keep her unit off frontline duty and dedicated extra time to honing her skillset and paving over her shortcomings, especially in close combat. In Andra's own right, she developed a thick skin from Joshua's toxic personality, not wanting it to sour her other relationships. While his lessons beyond military aspects were questionable, Andra believed his teachings prepared her for the complexities and challenges that followed the Human-Covenant War. After his death, Andra kept a rare photo of Joshua smiling among her personal effects and regretted never expressing her gratitude for his mentorship.

Team Boson

 * Kyser Duceppe :


 * Daniele-D003 :


 * Roxanne-D107 :


 * Zach-D111 :

VIOLET-III

 * Amy-G094 :


 * Derek Frendsen :

Notable Links

 * Viktoria K. Bradford
 * Merlin-D032
 * Team Boson
 * Joshua-G024

Literary Appearances

 * Halo: Arizona Backroads
 * Psychological Assessment: Andra-D054
 * RP: Imperium
 * Counting Tiles
 * Halo: Lonely Frontier
 * Halo: Heaven and Earth
 * Happy Safari

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The First Batch
"Welcome to Camp Ambrose, trainees. This is your new home."

- Sergeant Francis Dellend greeting his new trainees.

Upon exiting Slipspace on, the UNSC freighter Give Me More entered the Argus star system near Argus V, the SPARTAN-III Program's new training colony world. Onboard was the nicknamed "First Batch", the first 150 hibernating candidates for SPARTAN-III Delta Company, including Andra. Awoken from cryostasis for the first time, she received the consequence of the new experience and puked her thawing stomach innards inside her.

Alongside Andra, another twenty war orphans awoke in the nude with feelings of confusion and embarrassment on top of upset stomachs. The presence of strangers frightened the girl, reactivated latent antisocial habits, causing her to curl up and retreat into a dark corner. Few noticed; soon after, a pair of UNSC drill instructors arrived to greet the new arrivals, providing them with cheap, uniform workout attire and tasteless protein bars for breakfast which many promptly threw up again. They were then led to the freighter's crowded observation deck to meet their new classmates, get a look at Argus V from orbit, and meet Sergeant Francis Dellend.

Once the crowd of children settled down, they were strapped into cushion chairs for the reentry descent into Argus V's atmosphere, landing hours later on the outskirts of the incomplete Camp Ambrose, the new Spartan training installation named for deceased SPARTAN-III trainer. Andra and other children were gathered in the Camp cafeteria for initial processing, receiving laundry and toiletry items for their extended stay along with Spartan tags to designate them as military property. Due to trauma inflicted by her father, Andra reveled in the loss of her old last name, becoming "Andra-D054." Fed dinner and sent off to the dormitories, Andra and other trainees with numbers D050 through D059 settled into Cabin 005 for the night and the immediate future.

Pre-conditioning training was far from easy for Andra but she made herself at home on Argus V adequately, participating in exercise and advanced education courses and reacquiring her love for learning. She took her drill instructors' warnings of future intensification seriously though floundered under their intense verbal assaults. Doctor Romero continued to show interest in Andra's early development, assigning the girl as her office helper much to Andra's delight and the doctor's further words of encouragement kept her engaged.

The office work also distracted and distanced Andra from her fellow trainees, giving her rare moments of privacy and comfort away from the training environment. She didn't have an interest in making friends and often stayed to the sidelines, avoiding the drama spotlight.

That changed when Merlin-D032 decided to approach her a couple of weeks into March. Amicable towards his cabinmates, Merlin was well-liked for a boy on the introverted side. He and Andra previously shared the same hibernation chamber and it was from her standoffish behavior during outdoor activities that he recognized her hiding again, drawing stick pictures in the mud. Approaching her shady spot beneath a high-security wall, Merlin attempted to talk to her only to get ignored until he started talking about his parents and asking about hers. The sore topic reached a boiling point and Andra proceeded to jump the irritating boy, delving into a mud wrestling match.

Exhausting one another, Merlin narrowly claimed victory, restraining the enraged-crying girl. The two were soon pulled apart by drill instructors and chewed out for dirtying their uniforms and fighting leading to punishment. It was the first time either trainee received demerits and would set up Merlin and Andra as cold strangers early into training. ]-->