Felix Gaffney

Felix Gaffney was an infamous mercenary, manipulator, and sociopath active in the Human-Covenant War and post-war era. Initially a promising candidate for the SPARTAN-II Class II Program, trauma suffered early in childhood would warp young Felix into nothing less than ruthless killing machine who had no care for the lives of anyone other than himself.

Childhood
Born into an influential and well respected family, Felix was raised in what appeared to be the good life. However, all was not as it seemed. Felix was abused viscously by their elder brother Kyle, their parent’s favorite. Though at first he was too young to understand, Felix eventually grasped what was happening and informed both his parents and the authorities.

Kyle, who had numerous psychopathic tendencies and had already had three charges of rape made against him (all mysteriously dropped), and had a habit of killing animals, had prepared for this eventuality and had long since convinced his parents Felix was a pathological liar, who in turn not only ignored his pleas, but prevented him from contacting authorities. Ignored by those he’d turned to help, Felix began to suffer even more under his brother.

Eventually snapping, Felix one night decided to take action, and attacked his brother with a kitchen knife. Swatted away by his larger and stronger brother Felix was once again severely beaten and in addition was stabbed. After passing out from blood loss, Kyle would tell his parents what had happened and after being hospitalized, Felix would be institutionalized.

For years the boy would be told he was lying at his brother had not abused him or his sister, undergoing numerous therapies to “correct” his problem. Though initially resistant Felix began to show what was considered progress and became a well behaved ward of the institution and at age twelve was released.

Rejoining his family Felix went out to dinner with the. Charming them with his charismatic mannerisms he persuaded them to take him to a movie. In transit, Felix slipped a knife from the restaurant from his sleeve and brutally stabbed his father to death, forcing the car to smash into a median and the resulting impact knocked out his mother, whom he then killed and left his brother with the bloody knife.

Felix would watch in secret glee as his brother was arrested and charged with murder, all the while keeping quiet as they were made wards of the state. Years in the system only hardened Felix from a small time manipulator and murderer, into a master manipulator.

Military Training
At age 18, Felix enlisted in the Marine Corps, passing the mental examination only thanks to the desperate need for soldiers. Throughout the course of his training Felix seemed to socialize well though lagged behind the group in terms of combat skills, especially in the use of precision weapons and close quarters.

In one exercise, Felix along with the members of his training team were pinned down by another team and the young recruit enacted a devious plan. Intentionally getting his teammates eliminated Felix laid low and watched as the opposing team emerged from their positions and foolhardily advanced into the open. With a single paint grenade, Gaffeny eliminated all five opponents in one of his only victories.

In other incidents Felix would seemingly perform poorly intentionally, at least that was what Ortega told himself as he ruthlessly PTed Felix for poor performance on the range when he did shoot and simply sitting there when he did. Felix was punished for similar behavior during knife training and the entirety of his training unit saw him as a joke, until final testing came.

Seemingly out of nowhere Gaffney’s skill shot through the roof. On the range his final score put him above the qualification for sniper, in close quarters he wiped the floor with every single member of his company and several DIs, in team versus team engagements he took point and wiped out all who opposed him, and as expected he scored incredibly high on his exams. Blown away, Ortega was dumbfounded and looked for some sort of explanation, refusing to believe the object of his scorn had been capable all along, but found none.

Having lulled everyone into a false sense of understanding, all along Felix had been learning. On the range he observed the techniques of others and analyzed their weaknesses, as they trained in close quarters he found flaws and weaknesses in the fight styles of others to exploit, and in the team engagements he sacrificed his team to learn the tactics of the others so he would know where to strike. Gaffney had manipulated every person and event from the start, and it would not be the last time.

Battle of Algolis
Attached to the 349th MEF, Private First Class Felix Gaffney deployed to the