Against All Odds/Character Board

The Against All Odds Character Board is a place where users involved in the AAO expanded universe can submit their characters for review, and suggest and recieve ideas for collaboration with other users' characters and events. The Character Board was the idea of Actene and was agreed on by AAO's senior users, and was set up to promote more in-universe integration of characters and events between authors.

The 'board' consists of all currently active AAO members. Any AAO members may contribute to the board; in fact, contribution is actively encouraged.

Please use the format below to submit articles to the board.

===[[ARTICLENAME]]===
====Info====
*'''Name''': [[ARTICLENAME]]
*'''Author''': {{Name|NAMEOFAUTHOR}}
*'''Description''': (describe the character briefly)
*'''Summary of requirements''':

====Board Suggestions====
(The board will use this section to suggest improvements and fanon elements the character can be involved in. Don't forget to sign.)

Use the 'Summary of requirements' field to suggest to the panel ideas or the events or other involvement you want to give your chararacter. Even the vaguest suggestions from the author will be useful, and will help the panel either get started or suggest ideas.

Submissions

Use this section to submit characters to the board using the above format. Submit your article according to the time period it fits into, or if there are more than one, the period you most wish to develop.

Human-Covenant War

Thomas Martel

Info

• Name: Thomas Martel (Human-Covenant War)
• Author: Sonasaurus and IsaacDKramer
• Description: While I haven't added the following info to the character's page, at the time the Human-Covenant War starts, Thomas is middle-aged. He works at a hospital on some human colony. Eventually, because on some obscure article he wrote before the war about biological contagions, he's contracted by the UNSC Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop biological weapons for use against the Covenant. Thomas is pragmatist, he sees things that must be done, and weighs the effects it has on it's environment, at least that's what he claims. He tries to see things objectively as possible (as with most scientists) but is sometimes troubled by the moral implications of what he's done. This becomes more and more apparent as he get closer to developing a workable contagion for use against the elites. He understand that the Covenant showed no remorse when burning it's fair share of planets, but is still worried about the drastic consequences of his actions.
• Summary of requirements: I want to write a story or two about Tom's work on the contagion during the war. He's torn between ending the war and saving human lives, and the possible mass dying of a species, whether or not they are mercilessly killing humans. If that doesn't seem appealing enough, I'd like to see if anyone else has suggestions about how I should go about this character. Perhaps survival of a Covenant attack on a planet he's on, or better yet the Battle of Earth. Not too picky at the moment, just noting that Sona has the final say on everything to do with this character.

Interspecies Union Conflicts

Diana

Info

• Name: Diana
• Author: Actene
• Description: A rogue Insurrectionist smart A.I., Diana considers herself above all organic life and holds most "meatbags" in contempt. Much to her chagrin, fate has put her to use doing the dirty work of some of the lowest forms of organic life, a fact that she never ceases to complain about. Her favorite target for abuse is her partner-in-crime, the renegade SPARTAN-III Simon-G294, aka "dumbass," with whom she forms a mercenary duo operating under the pseudonym of "Mordred." Paranoid and obsessed with the concept of eternal "life", Diana committed the cardinal sin of altering her own core programming in order to escape the fate of rampancy. While this self-alteration has saved her from insanity, it has also removed any morality subroutines she might once have had, allowing her to remorselessly take any number of organic lives if she feels it suits her goals.
• Summary of requirements: She'll be in just about any story Simon's in. I'm trying to write her as being caustically witty, rather like Serina from Halo Wars, but so far I'm told the results are more annoying than anything else, so any advice in that regard is appreciated.

Cody-D1274

Info

• Name: Cody-D1274
• Author: Sonasaurus
• Description: The leader of SPARTAN-III Delta Company Basilisk Team. Cody is an orphan from the planet Reach and was conscripted into the SPARTAN-III Program a few years after the Human-Covenant war, when he was taking refuge on Earth. Initially a rather distant candidate, he quickly caught the attention of his commanding officer, Ezekiel-254, and eventually was placed in charge of four other Spartans. Constantly trying to keep the relations on the somewhat volatile Basilisk Team in good condition, Cody is simultaneously fighting a war for the UNSC and trying to find something special in the frayed connection between his team members.
• Summary of requirements: Stories to place Cody in, along with his team. Characters for him to work with, preferably within the UNSC, Spartan or not. Maybe a few people he can get to know on a more personal level. Mission ideas and events that will characterize Basilisk Team's militarily professional but personally fragile bond. Expanded and preferably completed articles for Cody's teammates.

Simon-G294

Info

• Name: Simon-G294
• Author: Actene
• Description: A troubled young man, Simon-G294 is the first SPARTAN-III to turn on the government he was trained to protect. Living in squalid conditions as a homeless urchin, Simon eagerly accepted recruitment into the program as a means of escaping his hopeless existence. But his compulsive cowardice made him the worst-performing candidate in the history of the SPARTAN program, and after years of ridicule and derision he was cut off from the rest of his unit on the rebellious world of Mamore. A band of child soldiers became his new family, only to be slaughtered by the government Simon had once served. Taken in by the Insurrection, Simon turned on his new masters when they left him to die during a UNSC attack. Cast adrift in cryosleep with his new companion Diana and estranged comrade Cassandra-G006, Simon was eventually awakened in a changed galaxy. Rescued from a brief stint as a Brute slave, Simon spent time in a Sangheili keep but was unable to settle down and departed to live the life of a mercenary under the pseudonym "Mordred". Scheming and deceitful by nature, Simon merely wishes to get by and stay alive in a dangerous galaxy, but is sometimes troubled by what little conscience he has left.
• Summary of requirements: If it's a HCW story, he's a normal S-III, albeit a cowardly and incompetent one. IU conflicts, he can be just about anyone's chew toy, so long as he manages to weasel his way out of whatever situation he finds himself in. Since he's my flagship character, I'd be more than willing to offer further advice on how to use him.

David Kahn

Info

• Name: David Kahn
• Author: Actene
• Description: The son of a decorated war hero, Hector Thornhill killed his father after the former murdered his mother in a drunken rage. Recruited into the S-I program, he was at the top of his training division even before being surgically enhanced. But a mission gone wrong cut him off from the UNSC and left him disillusioned with his purpose in life. Assuming the name of an Insurrectionist he had killed, the renamed David Kahn set about making a name for himself as the galaxy's most feared mercenary even as the HCW raged around him. By the IU conflicts era, he is the most prestigious gun for hire in the galactic underworld, but is now paranoid about the strength of the legacy he will leave behind him. To that end, he trained the Insurrectionist test-tube child "Nimue" to be his "successor", putting the young girl through hellish training in order to make her the ultimate assassin.
• Summary of requirements: The problem with characters who are the "best" in their field is that the title makes them unattractive for other writers to work with. Basically the very nature of his character means he needs to come out on or near the top in any story he appears in, which doesn't bode well for characters who he's playing a supporting role to.

Nimue

Info

• Name: Nimue
• Author: Actene
• Description: Originally meant to be a loyal assassin for the Insurrection, Nimue was designed to be slightly faster and more agile than regular humans from birth. However, her training was hijacked by David Kahn, who wanted her to become his successor and legacy. Essentially raised in a bunker, Nimue was brutally drilled in all manner of armed and unarmed combat as Kahn conditioned her to be as deadly as he was. But Insurrectionist interference cut her off from the man she viewed as a father, leaving a young Nimue to strike out on her own far earlier than Kahn had intended.
• Summary of requirements: I realized about halfway through writing up this character that she had Mary Sue stamped all over her, so feel free to kick her ass if you wind up writing about her. The way I see it, she's like Boba Fett as he was portrayed in the Clone Wars series: she's got the talent and capability, but isn't quite there just yet. She's also socially awkward, which makes for some interesting dialogue/interaction.

Brandon Smith

Info

• Name: Brandon Smith
• Author: Lordofmonsterisland
• Description: An initially idealistic young soldier raised on Fumirole before it's destruction, Brandon joined the military after being inspired by his family's military members fighting against the Insurrection. However, counter to his (and most of Fumirole's) belief that the Covenant were propaganda, Brandon is assigned to a squad that is, within six months of first deployment, devastated and marooned. Surviving with a few others on a backwater world, Brandon is then taken captive by Brutes and used as a slave: after he escapes with two other prisoners-of-war, he rejoins the military after some rehabilitation in 2554. Assigned to Roy Koel's Marine team, he eventually takes command in the 2560's when Roy is wounded and proceeds to retire.
• Summary of requirements: I want to write a post-war story or two with Brandon as the main character, just not sure how to pull it off. He's in charge of a Marine squad with possible ONI connections if that intrigues anyone. I'd also love to do some tie-ins with his brief Great War past, or perhaps his time in Covie captivity. Not to picky with the potential future at the moment.

Suggestions

Use this section to suggest ideas or events that anyone may use for their character. This will help people pick events from this section to use, rather than wait for people to suggest it under their character. If you are the author of an AAO event, do not submit it if you don't want others involving their characters in it, because that is the whole point.

Use the following code to submit suggestions.

===Event===

====Info====
*'''Name''': [[ARTICLENAME]] (if applicable)
*'''Author(s)''': {{Name|NAMEOFAUTHOR}}
*'''Description''': (describe the suggestion briefly)
*'''Date/Era''':
*'''Who can be involved''': (summarise the type of character permitted; any UNSC characters, SPARTANs, etc)

Suggestion Submissions

Operation: CIRCUMVENT

Info

• Name: Operation: CIRCUMVENT
• Author(s): Athena32 and Leo Fox
• Description: a UNSC operation to cut off a large portion of Covenant activity within UNSC space.
• Date/Era: 2569
• Who can be involved: SPARTAN-IIIs of Delta Company, UNSC Naval and Marine Corps personnel
• Further details: While initially meant to be a story, CIRCUMVENT now won't get that developed, as both original creators haven't got the time. What it will be is an article describing a UNSC raid on a Covenant resupply post; and maybe half a dozen UNSC counterattacks that happen across UNSC colonies in the wake of the raid. The undeveloped state of the operation means virtually anything based on this premise can be written into it. If enough people express interest, the article will be written by all authors who've submitted characters (after agreeing on a rough outline) and all contributors will get the chance to write their character's actions into the event.

Because of its time period, it's essentially a great way to give a bit of backstory to any post-Great War AAO characters that lack it.