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This article, Andra-D054, was voted as the Mythic Article of 2018 in the Eleventh Annual Halo Fanon Wikia Awards. |
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This article, Andra-D054, written by Distant Tide, was voted as the Best SPARTAN of 2018 in the Eleventh Annual Halo Fanon Wikia Awards. |
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This fanfiction article, Andra-D054, was written by Distant Tide. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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- "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.[1]
Andra-D054, also known as Andra Kearsarge by personal preference, is a SPARTAN-III Delta Company commando with a reputation as a temperamental subordinate. She was the daughter of Army Ranger Viktoria K. Bradford, protege to the SPARTAN-III Headhunter Joshua-G024, and partner of Merlin-D032. Originally assigned to Spartan Team Boson, she served as the unit's sharpshooter and bomb technician; at one point she was on the Headhunters recruitment shortlist.
Born too late to participate in the Human-Covenant War, Andra's team graduated from initial Spartan training and became a Ferret operator stationed on Earth with Internal Investigations Unit 419. Following two desertions from Team Boson, Andra-D054 was reassigned to Office of Naval Intelligence assassination unit VIOLET-III during a border war with the Imperium of Clarity.
Personal losses during the Created conflict drove Andra into Ryder Kedar's Task Force Phoenix. Alongside TF Phoenix and the Covenant remnant Cleansing Blade, she deploying against key Created logistical structures. The new conflict exposed her to a wider galaxy of ideologies while embedded with the Kru'desh Legion under their commander and enigmatic SPARTAN-III rogue, Simon-G294.
Career Service Vitae
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Performance Summary
The following is a summary of Spartan Andra-D054's military service performance:
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Biography
Formative Years
- "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 IV but I don't know much beyond that."
- ― Andra-D054 reflecting on her past and family.
Andra's father, Neville Bradford, raised Andra on his own while his wife went to war.
Andra Bradford was born November 6, 2545, to military parents Sergeant Viktoria K. Bradford and Lieutenant Neville Bradford in the city of Enfield on the UEG Inner Colony world of Sigma Octanus IV. Incapable of staying beyond the duration of her maternal leave, Andra's mother returned to her work as a UNSC Army Ranger 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 mid-2550 as part of an accelerated education program, becoming a well-liked student with noted interests 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 over roughhousing classmates. Her father also broadened her horizons by introducing her to firearms, 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 as the Human-Covenant War finally hit home for her on December 11, 2550. Andra only met her mother during brief breaks from her extended deployments; their relationship was distant but caring so it came as a shock when two UNSC Army officers arrived on their doorstep, informing the Bradfords of Viktoria's death during the defense of Minab. Neville refused to take Andra to the brief funeral service that followed and returned a day later, drunk and leaning the shoulder of Lieutenant Naiya Ray, 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 with caution, wrongly assuming she was grieving when Andra was more upset she didn't feel 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 UNSC Navy, Neville sent Andra to school on January 26, 2551 before drinking alcohol in excess and turned his pistol on himself. Andra returned from school to find neighbors and emergency services surrounding her home as her father's corpse was removed. Picked up by Child Protection Services, Andra was transferred to the Jasmine Hope Youth Treatment Center in the colonial-capital city of Caracas with only a duffel bag and backpack of personal items as the rest was liquidated per wartime law.
Jasmine Hope YTC's half-wood, half-tent dormitories. Andra came to hate this place.
As a favor to Andra's parents, Naiya Ray saw Andra off at the orphange 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, many of them offworlders with survival stories that only further isolated her when without similar 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 caretakers encouraged Andra to play with other children, she sent six boys to the nurse's office after they made her the main alien in "Kill the Split-Jaw." Over a 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 mornings.
A major change arrived on January 19, 2552, when Dr. 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 in cryogenic stasis with other recruits while SPARTAN-III Gamma Company completed training. However, the unexpected destruction of Onyx in November 2552 almost sunk the program and Andra's future as a Spartan.
Delta Company
- "We selected you for a reason, Andra. You may not believe yourself to be strong, but you are. I believe you are. You just don't know it yet. Let us show you – join our program and become a Spartan."
- ― Doctor Reyna Zhou-Romero recruiting Andra into the SPARTAN-III Program.
Arriving over the ONI preserve world of Argus V on March 10, 2553, Andra and another 150 recruits aboard the UNSC Eternal Flame were thawed from cryostasis. Due to her inexperience with the dethaw process, she like many others puked and tried to hide from other children and attending medical personnel. Among the twenty children in her booth, Merlin-D032 and a few select others took note of her apparent shyness.
Reintegration
Andra speaking with an ONI officer about her pre-Spartan life.
Ferret Team Boson
- Main article: Halo: Arizona Backroads
Imperium Conflict
War with the Imperium of Clarity was among the earliest human confrontations with a major post-Covenant polity.
- Main article: RP:Imperium/Content/Part Two
Beginning with the Montak Incident, the arrival of naval forces belonging to the Imperium of Clarity in the UEG-occupied star system and a formal declaration of war by their head of state, Imperial Admiral Toru 'Makhan, the UNSC found itself locked in battle with the post-Covenant polity by mid-August 2558. Team Boson, now only formed by Andra and Merlin, was assigned to the fight after a period of probation. The duo first arrived at the staging point on New Syracuse, in the care of Lieutenant Commander Frendsen as a part of VIOLET-III. With the sacking of Major Duceppe, Team Boson was reassigned from Ferret deployments to Headhunter support operations, particularly for Team Boson's old mentors: Amy-G094 and Joshua-G024. The reunion was short-lived as Team Boson was assigned Headhunter-in-training, Shizuko-D081, as its temporary leader to replace the rogue Daniele-D003.
Due to Shizuko's trauma from losing her prior Spartan team, her compatibility proved an underlying issue for Team Boson, characterized by Andra's confrontations and Shizuko's scarceness. Upon meeting the Imperium in battle on Montak, Team Boson's mission to protect UNSC Army landing sites went sideways as Imperium anti-aircraft emplacements brought down their troop carrier, knocking Andra unconscious. Team Boson regrouped at the crash site, holding their position against Imperium scouting elements until a UNSC Army armor unit arrived to assist, including a Mammoth siege vehicle.
Andra lost her helmet and received a concussion from the crash-landing leading Merlin to acquire her another from recovered UNSC casualties. It was also found that Imperium ground forces deployed an extensive shielding dome, trapping coalition ground forces within the Imperium fortifications while the opposing fleets duked it out in orbit. The Army armor unit, battered by their landing, decided to regroup with remnants of the 101st Shock Troops Battalion, an ODST unit that included the embedded Team Xiphos. The 101st was already engaged with a downed element from the 'Mdama Covenant remnant's Kru'desh Legion, sent to support the Imperium of Clarity's incursion into human territory while serving as an emissary in their mission to find allies in their own campaign against the UNSC.
Team Boson, alongside Army Rangers and Cyclops-mechanized walkers, almost overran the Kru'desh crash site when part of the shield dome came down thanks to the timely work by other UNSC elements, led by Cain-131 and Aleksandra Zaytseva. However, the loss of the overhead obstacle also allowed Kru'desh aerial reinforcements led by Simon-G294 to reinforce and route the UNSC charge. Merlin attempted to kill one Kru'desh squad leader, the young Tuka 'Refum, but retreated upon realizing his team was in danger.
Team Boson finally had its chance at taking on the infamous Gamma Company traitor, Simon-G294.
Andra caught up to Simon at the Mammoth and attempted to kill him, however, Simon claimed the upper hand due to his close-in superiority and greater experience in fighting Spartans. Because Andra was so focused on Simon, she failed to account for his Sangheili personal guard who captured her, waiting for Simon's kill order. He never got the chance however as coordination between Amy and Shizuko managed to pull Andra to safety. Forced to retreat and abandon the Mammoth siege vehicle, the combined Army-Marine force moved closer to the edge of the shielding dome and away from the alien defensive emplacements. Upon realizing that it was Simon-G294 who tried killing Andra, the conditioned hatred for Simon caught the entire Spartan-Delta team in a frenzy. They abandoned their defensive position and commandeered a Mastodon to chase after the Kru'desh Legion, last seen heading towards the inland refineries.
By daylight, Team Boson crossed into the refinery valley only to witness Swords of Sanghelios forces battering against the Imperium command element on a desert flat. Merlin designated his team's stealth satellite to fall on Simon's stolen Mammoth in hopes of killing him with a kinetic strike, however, the assassination attempt failed to kill Simon and his command element including Shinsu 'Refum, Simon's direct superior in the Covenant Remnant. The attack did damage the Mammoth's controls, forcing Simon's forces to guide the Mammoth into the refinery's safety, clear of further attacks due to the presence of civilians. Slipping between the shifting battle tides, the UNSC frigate Grand National flew in to give the Sangheili forces some air support, bringing along another combined-generation Spartan support unit, Team Harrier, of which included two more graduates of Delta Company, Sven-D340, and Oliver-D030. Relieved of their cliff overlook by Team Harrier, Team Boson took heavy weapons and descended towards the refineries with the intent of killing Simon for themselves.
After fighting their way through the refinery, between civilians and aliens, the team came just short of Simon's escape via an Imperium teleporter, unknowingly with the satellite module in hand. Retasking themselves to civilian evacuations, Team Boson witnessed the arrival of Simon's CCS battlecruiser Soul Ascension as it glassed the plains of Montak, incinerating both Sword and Imperium forces. Team Boson negotiated with a freelance freighter pilot, Elena Zaytseva, to take civilians and the Spartans into orbit, free from the Covenant Remnant's onslaught.
- Main article: RP:Imperium/Content/Part Two
- Andra-D054: "It was Simon-G294. Can you blame us?"
- Derek Frendsen: "Yes, I can! Andra, you almost lost your life out there – you guys didn’t stick together. Amy had to pull you out of the fire!"
- Merlin-D032: "Amy tried to shoot Simon first, Shizuko pulled Andra out of trouble,"
- Derek Frendsen: "Don’t you talk – you didn’t fall back when the assault collapsed, I saw the combat feed... And don’t get me started on the satellite..."
- — Derek Frendsen grilling Team Boson during a debrief.[src]
Once reunited with UNSC forces and the Battle of Montak won, the UNSC pushed the offensive into Imperium territory, targeting the Unggoy colony of Bineb II. Regrouping with the UNSC Maya and Lieutenant Commander Frendsen, Team Boson was subjected to a verbal rant regarding how bad the unit performed more than their marginal successes during the Battle of Montak. Frustrated but patient, Frendsen informed the team that they were being temporarily transferred out of VIOLET-III command into the services of Fireteam Stallion, led by Cody-B042, as Joshua-G024 informed Frendsen his team could not be responsible for Boson during Team Xiphos's deep strike deployments.
With Stallion, Team Boson assisted Cody's unit in defending hallways and hangars aboard the UNSC Maya when Imperium boarding parties attacked the ship. Catching the attention of Rear Admiral Hawkins, the naval officer requested a conference with the young Delta Company unit and ordered them on a risky operation. Their orders were to detonate a HAVOK tactical nuke inside the Unggoy civilian settlement on Bineb II in an attempt to force the local government to surrender and weaken the resolve of the Imperium military forces. Acceptant of their duties, Team Boson deployed to the planet's surface by way of stealthy Owl gunship and proceeded to fight their way in and out of the Unggoy city, pursued by heavy Unggoy resistance. Unable to escape the city in a timely manner, the Spartans went ahead and detonated the weapon while they were still in the kill zone. They were thrown about by hurricane-level winds but survived the detonation unharmed, eventually regrouping with their ride outside city limits.
Team Boson's nuclear attack on Bineb II was visible from orbit.
The Unggoy civilian government subsequently surrendered, leaving Imperium forces to retreat from the now-lost colony. However, Team Boson's newly-assigned Smart AI, Althea, was unknowing aboard the Soul Ascension as part of the ONI satellite module. After managing to gain temporary cyberwarfare dominance over the Soul Ascension, she disabled the alien warship and sent out a rescue request to the UNSC logistical convoy that Simon-G294 preyed upon. Receiving the distress signal, Merlin negotiated with Rear Admiral Hawkins for permission to go after the Smart AI in an attempt to right a mistake he made days before.
With Hawkin's hesitant support, Team Boson boarded the disabled Soul Ascension. Fighting deck to deck, they tracked their AI's distress signal only to get caught in a trap laid by Simon-G294. While Amber-G330, a fellow rogue SPARTAN-III under Simon's command, attempted to capture the invasive Smart AI, Simon went to confront the invading Spartan team only for everyone to converge at the Smart AI's prison. In a standoff, the assistance of UNSC warships outside firing into the disabled Soul Ascension allowed Team Boson to gain the upper hand in the battle frenzy.
Andra and Shizuko fought against Amber, Tuka, and their warship defenders while Merlin gave chase after Simon into the depths of the Soul Ascension. In a protracted one-on-one fight, Simon managed to get the upper hand by throwing the AI module at Merlin. Merlin caught the container but was forced to surrender when Simon held a gun to his head. However, distracted conversation with Merlin about his actions, Simon accidentally let Andra catch up to them. She dislodged Simon's prosthetic arm and freed Merlin only for Simon to again retreat, leaving the Spartan pair and their AI in the Soul Ascension's hangar bay. Vented out into space, the pair were eventually rescued by Shizuko in a commandeered Kru'desh space Banshee. Simon's forces regained control over their damaged starship and escaped the battlespace.
Upon regrouping with the UNSC Maya, Team Boson and the rest of the battlegroup received no opportunity for rest and relaxtion. Instead, a surprise arrival of a forty-strong Imperium naval battlegroup appeared in the Bineb system and the Maya-led force could do little more than retreat from the system in haste. Instead of running back to human space, they pressed inward towards the Imperium's capital world, Iradu. Following conclusions made by Admiral Lin Zhi on the chances for victory or defeat, the remnants of the UNSC Sixth Fleet sought to gamble their force's continued survival on an all-out naval assault in hopes that it would force Toru 'Makhan to negotiate for peace.
With Shizuko and Merlin shook by their near-pass with Simon-G294 and his lot, Team Boson agreed to go under stasis while Andra was attended to in the medical ward after extent complications brought on by an untreated concussion mixed with battlefield fatigue. Althea, the recovered Smart AI, was handed off to Commander Frendsen. At the turn of August into September 2558, the UNSC Sixth Fleet and their Swords of Sanghelios allies converged on the final target. Iradu would fall, or they would all die trying to make sure the Imperium would not see another tomorrow.
Sixth Fleet Spartan forces deployed from the UNSC Maya-led battlegroup aboard Pelican gunships with Broadsword escort into the capital city to secure a perimeter around Toru 'Mahkan's palace. A secretive ONI Security-ODST task unit led by Prowlers Corps commander Rear Admiral Ryan Samson discretely entered the palace using an orbital translocation terminal. With gunfire support from the UNSC Grand National and the Broadsword attack runs, defensive guns were destroyed as the Spartan forces including Team Stallion, Harrier, and Boson landed on the palace's western approach. An all-out assault, but a clean fight all the same. It was only upon securing the outer perimeter that they began to run into complications. First the Samson contingent fell out of contact as they passed into the deepest chambers of the palace proper.
Alien reinforcements continued to buffet the Spartan forces from beyond the palace gates and preventing the group from penetrating deeper into the government building. Forced to adapt, Cody-B042 directed Harrier to reinforce the palace's east side alongside Marines, Boson was to continuing holding the western approach. However, an unexpected request from Admiral Zhi shifting the ground game once more, pulling Team Stallion from the palace for a securement operation on the teleporter station once used by Samson's unit. Without their most formidable Spartan team, the security perimeter would be even harder hold.
Andra, Merlin, and Shizuko thought it would be difficult but manageable; that is, until a familiar shadow, the Soul Ascension descended from the embattled sky above. Cody called for the younger Spartans to do their best as his team left for their transport back into orbit; for the Deltas however, it sounded like another impossible request ahead of them.
The Created Interrupt
- Main article: Operation: RUNIT DOME
- "This will be a series of milk runs; we'll hit every Wealthian research station we find and uncover their secrets."
- ― [REDACTED] introducing Operation: RUNIT DOME.
- Main article: Asphodel Meadows Raid
- "You're about to make history. This won't stop the Created, but it will be the first real blow we strike against this new threat."
- ― Ryder Kedar to Task Force Phoenix-Two.[2]
Silent Garden Race
After killing Andra's assault team, David Kahn flipped sides, recruiting Andra in his search for Cassandra-G006.
- Main article: Halo: Heaven and Earth/Book One: New Heaven
- "When you really think about it, isn’t that what we [the Created, Syndicate] are? The successors to the UEG? Work with us, Andra. Be part of something better than whatever the hell it is you thought the UNSC was doing."
- ― Tatiana Onegin to the captured Andra-D054.[3]
The mission to eliminate Helen Powell failed with the deaths of Andra's special forces team. After being detained by Syndicate forces as the only survivor, Andra refused an offer from Syndicated-turned-Created enforcer Tatiana Onegin to work on their behalf. The turncoat activities of David Kahn and Argo 'Varvin allowed Andra to breakout alongside the criminal-traitors but she was forced to leave her MJOLNIR armor behind.
Escaping on Kahn's private shuttle Eagle's Claw, Kahn informed the group about the Created letting them go and his plan to find his SPARTAN-III daughter Cassandra-G006. While not trusting of the criminal-types, Andra could not argue with her new companions. Contacting Cassandra, Kahn's group traveled to the frontier colony Fell Justice. At a Fell Justice nightclub, Andra and Kahn met with Cassandra-G006, William Hargrove, and Zoey Hunsinger, current captain of the infamous blockade runner Chancer V. While starting on bad terms, the group agreed to fight the Created and find Gavin Dunn, the former captain of the Chancer V. Syndicate enforcers interrupted the meeting, started to a gunfight, and separated Kahn from the group. Kahn was eventually overwhelmed by Sangheili enforcers and finished by Tatiana, overseeing the attack herself.
The Chancer V, a blockade runner with a storied history on the post-war frontier.
Escaping Fell Justice aboard the Chancer V, Kahn's team now fell to Cassandra's leadership. Andra suggested returning to the UNSC only to be frustratingly overruled; she even considered shooting Cassandra over the dispute. It was decided instead that the Chancer V would seek out Gavin Dunn based on Kahn's notes, starting with the Insurrectionist commander Redmond Venter, an old friend of Gavin Dunn. Venter's last whereabouts put him on Talitsa; the colony recently became a Created stronghold after a shortlived UNSC occupation. Cassandra confronted Andra later over their different worldviews but agreed to work together to defeat the Created, for the time being. Upon arriving on Talitsa the Chancer V was intercepted by a Guardian Custode operated by Malekh, a former Colonial Administration Authority medical logistics Smart AI. Unlike previous encounters with Syndicate and Created forces, Malekh sought reconciliation for her enemies, offering the Chancer V crew a tour of Talitsa in hopes of changing the group's opinions of the Created. Andra joined Cassandra and Argo on a tour of Talitsa hosted by Malekh and Cassandra's old friend, Karina Larina. In the meantime, Hargrove guarded the ship while the ticked-off Zoey sought out Simon-G294, also on the colony, without notifying anyone in advance.
Cassandra's group completed their tour only to learn of Zoey's run-in with Venter's rebels and that the UNSC Sixteenth Fleet was coming to attack Talitsa, much to Andra's horror. Cassandra made plans to go after Zoey, knowing the futility of warning the Sixteenth Fleet even as Andra wanted to try. Frustrated, Cassandra shook Andra causing the younger Spartan to run off into Talitsa's alleyways. The group gave chase only for Andra to give up upon witnessing the UNSC fleet's decimation by a surprise, combined Created-Covenant-UNSC coalition force. Even still, The UNSC attempted to land ground troops, catching the Chancer V crew including Karina amid a battle between Created and UNSC forces.
The chaos took another turn when Cassandra's group ran into Venter's Second Vanguard Insurrectionist unit, led by Simon-G294. Upon catching sight of Simon, Andra attempted to shoot him for past grievances but Cassandra intervened, wanting to talk. Karina was subsequently reunited with her boyfriend, Thomas Koepke, who was with Simon's group. Orbital Drop Shock Troopers led by Lieutenant Justin Davis entered the alleyway and interrupted the reunion, pursued by Created forces. While suspicious of each other, actions by Davis, Simon, and Cassandra managed to get the mixed group set on escaping the battle on the Chancer V. Venter and Judith Ives, his childhood friend, were intercepted on the way to the Chancer V by Tatiana Onegin and her Created escort, the AI Avalokiteśvara in a Promethean Knight body. Ceremonially executed by the two, Venter's death would be announced in the wake of Created victory on Talitsa while Judith was relegated to a Created re-education camp.
In orbit, the Sixteenth Fleet was losing to the combined Created fleet when Shinsu 'Refum's fleet appeared, coming to the UNSC's aide and overwhelming the unprepared Created naval forces. Zoey was the first back to the Chancer V and with assistance from Hargrove attempted to reach Cassandra's position. Syndicate enforcers pressed in on the combined group as their teamwork started to slip. Across Talitsa, UNSC ground forces surrendered to the Created with the destruction of the Sixteenth Fleet. In response, Shinsu's forces fired plasma torpedoes at Talitsa to draw away the Created's attention and create an escape window. With the threat of plasma torpedoes hanging overhead, Simon dragged Andra into cover as a building came down on top of them. Under the debris, Andra attempted to shoot Simon again but ran into difficulties with his rebels and when his Sangheili reinforcements arrived, coming to Simon's rescue and subduing her.
With the arrival of the CCS battlecruiser Soul Ascension, Andra was returned to Cassandra's care while Simon escaped aboard. The ODSTs joined with Cassandra's group aboard the Chancer V and escaped with Shinsu Refum's coalition: the "Cleansing Blade."
- Main article: Halo: Heaven and Earth/Book Two: New Earth
- "Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. You’ve… you’re just not what I expected. But I can’t just abandon all this just because the UNSC lost one battle. My friends are still out there fighting the Created. What would I do if I just walked away now?"
- ― Andra-D054 on parting ways with Cassandra-G006.[4]
Briefly reunited with the Chancer V crew, Andra resorted to a moody expression as she balanced them with the familiar presence of UNSC forces. Her adventure with Cassandra-G006 had left a trusting impression of the older SPARTAN-III. Upon being recognized by Lieutenant Davis, Andra joined her fellow Naval Intelligence forces as the Chancer V and other escapee ships congregated around Shinsu's assault carrier, the Redemption of Sanghelios.
Reuniting with the newly-minted Commander Kedar, he personally received and debriefed Andra aboard his prowler Absalom on developments since her disappearance during the Asphodel Meadows raid. Formally inducted into Task Force Phoenix, Andra spent her days and hours integrating into the UNSC remnant community that parked itself in Shinsu 'Refum's hangar bay. She put in a good word during her debrief with Kedar for Cassandra, hoping her new compatriot would return to the UNSC. Cassandra ended up turning down a recommission in favor of an advisory role. A reunion with the other Gammas aboard the Redemption of Sanghelios went even less well. Amy-G094, still going by Hera, had few good words for her former pupil and her deceased partner's legacy.
It was Hera's suggestion that set Andra on a new, unwanted path: acting as the new liaison to Simon-G294's Insurrectionist-Covenant remnant coalition for Task Force Phoenix. Convinced of the idea to spy on Simon, Kedar passed the suggestion into orders for Andra, one that was responded to with much disagreement. In the end, Andra accepted her new role with disgust but keeping in mind her new contingency - if Simon-G294 posed a threat to UNSC interests, she was to kill him herself. Simon wasn't excited about the prospect either, seeing through the obvious spy ploy upon his formal introduction to a miserable Andra, but took her on at Kedar's insistence and reasoning about putting the UNSC in Shinsu 'Refum's good graces. Still determined to fulfill the imagined life debt he had for Andra, Argo followed Andra into the Kru'desh Legion, picking a fight with a Cleansing Blade officer to get himself conscripted into the alien penal force.
Upon induction into the Kru'desh Legion, Andra was anointed with the rank of Storm in keeping with Jul 'Mdama's previous practices. Knowing of Argo from previous exploits and activities in his mercenary days, Simon continued Andra's integration by promoting the Sangheili to Majordomo-equivalent over her and assigned him as the Delta's chaperone, ensuring her safety and loyalty in the same breath. Assigned to the Second Vanguard squad, Andra was set up with Venter's surviving Insurrectionists. Completing her transformation, Stray and Argo joined with the Insurrectionists to tattoo her neck and arm in United Rebel Front colors. While they were against her liking, they would keep her alive through the Insurrectionist convention that awaited the Kru'desh Legion at Gilgamesh Station.
Furthest Point
Character Assessment
Personality
Raised in a military household, Andra-D054's upbringing wasn't unusual for the Covenant War era with her Army Ranger mother away from home for months on end while her SIGINT father tried to raise their daughter as best he could. Not old enough to develop an impression of her mother, Andra instead took after her father with a verbose, boyish personality as a toddler. She continued this trend, displaying a growing pension for violence, competition, and a lack of self-control at the start of grade school. While school and interactions with classmates helped stem her worse traits for a time, she would regress by 2551.
The death of Andra's mother did not immediately affect the girl, however, the emotional and mental decline of her father leading into his suicide did leave drastic marks: physical and mental. Andra transformed into a creature of self-pity and extreme distrust under her father's mistreatment, and a lack of prominent or present adult figures in her life worsened her case while an orphan in the overwhelmed foster care system. Unresolved grief and poor communication warped into a case of select mutism that dominated her remaining childhood and through SPARTAN-III training. A sympathetic series of encounters with SPARTAN-III program recruiter and psychiatrist, Dr. Zhou-Romero, allowed Andra to work through some of trauma and latched on to the civilian contractor as a pseudo-mother figure that she missed in her early development.
Physical Appearance
Standing below the average height of Delta Company and previous Spartan generations, Andra-D054 was not a giant among her peers and managed to blend into the regular populace during much of her service career as a Spartan operative in unapparent public view. Still when compared to unaugmented individuals, her average stature or just above average appears to be a grace period as she continues to grow into her preteen years. If full maturity is even possible for a SPARTAN-III like her, Andra is expected to reach six feet or above but her specialty for seeming undercover operations is expected to never go away, and much to her own personal disappointment.
Personal Effects
Andra maintained a poorly-packed footlocker throughout her travels. It was eventually lost after leaving the UNSC Infinity behind.
- "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 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 acquired children's products during their stay in New Phoenix in an attempt to somewhat reclaim their lost childhoods. She sleeps with her Big M Studio Master Chief plushie on occasion but eventually set it aside. Team Boson offhandedly referred to the plushie as "Master Fluff."
Nicknames and Callsigns
- "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.
- "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.
- "Kru'desh Storm Andra Go-To-Hell": Andra received the rank of Storm while working with the Kru'desh Legion but was soon promoted after earning Simon-G294's favor. Still, Argo 'Varvin continued to use the teasing nickname born of a Simon-intended insult in less-serious encounters.
- "NDRA/D054": Andra's TEAMCOM four-letter designation.
- "Orphan 1-5": Team Boson's radio designation during their stay in New Phoenix and supporting Internal Investigations Unit 419. Assigned by an ill-meaning UNSC Army colonel aware of Team Boson's true nature. It became a unappreciated inside joke for Unit 419 towards Team Boson.
Relationships
Family Figures
- Neville Bradford: Andra's father who often raised Andra on his own as a stay-at-home dad while working for the Office of Naval Intelligence as a signals analyst. A proud and caring parent, he did an admirable job preparing Andra for her unforeseen future. Under his care, Andra developed an athletic, explorative, and violent streak, taking on a tomboyish personality in her youth. Andra's view on him is complicated but sour due to his mental unraveling after his wife's death, transforming into an angry drunk before committing suicide and leaving his daughter an orphan.
- Viktoria K. Bradford: Andra's absentee mother who she rarely got to see as a often-deployed UNSC Army Ranger. Andra adored her mother's memory but had a hard time understanding their relationship as a toddler and teenager. Salvaged ONI records on Viktoria Bradford became Andra's way of knowing her mother, painted her as someone Andra wanted to emulate, even after the mother's extended absence and death. In recent years, Andra attempted at being more assertive, vocal, and passionate about military service, taking after Viktoria. Andra even took up Viktoria's maiden name out of respect for the mother she didn't remember.
- Reyna Zhou-Romero: Lead recruiter and psychiatrist for SPARTAN-III Delta Company. Due to short staffing, she made several recruitment visits herself, including Andra's induction. Andra was motivated by Doctor Zhou-Romero's encouraging words as a rarity among the adults in her life and leaned on her during her Spartan training as someone to talk to, becoming the mother surrogate that Andra lacked. Even after being split apart for years, Reyna kept an eye on Andra from afar at the 117 Institute. She later retooled a research Smart AI, Althea, to protect Andra where she could not though the gift proved a complication to Andra's life.
- Cody-B042: A SPARTAN-III from Beta Company and Headhunter operative, Cody-B042 rarely interacted with Andra-D054 when they both served in the UNSC but Andra fought with his mixed-unit Fireteam Stallion on and off before and during the Created conflict. A proto-Gamma Company Spartan due to his guinea pig role for the Project: CHRYSANTHEMUM neural augmenters; his mental health never directly affected Andra but drew her initial distrust and discomfort due to a history of post-surgery migraines and his extended time with Merlin-D032. After retiring to Furthest Point, he and his wife took Andra in as an adopted daughter at Merlin-D032 and Althea's recommendation. Her own assessment of Cody is familial, daughterly as their shared experience as disillusioned Spartans drew them together.
Team Boson
Spartan Team Boson in 2557, clad in a mix of MJOLNIR armor variants. From left to right: Andra-D054, Daniele-D003 (top), Merlin-D032 (bottom), Roxanne-D107, and Zachariah-D111.
- Main article: Team Boson
- Merlin-D032: Team Boson's point-man and scout, Merlin-D032 is Andra's best friend and romantic interest. Andra's relationship with Merlin is a long, complicated series of events that have come to define both their lives. Beginning as adverse companions in knowing Doctor Zhou-Romero, the two warmed up before SPARTAN-III Initiation Day. Andra views Merlin as her one constant companion in life as they've been working and doing just about everything together since Spartan training. After Merlin went missing during the early Created crisis, Andra developed a single-minded fixation on finding him, struggling to accept the possibility of his death. They reunited during the race to explore the Silent Garden but Merlin was perturbed by his experiences, leading to a suffocation attempt on Andra. While they managed to reconcile their friendship, the Silent Garden continued to drive a wedge between them as their minds became victim to the alien technology's effects.
- Daniele-D003: Team Boson's team leader. Andra never had a strong opinion of the older boy but they did consider each other reliable and supporting friends. As she saw him, he was a deserving team leader with a unapparent thrill-seeking streak. Due to their mutual quiet natures, she felt comfortable in his presence and more than willing to execute his orders, even rely on him as her voice among other Spartan trainees. She lost any sense of knowing him after his desertion but was wistful to know why he made the choice. Their reunion after the Created crisis set them up as adversaries in the new balkanized galaxy.
- Roxanne-D107: Andra's best friend in Team Boson besides Merlin-D032 and her first friend from SPARTAN-III Delta Company. Roxanne was the only other girl on Team Boson, the team pilot and medic and often voice of excitement. Where Roxanne was boastful, Andra was shy and they often traveled together as a duo throughout their military service together. Roxanne was the first to know of, and encourage, Andra's attraction to Merlin-D032. Andra also coined Roxanne's nickname, "Rox" and "Roxxy." Her desertion came as a personal betrayal but Andra still hopes they can reunite one day as friends if Roxanne even survived the Created conflict.
- Zach-D111: "Zachariah," Team Boson's specialist and armorer. Andra's relationship with Zach was vaguely sibling-like, forged over long nights of weapons and uniform maintenance. Zach teased Andra the most on Team Boson even though he was the youngest. Andra, shyly, encouraged him to pursue a relationship with a cadet while staking out the Patuxent River Cadet Academy for suspected Insurrectionists. She was saddened but proud when he transferred into the BRUTUS Project but they have not remained in touch.
- Shizuko-D081: Andra and Shizuko begrudgingly got along during training as roommates and later as teammates when Shizuko was temporarily assigned to Team Boson as a replacement team leader for Daniele-D003. Both were quiet individuals in training, rarely interacting despite sharing bunking. Shizuko was never able to tell Andra what to do but they had mutual respect enough to call each other allies, maybe brief friends. During the Imperium conflict, the mutual loss of teammates served as a base in forming a more trusting alliance and Shizuko became Andra's go-to contact inside the UNSC after the Created conflict.
Commanding Officers
- Jefferson Korn: Team Boson's training counselor for three years and Andra's retrieval officer. Andra looked upon him as a superior worthy of respect but rarely interacted with him beyond receiving orders and visiting his office whenever she was to receive disciplinary action, typically for insubordination or unsanctioned violence. He inspired Andra but there was always a uncertain degree of suspicion in their relationship. His reemergence as a pirate lord on the post-Created frontier, put her and Korn on opposing sides as his ambitions threatened Andra's friendships and brief post-Created peace.
- Kyser Duceppe: Team Boson's Ferret handler, an Internal Investigations Unit 419 officer, and chaperone while Team Boson resided on Earth. His laidback command-style earned Andra's favor and set her expectations for the UNSC officer corps going forward, an expectation other officers struggled to match in commanding her. Their interactions were often cordial and uniquely emotive but cut short after members of Team Boson deserted and Duceppe's ferret unit was dissolved. Duceppe and Andra often traded messages during her time with Frendsen's unit as Duceppe ultimately recommended her transfer to VIOLET-III. As a parting gift, Andra gave Duceppe two turtles named after the Martian moons.
- Derek Frendsen: VIOLET-III's commanding officer. Andra served under him for almost a year after Team Boson's reassignment to VIOLET-III. Their relationship never extended beyond professional even when Andra attempted to treat Frendsen like a father figure but he proved unreceptive. He was the first to celebrate Andra's birthday outside Team Boson. After weeks went by aboard the UNSC Infinity without action, her desperation drove her to dislike the VIOLET-III commanding officer. Andra negotiated out of his unit at Ryder Kedar's encouragement after losing faith in him from aloofness, distance, and inaction on Merlin-D032's disappearance eventually shattered her trust in him.
- Ryder Kedar: Task Force Phoenix commanding officer and an ONI-assigned SPARTAN-IV, Ryder Kedar recruited Andra into his ad hoc assassination team from VIOLET-III, using both wit and charm to earn her trust. Andra served in several operations under his command, many not to her liking but never to her outright distaste until he placed her with rogue Simon-G294's Kru'desh Legion. Even though she has a poor opinion of Ryder, she struggled with a wish to please him, likely a product of an adolescent crush. Her interactions with Simon-G294 finally shook off any loyalties she had for Kedar and eventually led to her renouncement of the UNSC military.
Fellow Spartans
- Cassandra-G006: A SPARTAN-III deserter and frontier doctor, Cassandra-G006 came into contact with Andra after David Kahn, her father, recruited both to fight the Created-commandeered Iskandar Syndicate. Though Andra developed and hid a deep, respecting care for Cassandra, she struggled to admit it over their often differing worldviews. Andra's brief presence drove a wedge between Cassandra and her friends aboard the Chancer V. However, after tempers cooled with distance and her saving of Merlin-D032, Andra accepted Cassandra as a positive but wary influence in her life and even as a friend.
Andra-D054 marching with Joshua-G024 and Spartan supersoldiers.
- Joshua-G024: Andra's often-cynical, personal mentor from VIOLET-III. While an aggressive teacher for her teammates, Joshua-G024 shared a overt sibling relationship with Andra born from similar childhood experiences and trauma. Joshua cared, even dotted, about Andra potentially to an obsessive degree, even engineering reasons to keep her team from frontline deployments to protect her purported innocence. His behavior of Andra didn't go unnoticed and appeared as violent action towards Merlin-D032, or as noted to by Frendsen as "living vicariously innocent through her." His death weighed heavily on Andra. Much of his teachings continue to shape Andra's evolving view on galactic affairs, its possible her turn from the UNSC realized Joshua's own wishes after his death.
- Amy-G094: Joshua-G024's best friend and teammate, self-renamed "Hera" after Joshua's demise during the Created conflict. Andra often looked to Amy as an older sister even when Amy maintained her distance in comparison to Joshua who obsessed over Andra's care and training. After Joshua's death, their friendship soured as they dealt with his passing in different ways. Amy came to despise Joshua's memory as Andra fought to defend it. Since then, Amy and Andra's relationship has been combative and on poor terms, even earning Amy the designation of "Frendsen's attack dog." Hera often took pleasure in upsetting Andra for a cheap laugh after Joshua's passing.
- Simon-G294: The infamous butcher of his fellow SPARTAN-IIIs and Bombing of Philadelphia, Simon-G294 was a motivating target and educational example for many Spartans, particularly Delta Company including Andra, to take down. After several close encounters during the Imperium conflict where they nearly killed one another, Andra's view on Simon seemed to shift little by little. Her overt exposure to him while assigned to his Kru'desh Legion by Ryder Kedar as a so-called UNSC advisor firmly ended her dislike of him. Instead of being a target to kill, Simon became someone to understand as a fixture of her extreme curiosity. Andra was the first person Simon ever opened up to regarding his motivations to desert from the UNSC, however, their comradery remained circumstantial and interactions often violent.
Frontier Contacts
- Argo 'Varvin: A former Sangheili Special Operations majordomo and spymaster for the Office of Naval Intelligence, Argo and Andra share a history going back to encounters in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and aboard Atlântida. After Andra's assassin team failed a mission involving the Sangheili spymaster, Argo felt indebted to the Spartan and followed her across the frontier and into the Kru'desh Legion to keep her out of trouble during the Created conflict. Andra still doesn't know what to make of the Sangheili chaperone but considered him at least reliable. While their communications were sparse, he proved a fair-weather voice of advice on adapting to a rapidly-changing galaxy.
- Mohsin Shah: The surviving executive officer for the Second Vanguard, later Vanguard Squad.
- Vanguard Squad: Simon-G294's personal Insurrectionist unit, reorganized from the remnants of Redmond Venter's Second Vanguard after their near destruction during combat against both the UNSC and Created on Talista. After being placed by Ryder Kedar in Simon-G294's custody, she joined the new Vanguard Squad. Andra was often alienated from the group due to her overt UNSC allegiance and distaste for Insurrectionists and likewise by them, but they accommodated her to their twisted standards. Andra never came to see the squad as family but found them to be a safe space in a rapidly-changing galaxy. Even after leaving the Kru'desh Legion, she kept and modified her Insurrectionist tattoos rather than remove them. She often introduced herself among Insurrectionists with ranks she received while in the unit.
Smart AI
- Althea: The gifted Smart AI at first assigned to Team Boson, then VIOLET-III before being directly left in the care of Andra-D054 and Merlin-D032. After Merlin's poor handling of the Smart AI during the border war with the Imperium of Clarity, she was permanently made Andra's responsibility. Extended exposure to Andra's neurology encouraged Althea to model herself after Andra, traumatizing the girl. Subsequently, Andra developed a relative mistrust of Smart AI during and after the Created conflict. Althea and Andra share a competitive streak after some reconciliation, sharing in interests but unable to stand their shared headstrong personalities. During their brief retirement to Furthest Point, Andra worked as a electrical technician for Althea's Althean Communications Incorporated.
- Roland: The late Smart AI and ship director of the UNSC Infinity. Following Merlin's disappearance during the Created uprising, he made attempts to counsel Andra through her trauma, becoming her unsolicited life coach and much-needed confidant aboard the UNSC Infinity. She dubbed him "Alarm Clock" out of spite but found his interventions a welcome change to her depressive rut after the disappearance of Merlin and the death of Joshua-G024. In long days and nights of monotony, his dry wit and prodding prevent her from regressing back into her childhood mutism. He indirectly pushed her to sign up with Ryder Kedar's task force, after broadly prompting Andra to be proactive.
Gallery
![Psychological Dossier filed by Doctor Pajiit Arlington, circa. 2557.[5]](/wiki/File:BRADFORD,_Andra_K.png "BRADFORD, Andra K.png (1.95 MB)")
![Andra-D054's modified Mark V [B] GEN1 armor set.](/wiki/File:DT_Andra_Boson_Profile.png "DT Andra Boson Profile.png (9.23 MB)")
See Also
Notable Links |
Literary Appearances
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References