Erin Coney

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This fanfiction article, Erin Coney, is currently under active construction.

Erin Coney
Biographical Information
ALIAS	Codename: THORN
DATE OF BIRTH	September 18th, 2476
HOMEWORLD	New Montreal, Camber
Physical Information
GENDER	Female
HEIGHT	183cm (6'0")
HAIR COLOR	Black
EYE COLOR	Blue
Political/Military Information
RANK	Lieutenant (O-3)
BRANCH	UNSC Navy
AFFILIATION	Office of Naval Intelligence
[Source]

"Parangosky always had her own little black ops agents running around, aspiring to be more. She gives them power, uses them for her own ends, then kills them off before they can become threats. But THORN was the first, and Parangosky didn’t realize when she'd grown beyond her control."

― Rear Admiral Ned Rich

In a past life, Erin Natalia Coney felt pride—if she felt anything at all—in being a living weapon, relinquishing the right to so much as her own identity to more efficiently remove obstacles from the path of her patron: then-Captain Margaret Parangosky. Under the Codename: THORN, she would be Parangosky's right hand in her ascension to power over the Office of Naval Intelligence. But for all her training as a member of Project: ORION and an ONI operative, her utter loyalty left her blindsided when Parangosky attempted to have her killed at the first mistaken sign of disobedience. Learning to fend for herself amid myriad opportunities for assignment to suicide missions during the Human-Covenant War, Erin struggled with escaping her past until working alongside a pair of SPARTAN-IIs: Vinh-030 and Isaac-039. Discreetly arranging transfer for herself to Onyx, Erin assisted in the training of the top-secret Gamma Company and began learning to want for herself again. Becoming field advisor for a number of teams when the young Spartans graduated, Erin subverted the will of ONI and the UNSC by assigning herself and Team Machete to a remote posting on the recolonization survey ship UNSC Themistocles and eventually the UNSC Infinity. After a disastrous accident revealed how long she'd flaunted ONI's will, however, Erin was coerced into serving at the pleasure of ONI's highest echelons once again as overseer for Fireteam Nephthys.

Biography

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The Hotshot

Early Life and Enlistment

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"A little friendly competition never hurt anyone but the loser!"

― Erin was known to provoke competition when none was forthcoming.

Erin's life began in New Montreal on Camber, an Inner Colonial world heavily invested in shipbuilding industries supported by UNSC contracts. The youngest of seven children, Erin quickly learned to fight with her brothers for their parents' attention, developing a competitive streak by the time she'd entered her teen years. While a quick study, her grades often languished as Erin devoted herself to sports practice and bashed her way from left-forward to captain of her school's Grifball team. By her sophomore year, Erin was in excellent physical shape and could outperform seniors with or without a pugil stick.

Though her parents hoped Erin would follow her brothers into working on Camber's orbital shipyards, their divided attention had led to distance with their only daughter. Resenting their intentions for her, Erin instead applied to the Corbulo Academy of Military Science at sixteen, partly out of spite. Surprised by her acceptance, she left for Circinius IV and rarely communicated with home, throwing herself entirely into her studies. Competitive as ever, Erin quickly surpassed her peers both physically thanks to her athletic lifestyle and academically as she put any free time toward her studies.

Going out of her way to set records in her classmates' areas of study, Erin made few friends at Corbulo, but did attract the notice of the Office of Naval Intelligence. In 2492, before Erin was set to graduate, she was called for an interview with an ONI recruiter who offered her a place in an experimental and top-secret initiative, one which could place her among some of the UNSC's most highly-skilled operatives. Pleased by the validation of her fiercely self-centered approach, Erin dismissed warnings about the program's inherent risks and restricted contact with the outside world and volunteered.

Christine: "Alexis, dear, this isn't you. You don't know what you're doing!"

Alexis: "You've never even tried to know me. And yes, I do."

―Alexis parts with her family for the last time.

Born in Montreal, URNA on Earth, Alexis Loomis was the only child of shipping magnate Christine Loomis, who'd made her fortune in trade as the UEG assumed more direct control of its stellar colonies. Though her family's wealth afforded her every luxury, Alexis' parents remained emotionally distant. Christine had married the brother of a partner for the connections the association opened up, while Lewis valued Christine most for her financial security. Their daughter, therefore, was more an extension of their own ambitions than an independent person. Alexis' future was mapped out far ahead of her present to reflect well on her family and business—a map Alexis soon found herself drawn to the edges of.

Even before her teen years, Alexis grew frustrated with her parents rejection of anything which didn't conform to their plans for her. Interests in firefighting, exobiology, and teaching were stifled in favor of tedious business studies and cultivating friendships only with those deemed useful to know. Rather than be discouraged, Alexis began to act out, and her so-called fits showed how little patience her parents truly had for her. Frequently confined to her rooms, Alexis' first attempts at sneaking out were stymied by the house's consumer-grade 'dumb' AI. Unable to compete with such an advanced electronic security measure, her parents were gratified to see an immediate uptick in the homeschooling grades the AI administered.

Content the matter had been resolved, her parents became complacent, and failed completely to notice their daughter's perpetual exhaustion and apparent lack of her own interests. Only upon intruding into her bedroom one night, meaning to wake her to receive a guest, and finding a speaker playing looped snoring did they learn Alexis had long since reprogrammed the house AI. Dismayed to learn the depth of her quiet rebellion, the Loomis family fired most of their house staff for failing to notice where they hadn't and brought on new employees with strict orders to mind Alexis' whereabouts.

Alexis, however, having developed friends and a life of her own outside her parents' realm of approval, would not fold. Bribing, blackmailing, or otherwise threatening the employment of the new staff allowed her to continually escape her guardians. Through all their conflict, however, Alexis would intentionally bring her accomplishments in various fields to her parents for their consideration, only to be dismissed again and again. Finally, upon turning eighteen, Alexis failed to appear for the birthday celebration her family held with their numerous associates. When finally tracked down, she appeared at the local UNSC recruitment kiosk, having signed a binding enlistment contract. Knowing no sum spent on legal services would deprive the UNSC of a volunteer, her parents severed contact with Alexis as she prepared to ship out for basic training.

With nothing to return to, Alexis threw her entire being into military conditioning, with immediate results. She stood head and shoulders above her fellow recruits in every subject from tactical theory to physical capability, excelling thanks to unwavering dedication and hard work. Already marked by headhunters for various commissioned and non-commissioned officer programs, her record caught the attention of recruiting agents of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Her enlistment had coincided with an elite program, as an agent explained upon calling Alexis in for an interview. Flattered by their notice, Alexis found no reason to refuse and was transferred to prepare for the program.

"You don't understand! It was never... it wasn't supposed to be me."

― Natalia argues with her counselor after the loss of her sisters.

Born the third of triplets to first-generation colonists on the Outer Colony of Cascadia, Natalia Konin would grow up with all the benefits of a UEG-sponsored colonization effort. While her parents were away from Neo-Montreal for weeks at a time surveying remote new prospects across the planet, Natalia and her sisters attended the school provided for the settlers' families. Despite showing an early interest in sports, she was eclipsed by her sister Natasha's stellar athletic performance and instead set herself apart through academic pursuit. Becoming an exceptional student in both math and science, Natalia earned the chance to study their homeworld as an intern at Aquarius Terraforming's headquarters.

But in 2490, a bacterial strain native to Cascadia mutated and spread through the colony as a lethal disease. The overwhelmed colonial hospitals requested help from off-world, but a UEG response would take months to arrive. Cascadia's colonial population was ravaged in the meantime, with fatality rates extraordinarily high. Natalia's sister Natasha was one of the first infected, and while Natalia's internship came with priority access to medical care, her sister had no such benefit. Around this time, Natalia's observers reported a decrease in the quality of her work, but believed distraction with her sister's illness as the cause. Natalia also eventually contracted the disease, despite the faulty water filter thought to be at fault being replaced by such time, and was admitted for emergency care.

While Natalia was kept on life support long enough for the UEG relief effort to reach them, their sister Natlina was first to pass away. Natasha hung on longer than any other known case, her symptoms appearing to set in late, before she too succumbed. Their parents, on a remote expedition when the epidemic began, were forbidden to return until the disease had been eradicated, and could do little to comfort their remaining daughter. When at last they were reunited, Natalia had grown resentful and distant toward them.

This was not the only abrupt change in Natalia's personality. She gave up her internship and frequently went out late where before she'd preferred staying home, taking up boxing as an excuse. Certain their remaining daughter was suffering survivor's guilt and other lingering trauma from the epidemic, her parents enrolled Natalia in therapy, but she refused to open up. Grieving themselves, her parents pushed harder to make her open up but only drove Natalia further away. Finally, Natalia announced her intention to leave the planet she'd so loved studying to enlist with the UNSC. Heartbroken by her decision, Natalia's parents would not see her off when their daughter's shuttle left the planet.

As her communication with home went from rare to non-existant, Natalia focused entirely on her service and flew through basic training. Her dedication earned her notice, and within months she was offered the chance to study at a military academy on Reach. Displaying much of the same promise as she had in her primary education, both Natalia's performance and continued isolation earned her the eye of a special recruitment program. After an interview with an ONI officer, Natalia was given the option to join a top-secret project and serve with some of the UNSC's most highly-skilled operatives. Flattered despite the dire risks the recruiter hinted at, Natalia agreed.

Project: ORION

"I said little girls could run these courses faster, but I never thought the Corps would agree!"

― One of ORION's drill instructors upon learning of Erin's candidacy.

After its success with sixty-five initial subjects in 2491, Project: ORION's leadership sought to glean more from their experiment by diversifying the one hundred candidates recruited for Phase II. Erin would represent the extreme low end of the project's age variable at eighteen, making her an obvious outlier among the dozens of veterans from all branches of the UNSC and CMA. Despite her graduation from UNSC Naval Special Warfare School with the rank of Sergeant, Erin was treated as a joke and imminent washout as intense physical training began their conditioning for augmentation. The derision of her comrades, however, only drove her to fight harder, and Erin never failed to at least keep up. As she improved, her fellow ORIONs were gradually forced to acknowledge her capability.

Erin during her time in ORION.

Finally, Erin and the other candidates were subjected to chemical and surgical augmentations which were hoped would greatly enhance both mental and physical abilities. These procedures carried significant risk: many preceding subjects had experienced fatal complications, and being so far outside the usual age range, Erin's projected chances of survival were low. Astoundingly, Erin would not only survive ORION's experimental augmentations, but upon full recovery displayed some of the highest proportional increases across practically all metrics, from strength and speed to mental acuity and reaction time. Analysis of her augmentation would confirm Erin's age to be the deciding factor, which would prove critical to Catherine Halsey's research years later and lead her to use even younger subjects for the SPARTAN-IIs. Meanwhile, ORION's new graduates would spend months acclimating to their new abilities, during which Erin and her comrades broke longstanding records in team and solo exercises.

The first field test of ORION—and Erin herself—would come in 2596 when the supersoldiers deployed to Eridanus II as part of Operation: CHARLEMAGNE, stamping out a secessionist takeover of a UEG colony. Erin was disappointed not to be assigned to an assault team until learning she would have a more crucial role: preserving the secrecy of the ORIONs by eliminating witnesses to their operations. While other teams carried out raids on Insurrectionist strongholds, Erin would intercept communications and coordinate with snipers and artillery to eliminate fleeing survivors. While she would carry out her first kills in the course of the operation, it was her work as an information specialist which earned her a commendation for enabling the ORIONs to carry out their goals completely undetected. Her efficiency and attention to detail in maintaining operational security would be overshadowed by the wider success of ORION's supersoldiers, save in the eyes of one ONI officer: Codename: MAGPIE, Captain Margaret Parangosky.

Like many in ONI, Parangosky possessed ruthless personal ambition and the cunning to act on it, siphoning assets for her personal use while ascending the Office's hierarchy. She took note of ORION's success, and became interested in Erin thanks not only to her tactical ability, but her lack of previous loyalty to anyone in the UNSC. Requiring a test of her character, Parangosky subtly manipulated Erin's career by modifying parameters to make her appear more ideal for counterintelligence operations, guaranteeing her a place among the ORIONs assigned to Operation: VERITAS. The following year, Erin conducted missions against the Secessionist Union and demonstrated her willingness to carry out espionage, blackmail, murder, and even torture without hesitation. Pleased with Erin's evident amorality, Parangosky arranged a meeting in which she framed Erin's previous assignments as 'gifts' and offered her a place in her personal retinue. Having never felt included by her comrades in ORION, Erin readily agreed to help Parangosky seize advancement and rise at her side.

The Agent

Internal Affairs

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Erin as an agent of ONI.

"Rule one of surviving as the underdog: █████ ██ █ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ███."

― A page from Parangosky's rules for Strength through Paranoia.

With Erin's whereabouts already classified under █████, Parangosky enabled her to all but disappear from UNSC records and undergo officer training ████ ███ ████ █████ █ █████ ████████. With command expertise under her belt, Erin was handed over to a legendary ONI ███████ operative, Codename: ███████████, to hone her talents for █████████, ███████████████████, and other skills for survival in the Office of Naval Intelligence. Beyond mentoring her in ██████████, ███████████ also introduced her to the landscape of ONI: ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████████████, ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████. ██████████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ thanks to its exceptional power ███ ██████ ██████████████.

███████████ eventually revealed that—█████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██████, as Erin's own recruitment proved—Erin's patron was in a minority with both the capability for and interest in forcing these squabbling departments to perform their intended functions, which had earned her ███████████'s favor. Coming to share their belief in Parangosky's potential to one day command all of ONI by the time her training was done, Erin was commissioned with the rank of ██████████ in ████ and took up her role as Parangosky's right hand under the Codename: THORN.

Since the disgrace and discharge of Parangosky's own sponsor into ONI ██ █████ ████████████, Parangosky had been left a relative outsider to its establishment. Without powerful friends, she would have been ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████████ █████████ were it not for the plan she'd conceived. As the UEG had grown ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████, ONI's power had expanded ██ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██████████████ █████████. What parts of the organization hadn't been completely absorbed had been all but abandoned. This included its ████████████ arm, the ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████.

Widely seen as a defeated and broken institution █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███, Parangosky sought the posting of its head ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████. THORN's first task on Parangosky's behalf would be ██ █████ ███████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████████ to ensure her appointment. Once their minds were made up, these rivals forced Parangosky's acceptance of this apparent dead-end posting ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███, and then think her safely disposed of. Given exactly what she wanted ███ █ ██████ █████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████, Parangosky acquiesced and rebased to the Outer Colonies, away from ONI's centers of power, where she would begin transforming the DCS ████ ███ ████████ ████.

"I get to ███ ███ █████ ███ ████, and it's all perfectly legal—██ ██████, ████ ██'██ ████████ █████████ ███ █████."

― Codename: THORN expressing her job satisfaction.

Despite ONI ███████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████████, the DCS still retained ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████ across the Inner and Outer Colonies, none of whom—like THORN—had pre-existing loyalties in the UNSC. This made them ideal recruits for ██████████'█ ████████ ██████, as she could be assured none were ██████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ and had already settled into a proven working dynamic. Over the following years, THORN would work alongside other members of Parangosky's staff to develop a new command structure ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███' ██████. Foremost among these would be ████████: ██████, with whom her old competitive streak reemerged, which only irritated the more straightforward ██████.

Part of the UEG's excuse for usurping the CAA had been ███ ████████████ ██ ███████████████ ████████████, ████ ██ █████ ████████. When these were found, Parangosky employed THORN ██ █ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████. THORN would be tasked with their ███████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████████—assignments she achieved a perfect rate of success in. Thanks to both her reliability and appreciation of her patron's vision for ONI, THORN and Parangosky also developed a ████ ████ working relationship, trusting one another ███ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████████ necessary for Parangosky to secure her position. Thanks in part to THORN's work, the DCS was under Parangosky's complete control in just a few years. Not only would it ███████ ███████ ██ ████████ █████████ per its mission statement with increased efficiency, but ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ████████.

For the next phase of Parangosky's scheme, THORN's assignments would change in only one significant way: her ███████ were no longer ███████████████ █████, but ██████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████'█ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ██ █████. While these were typically ██████ ██████████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████, ███████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██████████'█ ███████, THORN would also infrequently ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████████. In the course of these assignments, she was ███████ ████████ on multiple occasions from ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██████, but THORN's loyalty never wavered. Parangosky would specifically praise THORN's hand in ███ █████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████████████ ███ ███████, leading to ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████████-████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████. In the scandal's wake, Parangosky ██████ █ █████████████ ████ ███ her elevation to Rear Admiral as chief of security for all of Section Three.

Despite the authority of her new position, the Rear Admiral's swift recovery from what should have been a dead-end posting earned her the notice of every officer in ONI. Now that she had something worth taking, Parangosky █████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ seeking to ███████ █████ ███ █████ ██████ and ██████ ████████ hoping to █████ ███ ████ ██████. Fortunately, ███ █████ █████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ █████████, allowing her to ███████████ ████ █████ █████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ████. With her increased scope of responsibilities, however, she increasingly delegated tasks to THORN, coming to trust her as a personal watchdog.

With permission to ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ ████████████ ███ ██████, THORN often carried out ███ ███████ necessary to spare her patron ███ █████████████ ██ ███████, but was also █████ ███████ ██ █ █████ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███████. With this ██████████ █████ in place, Parangosky was free to ████ █████████ ███ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ████ rather than the other way around. Without ███ ██ ███ █████████ which had ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███████ for decades, Parangosky could ████ █████ ████████████ ████ ████████ ██████ and ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████████. Simultaneously, █████████ ███████ and █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ██████ brought resources and jurisdictions under her thumb ██ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ████.

While ███████ had initially brought her into power in Section Three, Parangosky's ██████████ █████████ secured her ascension to Commander-In-Chief of ONI less than a decade later. With any ████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ █████'██ █████ █ ████████ ██████ either ████████ or ███████ ████ ████, ONI's new head was able to steer it into more productively combating the Insurrection and set up mechanisms to prevent it from sliding back into bureaucratic infighting. Parangosky chose THORN to ████ ███ ██████████████ ██ █████ ████████. Between them, it was an open secret these functioned as █ ████ ██ █████'█ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ██████████ █████, ████████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ███████. Under Parangosky, the Office's authority and influence expanded, seeing the position of its head promoted to Rear Admiral of the Upper Half and eventually Vice Admiral.

Erin as an agent of ONI.

"Rule one of surviving as the underdog: don't do a job unless your enemies think they made you."

― A page from Parangosky's rules for Strength through Paranoia.

With Erin's whereabouts already classified under ORION, Parangosky enabled her to all but disappear from UNSC records and undergo officer training with the Navy under a cover identity. With command expertise under her belt, Erin was handed over to a legendary ONI wetwork operative, Codename: GRANDMASTER, to hone her talents for espionage, counterintelligence, and other skills for survival in the Office of Naval Intelligence. Beyond mentoring her in fieldcraft, GRANDMASTER also introduced her to the landscape of ONI: hundreds of officers heading dozens of departments overseeing thousands of projects from research and development to surveillance, all competing for funding or support to expand their influence. Corruption and cronyism was rampant in the organization thanks to its exceptional power and minute accountability.

GRANDMASTER eventually revealed that—while not immune to the same faults, as Erin's own recruitment proved—Erin's patron was in a minority with both the capability for and interest in forcing these squabbling departments to perform their intended functions, which had earned her GRANDMASTER's favor. Coming to share their belief in Parangosky's potential to one day command all of ONI by the time her training was done, Erin was commissioned with the rank of Lieutenant in 2498 and took up her role as Parangosky's right hand under the Codename: THORN.

Since the disgrace and discharge of Parangosky's own sponsor into ONI by rival machinations, Parangosky had been left a relative outsider to its establishment. Without powerful friends, she would have been vulnerable to sidelining by bureaucratic alliances were it not for the plan she'd conceived. As the UEG had grown interested in more direct control of its colonies, ONI's power had expanded so it could undermine the Colonial Administration Authority. What parts of the organization hadn't been completely absorbed had been all but abandoned. This included its intelligence arm, the Department of Colonial Security.

Widely seen as a defeated and broken institution after failing to resist ONI, Parangosky sought the posting of its head to remove herself from her rivals' sights. THORN's first task on Parangosky's behalf would be to plant information and covertly influence the directors and section chiefs hostile to Parangosky to ensure her appointment. Once their minds were made up, these rivals forced Parangosky's acceptance of this apparent dead-end posting by revealing what leverage they had against her, and then think her safely disposed of. Given exactly what she wanted and a better understanding of her enemies' methods, Parangosky acquiesced and rebased to the Outer Colonies, away from ONI's centers of power, where she would begin transforming the DCS into her personal army.

"I get to lie and cheat and kill, and it's all perfectly legal—or almost, once we've finished rewriting the rules."

― Codename: THORN expressing her job satisfaction.

Despite ONI liquidating its assets and dissolving its leadership, the DCS still retained an expansive network of agents across the Inner and Outer Colonies, none of whom—like THORN—had pre-existing loyalties in the UNSC. This made them ideal recruits for Parangosky's personal agenda, as she could be assured none were plants from rival ONI factions and had already settled into a proven working dynamic. Over the following years, THORN would work alongside other members of Parangosky's staff to develop a new command structure and ensure the loyalty of the DCS' agents. Foremost among these would be Codename: ISTARI, with whom her old competitive streak reemerged, which only irritated the more straightforward ISTARI.

Part of the UEG's excuse for usurping the CAA had been its infiltration by Insurrectionist sympathizers, some of which remained. When these were found, Parangosky employed THORN as a scalpel to remove the potential threat. THORN would be tasked with their termination or capture for interrogation—assignments she achieved a perfect rate of success in. Thanks to both her reliability and appreciation of her patron's vision for ONI, THORN and Parangosky also developed a rare warm working relationship, trusting one another not to hesitate in the face of drastic measures necessary for Parangosky to secure her position. Thanks in part to THORN's work, the DCS was under Parangosky's complete control in just a few years. Not only would it monitor threats to colonial stability per its mission statement with increased efficiency, but it kept tabs on the various facilities and projects her rivals in ONI staffed and operated.

For the next phase of Parangosky's scheme, THORN's assignments would change in only one significant way: her targets were no longer Insurrectionist moles, but operatives like herself pledged to aid Parangosky's rivals in their own pursuits of power. While these were typically simple assassinations or leaks staged to look like the work of competitors, stoking conflicts to weaken Parangosky's enemies, THORN would also infrequently take up new identities to infiltrate rival projects. In the course of these assignments, she was offered promises on multiple occasions from figures higher in stature than her own patron, but THORN's loyalty never wavered. Parangosky would specifically praise THORN's hand in the embarrassment of one officer by orchestrating his divorce, leading to the discovery of thousands in illegally-siphoned funds stored in private bank accounts. In the scandal's wake, Parangosky struck a surreptitious deal for her elevation to Rear Admiral as chief of security for all of Section Three.

Despite the authority of her new position, the Rear Admiral's swift recovery from what should have been a dead-end posting earned her the notice of every officer in ONI. Now that she had something worth taking, Parangosky would more often be the target of schemes from both rivals seeking to install their own loyal agents and junior officers hoping to climb the same ladder. Fortunately, her loyal spies in the DCS kept her informed of threats as they developed, allowing her to proactively foil these plots rather than react to their damage done. With her increased scope of responsibilities, however, she increasingly delegated tasks to THORN, coming to trust her as a personal watchdog.

With permission to direct DCS agents to gather whatever intelligence she needed, THORN often carried out the wetwork necessary to spare her patron the inconvenience of attacks, but was also given command of a small cadre of her own agents to oversee. With this praetorian guard in place, Parangosky was free to wage political war on those seeking to make ONI serve them rather than the other way around. Without fear of the reprisals which had kept corrupt factions in balance for decades, Parangosky could slow their machinations with security audits and the exposure of criminal activities. Simultaneously, cutthroat threats and blackmail as fierce as that which came before brought resources and jurisdictions under her thumb or crushed them under her heel.

While bribery had initially brought her into power in Section Three, Parangosky's undisputed dominance secured her ascension to Commander-In-Chief of ONI less than a decade later. With any officers or project leaders who could've posed a credible threat either defanged or brought into line, ONI's new head was able to steer it into more productively combating the Insurrection and set up mechanisms to prevent it from sliding back into bureaucratic infighting. Parangosky chose THORN to lead the implementation of these programs. Between them, it was an open secret these functioned as a test of THORN's ability to run the house Parangosky built, training her to one day succeed her as CINCONI. Under Parangosky, the Office's authority and influence expanded, seeing the position of its head promoted to Rear Admiral of the Upper Half and eventually Vice Admiral.

An External Threat

• Authorization:
• OCTOBER RED

"You spend years perfecting all the ways to work a system—tell the right lies, grease the right palms, knock off the ones who won't play ball. And then forget someone who doesn't care about the game could come and knock all the cards down."

― Erin remarks on ONI's unpreparedness to counter the Covenant.

Decades of Parangosky and THORN's best-laid plans for maintaining stability in the UEG's administration and colonies were suddenly disrupted in 2525, when humanity's first contact with alien life ended in hostilities and the razing of an entire world. Thinking diplomatic channels might still save the situation, the UNSC—ONI included—remained unprepared when the glassing of Green Hills swiftly followed. As Parangosky moved to persuade the UEG's leaders to abandon negotiation and ready for war, she dispatched THORN to Second Base, another of Harvest's closest stellar neighbors. She suspected the aliens had gleaned Green Hills' coordinates from navigational data recovered from Harvest's infrastructure, and tasked THORN with retrieving or destroying stellar cartography data stored at the Cixin Astrometrics Center before it could hand the aliens an atlas to all of human space.

Despite arriving on the UNSC Storm Warning, a corvette equipped with one of the fastest slipspace drives in the fleet, THORN awoke from cryostasis upon arrival only to find Second Base already under attack by the Covenant. Gauging the Covenant's closeness to the Astrometrics Center, THORN threw ONI's weight behind a request to the Storm Warning’s captain to provide support for her mission. This would be granted in the form of an ODST squad under the leadership of Sergeant Pete Stacker. Deploying to the planet's surface just outside the capital city, THORN and the ODSTs would get their first taste of combat against Unggoy and Kig-Yar infantry en route to the facility.

With the Covenant closing in, THORN ordered the ODSTs to remain outside and hold off the aliens while she entered the building alone. Within, THORN found room after room abandoned, the staff having fled in hopes of finding shelter. Accessing the building's security office, THORN discovered both the location of the Center's astrological data servers, and the presence of Doctor Sanna Korhonen, an astrophysicist who'd believed she'd be safer inside the Center. With a warning from Stacker the ODSTs had been engaged by Covenant forces, THORN quickly made her way toward the server room.

Inside, she found Doctor Korhonen attempting to back up her facility's research, a time-consuming process given the scope of their data. Given the time constraints of her mission, THORN overrode the doctor's objections and began to plant a Fury tactical nuclear device to ensure the destruction of every component capable of holding navigation data which might lead the Covenant to further worlds. Korhonen attempted to stop her, but was woefully unprepared to face an ONI officer and resulted in her termination at the ONI assassin's hands.

The noise, however, drew the attention of Covenant troops who had forced their way through the ODSTs and onto the campus. Pinned in the room by plasma fire, THORN finished the Fury's activation sequence, prepared to complete her mission even at the cost of her own life. This sacrifice would not prove necessary, however, as gunfire in the corridor outside announced the arrival of her backup: Sergeant Stacker. The ODST relayed that the rest of his squad had been killed fighting the aliens, and together the pair fled the center. Reaching their extraction point under fire from alien pursuit, they were flown off-planet by a waiting Pelican dropship minutes ahead of the Fury's detonation.

While they waited in orbit for the Storm Warning’s rendezvous, however, the ONI retrieval specialist prepared to carry out his own orders—evidence had come to light of THORN sequestering intelligence and assets to secure her own imminent ascent to power, using the chaos incited by the alien threat. As he attempted to apprehend THORN, however, Sergeant Stacker misunderstood the confrontation and sided with the rogue agent. Taking advantage of the opening, THORN murdered the internal affairs officer and convinced Stacker to help her jettison the body before their pick-up, reporting the pilot killed covering their run to the dropship.

Allowed to debrief Stacker on the operation, THORN became enamored with the younger sergeant, possibly due to the shared stresses they'd endured during the mission. THORN and Stacker entered an unsanctioned intimate relationship during the months-long slipspace voyage, during which THORN also doctored reports and retooled the assets at her disposal to ensure her own survival.

Sequestering resources and erasing documentation which could be used against her, THORN assembled data packets filled with evidence of Parangosky's hand in illicit programs and operations. Using external, less-secure lines of communication over their privately-established, potentially-traceable channels, THORN contacted Parangosky and explained she would be setting up a transfer for herself. To deter further reprisals, she threatened to provide the information she'd gathered to Parangosky's rivals, already set for timed release should she be killed. With an uneasy truce with CINCONI in place, THORN proceeded to disappear among the Office's bureaucratic and conspiratorial departments.

Decades of Parangosky and THORN's best-laid plans for maintaining stability in the UEG's administration and colonies were suddenly disrupted in 2525, when humanity's first contact with alien life ended in hostilities and the razing of an entire world. Thinking diplomatic channels might still save the situation, the UNSC—ONI included—remained unprepared when the glassing of Green Hills swiftly followed. As Parangosky moved to persuade the UEG's leaders to abandon negotiation and ready for war, she dispatched THORN to Second Base, another of Harvest's closest stellar neighbors. Her spies in the DCS had traced unauthorized deep-space transmissions back to the Cixin Astrometrics Center on the planet, and tasked THORN with identifying their sender and if they had any connection to the Covenant attacks.

Despite arriving on the UNSC Storm Warning, a corvette equipped with one of the fastest slipspace drives in the fleet, THORN awoke from cryostasis upon arrival only to find Second Base already under attack by the Covenant. Gauging the Covenant's closeness to the Astrometrics Center, THORN threw ONI's weight behind a request to the Storm Warning’s captain to provide support for her mission. This would be granted in the form of an ODST squad under the leadership of Sergeant Pete Stacker. Deploying to the planet's surface just outside the capital city, THORN and the ODSTs would get their first taste of combat against Unggoy and Kig-Yar infantry en route to the facility.

With the purpose of her mission classified, THORN ordered the ODSTs to remain outside and prevent anyone from leaving the building without her express permission. Sergeant Stacker objected to the order, considering the nearby Covenant army a higher priority, but THORN dismissed his concerns and entered the building alone. Inside, THORN found room after room abandoned, the staff having fled in hopes of finding shelter. Intending to find logs of authorized access to the Center's interstellar communication array, THORN accessed the building's security servers only to find their data wiped. The security logs did, however, point to one lifesign remaining in the facility, and THORN moved to intercept them for interrogation.

Her course change, however, caught her target's attention. A voice over the building's intercom, identifying herself as Doctor Sanna Korhonen, announced they could see her over security cameras and begged THORN to help evacuate her. Being visible to her target pushed THORN to move quickly, only to find a door locked ahead of her. Doctor Korhonen then revealed she'd expected an ONI agent sent for her once she'd reached out to the aliens, intentionally drawing them to Second Base for her own misanthropic ends. She also revealed the presence of a Sangheili Zealot with whom THORN was now locked in.

Barely evading the alien's first ambush, THORN engaged in a game of lethal cat-and-mouse against a cloaked enemy several times her size and strength. With doors locked down and fire alarms set off around her by Doctor Korhonen, Erin stayed ahead only barely until being trapped in one of the laboratories. Instants from death, THORN was saved by the dynamic entry of Stacker's ODST squad through the building's windows, tipped off by the alarms. Even against the hardened troopers, the Zealot cut through them with fearsome plasma weapons and killed all but THORN and Stacker before it fell.

Despite Stacker's urging her to withdraw, THORN headed back into the facility's halls to complete her mission. They found Doctor Korhonen as she packed to flee, and pled with Stacker—unaware of her involvement without explanations from THORN—to protect her. THORN's immediate termination of the astrophysicist thus shocked the Sergeant, who then forced an explanation from her at gunpoint. Reluctantly satisfied, Stacker covered THORN as she proceeded to wipe all navigational data from the Center's servers to deny them to the Covenant, then accompanied her to their evacuation point.

Coming under attack by the advancing Covenant army, the pair were separated and THORN pinned down by enemy fire. Though his own escape route was clear, Stacker boldly came to THORN's rescue and drew the aliens' fire long enough for her to retreat, together safely reaching the Pelican waiting to extract them. Upon asking why he'd helped her, given his earlier distrust of THORN, Stacker replied philosophically they were now in a war for the survival of humankind against an inhuman enemy, making every human life precious beyond any differences—and, more playfully, that he found someone as attractive as her especially precious. Struck by his idealism, THORN admitted she appreciated his answer more than the detached recitations of duty she'd expected.

While they waited in orbit for the Storm Warning’s rendezvous, however, the ONI retrieval specialist prepared to carry out his own orders—eliminate the witness whom THORN had reported learning more than his clearance allowed about their mission. When the pilot unsheathed a knife to execute the unprepared ODST, Erin drew her pistol and risked a shot inside the ship's thin hull to kill him first. Her aim was true, and the pair sealed the Pelican's cockpit to safely vent the body before their pick-up. Once aboard the Storm Warning, THORN reported the pilot had been killed covering their run to the dropship's landing site, and the vessel departed Second Base's system. Making sense of the incident together, Erin and Stacker entered an unsanctioned intimate relationship over the months-long slipspace journey, only for THORN to break it off when they parted at the trip's end.

Transferring to a shuttle piloted by one of her agents, THORN suddenly found herself the target of another assassin—one of the very agents she had trained for the DCS. Surviving a nerve gas deployment within the shuttle by blowing out a viewport and repressurizing with emergency oxygen, THORN managed to kill her attacker and divert course to a safehouse to assess the threat to her. There, she discovered her elimination of the retrieval specialist had been recorded, and her termination ordered by none other than Parangosky herself. Devastated by the betrayal and lost for why her patron would so suddenly end their mutually beneficial relationship, Erin swiftly retooled the assets at her disposal to ensure her own survival.

Sequestering resources and erasing documentation which could be used against her, THORN assembled data packets filled with evidence of Parangosky's hand in illicit programs and operations. Using external, less-secure lines of communication over their privately-established, potentially-traceable channels, THORN contacted Parangosky and explained she would be setting up a transfer for herself. To deter further reprisals, she threatened to provide the information she'd gathered to Parangosky's rivals, already set for timed release should she be killed. With an uneasy truce with CINCONI in place, THORN proceeded to disappear among the Office's bureaucratic and conspiratorial departments.

Burn Notice

Erin spent more than the first decade of the Human-Covenant War figuratively on the run, operating as a free agent within ONI by trading her knowledge and abilities to powerful and often competing divisions in exchange for asylum from Parangosky. Despite the material she'd collected on Green Hills and her intimate knowledge of Parangosky's means of controlling ONI, her former patron had moved quickly to bury any corroborating evidence of claims Erin could make, and Erin herself refrained from sharing everything with any one party. This was in part to protect herself, always ensuring her continued usefulness, but also to protect Parangosky; despite her betrayal, sabotaging CINCONI in the midst of a war all humanity was losing would have catastrophic consequences, ones which Erin wasn't prepared to see through in exchange for her own life. Though she crossed paths with and bested Parangosky's assassins on many occasions, over three quarters of her chronological time was spent in cryostasis as she found refuge in vessels isolated for long periods in slipspace, awakening only for brief intervals to exchange favors with one duplicitous figure or another.

In early 2539, this series of deals and deceptions brought her into hiding right under Parangosky's nose in Section Three itself, providing operational support for NAVSPECWEP. Tasked with oversight of two SPARTAN-II operatives, Vinh-030 and Isaac-039, Erin participated in a string of classified ops aimed at disrupting Insurrectionist activity on colonies critical to the war effort against the Covenant. While carrying out a sting on Kholo, however, the surprise arrival of the Covenant Fleet of Righteous Vigilance cut the operation short only for the Spartans to be cut off from Erin's extraction. Though she was barely able to direct them to a civilian shelter before losing contact as the glassing began, Erin remained in orbit undetected aboard the UNSC Nightshade, reluctant to give up hope they'd survived since the deaths of two SPARTAN-IIs would lead to audits of the mission by Section Zero, increasing the risks of Parangosky finding her. Her faith was rewarded upon receiving a distress signal from them far below the surface, and Erin managed to commandeer a platoon of Air Assault ODSTs to deploy and hijack a Scarab from Covenant troops trying to dig them out.

While doctoring their mission reports to smooth over the incident and return to their next task, however, Vinh and Isaac approached her in confidence to report Vinh was pregnant. Thinking they would die beneath Kholo's surface, Vinh and Isaac had indulged in feelings they'd long had for each other without thought of consequences, and wanted to keep the child, but feared what NAVSPECWEP and their ONI controllers might decide about the reduction in combat efficiency allowing Vinh time to see the term through represented. Despite her chagrin at the unexpected problem, Erin both suspected their fears were well-founded—and reasoned her years of experience hiding within ONI made her the best possible intercessor to keep their indiscretion hidden, and agreed to cover for them. After arranging funds and quietly transferring Vinh to a hospital on Reach, Erin would spend the next year altering mission reports and leading Isaac to carry out the Spartans' assignments alone, making occasional visits to Vinh's accomodations in New Alexandria. In this time, Erin developed her first real ongoing friendships since Parangosky with the two Spartans, and began to reassess her own life as she observed their happiness together.

This status quo could only last so long, however, as Erin and Isaac completed their last assigned operation just two months after Vinh had given birth to a boy they named Daniel. As Vinh would be required to report with Isaac for their next assignment, the couple entrusted Daniel's welfare to Erin, placing him in foster care in New Alexandria where Erin could easily keep tabs on him. Having spent more than a year under NAVSPECWEP by then, Erin would also be parting with the two Spartans, as contact would increase the risk of discovery both for Erin and their child. Though she regretted saying goodbye to the first people she'd been close to in a very long time, it led her to reflect that while she had once prided herself on being self-sufficient and not needing such attachments, her lack of choice in forming attachments now made her miss the possibility of them. The experience would inspire her to seek a particular assignment to disappear to next, and in 2543 transferred into the SPARTAN-III Program on the ONI-redacted world of Onyx to help gather and train the candidates of Gamma Company.

The Mission Handler

Battle of Earth

Erin in Ryu Base's command center.

"Zealots don’t quit, Spartan. They just come back twice as mean and four times as crazy."

― Erin cautions Team Machete.

Personality and Traits

"Listen up, Spartans. We've got Innie gun-runners down there with a whole warehouse full of illegal weapons, and chips on their shoulders the Count of Monte Cristo would call extreme. I'll have NAV points on every exit and the Pelican on-station to provide a real-time eye in the sky. Get in there and knock some heads. Just don't go throwing any grenades around in there, or you'll turn that mountaintop into this planet's first man-made volcano!"

― Erin running an op with Machete on Stratos.

The woman known as Erin Coney was a ruthlessly devoted individual. Whatever the circumstances of her true background, they motivated her to enlist with the UNSC at an early age and ardently apply herself to training. This earned her the eye of Project ORION, for which she would volunteer despite the risks of its experimental augmentation. After joining ONI in service to Parangosky, she proved unflinchingly loyal to her patron's vision for taking power in the organization, despite numerous opportunities to betray Parangosky's plans for her own gain or immunity from prosecution. Though their climb through ONI's ranks required myriad unethical and illegal acts, from blackmail and bribery to murder in a thermometer's worth of degrees, Erin carried them out without hesitation or remorse. As her repeated success in the trickiest of these assignments went on, however, whether she undertook them out of loyalty or a growing pride in her own willingness and capability became less clear.

After her patron attempted to have her terminated, Erin continued her military service under several assumed identities. Whether this came from a sense of duty in the face of a war against genocidal aliens or considered it her best means of hiding, she both organized and participated in multiple high-level operations which significantly aided UNSC war efforts. Although she traded favors with many disreputable intelligence officers, Erin never sought power at a new patron's side or attempted to garner assets for personal gain. To ensure her own survival, Erin formed no personal attachments until the pair of SPARTAN-IIs she worked with asked her for help.

In the nine years she spent with the SPARTAN-III program, hiding under the veil of ONI's own secrecy surrounding Onyx, Erin was forced to change by the closeness and continual interaction she had with the staff and trainees of Camp Currahee, running completely counter to her previous social habits. The practiced mistrust she made a policy of treating others with became an obstacle to her instruction of the Gamma Company candidates, which Erin gradually overcame despite thinking it meant losing her edge. Pete Stacker was of great help in this regard, and contributed to the rekindling of their relationship at the time. Despite the sardonic wit this led Erin to cultivate over years of bantering with pre-teen students, she genuinely bonded with many of the trainees, with Team Machete coming to consider her something akin to a surrogate mother in later years.

In her time as Machete's mission handler, Erin was frequently the voice of prudence, minding the dangers of higher military powers noticing the unusual assignment of a Spartan team to the UNSC Army—and the death-marked rogue ONI agent with them. However, whether it was empathy born of her time with them on Onyx or inability to curb Machete's reckless streak, she invariably supported their more courageous attempts at creatively interpreting orders to save lives. Doctoring mission reports, erasing or fabricating recordings, or otherwise interceding on behalf of Machete or their allies kept her up through long nights and early mornings—though as before, she never hesitated to do so while protecting them.