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This fanfiction article, Team Boson, was written by Distant Tide. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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- "If I cannot bend the will of Heaven, I will move Hell."
- ― Unit Motto of Team Boson.[1]
Team Boson, also known as Ferret Team Boson and Training Unit Bravo-Three, is a Spartan combat unit formed exclusively from graduates of SPARTAN-III Delta Company and previously commanded by Major Kyser Duceppe. The team's roster include Headhunter and Ferret-qualified personnel. Team Boson is also a former element of VIOLET-III and Internal Investigations Unit 419.
Originally made up of Daniele-D003, Merlin-D032, Andra-D054, Roxanne-D107, and Zach-D111, the five children-turned-Spartans were sorted together during training. Since then, they have retained a family-like union that stands above their loyalties to their government and military, even when strained by desertion.
Orphaned by the Human-Covenant War, Team Boson was scouted originally as a Spartan unit for fighting the alien Covenant Empire, however, their mission changed from conventional warfare to internal security affairs when the war ended. Due to their unique role assignment, Team Boson was among several Spartan units to experience lives beyond strict-military oversight.
Even when driven apart by outside forces, the friends share a wish to reunite once again. In time, their familial structure has grown to include new and old friends of Team Boson including Shizuko-D081 and the Smart AI, Althea.
Service History[]
- "You've all been through Hell and then some. You've seen, faced, more than any child should. And for that, I'm proud of you, and I think you should be proud of yourselves too, and each other. Take care of one other, that's what family is for."
- ― Lieutenant Commander Korn to Team Boson.
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- "You were selected for a reason, Andra. You may not believe yourself to be strong, but you are. I believe you are. You don't know it for yourself yet. Let us show you – join our program and become a Spartan."
- ― Doctor Reyna Zhou-Romero recruiting Andra-D054 into Delta Company.
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| Onyx's destruction in late 2552 left the SPARTAN-III Program without a home. |
With the Human-Covenant War still raging in late 2552, the fourth iteration of the SPARTAN-III Program, Delta Company was actively seeking recruits while the third iteration, SPARTAN-III Gamma Company, began to wind down. Then in November of that year, the colony world employed by the SPARTAN-III Program, Onyx, was destroyed in a three-way battle between the Covenant, the United Nations Space Command, and the Forerunner Sentinels that protected the Forerunner shield world within.
Without a world and many resources lost, the SPARTAN-III program was jeopardized by a lack of funds and bureaucratic support within the Office of Naval Intelligence, the program's sponsor and financier. Within months of Onyx's destruction, the Human-Covenant War began to approach its conclusion with the concurrent Battle for Earth that was the United Nations Space Command triumph over Covenant forces on the Human homeworld. The need for the SPARTAN-III Program's continuation was trivialized by the Covenant War's end and Gamma Company never saw mass deployment during the conflict.
Following the death of Colonel James Ackerson, the SPARTAN-III Program's former director, in the Battle of Cleveland, Rear Admiral Jazmine Utah saw to replace him and made a hard push to continue the activities and recruitment of SPARTAN-III Delta Company into 2553 and onward. The pitch was ultimately denied by her ONI superiors and funding was transferred to the new SPARTAN-IV Program which was determined to be less morally-dubious since it used augmented adult volunteers rather than the SPARTAN-III program's illegal acquisition and conversion of war orphans into child-soldiers.
Through private donations and economic manipulation inside the fragile Post-War Era economy, the SPARTAN-III Program continued operations in secret, going against Utah's orders to begin shuttering the project entirely. Due to the final major battles of the Covenant War, the SPARTAN-III Program actually had a surplus of available children to recruit into Delta Company with as many as 475 prospects from genetic census data. Ultimately, only about three hundred of those orphaned children were recruited into the project and delivered to Argus V, the new Spartan-training-planet, in late 2553.
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| Delta Company. The SPARTAN-III Program's fourth, illegal iteration. |
Among these new recruits were the five children that would become the foundation of Spartan Team Boson: Andra Bradford, Daniele Veracruz, Merlin Ljang Boyd, Roxanne Savage, and Zachariah Weaver. Similar to children that became Spartans in the other iterations of the SPARTAN-III Program, the Spartan-hopefuls of Delta Company were war orphans, the majority of which lost their families in Covenant attacks. A shared quality between the future members of Team Boson was their late or lacking interactions with Covenant forces. This was intriguingly noted by the recruiters who handled the five specific cases, Doctor Reyna Zhou-Romero and Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Korn. The minor commonalities between the children went on to inform Korn's decision to put them together as a Spartan training unit.
Andra Bradford was the daughter of an Army combat medic mother and a stay-at-home father employed by ONI's Signal Corps. Her mother was killed in combat during the 2550 Battle of Minab, far from where Andra lived on Sigma Octanus IV. In January 2551, Andra's father killed himself after a bad winter of work suspension, drugs, insomnia, and rage attacks directed at his daughter. Andra was recruited out of the Jade Hope Youth Treatment Center in April 2552, just months before the Covenant arrived and bombarded Sigma Octanus IV. It took mild coaxing from Doctor Romero to embolden Andra to enter Spartan training, Andra's trauma regarding her deceased father would be a continued inhibition throughout her Spartan training.
In 2547, Daniele Veracruz and his father witnessed the Covenant attack on their home colony of Skopje. Daniele's mother was at work when the invasion began and was presumed dead after a Covenant warship destroyed her office. In 2550, Daniele's father was killed by Earth police after becoming involved in refugee riots against the California Land Comission. Daniele ended up at San Diego's Sunny Shores Foster Facilities. He joined the youth crime ring, Child Crusaders, to keep himself fed when the orphanage kept running out of food. Arrested in 2552 for a number of delinquent crimes, Daniele was offered the option of attending juvvy until he reached adult-age or become a ward of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Daniele ultimately chose ONI and joined the SPARTAN-III Program.
Merlin Ljang Boyd was the son of parents employed by the Office of Naval Intelligence. His mother worked with ONI's Section II department, Public Relations, while his father served as shipboard security detail in the ONI Prowler Corps. Within the course of 2549, Merlin's parents were killed during the Siege of Paris IV and the Second Fall of Arcadia respectively. Merlin was marked as an orphan and transferred to a military orphanage. Following the first incursion by Covenant forces on Merlin's home planet of Ballast in 2552, Merlin encountered recruiters from the SPARTAN-III Program and was offered a place in Delta Company. While Merlin had little concept of the Covenant War and had spent most of his childhood relatively sheltered, he jumped at the chance to serve Humanity like his parents.
Roxanne Savage lived in the rural town of Visegrád on Reach when the Covenant arrived. On June 23, 2552, Covenant scouting parties assaulted Visegrád's farms one by one, killing the residents. Roxanne's parents were killed in the fields outside their home. Roxanne's older brother hid Roxanne in the family's cellar while he went to find their other sibling. He did not return. The alien incursion was eventually thwarted by a Spartan team passing through Roxanne's community the next day. While the unit never discovered the girl, she was eventually found by Army Special Forces and evacuated to the city of New Alexandria and later to an orbital settlement in the Sol System. At the temporary holding facility, Roxanne encountered recruiters for the SPARTAN-III Program and agreed to join Delta Company.
Zachariah Weaver was the son of a wealthy business tycoon and a long-since-divorced mother. Living on Tribute, Zachariah witnessed to the same 2552 Covenant incursions that struck Reach. Evacuated to a private shuttle, Zachariah escaped Tribute and retreated to Earth, however, his father was pinned down by Covenant forces and was assumed dead. With no immediate family and his father's company spiraling into bankruptcy, Zachariah was moved into the foster care system and his family's and company's assets were liquidated by the UNSC emergency government or auctioned off to rival corporations to support the ongoing defense of Human space. It was in Sydney, Australia that Zachariah was acquired by the Office of Naval Intelligence and recruited into Delta Company.
Locked away into cryogenic storage, the children were packed up like merchandise and disappeared from public records by SPARTAN-III Program Smart AI, Delphi. Loaded up aboard a freighter, the UNSC Give Me More, the 300 children including the future Team Boson arrived on Argus V by mid-to-late 2553 with an uncertain future ahead of them.
Training Days[]
- "If you fall out again, Trainee, you're going to be doing burpees till the sun comes up again!"
- ― A Delta Company drill instructor motivating Andra during a PT run.
Stealing The Eternal Flame[]
While the other members of Boson were off masquerading as high school students, Daniele and Roxanne accepted a request for extra security personnel at the Voi Portal complex following recent intrusions by non-government forces into Forerunner facilities on Earth.
Team Emergence even made a brief appearance, with Marcellus catching up with Daniele in Mombasa ahead of Emergence’s deployment to the frontier and the Outer Colony stronghold of Falkirk. However, the interesting but glorified posting soon came to an end.
The Imperium Conflict[]
War with the Imperium of Clarity was among the earliest human confrontations with a major post-Covenant polity.
- Main article: RP:Imperium
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 the 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 discovered 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 an 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 overhead security also presented itself in the form of Kru'desh aerial reinforcements led by Simon-G294. 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 near 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.
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 to 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 Phantom gunboat. Simon's forces regained control over their damaged starship and escaped the battlespace.
Spartan Roster[]
Andra Kearsarge[]
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- "In a cold galaxy like this, the only thing we have is family."
- ― Andra-D054, following the dissolution of Ferret Team Boson.
Andra-D054, also known as Andra Kearsarge by personal preference, is a SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduate, the significant other of Merlin-D032, and Joshua-G024's protege. The resident sharpshooter and bomb technician for Ferret Team Boson, she earned herself many monikers for her reputation as a frustrating student and unorthodox combatant.
Raised by her ONI-employed father on Sigma Octanus IV, Andra's childhood was innocent until her mother's death fighting in the Covenant War. Consumed by grief, her father spiraled into a period of abusive drunkenness that ended in suicide. Proven too emotionally-volatile for adoption, Andra was recruited by the Office of Naval Intelligence for the SPARTAN-III program.
Andra's journey through Spartan training was marked by her ongoing battle with depression. Only through the support of her friends and mentors did she graduate from Delta Company. The mentorship of Joshua-G024 played a significant role in propelling Andra to become a Ferret operator and Spartan Headhunter. However, Andra's emotional growth has suffered from losing close friends.
Daniele Veracruz[]
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- "I learned early on, only those who dare to succeed survive."
- ― Daniele-D003 describing his childhood worldview.
Daniele-D003, born Daniele Veracruz and nicknamed Danny, is a SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduate and was a former juvenile delinquent of the United Republic of North America. Prodigal but quiet, Daniele established himself as a talent above and beyond his peers and received command of Ferret Team Boson in recognition.
Originally from Skopje, Daniele witnessed his planet's destruction firsthand. Coupled with the killing of his father by Earth police, Daniele joined up with the street urchin gang, Child Crusaders, to survive. Jefferson Korn of the Office of Naval Intelligence took note of Daniele's criminal background and recruited him into the SPARTAN-III program. With Delta Company, Daniele was a standout trainee often compared to fellow prodigy, Marcellus-D070.
Though pushed into training, Daniele adapted quickly and developed a close friendship with Korn, and later, Korn's AI assistant, Cathedral. A personally-loyal individual and close-quarters specialist, he performed military service as a Ferret operator and as a mercenary employed by the Glass Raiders piracy union. Had he not deserted from the military, he might have become a Spartan Headhunter.
Merlin Ljang Boyd[]
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- "I'm not the ideal Spartan. People like to remind me of that. Good for them."
- ― Merlin-D032 lamenting his lackluster reputation.
Merlin-D032, born Merlin Ljang Boyd, is a SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduate and the significant other of Andra-D054. Sharp and emotionally perceptive, Merlin specialized in support and intelligence roles as Ferret Team Boson's point man, spotter, scout, and a resident klutz.
The orphaned son of ONI civilian contractors, Merlin grew up in a sheltered home and orphanage until he was recruited into the SPARTAN-III Program following a failed Covenant attack on Ballast, his homeworld. Merlin performed average in training, however, he developed a poor reputation for the friends and individuals he associated with. Though his poor choices often turned out fine, he graduated Spartan training with few distinctions.
A very loyal individual, Merlin was one of the last Spartans to hold onto the Team Boson mantle in its darkest hours. His highest certifications including Spartan Headhunter were awarded due to his ongoing association with more qualified individuals rather than his own merits. With a lack of self-confidence and detractors on all sides, Merlin has struggled with doubts about his Spartan status and life purpose.
Roxanne Savage[]
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- "I smile to hide my pain. But it doesn't work. It's mostly fake."
- ― Roxanne-D107 explaining her unusual positivity.
Roxanne-D107, born Roxanne Savage and nicknamed Rox, is a SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduate. The medical specialist, vehicle technician, and spokeswoman of Ferret Team Boson, Roxanne provided her technical skills and unwavering, talkative warmth to her team all the way up to her desertion and return to her glassed homeworld.
The youngest child of three and an only daughter in a farming family on Reach, Roxanne's exposure to the Covenant War came at its tail-end during the Fall of Reach. Losing her entire family to Kig-Yar scavengers, she was saved by Spartans and Army Special Forces then moved to an off-planet holding facility where she was recruited into the SPARTAN-III Program by Naval Intelligence.
Trained for general combat, Roxanne developed a capacity for combat medicine late into her Spartan education, predominantly in interacting with medical machine hardware that later developed into a certification for vehicle maintenance and basic piloting. While her loyalty for her team was strong, her fear of the Created motivated her to return to Reach to hide.
Matsui Shizuko[]
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- "I don't sleep well anymore. I see my friends calling out but I do nothing."
- ― Shizuko-D081 describing her guilt-driven insomnia.
Shizuko-D081 (Japanese Katakana/Kanji: シズ子), born Matsui Shizuko, is a SPARTAN-III Delta Company graduate and the older sister of fellow Spartan, Daiki-D217. Among the best trainees in her graduating class, Shizuko displayed considerable proficiency in all her weapon qualifications and rose quickly to the position of leader on Team Entropy.
Born the eldest child of three in a refugee camp on Minister, Shizuko grew up around sectarian tensions between refugees and residents. The eventual riots on Minister ended in tragedy for the Matsui family, and soon after, Shizuko and her younger brother were whisked away by recruiters from the Office of Naval Intelligence for Spartan training.
Her first field assignment hunting Covenant extremists after graduating from Delta Company turned deadly, ending in the dissolution of her unit. Reassigned to ONI's Spartan Headhunter division as a lone operative, Shizuko attempted to bury her grief in constant deployments and extended cryostasis to keep her demons at bay. Following multiple deployments with Ferret Team Boson, she was absorbed into the unit to fill their dwindling ranks.
Zachariah Weaver[]
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- "I want a life outside of just being a Spartan, but I'm proud of who I am."
- ― Zachariah-D111, regarding his past and his Spartan status.
Zach-D111, born Zachariah Weaver or simply Zach, is a SPARTAN-III commando who trained with the illicit Delta Company. The youngest member of Ferret Team Boson and formerly the most bombastic, Zachariah turned his unfocused anger into dutiful action after mellowing in age. His coolness under pressure makes him a confident communicator and warfighter with an overbearing, go-getter attitude.
Born and raised by his single business tycoon of a father, Zachariah never knew his mother and grew up as heir to a modest-sized interstellar freight corporation. When the Covenant attacked Tribute, Zachariah was successfully evacuated to Earth but his father was killed and much of his company was destroyed, falling into bankruptcy. With nowhere to turn, he jumped at the opportunity provided by recruiters for the SPARTAN-III Program.
Passionate for weapons in general, Zachariah became certified as Ferret Team Boson's weapons maintainer and heavy weapons specialist. Following multiple desertions among Delta Company, Zachariah distanced himself from his team and joined ONI's Project BRUTUS as a junior Spartan liaison. While proud of his Spartan status, he has found enjoyment in a partial civilian life far more than his peers.
Relationships[]
Team Anion[]
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Team Entropy[]
Team Xiphos[]
References[]
- ↑ English translation of Virgil's Aeneid, book VII.312, quoting Hera, queen of Mt. Olympus.