Editing Elijah Vaughan

{{Status|Canon}}
{{Character infobox
|variant=Human
|name=
|image=[[File:HW2 Vaughn Artwork.png|300px]]
|homeworld=[[Earth]]<ref name="frosty">''[[Halo Waypoint]]'': [https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/stay-frosty ''Canon Fodder - Stay Frosty'']</ref>
|birth=Circa or before [[2502]]
|death=
|causeofdeath=
|parents=
|siblings=
|spouses=
|children=
|species=[[Human]]{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}
|gender=Male{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}
|height=
|mass=
|hair=
|eyes=
|affiliation=*[[UNSC Marine Corps]]{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}
**[[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]]{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}
|rank=[[Major]]{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}
|sn=
|notable=
}}

[[Major]] '''Vaughan''', called '''the Mustang''', is a [[human]] officer of the [[UNSC Marine Corps]] and a [[company commander]] within the [[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]]. He is the [[commanding officer]] of [[Boomerang Company]], an element of the [[9th Shock Troops Battalion]] assigned to {{UNSCShip|Spirit of Fire}}, and personally leads the company's command squad [[Sunray 1-1]].{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}

==Biography==
===Early life and career===
Vaughan was born to a family of politicians and corporate executives on [[Earth]], and lived his early life in luxury and privilege in some of Earth's most prestigious arcologies. He was rebellious in his youth, and an escalated family argument led to Vaughan enlisting in the [[UNSC Marine Corps]]. After being accelerated through [[Unified Combined Military Boot Camp|boot camp]] during the height of the [[Insurrection]], Vaughan had no time to regret his decision before being deployed in combat against [[Terrorism|terrorists]] and [[Insurrectionist|insurgent]] movements throughout the [[Outer Colonies]].{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}

His first duty station as a fresh recruit was aboard {{UNSCShip|Spirit of Fire}}, an old [[colony ship]] retasked with transporting UNSC military and police forces to colonies it once helped establish. Vaughan found his first assignment rather ironic, given the role his own family played in exacerbating tensions across the colonies.{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}

===Human-Covenant War===
In the early years of the [[Human-Covenant War]], Vaughn had become a [[commissioned officer]] within the Marines' [[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]]. He soon found himself stationed aboard ''Spirit of Fire'' again assigned to the [[9th Shock Troops Battalion]], serving as the [[commanding officer]] of the unit's [[Boomerang Company]].{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}

Aboard ''Spirit of Fire'', Vaughn served in several campaigns against the [[Covenant]] throughout the Outer Colonies, namely the [[Harvest campaign]] in [[2531|February 2531]]. His assignment aboard ''Spirit of Fire'' later led to Vaughn participating in the [[Battle for Arcadia]], and finally [[Battle of the Trove|a battle]] over the [[Forerunner]] [[shield world]], [[Trove]]. During the battle, ''Spirit of Fire'' had sacrificed her [[slipspace drive]] to prevent the shield world from falling into the Covenant's hands, and Vaughn was forced to enter [[Cryonics|cryosleep]] alongside the rest of the crew while they awaited rescue drifting through space.{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}

===Installation 00===
On [[2559]], he woke up from cryosleep after 28 years of drifting in space, arriving at the [[Forerunner]] [[Installation 00]], where he fought against the [[Banished]] during the [[Second Ark Conflict|battle for the Ark]]. Following the departure of [[Installation 09]], Vaughan led [[Sunray Squad]] in a attempt to thwart a Banished plot by the [[Mgalekgolo]] pair known as [[Colony]].{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}

Upon returning from their successful mission, Sunray wasted no time in moving on to meet additional challenges. Deployed into some of the most hostile, Banished-occupied areas of Installation 00, Sunray has encountered hostile resistance from Warlords, Sentinels, and Forerunner [[armiger]] contingents alike.<ref name="cf100">Halo Waypoint: [https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/sweet-centennial ''Canon Fodder - Sweet Centennial'']</ref>

Sunray's most recent missions involve the elimination of Banished commanders identified by Isabel as being critical to Atriox's attempts to harness the Ark's power. Shortly after SPEARBREAKER, Major Vaughan led Sunray on a successful clandestine assassination of a Jiralhanae captain.{{Ref/Reuse|cf100}}
{{Expand-section}}

==Personality and traits==
As the [[commanding officer]] of [[Boomerang Company]], Vaughn and his [[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]] consider the unit to be the most elite force of ODSTs within the entire [[United Nations Space Command]], a common sentiment held by all ODSTs for their respective units. Rebellious in his youth, Vaughan considers his enlistment with the [[UNSC Marine Corps]] to be both the best and worst decision he made in his life. Vaughan takes solace in the fact that his military career is definitely not the course his family had pre-charted for him.{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}} He rarely speaks of the [[dog tag]]s he carries with him, and his fellow ODSTs know not to ask about them.{{Ref/Reuse|cf100}} Vaughan has a long history of service together on ''Spirit of Fire'' with [[Warrant Officer]] [[Quinn]].{{Ref/Reuse|frosty}}

Although currently one of the highest ranking officers aboard ''Spirit of Fire'', Vaughn avoids strategy and high-level operational planning, preferring to leave it to the "experts". As an ODST, he considers his place to be in a [[drop pod]] headed into battle.<ref name="pl">''[[Halo Wars 2]]'', [[Phoenix Log]] –  "Major Vaughan"</ref>

==Equipment==
Major Vaughan arms himself with a [[M41 SPNKR]] [[rocket launcher]], stylized with a hand-painted mustang, emblematic of his early career as an enlisted [[UNSC Marine Corps|Marine]].{{Ref/Reuse|cf100}} He occasionally uses the rocket launcher as a blunt teaching instrument to knock sense into younger [[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]].{{Ref/Reuse|pl}} Vaughan always keeps spare [[chemical light stick]] on hand for situations where other methods of signaling are unusable or unsafe.{{Ref/Reuse|cf100}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Vaughan Portrait.png|A portrait of Vaughan
File:ODST-Vaughan Model.png|Vaughan's in-game model in ''Halo Wars 2''
</gallery>

==List of appearances==
*''[[Halo Wars 2]]'' {{1st}}

==Sources==
{{Ref/Sources}}

[[Category:Human characters]]
[[Category:UNSC Marine Corps officers]]
[[Category:Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]]