August-099

August-099
Biographical information
Born:	c. 2511
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Female
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UNSC Navy Naval Special Warfare Command SPARTAN-II program; ; ;
Rank:	Petty Officer Second Class or higher
Service number:	S-099

August-099 is a Spartan-II supersoldier and team leader of Omega Team.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Biography[edit]

Early childhood[edit]

Like the other SPARTAN-IIs, August-099 was abducted at age six and conscripted into the SPARTAN-II program in 2517. She later survived the augmentation procedures in 2525. Along with Robert-025 and Leon-011, August formed the Spartan-II fast reaction unit Omega Team,^[2] which was created primarily for asset denial operations.^[3]

Human-Covenant War[edit]

Omega Team is typically deployed with the goal of breaking the enemy's hold long enough in order to reinforce local defenses and buy time for a UNSC response. During the Human-Covenant War, Omega Team was deployed to several colony worlds threatened by the Covenant, assisting in emergency evacuation efforts and enacting classified last-stand protocols. The team proved highly proficient at the denial of critical resources, data, and even personnel to the Covenant by any means necessary, which sometimes required the deployment of weapons of mass destruction.^[3]

At some point in 2527, Omega Team may have been deployed against Insurrectionist forces in an operation on Hellas against insurgent forces employing the use of Rumbledrugs. However, it is possible that Omega Team was merely briefed on this operation rather than actively assigned to it.^[5]

On several occasions, Omega Team worked closely with Jerome-092, Alice-130, and Douglas-042 of Red Team, including during the defense of Arcadia when it was attacked in 2531.^[6]^[7] During the battle, they were separated when the UNSC Spirit of Fire departed the system to chase retreating Covenant forces.^[8] During the Arcadia Campaign, August worked alongside Leon-011, Robert-025, Kai-125, Riz-028, and Vannak-134, before the latter three were split off to form an independent Silver Team. In 2540, the full six-member roster of Omega was temporarily reformed and deployed to an unknown operation on Hellas.^[9]

In the late stages of the Human-Covenant War, or the earliest years of the post-war era, Omega Team was involved in the testing of numerous "Breach" development iterations on the MJOLNIR Mark VI platform. These field tests were successful, and saw improvements folded into later GEN2 and GEN3 productions.^[10]

Post-war service[edit]

Decades after Red Team's last encounter with them, Commander Jerome-092 discerned that Omega Team had survived the war based on UNSC records recovered from the Henry Lamb Research Outpost.^[2] By 2560, August-099 had become the leader of Omega Team.^[11] In this year, the team was deployed to Arcadia once again, this time with goal of observing a deal between Adam Andrews—the CEO of Optican—and Kig-Yar working for Nor Fel. After a successful handoff between the two parties amid Forerunner ruins, August eliminated a trio of Kig-Yar with her M99A2S3 Stanchion while Leon-011 rushed for their Phantom and Robert-025 secured the aliens' prize: the focus cannon of a R'awuw-pattern Scarab. After clearing the Phantom of hostiles, Leon checked the cargo manifest, revealing that the Kig-Yar had supplied Andrews with rumbledrug and leading August to remember the Insurrectionists' use of the drugs in 2527 on Hellas as an attempt to even the odds against Spartans. With their objective complete, Omega Team left the area.^[5]

Equipment[edit]

August-099 is noted for her fondness for hypervelocity weaponry.^[4] As such, she commonly employs the ARC-920 railgun and M99A2S3 Stanchions as her primary weapons.^[2]^[5] As of 2560, her Mark IV MJOLNIR ensemble includes an ARDENT-class helmet with a TAS/FES/BRONTES module, IMA/SGN left shoulder (with an attached bandolier to mount six M645 FTP-HE rounds), an IMA/GARITA/OMEGA SYKES right shoulder (consisting of a standard Mark IV Garita pauldron with a combat knife), and an RS/SPC/ISABEL chestpiece. August's left forearm includes the UTIL/CERJO prototype while her kneepads consist of the UA/TWISP upgrades. She sports a UTIL/ZEPO attached to her left leg.^[5]

Production notes and trivia[edit]

In Halo Wars 2, despite having the "Explosive" in her alternate hero icon, August doesn't do any splash damage with her Railgun.
343 Industries has noted in a Canon Fodder post that both the concept art and the final Halo Wars 2 in-game models of Omega Team could be considered authoritative in some capacity, stating that "Discerning lore-lovers should feel free to consider both iterations fair game for expanding their imaginations."^[2] Furthermore, the 2022 edition of the Halo Encyclopedia utilizes said concept art for its depiction of Omega Team, firmly cementing its canon status.^[3] In 2024's Content Update 29, August's armour suite was fully-realised in canon as the Ardent armour bundle for Halo Infinite.^[11]