Alannah Quinn

Alannah Quinn
Biographical information
Born:	May 22, 25XX
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Female
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UNSC Marine Corps
Rank:	Warrant Officer

Warrant Officer Alannah Quinn is an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) serving in the United Nations Space Command Marine Corps. She works as the signals reconnaissance specialist of Boomerang Company's Sunray 1-1. The team was posted on the UNSC Spirit of Fire prior to the loss of its slipspace drive in February of 2531 and in April of 2559, she was part of Operation: SPEARBREAKER, a mission on Installation 00 to thwart a plot by the Covenant splinter faction known as the Banished.

Biography

Quinn has served in a number of roles in her career, before being assigned as an ODST in the 9th Shock Troops Battalion serving aboard UNSC Spirit of Fire. Quinn served in the 9th STB alongside Major Elijah Vaughan for a number of years prior to 2531. Due to her rank of Warrant Officer and her role as a technical liasion, Quinn was primarily assigned to work alongside ODST pre-assault and post-assault units for missions requiring a technical skillset as opposed to raw firepower.

In February 4, 2531, she was present on the modified Phoenix-class colony ship when it arrived at the Outer Colony of Harvest to fight the Covenant's Fleet of Glorious Interdiction there. She then went on to witness the Battle for Arcadia and the fight between the UNSC crew and the Fleet of Glorious Interdiction within the Forerunner shield world known as Trove. After the ship's Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine was sacrificed to destroy the shield world, Quinn entered cryostasis along with the other survivors.

War on the Ark

Over twenty-eight years later, she and everyone else were awakened to find themselves drifting above the extragalactic Installation 00, also known as the Ark. There, the vessel's forces were forced to contend with the Banished, a heavily-armed faction of ex-Covenant that sought to control the Ark largely due to its capacity for producing Halo superweapons. After the departure of a newly-created Halo ring put it beyond the Banished's grasp on April 2, 2559, the Mgalekgolo pair known as Colony hatched a plot which James Cutter, captain of the Spirit of Fire, was forced to respond to. In addition, the loss of Professor Ellen Anders, who was on the Halo when it left, it fell to Quinn and others like her who have demonstrated affinity with – and knowledge of – Forerunner systems to be boots-on-the-ground resources for task force commanders.

Operation: SPEARBREAKER

Main article: Operation: SPEARBREAKER

Quinn partook in Operation: SPEARBREAKER in May 2559, deploying onto the Ark's North Spire at 0247 hours. The drop was conducted via an M8900 Human Entry Vehicle, and marked Quinn's two-hundredth orbital drop. During the operation, Quinn was deployed as part of Sunray 1-1 alongside Major Vaughan, Petty Officer Helena Gruss, Corporal Chloe Turpin, and Lance Corporal Devon Sparks, and tasked with halting Colony's plan. Quinn fought alongside Sunray in the field, frequently conversing with Major Vaughan and providing updates and observations on enemy activity - noting the activities of the Retriever Sentinels and their escort swarms, and the Banished cloaking fields surrounding the operation's target. Sunray 1-1 were ultimately able to capture a number of the Forerunner control towers projecting the cloaking field and destroy a Banished Outpost and a Retriever Sentinel, with the collapse of the cloaking field revealing the target of Colony's operation - a dormant Despair-class fighter currently being assembled inside a subsurface dock.

With the path to the Despair fighter clear, Sunray proceeded to advance to the target. Spirit of Fire command noted that their reconnaissance D81-LRT Condor had imaged several charging columns feeding energy into the fighter, leading Sunray to begin targeting the columns to buy time for their assault force to reach the construction site. Quinn provided direction to the team on where to shoot to destroy the column, and later informing command of two potential locations for a firebase drop. The team were ultimately successful in cutting off the fighter's power feed, allowing a flight of AV-14B Hornets to attack the site with an air strike. Quinn speculated that the site would be used as a research outpost for Isabel to investigate the multitude of Forerunner technology abandoned by the Banished.

Upon returning from their successful mission, Sunray were quickly moved on to conduct more missions against the Banished. This included an assassination of a high-level Jiralhanae officer in the days post-SPEARBREAKER, before some downtime at Quebec Base on May 21 of that year. During their stay at Quebec, Sunray enjoyed the spoils of war, having a cookout and eating some thorn beast meat that they had looted from the Banished outpost. This included a gift of chocolate-raspberry ice cream offered by János Varga in honour of Quinn's birthday on the following day. Throughout the rest of the year they continued to perform a series of assassinations on Banished officers identified as critical to the operations of Atriox. In the later months of 2559, they were deployed among several Banished-occupied regions of the Ark in strikes against a variety of hostile forces including the aforementioned Banished, and those of both Sentinel and Armiger threats.

Personality and traits

Quinn is a highly trained signals intelligence analyst and electronic warfare operator. She commonly accompanies ODST pre-assault and deep strike post-assault teams on missions that require the application of technical wizardry in addition to raw firepower. Quinn relishes service in the field. She has no particular love for life aboard the Spirit of Fire – and despises its recycled air and the peculiar pull of the barracks’ artificial gravity – but she cares deeply for the crew and troops aboard it.

Equipment

A closeup of Quinn's H-165 FOM and WILLOWKEY TSCS equipment.

Quinn serves as the signals intelligence and electronic warfare specialist of her unit. As such, her most important piece of equipment is a WILLOWKEY TSCS chest rig (with upgrades provided by Spirit of Fire Smart AI Isabel), equipped atop her late-war design of ODST armor. She employs a UA/Type O5 armour module and an AN/PZY-6011Y TYPHON command network module upgrade on her helmet, with a slightly modified chestplate bearing patches for the UNSC and Sunray 1-1. She maintains a lighter weapons loadout than her teammates, preferring to wield a custom M6C/SOCOM pistol with a custom engraving and a H-165 target locator for fire support. The H-165 module is linked to both Spirit of Fire and "Hank", the MQ-96 Support Drone operated by Corporal Chloe Turpin and attached to Sunray 1-1. Quinn's H-165 is considered a specialty prototype unit, and is linked to Spirit of Fire's EMP MAC support modules.

In field operations, she may also employ an M7S SMG.

In-game information

Halo Wars 2

In Halo Wars 2: Operation: SPEARBREAKER's campaign, Quinn is one of the ODSTs present in the Sunray 1-1 hero unit. For gameplay information on Sunray 1-1, see here.

Phoenix Log

Phoenix Log - Warrant Officer Quinn

lst Squad, lst Platoon, B Company, 9th Shock Troops Battalion. Major Vaughan's command squad, callsign Sunray 1-1, is the lead element of Boomerang Company, the UNSC's most elite force of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers [though that's what they all say]. Signals Reconnaissance Specialist. Quinn has been many things in her life, but none have been as meaningful as service in the ranks of the Spirit of Fire's 9th Shock Troops Battalion. A highly trained signals intelligence analyst and electronic warfare operator, Quinn accompanies ODST pre—assault and deep strike post—assault teams on missions that require the application of technical wizardry in addition to raw firepower. With Professor Anders' departure on the Halo ring it has fallen to Quinn and other UNSC personnel who have demonstrated affinity with—and knowledge of—Forerunner systems to be boots—on—the—ground resources for task force commanders. It's a job she relishes. Quinn and Major Vaughan have a long history of service together on board the Spirit of Fire. Quinn has no particular love for the ship itself—and despises its recycled air and the peculiar pull of the barracks' artificial gravity—but she cares deeply for the crew and troops aboard it. When Quinn accompanies Vaughan on his Ark expeditions, she serves as the command squad's technician and "Ark door opener," in addition to handling a prototype target designator for the Spirit of Fire's new EMP Ordnance support drop.

Gallery

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  Portrait.

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  Quinn's in-game model in HW2.

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  Sunray 1-1.

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  Operation: SPEARBREAKER.

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  Sunray 1-1 during Operation: SPEARBREAKER.

List of appearances

• Halo Wars 2
  • Halo Wars 2: Operation: SPEARBREAKER (First appearance)
• Halo: Fireside