| Elijah Vaughan | |
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Circa or before 2502 |
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Major Elijah Vaughan,[3] nicknamed 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 UNSC Spirit of Fire, and personally leads the company's command squad Sunray 1-1.[1][2]
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 boot camp during the height of the Insurrection, Vaughan had no time to regret his decision before being deployed in combat against terrorists and insurgent movements throughout the Outer Colonies.[1][2]
His first duty station as a fresh recruit was aboard UNSC 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.[1][2]
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.[1][2]
Aboard Spirit of Fire, Vaughn served in several campaigns against the Covenant throughout the Outer Colonies, namely the Harvest campaign in February 2531. His assignment aboard Spirit of Fire later led to Vaughn participating in the Battle for Arcadia, and finally 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 cryosleep alongside the rest of the crew while they awaited rescue drifting through space.[4]
Installation 00
On 2559, Vaughan 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 battle for the Ark. Vaughan partook in Operation: SPEARBREAKER in May 2559, deploying onto the Ark's North Spire at 0247 hours via an M8900 Human Entry Vehicle alongside Warrant Officer Quinn, Petty Officer Gruss, Corporal Turpin, and Lance Corporal Sparks, and tasked with halting Colony's plan. Vaughan led Sunray in the field, frequently conversing with WO Quinn and reporting back to Spirit of Fire command. Sunray 1-1 were ultimately able to capture a number of the Forerunner control towers projecting a cloaking field around the target site 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.[5]
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. 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.[6]
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.[7] 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.[7]
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.[1][2] He rarely speaks of the dog tags he carries with him, and his fellow ODSTs know not to ask about them.[7] Vaughan has a long history of service together on Spirit of Fire with Warrant Officer Quinn.[1][2]
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.[2]
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 Marine.[7] He occasionally uses the rocket launcher as a blunt teaching instrument to knock sense into younger Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.[2] Vaughan always keeps spare chemical light sticks on hand for situations where other methods of signaling are unusable or unsafe.[7]
In-game information
Halo Wars 2
In Halo Wars 2: Operation: SPEARBREAKER's campaign, Vaughan is one of the ODSTs present in the Sunray 1-1 hero unit. For gameplay information on Sunray 1-1, see here.
Phoenix Log
 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]. The Mustang. Born to a family of politicians and corporate executives, Vaughan lived a life of privilege and luxury in the most prestigious of Earth's arcologies. But when a family squabble escalated, a rebellious young Vaughan made the worst and best decision of his life by enlisting in the UNSC Marines. Rammed through boot camp during the height of the insurrection, Vaughan had no time to regret his decision before shipping off to war against terrorists and separatist movements in the Outer Colonies. His first duty station as a green recruit was the Spirit of Fire, an old ship retasked with transporting UNSC military and police forces to colonies it once established. Few appreciated the irony more than Vaughan, given the role his own family played in exacerbating colonial tensions. Years later he found himself on the Spirit of Fire again, this time as a commissioned ODST officer on a campaign against the alien Covenant that would take him from half-glassed colonies to ancient Forerunner shield worlds, and beyond. It's been a long road, but Vaughan takes solace in the fact that this is definitely not the course his family had pre—charted for him. The Spirit of Fire's unusual situation makes Vaughan one of the highest-ranking UNSC officers in the Ark conflict, but he prefers to leave strategy and high—level operational planning to the experts. He's a Helljumper, and his place is in a drop pod plunging feet-first and on fire into the cauldron of battle. In addition to coordinating Boomerang Company's deployments and leading the command squad, Vaughan carries the squad's SPNKr rocket launcher, which he occasionally uses as a blunt teaching instrument to knock sense into younger ODSTs. |
Gallery
A portrait of Vaughan
Vaughan's in-game model in Halo Wars 2
Vaughan's customised rocket launcher with the "Mustang" emblem.
List of appearances
- Halo Wars 2
- Halo Wars 2: Operation: SPEARBREAKER (First appearance)
- Halo: Fireside
Sources
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Stay Frosty (Retrieved on Jun 17, 2018) [archive]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Halo Wars 2, Phoenix Logs: Major Vaughan
- ^ Halo: Fireside
- ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 59
- ^ Halo Wars 2, campaign level Gatecrashers
- ^ Halo Wars 2, campaign level Not on My Watch
- ^ a b c d e Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Sweet Centennial (Retrieved on Sep 24, 2021) [archive]
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