| Ash | |
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| Biographical information | |
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Date of birth: |
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Gender: |
Male |
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Hair color: |
Brown (slightly over regulation)[2] |
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Eye color: |
Brown |
| Political and military information | |
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Spartan tag: |
G099[2] |
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Rank: |
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Ash-G099 is a member of the SPARTAN-III Program Gamma Company, and the leader of Team Saber. His call sign in the team is Saber One.[4] It was said that he was one of the fiercest, smartest, and the best leaders in the class.[2]
Biography
Spartan training
Ash joined SPARTAN-III Program, developed by Colonel James Ackerson, around 2546 between the ages of 5 and 7 when he, along with other orphans volunteered to become Spartans and avenge his family and home planet. Once on Onyx, he and the other SPARTAN-III candidates were trained by Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose and Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez. Ash was assigned to lead Team Saber.
Battle of Onyx
Initial attack
When the human forces on Onyx came under attack by Sentinels, the teams were still competing for top honors, and Ash had nearly lost it for his team by walking into a trap set up by one of the other teams. In an effort to avoid additional traps, he took his team dangerously close to Zone 67 to avoid the other teams. There, the team spied what they assumed at the time to be a new kind of Covenant drone, as it was equipped with energy shields.[5]
They decided to investigate, and the drones -- Sentinels -- engaged. Ash dispatched scouts to reconnoiter and figure out the weak spots of the drones. He and the rest of the team hurled rocks at the drones and to their surprise, the robots' shields did not activate. Curiously enough, one drone responded to Ash's COM, and talked to him, first using an unknown language, then switching to Latin and finally to English, calling him "Reclaimer".[6]
Regrouping with UNSC forces
The team then moved to the armory of Camp Currahee to retrieve heavier weapons. Team Saber met up with Ambrose, Mendez, Tom-B292, and Lucy-B091, and the Spartans proceeded to play life and death games of cat and mouse with the Sentinels. The team met up with Kelly-087 and Dr. Catherine Halsey once they had landed aboard the Beatrice, escorting the two to a bombed-out bunker. In the bunker, Dr. Halsey revealed the origin of the Sentinels and what to do next.[7]
Just as Team Saber was in the middle of battling the Sentinels, the Covenant destroyer Bloodied Spirit dropped out of slipspace over Onyx, carrying the remaining members of Blue Team: Frederic-104, Linda-058 and William-043. The ship crashed in the forest at the source of an E-Band signal that the UNSC forces on Onyx had sent.[8] With the Sentinels increasing in number, Ash and the Ash and the other survivors decided to regroup and retreat back to Zone 67.
By now, the team had figured out that the Sentinels only came after them in pairs, and there was always a third Sentinel that acted as an observer, recording the battles and reporting back to the others. This tactic made the Sentinels smarter after each battle; the only way to turn the tables would be for the teams to take out all three of the Sentinels, a strategy that they attempted and succeeded at. During the ambush, Ash ordered Team Saber to attack too soon and was notified of this by Kurt.[9]
Retreat to Zone 67
After the team destroyed the trio of Sentinels, they moved into a Forerunner city in Zone 67. Once there, they discovered the map room and the location of Team Katana, which had dropped out of contact when heading into Zone 67 earlier in the battle.[10] Meanwhile, a Covenant fleet led by Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree arrived at Onyx, dispatching forces after the Spartans. In looking in the map room and examining the Forerunner text, Dr. Halsey figured out how to utilize the Forerunners' slipspace translocation grid, similar to the one Cortana used on Installation 04.[11]
Just before the team was about to jump to Team Katana, AI Endless Summer contacted Dr. Halsey and Kurt-051, telling them they need to destroy the Sentinel manufacturing facility in order to save Battlegroup Stalingrad. Halsey managed to get the teleportation grid working, and they all teleported to the Sentinel factory near the northern pole in Onyx. Ash came up with a plan to use the teleportation grid to their advantage, destroying three key structures in the facility and tricking Sentinels into firing on them in a line with the structures. Having destroyed the structures, they teleported away as the facility was destroyed.[12]
Core room antechamber
Ash and the rest of the team then arrived at Team Katana's holding area to find them in slipspace field pods. Here, Dr. Halsey found out that there was a shelter known as a "shield world" in Onyx's core. However, the Covenant knew the location of the group and was on the way with an entire armada of troops to attempt to stop them.[13]
Once in the core room of Onyx, Ash, along with the other Spartans, made a loose half-circle kill zone around the entrance to the shield world and picked off targets at range. They managed to defend the slipspace rift, although, it had come at some serious losses. Will, Dante, and Holly had already died at the hands of the Covenant; Ash was visibly distraught at Holly's death.[14] As there was little time left and the Covenant forces were closing in for the final kill, Kurt-051 ordered Ash to take his team through the rift,[15] while he stayed behind to detonate two FENRIS nuclear warheads and deny the Covenant access to the shield world.[16]
Shield world and later career
On the other side of the slipspace rift, Ash and the others found themselves inside a massive Dyson sphere contained within a slipspace bubble of compressed space-time in the core of Onyx. Soon after, Dr. Halsey and the surviving SPARTAN-IIs came through and lastly, Lucy, who came through with an unconscious Tom over her shoulder. The team waited for Kurt-051 to arrive, but he never came. Once the team was inside the Dyson Sphere, they made gravestones for William, Dante, Kurt and Holly; and were accepted into Blue Team by Kelly-087, along with Olivia and Mark.[17]
After Ash and the other survivors had explored the sphere for several days—over three months in normal space-time—Lucy discovered a group of Huragok which eventually helped the humans establish contact with the ONI ships outside the sphere and eventually bring the sphere into normal space.[18] They were then taken aboard the UNSC Port Stanley and transported to Earth order to be debriefed in HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6.[19] Ash and the other remaining SPARTAN-IIIs were later offered the chance to integrate into the SPARTAN-IV Program under the leadership of the surviving SPARTAN-IIs.[20]
List of appearances
- Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (First appearance)
- Halo: Glasslands
Notes
- ^ While the SPARTAN-IIIs of Alpha and Beta Companies "graduated" into the UNSC Navy, as Ash holds the UNSC Marine Corps rank of Private, it is possible that Gamma Company "graduated" into the Marine Corps. However, since the other members of his squad held the rank of Petty Officer Third Class (the equivalent of a Corporal in the Marine Corps), it can be assumed the rank was a mistake.
Sources
- ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 401
- ^ a b c Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 100
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 254, ("(Kurt) turned to Ash. 'Private'. 'Sir.' Ash said, and stood straighter".)
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 109
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 117-119
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 133 ("Fhejelet 'Pnught Juber.")
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 170-176
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 230
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 254
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 131-132
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 311
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 313-324
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 341-343
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 360-362
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 365
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 372
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 378
- ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 382-389
- ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 401
- ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 435
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