Singularity | Application | Jonah | Headhunters, Halo Evolutions
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Alex
OOC Journal: reignsdown
Under 18? Sadly not.
Email/IM: reignsdown (Gmail, AIM, Plurk, ALL THE THINGS)
Characters Played at Singularity: Not a one.
Character Information ;
Name: Jonah
Name of Canon: Halo (Headhunters short story by Jonathan Goff - page 157 combined edition)
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference: Jonah | Headhunters | Spartan-III
Canon Point: Post death; he's just traded his life for six Spec-Ops Elites. Death is GOOD, oh yeah.
Setting:
Slipspace, the final frontier.
No, wait.
Space zombies!
No, wait.
Genocidal warfare.
No, wait. Halo represents all these things, and so much more.
Once upon a time, there was an advanced alien race called the Forerunners plagued by H5N-Flood, a parasitic hive mind that introduced the universe to zombies. Since they didn't have access to such base and critical life experiences as Resident Evil, these Forerunners did not equip Shotgun and go hunting. They equipped Ctrl+Alt+Delete via the seven Halo arrays, killed all malignant and benign processes, and let the universe reload.
Skip about a thousand chapters to today for Jonah and 500 years hence for us.
Humanity had been in the grips of a great and glorious age! They had done the Star Trek thing, but because everyone knows that TV science doesn't work (unless you are a Themian fanboy), they did it THEIR way. Slipspace. All the worlds suddenly became accessible and, like a brand new Americas, humanity went ahead and COLONISED ALL THINGS.
And maybe in the process desecrated a few things that an alien amalgamation known as the Covenant considered holy relics.
Oops.
And as we all know, when religion and the desecration of holy artefacts gets involved, there is always holy war and it's either (A) Assimilative or (B) Genocidal. The Covenant went for (B) and humanity's jugular. Well, holy hand grenade. Seeing as the Covenant are a bunch of frat alien boys that spend all their time shooting shit up with things they didn't even create, they were pretty boss at this holy war thing.
Humans are pretty boss too, but they were n00bs against the Covenant and fought back without the power of endless respawn. This got casualtastic pretty quick and, despite a handful of great stands. So humanity went and made something that was even more boss than they are: Spartans - which are humans, with +EVERYTHING equipped.
First came the Spartan-IIs, who are the biggest and best of all Spartans. Kidnapped Conscripted as children, they were trained, augmented, and armoured until all one Spartan had to do was huff and puff and blow all the Covenant down - which worked more often than the aliens expected.
Well, what do we do when something works? WE DO IT AGAIN. Only the Spartan program was tweaked and the Spartan-IIIs started coming into existence. All of them tiny, vengeful volunteers, the IIIs were not as augmented or armoured, but they were cheaper to make and easier to send on suicide missions without breaking budget. They did an Alpha Company and then a Beta company - and more, but a Jonah is Beta company, the rest would be spoilers.
Now, what would be the only thing better than having super soldiers out there destroying the Covenant? Elite super soldiers so secret that no one, not even the Covenant, know they exist and are coming for you. This, my friend, is the purpose of the Headhunters. Comprised solely of Spartan-IIIs that volunteered post-augmentation, it is a unit with six two-man teams paired up based on skill and compatibility with their partners. The Headhunter project is a secret within ONI, a group already known for having more secrets than the Flood has spores, and exists completely outside the normal channels. They are tasked with going into the most heavily fortified territory, with no support and little hope of retrieval, to lay waste to the Covenant and/or weaken them for larger strike teams.
Jonah is one of these and has been for more than two years, paired up with Spartan-III Roland. They both met every criteria of the Headhunter program and share a compatibility rate of 97.36% with one another; they are experienced, with twelve battlefield insertions under their belt, and their survival is an indicator that they have never failed.
Oh, and both of them are now dead. Guess that means they failed once.
And that's the story of how Jonah's reality is different from our own.
Personality:
"Yer essentially a government-sanctioned sociopath." - Roland, Headhunters
Aw, Roland, what a sweet thing to say about him! Man, he's touched and that could be a tear in his eye. Nope, it's a bit of dirt, but it coulda been.
That Jonah doesn't take offense when his sociopathy risks are raised says something about him and that thing? Is that he is 100% comfortable with it. Yeah, he cuts Elite heads from their bodies and uses them as a projectile in battle, but is that so wrong? And sure he's grinning or laughing as he does it, and maybe he takes glee out of it. But, hey, they started it; not his fault if they're the ones crying because he's the one finishing it.
Jonah loves being a Spartan and not for the augmentations or the armour alone. He loves every bit, every minute of it, from the rigorous training to the hot battlefield insertions to laying in muck for twelve hours to ensure maximum stealth to the postcarnage debriefs. His life and job are FUN and both let him fire back at the aliens pursuing human genocide - a bonus on all accounts.
Okay, maybe it's all a little too fun for him. Maybe he has an issue with being excitable and getting antsy when it comes time to get 'er done. There are times when his judgement isn't the best and, as a rule, all new fieldtest Headhunter equipment goes to Roland for legitimate testing before it goes to Jonah. Not that he'd abuse the privilege and use av-cam to give a Grunt a wedgie or anything - and not that he'd argue anyone accusing him of it either. Naw, he'd be too busy giving an Elite a wedgie instead. What? Don't look at him like that, Rolle. You'd get a laugh out of it too.
Being a Spartan-III, Jonah's primary motivation in life and survival is vengeance. He lives, breathes, trains, and kills to strike back at the Covenant because that's what he's been drilled, voluntarily cultivated to do. Guess you could say the guy holds a good grudge. But he ain't a total social reject. He's not a bad guy to be around and all his violent energies are tuned to the Covenant. These augmentations aren't something you use to beat an asshole up at a bar and he gets that. That'd be too easy anyways.
On that note, Jonah tends to simplify things, parse them down to uncomplicated levels to strip out the intimidating factors, the improbability of it all. This guy gets deployed behind enemy lines on suicide or near missions; it's all in his interest to make it simple and sweet so he can focus on the job, not the odds. Sure, he's a Spartan, but he feels fear when he's faced with the impossible and he makes it manageable, even downright enjoyable. Take his view on the Covenant, for example: Brutes or Elites, Grunts or Jackals, smart or dumb, big or small; it all comes down to the same thing. They are targets, things to kill, and having a berserker rage versus an energy shield is not going to change things a whole hell of a lot.
This all helps him with being a positive upbeat kind of guy. With Jonah, the glass is always half full - and it's usually half full of Covvie blood, just sayin'. Impossible odds and intangible grief don't mesh with his sporting-turned-sociopathic grin, because there's always fun to be had. Depression is a foreign word to him and about the only sadness he allows himself is the memory of his brothers, sisters, father, and mother. They died on Eirene and he fights to avenge them, but even that moment of :( is replaced with :D the minute Covvie blood starts hitting his faceplate.
And there will be blood, make no mistake. In fact, he'll bet you twenty cred that his First Strike medals are twice that of yours. Jonah's a cocky, carefree bastard and gambles to prove; if you're disagreeing with him, put your money on the line. The time's he's wrong, he'll pay up; the rest of the time, he'll thank you for your donation to the Headhunters.
Ever been voluntold to do something? Not Jonah. When the time comes to call for volunteers in the fight against the Covenant, his hand is up there first. This reflects his eager attitude, his dedication to getting things done and doing his part. Don't bother commending him for it; it's part duty and all Headhunter to avoid the recognition that comes part and parcel with being first in and rare out.
Headhunters go out in teams of two and work cooperatively towards their goal; it is engrained in them and he is no exception to the rule. Because of this, Jonah knows how to share the sandbox, in theory, but his sandbox has been coddled since induction into the Headhunters regiment. There they matched him up with Roland, fellow Spartan-III, who he rated a 97.36% compatibility with and only one team had a higher rating. That was two years ago and he's not had to work with others, so the gears are a bit rusty. He's apt to expect that you'll catch his half-nod and finger twitch as the all-clear or know that he goes for the biggest Brutes first while you suppress. Roland would.
At the end of the day, he's a Spartan and hard-wired to kill Covenant. Nice guy to be around, unless you happen to be an Ape or an Alligator, but other than that? He's got no issues with the average Joe.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions:
This guy is a delicate snowflake, apt to melt - IF YOU FIRE HIM INTO THE CORE OF A TYPE O STAR. Jonah is a Spartan-III, which is humanity's version of a Terminator. Yeah, he's more a T-800 than the T-1000 Spartan-II's, but pared up to your standard human, he is boss.
What exactly is a Spartan-III? The Jonah Special is:
Take 1 vengeful orphan volunteer; add seven years of intense physical, physiological, combat, and tactics training; combine with bio-augmentation procedure to enhance skeletal durability, muscle density, optical ability, and neural reaction capability. This generates your standard Spartan-III, a soldier beyond human measure. Their bones basically do not break, their muscles do not quit no matter the load, they can see you whether or not you move, whether or not you are in shadow; heck, they probably could have seen through things if Kurt let a radioactive Superman bite them. They react faster than you; takes you three seconds to duck? It takes Jonah one.
But that's just the base.
Additional steps for a Jonah Special: Combine with two specially assigned training missions, compare with rigid requirements set by Beta-5, allow time to digest offer and volunteer (approx. two milleseconds). Separate from Spartan-IIIs and fold into secret special training facility for additional eighteen-twenty months. Combine with partner and unleash on Covenant.
Jonah is a soldier, combat capable and experienced. Physically, he outperforms even the most athletic of human beings. Mentally, he may not be the most brilliant, but he is no fool. All of his training has lead into making a Spartan, the ultimate of human soldiers, and it has been a success.
But, he's arrogant and antsy when it comes time to fight, and a little hellbent on the destruction of the Covenant. Though he'd try his darndest, passing as a civilian is a skill he'd need to cultivate, and when the answer to something isn't warfare? Let's just say he'd probably try that option first. Emotionally, he's stunted and doesn't know the meaning of childhood, and he's ultimately human. Shoot him and he will bleed, but shoot him well because you might not survive to take a second shot.
Inventory:
Headhunters are spoiled compared to the average Spartan-III and Jonah is equipped to that standard and the no-shiny-toys rule between he and Roland. He wears the Semi-Powered-Infiltration-Armour of a III, with motion tracker, energy shielding, and the under development VISR technology. (Visual Intelligence System Reconnaissance; it provides nav data, low-light vision enhancement, Friend or Foe designation based on transponders. The Headhunter units are capable of making out units utilising advanced active camouflage, evidenced by Jonah seeing the six Spec-Ops Elites when he activated his.) The armour is stealth-focused, but not as powerful as the MJOLNIR armour of the Spartan-IIs.
Additionally, this Jonah action figure comes with one energy disrupter, a combat knife, and his M6C Magnum Sidearm. Normally he'd have his M7S SMG, but he went and dropped that right before he died. Something about needing a free hand to detonate the charges and take six Spec-Op Elites in trade for his life.
Appearance:
You don't see Jonah until you're dead - at least, that's a nifty way of saying there's no real canon description. He's never mentioned out of armour and even his size and shape in armour is not hashed over.
In armour, we have this handy reference: A fine specimen of a Spartan in moderately customised armour and relatively unencumbered by things like turrets (looking at you, Jorge). He's got a strong, defiant posture and looks downright fetching drenched in Elite blood, don't you think?
Out of armour brings in the headcanon! Given that Jonah is young compared to most of the Spartans at sixteen and that men don't stop growing until their mid-twenties, he had yet to reach his full size. That makes him an unimpressive six-four - hey, it's unimpressive for a Spartan. There's some Greek in him, ethnic tribute to his homeworld (Eirene, goddess and personification of peace - ain't that ironic), but it's been watered down. Dark hair's kept short, mostly within regulations, and he's got a babby Mohawk on the way.
And, as with any Spartan, he's got his share of scars; it's a measure of skill, ya know? Who needs rank when you've got that mark from the time with the plasma sword. Naw, not that time - he means the other time, in the leg? Yeah, that one!
PB-wards, we're talking Mark Salling (of Glee familiarity).
Jonah and Mark
Age: 16
Most Spartan-IIIs underwent augmentation between the ages of 12-14 and by the fact that he's been a Headhunter for just over two years would put him at the top end of sixteen. Mind, those augmentations and his battle-hardening lifts him a few years beyond that, but there's no mistaking that a solid ID check would leave him outside of any bar he tried to enter.
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across? na
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test? na
And What Did You Score? na
Samples ;
Log Sample:
Death had its ways of being, but one thing Jonah long figured was that staying outta the light had the best chances of avoiding it. His problem was that everything went white so, no matter where he turned, there was light. Sure meant that something wanted him dead and it weren't just them six Elites, but it didn't matter. Fair trade's what he said and meant, no take-backs in life or Spartan.
But he had to say, if this was the afterlife, some janitors needed to die and get to work. He hadn't seen this much junk since he and Roland went to town on that Ghost production line set up on 2473BA. There weren't much familiar lying about, though he saw what'd been space-faring year here and again.
Still. "If Sacrosanct don't have something religious about it, then I'll be an Ape's Uncle," he put out on the private comms of his Headhunter SPI. His unit made it intact and if this were death, purgatory, hell, or heaven, he'd bet Roland'd be around to hear him and say something about the family resemblance.
Silence on the comms didn't dishearten him all that or more. Jonah shrugged after a minute and put it to whatever holy presence made up this afterlife shunting his partner into the heaven side for all that good behaviour over the av-cam. All the killing he did made him a beeline for hell, but regrets and he didn't need words over that.
'Less this was heaven and God's brofist for killing the Covenant worshippers that went on about a Great Journey rather something humanity embraced. He put his hand out there in a fist, jabbed it in salute, and called the thought done.
Things had to be done, like determining how dead was dead. His HUD registered fine for his vitals and his shoulder still felt like an Elite used it to hang him off a coat rack. Recon would answer all that.
Under his helmet, he grinned with standard, pre-mission anticipation. This was the best part of a job: Knowing all the fun was yet to come.
Network Sample:
Name's Jonah and I'm yer average-
[Average what? Average alien-asskicking Headhunter? Naw, he's got to keep a low profile for recon purposes. Next thing that comes to mind then.]
Gardener.
[See, it's brilliant because it's true. He plants things all the time.
Sure, it happens to be bombs that he plants, but who's really gonna question that a nice gardener plants explosives? Not exactly the first question that comes to mind.]
Yep. Gardener, once upon a time off Eirene.
[Yeah, that's a name drop, but what's one more glassed planet? Acting civvie don't mean he's a civvie. Got to recon, see if anyone's got familiar background.]
This ain't the first time I've been displaced, I'm sure I'll adjust.
Call this my salute to all you and I'm guessing we'll be seeing each other around.