Maria-062

''"Maria" redirects here. For other uses of the name, see Maria (disambiguation).''

"Once John gets a hold of this armor, we'll all start sleeping a little better at night."

- Maria-062

Maria-062 is a SPARTAN-II supersoldier. She claimed that, at some point during the Human-Covenant War, she had retired with the intent of starting a family and that she was serving in the reserves as of October 2552.

Special Warfare Center
Hours before the Covenant's invasion of Earth on October 20, 2552, Maria tested the new Mark VI MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor in Seongnam, United Korea. She engaged a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers from the 340th ODST Combat Training Unit in a mock battle near the Special Warfare Center. After the exercise, the armor was approved for battle and was delivered to the orbital defense platform Cairo Station. There, it was issued to Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, who would use it to great effect as late as 2557. After the test, Maria declined a request to return to active duty by the captain in charge of the test, stating that she did not regret her decision.

Ambiguous mentions
Maria-062 is theorized to have been mentioned in two other Halo books, but it cannot be clearly determined if it is specifically her.

In Halo: The Fall of Reach, during Dr. Halsey's briefing to the Spartans assembled for Operation: RED FLAG, she mentions that among those not present is one SPARTAN-II who was been too critically wounded to continue active duty. It is possible that this wounded Spartan was Maria, whose absence allowed her to avoid the Fall of Reach and afterward having healed enough by October 2552 to test the Mark VI MJOLNIR armor. Other candidates are possible, though, like Naomi-010, who is not known to have been at the Fall of Reach and later served in ONI's Kilo-Five team.

In Halo: Mortal Dictata, Serin Osman mentions that only one Spartan has ever retired, and only because they had the excuse of having failed the augmentation procedures. Since Maria is known to have retired, Osman could be referring to her. However, Osman compares the unnamed retired Spartan to herself, as Serin had also failed augmentations. While Osman had not received any physical benefits from the procedure, Maria seems to be at the peak of ability, well enough to use the MJOLNIR powered armor, a system dangerous enough to kill an unaugmented user. Possible answers include Maria having been one of the crippled Spartans who was later rehabilitated, or Osman referring to another Spartan like Ralph-303.

Trivia
Maria-062 is the first SPARTAN-II whose face was visually depicted in official media.

List of confirmed appearances

 * ''Halo Graphic Novel