Canon

Helena Gruss

From Halopedia, the Halo wiki

(Redirected from Gruss)
Helena Gruss
Artwork of Petty Officer Gruss.
Personal details

Species:

Human[1][2]

Gender:

Female[1][2]

Political and military information

Affiliation:

UNSC Navy[1][2]

Rank:

 

Petty Officer Helena Gruss,[3] who also goes by "Doc", is a Hospital Corpsman of the United Nations Space Command Navy. She is assigned to Sunray 1-1, the command squad of Boomerang Company - a unit of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers attached to UNSC Spirit of Fire.[1][2] She was on the ship 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.[1][2]

Biography[edit]

Gruss was present on the modified Phoenix-class colony ship, Spirit of Fire, on February 4, 2531 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, Gruss entered cryostasis along with the other survivors.

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, had no choice but to respond to. Gruss was attached to Sunray 1-1, which was tasked with stopping Colony's scheme as part of Operation: SPEARBREAKER. She was accompanied on this mission by Major Elijah Vaughan, Warrant Officer Alannah Quinn, Corporal Chloe Turpin, and Lance Corporal Devon Sparks.[1][2]

On May 21, Sunray were stationed at Quebec Base following their successful assassination of a Banished Chieftain. During the evening on the day, the team had a cookout of thorn beast meat that they had looted from the Banished base they had raided.[3]

Personality and traits[edit]

Gruss is a woman of few words, and as such her comrades in Sunray 1-1 have made it their mission to interpret the corpsman's opinions via analysis of her body language, sighs, rude gestures, and grunts of disapproval. This friendly harassment extends only as far as the unit's downtime - in the field, Gruss serves Sunray as a skilled hospital corpsman capable of keeping the soldiers under her charge from death. Gruss' timing in dealing with injury is so perfect that it borders on the prescient, and squad members resign themselves to the inevitable if Doc appears near them during battle.[1][2]

Due to her success as a field medic, the ODSTs of Boomerang Company have repeatedly tried to induct her into their ranks as an honourary ODST, despite her Navy background. Despite the repeated attempts, Gruss has repeatedly been able to avoid them - though the Marines know not to press too far to avoid invoking the ire of Gruss or Major Vaughan.[2]

Equipment[edit]

Gruss employs a late-war design of ODST armor, with a custom chestplate bearing the unit patch of Sunray 1-1. She makes use of an M7S SMG as her primary weapon, and a full complement of biofoam canisters.[4]

In-game information[edit]

Halo Wars 2[edit]

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

Phoenix Log[edit]

Phoenix Log - Corpsman Gruss
Phoenix log artwork

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].

UNSC Navy Medic.

Petty Officer Gruss is the Navy combat medic assigned to Major Vaughan's command squad. A woman of [very] few words, the ODSTs make it their mission to interpret "Doc's" opinion of their shenanigans by analyzing her body language, sighs, rude gestures, and grunts of disapproval. This friendly harassment ends when combat begins, for Doc holds the lives of the troopers in her able hands, wielding biofoam and trauma packs across the squad's position with incredible skill and delicacy. So perfect is her timing in dealing with injury that it borders on the prescient, and squad members resign themselves to the inevitable if Doc appears near them during battle.

In addition to her medical skill, Gruss has shown a remarkable talent for escape and evasion by avoiding the Marines' many and varied attempts to induct her into their ranks as an honorary Helljumper. This irks some members of the battalion, but even ODSTs are not crazy enough to risk the ire of a medic [and Major Vaughan] by pressing the issue. When deployed with the command squad Doc patches up the team's injuries with her medkit.

Gallery[edit]

List of appearances[edit]

Sources[edit]