Editing Serin Osman

{{Status|Canon}}
{{Outdated|[[Halo: Empty Throne]]}}
{{Character infobox
|variant=Human
|name=Serin Osman
|image=[[File:Osmanheader.png|300px]]
|homeworld=[[St. Malo]], [[Cascade]]{{Ref/Reuse|HMD15}}
|birth=[[2511|April 15, 2511]]
|death=
|causeofdeath=
|parents=
|siblings=
|spouses=
|children=
|species=[[Human]]
|gender=Female
|height={{convert|190.8|cm|ftin}}{{Ref/Site|Id=waypoint|URL=https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/characters/serin-osman|Site=Halo Waypoint|Section=Universe, Characters|Page=Serin Osman|D=27|M=10|Y=2015}}
|mass={{Convert|86.7|kg|lb}}{{Ref/Reuse|waypoint}}
|hair=Black{{Ref/Reuse|waypoint}}
|eyes=Brown{{Ref/Reuse|waypoint}}
|affiliation=*[[UNSC Navy]]
**[[UNSC Special Forces|Naval Special Warfare Command]] {{C|formerly}}
***[[SPARTAN-II program]]
**[[Office of Naval Intelligence]]
|rank=[[Admiral]]{{Ref/Reuse|waypoint}}
|sn=*39489-72738-SO{{Ref/Reuse|evg26}}
*S-019 (formerly)
|notable=
}}
{{Quote|The only rule is there are no rules.|A maxim frequently used by Osman}}{{Ref/Anthology|Id=ANT|HFra|Story=A Necessary Truth}}
'''Admiral Serin "Oz" Osman''', born '''Serin Çelik'''{{Ref/Novel|Id=HMD15|MorDi|Chapter=15}} and formerly known as '''SPARTAN-019''', ([[service number]] '''39489-72738-SO'''{{Ref/Book|Id=evg26|EVG|Page=26}}) is the [[Commander-in-Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence|Commander-in-Chief]] of the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]], inheriting the role from [[Margaret Parangosky|Admiral Margaret Parangosky]] after the end of the [[Human-Covenant War]].

==Biography==
===Early life===
Serin Çelik was born in [[2511]] on the [[human colonies|colony]] of [[Cascade]]. Her mother, [[Pinar Çelik]], was a prostitute and drug addict who completely neglected her daughter. On more than one occasion, young Serin resorted to digging through garbage cans for food. Numerous calls to child services were made, to no avail. The only person who cared for Serin was her teacher, [[Alkmini Leandro]], who regularly brought food to school for her.{{Ref/Reuse|HMD15}} 

===SPARTAN-II program and ONI career===
{{Quote|BB sometimes wondered what kind of operational Spartan she would have made, just the averagely terrifying kind or a full-blown angel of death.|[[Black-Box]]<ref>'''[[Halo: Glasslands]]''', ''page 423''</ref>}}

In [[2517]], Serin was abducted as a [[SPARTAN-II program|Spartan-II]] candidate by an ONI agent named Mr. [[Teddy]].{{Ref/Anthology|Id=Rossbach|HFra|Story=Rossbach's World}} She was given the designation Serin-019 and was trained under [[Franklin Mendez|Chief Mendez]] along with the rest of the candidates. Because of her living conditions, she (along with [[Soren-066]]) was not replaced with a [[Flash cloning|flash clone]]. She often ate the other candidates' leftover food, a practice for which [[John-117]] teased her.{{Ref/Reuse|HMD15}}

Serin did not successfully complete the [[SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures|augmentation process]], receiving only the genetic and biochemical enhancements before her body started to reject the rest.{{Ref/Reuse|G9}} While she failed the augmentation process, she still possesses a few of the enhancements, though no skeletal augmentation. The Office of Naval Intelligence took custody of her when she was 14 years old; they repaired the damage done by the failed augmentation process, educated her further, and put her into the ONI commanders' program. The other Spartans thought her dead; unlike some of the other washouts later assigned to ONI, she was withdrawn from the program before the funeral ceremony for the Spartans killed in the augmentations. As a result, she remained unaware if the successful Spartans were even told of the fate of the failures.{{Ref/Novel|Id=G3|Gla|Chapter=3}}

Considered as a protégé to [[Admiral]] [[Margaret Parangosky]], CINCONI, the Admiral groomed the former Spartan for a potential future as her successor. Serin considered herself the only person the Admiral would always forgive even if she failed. In order to hide her status as a former Spartan, she adopted the surname "[[Wikipedia:Osman (name)|Osman]]". Though people often assumed she was of Turkish descent based on her name and appearance, she did not actually know whether this was the case; though the information on her pre-Spartan identity was readily available to her, she did not look at her personal file for decades{{Ref/Reuse|G1}} until spontaneously deciding to do so in [[2553#April|April 2553]]. For a few years of the [[Human-Covenant War|war]], Osman served as an ONI field agent in various operation against both the [[Covenant]] and those humans who sought destabilization during a time when humanity needed unity more than anything. She gained experience working undercover in the arms industry and trade unions.{{Ref/Novel|MorDi|Chapter=7}} By [[2553]], Osman held the rank of captain. She was handpicked by Parangosky to lead up a black operations team known as [[Kilo-Five]] with the mission to ensure a [[Sangheili]] insurgency, keeping the Elites from threatening humanity. The team was composed of the civilian professor and Sangheili expert [[Evan Phillips]]; [[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers|ODSTs]] [[Malcolm Geffen|Staff Sergeant "Mal" Geffen]], [[Lian Devereaux|Sergeant Lian Devereaux]], and [[Vasily Beloi|Corporal "Vaz" Beloi]]; and Spartan-II [[Naomi-010]].{{Ref/Reuse|G2}}

===Meeting the Bishop===
{{Quote|Just remember that my enemy's enemy isn't my friend, Professor. He's my enemy who's just taking a sidebar.|Osman stops just short of confirming to Evan Phillips ONI's underhanded intentions in working with the Servants of the Abiding Truth.}}{{Ref/Reuse|G1}}
[[Evan Phillips]] was tasked with connecting Osman to dissident [[Sangheili]] who were likely to try to disrupt any formal peace deals between the [[UEG]] and [[Thel 'Vadam|the Arbiter]]. His efforts resulted in a January meeting on the [[glassing|glassed]] world of [[New Llanelli]] with [[Avu Med 'Telcam]], a representative of the [[Servants of the Abiding Truth]]. Phillips and Captain Osman took a shuttle from the {{UNSCShip|Battle of Minden}} to the surface. She watched from its cargo bay as Phillips spoke with the former [[Field Master|field master]] first. All the while, she kept her rifle at the ready should anything go awry. Initial contact concluded, Phillips returned and informed Osman that 'Telcam, whom he identified with the honorific of "Bishop", had agreed to speak with her. The professor cautioned her to remember that the Bishop was a fundamentalist and would not take kindly to slights against his beliefs or pride. Osman made sure to take the Sangheili's sensibilities into account; introducing herself as a [[shipmaster]]. Wanting to preserve as much deniability as she could for Phillips, she asked that he give her ten minutes alone with their contact. The Sangheili, an accomplished [[English]]-speaker, made it clear that he was opposed to [[Thel 'Vadam|the]] [[Arbiter]] and expressed genuine confusion regarding what the UEG could hope to gain from speaking with him. To 'Telcam's great surprise, Osman not only did not flinch at his talk of killing [[Thel 'Vadam|'Vadam]], but offered to supply his faction with weapons to aid in the effort. She set about convincing him of her sincerity in this matter by arguing that though the two of them would never be friends, humans were capable gamblers and wished to support the side more likely to win. Still somewhat skeptical, 'Telcam countered that her government would seek to impose itself as the Servants' puppeteer through making them beholden to it in this fashion. She dismissed his concerns by appealing to their shared desire for stability and isolation between their peoples. If Sangheili and humans could both keep their own troublesome groups in line, they could remain apart permanently, she argued. She also found common ground in the fact that both of them would need to keep their correspondence secret from those who would wield it as a political weapon against them if discovered. Before he committed to the deal, however, 'Telcam told her he had one final condition: she and her government must cease blaspheming [[Forerunners|the gods]]. He begrudgingly admitted that the [[Halo Array|Halos]] were weapons of mass death, but saw this as no reason to charge that their creators were neither divine nor immortal. He even accused her of hypocrisy in this insofar as her own faith was concerned, as he assumed she was a Christian and followed after a god who had died and yet still presumably lived. The captain was very careful in her response, assuring him that humanity was by no means united in any particular way concerning the veneration or belief in any deities. 'Telcam didn't push the issue any further, and they parted ways with the understanding that the Servants would leave humanity alone after they deposed the Arbiter and established themselves as the rulers on [[Sanghelios]].{{Ref/Reuse|G1}}

Hoping this meant the [[UNSC]] wouldn't have to fight Sangheili for a good while, Osman returned to Phillips and congratulated him for setting this up. He was not in the least bit naive with respect to what [[ONI]]'s plans were, but they agreed it was still best that nothing be shared with him explicitly. After settling into their seats in the shuttle, Osman ran the preflight checks before handing control over to its [[A.I.]]. She opened a secure channel through [[wavespace]] to [[Admiral]] [[Parangosky]] to let her know the mission had been a success and that they were returning. A few hours later, the shuttle rendezvoused with the ''Battle of Minden''. Once they were aboard the larger [[slipspace]]-capable vessel, a course was charted back to [[Earth]]. Phillips casually asked Osman about [[Wikipedia:Turkey|Turkish]] restaurants in [[Sydney]] and she played along, not wishing to expose the fact that her surname was an invention and that she was still willfully unaware of where she really came from.{{Ref/Novel|Id=G1|Gla|Chapter=1}}

===Assembling the team===
[[File:HM-K5-2.JPG|thumb|300px|Serin Osman was entrusted with directing Kilo-Five in extremely classified operations in the first few months following the Human-Covenant War.{{Ref/Novel|MorDi|Chapter=2}}]]
{{Quote|Time to put Kilo-Five together, then. BB, you're formally assigned to Captain Osman as of now. Lead on, Captain.|Margaret Parangosky to Black-Box and Osman.}}{{Ref/Reuse|G2}}
By January 26, Serin found herself waiting outside Admiral Parangosky's offices within [[HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6]]. Her own desk was situated near the door beyond which lay a corridor that led to the [[CINCONI]] herself. Accompanying her while she waited was the [[Minister for the Colonies]], [[David Agnoli]]. Through he had made no appointment of his own to see Parangosky, he had no compunction about asking Osman to get him a meeting. Osman, however, made sure he knew that Parangosky calls him a weasel and when he casually began rifling through [[The Admiralty Manual of Seamanship Volume II|a book]] that had been given to her by [[Fleet Admiral]] [[Terrence Hood]], she asked that he try to refrain from getting his greasy fingerprints all over it. At that moment, the door opened at the hand of Parangosky's flag lieutenant, a young man by the name of [[Dorsey]]. Told that the Admiral would see her then, she grabbed the files she needed from her desk and made for the door while Agnoli showed himself out. Just before she could cross the threshold, her path was suddenly filled with the [[holographic]] projection of an unremarkable blue cube. The [[Smart AI|smart A.I.]] introduced itself as [[Black-Box]]. Osman asked whose pet he was and continued on her way. Black-Box had to reroute himself so he could continue to make his avatar visible as she walked down the corridor, informing the captain that he worked for Parangosky. When she reached where the Admiral was seated, she remarked that it was good the two of them were already getting to know each other. Parangosky assured Osman that she could trust Black-Box with her life, if it came to that. Once the office had been secured so the three of them could speak in confidence, the Admiral told Osman that she would in fact be taking him on as her personal [[A.I.]] for the missions that lay ahead. Given the gravity with which Parangosky was speaking, Serin couldn't help but ask whether she was referring to more than just fomenting conflict between the Sangheili. In response to this, she was informed that some recent evidence suggested [[Catherine Halsey]] was still alive. Electronic intelligence (ELINT) officers onboard the {{UNSCShip|Glamorgan}} had detected massive electromagnetic abnormalities in the [[Zeta Doradus system]] where the artificial world of [[Onyx]] had been before its disassembly. ELINT could tell that [[shield World 006|something]] the size of a solar system was present, but yet undetectable in realspace. Onyx had been the doctor's last known location. Though the Sangheili were to still be [[Kilo-Five]]'s top priority at the present, Parangosky made clear that should the ''Glamorgan'' find a way to access whatever was still there in place of Onyx, she wanted Kilo-Five on hand to apprehend Halsey if she was present. Until such an occasion arose, however, the other human members of the team were not to be told she was considered still at large. Having established the parameters of the objectives ahead of the them, the two woman and the A.I. concluded their business and resolved to meet the rest of Kilo-Five. To Osman's surprise, Parangosky let her know that just around two hours prior she had taken a gamble and invited Doctor Phillips to join, making him the only civilian on the team.{{Ref/Novel|Id=G2|Gla|Chapter=2}}

Black-Box and the two officers met the professor before the four of them continued on to Bravo-6's threat analysis wing where the rest of the team was. The [[Orbital Drop Shock Trooper]]s [[Sergeant]] [[Lian Devereaux]], [[Staff Sergeant]] [[Malcolm Geffen]], and [[Corporal]] [[Vasily Beloi]], and Petty Officer [[Naomi-010]], a [[Spartan-II]] super-soldier, had been handpicked to make up Kilo-Five. Naomi was the first to notice their approach and she announced that an officer was on deck. The [[Spartan]] and [[marine]]s snapped to attention until they were told to stand easy by Parangosky, who introduced them to Osman and Phillips. Everyone seated themselves amongst tables and Osman distributed six [[datapad]]s to herself and her new teammates. She kept an eye on Naomi, trying to gauge whether or not the Spartan recognized her from their childhood on [[Reach]]. Naomi kept giving her furtive glances as well, not quite able to place the face but knowing she knew the woman from somewhere. After Parangosky brought everyone up to speed on the task before them, Captain Osman let them know that they would be shipping out in the morning. Any last-minute drinking would need to be done that evening within the complex. At [[Midpoint Anchorage]], they would be transferred to the {{UNSCShip|Port Stanley}}, a state-of-the-art {{Class|Sahara|heavy prowler}} outfitted with [[Forerunner]] technological enhancements to her [[SFTE]].{{Ref/Reuse|G2}}

===Back to Brunel===
{{Quote|no=two|q1=So much for all that Elite warrior honor. They're just as bad as us.|[[Lian Devereaux]]|q2=Then we need to dirty up our game. I'd hate to see ONI lose the title of Most Devious Bastards in the Galaxy to a bunch of hinge-heads.|Serin Osman|Serin, beginning to enjoy herself, remarks upon the disarray of opinions among the Sangheili with [[Avu Med 'Telcam]].}}{{Ref/Reuse|G4}}
The following day Naomi continued to look at Serin strangely during the shuttle transit to Midpoint. After Osman had acclimated herself to the commanding officer's seat on the ''Port Stanley''{{'}}s bridge, she gave Black-Box permission to run through the final launch checks himself and asked him whether or not everyone else was secure. He took this opportunity to warn her that Naomi was on her way to the bridge at that very moment. With only five minutes until their planned jump to [[slipspace]], Osman was prepared for the Spartan's entrance. She asked Naomi if there was something she needed to ask her, to which she was fully straightforward regarding her perplexing familiarity with Osman's face. Serin chose then to tell her the truth about who she was. Serin-019 was alive. Opening up was a great relief to Osman, but Naomi barely reacted, simply belting in at a comms station and acknowledging that they should be heading out. Just then the rest of the team arrived on the bridge and after confirming that nobody had any issues with the arrangements on the ship so far, everyone was seated and strapped in for the jump. BB, knowing Serin's proclivities regarding jumps, offered to sedate her but she said she could deal with it, not wanting to appear weak in front of the others. Just before they slipped into another dimension, BB intercepted a databurst from the {{UNSCShip|Ariadne}}. Osman struggled when the jump finally began, as was usual, and it was Devereaux who asked if she was alright. Rather than making the captain feel even worse, she made light of the issue by comparing her situation to [[Wikipedia:Horatio Nelson|Horatio Nelson]] and his seasickness. With forty-eight hours until they reached the [[Brunel system]] and [[New Llanelli]], Osman asked BB about the transmission they had received right before jumping. He relayed that the ''Ariadne'' had been forced to drop out of slipspace near [[Venezia]] in the [[Orso system]] because of a technical problem. [[Pasquale|The ship's commander]] had requested permission to land nonessential personnel on the planet due to unsafe conditions aboard but the colony had refused him. The message BB picked up had been meant for Earth and was a request for advice. Any further information regarding the developing situation would have to wait until they were no longer in slipspace, so Osman resolved that if nobody else had moved to aid them by then, she wanted to know. Retiring to her cabin to soothe her headache, Serin was greeted by a bag of crystallized ginger Parangosky had arranged for her, since she knew spaceflight could make her nauseous. She popped one of the cubes in her mouth and made for the hangar bay.{{Ref/Reuse|G3}}

With an estimated ten hours left before they arrived at [[New Llanelli]], Osman took it upon herself to seek out the rest of her new crew for a very particular purpose. BB, having listened to conversations being had surrounding the odd tension between the captain and Naomi, had encouraged her to be transparent with everyone about her past.[[File:PortStanley.png|thumb|300px|left|As the commander of Kilo-Five, Osman also served as the captain of its dedicated {{Class|Sahara|heavy prowler}}, the {{UNSCShip|Port Stanley}}.{{Ref/Reuse|G2}}]] The A.I. preceded her arrival to inform them she had called a meeting and would be preset imminently. She met Phillips on the hangar deck and found the three [[ODST]]s within [[Tart-Cart|a small stealth dropship]] made to look like a civilian patrol vessel. To Vaz, Phillips looked as if he had just been reprimanded in some way by Osman. She casually asked how things were going before making it clear that she was as omnipresent as BB as long as he shared information with her. Just before she appeared, Devereaux had asked Vaz if he was aware that they really didn't have a plan for their current mission. Osman rebuffed this, stating that she ''did'' have one. She explained that in light of the absence of any top-level entity in command and control of the [[Sangheili]], the best they could do then was to hand off the weapons to see where fault lines formed. She also cautioned that given the patchy short-range comms they would be at the mercy of during the majority of their mission, the ODSTs would be engaging in more surveillance work than they would be combat, though she thought it likely there would be some of that as well. Abruptly changing the subject, she then revealed what she had intended to: that she had been in the [[Spartan-II program]] and that she and Naomi knew each other years ago. She even told them they had been been six years old when they began, and that at that young age they had been put through real boot camp, not a military academy. Naomi, who had joined the others shortly after Osman first showed up on the deck, was angered by the captain's willingness to divulge such closely-guarded secrets and couldn't keep herself from giving her an accusatory look. Between Naomi's indigence and the shocked semi-silence of the others, Osman awkwardly exited the conversation with instructions to BB regarding bringing them out of slipspace in two hours and doing a comms sweep of the [[sector]]. She jumped down from the dropship's crew bay and took the ladder up to the upper gantry, leaving the crew.{{Ref/Novel|Id=G4|Gla|Chapter=4}}

When the time to re-enter realspace arrived, Osman braced herself against her seat, grunting in discomfort. At 149 million kilometers from the star, BB calculated the rest of the transit would take around five hours, placing them well ahead of schedule. A number of messages were waiting for the crew, including a sitrep for Osman from Parangosky. Naomi asked the A.I. if he knew anything about the status of Dr. Halsey, and Osman quickly jumped in and assured the Spartan Halsey was dead. Changing the subject, she directed Phillips to take a seat at the communications console so that he could listen for any Sangheili transmissions. Vaz asked whether New Llanelli was the name of the planet they were meeting 'Telcam on or if it had just referred to the colony there, and Osman told him it was both. She asked Black-Box whether he had made contact with any of their allies in the sector, and he replied that Kilo-Three-Nine was receiving their hail. Osman explained that Kilo-Three-Nine, or [[Mike Spenser]], an agent for the [[Department of Colonial Security]], was working as an informant for [[ONI]] and had been living on [[Reynes]] and running his own string of [[Kig-Yar]] informers. When Spenser finally opened a live connection from the planet to them, he shared much that had been happening recently in ex-Covenant society. By his account, there was a clear lack of leadership in many places. He also had heard of a recent high-profile double-murder on [[Sanghelios]] carried out by the [[Servants of the Abiding Truth|Servants]] against [[Relon|two]] [[keep]] [[Jalam|elders]] for blasphemy. Osman let Spenser know that with the [[Human-Covenant War|war]] over, the UNSC could take over surveillance in the sector now and that she was planning to pull him out. Next up was 'Telcam, who, after connecting with the ''Port Stanley'' despite being unable to locate the source of its signal, confirmed the meeting. They would make the exchange at the same location they had met one another previously. 'Telcam asked why she was choosing to remain hidden through stealth, and she reminded the former field master that they were not the only two [[Jiralhanae|parties]] out there. Phillips was able to eavesdrop on to the comms chatter coming from the Bishop's boarding craft and two {{Pattern|Keljiric|Tarasque}}s and Osman was very pleased to hear that the Elites were arguing over double-crossing the humans and were vexed over not being able to find their ship.{{Ref/Reuse|G4}}

===Stoking one fire and cooling another===
[[File:Halo Glasslands full cover.jpg|thumb|200px|The second time Osman and Phillips met with 'Avu Med 'Telcam, they took three ODSTs with them.{{Ref/Reuse|G5}}]]
{{Quote|no=three|q1=Give him a bit more latitude than you usually would before blowing his head off.|Serin Osman|q2=How much more, ma'am? Seriously.|[[Vasily Beloi]]|q3=Whatever happens, let him get away with the weapons. That's what matters. Stoke the fire.|Serin Osman|Osman reveals how seriously she takes the mission to sow disunity and internecine conflict among the Sangheili.}}{{Ref/Reuse|G5}}
All members of the team save for Naomi departed the ''Port Stanley'' at 15,000 kilometers from New Llanelli in a dropship carrying an [[M12 Warthog]], a [[forklift]], and a trailer full of crates of tagged weapons. Osman made sure BB, who split his processes between the [[prowler]] and [[Tart-Cart|the dropship]], kept all intercepted channels patched through to Phillips. She coordinated with Naomi to keep track of where the Sangheili were and had Devereaux set them down behind a ridge just north of an escarpment that slanted down to an ice rink of vitrified soil. After letting everyone know that they'd be heading straight for Spenser on [[Reynes]] after concluding their business there, Phillps asked if a replacement would be needed for him, but Osman dismissed his offer. Upon landing, she rolled up her sleeves and helped Devereaux hitch the trailer to the Warthog. From a vantage point on the ridge Mal used an [[SRS99D-S2 AM sniper rifle]] to keep she and the others informed about the other shore party. Serin took the Warthog's wheel and drove she, Vaz, and Phillips three hundred meters to stop just thirty meters from 'Telcam, another Sangheili, and two [[Jiralhanae]]. Before exiting the vehicle, she implored Vaz to let 'Telcam get away with the weapons no matter what happened. Dressed in a black [[UNSC Navy|UNSCN]] flight suit and light infantry armor to appear less threatening, she took the lead in meeting the Bishop, explaining that they had brought him an assortment of {{Pattern|Okarda'phaa|plasma rifle}}s, {{Pattern|Anskum|plasma grenade}}s, and [[Covenant proximity mine|antipersonnel mines]]. She also assured him that there would be more to come and that she could even take requests. The Bishop called her bluff at this, since they both knew it wasn't as if she could procure warships for him, and took the opportunity to ask one more time where their ship was presently hidden. Osman once again rejected the inquiry but was keen to notice that it seemed as if he was truly looking for a new craft. They concluded the exchange and Osman promised they would see one another in just a week to do it again. The humans stayed put until the Servants' dropship had taken off. Phillps let Osman know that 'Telcam still didn't trust them, as ev