Frederic-104

"As Spartans we anticipate our involvement in any military campaign. It's who we are. It's what we were born to do. We're here to win this war and we're eager to do just that."

- Frederic-104, shortly before the Battle of Earth

Lieutenant, Junior Grade Frederic-104, born Frederic "Fred" Ellsworth, is a Spartan-II supersoldier of the United Nations Space Command's Naval Special Warfare Command. A skilled close-quarters combatant and marksman, Fred is a natural leader and a brilliant strategist. Having been a regular member of Blue Team almost since the unit's inception, Fred typically held the call sign of "Blue-Two". Since 2552, Fred has served as the commander of Blue Team, though he often defers leadership to close friend Master Chief Petty Officer John-117.

Fred participated in numerous engagements throughout both the Insurrection and the Human-Covenant War. In 2525, Fred participated in Operation: TALON, the first operation of the Spartan-IIs. As the Covenant War began, Fred participated in numerous battles throughout the war, including the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. Notably, Fred served as the leader of Red Team during the Fall of Reach, which ultimately saw the highest single operation death count of Spartan-IIs. Fred later participated in the Battle of Earth and the Battle of Onyx, commanding several of his fellow Spartans.

Following the end of the Covenant War in 2553, Fred has continued to serve as the leader of Blue Team and has since participated in numerous operations under the authority of the Office of Naval Intelligence. One of the few remaining Spartan-IIs, Fred holds the highest rank among his active-duty peers. As of August 2558, Fred has participated in 197 individual military operations and engagements, 139 of which were full campaigns.

Early life and conscription
"Fred-104"

- John-117

Frederic Ellsworth was born on the human Inner Colony of Ballast on April 3, 2511. In around 2517, Fred was identified as an extremely talented child, and marked as a potentially exceptional soldier and a candidate for Doctor Catherine Halsey's SPARTAN-II program as a result. On September 23, 2517, Fred was abducted by the United Nations Space Command's Office of Naval Intelligence at the age of six to be conscripted into the SPARTAN-II program. He was then replaced with a flash clone and sent to Reach in the Epsilon Eridani system with the other Spartans. His flash clone would die shortly after Fred's own abduction. Fred was trained with the other Spartans at Reach by "dumb" AI Déjà and Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, with the two serving as the Spartans' teacher and drill instructor, respectively. Fred also participated in numerous training exercises, including the Spartans' mission to the Military Wilderness Training Preserve in 2519. During one training exercise, Fred and the other Spartans traveled to Emerald Cove for an underwater mission, where they abandoned Mendez and lived on their own on an island for a few days.

During his training, Fred quickly proved himself to be one of the SPARTAN-II program's top candidates. Both Doctor Halsey and Chief Mendez identified him as one of four emerging leaders within the program's candidates, along with Kurt-051, Jerome-092, and John-117. By July 14, 2523, Fred and his fellow Spartan-IIs had begun facing the formidable and ruthless UNSC Marine Corps' Tango Company in simulated war games. On March 9, 2525, Fred and the rest of the Spartan-II candidates underwent their augmentation procedures at Medical Facility Endurance orbiting Reach. After successfully enduring the procedures, Fred later attended a military funeral aboard carrier in the Lambda Serpentis system for the Spartans who died during the augmentation process. Afterwards, the Spartans returned to Reach for their final training phase in the Highland Mountains.

Infiltration on Eridanus Secundus
"Samuel-034"

- Fred-104

On September 14, 2525, shortly after the Spartans had recovered from augmentations, Fred was selected by John-117 to join Blue Team—also composed of Samuel-034, Linda-058, and Kelly-087. The team was then chosen for the Spartan-IIs' first mission, Operation: TALON. The operation's objective was to capture Colonel Robert Watts, a UNSC Marine turncoat officer and the leader of the United Rebel Front. ONI had recently discovered that Watts was residing within Eridanus Secundus, a large asteroid settlement and insurrectionist military base in the Eridanus system's largest asteroid belt.

Equipped with black body suits and MA2B assault rifles, Fred and the rest of Blue Team were brought to the Eridanus II space docks by the. Once at the docks, the Spartans then infiltrated the URF-operated Laden en route for Eridanus Secundus. While aboard the freighter, the Spartans learned that a crate of luxury goods was headed for Watts' location. The crate was tagged with a NAV marker transmitter, allowing the Spartans to track the crate to Watts' position once they reached the asteroid. When Laden arrived at one of the docking bays of Eridanus Secundus, Blue Team fought their way through Eridanus Secundus and URF soldiers until they reached Watts' apartment, located using the NAV marker they had placed on the crate. After killing several of Watts' security guards, Fred and the rest of Blue Team secured Watts inside a crate and returned to one of Eridanus Secundus' docking bays. With Sam detonating several C-12 explosives on the asteroid's main hangar bay doors, the Spartans escaped the rebel facility in a stolen D77-TC Pelican dropship with Watts, as the doors blew open and the hangar bay decompressed. With the mission complete, Blue Team had effectively severed the head of the United Rebel Front, at least for the time being.

The Covenant War begins
"Sam fell first. And yet he showed us that the Covenant could be killed. Sam proved we could win this war. Every battle won is built on the foundation of that sacrifice. If we survive this, it's because Sam showed us the way."

- Fred-104 on Sam's sacrifice aboard Unrelenting

After the Covenant attack on Harvest and the beginning of the Human-Covenant War, Fred and the rest of the Spartan-IIs were brought to the Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex, where Rear Admiral Michael Stanforth and the AI Beowulf briefed them on the emerging Covenant threat. In response, the training of Fred and the rest of the Spartan-IIs was accelerated, and the Spartans were sent to Chi Ceti IV in the Chi Ceti system to receive their new MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor from Damascus Materials Testing Facility to aid in combat against the Covenant. While en route to Chi Ceti IV aboard, the frigate was attacked by Covenant warship Unrelenting. Commonwealth was able to ward off Unrelenting and the Spartans were deployed to Chi Ceti IV with Halsey, where they each retrieved a set of armor. While the Spartans were returning to Commonwealth, Unrelenting returned and engaged the frigate. To provide aid to Commonwealth, John had Fred and the other Spartan-IIs use thruster packs to embark towards Unrelenting to destroy the warship with Anvil-II AS missiles, though only John, Kelly, and Sam made it aboard. Ultimately, Sam sacrificed himself to destroy Unrelenting by detonating the missiles, while John and Kelly escaped and returned to Commonwealth. However, Sam's death proved to Fred that the Covenant could be killed and the UNSC could win the war. Fred and John briefly were later sent to support a group of Marines fighting rebels, but the skirmish quickly changed as the Covenant's arrival forced the UNSC troops to side with the rebels to combat the Covenant.

Skirmish over Netherop
Leading up to March 5, 2526, Fred and Blue Team, along with Gold Team and Green Team, were stationed on the Razor-class prowler over Netherop as part of an operation with the goal of capturing a Covenant vessel for ONI's Beta-3 Division to examine. Using a flight of patrolling s as cover, the three teams went EVA and boarded the frigate Radiant Arrow. Once within the vessel's hangar, the Spartans eliminated the crew with cold efficiency and prepared to move deeper into the vessel. Blue Team spearheaded the assault, clearing rooms along the ship's main corridor. Midway through their sweep, a sensor operator aboard one of the prowlers "accidentally" broadcast a transmission on the Spartans' SQUADCOM, revealing their presence to the rest of the Covenant aboard the frigate. In reality, this apparent mistake was actually part of an insurrectionist plot orchestrated by Hector Nyeto. With their cover blown, Blue Team rushed deeper into the ship with the intent to find and capture the bridge. The fight soon took the four Spartans into a gravity lift tube where they were set upon by Sangheili warriors wielding carbines and plasma grenades. Intending to keep the Spartans from reaching the bridge, the Covenant crew reversed the direction of the lift, pulling Fred, Kelly, and Linda rapidly downward while John managed to grab a maintenance ladder. At the bottom of the tube, Fred, Kelly, and Linda laid in a pile, their armors locked up to protect them from the fall. However, the combined mass of Fred and Linda had landed on top of Kelly, and she received a compound rib facture as a result. John ordered Fred to extract Kelly from the tube and for the three of them to rendezvous with Green Team while he secured the bridge. When John found that the vessel's shipmaster had prepared the Radiant Arrow to self-destruct, he ordered Fred and the rest of the Spartans off the vessel. They all made it clear just before it detonated.

Operation: SILENT STORM
Shortly after this failed attempt at capturing a Covenant vessel, Blue, Gold, and Green Teams were selected to participate in a daring operation to thin the Covenant's navy through similar boarding tactics. For this mission, the Spartans would be attached to Task Force Yama and deployed alongside the veteran ODSTs of the 21st Space Assault Battalion, known as the "Black Daggers." For its proximity to the front, the Outer Colony of Biko—specifically an ice quarry on its third moon, Seoba—was selected as the staging ground for the operation.

During the ten-day voyage through slipspace, Fred and the others trained with the ODSTs in the 's mission preparation hold. The Spartans made short work of the veteran marines in each exercise until Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson taught them some unorthodox strategies that proved to be much more effective against the supersoldiers. After four days of training, Colonel Marmon Crowther had them all gather in the ship's drop hangar to be briefed on the specifics of the operation. Despite their exemplary performance against his ODSTs, Crowther was still skeptical about deploying the Spartans to the front lines due to their inexperience on the battlefield, as well as their apparent young age, much to their frustration.

Seoba
When the prowler task force arrived in-system on March 18, it was discovered that insurrectionist forces had holed up in that very quarry and the UNSC would need to uproot them before the Covenant inevitably arrived. Fred and the rest of Blue Team followed John as he disobeyed orders and leapt from the deployment bay of the while under fire. During the insertion, one of the prowlers managed to damage the insurrectionist base's communications relay, severing its connection with any potential reinforcements. The Spartans regrouped in the quarry's abandoned and frozen docks to discuss how they would destroy the Civet convoy travelling up the side of the quarry to fix the relay. With approval from Captain Zelos Cuvier and Lieutenant Nelly Hamm, they planned to travel up the tube of a derelict mass driver that rose five kilometers up and out of the quarry, using thruster packs to outpace the convoy. As the accelerator tube was mostly full of ice, Fred was worried that they wouldn't be able to advance quickly enough without a larger flamethrower and more time. He also suggested the possibility that the Spartans were simply being used as a diversion to allow Hamm and her troopers to eliminate the convoy. Nevertheless, they went forward with the plan, having Linda stay back to cover them with her MA5B assault rifle and to watch for any hint that the insurrectionists had discovered what they were doing. John led the way, with Fred and then Kelly trailing behind. The vibrations of them bumping into the tube began launching ice crystals into the sky. Despite their ongoing firefight with the Black Daggers, the insurgents soon discovered the Spartans' plan and began sweeping a portion of the tube ahead of them with M41 Vulcan fire. To distract the gunners, John and Fred rigged their thermite-carbon cord and I-JeT to explode as they moved past the Vulcan fire. Shortly thereafter, Blue Team discovered that Fred was right and that Hamm's men had intercepted the convoy via a prowler drop while the enemy was distracted by the Spartans. The ODSTs had also planted explosives on the communications relay by the time Blue Team exited the tube. John expressed his team's misgivings to Hamm about being lied to and used as bait, but she dismissed him, saying that this was what happens when he disobeys orders.

The next day, Captain Halima Ascot, commander of Task Force Yama and captain of the Starry Night, held a meeting to discuss the events of the previous day's battle. John was reprimanded for his maverick actions at the start of the battle, and his Spartans' experience was called into question once more. Due to some of Nyeto's sly comments, the truth about their young ages was revealed to the few personnel present at the meeting. Learning this disturbing fact, Colonel Crowther refused to send the Spartans into battle again, instead ordering them to guard the insurrectionists captured during the fighting and prepare them to be sent to Biko to be processed. While this meeting was being held, a Covenant flotilla was detected as it arrived in-system and began heading for Seoba.

As the rest of Task Force Yama mobilized to meet the alien vessels, Fred and the other Spartans were sent to Subsurface Maintenance Grotto 6M430 where they would direct the captured insurgents onto a transport. While the line of roughly 300 prisoners marched onto the vessel, John noticed that a group of them were hiding the presence of an officer, General Harper Garvin of the United Rebel Front. He ordered the officer to step forward, but another rebel presented herself instead, trying to stall for Garvin. To show that he meant business, John grabbed the woman by her tunic lapels and threatened her with summary execution for interfering with a guard while on the field of combat, as per the UNSC Military Code of Conduct. John's plan worked and General Garvin presented himself. He began trying to pry information out of John, but this effort was interrupted when a situation with Captain Ascot's flagship was relayed over the task force's command channel. The Starry Night had been shot down on takeoff, crash-landing back into the quarry. Crowther was unable to send a unit of his Black Daggers to search for survivors without putting more prowlers at risk. Since they were the only unit available to assist, John decided that he and his Spartans would go for the Starry Night once the transport was loaded. After sending Garvin back to his people and ordering the transport pilot to launch, John had his Spartans move out, much to the concern of Joshua-029 and Kurt-051. Not only would they be disobeying a direct order from Crowther, operating without the support of the task force in such a situation would be very risky.

Fred and the others proceeded to the grotto's access vestibule and entered its airlock, sealing the inner hatch. With that, they stepped out into the dense sublimation fog gathered at the quarry floor. Visibility was so poor that each of the Spartans could barely even see the ends of their rifles, but the flashes of plasma bolts could be seen dancing through the clouds above. John accessed the command channel and requested that he and his teammates receive a waypoint leading to the downed prowler. Colonel Crowther responded by asking what he thought he was doing. John stated that they were checking on the status of the Starry Night as they were the only unit that could do so at the moment, carefully choosing his words so that Crowther could deflect blame onto the Spartan if need be. This would make it more likely for Crowther to not stand in the way of their self-assigned mission. While John waited for a response, he signaled Joshua and Kurt to spread out their teams in a hundred-meter-wide search line. Green Team spaced out on the left of the more tightly-gathered Blue Team, and Gold Team spaced out on the right. By doing this, the Spartans would be more likely to find any debris from the Starry Night that might have otherwise been missed in the fog. Kelly pointed out that Nyeto had said the prowler went down intact, but John was not convinced that it stayed that way once the vessel dropped into the quarry. John also ordered them to advance at a trotting speed, leading them away from the dockyards where they had engaged insurgents the day before. When Crowther still had not responded, John added over the command channel that they would take a look at the crash site and report what they found.

Finally, Crowther replied and acknowledged John's plan, but ordered him to not take action unless immediately warranted. He also informed the Spartans of Biko's naval response to the alien bombardment of Seoba and that Nyeto believed that the small Covenant flotilla would either be in full retreat or destroyed within the hour by the approaching overwhelming force. An inexact waypoint was placed on each of the Spartans' HUDs, to which Fred reacted with a sarcastic remark. Ignoring the comment, John had them adjust course to match the new trajectory. At this point, Fred and the rest of Blue Team were arrayed in a diamond formation with only five meters between them, with only their motion trackers revealing the locations of their teammates. John ordered them all to advance at a full run while keeping their eyes on their feet, since that was all they could see anyway. As they ran, the Emmeline departed the grotto and flew over the Spartans, churning up the fog and allowing a brief moment of visibility. Through the haze, they could see five Covenant vessels fire towards the transport as it crested the horizon.

As the Spartans neared the provided waypoint, the fog had lowered to shoulder-height, allowing the Spartans to discover that the Starry Night was indeed seemingly intact, but sat atop a large avalanche about seven hundred meters up the quarry wall. Fred spotted a Covenant intrusion corvette sliding over the rim of the quarry and descending over the prowler. Kelly theorized that they may be trying to recover the Starry Night themselves. Realizing the danger, John declared to his teammates that the mission was no longer a rescue mission. Their primary objective was now to deny the Covenant from recovering the prowler and the data stored within. Then, John opened the command channel again and relayed this information to Crowther, who echoed John's concerns and insisted that they could not let the Covenant take possession of the Starry Night. The vessel's navigation computer and other onboard data devices could reveal the locations of UNSC outposts, entire force deployments, or worse. Crowther asked Nyeto if there was any way that the prowler's nuclear self-destruct could be remotely activated, to which the lieutenant commander responded in the affirmative. However, there were only three positions that had access to that ability. The first two were the flight commander and wing commander, both of which were roles held by Captain Ascot, who was either dead or unable to be reached aboard the Starry Night. The final person with the ability to remotely detonate the prowler was the captain of the Vanishing Point, which was holding station two planetary orbits out from Seoba. At that distance, it would take nearly an hour for the request to be sent to the cruiser and for the return signal to arrive. By then, the Covenant might already have retrieved sensitive data from the wrecked prowler. Crowther began to reluctantly order the Spartans to prevent the Starry Night ' s capture, but John cut him off, assuring him that they would not fail. The Spartan requested that Task Force Yama assist them by keeping the assaulting corvettes off their backs. Nyeto began to say that their prowlers were not designed for ship-to-ship combat when Crowther interrupted him, promising that they would find a way. Crowther started to tell John to standby for instructions on how to manually activate the prowler's self-destruct, but he reassured the colonel that his Spartans already knew how to activate a Fury nuke.

Just then, a Ghost appeared on John's motion tracker, firing at him through the fog. Once it showed itself, he killed its Jiralhanae driver with his MA5B's underbarrel grenade launcher. Shortly after that was handled, more Ghosts entered the quarry, so John ordered Green and Gold Teams to deal with them as Blue Team followed him. At this point, the looming intrusion corvette had begun deploying EVA-equipped Sangheili, Jiralhanae, and Kig-Yar warriors via gravity lift, with the first already looking for a way inside the ship. Another corvette crested the edge of the quarry, firing its main cannon on the Spartans. Grace-093 took a hit, and John requested an ETA on Nyeto's support. The lieutenant commander told him not to worry, as it was nearly set up. However, John realized it would be too late for that and he ordered Blue Team to simultaneously fire on the avalanche just below the Starry Night with their grenade launchers to cause the vessel to fall to quarry floor and prevent the Covenant from gaining entrance. Despite Fred's warning that such an action could bring the whole slope down on top of them, each member of the team acknowledged and followed his order. As Fred feared, the volley of grenades worked a bit too well, bringing the avalanche down on top of the Spartans, but successfully delaying the Covenant in their boarding attempt.

Fred, Linda, and four other Spartans escaped being buried under the avalanche, leading to John—who was among those buried—giving Fred command of the mission to board and destroy the Starry Night. Getting over his amazement that the strategy had worked, Fred asked what should be done with any survivors they found aboard the prowler. Telling him to rescue them if possible, John switched to the command channel to demand the status of Nyeto's supposed support. Fred gathered Linda and Malcolm-059 to board the vessel while the mobile members of Gold and Green Teams fended off a seemingly endless stream of ground vehicles. Fred's team boarded the Starry Night via a massive breach in its bow, finding five survivors of the crash: four Black Dagger ODSTs and Staff Sergeant Johnson, who had received a bad concussion. Fred had Linda get to work manually arming the prowler's Fury tactical nuclear weapon as he reported the situation to John, who told Linda to take her time, but warned of an enemy squad preparing to board. Acknowledging this information, Fred told him that once the nuke was armed, they would flee in the prowler's escape pod. Hearing that a team of Covenant boarders was inbound, Johnson requested his assignment. Fred had him "guard" the escape pod to keep him out of harm's way. Nyeto's support finally arrived in the form of strafing runs that destroyed two nearby intrusion corvettes, but spared the one that was still attempting to recover the Starry Night. When John warned that the Covenant boarding party was making their move, Fred and his team repelled them with explosive weapons as John distracted the rest outside the ship after digging himself free. Linda had just finished arming the nuke and began dragging Johnson into the escape pod when John ordered her to initiate its thirty-second timer immediately. The looming corvette had activated its gravity lift system and was trying to draw the prowler up into its hangar. Linda followed the order and John warned all local Spartans to evacuate the area immediately. Fred, Linda, Malcolm, Johnson, and the ODSTs boarded the prowler's escape pod and launched through Seoba's low gravity while under fire from the corvette's surprised gunners. John informed Crowther and Nyeto of the escape pod and the imminent nuclear explosion. All of the Spartans made it to safety before the detonation, which destroyed both the Starry Night and the intrusion corvette. Colonel Crowther sent prowlers to recover them and the other survivors after the nuke's electromagnetic pulse had dissipated. Some of the Spartans also assisted in the recovery of a Covenant starholo from the wreckage of the corvette. They and the starholo were then transported back to the Vanishing Point.

New orders
On March 20, six Spartans who were not confined to the infirmary—including John-117—attended a funeral service for the two-hundred-and-three men and women who lost their lives at Seoba. Held in the command hangar of the Vanishing Point as it sat in a high parabolic orbit around Biko, the ceremony included an honor company of a hundred-and-one enlisted personnel in their dress blues, including the six Spartans and Avery Johnson. After the service, Lieutenant Commander Nyeto—the de facto commander of Task Force Yama after Ascot's death—approached John, who asked if he'd reconsider sidelining them. Nyeto promised that the Spartans would be seeing all the action they could handle for the rest of the operation. However, Crowther again contested this on the basis of them being too young, forcing the lieutenant commander to back down by threatening him with a report to a UNSC board of inquiry. The Black Daggers would board the incoming fleet alone. As everyone left the hangar, Crowther revealed to Johnson that he did not trust Nyeto. He believed that the Spartans were combat-ready, and he was instead sending them on a mission to disrupt Covenant supply lines at Etalan.

Later that same day, Fred and the rest of Blue Team had gathered in one of the Vanishing Point's small maintenance hangars, wearing plain black utilities as their armor underwent maintenance and repairs. Four other Spartans sat in a back corner of the hangar, familiarizing themselves with Covenant weapons that had been recovered at Seoba. Meanwhile, the anticipated Covenant fleet had arrived and begun its assault on Biko. Blue Team watched on a bulkhead monitor as the planet's meager navy responded and approached the greater force, consisting of around one hundred Covenant warships. Each capital ship had swarms of fighters sticking close to their hull in an escort pattern and was accelerating rapidly toward the Bikon vessels, a strange and unexpected tactic. Fred was the first to comment on this unusual sight, jokingly suggesting that their commanders had never been to fleet warfare school. The four Spartans shared their theories as to why the Covenant was using this strategy, and Kelly came to the conclusion that they were maintaining a fighter screen to prevent boarding attempts, like the one the Spartans had performed at Netherop. As Blue Team discussed how the Covenant might have figured out what their plan was, Johnson entered the hangar to deliver orders from Crowther. He told them that the colonel had realized that they were battle-ready, and that he was sending them on a secret mission to Etalan. Due to Crowther's previous statements, the Spartans had a hard time believing this until Johnson leveled with them and revealed that Crowther was suspicious of Nyeto, and that was why he was being so secretive. The Spartans shared their own suspicions of Nyeto and John decided that they would take the mission.

Etalan
That same day, Fred-104, the other Spartans, Staff Sergeant Johnson, and Dr. Halsey left the Kolaqoa system aboard the Vanishing Point, with two of the task force's prowlers serving as escort. On March 22, the three ships arrived at Etalan and they spent the next four days observing the logistics fleet's movements trying to discern which vessels they should be their primary targets. By March 26, the Vanishing Point's analysts felt confident that four of the fleet's fifteen vessels were equipment freighters that carried spare parts and other materials used to maintain the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience. At this point, the logistics fleet was seemingly preparing to break from orbit over the planet, evidenced by the fact that they had begun syncing their orbits and bringing their fusion reactors to full power. Since time was running out, Gold and Green Teams were deployed in S-14 Baselards to destroy the freighters as Blue Team and Johnson discussed what vessels they should target during the second phase of the attack. The plan called for each of them to fly one of the Banshees they had captured a few weeks earlier straight into the hangars of the target vessels, crash the fighters with a HAVOK nuke in the cockpit, and then go EV and await prowler pickup. For the purpose of this mission, Fred, the rest of Blue Team, and Johnson were equipped with an M99 Stanchion and an M41 SPNKR.

As they watched the eight other Spartans begin the battle, Johnson suggested that they destroy what the analysts believed to be s, but Fred pointed out that they weren't even sure of that and they could be petting zoos for all they knew. Still, Johnson argued that could destroy all of the "petting zoos," and they'd be stuck without whatever they needed them for. However, Dr. Halsey walked over and informed the group that she had identified the fleet's munition supply vessels as the three large "air-skimmers" that were dipping in and out of Etalan's upper atmosphere. When she revealed that she had realized this when they first arrived four days ago, Johnson questioned why she had waited so long to tell them this. Halsey explained that she had kept it to herself so as to not alert Nyeto and his subordinates—whom she had deduced were Insurrectionist spies—to their plan. When Halsey mentioned that the spies had managed to plant surveillance devices in her lab, Fred became concerned that they might have tampered with their armor. Despite Halsey eventually admitting that they could have possibly accessed the maintenance module where the armor had been stored, Blue Team and Johnson prepared to follow through on their part of the mission, now targeting the three "air-skimmers" instead.

With the Vanishing Point nearing the designated drop-off point, John signaled Blue Team and Johnson to grab their HAVOKs and board their Banshees. Meanwhile, a remotely piloted Baselard powered up on the hangar deck just ahead of them. Moments before launch, a decoy flight of three manned Baselards soared past the hangar aperture with a Banshee squadron hot on their tails. The Vanishing Point cold-launched a salvo of pre-targeted M42 Archer missiles, and an instant later, the remote Baselard shot out of the hangar. It fired its two Archer missiles at the Banshee squadron as the Vanishing Point's missiles activated and flew after the Banshees as well. The Banshees scattered, giving the three manned Baselards a chance to escape. John gave Blue Team the order to launch their Banshees and fall in behind the alien fighter squadron before firing on the remote-controlled Baselard until it self-destructed into a fireball that helped distract the Covenant forces as the Vanishing Point slipped away. Sangheili voices filled the cockpits of Blue Team's Banshees, no doubt questioning where they came from. When no response was given, a three Banshees broke from the main squadron to investigate the new arrivals at close range. However, John convinced the aliens that their communications equipment had been damaged by feigning communication with a wiggle of his Banshee.

Shortly after this, Gold and Green Teams deployed from their Baselards to attack the equipment freighters as planned. Moments later, the targeted freighters began exploding while panic ensued among the Covenant fighters and their battlenet. The fourth explosion was so close to the Banshee squadron that they were all—including the Banshees piloted by Blue Team—disabled by the electromagnetic pulse. Since those escorting them no longer had the capability to intercept any of their transmissions, Fred exclaimed disgust at the Banshees' lack of radiation shielding over TEAMCOM. After some discussion, Blue Team decided that they would go EV and intercept the three air-skimmers as they passed by. John would board the first vessel, Kelly the second, and Fred the third while Linda and Johnson held back to cover them with their M99 Stanchions. Fred pointed out the absurd difficulty of reaching the vessels and then getting clear of the blast, to which Linda responded that technically they did not have to get clear, but she would miss Fred's wisecracks if he was killed. John ordered Linda and Johnson to focus on protecting Kelly and Fred, but Johnson refused as Linda had already decided that Johnson should cover John while she covered Fred and Kelly, who were close enough for her to support. Leaving the squadron of adrift Banshees behind, Johnson's HAVOK nuke—which he had left aboard his Banshee—detonated, killing any potential witnesses aboard the other craft and covering their approach for the air-skimmers. Meanwhile, the two escort prowlers arrived to recover Gold and Green Teams. Assuming the vessels were preparing for another attack run on the logistics fleet, the Covenant attacked the prowlers and the Baselards accompanying them. Despite facing some resistance from the lead air-skimmer's fighter screen, John made it and detonated his nuke, destroying the vessel. Fred and Kelly did likewise before Blue Team was recovered by the Vanishing Point or its escort prowlers.

Battle of Circinius IV
On April 26, 2526, Fred and the rest of Blue Team were deployed to Circinius IV to combat the Covenant invasion, as well as to evacuate civilian populations and observe Covenant invasion patterns. During the battle, Blue Team received a distress signal from a cadet squad pinned down at Corbulo Academy of Military Science; these cadets were the only survivors on the entire planet. While Kelly led Blue Team north to the evacuation point, John traveled to the cadets' location to rescue them. Eventually, John and the three surviving cadets reached Blue Team's evacuation point and rendezvoused with Fred and Kelly, where their Pelican immediately dusted off to regroup with surviving UNSC forces in the planet's orbit as Circinius IV was glassed by the Covenant.

The war continues
Prior to 2530, Fred also participated in Operation: ROCK HOUSE, in which he neutralized an insurrectionist facility and personnel on Eridanus II. By 2531, Fred and the rest of Blue Team had repeatedly disrupted the operations of the United Rebel Front, including at Station Jefferson in the Eridanus system, onboard the destroyer Origami, in Micronesia, on Reach, and at a high-explosives manufacturing facility at an unspecified location. On May 1, 2531, Blue Team—then consisting of Fred, Kelly, Linda, John, and the recently added Kurt—had infiltrated the URF-controlled military base of Camp New Hope on Victoria to retrieve contraband nuclear weapons. However, the insurrectionists successfully ambushed Fred, Kelly, Linda, and John using an antigravity plate which disabled the Spartans. Before the rebels could interrogate the Spartans, Kurt freed Blue Team using an M12 Warthog and Asteroidea anti-personnel mines, where they eventually escaped the facility with the nuclear warheads. However, the rescue resulted in the death of the high-ranking rebel leader General Howard Graves. Several months later, on November 7, 2531, Fred was deployed on an extra-vehicular mission with Kurt and Kelly to Construction Platform 966A in the Groombridge 34 system to investigate reported suspicious activity. However, Kurt's thruster pack malfunctioned, sending him spinning away into deep space to his presumed death. In actuality, ONI had arranged the "incident" and had retrieved Kurt to use him as a trainer for candidates for the upcoming SPARTAN-III program.

In 2544, following the Battle of Miridem, Fred participated in an ONI-led operation which required a team of Spartan-IIs, consisting of Solomon-069, Arthur-079, Kelly-087, John-117, and himself, to infiltrate Covenant-controlled space at Ascon via OF92 Booster Frames and rescue the captured Halsey from the Covenant's Third Fleet of Glorious Consequence. The Covenant fleet was temporarily unable to enable their slipspace drives due to a stellar magnetic field, providing the Spartans some time to retrieve the package before the Covenant fleet departed. During the course of the operation, Arthur and Solomon were killed by the Covenant. The surviving Spartans then infiltrated the Supreme Commander Luro 'Taralumee's flagship and fought their way through numerous Covenant forces. When Major Thel 'Lodamee and two Sangheili Minors attacked the Spartans, Fred held them off and engaged them in combat to allow John and Kelly to advance towards Halsey's position. After getting separated from Kelly, John managed to rescue Halsey and escape the ship in a Covenant escape pod, while Fred and Kelly covered them with hijacked Kai-pattern Seraphs. The operation was successful, with the Spartans escorting Halsey back to the stealth ship that deployed them.

At some point, Fred and the rest of Blue Team participated in an operation to destroy Covenant ship Perpetual Devotion by overloading the vessel's reactors.

Battle of Sigma Octanus IV
"We've come to take Sigma Octanus Four back from the Covenant, Corporal. To do that, we're going to kill every last one of them."

- John-117 to Corporal Harland, referring to Blue Team's mission on the planet

On July 17, 2552, the Spartan-IIs arrived at the human colony of Sigma Octanus IV in the Sigma Octanus system with Vice Admiral Stanforth's Battle Group Leviathan to aid UNSC forces in the ongoing battle at the planet. Deployed to the remains of Alpha Headquarters to assist the local Marine forces as part of Operation: OCEAN BREAKER, Fred was assigned to Blue Team—along with Kelly and James-005—as "Blue-Three" under the command of John; Fred was given control of the unit's explosives. After meeting with the surviving Marines at Alpha Headquarters, Blue Team departed for the city of Côte d'Azur to investigate unusual Covenant activity and to destroy the city with a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon if no civilians remained. The Spartans traveled through a jungle to reach the city, eliminating several patrols of Unggoy soldiers along the way. When Blue Team finally arrived at Côte d'Azur, the Spartans began scouting Covenant movements throughout the city, while Red Team and Green Team escorted the city's surviving population to safety.

As the other Spartans left the city with the civilians, Blue Team infiltrated the Covenant-held Côte d'Azur Museum of Natural History to investigate unusual Covenant activity. Blue Team discovered that the Covenant were scanning what appeared to be a simple piece of igneous rock, and sending the information to a ship in orbit. Fred and his compatriots quietly eliminated nearby Kig-Yar patrols inside the museum until they encountered a pair of Mgalekgolo. The Spartans battled the Mgalekgolo, though James was heavily injured in the fight. Upon John's orders, Blue Team switched to shredder rounds and fired at the floor beneath the massive aliens. The Spartans managed to make the floor collapse under the Mgalekgolo, causing them to fall into the museum's basement. To finish off the Mgalekgolo pair, Fred, Kelly, John, and the wounded James pushed a large quartz monolith into the pit, trapping the Mgalekgolo but not killing them. Recovering the rock that the Covenant were scanning, Blue Team left the museum and escaped the city by traveling through Côte d'Azur's sewer systems.

Upon rendezvousing with the rest of the Spartans and surviving Marines, Fred and other nearby UNSC forces escaped the area aboard Pelicans and detonated the HAVOK at the city as they returned to Stanforth's  in the planet's orbit. As the battle ended, Battle Group Leviathan returned to Reach at the Epsilon Eridani system for repairs, with the Spartan-IIs aboard.

Fall of Reach
"Kelly-087"

- Fred-104

On August 30, 2552, Senior Chief Petty Officer Fred was assigned on in the Epsilon Eridani system as part of the Spartan-II contingent of Operation: RED FLAG, an ONI operation with the objective to capture a Covenant Hierarch. However, the mission was aborted as all ships were ordered to defend Reach from a massive Covenant assault. John assigned Fred to lead Red Team, which was sent to land on the ground and protect the power generators for Reach's orbital defense platforms. As Red Team's Pelican—Bravo 001—descended to the surface of the planet, the dropship was attacked by Seraphs and dove uncontrollably towards the ground. Fred ordered Red Team to jump from the Pelican and the resulting impact killed four of the Spartans on Red Team; however, if they had not jumped, all Spartans would have died as Bravo 001 exploded shortly after. After regrouping and eliminating several small Covenant patrols, the Spartans traveled to Orbital Defense Generator Facility A-331, where they met with the four survivors of the nearly destroyed Charlie Company. While Red Team was building defenses at the facility, they received a distress call from Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations.

Fred then divided his Spartans into four teams: himself, Kelly, and Joshua-029—comprising Team Alpha—were to destroy a nearby Covenant landing zone at Longhorn Valley, while Team Gamma, led by Anton-044 with two other Spartans, would rescue Vice Admiral Whitcomb and his staff. Team Delta, led by William-043 and consisting of the wounded Spartans and the Marines would secure a fallback position at CASTLE Base and the fourth team, Team Beta, consisting of the rest of the Spartans, would defend the ODG facility. Operating Type-26 Banshees, Fred and Team Alpha successfully destroyed the landing zone by delivering Fury tactical nukes into the gravity lift of a Covenant cruiser overhead. However, Joshua was killed in the resulting explosion and Team Beta at the ODG facility appeared to be wiped out by s and cruisers glassing the area. Fred and Kelly then retreated to the fallback position, which was surrounded by Covenant forces. The two Spartans were forced to commandeer Type-26 Wraith tanks, and they successfully arrived at CASTLE Base with some support from Team Delta's survivors—Will, Vinh-030, and Isaac-039. After Kelly whistled Oly Oly Oxen Free into the base's speakers, they were able to enter the facility where they encountered Halsey. Despite the injuries Fred and Will suffered, with Fred having a torn Achilles tendon, three cracked ribs, and moderate contusions in both kidneys, Halsey had the two Spartans travel to another section in the base to retrieve some equipment, as they were the least injured among the Spartans. After the two treated some of their injuries, Fred and Will retrieved new weapons and parts of the Mark V Mjolnir to repair their damaged armor.

As the Covenant attempted to make their way into CASTLE Base, the five Spartans and Halsey were forced to destroy the facility as part of Operation: WHITE GLOVE. The group escaped into abandoned mining caverns under Reach's surface, while CASTLE Base exploded behind them. However, once inside the caverns, the group found themselves trapped underground for several days, until they came across a Forerunner installation, where they discovered a mysterious Forerunner crystal. The artifact created a spike in radiation that allowed the Covenant to triangulate their position. The Covenant breached the underground complex, and used a gravity lift to send massive amounts of ground forces to the humans' location. The humans then ran into a cavern and blew up the entrance, resulting in the presumed deaths of Vinh and Isaac. However, the cavern only led to a dead end and for two days Fred, Kelly, Will, and Halsey were trapped in the cavern as the Covenant tried to dig them out.

Operation: FIRST STRIKE
"Naval Intelligence officer"

- Fred-104

When the Covenant eventually began laying siege to their position, Fred, Kelly, Will, and Halsey were rescued from the underground complex when John, Anton, Li-008, Grace-093, Whitcomb, Lieutenant Elias Haverson, Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson, and Corporal Locklear arrived at their location and helped eliminate attacking Covenant forces. However, the entire group soon found themselves surrounded. In the resulting battle, Kelly was injured and the group was extracted from the area by a Covenant dropship operated by Shiela Polaski. Escaping Reach with the Forerunner crystal, the group fled Reach aboard the dropship to the captured Covenant carrier Ascendant Justice, fused together with the  for power and commanded by "smart" AI Cortana.

Fred's injuries were finally treated aboard Gettysburg, where the severely injured Linda was also located. He then took part in the Spartans' extra-vehicular mission to repair a plasma conduit on the ship, holding his own against cloaking Sangheili as well as the dangerous rampant plasma bolts floating around the slipspace bubble the ships were trapped in as a result of the Forerunner crystal aboard. After repairing the conduit, Polaski picked up the group in the Covenant dropship but, while returning to Ascendant Justice, a stray plasma bolt hit the dropship, killing Anton, Li, and Polaski and rendering Fred and the surviving Spartans unconscious. The Spartans were eventually brought back aboard Ascendant Justice–Gettysburg, and the ship hybrid eventually escaped the Covenant by returning to normal space. The Spartans recovered aboard Gettysburg, where they learned that the Covenant had discovered the coordinates to Earth; furthermore, the Forerunner crystal emitted a deadly radiation in slipspace that would kill the crew by the time they arrived at Earth. Seeking both an alternative way to Earth and repairs for Ascendant Justice–Gettysburg, the ships traveled to the Eridanus system to request aid from the United Rebel Front at Eridanus Secundus, with Fred helping Whitcomb and Haverson man the ships' stations.

Arriving at Eridanus Secundus on September 12, 2552, Fred and John accompanied Whitcomb, Halsey, and Haverson into the asteroid after the URF, under the leadership of Governor Jacob Jiles, reluctantly agreed to repair Ascendant Justice–Gettysburg. As the group discussed the current situation with Jiles, a Covenant cruiser suddenly arrived in the system, having tracked Ascendant Justice–Gettysburg by following the radiation emitted by the crystal in slipspace. Fred and the others returned to their ships to combat the cruiser, with Fred manning the engineering station of Gettysburg. The humans were eventually able to destroy the cruiser and Jiles agreed to have the URF repair their vessels before the next wave of Covenant ships arrived. Fred and the rest of Blue Team, including the recently healed Kelly and Linda, were then given some time to rest and repair their equipment, where they discussed their next best course of action with Johnson and Locklear. They realized that the Covenant fleet headed to Earth was grouping at Unyielding Hierophant—a command-and-control station in the Tau Ceti system—and decided that attacking the station would be the best way to weaken the Covenant's inevitable attack on Earth. While preparing for the Covenant's next attack, Halsey sedated Kelly and left the system with her aboard Jiles' flagship to follow coordinates she had taken from Colonel James Ackerson that led to a world with numerous pieces of Forerunner technology. Shortly after, Locklear destroyed the Forerunner crystal to prevent it from falling into Covenant hands, killing himself in the process. Ascendant Justice–Gettysburg and its crew were ultimately forced to abandon the URF when a fleet of thirty Covenant ships arrived at the asteroid. The Spartans then began to enact Operation: FIRST STRIKE.

The next day, the Spartans were deployed from Ascendant Justice–Gettysburg in a dropship while in slipspace. The dropship exited slipspace and arrived at Tau Ceti, where Fred and Blue Team infiltrated Unyielding Hierophant with assistance from Cortana. While traveling to the station's reactor, Blue Team was ambushed by Jiralhanae and Grace was killed. After eliminating the Covenant soldiers, Fred and the surviving Spartans set the station's reactors to overload. Fred then escaped Unyielding Hierophant with John, Will, and Linda aboard Banshees, where they rendezvoused with Gettysburg—now detached from Ascendant Justice and equipped with the Covenant carrier's slipspace drive—at a nearby moon. While Whitcomb and Haverson sacrificed themselves to lure the Covenant fleet closer to the station in Ascendant Justice, the Spartans escaped to Earth on Gettysburg with Johnson. The detonation caught almost the entire fleet in the explosion, with all but twelve ships being destroyed in the blast.

Battle of Earth
"Terrence Hood"

- Fred-104

Shortly after their return to Earth, Gettysburg docked with the Borneo Space Tether and Fred and Linda descended the space elevator to report on Operation: FIRST STRIKE to a council of ONI officers, where they warned them of the Covenant's inevitable invasion of Earth. During the opening stages of the Covenant invasion of Earth, Fred was subjected to a psychological analysis by ONI's Doctor Veronica Clayton. The doctor became increasingly vitriolic toward Fred, seemingly blaming him for the deaths of his teammates at the Fall of Reach after giving the order to jump from Bravo 001. However, Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood, who had not authorized the analysis, soon arrived and had Clayton escorted away. He then told Fred to return to Blue Team and assist in Earth's defense.

As the Battle of Earth begun, Fred, Linda, and Will were sent to defend Earth for two weeks shortly after the Covenant arrived in the Sol system on October 20, 2552; John had followed the High Prophet of Regret's Solemn Penance to Halo Installation 05 aboard shortly after the battle began. Blue Team participated in several extra-vehicular missions to repel Covenant ships in orbit over Earth, as well as several missions on the planet's surface; including, an operation to Mount Erebus to neutralize a Covenant excavation with a HAVOK nuke, and to the Yucatan Peninsula to eliminate Covenant forces on the nearby seafloor. On November 3, 2552, Blue Team was deployed to Havana, Cuba to eliminate Covenant forces attacking the Centennial Orbital Elevator. While Fred secured the elevator's ascent car, Will and Linda destroyed a Scarab with a gasoline tanker truck. Discovering that the Covenant was attempting to steal twelve FENRIS nuclear warheads, Blue Team ascended the elevator and requested a low-orbit extraction. However, Hood contacted them and ordered Fred to led Blue Team to Onyx to assist Halsey, who claimed that she had discovered a large cache of Forerunner technology on the planet. When the Covenant deployed dropships to retrieve the nukes, Blue Team hid aboard one and the Covenant inadvertently brought them aboard Bloodied Spirit. While some of the nukes destroyed another Covenant destroyer and the space elevator in the process, Fred and Blue Team fought their way through Bloodied Spirit and eventually reached the bridge, where they killed its crew by venting the destroyer's atmosphere. Fred inputted coordinates to Onyx in the Zeta Doradus system into the destroyer's navigation computer and Bloodied Spirit entered slipspace for the planet.

Onyx Conflict
"As acting CO of Team Blue, I am hereby granting you a field commission to the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Congratulations. As an officer, you'll have to keep your eye on the larger picture, Fred. Get your team through that slipspace field. I'll be right behind you."

- Lieutenant Commander Kurt-051 promoting Fred-104 to lieutenant at the end of the Battle of Onyx

While en route to Onyx, Bloodied Spirit was brought out of slipspace by the Covenant, where the destroyer was forced into a conflict between Sangheili heavy cruiser Incorruptible and three Jiralhanae frigates as the Great Schism emerged within the Covenant. While Bloodied Spirit was able to escape the conflict, the Covenant learned that the destroyer was under Spartan control. However, Shipmaster Voro 'Mantakree of Incorruptible had intercepted Halsey's message and learned of the Forerunner cache on Onyx. 'Mantakree later met with a coalition of allied Sangheili, where Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree charged 'Mantakree with leading a fleet to recover the Onyx technology. Upon arriving at Onyx, Bloodied Spirit was engaged by Onyx Sentinels in orbit. As the ship crashed on the surface, Blue Team escaped in a Spirit dropship. On the surface, Fred, Will, and Linda regrouped and soon met with Kelly, who had been brought to Onyx with Halsey after the events in the Eridanus system. Kelly brought them to the thought-to-be-dead Kurt and the five Spartan-IIs began running to evade the oncoming Sentinels, with the help of Spartan-III Team Saber of Gamma Company. The Spartans rendezvoused with Halsey, Mendez, and Lucy-B091 and Tom-B292 of Beta Company, where Kurt explained to his fellow Spartan-IIs and Halsey that he and Mendez had spent the last two decades training the Spartan-IIIs on Onyx. With Kurt taking command of all UNSC forces, the Spartans began combating the Sentinels.

Returning to Blue Team's dropship, the humans embarked towards a Forerunner city within the restricted Zone 67 aboard the Spirit. Landing in the city, Kurt had Fred, Linda, and Holly-G003 and Mark-G313 of Team Saber scout out the surrounding area with grappling rounds while the others examined Onyx's map room, located by Will. Just as Halsey located the missing Team Katana's location on Onyx, now-Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree's fleet arrived at Onyx while a massive force of Sentinels hovered overhead above the humans. 'Mantakree led Sangheili, Mgalekgolo and Unggoy ground forces to the planet's surface while the humans prepared to fend off their attackers. During the ensuring battle, Fred was hit in the chest by a Mgalekgolo's assault cannon, injuring him. He was pulled to safety by Lucy and Saber's Dante-G188, as he recovered. The humans moved to the map room for cover, though Dante was killed. Discovering that they could escape Onyx in the planet's core via a slipspace portal that was about to close, Halsey utilized Onyx's slipspace translocation system. Before they could teleport to Team Katana's location, Onyx AI Endless Summer revealed that the Sentinels would destroy Admiral Carl Patterson's battle group in orbit after they inevitably destroyed the Sangheili ships. Realizing that the battle group was sent to rescue the Spartans, Kurt agreed with Endless Summer to destroy the Sentinel manufacturing facility to give the battle group a better chance of survival. The Spartans were subsequently teleported to the facility, where they succeeded in destroying it. However, the humans soon learned that Patterson's battle group had been destroyed with the arrival of a larger Sangheili fleet. Fred and the others then recovered Spartan-III Team Katana, though the Spartans were trapped in slipspace field pods. Afterwards, the humans headed for Onyx's core room and made a final stand against the Covenant forces at a slipspace portal which Halsey theorized to lead into a "shield world".

As 'Mantakree led an assault on the core in an effort to claim Onyx for himself, the Spartans attempted to repel the aliens as the slipspace portal began closing. During the battle, both Holly and Will were killed and several of the Spartans were severely wounded. With the humans being overrun, Kurt ordered everyone to retreat into the slipspace rift while he would stay behind to ensure their attackers did not follow them. Before Fred and the rest of Blue Team entered, however, Kurt promoted Fred to the rank of lieutenant, junior grade and gave him command of Blue Team. While Fred, Mendez, Halsey, and the other surviving Spartans—consisting of Kelly, Linda, Tom, Lucy, Mark, Ash-G099, Olivia-G291, and Team Katana—traveled through the portal, Kurt sacrificed himself to wipe out 'Mantakree's forces.

Post-Covenant War operations
"Dante and Holly gave their lives fighting. Kurt stayed behind and made sure the Covenant wouldn't follow us. Now it's our duty to complete the mission: find Forerunner technologies and get them back to Earth. Doing anything less would dishonor their sacrifices."

- Fred-104 to Catherine Halsey, following the Battle of Onyx

Having passed through the slipspace rift, Fred and the rest of the human survivors found themselves inside a massive Dyson sphere contained within a slipspace bubble of compressed space-time in the heart of what used to be Onyx. After the Spartans, Halsey, and Mendez held a funeral for their comrades that had died in the battle at Onyx, Fred led them to search for Forerunner technologies and a way to return back to Earth. After the survivors had explored the sphere for several days—over three months in normal space-time—they discovered a group of Huragok which helped them establish contact with the ONI ships outside the sphere and eventually bring the sphere back into normal space. They were then recovered by the ONI team Kilo-Five led by Captain Serin Osman and taken to a debriefing in HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6 aboard prowler. Fred, along with some of the other surviving Spartan-IIs, was present at the Voi Memorial ceremony at Kenya, Earth on March 3, 2553.

Following their recovery from Onyx, Fred led Blue Team—now comprising of Kelly, Linda, Tom, Lucy, Ash, Mark, and Olivia—on several operations. In the post-war era, Blue Team was deployed to the outer fringes of human space to eliminate hostile Covenant remnant factions. These highly classified operations lasted for several years and were under ONI's direct oversight. One of these operations saw Fred and Blue Team rescue Unified Earth Government diplomatic personnel and eliminate several insurrectionists on the human colony of Andesia. Fred also participated in Operation: CARRION HEART, though the specifics of this mission remain highly classified.

Conflict on Gao
"Welcome aboard, Inspector Lopis. You're one of the good guys now."

- Frederic-104 to Special Inspector Lopis, as they depart Gao

In May 2553, Blue Team was attached to ONI's 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion. The research battalion was deployed to the Outer Colony of Gao to search for Forerunner ancilla Intrepid Eye, an that had been detected on the planet by the battalion's Commander Murtag Nelson. The UNSC's presence on the planet was largely undesired by the traditionally independent Gao. Upon learning of the UNSC's intent to capture her, Intrepid Eye began murdering Gao citizens in the Montero Cave System in an effort to create distrust and discord throughout Gao. The Gao Ministry of Protection was tasked with finding the murderer and Nelson had members of Blue Team aid Special Inspector Veta Lopis in her efforts to allow the UNSC to return searching for the ancilla without Gao interference. During the investigation, Lopis became certain that the murderer was one of the Spartans and often pestered Fred for details on the battalion's mission, much to the Spartan's annoyance. On July 4, 2553, Fred, Ash, Olivia, and Mark were exploring the Montero Cave System alongside Lopis and her partner Cirilo, where they discovered the bodies of Major Ira Halal and Private Hayes, who had been murdered by Intrepid Eye. As they moved deeper into the cave system, eventually emerging into a larger cavern, the last four remaining Sentinels attacked the humans while Intrepid Eye watched nearby. Though the Spartans were able to destroy the Sentinels, Cirilo was killed and Olivia was wounded. Ordering the others to stay put, Fred left to investigate a nearby cave-in.

Descending into a pit in the cavern's floor, Fred discovered Intrepid Eye's damaged Covert Support Base 4276. When Fred approached the facility's corrupted vacuum energy extractor, he was caught inside a space-time anomaly; while over two hours had elapsed on the outside, Fred had only felt the passing of ten minutes. Wary of exploring the mysterious facility alone, he left to regroup with the rest of his team to return to the surface and report to Nelson, along with the recently discovered Lifeworker Huragok Roams Alone. While the group continued towards Gao's surface, the battalion's encampments at the Montero Vitality Center and at the village of Wendosa were attacked by insurrectionists and the Keepers of the One Freedom, who sought to take Gao's ancilla for themselves. Meanwhile, the Gamma Company Spartan-IIIs had run out of their "Smoothers", drugs that controlled their more unpredictable augmentations. After having lost contact with Mark who was supposed to scout the area ahead, Fred, Ash, and Roams Alone departed to look for him. The three soon encountered dead Keeper forces killed by Mark. Meanwhile, Mark had returned to Olivia's and Lopis' position, helping the two fight off hostile forces.

Once the team regrouped, they fought their way past Keeper forces as they attempted to return to the surface. Seeking to be caught in order to gain access to UNSC communications, Intrepid Eye revealed herself to Fred in her inspection drone shell and allowed him to capture her with a scramble grenade. Finally returning to the surface at Wendosa, Fred created a plan to attack the Keepers and aid the battalion and the rest of Blue Team under attack at the village. In the ensuing firefight, Intrepid Eye convinced Roams Alone to free her and she escaped, jamming all communications on the planet. Fred pursued the ancilla and recaptured her, only to find Mark—now paranoid and aggressive without his Smoothers—holding a knife to a Marine sergeant. After coaxing Mark to release the Marine, the sergeant informed Fred that he was to return to the Vitality Center with the ancilla. Reluctantly boarding a Falcon, Fred departed for the center, but the aircraft was shot down by Keeper forces. While Keeper forces attacked the crash-site to retrieve Intrepid Eye, Fred's armor's mechanical joints locked up, preventing him from moving. Blue Team and Lopis arrived at the crash and, with the eventual help of Alpha Company, fended off the Keepers. Fred and the other injured Spartans were later brought to the Vitality Center to recover. Meanwhile, the Gao Republic's militia attempted to forcefully remove the UNSC from the planet by attacking the battalion.

While the UNSC was preparing to evacuate, Intrepid Eye murdered Nelson and attempted to kill Lopis, but the ancilla was disabled by a Marine and Fred rescued Lopis. Determined to prevent the support base from falling into the hands of Gao rebels, Blue Team, Lopis, and Roams Alone embarked to destroy the facility with a HAVOK nuclear warhead, while the rest of the battalion evacuated. Pursued by Gao battle-jumpers and MV-29 Wyverns, the team traveled to the support base's entrance at the Well of Echoes in Warthogs. During the battle, Roams Alone departed from the rest of the team to tend to Gao's wildlife, while Intrepid Eye managed to take control of Fred's armor and attempted to kill Lopis. However, Lopis detonated a small charge she had earlier placed in Fred's armor in case he was the Gao murderer, leaving the armor powerless and forcing Fred to abandon it. Finally arriving at the Well of Echoes, the team boarded the D102 Owl Silent Claw, commanded by Osman, and dropped the HAVOK into the Well of Echoes, destroying the Forerunner base as they fled the planet. With Intrepid Eye successfully captured, the UNSC left Gao. To avoid the public finding out about the dangers of the Gamma Company Spartan-IIIs' augmentations, Osman had Ash, Mark, and Olivia officially marked as killed in action and transferred to a classified "Ferret" covert operations team of which she gave command of to Lopis, much to the rest of Blue Team's initial reluctance. Shortly after, Tom and Lucy were transferred from Blue Team to the emerging Spartan branch, leaving Blue Team once again composed of only Spartan-IIs.

Admiral Tuwa's assassination
In December of 2553, Fleet Admiral Graselyn Tuwa was assassinated and her family was abducted. Blue Team was tasked by ONI with assisting Veta Lopis and her relatively new team of Spartan-IIIs in identifying the killer and rescuing the hostages.

Skirmish on Gamma Halo
"I will allow you a moment more to fire the weapon, human. I will grant you the gift of dying a warrior."

- The Ur-Didact to Fred-104, allowing Fred to shoot him with a Boltshot

On July 26, 2557, Fred, Kelly and Linda were reunited with John-117 after he returned from the Forerunner shield world of Requiem. Shortly after the Didact's defeat at the hands of John over Earth, Fleet Admiral Hood tasked Blue Team with a mission to investigate an attack on a local science team and Black Team on Installation 03, with John serving in an active role rather than advisory despite Hood's suggestions. Traveling to the installation, Blue Team landed near the UNSC facility on the Halo aboard a Longsword, where Linda found tracks left by a Promethean Crawler. Arriving at the facility, Blue Team soon found the bodies of Black Team and the scientists. After John noted to his squadmates that he doubted the Crawlers could kill four Spartans, Blue Team was attacked by Promethean Knights. Blue Team quickly destroyed the Knights, with Fred stabbing one in its "head", killing it. They continued following the Crawlers' tracks and came to where the Composer was originally located. Kelly found a tunnel which they followed down, soon finding the Composer's Abyss where they entered a slipspace portal.

The Spartans arrived in a deserted Forerunner city where they soon discovered the Composer's Forge and six intact Composers housed therein. The Spartans were then confronted by the thought-to-be-dead Didact and a firefight broke out between them and the Didact's newly created Promethean machines. While Fred and the other Spartans battled the Prometheans, the Didact had monitor 859 Static Carillon bring Installation 03 to the Composer's Forge and departed to the Halo installation with one of the Composers, intending to use the device, as well as Gamma Halo, against Earth. Disgusted by the Didact's actions, Static Carillon informed Blue Team of the Didact's plan, and the Spartans pursued the Forerunner through the portal back to Installation 03. Upon their return to the surface, the Didact attacked the Spartans, intending to kill them once and for all. The Didact threw John into Fred, knocking them both to the ground. Linda and Kelly attacked the Forerunner, but he easily overpowered them, blasting Kelly backwards and tackling Linda to the ground. The Didact allowed Fred to shoot him in the head with a Z-110 Boltshot—to no effect—so he could give Fred the honor of "dying a warrior". However, before the Didact could finish them off, Static Carillon appeared behind the Forerunner and disabled him with his laser beam. The monitor then teleported the Didact to Gamma Halo's control room to prevent him from killing the Spartans. While John went to pursue the Didact, Fred and the rest of Blue Team returned to their Longsword. After John successfully "contained" the Didact by way of subjecting him to the combined effects of several Composers, Static Carillon teleported himself and John into Blue Team's Longsword. Fred asked the monitor where the ring would be taken, but no response was given; Static Carillon then left to repair the ring and Blue Team returned to Earth.

Mission after mission
"I'm telling you straight-up we just saved your ass!"

- Fred unloads on an ungrateful near victim he helped save.

Returning to Earth, John was debriefed by Hood, where the fleet admiral gave orders for Blue Team to have some rest after years of combat. However, the rest of the team instead left to take on new missions, all of them highly classified. These operations included diplomatic escorts through hostile territory, counter-piracy efforts against salvagers, and strikes against Covenant outposts. At one point in 2558, the team was stationed at the construction site for a new ONI research facility, awaiting orders. Without warning, explosions signaled an attack from fanatical ex-Covenant. During the fighting that followed, the hostiles managed to capture an M510 Mammoth, disable its governor, and drive it down a steep hillside toward the site's main fusion reactor. Blue Team followed in pursuit in an M12 Chaingun Warthog, with Fred driving. With only about a minute left before it impacted the reactor, John, Kelly, and Linda ejected from the Warthog when it was close enough to the Mammoth. The three of them just narrowly managed to wrest control of the hulking vehicle from its Kig-Yar and Sangheili hijackers and steer it away from disaster. However, the near miss still resulted in the destruction of a decent amount of fabricated material that had been constructed. The manager in charge of the construction project rushed over to Fred and the other Spartans after the smoke cleared and demanded to know who he should blame for the damage. John, who had taken the Mammoth's controls, took responsibility. The incredulous man accused the Master Chief of thinking he could get away with anything because of his status as a hero. At this moment, Fred jumped in to reprimand the thankless individual they had all just saved, finding it difficult to maintain an easy demeanor in the face of such disrespect. John kept a cooler head and directed the team to return to a nearby airstrip, as their mission orders had come in.

At some point, Fred and the three others returned to the glassed remains of Reach, where they recalled their past and paid their respects to Sam, who had died so many years ago.

A new conflict arises
"They won't court-martial all of us, right?"

- Fred-104, after agreeing to help John-117 find Cortana

After the loss of contact with Office of Naval Intelligence's research and development station Argent Moon, Fred and the rest of Blue Team were deployed by to recover the facility on October 23, 2558; the station had been rediscovered when a group of Kig-Yar scavengers sold it to Jul 'Mdama's Covenant. Using a D79-TC Pelican to travel to the station's position within a dense asteroid belt, the four Spartans left the dropship and used their thrusters to reach Argent Moon. As they neared, Fred and Blue Team fired their weapons to weaken a glass window in the station before smashing through it themselves, ejecting the Covenant forces inside the room into space while the Spartans activated their magnetic boots to stay in place.

The Spartans fought their way through the station, clearing it of Covenant occupants. During the engagement, John received an apparent vision from the thought-to-be-dead Cortana, simply warning him that "Meridian was next". John informed his teammates of this, though Fred asserted that it was impossible, since John himself confirmed her death over Earth the previous year. Setting the vision aside, Fred and Blue Team attempted to continue their salvage mission until a large Covenant fleet arrived in the system, bringing word of 'Mdama's death on Kamchatka. Deciding Argent Moon was no longer salvageable due to the presence of the Covenant fleet, John switched the mission to asset denial, and the Spartans used Covenant s to damage the reactor and trigger an overload. Mission accomplished, John reassigned himself to Meridian to investigate Cortana's message, against the orders of Infinity, after learning the UNSC was already planning to do the same. He attempted to convince Blue Team that they did not need to follow him, but all three members declared their solidarity with him and joined him aboard the prowler ONI Acrisius, which they used to escape the self-destructing Argent Moon, avoid the Covenant fleet, and depart for Meridian in the Hestia system.

The very next day, the UNSC listed Blue Team as absent-without-leave. Fireteam Osiris, a Spartan-IV unit led by Spartan Jameson Locke, was tasked by the UNSC Security Council with recovering Blue Team and Acrisius. Upon arriving at Meridian, Blue Team landed at Apogee Station and were directed to the mines of the world by Meridian's Governor Sloan—a smart AI aligned with Cortana—where a dormant Guardian lay buried. Blue Team's arrival was witnessed by multiple colonists, who were wholly unaware of their intentions. Also unbeknownst to the people of Meridian was the fact that Sloan purposefully ensured nobody tried to stop them. Blue Team encountered no resistance from the mechanical Prometheans that were protecting the Guardian, under Cortana's orders. Cortana had Fred and the rest of Blue Team make their way to a Guardian which would take them to her position. As the Spartan-IIs prepared to board the Guardian, Osiris arrived at their position and attempted to halt them. While Fred, Kelly, and Linda proceeded to enter the portal leading to the Guardian, John lingered and had an altercation with Locke. Once John had dealt with him and resumed boarding, the Guardian began to awaken. Fireteam Osiris scrambled to escape the collapsing cavern it had been held in as it rose out of the ground. The Guardian caused massive amounts of destruction to Meridian's settlements as it took to the air, both from the very fact that it was emerging from beneath the earth and from electromagnetic shockwaves it sent out continually. During this time, many Prometheans were deployed from the Guardian to engage Fireteam Osiris as they moved to escape the destruction in their Pelican. The Guardian eventually jumped to slipspace on a course for Cortana's location, taking Blue Team with it.

Cortana and the Guardians
"Chief, back on Meridian—there was a lot of destruction. There were civilians."

- Fred, expressing concern at the collateral damage of awakening a Guardian

Arriving at the Forerunner world of Genesis, the Spartans disembarked from their Guardian and landed on the planet's surface. Fred questioned John as to why Cortana would have brought them there, though he did not receive an answer. As Blue Team moved out to explore the planet, they encountered terminals that emitted an audible "Oly Oly Oxen Free" signal. Interfacing with the terminals to continue their search for Cortana, Fred made note of the enormous casualties that the Guardian had inflicted on Meridian, though Kelly argued that Cortana may not have know that they would be the result of its activation. Proceeding further, Fred alerted the team to the presence of Covenant scattered across Genesis, drawn through the slipspace portals of other Guardians activated across the galaxy. Quickly eliminating the small pockets of Covenant forces, Blue Team encountered a clearing filled with a significant number of dead Covenant soldiers, and were confronted by the Warden Eternal, who introduced himself as keeper of the Domain and Cortana's protector. The Warden translocated Promethean forces to the area to try to kill Blue Team, declaring that while Cortana wanted them to ally with her, he perceived them as a severe threat to her plan.

Fighting through the Promethean forces, Blue Team was finally contacted by Cortana, who expressed relief and joy to see them. Cortana explained that she had survived her apparent destruction at Earth by being pulled into slipspace aboard a chunk of Mantle's Approach, the ship of the Didact that had attempted to enter slipspace to flee its concurrent destruction. Arriving on Genesis, Cortana managed to access the Domain and "cured" herself of rampancy. Moreover, she explained that the cure for rampancy had inspired her to take up the Mantle of Responsibility alongside her fellow AIs, calling themselves the Created. The Created was to strategize and coordinate in the long term to benefit the galaxy and usher in an age of peace and stability. Fred initially believed that Cortana's plan had some merit and did not understand why the Warden expected them to oppose it, but John asserted that the Didact made it clear that the Mantle could lead to brutal imperialist oppression, a suggestion which Cortana dismissed off-handedly. Cortana claimed that she explain her plan better once they were together and she directed them to Genesis' Gateway. Utilizing Promethean Phaetons, Fred and Blue Team embarked towards the Gateway. Once they reached the facility, Blue Team stepped through another slipspace portal which teleported them to the Gateway's interior. However, Cortana was waiting for the rest of her Guardians to arrive at Genesis and instead had Blue Team wandering around the Gateway in circles for hours. At this time, Fred and Blue Team came to the realization that Cortana was truly dangerous.



While in the Gateway, Blue Team was unexpectedly contacted by Osiris, who had activated a Guardian under Sunaion on Sanghelios in order to reach Genesis. Locke insisted that they were there under orders from Doctor Halsey to assist, rather than capture them, and that Cortana was deliberately activating Guardians across known space. Cortana blocked further radio contact with them before Locke could explain any further. Genesis' monitor, 031 Exuberant Witness, directed Fireteam Osiris to Blue Team's position and when the Spartans met up, they agreed to work together. However, Cortana promptly teleported Blue Team out of the area. Now at another part of the Gateway, Blue Team was attacked by the Warden again, though Cortana quickly dissolved his physical form. However, the Warden remained determined to stop the Spartans and sent Prometheans to engage them. Blue Team continued to angrily question Cortana on her plan, with the Warden using the questions as proof of the Spartans' disloyalty to her. The Warden himself continued to attempt to engage the Spartans, though most of his efforts were thwarted by Cortana. Eventually, Fred and Blue Team reached Cortana's position, where she revealed herself now in a physical, hard light body. Rejecting Cortana's plan, John ordered her to stand down and return to Earth with them. Cortana refused and sealed Blue Team in a Cryptum, intending to keep them in stasis for 10,000 years while she enacted her plan. As Cortana dispersed her Guardians across the galaxy to carry out the Created's rule, Cortana herself prepared to leave in a Guardian with Blue Team's Cryptum. However, Fireteam Osiris and Exuberant Witness succeeded in freeing the Cryptum seconds before Cortana departed Genesis. The monitor had Constructors free Blue Team from the Cryptum, and the Spartan-IIs approached Osiris. Locke revealed that Cortana and her Guardians were gone.

Following Cortana’s departure, both Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris together fought their way through hordes of Promethean constructs to reach a D79-TC Pelican that had previously arrived on the planet via a Guardian's slipspace entry. Based on Osiris' recommendation, they agreed to return to Sanghelios; the joint team requested Witness’ help, who opened a Slipspace portal for them.

Reunion
"Nobody knows Cortana as well as Halsey. Not even John."

- Fred responds with some optimism upon hearing that Doctor Halsey was with the UNSC once again.

It only took a few minutes to traverse the portal through slipspace. When the Pelican emerged, the Spartans found themselves flying through a cavernous cave, which they excited to be faced with a deep Sanghelios night. Fred asked whether the planet was always as it was then, to which Vale replied by pointing out Cortana that would definitely have sent a Guardian there. Fred noted that India 127's navigation system put them relatively near the major Sangheili city of Sunaion off the coast of Qivro, and yet no sign of it could be seen. Locke soon mentioned that if they could get back to the Infinity, Halsey might be able to work out a solution, which caught Fred and the other Spartan-IIs by surprise. Both Locke and Buck explained that they had rescued the doctor from Jul 'Mdama and brought her back to the Infinity and that she had subsequently insisted on accompanying them to Sanghelios. Fred noted that nobody knew Cortana better than Doctor Halsey did. Olympia Vale guessed that the Swords of Sanghelios were likely still camped in Nuusra where they had recently staged an attack on Jul 'Mdama's Covenant from just days prior. Fred cautioned that any UNSC personnel that were still there when a Guardian arrived may have been in the air at the time, but this specific worry ultimately did not amount to anything. Before long fires were spotted that indicated the location of a Sangheili encampment where they expected the Swords to be. Soon enough the leaders of each respective team were being met at the bottom of the Pelican's ramp by the Arbiter, Commander Sarah Palmer, and Doctor Halsey. After everyone had disembarked they were welcomed by the Arbiter, Thel 'Vadam, and John introduced him to Fred, Linda, and Kelly. 'Vadam invited them all to join in a celebratory meal commemorating their victory over the last of Jul 'Mdama's Covenant. Halsey revealed that she had gotten a message from Roland on the Infinity and that it would be appearing off of the far side of Suban the following day at 1800 hours. Now that they had transportation, they could be there waiting for it when it showed. Fred and the others then took off their helmets and joined the Sangheili in dining on colo and kuscatu. During the meal Fred, Linda, Kelly, John, and Halsey went off on their own for a time to talk.

Everyone was awake around an hour before sunrise and all the humans piled into the Pelican. Then they were off, soaring through and past the planet's atmosphere on a trip that took them just a few hours. With about twenty minutes until the Infinity's projected arrival, Fireteam Osiris broke out a game of Hearts, but Fred and the others declined playing. When Infinity finally did show up, Kelly landed India 127 in its fifth portside bay. The Spartans were met there by a lieutenant who announced that Halsey, Locke, Palmer, and John were wanted on the bridge. Palmer instructed the rest of them to get cleaned up and to decompress for a bit and soon a team of engineers was scanning and getting readings from their armor. The engineers brought Fred and the others to the ship's assemblage bay so they could then have it removed. The Spartan-IIs had to be taken to a different section than Buck, Tanaka, and Vale due to having slightly different frames.

Return to Reach
In October 2559, Fred took part in Operation: WOLFE, a mission to secure assets from the ruins of CASTLE Base on Reach for Halsey, coming into conflict with the Banished. In the tunnels near the Menachite portal complex, Fred was reunited with Veta Lopis, an encounter which shocked him as Lopis and the Ferrets had been missing in action and presumed dead for over two years. Working undercover in the Keepers of the One Freedom, Lopis passed Fred a message capsule to give to ONI containing a warning about the return of Atriox, the Banished leader. Upon returning to the, Fred handed the message over to Captain Veronica Dare and attempted to find out more about the Ferrets. However, Dare didn't know anything about their mission with John-117 noting that Fred had taken Lopis' presumed demise hard as they had grown "kinda close." Dare borrowed Fred's combat knife and cut off the top third of the message, stating that ONI didn't need to know and handed it to Fred, suggesting that Lopis had left Fred a personal message as well. Fred expressed gratitude for Dare's kindness, giving her the Spartan version of a smile and she promised to keep Fred informed of anything that she learned about the Ferrets. Lopis' personal message to Fred was intended to help him sort out her disappearance and why she hadn't been able to warn him beforehand.

Personality and traits
"Ira Halal"

Frederic-104 is a natural leader and a brilliant strategist. Highly intelligent, alert, and objective-focused during operations, Fred often appears solemn and stoic when interacting with other personnel of the United Nations Space Command. However, he had difficulty hiding his emotions at times, a trait that Doctor Catherine Halsey was aware of. A quick thinker, Fred has learned to rely on his instincts while on patrol or in the heat of a battle, noting that it had saved his life from dozens of ambushes. His augmentations and training has crafted Fred into one of the UNSC's greatest military minds. He is very observant; after years of watching soldiers face their fears, Fred is able to identify tell-tale signs of individuals encountering their fears and weaknesses, such as loss of focus and body tension. He did not always agree with or trust the judgement of his commanding officers, though Fred remains respectful to his superiors. However, he refuses to be intimidated by "key-tapper" officers, jesting that the day he is will be the day he turns in his armor and resigns. Despite his stoic and serious demeanor, Fred occasionally makes jokes or sarcastic quips in the midst of a battle or mission, once jesting to Major Ira Halal that it is "an operational bug".

As a Spartan, Fred has a strong sense of duty and commitment towards the UNSC and his closest peers, and is always to accomplish the goals set before him and achieve victory in ever tactical situation. As with many of his fellow Spartan-IIs, Fred preferred to fight on a world's surface rather than in zero-gravity environments that were typically encountered in off-world operations. Regardless, Fred often chose to volunteer for space operations as he sought to participate in missions that presented greater threats and dangers. Fred was always eager to battle the Covenant to defend any world, though he was particularly determined to save Reach, viewing the planet as an invaluable military resource and his home. Fred noted that other personnel of the UNSC looked upon Spartan-IIs with awe, suspicion, and fear. However, Fred, like many of the Spartan-IIs, dislikes the special treatment he and the other Spartans receive from ordinary humans and does not elevate himself above baseline troops, believing they all served the UNSC for the same reasons. Fred is ever pedant in following protocol; during his operation on Gao, Fred was irritated that several of his superiors continued to violate Foxtrot Tango Angel 7012 by revealing classified information on the Forerunners to civilians. Although Fred's service with the UNSC throughout the Insurrection and Human-Covenant War has left him as a highly decorated individual, he refrains from wearing his awards.

Although his conscription into the SPARTAN-II program prevented him from living a normal life, Fred feels no resentment towards Halsey nor Mendez. He believes that had he lived a normal life, he might have been killed by the Covenant and his career as a Spartan has instead enabled him to fulfill his full potential. In an "interview" with Doctor Veronica Clayton, Fred stated that he would never ask to change who he was and was proud to be a Spartan. When given the offer to access his file on his origins and past life, Fred declined.

Leadership and responsibilities
"I'm secure in my role and the tactical decisions I make before, during, and following combat, and so are my peers."

- Frederic-104 to Doctor Veronica Clayton, shortly before the Battle of Earth

Frederic-104 is a tactically proficient and strategically capable leader, having displayed these characteristics throughout the Human-Covenant War. While also serving as an incredibly effective combatant, Fred specializes in strategy, information management, and using his leadership skills to transform disparate combat units into a comprehensive fighting force, even when he only has access to the barest information on troop dispensation. Fred has a stabilizing influence on the morale of those under his command, a trait that is of interest to Office of Naval Intelligence psychologists.

Fred cares greatly for those under his command, regardless of whether they are Spartans, Marines, or other UNSC personnel and he took full responsibility of their lives, bearing a heavy, personal burden with each casualty. He would ensure the safety of his team before even considering his own well-being; Fred once noted that he could only think clearly when the safety of his team was at stake. During the battle at Wendosa, Fred was reluctant to follow orders to evacuate, as he would be leaving behind those under his command. Fred was willing to defer command and leadership to those that he both respected and trusted. During the Battle of Onyx, while Fred was given command of Blue Team, he was quick to respectfully relinquish his command to Lieutenant Commander Kurt-051. After Blue Team reunited with John, despite being two pay grades higher than him, Fred allowed John to become the de facto leader of the unit, with John even attaining the call sign of "Blue Leader".

Often serving as a leader of Spartan fireteams, Fred has been noted to take the responsibility of his command with grim seriousness, empathizing too deeply with any wounded member of his team. During the Fall of Reach, Fred's quick-thinking and leadership ensured that the entirety of Red Team escaped their doomed Pelican before it was destroyed, though the resulting landing led to the deaths of four Spartans. Despite Kelly's support and that Fred had prevented the death of the entire team, he blamed himself for the deaths of these Spartans and felt disgusted with himself. After the death of Joshua-029, Fred bitterly thought to himself that Joshua's life was not worth the lives of the ten thousand Covenant soldiers killed in the same explosion. Ultimately, the Fall of Reach saw the highest single death count of Spartan-IIs, which severely affected Fred. In following engagements, he learned to adapt to severe casualties on the battlefield and is by many considered the most capable fireteam leader of all Spartans. Fred has since become confident in his role as leader and in the tactical decisions he made, as are his peers and subordinates.

Relationships
"Frederic-104"

- Kelly-087

Fred has close relationships with many of his fellow Spartans, particularly with fellow regular members of Blue Team. He is an ally and close friend to John-117, having trained alongside him since the early days of the SPARTAN-II program. Fred often defers to John for tactical direction. After learning that John was believed to be dead following the Battle of Installation 00, Fred was deeply saddened and commented that he never expected John to have died before him. Following Blue Team's reunion with John in 2557, Fred grew concerned over his friend's mental health as John restlessly continued to press himself during the missions Blue Team undertook. After John decided to go absent-without-leave to find Cortana, Fred and the rest of Blue Team willingly followed.

During the Covenant War, Fred often worried about the statuses of his fellow Spartans who were away on other missions. While the doubt eroded his confidence, Fred never mentioned his worries to his fellow teammates to avoid damaging their morale. Kelly-087 often served as Fred's second-in-command when John was not present. The two are close friends, with Kelly attempting to console Fred after his stress in battle led to him making the mistake of broadcasting orders across FLEETCOM 7 rather than a private channel. Fred was also close with Kurt-051 and was saddened by his supposed death in the Groombridge 34 system in 2531. After encountering Kurt on Onyx in 2552, Fred placed a hand on Kurt's shoulder as a rare emotional gesture among Spartans. After Fred realized Kurt's intent to sacrifice himself to allow the rest of Blue Team to escape through a slipspace portal, Fred was reluctant to leave his friend behind and the two ultimately parted ways by shaking hands before Fred stepped through the portal. Fred also had a close relationship with William-043, with the two serving particularly closely towards the final months of the Covenant War. When Will was killed during the Onyx Conflict, Fred was quick to avenge his friend's death by killing the Mgalekgolo responsible. Afterwards, Fred grieved the death of Will and had some amount of difficulty with suppressing the rage he felt towards his Covenant attackers.

Like several other Spartan-IIs, Fred was initially wary of the abilities of the Spartan-IIIs. However, after witnessing their skill in combat during the Battle of Onyx, Fred was quick to accept them as fellow Spartans and welcomed Lucy-B091, Tom-B292, Ash-G099, Olivia-G291, and Mark-G313 as members of Blue Team; Fred noted that despite the young age of the Spartan-IIIs, he and the rest of the Spartan-IIs had also participated in combat operations at similar ages. After Ash, Mark, and Olivia were transferred to a different unit, Fred admitted that he and the rest of Blue Team would miss them. Having been largely raised by them throughout his childhood and his career as a Spartan-II, Fred considered Halsey and Mendez as maternal and paternal figures, respectively, and deeply respected them both.

Upon meeting Veta Lopis during Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE, Fred came into conflict with her due to the suspicion placed on Mark for a series of murders. However, the two became good friends over time. Their relationship possibly took on a greater more personal aspect as John noted that Fred took Lopis' presumed death hard and that Fred and Lopis had grown "kinda close." It's implied that Lopis included a personal message intended for just Fred in her report to ONI.

Skills and abilities
"Alright, the Great Journey ends here."

- Fred-104 to Thel 'Lodamee, during Operation: WARM BLANKET

A superb soldier even for a Spartan-II and an excellent strategist, Fred's quick thinking has ensured his success in battle on numerous occasions. While Fred's combat prowess is never subject to question, his true specialty lies in strategy and leadership. During training contests, he almost always came in second place. John believed that Fred had the skill to come in first in these competitions, but Fred did not care for the resulting attention. While John assumed that Fred had the ability to rival himself in any set of skills, Fred lacked John's inherent luck. Due to his extensive training from Franklin Mendez, Fred was highly skilled in evasive movement and is able to easily avoid sniper fire in a combat environment.

Frederic-104 is an incredibly skilled close-quarters combatant, and has gained a reputation for preferring combat knives in combat scenarios. Although he favors close-quarters and mid-range combat, Fred is also very proficient in long-range combat. Aside from Linda-058, Fred is the Spartan-IIs' second-best sniper and their best spotter. Fred was able to take on three Sangheili wielding Type-1 energy swords, including the skilled Major Thel 'Lodamee, using only his combat knives during Operation: WARM BLANKET. During the Battle of Havana, Fred was successful in engaging several Jiralhanae in close-quarters, despite the fact that Jiralhanae are capable of overpowering a Spartan. During the skirmish on Installation 03, Fred was quick to adapt to combating the new Promethean hostiles, engaging a Promethean Knight in close-quarters combat before destroying it with his knife and even using the Prometheans' own weaponry against them. Like his fellow Spartan-IIs, Fred had been trained in tracking as part of his Spartan Military Occupational Specialty.

Physical description
Frederic-104 stands at 216.3 centimeters (7 feet and 1.2 inches) with his armor and weighs 129.6 kilograms (286 pounds) without his armor. His face is described to be slender and handsome, with rugged features, a narrow nose, and covered in numerous scars. Fred has pensive blue-green eyes and thin eye brows, with high cheekbones. Veta Lopis noted that there was a sensitivity in his expression and that he was unexpectedly attractive for a Spartan. Fred has black hair with streaks of silver that first appeared after he underwent his augmentation procedures; he also has a noticeable scar that runs up the center of his hairline. When Fred was fourteen years of age, John-117 noted that he was "not too short or tall", slightly shorter than John, and neither too muscular, nor too slim. John-117 remarked that if any member of Blue Team could blend into a crowd, it would be Fred. Even prior to his augmentations, in 2523 at the age of twelve, Fred was tall and fit, appearing to be in his late teens or early twenties.

Equipment
"I'm wearing three layers of armor. Those man-droppers in your clip would just flatten themselves against my chest."

- Frederic-104 to Veta Lopis, during Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE

Following his augmentation procedures and the beginning of the Human-Covenant War, Fred-104 was equipped with MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark IV from Chi Ceti IV's Damascus Materials Testing Facility along with the rest of his fellow Spartans. Fred donned a developmental helmet permutation that shared visual cues with the armor variant that would eventually be known as the Centurion variant. By 2526, Frederic wore the B variant of the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor. Later on, after upgrading to MJOLNIR Mark V armor by 2552, he wore the Commando variant of the armor. Upon his return to Earth following the Fall of Reach, Fred and the rest of the active Spartans were moved to the Mark VI generation of Mjolnir armor, with Fred specifically field testing multiple variants of the CENTURION-class Mjolnir, which incorporated many features which would later form the basis for Project: MJOLNIR's GEN2 platform. Like the rest of Blue Team, Fred's armor was fully upgraded to the GEN2 platform at some point following the Human-Covenant War. By July of 2553, Fred was outfitted with a blue-tinted Centurion armor with gold detailing, which he continued to wear as of 2558. At some point between February and October 2559, he upgraded to the Mjolnir GEN3 and was outfitted with a set of blue-tinted Mark VI armor with a Cohort helmet.

Fred is often armed with a variety of weaponry that varies by mission and objective type. He is, however, often the member of Blue Team that is most frequently armed with heavy weaponry and explosives. During Operation: WARM BLANKET, Fred wielded an M6 Spartan Laser and he was later given control of Blue Team's explosives during the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. As of 2558, Fred's preferred weapon loadout is an M395B Designated Marksman Rifle and the M6H2 magnum sidearm. He often carries one or more combat knives on him, due to his affinity for them.

Production notes
"Otherwise, you just approach it like you do any other part—do the research, the history on the character, and figure out what his relationship is like with the Chief—and that sort of informs what it's going to sound like and then it's a collaborative process with everybody."

- Travis Willingham, on his portrayal of Fred

Frederic-104 was voiced by Andrew Love in Halo Legends' The Package. Tony Giroux portrayed Fred in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. Strangely, he is credited simply as "Spartan" in Forward Unto Dawn despite his significance. As of Halo 2: Anniversary's terminals, Fred has since been voiced by actor Travis Willingham, who notably had previously voiced Jul 'Mdama and Paul DeMarco. Willingham continued to voice Fred in Halo 5: Guardians, and also provided the character's likeness and performance capture. While Willingham also voiced Fred as an adult in Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series, Fred was voiced by Collin Dean as a child and by Todd Haberkorn as a teenager. Laura Bailey, Willingham's wife and fellow voice actor, was cast as Olympia Vale in Halo 5: Guardians and received the role before him. As he had previously had a role in Spartan Ops, Willingham was unsure whether he would receive the role as Fred, though he ultimately received the part nonetheless. Willingham created his portrayal of Fred after doing the research on the character and learning of his relationship with John-117.

Frederic-104 first debuted in Halo: The Fall of Reach, released in 2001, and has since gained significant popularity. However, he did not make his first in-game appearance until 2015 in Halo 5: Guardians, where he appears as one of the game's eight playable characters. His unique base attributes are faster shield and health regeneration and the ability to carry one extra frag grenade. His appearance in the game was first alluded in the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta, where the Centurion armor also donned by Fred had "104" stenciled on the chest plate in Braille.

Fred is one of many Spartans mentioned in the Armory of Halo: Reach; several armor sets in the game-files are named after various SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III characters from the expanded universe. A recreation of the Spartan using all of the pieces named after Fred would include the UA/Base Security chest, FJ/PARA knee guards and JFO shoulders. In the 2011 comic adaptation of The Fall of Reach, Fred is showcased employing the Commando helmet on his Mark IV armor.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Adjunct
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo Legends
 * The Package
 * Halo: Reach
 * Dr. Halsey's personal journal
 * Halo: Fall of Reach
 * Boot Camp
 * Covenant
 * Invasion


 * Halo: Glasslands
 * Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
 * Halo 4
 * Halo: Escalation
 * Halo 2: Anniversary
 * Terminals
 * Hunt the Truth
 * The Hunt Begins
 * Halo: Last Light
 * Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series
 * Halo 5: Guardians
 * Limited Edition


 * Halo Mythos
 * Halo: Tales from Slipspace
 * On the Brink
 * Halo: Retribution
 * Halo: Collateral Damage
 * Halo: Bad Blood
 * Halo: Silent Storm
 * Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual
 * Halo: Lone Wolf
 * Halo: Oblivion
 * Halo: Shadows of Reach
 * Halo: Divine Wind
 * Halo Infinite