Hazel-A302

Hazel-A302, born Hazel Leonidov, is a Spartan-III in service with the United Nations Space Command Armed Forces. Orphaned at a young age, she was trained to be a Spartan on Onyx as part of the Spartan-III program's Alpha Company and biologically augmented. Hazel was separated from the rest of her company prior to its first deployment in 2536 and made one of the Office of Naval Intelligence's Headhunters. In late 2553 she and another Spartan, Owen-B096, were tasked with delivering the artificial intelligence Gabriela to Earth and assisting with an Outpost Discovery at major population centers on the planet.

Training and war
Hazel Leonidov was born on the human colony of Alluvion on January 31, 2521. As a young child, she was an exceptional athlete and student. Hazel was eventually orphaned due to humanity's prolonged war with the Covenant and became one of four hundred and ninety-seven such war orphans recruited for the the first company of Spartan-IIIs. On December 27, 2532 Hazel and the rest of the children were brought to the planet Onyx in the Zeta Doradus system. Multiple D77-TC Pelicans touched down on the parade ground at Camp Currahee at around 1953 hours to unload the recruits, who streamed out of the dropships at the behest of Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez and were met by Lieutenant Kurt Ambrose. When the Mjolnir-clad Spartan-II first spoke, his voice carried by the camp's public address system, the children stopped moving and fell silent, amazed by the armored giant. As they crowded before him Kurt offered them the chance to become like him so that they might destroy the Covenant. He noted, however, that only three hundred slots were ultimately available and that the process of determining who would fill that roster would began that night. Mendez then ordered the children back onto the Pelicans and they each proceeded to shuffle aboard, after only some hesitation. After they were airborne once again each recruit was given a Falcon Wing aerial descent unit and told to jump from their dropship's rear bay if they wanted to be a Spartan. Following this, those who had jumped were recovered.

Alpha Company was trained from that point on by Lieutenant Ambrose and CPO Mendez at the Camp Curahee complex. The regimen mirrored that of the Spartan-IIs', with intensive physical conditioning and education conducted by hand-picked trainers and multiple on-site A.I.s. All training and indoctrination emphasized the significance of achieving objectives at any cost and a willingness to sacrifice for the UNSC. Hazel's innate physical capabilities were greatly enhanced by Spartan augmentations, carried out aboard the in 2536, and her scholarly abilities bent towards learning the many arts of war. Only around sixty percent of the four hundred and ninety-seven were considered to have been augmented successfully, but this did not automatically disqualify "failures" from being deployed regardless. Alpha Company graduated in 2536 and by October 16 of that year the three-hundred chosen to form its final incarnation had been selected and deployed to Mamore for Operation: FIREBRAND. There, the Spartans suppressed an anti-Unified Earth Government coup d'état which had seized the colony. Over the next nine months Alpha Company undertook nine other missions, including Operation: HWACHA, in which the Spartans distinguished themselves through successful counter-boarding actions as part of a fleet action against the Covenant in the Bonanza asteroid belt. The Far-gone colony platforms also were among the locales which the Spartan-IIIs were deployed to during this period. It was in early 2537 that they were tasked with defending the colony of New Constantinople from Covenant attack as part of Operation: IRON GREAVE. During this deployment Hazel caught the eye of Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb's advisors. Her observed deft and diverse skillset led to her her extraction from Alpha Company and conscription into the ranks of the Office of Naval Intelligence's clandestine HEADHUNTERS initiative. Becoming a Headhunter ensured that when all three-hundred of the Spartan-IIIs sent to the asteroid K7-49 in late July 2537 for Operation: PROMETHEUS perished during the resulting battle, Hazel was not numbered among them (her place having been filled by another following her promotion to Headhunter). Hazel had only even been considered for inclusion in the HEADHUNTERS initiative because she had previously survived multiple specially assigned training missions. For this new role she was put through an additional, grueling training regimen on the far side of Onyx from Camp Curahee. Always as part of a two-Spartan team, she conducted direct action operations against Covenant leaders on occupied planets and destroyed critical UNSC information that had fallen into enemy hands, all whilst outfitted with Mjolnir armor. Headhunters like Hazel were typically tasked with infiltrating heavily fortified enemy encampments, ships, and operation centers completely undetected. They did so with minimal, mission-specific weaponry and no radio contact or hope for backup or retrieval. Their objectives usually constituted preparation for a larger, full-scale assault on a target or were meant as a decoy and distraction for UNSC operations elsewhere. As a Headhunter Hazel personally racked up over a dozen confirmed kills on high-value Covenant targets and successfully recovered several key classified assets, any one of which might have spelled doom for the UNSC had they fallen into or remained in enemy hands.

Outpost Discovery
"Gabriela, you are being deployed to Earth, where you will serve as the caretaker of Outpost Discovery. Spartans Owen and Hazel will escort you there."

- An ONI officer informs Gabriela of her assignment to work with Hazel and Owen.

In late 2553 she and another Spartan-III, Owen-B096, met with the Spartan-II Linda-058, the volitional A.I. Athos, and an ONI officer. Linda and Athos had recently returned from a mission in which they had secured another A.I. named Gabriela thought lost around a year prior during the Fall of Reach. The record of all cataloged human history which Gabriela contained made her unique among A.I.s, so Hazel and Owen were tasked with escorting her to Earth. There she would assume the role of caretaker for an Outpost Discovery, a mobile exploratory initiative focused on the education, recruitment, inspiration, and training of the next generation of UNSC personnel. Both Spartans joined her thereafter in assisting with the outposts, which involved traveling to various major population centers on humanity's home world and interacting directly with civilians in attendance.

Rise of the Banished
Following the start of the Created conflict, Hazel was assigned the mission to prevent the Banished's pillaging of the supply chains that connected colonies in the periphery.

Capabilities
Hazel primarily specializes in direct action and secondarily specializes in intelligence collection. Even as a child she was an exceptional athlete and student. Her innate physical capabilities were greatly enhanced by the streamlined augmentation processes and biochemical enhancements employed by the Spartan-III program.

Equipment
In the months following the conclusion of the war between humanity and the Covenant, Hazel's armor configuration consisted of a Mark V up-armored RECON-class Mjolnir helmet (equipped with a HUL[3] attachment) and a Collar/Breacher chest piece. Her left shoulder was protected by a GRENADIER-class pauldron and her right by one of the RECON variety. Her knee guards were of a kind with her left shoulder pauldron, being GRENADIER-class. In addition to a combat knife Hazel has been known to carry an M45 shotgun or an MA5C assault rifle.

Production notes
"Whenever we were designing them we wanted to have two characters that made sense. And we already had Battle Born in the works and there were some other opportunities that you'll just have to wait and see with Hazel potentially."

- Zara Varin teases upcoming media releases in which Hazel could appear while also noting that both she and Owen-B096 had been conceived of as characters prior to their inclusion in Outpost Discovery.

By the time it was determined that Halo: Outpost Discovery locations ought to include two individuals dressed as Spartans attendees could interact with, Hazel was already a character that had been created for potential inclusion in upcoming fiction. 343 Industries consumer products team artist Zara Varin did most of the three-dimensional designing and construction of the armor to be worn by the person dressed as Hazel. Objectives of the armor's design included having it make sense for the time in which Outpost Discovery is set as well as representative of armor that would actually be worn by Spartans at Outpost Discovery locations. In addition, Varin had to consider practical issues for the wearer such as the need for pockets, flexibility, and the ability to sit down while wearing the costume. Varin used assets from Halo: Reach alongside those from other projects and some they created themselves specifically for Outpost Discovery while designing the armor. Hazel's existence was revealed to fans through the mention of an exclusive Xbox avatar costume based on the character that is provided for those who purchase tickets for Halo: Outpost Discovery. Her first appearance in Halo media came in the final panels of Halo: Lone Wolf's concluding issue.

At Outpost Discovery locations Hazel is embodied by Twitch streamer Jordan Price. 343 Industries decided that Hazel's face would be canonically identical to Price's. The same is true for Owen-B096 and the man who embodied him, Harlem globetrotter Urbane Bingham.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Lone Wolf
 * Halo: Outpost Discovery