Nicole-458

Notes: It should be noted that Nicole's appearance in the Halo universe is not considered canon according to Bungie, and was created exclusively only for Dead Or Alive 4. Profile: Petty Officer 2nd Class - "Nicole" SPARTAN-458 Nationality: Martian Gender: Female Birthday/Age: December 19/21 Blood Type: O Height/Weight: 6' 8" /370 lbs (in Mjolnir Mark VI armor: 7' 2" /980 lbs) Body Size: B49" W30" H41" Fighting Style: CQB (Close Quarters Battle) Occupation: Commando Likes: Halo-halo (Filipino dessert) Hobbies: Watching Anime, Competition Shooting

Summary
Petty Officer 2nd Class Nicole-458 is a female Spartan featured in the Xbox 360 game Dead or Alive 4. She was born on December 19, 2531 in the city of New Legaspi on Mars. At six years of age she was abducted by agents of the Office of Naval Intelligence and conscripted into the Spartan-II program.

Her unit was preparing for a classified mission on Nassau Station when the ONI stealth ship Apocalypso (see I Love Bees Synopsis) tumbled into real-space – being carried along in the wake of a freak slipspace anomaly. The anomaly intersected Nassau Station; creating a semi-stable "bubble" in the space/time continuum on its way back to the 21st Century.

For the time being Nicole-458 is trapped in the 21st century; guarding Nassau Station's secrets with all but lethal force (she realizes killing someone in the past could have dire consequences), waiting for the "bubble" to collapse and hopefully returning her to the year 2552.

She does not have a gun to shoot or melee opponents, as that would change the nature of the game. She is a heavy-weight, slow and powerful. There are those which find the slow attribute strange for a SPARTAN, especially encased in the MJOLNIR armour, because each member of the original SPARTAN II project, including John-117 (AKA Master Chief), had much faster reaction times and general speed. Her moves include the Pillar of Autumn (throwing opponents through the air), MAC Lunge (fast right fist), Active Camouflage (which makes her invisible), the Grunt Punt, the Great Journey, and a Plasma Grenade throw.

Plot Holes?
Bungie stated in it's Bungie Weekly Update on December 13, 2005 that Nicole was:


 * conscripted into the Spartan II program. The Spartan II program was the UNSC's highly successful military project to augment and hone perfect soldiers.

This flies in the face of previous canon as the members of the Spartan-II program were abducted much earlier, in the year 2517, rendering Spartan-458 far too young to be a member of the Spartan-II program. Her designation 458 is further proof of her not being part of the Spartan-II program, as there were only 150 candidates were screened (of which 75 of 150 were chosen), all of which were designated a number between 1 and 150. Yet she wears the specialized Mjolnir armor the armour only given to Spartan IIs. However, it is also possible she belongs to the Class 3 of the Spartan II program, the Spartan-III program or an even later program than the Spartan-IIIs.

In the Dec 2005 Update Frankie went on to say Spartan-458:


 * is not a character who's ever been described in other Halo fiction.
 * is not a character from our next project.
 * is not one of the Spartans from Fall of Reach.
 * is not a character from the Halo movie.
 * is not returning my calls. I blame time bubbles.

DOA4 Design
When designing Nicole for the DOA game her orginial move list was originally modeled on DOA4 character, Bayman's set. Designer Itagaki realized it would be pretty unimpressive if it was just a palette-swap, boring to both fans of DOA and Halo. So using the the Bayman moves as a conceptual starting point the designers slowly reinvented the Spartan until she was her own, unique character. With every move in her arsenal an homage to some Halo-related move.

Possible Backround
It is possible that, although the second batch of Spartan IIs was cancled that, for one reason or another, She was an exception. Although it is highly unlikely it is one of the very few possible explainations.