Nicole-458

Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN 458-Nicole 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.

Stats
Nationality: Martian

Gender: Female

Birthday/Age: December 19/ 20

Blood Type: O

Height/Weight: 6' 2" / 170 pounds (in Mjolnir Mark VI armor: 7' 2" / 980 pounds)

Body Size: B29" W10" H21"

Fighting Style: CQC (Close Quarters Combat)

Occupation: Petty Officer Second Class, UNSC Navy NavSpecWep

Likes: Halo-halo (Filipino dessert)

Hobbies: Watching Anime, Competition Shooting

Summary
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 (SPARTAN-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 armor, because each member of the original SPARTAN II project, including SPARTAN-117 (AKA Master Chief), had much faster reaction times and general speed due to the augmentations. 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 armor 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.

Quotes

 * Nicole-458: "Hostile located." (said before starting a fight)
 * Nicole-458: "Your luck just ran out." (said before starting a fight)
 * Nicole-458: "And that's how you hit like a girl." (upon winning a round)
 * Nicole-458: "Hostile down." (upon winning a round)
 * Nicole-458: "You were strong, just not as strong as me." (upon winning a round)

DOA4 Design
When designing Nicole for the DOA game her original 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 being an homage to some Halo-related move.

Related Links

 * Nassau Station
 * Dead or Alive 4