William Lovell

Ensign William Lovell (service number 78349-90983-WL) was a junior officer in the UNSC Navy, briefly serving as a member of the command crew of the. During his eventful career, he developed a CSV that was at least twice as long as Jacob Keyes'. He had been awarded the Bronze Star award three times.

Early military career
Lovell enlisted voluntarily, and was immediately enrolled at the Luna Officer Candidate School due to his high grades. During a training flight he demonstrated heroism by saving the entire crew from an accident, and this helped him to graduate from the academy after only two years.

Upon being commissioned he took the first outbound corvette headed into battle. Within three years he had been promoted to Lieutenant. He also amassed three Bronze Stars; a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts, and served aboard the for a period of four years.

Trouble
A promising career was rocked by a series of mishaps: four reports of insubordination and two transfers. Ultimately, his demotion back to Ensign may have been caused by an "incident" involving Anna Gerov, a civilian and possible daughter of Vice Admiral Gerov.

Lovell was reassigned to Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes on the fringes of the Sigma Octanus system. He was there for well a year, an unheard of duration for such a remote facility. This was partially his own choice, due to his judgment that he had broken under pressure and, having seen so much death, was content with the isolation and relative safety of the outpost.

Later military career
In 2552, while still serving aboard the Archimedes, he detected the silhouette of Covenant ships headed for the Sigma Octanus. While he did not positively identify the silhouette as such, his report allowed UNSC forces to converge in defense of the system in time to win the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. Lovell was reassigned to the under Captain Jacob Keyes, replacing Lieutenant Jaggers as navigation officer. There he participated more actively in the latter stage of the battle.

Shortly afterward, Lovell was transferred with the rest of the command crew to Keyes' new ship, the cruiser, which was to be sent on Operation: RED FLAG, which was postponed due to the Fall of Reach. As the Autumn sat in stationary orbit on the far side of the planet, Lovell detected unusual EM readings bouncing off Turul and contacted Casimir Station looking for an explanation. Unbeknownst to the crew of the ship, which was being kept ignorant of the Covenant invasion, the readings were actually a result of battles occurring on the other side of the planet.

Despite his low rank, and the surprise it caused among the bridge crew, Lovell performed skillfully, even under pressure. He and Cortana successfully extracted the ship from the disaster. When the ship was abandoned during the Battle of Installation 04, Lovell piloted and landed his Bumblebee lifepod (Kilo Tango Victor 17) containing Keyes, the command crew, and the Covenant spy Isna 'Nosolee.

Death
After landing, he and the rest of the lifepod group attempted to escape the Covenant, successfully for some time. Because they were wanted alive, the small group managed to inflict heavy damage on the Covenant, who could not harm them. Ultimately, they were captured by the Covenant after being betrayed by Ensign Ellen Dowski. In an attempt to avoid execution, he made a desperate dive for a M6D handgun, but was shot and killed by a Sangheili Minor's plasma pistol.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: The Flood