Elaine Coffey
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| Elaine Coffey | |
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Female[1] |
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Dark brown[1] |
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Green[1] |
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Commander Elaine Coffey was an officer in the UNSC Navy. She was a Lieutenant Commander and the watch officer aboard the Template:UNSCship, a mixed cargo hauler, when it was attacked and stranded in space in 2558. The commander of the vessel died in the process, leaving Elaine to take over command.[1]
Biography
In October of 2558, the Nereid was carrying a UNSC Marine Corps platoon in addition to construction crews and all of their equipment. Lieutenant Commander Coffey was in charge of cargo services and also took on the role of an engineer when one was needed. She was on the bridge when there was a bright flash of light and some kind of energy pulse that hit the ship and affected every system instantly. Coffey shouted to sound the general alarm just as the Nereid was forced out of slipstream space and the powered gravity plating lost all functionality. Though the disabled systems appeared physically fine, including the interface for the gravity plating, they were totally unresponsive. Coffey ordered a lieutenant by the name of Rasul to keep trying to reestablish artificial gravity while she broadcast a message to anyone within range that could help them. She determined that they had been struck by some kind of multichannel cyberwarfare attack and was in the midst of requesting aid when Rasul cut her off to let her know she wasn't transmitting. Not even emergency power was available to get a message out. At that moment someone began pounding on the door to the bridge. Coffey figured that it might be the hauler's commanding officer, Yance, who had been off-shift in his quarters when the attack happened. It turned out to be Major Kell Tanris, commander of the marines onboard. She wished to speak with the CO, so she, Coffey, Rasul, and three of her marines propelled themselves through the weightless environment to Yance's quarters. Coffey activated a chemical torch, seeing as the other portable lights seemed to have been affected by the cyberattack due to their A.I. components. Elaine questioned the necessity of the marines' ready-carry of MA5D assault rifles, but Major Tanris rebuffed her by reminding her that they were carrying nuclear weapons and that their attackers were likely to come aboard to try to take them. After entering the commander's quarters, they found him dead--drowned in his shower due to a combination of power being lost while the water jets were on and the door was sealed shut and the loss of simulated gravity. Elaine was shaken by the loss, but Major Tanris told her to put it behind her for the moment, as command of the Nereid belonged to her now.[1]
A meeting was held between Coffey, Rasul, Tanris, Sergeant Chan, and the head of the construction crews, Kalanga. Elaine explained to them that though they had exited slipspace, they were still on-course in normal space, albeit at a greatly reduced speed. They were decades or even centuries away from anywhere of significance. Major Tanris expressed a desire to begin planning for the Nereid's defense, should she be boarded, but Elaine reminded her and the others that they had other pressing matters to consider. The hauler was rapidly losing heat and without working carbon dioxide scrubbers, they would all be dead shortly if a solution wasn't reached for their energy crisis. Coffey proposed that everyone repurpose equipment in the ship's gymnasium and that belonging to Kalanga's construction crews to supply it with mechanical energy to keep them alive for the time being. Tanris was somewhat resistant to Coffey's strong display of leadership, owing to the unique situation and her inexperience in the command role, but she acquiesced to her wishes concerning immediate priorities. For the next few weeks, all personnel on the Template:UNSCship cooperated to keep air and water filtration operating at the necessary capacity. Commander Coffey and Lieutenant Rasul investigated drawing heat from their Hornet mines but found that the radioactivity that they'd be exposed to would be too great. Just as thy gave up on that pursuit, Tanris, Chan, and others entered the hold where they were, trailing a length of spare cabling. The marines proposed linking the slipspace drive with the Hornet mines to create a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, but Coffey explained that she and Rasul had just looked into doing something similar and decided it was too dangerous. To this, Sergeant Chan replied that the mines could be towed behind the ship, which would protect those aboard from radiation. Rasul bristled at this since it would require committing the rest of the ship's good cabling to the endeavor. Coffey agreed with the Lieutenant and also said she didn't want to waste air and heat by having trips outside the ship. She also noted that they couldn't even know if the drive could even be reactivated if it had enough power. Her doubts frustrated Major Tanris, who stated that she had already talked to Kalanga about the plan and gotten the construction crews to get behind it. She asked for Elaine's help, seeing as her people were best suited to set up the makeshift generator. Commander Coffey reluctantly assented to the plan.[1]
After a few days of work, the generator was ready to be tested. Unfortunately, the slipspace drive was unresponsive to the influx of energy. Whatever had knocked it out initially had not been fixed, so power was not evidently the issue. The failure resulted in tempers flaring between some of the naval personnel and marines, notably Chan and Rasul, but Coffey defused the situation before it got out of hand while they were all performing extra-vehicular activity outside the ship. Not long after this, a disheartened construction worker killed himself by evacuating an airlock. Commander Coffey refused to allow he body to be retrieved as it floated alongside them, having lost too much air already setting up the generator.[1] Template:Expand-Section
Personality and traits
List of appearances
- Halo: Tales from Slipspace
- Undefeated (First appearance)
