[i]"I don't need any fancy-a** superpowers to take these guys on. I can make do on my own. [b]Feet. First.[/b]"[/i]

[u][b]Homeworld:[/b][/u] Jericho VII, Haloverse, circa 2531 (Halo Wars)


[u][b]Name:[/b][/u] Corporal Azumi Emily Ian


[u][b]Age:[/b][/u] 21


[u][b]Gender:[/b][/u] Female


[u][b]Abilities:[/b][/u] Azumi is not an Interference who has any magical powers, relying on her extensive training, equipment, and supplies for her strengths.

- She has competent skills with hand-to-hand combat and knife work, and is a pretty good shot with a firearm (though she needs practice, time, or stationary targets to shoot heads), all due to her training. If given medical equipment, she is able to fix many wounds if nonfatal, though only according to the properties of the materials themselves, and not through any special abilities of her own.

- Due to the implanted neural interface in the back of her head, she can access computer files that she has downloaded to her [url=http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/VISR]Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance (VISR)[/url], including maps, limited audio and video feeds, and tactical data, though an artificial intelligence may be required to use this information. Also, she is incapable of fighting while using this system, aside from a green-tinted nightvision mode that outlines her allies as in a green highlight, her enemies as red, though it takes a long time to show a change in alliance. This system can also see the outlines of invisible enemies, but only if they are given their invisibility by technological means. Objectives have a yellow outline and a marker for distance, while weapons not equipped by anyone are outlined in blue. Due to the nature of this nightvision, daylight conditions or any other bright light combined with its use can cause temporary blinding.

- Otherwise, she is a completely normal human being, albeit trained in the special forces of an army, her other capabilities limited to her armor (see Appearance), and able to be short-circuited or otherwise damaged.


[u][b]Personality:[/b][/u] Azumi is rather headstrong and quick to anger, prone to taking out a weapon if she feels threatened. Nonetheless, she is also able to calmly plan attacks, having experience with commanding from her time with Fireteam Kilo and the moments directly after when she was escaping with her new promotion. Also due to her military training, she can be very formal around superiors (though not necessarily following their orders), often giving a salute as greeting. However, her anger is generally a facade, as she is very emotionally unstable. While she does not cry out from physical pain often due to her training and determination, she can be upset if one talks about her past, and can be very kind and sympathetic to those she feels hide their pain, a trait she also uses through her rage. Only when around her closest friends does she ever let her true self out, though she generally does her best to hide any emotional distress, especially from her enemies.

Due to her training, it is very difficult to make her do things through physical harm, though she can be psychologically broken down if someone knows the right buttons.


[u][b]Alignment:[/b][/u] Good


[u][b]Appearance:[/b][/u] [url=http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu121/UMIYURI/azumisan.png]This picture from the amazing Umiyuri[/url], with a [url=http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Neural_Interface]small metal ball implanted in the back of her head at the base of her skull[/url]. Her armor as shown is the standard Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Battle Dress Uniform (ODST BDU for short), seen in engine [url=http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/e/ee/1_318340723l.jpg]here[/url] and in live action [url=http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080928175644/halo/images/8/8d/Odst2.jpg]here[/url]. The helmet can be polarized or depolarized using the neural interface, the polarized form having the necessary Helmet Mounted Display for combat, the depolarized allowing the face to be visible. The back has a rucksack attached with a supply extending into Hammerspace, her only somewhat magical component due to a need to carry as much as possible. The front pouch, over her chest and disguised as just an armored plate, is another compartment to keep her things in, but this one is not magically enhanced. The entire uniform, if all on without any tears, has a fifteen-minute air supply for vacuum situations, and can be internally heated or cooled for comfort, or, if given ample time, to match outside heat temperatures for stealth operations. It once had video recording capabilities, but these are not possible any longer due to the nature of her jump. The chest has an insignia of a [url=http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/c/cb/Cpl.png]UNSC Marine Corporal[/url] in relief upon it.

She keeps her pistol slung at her right hip, her knife in a sheath attached to her chestplate.

Contrary to what one might expect, this armor only gives her limited protection against glancing blows and darts, most regular attacks able to hit her.


[u][b]Weapons:[/b][/u] All of Azumi's weapons are holdovers from her job as a shock trooper. For close quarters combat, she has [url=http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Combat_Knife]a standard-issue, UNSC combat knife[/url]. For more range, she tends to use an [url=http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/M6C/SOCOM]M6S Automag pistol[/url], a relatively weak weapon that is nonetheless suppressed and scoped. When she gains new weapons, she tends to leave older ones behind, though trying to augment the newer ones to have some of the same capabilities as the older. She tends toward weapons with sound and flash suppressors, but not exclusively.


[u][b]Hobbies:[/b][/u] Training, and only when she finds the time to try it.


[u][b]Awareness:[/b][/u] Yes, due to Audrey M. Jones in the thread "Swan Song".


[u][b]History:[/b][/u] Azumi Emily Ian was born in the year of 2510 on the Outer Colony of Jericho VII in the Lambda Serpentis System to Asian-ancestry parents. On this world, she mainly learned English, appreciating the four silver moons in her sky. She bleached her black hair at one point, turning it to an orange color.

She knew of rebellious factions on her homeworld, ones that aimed to fight against what they deemed to be the oppression of the Earth-based United Nations Space Command (UNSC), but simply showed anger at these groups, having faith in the safety of her world without the insurgency brewing. However, though safe, she found herself generally friendless, her few close companions turning on her in favor of bullies time and again due to her unflinching faith in the status quo. The young girl was forced to teach herself martial arts in order to defend herself against the occasional bully, generally triumphing with naught but a few scratches or a bruise.

At the age of fifteen, she was witness to strange, fast, powerful human soldiers in odd green combat armor (SPARTAN IIs in Mark IV MJOLNIR armor) came to the world in order to silence the rebel factions. The operation was quick and bloody, simultaneously scarring her and interesting her in aiding humanity militarily. Her attitude only increased when news came of a war with an alien empire known as the "Covenant," having begun the same year. One year later, she ran away, hitching a ride aboard a colonial ship that came back to a world with a training facility. Luckily, she just barely made it within the age limit to enlist, entering her training. At that facility, she cut her hair short, learning the art of short-blade combat with a knife and gunplay. She also refined her unarmed combat, though she was never afraid to fight dirty in her training.

Within a few years' time, she had reached the rank of Lance Corporal, the third Enlisted rank from the lowest. She volunteered to undergo a psychological and physical examination as well as even harder training than she had ever done. She passed the physical examination, and managed to get by the psychological one as well by a slimmer margin. Though she neglected to choose a specialty, she trained herself in medical work, though not to the level of the medicine that the official medic "Hospital Corpsmen" had, instead merely to mending bones, sealing some wounds, and quick emergency work in case the Corpsman on her team died, as occasionally occurred.

In 2530, she was hand-picked for a four-person fireteam known as "Fireteam Kilo" to be transferred to the already years-long campaign on the human colony of Harvest. There was an engineer from Mars named Private James Anchors, a Harvest-born corpsman named Private Tyler Vesely, and the mysterious Gregory "Zulu" Zivaku, the corporal who had picked them all under his low command position.

Together, they went through orders from the highest command on the operation, Captain James Gregory Cutter, their personal artificial intelligence K1-R4 from Zulu having a very bad relationship with the AI on board the Spirit of Fire freighter along the way, though giving a plethora of tactical information as they obeyed their COs or disobeyed, "acquiring" bases secured by the remaining Insurgency on Harvest or clearing landing sites for air support to be given to later, lower-trained teams.

Over time, she came to have different relationships with each member of her team. James was nice to her, being between neutral and on good terms in her books. Tyler was the opposite, a major annoyance with his crude comments and unnecessary sarcasm.

She spoke with her direct CO a lot as second-in-command to first of the team, treading lightly through his cold, distant, often angry demeanor to find details of his history, anything to make him more relatable, more human. Over time, her sympathy for his plight developed into a deep attraction, though she would not say so, often ending their conversations about such topics as his family or other parts of his past with arguments that had her leaving the room in a huff. During these conversations, she also saw him show a depressed side to himself, mainly in regard to his ex-girlfriend, one Kynthia Usagi that he had known from a training facility on the Earth's moon of Luna. To Azumi's dismay, he had never let his feelings for the ex go, still carrying a picture of her with him wherever he went.

In 2531, their fights led them to a different colony, Arcadia. There, she was wounded while trying to aid citizens in evacuating the capital, Pirth City, as the Covenant massacred the entire settlement as much as they could. Though she lost consciousness from blood loss, Tyler patched her wounds after they had evacuated themselves via the city outskirts. She awakened hours later in the Spirit's med bay, weak but nearly combat-ready, and learned that the resident scientist, Professor Ellen Anders, had been kidnapped by the Sangheili ("Elite") Arbiter of the Covenant, who "Kira" identified as Ripa 'Moramee, a massive Elite who had fought off both Greg and high-prestige Sergeant John Forge.

Due to her healing wounds, she was unable to stop her corporal as he used his ODST suit and a stolen Covenant "antigravity pack" jet pack to jump out of one of the freighter's airlocks into space, going from one ship to the other mid-flight before they warped to an entirely different planet in a slipspace vortex. Azumi never truly found out the whole story of that, but knew that Anders was shot, Greg lost his weapons aside from one pistol, and the Covenant had been alerted due to...something the corporal had done.

Not long after they landed and began securing the area, James came by with the crazed Private Jack Chambers and several stowaways from Arcadia. Amongst them was Kynthia Usagi herself, slightly older than her picture would make one assume. Others included Hawk Shadowflash, with his enormous sword; Kratos Aurion, with his own plasma-resistance blade; Jasmine, with her chakrams, red eyes, white hair, and butterfly antennae and wings; Audrey Jones, with her raven wings and sword; Louis Delgado, having a plethora of weapons and a...second K1-R4 for some reason. The group met up with Greg, Sergeant John Forge, Professor Anders, and a man named Alex Mercer, and returned to their base without the sergeant or strange man, who went off to fight more after they broke Chambers' leg for attacking the refugees in a crazed, racist rage.

The group gave a tour of their base on this world, this "Shield World," but they all attacked Greg in their sleeping quarters when he was revealed to be their commander. Azumi almost shot them for the assault, but Greg ordered her to leave. The tone, cold and demanding, upset her enough to walk out of the room in a rage, telling him she was just concerned. She truly walked away from the door when he shouted at her one more time from beyond to get away. She came back an hour later, however, still concerned for his well-being after hearing from James about Louis' mysterious disappearance in a miniature slipspace rupture that made him cease to exist. She was horrified to see them all unconscious, unable to be awakened by her shakes, and so she came to Tyler, ordering that he help them come back to consciousness and staying right behind him until he would finish his work.

Two hours of trying went by, each of the women moved to a bed and the men aside from Greg moved to the walls. He was leaning against Kynthia's bed. They all talked about how they were "back" from something, and Greg did something she never saw before. He laughed, showing geniune positive emotion for the first time she had ever seen. Enraged that he would laugh after worrying her sick, she punched him, storming out after asking that Audrey and Jasmine come to help with the Elephants.

With the Elephants, she asked Audrey and Jasmine to check the restraints holding the FTL drive, their only way home, to one of the Behemoth-class carriers. The plan was to bring it to that station Zulu and Anders had seen, the Apex, and use a shuttle there to bring the drive up to the sun above. The chain reaction would kill the driver, but also obliterate the planet, destroying a portion of this fleet and the Forerunner ships that Regret and the Arbiter hoped to deconstruct and replicate. She talked with Audrey and Jasmine, who told her about the Interference phenomenon. Though initially skeptical, all of their statements about Greg rang true. She told no others, only partly believing this talk of "game universes" herself. During that talk, she accidentally revealed her feelings for Greg, but ordered that the two of them never say a word about it.

Before they left for the plan, Greg brought the group together for a speech. He told about how he was never cut out to be a corporal, never to be a soldier or even a hero. That he had done his share of deeds and paid the price again and again, lost his friends and allies, lost his love. That he hoped that he could one day make it up to them all, but that it would be best if they found someone else to lead, like Azumi. As a result, she simply gave him his guns after the other two just looked to her, telling him to shut his mouth and lead them to the end of this, to which he smiled and agreed.

The fight to the launch site, the Battle of the Apex, was very costly for the remaining UNSC forces, especially for Fireteam Kilo. Tyler Vesely was the first to die, his message to the rest of the team saying how he expected to be the first, as the "funny guy," and had not expected to survive his defense of their rear position with the one sniper he had, even though he had taken out many of them before running out of ammunition. James Anchors died as he dove to save Kynthia Usagi from a spray of Needler fire, the plasma melting his chest cavity. His last words told how he had always known Greg had never been to Luna, and that he asked Greg to take care of Kynthia and Azumi herself, since he would not be able to care for his own beau, Federica back on Mars. Her two closest friends, even if one was a jerk. Dead, dead like those from Jericho VII who may have died in the SPARTAN invasion when she wasn't watching it in wonder five years prior, even if she did not drop off contact with her friends and to an extent her family when leaving her homeworld.

With the leader of the Covenant on this world, the Prophet of Regret, intent on capturing Greg in order to find out what he knows and the origins of his weapons, an extraordinarily large force attacked the top of the Apex once they had reached it and begun to set up the FTL drive. The immensely powerful Ripa 'Moramee came as well, Greg challenging him to a sword duel despite his strange capabilities. Only with the aid of both Kynthia Usagi and another Interference who knew Greg known as Alex Mercer saved the young man's life, killing the Arbiter. As this went on, including a portion during which Kynthia was aiding them instead, Azumi joined the other Interferences, Red Team, and the remaining Marines in fighting off the force coming for them. The Interferences used the truly awesome extent of their abilities in this endeavor, completely obliterating the opposition without much trouble at all.

In his duel, Greg had been wounded, his hand bloody. He was breaking down crying at the edge of the Apex for the first time she had ever seen him do so when Azumi softly requested that Kynthia comfort him in his time of need, which she complied with. There was a brief moment of romance, one that depressed her even further, before he stood, going to John Forge, who was talking with the Red Team SPARTANs about how he would sacrifice himself for the plan. When the younger soldier knocked him unconscious, the three super soldiers opened fire on him, wounding him before Azumi stepped between the seven-foot-tall shooters and her commander. She stood there as protection with her arms out, telling them they would have to shoot her before they killed him, or they could let him live to save them all, bringing the unconscious Forge to safety.

All three of them complied, taking the sergeant away as Azumi helped Greg to his feet, hugging him as a confession of her love. Still, she was heartbroken, though understanding, when he quietly rejected her advances, saying he did not feel the same, but giving his position as a Corporal to her, his badge as one, saying she deserved a unit a lot more than he ever had. Then he walked into the ship, limping and leaving a trail of blood as he closed the door. And that was the end of it, as far as she knew. She loved him, he didn't love her, and he was going off to commit suicide to save them. Why did he always have to be the hero?

Many more temporal ripples, like the one that had taken Delgado, came into being not long after the shuttle launched, the remaining Interferences entering them as the Marines were leaving, only her as a witness to the event. Through a nerve-wracking escape, Azumi and the remaining Marines and SPARTANs managed to leave the detonating Shield World behind, though their lack of an FTL drive left them unable to return to a human settlement, lost and drifting. The young woman went into cryosleep sadly, crying herself into a drug-induced slumber. Again due to that battle, she was friendless and loveless. Her sacrifices, along with those of all others in this Pyrrhic campaign, would never be known due to their lack of appropriate hardware, and could easily be written off in one way or another by the propaganda wing of the human Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). Silently, she hoped that she would never awaken again, her life purposeless beneath her hardened shell.

Unfortunately for her, one last temporal rupture within her pod would not allow this. She had learned the ways of the Interferences, but perhaps now it was her time to help in her own way.