Mason, I.

[Mason, I.]

UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND DEFENSE FORCE
PERSONNEL COMMAND (PERSCOM)

CAREER SERVICE VITAE

Basic Information
Name: Isiah Mason
Age: 39
Birth Date: 25AUG2503
Birth Place: Minneapolis, North American Republic, Earth, Sol

Service Information
UNSC Military Identification: 2456682
Service Number: 40892-51173-MI
Rank: Staff Sergeant (E-6)
Primary MOS: 0369
Billet: Platoon Sergeant

RIFLE QUAL: 228
PISTOL QUAL: 240
SWIM QUAL: S3
PFT: Class 1

Unit Information
Command: 22nd Marine Division
Regiment: 12th Regiment
Battalion: 1st Battalion
Company: Oscar Company
Platoon: Second Platoon

Medical Information
Gender: Male
Height: 6'4" (76")
Weight: 221 lbs
Eye Color: BLU
Hair Color: BRN
Blood Type: O+

Personality Profile:

Isaiah is a complex person, as are all people who have experienced many things; both good and bad. While in his younger days he was impulsive, relying heavily on his instincts. He has since grown into an analytical thinker and uses his twenty years of experience and the teachings from his training and academics to form a better sense of logic and instincts; allowing him, at times, to be an extremely challenging opponent on the battlefield. His mood is generally mellow, but can be stern when the need arises.

To say that Isaiah Mason has another side of him would be wrong, for he has only one side and everything else is a facade. It is that which lacks all emotion, and all humanity. Its origins lie within the tragedies of his life. He hides it the vast majority of the time. However, when his attention is focused elsewhere, it is plain as day to see that Isaiah Mason is nothing more than a shell - resembling a man that no longer exists. The last time he let down his front was in the thick of an intense battle, in which his entire demeanor shifted. It became apparent to only a couple of his squad members, when they noted that there was no fear, no anger, and no emotion at all in him; only a cold calculative mind. In many ways, that comforted them. The fact that he was calm, in the midst of hell, allowed them to stay calm and focused.

Physical Description:

Isaiah Mason could have been the model of a statue in his youth. Standing at six feet, four inches tall and endowed with a hefty frame. It is apparent that grew up an athlete; lined with battle hardened and well defined muscles throughout his body. He has a square, solid face that been dealt its fair share of brutality - sporting a large portion of scar tissue on lower right side of his jaw and neck, where his skin was completely blown off.. His soft brown hair is the stereotypical high and tight; shaved sides below the earline and perfect tapering to an inch on top. His eyes are piercing and vividly bright blue. His natural skin color is pale white, but is usually covered with a moderate tan.

On his back is a large and vicious scar running from the top of his left shoulder diagonally down to his right hip, a wound dealt to him by a plasma sword; one of his many near death experiences. In the middle of his back, in between his shoulder blades is a tattoo of the UNSC insignia - which is slightly distorted by scar of the plasma sword. Right below the insignia is a tattoo with the quote, “Only the dead see the end of war.” In the middle of his impressively built chest is the tattoo “LXI” which represents his generation of the Mason bloodline. On his right forearm is yet another tattoo that states “Bleed with me and forever be my brother”. Wrapping around the entirety of his right upper leg are a series of crossbones, representing the casualties of war he knew personally. All are in black in, except for four - which are in red.

Background Information:

Isaiah Mason was destined to fight.

He came from a warrior bloodline that was older than the UNSC itself. He was born on August 25th, 2503, to Marvin and Evelyn Mason. Marvin, his father, was a Sergeant in the Marines at that time and began instilling military values into his son at a very young age. Marvin would retell old tales of battle to him before bed. When he began to read on his own he would pick books out of his father's personal library. He began engrossing himself into old classics such as "Fall of Giants", "Art of War", "The Once and Future King", and his personal favorite from Leo Tolstoy, "War and Peace". Isaiah's understanding of war quickly developed into that of a hopeless romantic and he secretly wished he would someday wake up to find himself in ancient Greece, where war was still commonly romanticized and wonderful art and poetry was created in honor of it. He wanted to be like Lancelot, Achilles, or Leonidas. Little did he know at that time that he would instead be like Odysseus, Dilios, and Priam; always present, but only a bystander. Cursed to live, even when he wanted death.

He was homeschooled by his parents until he was twelve years of age. At that time, he attended his alma mater; a four year youth military academy. There he highly excelled; earning his spot in numerous advanced classes. He also had immense success playing football as a free safety. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and garnered other various academic accolades. He was encouraged to begin OCS at a very prestigious university by many of his instructors and was even visited by the Colonel who headed that specific OCS campus, the day before Isaiah was to go home. To his surprise, he was even offered a full paid football scholarship to a major football college. To everyone's astonishment, he announced his intentions to enlist that same year. Marvin, knowing his son was eager to find himself in battle, admired his decision but encouraged him to wait a while. He told him that had not yet experienced anything else besides the military. To his mother's relief, he agreed to wait. He was reluctant, feeling that his path to glory was already set before him and that there was nothing else that could occupy his mind. He decided to accept a two-year full paid scholarship to a highly reputable college that was closer to his family. He was indecisive when choosing a field of study; all he had studied beforehand was all military oriented. His father suggested philosophy but he detested the idea of having a piece of paper tell him that he was proficient in thinking; it seemed pretty pointless. After much pondering, he decided to pursue a degree in management, given the fact that it would be helpful with his career.

He met his future wife, Bethany Anne, on December 14th, 2519. For the first time in his life, he found that he was passionate about something that wasn’t related to the military. He began spending much of his free time with her and, before long, professed his love for her. They became engaged within a year of their meeting and set a date for his eighteenth birthday.

He graduated from college in two years flat, achieving, once again, Summa Cum Laude. Isaiah was a naturally intelligent person, but maintained a sincere humbleness about him. A phrase he coined his freshman year of college was thus, “I’ve spent a lot of time learning things and I know a few things about a lot of things and a lot of things about a few things, but one thing I know for sure is that nobody knows everything about anything.” He knew that no man was better than anyone. He also knew that everyone made mistakes from time to time. This type of equal respect for others made him very popular amongst his peers.

Aside from his intelligence, he was also a believer in working hard. From time to time he would hear the phrase "work smart, not hard" and everytime he did he would argue against it with a fiery passion. He believed it was a slogan of sloths. "Let the desk jockeys and couch potatoes spit such vile idiocy and keep that crap to yourself before you encourage someone to grow a gut," he would respond, "work hard always and when you can, work smart AND hard."

Shortly after his graduation, Beth gave birth to their son, Joseph. It had been two years since he agreed to wait a while before enlisting and he decided it was time to start the career that he had been prepping for his entire life. With his new family in tow, his military career began. The year was 2522. He was eighteen years old.
His training flew by and in no time, he was attached to a unit that was in the thick of operation TREBUCHET. It was during this time that he got his first taste of real combat. It was an adrenaline rush like nothing he ever experienced and he thoroughly enjoyed it. That enjoyment, however, wore off as he took part in battle after battle. The Insurrectionists were relentless, and it felt like they were everywhere. He fought against them for three years.

On February 10th, 2525 Isaiah Mason’s father, Sgt Major Marvin Mason retired; one day before first contact with the Covenant.

In late September, Corporal Mason was ordered to report to the CMA Heracles. There he assembled with about 50 other Marines, all of whom had experience in battle. They were there to reinforce the under budget and under trained CMA footsoldiers during a mission of particular importance. They were being sent to the Epsilon Indi system to discover the cause of lost contact with Harvest and the CMA vessel, Argo. What they discovered there was a glassed planet, a fully destroyed Argo, and a Covenant ship; the latter of which they were no match for even with the CMA Vostok and CMA Arabia accompanying them. After an intense and short battle, the Vostok and Arabia were nothing more than scrap floating aimlessly through space. The Heracles narrowly escaped and, with a heavy toll of damage and casualties, departed to Reach.

This pivotal moment in human history was also a pivotal moment in Isaiah’s life. Before he had experienced nothing but great triumph and victory, it is then that his life would become a series of failure, loss, and defeat.

He took to battling this new enemy with a hot and fiery passion. Throughout his career, he had fought in over ten major battles and countless more skirmishes. The result always being defeat or a heavy hearted victory. Losing subordinates, peers, and leaders soon became second nature and with each loss he would lose another piece of his humanity. A major blow came when his wife, mother, and father all perished on New Constantinople in 2536. In utter shock and grief, Isaiah took a six month leave of absence to spend time with his son, Joseph.

Joseph, eager to follow the tradition of his bloodline - and ready for revenge - enlisted 2537; Isaiah Mason was a Gunnery Sergeant at this point.. Isaiah attempted to persuade him to wait, just as Marvin had persuaded him. He used the same reasoning as his father, telling Joseph to take the opportunity to experience more of civilian life, but deep down he knew it was because he feared for Joseph’s life in this war. He wondered if his father’s reasons for persuading him to wait over eighteen years ago were the very same.

In 2539, he was temporarily stationed on Kholo and was in charge of a rear detachment unit, at the rank of Master Sergeant. During the same time that Joseph was on a short leave, and was visiting his father. Both father and son fought hard and Isaiah did the best he could to command the men he had under him. In the end, however - when he saw that there was no chance of hope - he gave the order to flee, retrieved his son, and looked to take leave of the planet. Unfortunately, Joseph had sustained heavy wounds before departing with his father. As they were successfully escaping the planet, the Covenant moved in. While Kholo was being glassed, Joseph died in his father's arms.

Afterwards, Mason was blamed for the destruction of the rear detachment, and by some, for the destruction of Kholo. In other words, he was made the scapegoat. He was demoted from MSG and immediately transferred to Oscar Company

User Information
Username: Ace
AIM: people still use AIM? o.O
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E-Mail: [e-mail]

[Durant, M.]

After having reviewed this profile, I am happy to say that it goes above and beyond our standards. This application is accepted.