Naomi Marres (Agent Twenty-Seven)

"'I thought that I didn’t need a past or a future. I thought all I needed was the present and that would always be enough. I got my wish. My life… what I had… who I was… it’s gone.'" 

Naomi Marres, also known as Agent Twenty-Seven or just Twenty-Seven is a covert Spartan IV Agent operating under the secret ONI branch, Monolith.

Biography
Naomi Marres was born on Novermber 11th, 2525 on the human colony of Actium. It is unclear when Marres joined the UNSC but it can be inferred she was enlisted well before the Battle of Reach in 2552 by which time she had already earned the rank of Captain.

On Reach, Marres led a squad of Marines including Gregg Waller, Arlon Marcozo, Micheal Rowen and Jarem Dugam on multiple missions. One of which was the evacuation of stranded civilians during the moon-lit hours of the Battle of New Alexandria.

Sometime after the conclusion of the Human-Covenant War, Marres enlisted in the Spartan IV program and shortly after, joined the secret Office of Naval intelligence branch, Monolith. At some point during her time at Monolith, Marres's became the unknowing origin subject for the Hyper-Advanced Cloning Program. This process, while killing Marres led to the creation of at least twenty-eight advanced clones. Within the clones, all of Naomi's personality and memories (while altered or blocked) are perfectly retained. By this moniker, Marres' life continues on virtually uninterrupted.

Around the same time Marres joined Monolith in 2554, the organization faked her death, most likely to prevent any entities or individuals from her past having any chance of interacting with her.

In October of 2555, a clone iteration of Marres, Agent Twenty-Seven, took on a series of assignments to disturb several illegal operations on the planet Ballast. This would eventually lead her to track down and eliminate the notorious mercenary, Arlon Marcozo. This encounter with a member of her past triggered the memory recall process, allowing her to regain access to memories once thought locked away.

Deemed a threat by Monolith, Twenty-Seven was slated for assassination by Agent Twenty-Eight that same night. Twenty-Eight proved unsuccessful and Twenty-Seven was able to escape.

The Battle of Reach
Marres partook in several operations during the Battle of Reach in 2552 as the squad captain of 13th Squad. During the Battle of New Alexandria, Marres and her team were searching the city highrise rooftops and upper floors for any civilians still trapped in the city. At some point in the night, Marres received an order to return with her squad to base. As her team loaded up on a Falcon, Marres ordered Arlon Marcozo, who was serving under her as a marine at the time, to go sweep the upper floors of the building they were on one more time. Without warning, the building collapsed with Marcozo inside. To Naomi's surprise, Arlon was not dead but was still trapped beneath the remains of the building. Suddenly a Covenant Cruiser entered the area and began glassing the section of the city they were in. Marres made the choice to leave Marcozo behind in order to potentially save the rest of her team. Marres was certain this choice would result in Marcozo's death. She never found out that he was rescued hours later but remained in comatose until the end of the war.

Huntress
Years later in 2555, Marres, now known as Spartan Agent Twenty-Seven, was given several assignments to investigate and disrupt illegal activities on the planet Ballast. On October 23rd, 2555, Twenty-Seven was deployed to track down and kill Arlon Marcozo, now gun-for-hire and freshly erased from her memory by Monolith. With guidance from her operator, Migs, Twenty-Seven was able to locate Marcozo at the expense of besting several ambushes by Megalodon Corp mercenaries and even a hijacked Mantis. She was shocked to discover a mass stash of stolen UNSC assets, noting the collective to be enough to toss the entire province into chaos if mobilized.

Twenty-Seven cornered Marcozo on the storehouse roof and interrogated him for more information. Here she learned that a secret branch of the UNSC was behind the theft and the increasing unrest on the colony. Arlon also called Twenty-Seven by her real name, Naomi. Hearing her own name triggered a violent onset of the memory recall process, destabilizing her mental condition. To make matters worse, Marcozo began the retelling of his supposed death on Reach. The coupled effects proved too much for her to handle she killed Marcozo in a growing rage. After finally settling down. Twenty-Seven attempted to reach Migs, most likely to talk about the transpired events but was unable to reach him. Back on street level, she found herself at gun point at the hands of Agent Twenty-Eight. Twenty-Seven reflected on her blind following of directive and task and seemingly conceded to her fate.

Lineage: Huntress Volume II
Twenty-Seven was able to kill Twenty-Eight in Shousbo and immediately moved to flee the city. After traversing some distance, Twenty-Seven ended up at a shipping dock. She boarded a cargo craft bound for the UNSC Interplanetary HUB, Biller Station, above the planet Ballast. Once aboard the station, Naomi made her way into an isolated server room where she used a terminal to access a wide range of UNSC data. After doing some extended searching, Naomi experienced a recall event that restored her memory of Gregg Waller and she immediately contacted him, arranging for a meeting in the station. The pair met but Waller refused to believe Twenty-Seven was the Naomi Marres who had been presumed dead for nearly a year. With little access to her memories still, Marres was unable to fully convince Waller of her identity. Instead, she arranged for another meeting between the two, this time back in Shousbo. She then fled the station and Waller.

Waller later met with her in Shousbo, where he agreed to assist her in her investigation. The pair was then ambushed by Jax Rojas and Fireteam Dark Horse. While Waller fought with Rojas, Marres led the other three members of Dark Horse on a chase through the city streets and rooftops. The pursuit would end in a hand to hand fight between her and Spartans Teller and Farbrock. Marres repelled Teller and killed Farbrock, stopping the pursuit cold.

Marres would later infiltrate the Monolith Polar HQ on her own, claiming to be Agent Twenty-Eight. She would then confront Ian Carabach in his lab. She was subsequently taken captive but was rescued by Waller soon after. Together, the pair caused a critical failure in the bases geothermal power systems, destroying the base.

Personality
Marres is described by Ian Carabach as an "exemplary solider and as a fierce individual". She is typically calm in composure but this same collected attitude is often broken by her recall events which quickly destabilize her mental state. She appears to have full confidence in being a lone operator, despite her initial determination to recruit Gregg Waller to her cause in Lineage. This is also in spite of her past as the team captain of 13th Squad.

Naomi has a strong sense of justice which is demonstrated both in her time at Monolith and even following her abandonment of it. She completes assignments she thinks are to stop illegal activities. When she discovers that innocent lives are at risk she pursues the truth and defects from Monolith in order to stop their plot.

Naomi suffers from a severe case of post traumatic stress disorder; a product of her time in the UNSC and the loss she suffered subsequently. Marres ' homeworld of Actium would be virtually destroyed by the Covenant during her service an event that resonated deeply within her. Additionally, Marres served during the battle of Reach where she would lose all but three of the men under her command. This culmination led her to seek out Monolith to have her memory erased but those feelings were so strong, PTSD events could still be triggered in her clone iterations.

Her interactions can often appear cold and mute, most likely a product of the mental alterations made by Carabach.

Naomi vs Twenty-Seven Dichotomy
As revealed by Ian Carabach in Lineage, Agent Twenty-Seven is the 27th clone iteration of Spartan Naomi Marres. Unlike flash clones seen in other instances in the Halo universe, Twenty-Seven is not ailed by rapid deterioration and appears to be a fully functioning Spartan IV. As far as Twenty-Seven is concerned, she is Naomi Marres, a self-realization brought on by the trigger of the recall process. According to Carabach, Twenty-Seven should not have been able to access memories held by Naomi Marres outside of what was permitted. Her ability to do so is an anomaly in Carabach's work and one of great interest to him.

In truth, Twenty-Seven is indeed a clone of Naomi Marres who did indeed die nearly a year prior to the events of Huntress. However, her personality is exactly that of Marres own and she shares the same memories and emotions all the same. This conflict in personality is one of great interest to several characters who are aware of this truth.

Trivia

 * Arlon Marcozo highlights that Twenty-Seven is known widely as The Huntress to the mercenaries of Megalodon Corp. Despite this statement, she is never actually addressed as Huntress by any other character in the series.
 * Like Dominique Carrows, Marres only uses one weapon. In her case, that is a silenced tactical Magnum.
 * Being a Spartan operative of Monolith like Jax Rojas, Marres wears all-black armor with a deep red visor.
 * It is hinted that Gregg and Naomi may have shared a more intimate past before her disappearance but she cannot fully remember her time with Gregg.