Brandon Ryley Smith was a UNSC Marine and Special Forces member who served from 2573 till 2595 before being picked to operate as a commander in the SPARTAN-IV Program. Originally quite idealistic, Brandon felt himself a bit of a hero throughout his encounters in the first years of revived rebellion, putting down Insurrectionists and Remnants alike with naive ideals about his work. After a botched mission left Brandon's unit decimated and stranded on a backwater world for over a year, Brandon's view of life shifted radically, made even more extreme when the remainder of the unit was not rescued but captured by Remnant forces and imprisoned for six months. At the end of six months, Brandon and the five other survivors of his unit managed an escape during which one died and one was critically