Name: Zack Tillik
Service Number: <Classified-undeployed>
Birthplace: New Denver, Earth.
DOB: July 3, 2535
Rank: Petty Officer 3rd Class
Armor: MJOLNIR MK V
Emblem: Broken Spartan helmet
Gender: Male
Weight: 230 lbs.
Height: 6'0" (6'3" in armor)
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Haz
Preferred Weapon: whatever is handy.
Zack Tillik was born in New Denver on Earth in the mid 2530s to unknown parents. Living in the rough parts of town Zack was forced to learn to live independently very quickly, getting in trouble with the law on several occasions, resulting in his removal from foster care programs and being placed in an orphanage at the age of 6.
Zack's experience in the orphanage was not much better, often getting in fights with other children. It was during one of these fights, just after his 7th birthday, that Zack's life would change forever.
The orphanage was on an outing to visit a museum sponsored by the UNSC. Zack was in a fight, defending a fellow classmate from a mutual bully. Also at the museum was "Mr. Mendez" who watched the entire event transpire.
Mendez introduced Zack to a very tall, very muscular man named 'Mr. Ambrose', who spoke briefly to the orphanage staff before kneeling down to Zack's level and questioning him. Zack would later say he was frustrated with people percieving him as a trouble maker, but couldn't remember the questions he was asked, until 'Mr. Ambrose' told him "What people think of you should not become your destiny." 'Mr. Ambrose' then asked if Zack could obey and behave, if it meant finding his purpose in life. Zack said yes.
Later that night Zack was on a big "army pelican!" bound for a UNSC cruiser in orbit. This is how Zack became part of the Spartan-III program.
Compared to his years in the orphanage, Spartan training was physically demanding, but otherwise liberating. He excelled in the martial arts and weapons training programs, although he suffered in written tests.
His biggest challenge, however, came during augmentation. While his eyesight improved dramatically and his hearing was impeccable, when he emerged from the process his body shut down in an anaphlactic reaction to one of the hormones. While others of his teammates towered to nearly 7 feet, he stood at a comparatively dwarfish 5'11". His body was shutting down and his nerves were all on fire.
Over the course of the next three days, Zack was in and out of consciousness as medical personnel busied themselves with keeping him alive. It was at this time he reached his darkest hour. During one episode of consciousness, Mendez had stepped to his bedside and informed him he had failed augmentation and would be washed out of the program. With the burning nerves, aching bones and an intense, searing allergic reaction, all of which necessitated his being restrained to the bed with tubes of liquid flowing into his body from every imaginable angle, Zack would remember this statement of Failure as his most painful moment.
Over the next few years Zack would be on an intense medical regimen, using epinephrine injectors like candy and a physical exercise program that would leave his body burning and sore everyday.
Over time, however, the physical pains diminished and the tests became easier. More excitingly to Zack, however, his written test scores had never been higher. Adding to this, the manner of tests were much more difficult. As time went on Zack learned he was much, much stronger than most, very intelligent, and had reflexes he didn't know could be possible. If it wasn't for his diminished stature, and his lack of a team, he would feel like a Spartan again.
Zack had consistently been working with ONI representatives in various capacities of medical study and as an analyst for missions of Spartan II and his former Spartan III teammates. During this time he was implanted with the neural implant required for project Mjolnir and served as one of the Guinea pigs used to implement the upgrades that would elevate Mjolnir's MK V to MK VI and various later upgrades.
After several years of this service, as well as a tour as an ONI representative in an ODST unit, where he developed leadership skills under actual enemy fire, and after applying time and again for his own Mjolnir suit and change of assignment, Zack came upon the list of the next Mjolnir candidates. His name was on the list, along with names like Martinez, Gobal, Locke, and Kelly. A week later he received new orders, indicating his term with ONI analysis had ended and his career as a combat Spartan was about to begin.
Zack worked closely with the technicians of project Mjolnir to create his suit, basing it on the older, bulky MK V suit which he knew from his years as an analyst to have a higher damage threshold, due to the higher number of plating, but would also weigh more and had a lower power capacity. More power was added in a back- mounted "ability unit" model upgrade, but the MK V suit served Zack well to the last.
As tribute to the man who probably saved his life, Zack personalized his armor in the original olive green with Kurt's number, '051' proudly displayed on the front. This would later change, but Zack would always remember those early days as the best of his life.
After an eventful 36 year career, Zack was listed MIA after a particularly dangerous mission during which he walked into an enemy bunker amid heavy fire to help extract an ODST team from certain death. After the bunker self-destructed, an ONI satellite watched the surviving ODSTs regroup and put up a feeble defense against insurmountable odds and Spartan Zack, whose armor had been shredded and whose transponder no longer worked, walk calmly to where a battle-damaged pelican was landing under fire to rescue them. The last view of the obviously injured Spartan is a reconnaissance drone's video feed showing him returning fire at a large group of the enemy and walking over a hillside toward an enemy machine gun nest, into a barrage of enemy fire and out of view of the camera. He was 59 years old.
