dr. leonard church receives the unsc smart ai "alpha" for project freelancer, cloned from his own mind
the alpha spontaneously sheds a fragment ai known as beta, the personification of the alpha's cloned memories of allison church; beta is given the code name agent texas and cleared for active duty
agent washington receives the epsilon ai. the implant rejects violently as epsilon attempts to terminate itself inside wash's mind, crippling him with massive ptsd and mental trauma.
agent connecticut defects from project freelancer and is later killed by agents carolina and texas.
the mother of invention crashes on sidewinder after agent texas discovers her identity as ai fragment beta and leads an attack to free the alpha ai from captivity.
agent maine, acting as the meta under sigma's influence, steals iota and eta from carolina, then tosses her over a cliff.
malcolm hargrove is named chairman of the unsc oversight sub-committee
agent maine begins to hunt down the remaining project freelancer ai fragments
agent york fucks off from project freelancer, taking delta with him
the battle of meridian ends; meridian is glassed by the covenant.
AFTER BLOOD GULCH (A.B.G.) SPANNING 2552 TO 2557
2552OR0 A.B.G. — ALPHA'S ARRIVAL AT BLOOD GULCH
agent florida is reassigned to blood gulch outpost: alpha with orders to protect and guard the alpha ai. he later dies of an aspirin overdose, and alpha, now going by the name leonard l. church, assumes command of blue team and outpost a.
isaac ("Исаак" on his birth certificate) weston gates, b. 5/21/2525
born and raised in the inner colonies in the epsilon eridani system, on tribute, to tat'yana "tatiana" nikolaeva gates (née petrova) and james weston gates.
his father was killed during operation: trebuchet in casbah city after unsc marines failed to stop an insurrectionist bomb cell from crossing into the city, a mistake that cost 38 civilians their lives. his mother was evacuated during the covenant invasion of tribute in 2552.
never knew his father, obviously, but he was a huge mama's boy.
following the end of the great war, his mother received his tags in an unmarked envelope with no postmark date. he hasn't had direct contact with her since before the fall of reach, declared kia in 2552 alongside his force recon fireteam partner samuel ortez.
his mother receives regular monthly payments from an anonymous, untraceable source.
only child to the surprise of absolutely no one.
speaks fluent russian and english, quasi-fluent in spanish, and can understand a very limited amount of sangheili
MILITARY SERVICE 2543 to 2552
enlisted in the unsc marine corps near the tail-end of 2542, at seventeen. following combat training, he would be placed into the same squad as samuel ortez.
specialized in marksmanship, close quarters combat, and ground reconnaissance. his platoon served primarily in the inner colonies as the majority of the outer colonies had already been destroyed in the first half of the human-covenant war (see: the outer colony massacres).
recruited in 2548 into force recon, serving in the 5th force reconnaissance company stationed in camp bell, reach. he's placed into a four-man fireteam with specialist samuel ortez, serving as his team's scout and occasional marksman.
defended new alexandria from the covenant invasion in late august 2552, losing his fireteam leader and rifleman in the process.
went awol during the destruction of new alexandria with an injured ortez in tow.
declared kia by unicom in 2552 following the fall and subsequent glassing of reach.
MERCENARY WORK 2552 to 2557
EQUIPMENT
stolen freelancer tech, provided by malcolm hargrove
freelancer-issued power armor: ref. adds 3-4 inches to the wearer's height, 300+ pounds. construction similar to that of the spartans' mjolnir, minus the reactive metal crystal liquid sandwiched inside the padding and the force-multiplying circuits (presumably? since this is the reason spartans undergo biological augmentations before donning their first suit of mjolnir).
▹ TITANIUM HELMET w/ heads-up display and a neural interface that works with a neural implant. helmet features: (optional) ai housing, various breathing filters, thermal/motion sensors, comm link, solar-powered lighting, limited air supply for eva expeditions, imaging/video capabilities, voice amplification/modifier, biocomm scanner, other shit i'm probably forgetting. (ref) ▹ TITANIUM ALLOY OUTER SHELL and a RUBBER COMPOSITE UNDERSUIT (the black shit you see between a freelancer's/spartan's armor pieces). ▹ SKINSUIT/TECHSUIT, the innermost layer of the armor; links to a neural interface. ▹ HYDROSTATIC GEL layered somewhere between the skinsuit and undersuit, potentially built into one or the other but actual canon isn't clear on this; regulates suit temp and protects the body from high pressure impacts. ▹ MEMORY-PROCESSOR SUPERCONDUCTOR LAYER, between the outer shell and the armor padding; serves as ai support. ▹ the entire suit is powered by a small FUSION REACTOR, located on the upper back between the shoulder blades; built into the armor, regulated by a power supply that can be overloaded. ▹ overall suit features: pressure seal, lock-down system, magnetic holster strips, biofoam injector port, thruster pack, fail-safe detonation system, shields, reactive circuits, grav boots, other shit i'm probably forgetting. ▹ felix himself dons a MJOLNIR/S VARIANT helmet, a MJOLNIR/SOLDIER-CLASS chest piece, and MJOLNIR/VENATOR-CLASS pauldrons. ▹ neural interface ref, diagram ref.
PRE-ENLISTMENT / EARLY HISTORY2525 to 2542 ❝I was born on Tribute, little FYI.❞ ❝She's drunk again.❞
MARINE CORPS / FORCE RECON2542 to 2548 ❝Never met a mustang I couldn't outpace, motherfucker.❞ ❝High Command saved most of the really good shit for their precious ODSTs, and Force Recon licked up the scraps, then said their thank you, sirs for the peasant meal.❞ ❝His specific unit was primed and trained for covert engagement with the Covenant, not Insurrectionists and their guerilla warfare shit.❞
REACH / SIEGE OF NEW ALEXANDRIA2548 to 2552 ❝Look. Witness it: what you could have been, if you hadn't cut the survivor out of you.❞ ❝Not me. All my fucked up shit came after the war.❞ ❝Then the Jiralhanae blew through countless civvies and Marines alike on the first goddamn day.❞ ❝Lost my entire unit within a few hours when shit got really bad in New Alexandria.❞ ❝The Covies are scrubbing this whole goddamn place.❞
POST-WAR / MERCENARY STINT / CHORUS2552 to 2557 ❝Felix, Locus says. He has a voice that demands attention, silky-deep and warm. Gates, he tries again, and you think you're not supposed to hear this part. His name. You think you've crossed a forbidden threshold. You think they might kill you for this later. Isaac, look at me.❞
MENTAL / PSYCHE / LOCUS SPECIFIC ♤ ❝There's really nothing in you, is there?❞ ❝Yeah, I've got a thing with motherfuckers who think they can step up to me.❞ ❝Dude's fired as fuck. We're done. We've been done.❞ ❝With all the annoying irreverence of a man who's never followed a direct order in his life.❞ ❝That's fair. Most people don't like him, and the ones that think they like him only think they know him.❞ ♤ ❝Blood splatters his lashes, and he blinks. Not his. Ephemera's, coiled over him like a goddamn demon.❞ ❝Then you're no good to me, either. Fuck off.❞ ❝I came here to get fucked up, so fuck me up.❞ ❝Don't ever start shit you can't finish with me again.❞ ❝He was preoccupied. I was ambushed.❞ ♤ ❝You loved them.❞ ♤ ❝The bait. The lure. I'm a talker. I worked people over.❞ ♤ ❝You sensitive to the idea of being controlled?❞ ❝You're vastly underestimating the depth of my apathy.❞ ❝Miss your partner that much?❞ ♤ ❝He doesn't have friends. He has contacts and assets, favors and debts owed to be paid in full when and where he needs the additional manpower.❞ ♤ ❝Locus his partner. Locus his shadow. Locus his rifle scope fixed for a fucking headshot. They've moved in sync since the ugliest parts of the war, two halves of one viciously efficient whole.❞ ♤ ❝It's easier to flinch first.❞
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(wip) background notes.
background screencaps, mostly for my own ref.