Dynasty

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The Dynasty was a Condottieri-class transport freighter that was stolen shortly after its construction and heavily repurposed over the years to serve as a mobile base and getaway ship for Insurrectionists. It saw action in several major events in the years following the Human-Covenant War, most notably the NOVA incident of 2555, after which it was pursued by the UNSC across a number of systems before dropping off the radar. The ship would eventually resurface the following year under the command of Amanda Wade. While not as feared or respected as some ships that traversed the frontier of colonized space, the Dynasty was a notorious vessel known for bringing trouble wherever it seemed to go.
However, the ship's infamy began to catch up with it as both outlaws and authority groups alike began to hunt the freighter and its crew across colonised space. With a severely depleted crew after the fallout from the Fall of Avalon, the Dynasty was eventually shot down during a dangerous mission to in 2557. While several members of the freighter's crew survived, the ship's wreck was abandoned in the planet's glasslands. 
==History==
===Creation and Theft===
The Dynasty was one of half a dozen freighters created on after a big drive to reignite the colony world's industry following decades of civil unrest. Designed as transport ships for the dual purposes of ferrying supplies and people in the event of a Covenant attack, the ships were made to be tougher than the average human supply runner, with Titanium-A battleplate and even two military-grade cannons for some protection against enemy starfighters. The Dynasty was the first of these ships to be completed early in the summer of 2552. 
During this period, a violent uprising had broken out on the planet as the infamous Insurrectionist Colonel Carlos Driscol led violent attacks against a number of settlements, breaking the fragile peace between the UNSC and the colonists. While Driscol's forces were utterly crushed by a massive strike in a single day after several weeks of unopposed raiding, a few of his followers survived and escaped to the province, which contained a number of shipyards. Desperate and pursued by local UNSC forces, the rebels quickly stormed onto the Dynasty mere days before its first flight and hijacked the ship. Before they could be stopped, the rebels took off and fled Mamore and made a slipspace jump out of the system.
===Rebel Service===
The stolen ship ended up in the Caucasus Station, an independent human settlement located far away from both the UNSC and the Covenant. Most of the surviving rebels left the ship as soon as possible, though a few remained on board, seeing the Dynasty as a newly-acquired prize. An argument soon broke out among the leaders; some wanted to sell the Freighter for a small fortune, others wanted to use it to assist in space piracy against UNSC transport ships. In the end, a fight broke out that left half a dozen dead and only one survivor: Remi Marshall. He had been one of Driscol's staunchest supporters back on Mamore, and used what money and equipment they had left to help refit the ship and hire a fairly competent crew. The Dynasty remained on the Caucasus Station for the remainder of the Human-Covenant War, Remi slowly building up a reputation as a trustworthy Captain among the people there. Two months after the War ended, the Dynasty was sent out on it's first smuggling run, carrying several crates of stolen UNSC weaponry to the former colony world of . It was there that Marshall met Alexander Redford and Faisal Khan, a doctor and a pilot respectively. The pair shared his Insurrectionist sympathies and ended up joining the Dynasty's crew as they began setting up contacts on the rebel-controlled world in order to make some money. 
The Dynasty began work as a smuggling ship, delivering shipments of weapons and supplies to far-off rebel outposts. The crew slowly grew as a result, and a semi-permanent base was set up on the colony world of by mid-2554. During this period they came into contact with Rizhan Kama, a member of an influential family that owned one of the largest shipping companies in the UNSC. Through this they were able to transport more supplies secretly, and Marshall earned enough money to heavily upgrade the Dynasty's weapon systems and engines in case of pursuit. However, after a SPARTAN-III team arrested Kama and stormed their hideout in the city of Kuiper, the surviving crew of the Dynasty, along with new recruit Amanda Wade, were forced to flee the planet, barely escaping the UNSC's patrol ships before leaving the system.
The ship would not return to the Inner Colonies for a couple of months, and spent a great deal of time running shipments for pirates and mercenaries to earn some money. It was not until December that Marshall's crew would earn their big break when they were invited to a meeting of various rebels, criminals and mercenaries on the Caucasus Station. Also present were the Venezian leaders Mal Roberts and Jonathan Ulan, though the meeting itself was called by John Verensky an Insurrectionist sympathiser working for the Office of Naval Intelligence. It was revealed that he was an agent of Magnus a figure of legend in the criminal underworld who appeared at the meeting and laid out an extensive plan that would supposedly bring about the fall of the UNSC within a few years. After being paid handsomely, the freighter's crew would turn to more violent methods, going from simple smugglers to instigating terrorist attacks and raids in UNSC-controlled colonies, meaning to destabilise the governments there. In early 2555 the Dynasty was disguised as a simple supply ship for the most daring raid yet; a mass breakout at Fenwell Prison, a deep-space installation designed to hold dangerous criminals. It was here that the crew rescued Isabelle Marshall, Remi's sister, and Carlos Driscol, the former URF Colonel whose troops had originally stolen the Dynasty. Isabelle and Mike were dropped off at a safehouse shortly afterwards while the rest of the crew returned to taking orders from Verensky. While it was this attack that made the Dynasty known as a rebel ship, their next operation would be the cause of the freighter's infamy.
===NOVA Incident===
On September 14th, the Dynasty was among several rebel ships to enter the , using stolen codes to bypass various scanning devices as it entered Earth's orbit. That day, dozens of Insurrectionist fighters would launch a two-pronged attack aimed at both a Human-Sangheili summit in New York and on ONI's heavily-defended Pillar Base at Mount Everest. As passcodes provided by John Verensky allowed for it to evade detection from UNSC ships at first as numerous vessels scrambled to cut off the fleeing rebels, the Dynasty was able to quickly rendezvous with the crew and their cargo: a . It was during this time that Alexander Redford revealed his true nature as an undercover ONI agent and foiled the New York attack, which got Ulan killed.
While Remi and the rest of the crew had escaped unscathed, the Dynasty was utterly surrounded and outgunned in the middle of hostile space. Facing down the full might of the UNSC's Home Fleet, Verensky threatened to detonate the device if all enemy ships did not stand down and allow them to jump to Slipspace peacefully. Following a tense standoff, the UNSC were forced to let them leave rather than risk the potential destruction of Earth itself. Following this incident, the Dynasty was soon at the top of every watch list in human space, its distinctive shape broadcast across the colonies as a lengthy pursuit began. While Verensky took the NOVA elsewhere after they arrived at a safehouse, the ship would be heavily modified at this point on Remi Marshall's orders to help disguise it from its pursuers. 
Almost three months were spent in hiding before they returned to the Caucasus Station for an emergency meeting of Insurrectionist leaders, following a series of senselessly brutal terrorist attacks by Verensky's men that had accidentally led the UNSC right to them. As the meeting took place, the leaders were attacked by Magnus, leading to Remi's death. The following assault on the Caucasus Station took the lives of most of the crew, with the Dynasty barely escaping into Slipspace. With Amanda Wade and Faisal Khan as the only survivors aside from Driscol, who had deserted them immediately, they decided to kill Verensky himself for his crimes. Two days later, Amanda was dropped off on New Albion by Faisal and managed to not only succeed in her mission, but almost killed Alexander Redford during the battle. As the UNSC secured the NOVA bomb, Amanda took up her role as the Dynasty's new captain and officially retired it from Insurrectionist service, wishing to do some good on the frontier instead.
===Avalon===
The ship's first port of call was the abandoned colony world of and the safehouse where Mike Goldberg and Isabelle Marshall were running a storage facility for their rebel allies. After weeks were spent travelling between several other mostly-deserted outposts, Amanda Wade and her compatriots agreed that they would turn their tiny outpost into a genuinely independent settlement - Avalon. After several upgrades to its cargo hold, the Dynasty was mostly used to haul heavy machinery and equipment from black market dealers to Emerald Cove as the foundations were established. With Wade bringing in new contacts and adding to the crew with every passing month, it soon became a flagship of sorts for a small fleet of transport ships and outdated cargo haulers that spread across the Outer Colonies, slowly making the dream of Avalon into a reality. 
Among the new additions to the Dynasty's crew - and Amanda Wade's inner circle - were Carol DuMont and Rizhan Kama, who acted as the chief engineer and security officer respectively as the ship was customised further. By this point, the freighter had undergone so many refits and upgrades that it scarcely resembled the ship that had been stolen from a Mamorian drydock years before, and what it lacked in serious firepower it more than made up for in speed and manoeuvrability in the hands of a skilled pilot like Khan. Eager to continue the search for Magnus, Wade had the crew pursue a lead on a man named Ash Mitchell. While he was hated across human space after a massacre that took place in Kuiper that left numerous innocents dead, Wade had learned of his connections with Magnus and sought to find him. After hearing of his capture on Mamore, the Dynasty travelled to the war-torn planet and spent several days searching for Mitchell before discovering that he had been captured by a large Insurrectionist group known as the .
After dropping off a raiding party, the ship would provide covering fire as Wade's attack force launched an all-out assault on a remote prison camp in their attempt to find Mitchell. Caught off-guard, the NCA suffered heavy losses, though most of its leadership were able to escape Mamore in transports while the Dynasty's crew extracted their target. En-route to Emerald Cove, an injured Mitchell briefly attempted to hijack the ship, though he was quickly subdued by Winston Zhou and calmed down after a discussion with Wade. After recruiting the fugitive mercenary, the crew stopped off briefly at their home settlement of Avalon before heading out once more on a mission to to kidnap an associate of Magnus named Hadvir Erikkson. Using false docking codes, they were able to land on the populated colony world and successfully kidnapped the businessman. 
Following leads obtained from Erikkson's interrogation, the Dynasty then headed to the Inner Colony world of Cascade, where they attempted to secure yet another business partner of Magnus named Anatoly Kustentov. However, after their team was attacked both by local militia members and two of ONI's BRUTUS operatives they were forced to retreat, though they were able to discover the location of their foe's hidden base. Upon its return to Avalon, Dynasty was then refitted for an upcoming mission to Sargasso, with improvements made to its point-defence guns and outer hull armour before making a brief trip away from the planet to rescue survivors from a badly-damaged merchant vessel that arrived in-system. Following the mission's success, Wade would bring as many members of Avalon's militia aboard the freighter as they left Emerald Cove on yet another dangerous mission, this time to go after Magnus himself.
Joining a small flotilla of retrofitted civilian ships under Wade's command, the Dynasty would lead an attack on a remote United Rebel Front outpost near Sargasso's north pole. Crashing a meeting between the URF and another rebel group, the New Colonial Alliance, they soon found themselves engaged in a heated battle as Avalon's militia stormed the base. Raining down fire from above, the Dynasty departed from the base after offloading all of its personnel to perform several risky strafing runs as the surviving URF members tried to get their anti-aircraft defences online. Not long after the fighting began, the ship detected a small but powerful UNSC battlegroup entering the system and was forced to disengage for a while, dropping fake beacons to lure them away from the planet's northern hemisphere for a brief period. Though it could not hope to compete with these ships in open combat, the Dynasty's speed and maneuverability allowed it to evade pursuit until Wade and an injured Ash Mitchell called for an emergency evacuation. After picking up the remnants of the militia and its leaders, the ship was able to escape Sargasso and make the jump to slipspace before their escape route was cut off.
Arriving back at Emerald Cove shortly after, the crew discovered that Avalon had been attacked in their absence by a strike force on the orders of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Avoiding fire from a military frigate, Khan landed the Dynasty on Wade's orders while she and most of her men attempted to rescue as many citizens as they could. The ship was soon attacked by several fighters, prompting another hasty retreat while the skeleton crew aboard fended off the fast-attack aircraft. Losing their pursuers only after a desperate climb into the stratosphere that forced the atmospheric fighters to disengage, the Dynasty was soon forced to return to Avalon, destroying two more fighters as UNSC ships began to bomb what remained of the independent settlement. After rescuing Wade and the handful of people who made it through the massacre, the ship departed Emerald Cove, its crew abandoning their home as it burned behind them.
Following the Fall of Avalon, the Dynasty was once again one of the single most wanted ships in colonised space. While Wade was able to procure fake ID transponders for the vessel and the exterior received some superficial work to disguise its outward appearance, bounty hunters would soon begin looking for the notorious freighter. The crew soon docked the Dynasty on Herschel, where they were able to upload security footage of the massacre across both ChatterNet and Waypoint services faster than it could be removed as a way of striking back against ONI for Avalon's destruction. In the months that followed, most of the former militia members and Wade's crew would leave for good, and by early 2557 only Wade and four loyal companions remained to keep the ship operational.
 
===Ciudad de Huesos Incident===
After months of increasingly violent raids on everything between remote supply depots and populated colony worlds, the Dynasty found itself seriously pursued by the authorities for the first time since its involvement in the NOVA incident. Though its crew of five did everything to maintain the vessel, infrequent refits and constant involvement in dangerous situations began to take its toll. With the ultimate objective of eliminating Magnus, Amanda and the others grew desperate in their search for weapons to use against the United Rebel Front. In March of 2557, the Dynasty would launch a surprise attack against a large group of after posing as a derelict amidst the debris field over . After taking the salvagers by surprise, the crew attempted to force their leader into giving up the location of a hidden rebel settlement, only for the hold-up to turn into a bloodbath. After extracting the information from the salvage ship's computers, the Dynasty headed to Madrigal, a once-populous colony world that had been glassed by the Covenant decades before. 
Using codes taken from the Fetcher ship, the Dynasty gained access to Ciudad de Huesos, a remote but thriving independent settlement not unlike Avalon sheltered beneath a cloaking device of Covenant origin. Though they posed as simple traders, the crew were immediately taken into custody by a force of soldiers working for the and the freighter was put under guard. Wade and the others were briefly imprisoned by Carlos Driscol, who had recognised their ship at once and intended to collect the significant bounties on their heads. However, a sudden attack on the city by survivors of a recently-arrived UNSC ship and the timely intervention of Winston Zhou allowed for their escape. As Ciudad de Huesos descended into chaos, the crew reclaimed their ship and allowed the city's attackers - a group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers - to join them as they fought their way out and into Madrigal's glasslands.
Seeking out a remote bunker that had been excavated by the NCA, the Dynasty landed close to the site while Wade and her comrades went inside to secure a cache of nuclear weapons that had been left there decades before. However, a large NCA force led by Driscol himself was soon detected, forcing the freighter to retreat and circle the area to provide air support. Rizhan Kama was able to use the ship's cannons to blast several rebel Pelicans out of the sky while Faisal Khan's piloting skills kept them away from hostile anti-aircraft guns, massively hindering the NCA's effectiveness and giving Amanda and the others enough time to leave the bunker with their precious cargo. As the ship came in to land, it was suddenly struck through the midsection by an fired from low orbit by Driscol's personal Yacht, Quisling. Though both the pilot and gunner survived the crash, the freighter was utterly gutted by the blast, leaving its crew momentarily stranded on Madrigal.
===Legacy===
Though the Dynasty was only active for a little under five years, the freighter had become something of a legend on the frontier for its exploits, both good and bad. The wreckage of the ship itself lay abandoned in Madrigal's glasslands following the battle, with only Amanda Wade and Ash Mitchell escaping the planet alive. The Office of Naval Intelligence would document the ship's destruction, though due to its most famous escapade of facing down the Home Fleet during the NOVA Incident they did not allow this information to be made public for fear of it becoming a shrine for Insurrectionists. 
Though many remembered the Dynasty as a ship to be feared, especially after its final months of violent raiding along the frontier, there were those who recalled both the ship and its crew as a welcome sight, especially those few who survived Avalon's fall. Those few who were lucky enough to have served among the Dynasty's crew would remark on its homely nature and welcoming atmosphere that persisted in spite of the ship's infamy. As someone with no homeworld to speak of, Amanda Wade considered the Dynasty to be her true home and was devastated by its loss. As a sign of respect towards her old ship, she refused to name any of her future vessels after the Dynasty.
==Ship Layout==
===Upper Deck===
A large portion of the ship's prow is taken up by its bridge, a spacious room with stations to accommodate its captain and eight others. In keeping with the Condottieri theme of being a combat-capable freighter, the bridge is heavily armoured, with a fairly slim forward viewport to reduce the danger of a direct hit wiping out those inside. The captain's chair also features an inbuilt command panel with options to seal off the bridge from the rest of the ship, open the rear cargo doors, and even detach the bridge itself if necessary, turning it into a lifeboat. As such, the bridge possesses its own oxygen and waste recycling systems and is expected to carry at least three months' worth of supplies should the crew be forced to break off from the main body of the ship.
To the rear of the bridge is a central corridor that runs from bow to stern, with doorways providing access to other rooms on the upper deck. As with many merchant ships there is little space for personalisation, with eight bunk beds embedded into the floor. Under Remi Marshall and Amanda Wade many more beds were added to the room and curtains attached to grant crew members some degree of privacy, giving the room a maximum capacity of twenty-six. With portable hammocks and sleeping bags brought aboard by temporary crew members, however, the Dynasty could accommodate around forty people without significant issues.
As the ship often ferried its passengers into dangerous environments, one of its original recreation rooms was converted into medical bay, well-stocked with everything from to surgical equipment. A single was also briefly installed aboard the ship during its stint as an Insurrectionist craft for emergencies, though under Amanda Wade's captaincy it was removed to make room for two more sickbeds.
 
===Lower Deck===
The Dynasty's lower deck is comprised of two sections, housing the ship's engine room and cargo bay. The former area is a cramped space, containing the freighter's small but powerful fusion reactor and its . As part of the rugged design features of Condottieri-class that are meant to ensure survival for long periods away from civilisation if necessary, both devices are heavily armoured and require infrequent maintenance to function. Even so, the Dynasty's crew ensured that it was well-maintained and even made minor adjustments to the fusion reactor's output to increase their vessel's speed. The ship's artificial gravity is also maintained by this reactor, using an efficient design to ensure minimal power consumption while in use.
Situated at the very rear of the ship, the Dynasty's cargo bay acts as the freighter's primary boarding point. A spacious area, it was originally designed to hold nearly eighty tonnes of cargo for interplanetary deliveries, though its maximum weight limit was never tested during the ship's operational period. During its usage by the Insurrection and Amanda Wade's crew, the cargo bay mostly contained supplies for the crew itself and several light vehicles for transport, though its most infamous piece of cargo would be the stolen from Earth in a 2555. In the ship's final turbulent year, the cargo bay would be packed with weaponry to fuel Wade's rampage against the United Rebel Front, even carrying a pair of exoskeletons for a time.
==Defensive Systems==
Like all ships in the limited Condottieri-class of freighters, the Dynasty was constructed with defence in mind and possessed a pair of 30mm autocannons, placed beneath the bow and atop the middle of the ship respectively. Designed to deter light craft and starfighters owned by pirate factions that occasionally preyed on trade routes, they could be operated manually from the bridge or set to fire on targets autonomously if necessary. Though such armament was rarely seen aboard merchant freighters at the time, the Dynasty's weaponry was deemed insufficient for the dangerous missions it would carry out after its theft by rebel soldiers under the command of Remi Marshall. As such, the ship would have a number of new weapons grafted onto it by independent engineers on Venezia and the Caucasus Station. 
The most prominent addition to the Dynasty's arsenal was that of a single 50mm point defence gun. Usually only seen aboard military-grade warships, this weapon was integrated into the ship during a lengthy refit and patched into its systems to serve as its new primary defence system. Usually fired manually by the ship's gunner if available, it would give the Insurrectionist freighter a massive edge in numerous skirmishes on the frontier against rival groups. Though maintenance costs and ammunition replenishment were a constant drain on funds, it was considered a worthy investment by the crew and acted as a deterrent against attack in more than one confrontation.
Under the captaincy of Amanda Wade, ten 70mm autocannons were installed in yet another refit, placed to cover the ship's blind spots while improving its overall firepower. Unlike the Dynasty's other weapon systems, these cannons could only operate automatically and provided a 360-degree area of fire against hostile craft. However, this new addition proved to be a huge drain on the ship's power when activated, meaning that only a few of these cannons were ever consistently active. The ship's full array of cannons were only brought to bear in the most dire of circumstances, making the former transport freighter especially deadly when cornered.
==Known Crew==
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Remi Marshall =
The Dynasty's first captain, Remi Marshall was an Insurrectionist fighter who helped lead the rebels who stole the newly-constructed vessel from its dock on Mamore and emerged as the sole survivor of the fight over the freighter's ownership. A firm advocate of pushing for colonial independence at any cost, Remi carefully cultivated a crew out of supposed idealists who would remain loyal to his cause, and pushed for unity with the various rebel factions dotted around the colonies.
In spite of his optimism, he would eventually drag his crew into a series of dangerous assignments that culminated in the infamous NOVA incident, bringing the Dynasty to infamy in its daring raid on Earth. Though he would attempt to distance himself from the makeshift alliance of rebel factions after this, Remi was eventually murdered by Magnus during a meeting of faction leaders aboard the Caucasus Station. Following his death, he would be falsely branded as the orchestrator of the incident and went down in history as little more than a crazed terrorist.
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Amanda Wade = 
The Dynasty's second and final captain, Amanda Wade started her life aboard the Dynasty as a fresh recruit for the Insurrectionist cause, having been dishonourably discharged from the military for attacking a superior. Her fiery nature and combat training soon made her a valued member of the crew, leading the charge on several dangerous missions. As the short-lived alliance of rebel cells collapsed and Remi Marshall was killed following the NOVA incident, Amanda took charge of the Dynasty and helped to rebuild its depleted crew, though she forsook her allegiance to the Insurrection in favour of striking independently. She would help to oversee the creation of the independent settlement of Avalon on , using the Dynasty to smuggle or steal supplies to fund its creation while attempting to hunt down Remi's murderer, Magnus.
Eventually, Amanda's desire for revenge would leave Avalon defenceless as the Office of Naval Intelligence conducted an attack on the settlement after she drew most of its forces away to Sargasso, returning to save only a few survivors before fleeing to the frontier. These losses only incensed Amanda, who led the Dynasty's slowly dwindling crew into a series of dangerous operations just as Remi had done before her. While on a mission to Madrigal in 2557, Amanda's insistence on recovering a stash of hidden nuclear weapons and fighting against a small army led by Carlos Driscol would lead to the Dynasty being destroyed before her very eyes.
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Faisal Khan = 
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Mike Goldberg = 
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Isabelle Marshall = 
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Rizhan Kama =
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Carol DuMont =
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Ash Mitchell =
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Alexander Redford = 
Initially thought to be a lone wolf rebel on the run from the authorities, Alexander Redford was picked up by Remi Marshall in late 2553. He soon proved to be an invaluable asset to the Dynasty, with his background as a medical professional coming in handy for patching up members of the crew. Though not as openly passionate about his support of the Insurrection as many others, Redford was trusted for both his skills and a seemingly genuine rap sheet with the authorities across the Inner Colonies. Following the attack on their cell's safe house on Circumstance by members of Shrike Team in 2554, he would perform an emergency operation that saved Mike Goldberg's life and helped the newest member of the crew, Amanda Wade, settle into her new life as a rebel.
However, Redford's belief in the rebel cause would turn out to be a complete lie. During the NOVA incident of 2555, he was among a rebel strike force that launched an assault on a joint UNSC-Swords of Sanghelios summit on Earth. Joined by traitorous members of the Army's Project HAYABUSA, the rebels may have succeeded were it not for Redford suddenly betraying his comrades and killing numerous fighters, revealing his true allegiance as a high-ranking member of the Office of Naval Intelligence's BRUTUS division who had infiltrated and destroyed numerous groups over the course of his career. His treachery was reported to the Dynasty's shocked crew by survivors of the attack, though he would later resurface and attempt to converse with Wade during her attack on New Albion. Taken by surprise, he was immobilised and forced to sever his own hand to escape, later swearing revenge on her and the ship's crew.
Returning to ONI, Redford would encounter his former crew the following year, beating them to the punch in their attempts to capture Anatoly Kustentov. He would later engage in an inconclusive fight with Ash Mitchell as several factions raided the United Rebel Front's base on Sargasso, and upon his promotion to the head of BRUTUS helped to mastermind the operation on Madrigal that culminated in the Dynasty's destruction, though the capture of Wade remained his top priority.
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==List of Appearances==
*Halo: Shrike (2554-2555)
*Halo: Sanctuary (2556)
*Halo: Salvation (2557)
==References==
Category:Sigmaverse
Category:Sigmaverse PW
Category:Insurrectionist ships
Category:Freighters