Rudyard Shelton

For the anti-matter copy that went by this name for a time, see Oscar Shelton.
For the artificial intelligence, see ROSS.
Dr. Rudyard Oscar Shelton was the former control room admin of Pelvanida Base, and later served as a spy for James' team within Dragonstorm. While in Dragonstorm, he assumed the alias "Roger Simpson", and his codename was Achates.
While in Pelvanida, he held a high administrative postition, though he's shown skills in mechanics, mathematics, research, and computing.
==Character Sheet==
His initial character sheet (posted by LettuceBacon&Tomato) was as follows:
Name: Dr. Rudyard "Rudy" SheltonAge: 40Species: HumanFaction: ScientistsSpecializations: Great understanding of physics, technology, and (to a limited extent) ufology. He often uses analogy and historical references in his dialogue.Powers/Cybernetic enhancement: nonePersonality: Marginally sarcastic, but usually doesn't talk unless he sees a reason to. Attempts to solve any problem with logic, almost to a fault. Has no intention whatsoever of risking his life for anyone or anything, thank you very much.Equipment: Other than standard lab equipment (and no weaponry), also carries a chargeable flashlight that doubles as a radio'.
This image show the flashlight in retracted form, and being opened into talkie mode. The crank doubles as a mouthpiece.
The character sheet had undergone minor changes since the beginning of the first RP. For the second RP, "ufology" was changed to "temporal mechanics", and his age changed from 40 to "now 41". In addition, a column for "Appearance" was added for the second RP: "Dark haired and brown eyed, on the taller side, now with an unkempt beard from his days in Austria. Wears contact lenses." The beard was shaved by Hans Donitz during the role-play.
For the third RP, a second faction was added, "Dragonstorm (undercover)"; and "Powers/Cybernetic enhancement" changed to "Has a 'thought chip' which allows him to communicate to others who have chips." Appearance was changed to: "Now with shoulder length hair and a goatee, to disguise his identity." During the roleplay, these aspects were lost when it became necessary for him to fake the death of his Dragonstorm counterpart.
==Character history==
===Before February 2009===
Shelton was born in Europe between March and July 1969, the son of decorated commander John Shelton and his wife. His middle name, Oscar, comes from his grandfather. (Ask the Characters) Shelton had a sister Nataly and, after his father’s death, a stepbrother he wasn’t a fan of. (Card of Ten, Disruptive Selection) Shelton spent much of his early years on his father's naval bases, and in third grade was best friends with Chance Leslie, who he cheated out of a bicycle in a reading contest. (Ask the Characters) 
Shelton went to multiple high schools, the last being at Wasdarrow in Georgia. (Byte Me) He briefly attended Wasdarrow State college before winning a Microsoft scholarship in 1988 and attending ETH Zürich with Bruce Tinner. While at Zürich, Shelton discovered code Tinner was writing for Dragonstorm, which forced Tinner to destroy the evidence. (Nietzsche's Soldiers 3) He also studied abroad in Santa Camila during his penultimate quarter. (Ask the Characters) After graduating, Shelton kept in touch with Tinner, who eventually alerted Shelton to a job opening for a control room admin at an American research facility called Pelvanida. Shelton applied for the position and was hired due to a lack of other applicants. (Ask the Characters) He traveled to the United States to begin his job sometime after 1990. (Pavlov's Checkmate, Byte Me)
At some point before the "Pelvanida Invasion", Dr. Shelton was part of a team sent into Dr. Tinner's virtual reality machine to test its potential for military training. Though his teammates Compton, Ridgeway, and Finney were incapacitated by malicious programming, Shelton was able to delete a memory-erasing subroutine and escape the machine unharmed. (Schrodinger's Prisoners) He later said the incident was his "first taste of popularity, or maybe infamy." (Survival of the Fittest)
Shelton replaced Dr. Denning-Rodger as control room admin. (Shelton on the Job) His assistant was Terrance. (Darwin's Soldiers, Ask the Characters)
===February 2009===
Dr. Shelton was stationed in the control room at the time of the terrorist invasion. After sending Security Team B in an unsuccessful attempt to aid Drs. James Zanasiu and Werner Donitz, Shelton assumed a position of technical aid, using the systems of the base to help aid James's rapidly expanding team. When the control room was attacked by a terrorist team, Dr. Shelton's technician was killed but Cobalt Squad arrived in time to rescue Shelton. Later, when Oli attacked Dr. Shelton, Werner killed Oli with his Berettas. Shelton was knocked out in the Dragonstorm assault by Kozlov, and upon regaining consciousness was held hostage by Murakami. After Kagetora killed Murakami, Shelton evacuated the control room with the others, helping Vic carry the wounded Werner in a stretcher.
Following this, the group split into two teams, one led by James, the other by Shelton. Shelton's team, consisting of Vic, Werner, Siberys, Dr. Joe, and later Cale, made their way to the roof, heading for auxiliary control. After a firefight on the roof, which Shelton did not partake in, the team reached the far end of Pelvanida, where they were ambushed by Ædelwulf and the Sublevel Guard. Shelton was the only one not incapacitated, instead being led to auxiliary control to give Carl Carstairs and his men access to the control room.
Shelton successfully alerted James to his predicament, and in the rescue mission saved himself and Lockdown by having Lockdown burn a hole in the wall for them to escape. Dr. Shelton later witnessed the climactic final battle, leading James to the Einstein-Rosen Bridge back-up power generator and disabling it, shutting the bridge down. Shelton then trekked to a guard station to radio the military to the situation. (Darwin's Soldiers (GOF RP))
Despite the heroic actions of himself and the rest of the team, Shelton and the surviving personnel were blacklisted and banned from ever holding any governmental jobs again. However, when James was given an opportunity to clear himself by leading a team through the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, Shelton was among those he selected to join him, as bridge operator. The attempt on February 28, 2009 appeared to be a failure, and Dr. Shelton was later deported to Austria. Dr. Keith Bailey took over as control room admin. (Card of Ten, Survival of the Fittest)
To read about the Rudyard Shelton that traveled through the bridge, see Oscar Shelton.
===Before July 2009===
At some point while in Austria, Shelton had his birthday, and turned 41. A photograph of him about to put his hand over a reporter's camera inside the blood-covered control room was on the cover of TIME Magazine, and the Wikipedia page on the 'Pelvanida Incident'. (Card of Ten) According to credit history later accessed by ROSS, Shelton spent the months in Austria barhopping and hitchhiking idly. (Byte Me)
===July 2009===
However, during the second invasion of Pelvanida, Shelton was contacted by General Jake Moby, and agreed to return to Pelvanida to lend assistance to James' team, who was currently attacking the base to eliminate Dragonstorm. Shelton was airlifted in by helicopter, and provide technical aid. The plan did not go well. The copter was shot down and crashed into the Pelvanida roof. The pilot died but Shelton survived to get captured by Delta Leader with her team. After being tortured for information, Shelton was left in a locked laboratory, where he escaped. Traveling towards Lab 101, Shelton met up with Dr. Yuri Kerzach, and the pair continued to Lab 101, after getting past a Dragonstorm experiment posted as a guard. Shelton and Kerzach downloaded the data from the lab computers into two flash drives, taking one each. After the experiment broke into the lab with Howard Hicks, Shelton reprogrammed an eagle experiment which he dubbed Ridley. Ridley rescued Shelton and Kerzach from the lab, flying up to the next floor, where they met up with Aisha, Alfred, James, Hans, Werner, and Dr. Landon. 
The group continued to the kitchens, and Shelton was recognized by Wayne Anthony, explaining to Shelton the existence of ADSA. He took the group to the ADSA headquarters in the kitchen meat locker and met up with Dr. Bradley and his assistant Riley. After a close encounter with Delta Team, the group reached the control room, where Shelton met Dr. Bailey, his replacement. When Hans, Werner, and Alfred wanted to head out as a team, Shelton and Kerzach volunteered to come along as hackers. They raided Dr. Raulson's lab and was soon after captured by Delta Team.
Shelton and Kerzach escaped from their cell by goading the guards and freeing the others. Upon learning of the ensuing departure of Lab 101, Shelton and Kerzach dressed as Dragonstorm workers (in Shelton's case, Dr. Eli Storke) and attempted to reach Lab 101. They were waylaid when Delta Leader recognized Shelton's scent and led him into an empty room, but Shelton killed her with a hidden pistol. He and Kerzach then reached Lab 101 in time for the departure. On board, Shelton locked the primary turret, preventing it from firing on James' team, and knocked out O'Neill. Shelton remotely reset the timer on the fusion bomb to give James enough time to disarm it, and later was knocked out by a discharge from a launcher. (Survival of the Fittest)
===Before September 2009===
Shelton traveled with Dragonstorm for some time, posing as Roger Simpson. During the mysterious blackout, Shelton, Kerzach, and Eddie McKay discovered that Dr. Tinner was planning to use his virtual reality machine to hide Dragonstorm from the outside world. The trio successfully destroyed the machine and stopped Tinner's plans. (Nietzsche's Soldiers)
At some point while undercover, he and Kerzach swapped vials of their blood to hold onto in case either died during their dangerous stint as spies. (The Disease)
At some point, Shelton was promoted to DS-1, Dragonstorm's primary reconnaissance team, as the team hacker. He went on numerous missions with DS-1, including the theft of the solar panel array from the Zzyzx Desert Studies Center and the investigation of SORA Gas & Electric in Alaska.
At SORA, Shelton traveled with DS-1 to investigate the fate of DS-4, who had gone missing. Like the rest of the team, he surrendered his micropistol at the door.
In Sir Beys' office, Shelton was attacked by autoturrets, and was among the teammates to escape the office. After that, he, Dolon, and temporarily Protesilaus set out in search of the security room. They were unable to find it, but learned from Kenneth Palin about how Sir Beys corrupted the facility. Dolon and Shelton barely survived an attack by Sir Beys, and Shelton had to bail out of a window into a nearby snowbank to escape.
After that, he was stuck outside in the cold for the remainder of the mission, even when Camilla came to rescue him. After the base was destroyed, Shelton and Camilla rescued the other teammates, who were trapped under the Thor's Iris.(Nietzsche's Soldiers 2) After that, he and Camilla traveled to the Culeston General Hospital to pick up medical supplies for the other teammates, who had all experienced injuries from the mission.
At some point, he won a Commendation for Special Services to the Order.
===September 2009===
On what would prove to be DS-1's final mission, the team set out to locate and destroy the group being led by James. After 48 hours of straight searching, they set up a trap for a van with James and a number of others in it, but in the ensuing firefight every member of DS-1 except Shelton was killed. Reconnecting with his old friends, Shelton gave them valuable information on Dragonstorm, Lab 101, and most importantly, provided thought chips for five members of James' team to join the Dragonstorm thought network.
While traveling with the team, Shelton served as Dr. Landon's assistant during the reattachment of Jayden's hand, formed a friendship with Shakila, served as a VIP during the Schutzhund competition, and posed as a Dragonstorm representative during the assault on Trinity Facility. During the assault, his friendship with Shakila grew into a relationship. After the destruction of the facility, Shelton witnessed Cale's departure from the team, and traveled with the team to the nearest hotel, where he and Shakila had sex that night.
In the morning, Werner revealed to Shelton that Shakila was seventeen, underage by the laws of Oregon. The two mutually agreed to end their relationship. While externally Shelton appeared to take the break-up well, he began smoking, and started working on the Lab 101 infiltration plan with undivided focus.
When the team traveled to the forest surrounding the Dragonstorm camp, Shelton was the leader of Team A. After shutting down the back-up generator, Team A moved on to obtain uniforms for the rest of their allies, but Shelton was recognized by Lester Montgomery and taken to Dr. Zenarchis' office to explain why he wasn't killed when the rest of DS-1 died.
Shelton managed to convince them he was still with Dragonstorm, and after his release he met up with Kerzach at the primary generator. After shutting it down, the two traveled to the parking lot and evacuated with the rest of the surviving Dragonstorm personnel.
After the copter assault on the convoy and Dr. Branston's capture, Shelton became the highest-ranking survivor in the convoy, together with Commander Ajax, and took command. Temporarily forgetting he wasn't actually with Dragonstorm and wanting to solve what Ajax called an "unsolvable puzzle", Shelton executed a plan for the convoy to escape the campground and led the convoy to the Idaho Prison Base. There, he met Trinity a second time and witnessed Hailey's new power. He was also promoted to commander of DS-2, when Ajax became the overseer for all DS teams.
After evacuating the Idaho Prison Base, Shelton became the new DS overseer with Ajax's death. He used this power to promote Kerzach to DS-2. He traveled with the team to New Peenemunde Harbor, where he unwillingly gave O'Neil the location of Gustave Chiumbo's family. During a long meeting where he negotiated with Drake about releasing his virtual reality machine code to Dragonstorm, he challenged Drake to make a virtual copy of himself, resulting in the creation of AI Shelton.
After the meeting, Shelton visited a kitchenette, where he was confronted by Achilles regarding his loyalty to Dragonstorm. Making use of a distraction by Kerzach, Shelton killed Achilles with a coffee pot and brewer. The two then drove his body out to the countryside to dispose of it. In a lonely fishing town, Shelton was contacted by ROSS, the virtual version of him from Drake's machine. After ROSS informed him that Shakila had been captured and was being held at Texas Base, Shelton and Kerzach stole a plane from New Peenemunde and flew to Texas. They had been delayed previously by Pestilence, who attempted to force them into sharing a plane, but Shelton filled their plane with chlorine gas to prevent his bugs from interfering.
Now at Texas Base, Shelton slipped away from Kerzach to rescue Shakila, who being tortured by Calchas in his laboratory. Shelton and Shakila worked together to defeat the physically imposing Calchas, then escape the base, meeting up with Slash, Agito, and Hawkeye outside.
After making sure Shakila was all right, he left her in Slash and Agito's care and set up scanners so that he'd catch James' team as they headed for Texas Base. After meeting up with the team, he explained the technological specs of the base, and what they'd need if they hoped to defeat it.
In Texas Base, the team split into two; Shelton led Mongoose soldier, Sgt. Larry Masters, Kiara, Ryu Kagetora, and Gustave Chiumbo into the maintenance floors with the goal of shutting down the thought chip relay. Gustave in particular served as a source of consternation for Shelton, since Shelton was responsible for the death of his family.
By chance, Shelton's team crossed through the floor where Famine was being held, and Famine used his psionic powers to fracture the team's morale and set the members against each other. Shelton started feeling a crippling sense of regret and a desire for penance, payback for the things he's done since working for Dragonstorm. This culminated in him revealing to Gustave his involvement in Gustave's family's death. Gustave chased him in a rage and Shelton trapped Gustave on the floor behind blast doors, the only things strong enough to hold the enraged crocodile. Shelton continued onto auxiliary control and shut down the relay, thoroughly shaken. When James' team regrouped and set out to fight Famine a second time, Shelton chose to remain in the control room and provide technical backup.
Shelton escaped the base with the surviving members of James' team onto the reprogrammed battleship A-2. The next morning Shelton, wearing his paint-veined suit from Schutzhund, filmed a video faking his death at Dr. Zanasiu's hand and transferred it to the final Dragonstorm base using the computers at New Peenemunde Harbor. While at the oil rig, Shelton went with Aimee, Nixx, and Zyanya and quickly received Mitchell Crota, Neville Ivers, Larry Masters, Aisha Tennes, Micah Landon and Alfred Byford as backup, since his job was currently top priority; reach the cargo bay and prepare it for the submarine to crash into it. Because of Trinity's interruption, Nixx and Zyanya attacked the group and permanently stopped them. However Shelton, who had fled the scene, encountered Pestilence, who wanted to kill him for spurning him at New Peenemunde.
Shelton was rescued by Crota and Gustave Chiumbo, though in the process he was knocked into the ocean and started drowning. Expecting his death, he used a syringe Nixx gave him to get a random power. However he was rescued through the combined efforts of Crota and Gustave. To his eternal disappointment, he soon learned that his new power was the ability to talk to plants. The three reached the cargo bay and completed the objective, beginning the destruction and sinking of the rig. The team raced to escape the rig and encountered Sharon Varma with the body of Keith Bailey. Shelton left the team at this point when he heard Kerzach was still in the rig, and minorly helped defeat Zenarchis by pushing him off a platform to where Kerzach was. He improvised a flare using Kerzach's switchblade and his radio-flashlight, causing both of them to be rescued by their teammates aboard the Dragonstorm A-2.
Shelton was offered hush money by Admiral Donald Tennes like all other surviving members of James' team. When offered 4 million dollars, he requested it be split into four parts, with a quarter each going to himself, his mother, his stepbrother, and his sister. He also expressed a desire to return to Europe. (Disruptive Selection)
===Before October 2009===
Once the media storm surrounding the entire Dragonstorm incident settled down, Shelton moved to Las Vegas and became a profit-maximizing consultant for casinos while waiting for his reward money to come through. He could not take up any sort of government or scientific job because the government blacklist from the terrorist incident was still in place.
===October 2009===
Shelton was James' fourth selection to join the team to rescue Hans, and agreed to do so over instant messaging. Traveling to Carson City camp, he met up with James, Werner, Aisha, and Cale; the other members of the team. With them, he searched the abandoned Red Dune Caves, and after discovering the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, and stayed behind with Aisha as back-up. He found the note telling him to set the bridge to a specific set of coordinates and grab more transportation. He and Aisha attempted to sneak back into Carson City Camp, but were discovered and brought a large legion of soldiers back to the bridge.
===December 1990===
Shelton then briefly traveled through the bridge to 1990. There he met the surviving members of the away team and helped bring the surviving members of Ricky's gang back to the present. Oscar Shelton, his anti-matter counterpart, also said he'd use his influence as the planet's leading expert in wormhole operations to rescind Rudyard Shelton's (and everyone else's) blacklists and let them work for him as assistants. (Pavlov's Checkmate)
===Epilogue===
Shelton, James, and Kerzach were eventually hired by the American government to help design the bridge network, and were given public credit for the deceased terrorist leader's inventions and breakthroughs. Shelton knew more about the bridge technology than anyone else, and Kerzach kept his notes even after Shelton grew dissatisfied with the project and abandoned it before its completion. All three men became famous for their work on the bridge network, but Shelton eschewed his fame and lived his final years away from the public eye. (Chasing Seconds)
Shelton died on September 22 2022 of a brain hemorrhage, one morning after his counterpart did. He lived in Glencoe, Scotland, "a hamlet the cyber-revolution passed over," and lived a peaceful life without work, company, or technology. He met his daughter the day of his death when she visited out of the blue. (Shelton's Last Day)
Several months after his death, the vial of blood he gave Kerzach during their Dragonstorm years became the primary clue alerting James and Werner that a mysterious illness was killing anyone who has jumped through an Einstein-Rosen bridge. (The Disease)
==Trivia==
*Shelton's first and middle names come from Rudyard Kipling and Oscar Wilde.
*Shelton is the third character to join James' team, and the fifth character introduced into the RP.
*Shelton is the only primary character killed off by his author. 
*Shelton's "limited understanding" of ufology has never impacted any of the stories or role-plays he's appeared in, nor has it ever been referenced outside his character sheet.
*Since LettuceBacon&Tomato missed the beginning of both the second and third RPs, Shelton is the only character who's had his character sheet posted for all three RPs.
*Of the main characters who appear in all three RPs, Shelton has the smallest number of kills, with only two. This does not count indirect kills; several times Shelton activated autoturrets against terrorists in the first RP, and indirectly caused the deaths of everyone in Gustave Chiumbo's family in the third.
*Shelton appears in more stories than any other character, with six. He is also the first recurring protagonist, starring in Schrodinger's Prisoners and Nietzsche's Soldiers. (Hailey became the second, starring in New Divide and Gamer.)
**Despite his frequent appearances across the canon, Darwin's Soldiers Drabbles is the only piece of fiction Shelton appears in that wasn't written by LettuceBacon&Tomato.
*Out of universe, Shelton was once the namesake for the trope Non-Action Snarker, before its current name.
*Shelton, a scientist, served as Landon's medical assistant during the reattachment of Shakila's foot. This makes him one of the few characters to serve as both an assistant and a scientist.
*While Shelton doesn't appear in The Disease, having died years before it takes place, a vial of his blood does appear, owned by Yuri Kerzach.
*Shelton's Erdös number is 7, and he is a member of MENSA. He was also the winner of an intra-Pelvanida chess competition. (Darwin's Soldiers)
*Dr. Keith Bailey, who first appeared in the non-canon Darwin's Soldiers (reboot), was modeled off of Dr. Shelton, and later became canon in Survival of the Fittest.
*Unbeknownst to Shelton, ROSS published an entire book containing everything the internet knew of Rudyard Shelton as of September 2009.
* An alternate version of Shelton appears in the non-canon short story The Approaching Light. In this timeline, he dropped out of ETH Zürich in his 20s to start a family while studying abroad in Spain.
==Appearances==
*Schrödinger's Prisoners
*Darwin's Soldiers (GOF RP) (first appearance)
*Card of Ten
*Survival of the Fittest
*Darwin's Soldiers Drabbles (non-canon)
*Nietzsche's Soldiers
*Ship of State (mentioned only)
*Nietzsche's Soldiers 2
*Nietzsche's Soldiers 3 (unnamed mention only)
*Disruptive Selection
*Alternate Epilogue (non-canon)
*Pavlov's Checkmate
*Shelton's Last Day
*Byte Me
*Chasing Seconds (mentioned only)
*the Disease (mentioned only)
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