Brandon Foster

Brandon Travis Foster was a mechanic born to a family on Mamore with strong anti-UEG sentiments, and joined the Insurrection when tensions between the colony and the UNSC began turning into armed conflict in late 2536. He was responsible for stealing the schematics to the prototype D77H-TCI Heavy Pelican and built one from the airframe of an older D77-TC Pelican captured by the rebels, nicknaming the vehicle Thunderclap. Serving as crew chief and copilot to rebel Jonathan Watts, the pair put their ship to good use, giving the Mamore rebels a leg up on the UNSC forces sent to restore order to the planet.
They became one of the subjects of insurgent propaganda to win over more recruits, something they had mixed feelings about, but agreed was necessary to help their cause. When deployed to Mamore, the Insurrection rapidly lost what it had so far managed to hold, and while fleeing the site of a rebel defeat were shot down by an , Foster dying in the crash. Watts would survive, eventually returning to Secundus, but Mamore's Insurrection of 2537 was soon ended by the continued operation of SPARTAN-IIIs.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Brandon’s parents met because of their mutual involvement in the Insurrection: his father had been part of Mamore’s underground resistance since the previous uprising, and his mother was a smuggler helping supply the rebels. Born in 2519, Brandon was raised in a place nicknamed Camp Lexington, a rebel base of operations hidden in a tungsten mine, the company only a front for the Insurrection. Before he was a year old, his father was captured by the UNSC while attempting to bomb a rival company refusing to support them, and his mother died two years later in a mid-air collision. The Insurrection’s leaders used the latter incident to give credence to rumors of the UEG’s carelessness organizing the colonies, despite that the smuggling vessel had intentionally been off of official channels. Brandon would be brought up by rebels in the compound that had been friends of his parents.
Foster, as he soon became known, was often seen helping around the base wherever he could, whether preparing meals or handing people their tools, though he was kept away from bomb shop work. Taking a stronger interest in mechanics than cooking, he learned how to fix and maintain a wide range of vehicles, including air and spacecraft. In 2535, he was assigned to an operational cell in New Lexington set up in an old garage, his skill as a mechanic making their disguise a working business.
===Beginning of Conflict (2536)===
As the war with the Covenant became more desperate, the UNSC reallocated more of its strength to combat them, drawing men from the regiments enforcing martial law on Mamore. Their weakened presence combined with more aggressive recruitment campaigns provoked the leaders of the planet’s resistance, deciding now was the time to revolt. In late 2536, targets were distributed to individual cells with the goal of inciting the public, most of which had already been made sympathetic to the idea of independence by the UNSC’s invasive supervision of the planet.
Foster’s cell, however, which was a little better armed than most, was given the location of an ONI safehouse to hit. Rather than simply attack, their leader had them stake the place out, and when the other cells carried out simultaneous attacks across the planet, snipers cut down several agents as they left the building to respond. Storming the safehouse, the rebels lost seven men to booby traps and ambush attacks before taking down the two agents remaining inside. Fortunately, their computers remained intact, and Foster was able to glean from their database the locations of several other ONI hideouts, along with a classified design schematic. Returned to Camp Lexington as open conflict began, Foster got to work deciphering and beginning work on the vehicle. Although he neglected to inform anyone and got in trouble at first for partially dismantling one of their few captured Pelicans, his project was soon approved and was given extra resources to complete it.
Fabricating the parts from scrap and assembling them took nearly a month, during which the URF brought in experienced rebel fighters to help Mamore’s revolutionaries. Among them was Jonathan Watts, a trained pilot from Eridanus Secundus assigned to fly Foster’s experimental Pelican. Both rebel brats, though First Lieutenant Watts came from a far more structured group, the two got along well, naming their prototypical D77H-TCI the Thunderclap. Outfitted as a gunship, with Foster acting as both crew chief and copilot for Watts, the dropship soon began taking part in regular raids in support of ground forces, even going up against UNSC air support and emerging victorious thanks to the Thunderclap’s advanced design and Watts’ skill as a pilot.
===Mamore Rebellion (2537)===
The vehicle was unique at the time, and because of its distinctive appearance gained recognition on both sides of the conflict. The UNSC declared Watts, Foster, and the Thunderclap high-profile targets, though one fighter pilot declared them “among the best fliers [he’d] ever seen” after failing to shoot them down in a fighter. The minds behind the rebellion painted them war heroes and featured them in propaganda material, although Foster had trouble with the idea that even the more experienced fighters he’d learned from would now look up to him. Watts, who felt he was finally stepping from his father’s shadow, was able to help him come to terms with his new role. Unfortunately, the success the Insurrectionists had because of hero figures like them would prompt ONI to send in a game-ender: .
SPARTAN-III commando teams began bringing down the Insurrection’s strongholds and supply depots across the planet within days, and they still weren’t fully aware of what was happening when Camp Lexington was targeted. Infiltrating the facility in armor, ’s began setting explosives to collapse the mine, but a general alarm was sounded when was discovered. Wolf Pack detonated some of their explosives, and the surviving rebels were forced to evacuate. Watts and Foster took off, but found themselves caught in the sights of UNSC regulars lying in wait on the surface. Watts refused to break and run, providing air cover to those fleeing on the ground. Their actions prevented many from potentially being killed or captured, but had to attempt retreat after hit them with an RPG.
Already crippled, even Watts couldn’t evade a Hornet that pursued them, and the Thunderclap was shot down inside the nearby city. Foster attempted to reach a damaged and exposed control circuit in an effort to restore power when they crashed, and was killed by the impact. Watts had still been secured and survived, evading the patrols sent to find him. The pilot later fled the planet as Alpha Company continued its campaign against Mamore’s insurrection, reducing it to scattered malcontents without the resources to harm anything.
==Personality and Traits==
Growing up in an Insurrectionist hideout, Foster was incredibly biased against the UNSC, and knew very little of the other colonies or the fight they were losing to the Covenant. He saw only the organization responsible for the deaths of his parents hindering Mamore with policies decided millions of light-years away by people with no idea how a colony worked in practice. Though he could be small-minded, he had a vast knowledge of mechanical systems and plenty of experience working with them. Being raised among rebel soldiers made Foster obnoxious and crude, which often put him at odds with Watts’ sense of honorable conduct, but recognized his own faults enough to become insecure when others began looking to him for heroism. Watts helped him see that he needed to at least act the part for others’ sakes, and afterwards was much more comfortable with his position.
Category:Ahalosniper
Category:Lancerverse
Category:Humans
Category:Insurrection
Category:Lancerverse Characters