Gerald Keyes

Official art by Babisu Kourtis

Gerald Keyes was an American soldier working in Vulture Squad for Amadeus Jericho. He was the spotter for unit sniper Logan Stovall.

## History

### Early career

At some point in his early adulthood, Gerald became a member of the United States military, and befriended a shy man named Logan Stovall. Some time later, an irritated man man threatened Gerald, to which Logan responded by breaking the man's arm. After a negotiation to keep Logan from being discharged, Logan revealed to Gerald he suffered from schizophrenia, and cemented their friendship together. At some point, Captain Ryan Baker would recruit the duo into Vulture Squad for their sniping capabilities, where they would work to liberate Viet Cong POW camps.

### Arriving in Vulture Valley

After a routine assignment, Vulture Squad was called north to Amadeus Jericho's base. Once there, Jericho berated the team before giving them their assignment to find a missing platoon of Green Beret within Vulture Valley. As the squad was being shipped to the location, Gerald showed skepticism for their exact reasoning for Jericho and the Green Beret to be there over some concrete bunkers, but was eventually hushed by Ryan in order to keep the team's moral up. As the team was dropped off at the Beret's last known position, Gerald and Logan searched the area and found one of the men's backpack, including evidence of them heading towards a research station, beginning to trudge through the jungle to get there. The team quickly became unnerved by a lack of sound from any animal, breaking into a sprint in which Ryan accidentally got far ahead of the others, where a large predator attacked him, but was quickly driven off by the rest of Vulture Squad. The group moved towards a game trail, and set up camp in the clearing while Ryan and Leon Vernes did a perimeter check. Gerald would sleep for hours until he and the rest of the squad was woken up by Xavier Wise claiming to have seen a *Tyrannosaurus*, which they eventually catch up too spot it chasing and falling off a cliff with Ryan and Leon.

Gerald's half of the squad would move on in an attempt to reach the pair, ending up in an orchard serving as a mating grounds for a herd of *Stygimoloch*, and are forced to attempt to sneak past the animals until a pack of *Deinonychus* attacks, forcing Vulture Squad at first into the herd only to be left behind by it after having to save Eli Taylor when was knocked over and nearly trampled. The group ran, but the predators eventually caught up and began dragging squad members in different directions. Gerald killed two of the dromeosaurs before catching up with Logan, who had just killed one himself. As the squad was about to regroup, four more *Deinonychus* dragged Gerald away. Gerald killed two more of them before the rest ran away at the approach of a *Utahraptor*, which eviscerated and suffocated Gerald and hid as the rest of the squad and Russian scientist Andrei Wynn finally caught up. In a burst of strength, Gerald would stab the raptor in the chest, causing it to screech in pain and attempt to escape the rest of Vulture Squad, only for Logan to wrestle it and stab it in the eye as the rest of the squad began shooting it, finally forcing it to drop Gerald.

Gerald was then carried to Research Station 4 where Andrei had been living, where Xavier began doing what he could for the wound. In a brief moment of consciousness, Gerald noticed Logan was hearing the voices again and comforted him before falling unconscious again. The *Utahraptor* eventually returned with its hunting party, forcing Vulture Squad to abandon the building. The pack would follow the group, with the one that had attacked Gerald, now nicknamed the Cyclops, attempting to drag him away from Logan. Gerald screamed in pain as the two nearly tore him in half, and Logan was eventually forced to shoot Gerald in the head to keep the pack from eating him alive. Logan then let go of the body and allowed the *Utahraptors* to eat it in order to keep them from chasing the survivors.

## Personality

Gerald was a nice, charming young man. Gerald could easily befriend people, including the reclusive and shy Logan, whom Gerald cared about dearly. An understanding and patient individual, he had learned how to calm Logan down during his schizophrenic attacks and calm him enough to ignore them. Gerald was also quite the joker, being one of the few men who could rival Eli in his abilities to quip.

Gerald was one keen for details, being one of the first to notice and bring up how Vulture Squad's mission in Vulture Valley and the structures present made little sense.