Gloria Baker

## [Source]

**Gloria Baker** is a member of the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand. She is a specialist in IT operations and intelligence.

## Biography

### Early life

Gloria Baker was born in Mumbai, India as Gianni Batra. Her family was wealthy, and Gianni's parents had ties to the highest levels of British industry and politics. When she was a little girl, her parents moved Gianni and her siblings to London, England where her name was anglicised to "Gloria Baker." She learned the art of brewing tea in London, and showed remarkable talents in computer programming and mathematics at a young age.

Gloria's parents expected her to be a "proper lady" in order to find a suitable husband. Gloria had other ideas. As her computer skills grew, Gloria also trained herself in ten different forms of martial arts to keep her body sharp. At the age of fourteen, she hacked into NORAD and rewrote their launch codes. Gloria's actions brought her to the attention of MI5, and she was recruited to help strengthen their anti-hacking countermeasures. She would go on to develop skills in both IT Operations and Intelligence, and her work at MI5 attracted General Miles Manheim, marking her as a potential recruit for Project Spectrum.

### Project Spectrum

In 2015, Gloria was one of nine recruits selected for General Manheim's Project Spectrum, which was the formation of a black-ops unit specifically tasked with countering Cybertronian threats. After the initial briefing, Gloria was hit on by a fellow recruit, Sly Rax. She rebuffed his advances, and left him with a warning not to try it again.

During the training for Project Spectrum, two of the recruits, William Evans and Marcia Watkins were killed while testing the new prototype Masks and combat vehicles. After, in the mess hall, Gloria asked how Sly Rax and Bruno Sheppard could eat following the deaths of their comrades. Later, during training with the new Masks, Sly accidentally triggered his Stiletto Mask to fire while showing off in front of Gloria. Responding quickly, she caught the projectile in mid air and threw it back at him. Matt Trakker destroyed the projectile with his Spectrum Mask.

Along with Matt, Bruno, Julio Lopez, and Brad Turner, Gloria took part in a final test in the Canadian Rockies. Their objective was to work their way through a series of train cars to the locomotive without Masks of equipment. The train cars was partially made of aluminum, and covered in iron oxide. Bruno pointed out that all they needed was magnesium to create thermite. During the test, they came upon a car filled with people. At the same time, the train car started to ignite. With only seconds until it exploded, Gloria pulled Matt to safety as he tried to save the people. Gloria watched as Bruno disconnected the car just before it exploded.

With training complete, Gloria was commissioned as a member of Mobile Armored Strike Kommand. She was assigned to pilot Shark, and used the Aura Mask.

### Revolution

Transferred to G.I. Joe Headquarters on Governor's Island, Gloria and the rest of M.A.S.K. were deployed to Greece to capture the Cybertronian Transformers Kup and Aileron. After an initial skirmish, Kup transformed to robot mode, prompting Gloria to order M.A.S.K. to converge and concentrate their fire on him. Aileron managed to escape, but Kup was taken prisoner. During the battle, the Cybertronians had displayed the qualities of a sentient being, which unnerved Matt when it was clear that Kup was in pain. Gloria sympathized, but noted that they were fighting to protect the Earth.

Under Manheim's orders, M.A.S.K. assembled and attacked Autobot City in Monument Valley. As the assault began, Manheim revealed he was in league with an alien race known as the Dire Wraiths as the arrived to reinforce his attack. After initially getting past Victorion, the M.A.S.K. team found themselves arrayed against a united force of Cybertronians, Micronauts, Rom, and Snake Eyes. As Manheim revealed his true colors, the Dire Wraiths turned on him as well.

During the battle, another of Manheim's allies, the tyrant Baron Hraal Karza from Microspace emerged from a spacebridge. Using his ability to Enercharge, he melded with the Dire Wraiths to create a powerful hybrid. Optimus Prime managed to persuade Matt that they all shared a common enemy, and he led the M.A.S.K. team into battle against Karza. Their attack was bolstered by the arrival of G.I. Joe. As the combined forces enacted a plan to use a combination of the spacebridge and Ore-13 to defeat Karza, Gloria led the airborne element of the G.I. Joe force to safety. With the battle won, M.A.S.K. counted their losses. Sly, Vanessa, and Bruno were nowhere to be found, and Manheim had seemingly sacrificed himself in the battle against Karza.

### Post-Revolution

Following the Revolution Incident, Gloria became M.A.S.K.'s second-in-command. The remnants of M.A.S.K.—Matt, Gloria, Julio, and Brad—returned to Boulder Hill. Because of a series of high-profile attacks on military installations where the attackers drove advanced vehicles, local police and federal officials raided M.A.S.K.'s base. Forced on the run, M.A.S.K. evaluated the threat against them. Gloria stated she needed a stable base to decrypt the information from Mayhem's Mask, although she had already found a series of video files labelled "C. Trakker" that she presumed contained footage of Matt's father, Cornelius.

Gloria's work on decrypting Mayhem's files also discovered a list of installations previously used by Cornelius. The M.A.S.K. team traveled to one in the Everglades, when Gloria's computer skills allowed them to gain access. While in the Everglades, Julio intercepted a massive Ore-13 spike in Barbados, prompting M.A.S.K. to investigate. Using her skills, Gloria soon learned that a local tourist spot, Harrison's Cave had been closed to tourists and locals alike.

Approaching Harrison's Cave, M.A.S.K. was attacked by Miles Mayhem's Switchblade, forcing them underground to avoid the attack. Julio was injured in the initial attack, while Brad was hit by several Stiletto darts. Mayhem introduced M.A.S.K. to his new squad, V.E.N.O.M., then gave them orders to kill M.A.S.K. Dodging the initial attack, Gloria and the others were surprised to see that V.E.N.O.M. were their former teammates, Mayhem, Sly, Vanessa and Bruno. While Matt used his Spectrum Mask to create a distraction, the others escaped the cave. With Brad seriously hurt, Matt ordered Gloria to use Shark to get him back to the yacht the team were using as a base of operations. Julio was to cover them, while Matt took on Mayhem in Thunderhawk. Retreating towards the coast, Gloria was dogged by Sly riding Pirahna, then Bruno in a modified Rhino. Eventually reaching the coast, she took Shark into the water and engaged its underwater mode.

Back on the yacht, Gloria run multiple diagnostics on Matt's armor and vehicle after he reported that they all simultaneously refused his commands to fire on Mayhem when he had a target lock. Gloria's analysis showed that their was no evidence of a technological fault, and that Matt's combat paralysis could not be explained by a malfunction. After learning that the Ore-13 powering their equipment was slowly giving them radiation poisoning, Gloria finished decrypting the remaining video files on Mayhem's old mask. These files explicitly showed Mayhem murdering Matt's father, Cornelius.

## Personality and traits

Gloria Baker is a no-nonsense individual with confidence in her abilities. She is level-headed and pragmatic, remaining rational in a crisis and often pushes her teammates to do what must be done. Gloria can come across as aloof and distant, especially in regards to the non-virtual world. However, she is fiercely loyal to those closest to her. As M.A.S.K.'s second-in-command, her logical strategies serve as a balance to Matt's more reckless nature.

## Skills and abilities

Gloria is proficient in ten different martial art disciplines. Due to her training, she has above-average strength, dexterity, agility, and balance. Gloria's fighting skills make her a formidable opponent in one-to-one combat.

Like all members of the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand, Gloria has a limited technopathy granted when she bonded with her Mask. The technopathy allows her to control and interface with cybernetic technology, although the ability is limited to the Mask she bonded with and cannot be used on its own.

## Equipment

### Mask

Gloria uses Aura, which has the ability to wirelessly hack computer systems. She uses a combination of voice commands and eye movements to write system codes.

### Armor

Gloria's armor is predominantly blue and yellow with green highlights. She has technology built into the armor that allows her remote hack into electronic and computer systems.

### Vehicle

Gloria's primary vehicle is Shark, a Porsche sports car that converts into a submarine. In Porsche mode, Shark is armed with surface-to-air missiles and countermeasures. In submarine mode, Shark can employ cloaking stealth technology, and is armed with torpedoes and water mines.

## Appearances

* *M.A.S.K.: Revolution 1*
* *Revolution 2*
* *Revolution 4*
* *Revolution 5*
* *M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand 1*
* *M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand 2*
* *M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand 3*

## Notes and references

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Gloria Baker bio in *M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand Annual 1*
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 *M.A.S.K.: Revolution 1*
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 *M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand 1*
4. ↑ IDW Publishing promotional materials date the events of *Revolution* to 2016. The formation of Project Spectrum was a year prior to this.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 *Revolution 2*
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *Revolution 4*
7. ↑ *Revolution 5*
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand 2*