Ashley Gates

*"Sometimes I just wanna fucking kill them. And by sometimes, I mean all the time."*

-- Frostbyte speaking to Hellhound about her parents

**Ashley Gates**, more well-known as **Frostbyte**, is a Cerberus Special Operations operator who commonly works alongside Special Operator Hellhound. Known for her short temper and all white exoskeleton, she serves as his love interest, and knows most if not all of his origins. Maxwell, being so close to her, also serves as a sure fire way to keep her calm whenever she gets feisty.

## Biography

### Childhood

Ashley Gates had a rough childhood for two big reasons -- her parents, and her birthday. Her birthday being the smaller reason, earning her ridicule in middle school and a little bit of high school. The other reason -- the bigger reason -- were her abusive parents, both of which were physically and mentally abusive, calling her, "(a) useless waste of space daughter (they) didn't want." When she had begun eighth grade, she ran away from home, and went to school in Boulder until 18 years of age, living with a high school teacher.

### Military Service

Ashley had served in the United States Army for around one year. From the age of 18 to 19. She was an ordinary rifleman, serving in mostly the Middle East, and eastern Europe as part of a mechanized infantry division. After one year of service, she was dishonorably discharged from the United States military for getting into an argument with a commanding officer. This had upset her greatly, and caused her to run off and join Cerberus Contracting rather than be sent back home to her parents.

### Cerberus and Present Day

While on her way back to Colorado via military transport, she had left while the plane was refueling in Seattle, Washington to go to the Cerberus headquarters so she could sign up. Upon joining the organization she rather quickly earned her reputation and trained rather fast due to her previous experience with the US Army. Once Ashley completed her training, she was deployed to Vault Meridia as a member of the Aviation and Engineering division, due to her experience as an a member of a mechanized infantry division in the army. During her second deployment to the middle east, her first being with US, she had been a part of many contracts, showing her abilities and thus earning a promotion from Agent to Patriot. Following her promotion to Patriot, she continued to work as hard as she was before her promotion if not harder on every contract she was assigned to.

Ashley having proved herself to the higher ups and garnered a good a bit of experience she was given a promotion and brought into the CSO, or Cerberus Special Operations. She continued to work and earned herself the nickname “Frostbyte” because her glare and her heart are as cold as ice. She strayed away from people or making friends for a while. Once Hellhound came out of nowhere and joined the special ops group, she instantly tried, and successfully got close to him. The two of them got close and started a relationship, and that was the only person that Ashley ever wasn’t a cold hearted bitch to. After they’d been together for quite awhile, Ashley was sent on a solo op and got subsequently got caught and arrested. After being in prison and moved around for a couple weeks until she ended up at a HADES outpost in the Ukraine where she was then rescued by Hellhound and other Operators.

## Personality

Ashley never was 'normal' in most of the world's standards. Due to the treatment she received from her parents, she developed trust issues, and had problems socially early in life. As those problems persisted along with being abused by her parents, this caused her to develop Bipolar Depression. Along with all those, she's a very stubborn person, who even refuses to take medicine to help with her mood swings, because she doesn't want the help of others. All in all, Ashley is a angry, short, ball of mood swings.

## Armaments

### Primary Weapons

#### SA80 A2 L85 Assault Rifle

Ashley uses a non-modified all white L85 with an underbarrel grenade launcher. She uses the grenade launcher to fire napalm grenades that are efficient at burning out cover, while also burning the people behind the cover.

### Secondary Weapons

#### CR-26 Heavy Revolver

Ashley's secondary weapon of choice is a revolver she stole from her partner-in-crime, Special Operator Hellhound. Despite his warnings that the weapon was too heavy for her to use because of her small stature, she used it anyway. The fact that she was warned not to use it, it was like a push for her to use it.

The revolver is specially designed by research and development to boast more firepower than other weapons of it's kind. It was given to Marshall as a gift, in which Ashley got jealous of, and gifted to herself. The weapon will fire rounds that can will be able to punch holes through body armor when it's completed.

It has the word Hellhound engraved into the side of the barrel. Also, it's painted all black to match Marshall's Cerberus combat uniform. It's coated with a special sealant that helps to prevent jamming by repelling dirt and other obstructions. There are remnants of white spray paint on it from Ashley's futile attempts to recolor it to match her own armor.