Richard Drake

**ODST Profile: Drake, Richard**
                       **Name:**Richard Drake
                       **Age:**25
                       **Gender:**Male
                       **Affiliation:**United Nations Space Command. Seventh Orbital Drop Shock Troopers Battalion
                       **Date of Birth:** Sixth of May, 2530
                       **Kin:**Mother: Alive, living in London
                       Brother: (Raymond) Dead, somewhere in the Prefect's crash site
                       Father: Dead, buried on Earth
                       **Homeworld:**Reach, lower districts
                       **Alignment:**Lawful - Good
                       **Height:**Six foot, five inches
                       **Weight:**215 pounds
                       **Hair Colour:**Dark Brown
                       **Eye Colour:**Pale Green
                       **Build:**Mesomorphic Body Build:
                       Broad Shoulders
                       Muscled Arms and Legs
                       **Attributes:**
                       Strength: 17/20 - Working on farms for most of his childhood life, built up a lot of his muscles, and increased his strength a lot.
                       Perception: 14/20 - Combat awareness is quite high, but out of combat, it slips a bit, combat gives him some kind of rush that adds up to his perception.
                       Endurance: 16/20 - His pain tolerance is really high, and can take quite a few rounds.
                       Charisma: 19/20 - If he's stuck in a bad situation, he can talk his way out of it.
                       Intelligence: 15/20 - Drake's smarter than most marines, but isn't exactly a genius.
                       Agility: 18/20 - Drake can jump quite high.
                       Luck: 16/20 - He's quite lucky, even in the most un-luckiest MEU, ever. Ever.
                       **Misc. Attributes:**
                       Combat rating, 9/10 - His advanced weapons training, boosted this a lot.
                       Wealth, 4/10 - Until he joined the UNSC, his wealth was basically flat-lined, living on a farm that's main in-come came from selling grain, which was in a surplus where they lived.
                       **Description:**A tall man stands in-front of you, standing at around about six and a half inches, his titanium-ceramic mix armor is dull, to aid in stealth missions. When his helmet is off, his scarred left side of the face contrasts with his pale green eyes. His dark brown mullet leans closely to his scars, rather than his pale green eyes. His armour has many ammunition pouches attached to it, and a medical kit, in some of his pouches the rough outlines of a screwdriver and a pair of wire-cutters can be seen. In a combat situation, his M6C SOCOM and M7 Silenced SMG are attached to each of his thighs, with his BR55 Service Rifle maglocked onto his backpack.
                       **Backstory:**Pre-Military Life
                       When I was born the Covenant were just about to appear in the year 2530. I was born on reach in the less economically developed part of the colony, where my family and most of the other families came from British descent. This area was utilized mostly by farmers, but the area still had the basic infrastructure that you would expect: a clinic, a educational system, a police station and stores. It was generally safe for me, the only safety hazard there was the machinery used for farming. However, when I was younger I still stayed in the town with my mother from when I can remember to the age of six.
                       Four years after my sixth birthday party, I was in the woods with my father, whom was out hunting two deer that he had stalked from the local river about two miles to the east of the village. So far we were another two miles east of the village trying to pick up the trail of the deer, that evaded us about four-hundred meters ago. We were closing in on the target that were only five meters in-front of us. Since it was my tenth birthday my father told me I could take the first shot, in response I nodded and took the family's hunting rifle, it was an old rifle that was surprisingly still working: the wood on it was a faded oak-brown color and the metal was dull with a slight bit of rust on the barrel. Holding the familiar grip firmly in my right hand, I placed my other hand on the under-side of the barrel with my left hand, placing the butt on my shoulder, I lined the shot up where the heart was on the deer and took the shot, killing it almost instantly it falls down to the ground, blood spurting from the chest. After a few moments of the other deer running away from it's fallen brethren. Slinging the hunting rifle over my shoulder, I nodded at my father before going to inspect the dead deer.
                       Four hours later at five o'clock at night, we entered the house to find about half the village there as a surprise party for my birthday, with the deer in my dad's arms behind me, I walked in and looked around at the multiple people crowding the entrance in a rough semi-circle, through the night I talked to almost all of the people at my party. Two hours after everyone left, I finally got a chance to sleep, but instead I cleaned out the hunting rifle that I had used about ten hours earlier, after it was cleaned inside, I restored the rifle to it's former glory, except the rust on the barrel which I could not remove. Finally, after the long day I managed to get some sleep.
                       In the year 2546 I had finished the secondary school that was in the center of the colony, August that year I got my secondary school results: 'C' in Maths; 'B' in Science; 'A' in Physical Education; 'B' in Computing; 'D' in Religious Education and a 'B' in English Language. As a result from these grades I could not get into college due to my grade in RE being lower than a 'C'.
                       Two years later, my dad taught me how to survive in the wild in-case I ever needed it. Due to me being the oldest sibling he always said, "When I die son you will be in charge of the family, make us proud!" During the weekends, he took me hunting with my younger brother Ray when we went his voice had an underlying depressed tone, he must have knew we would need to use the shooting skills that he had given us in a war. After five months of hunting weekends, my father became a different man, when my mother left him to go help out in a colony on the other side of Reach, where he did not want to move to, due to it being filled with 'egotistical rich people'.
                       Marines
                       In the year 2552, while escaping on the UNSC Haven on the course to Earth, I ran into a marine named Simon Stickworth who was helping to guard the ship, we both respected yet feared the covenant. On the ship I had to hold it together, the loss of my father took a great toll on my mentality. One of the several corpsmen on the ship diagnosed me with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, that clung onto my brain from the torment that was on my mind from the events of the previous day that saw my father's death and countless civilian deaths.
                       Fortunately, me and the rest of my family had to move to a faster ship in order to be fully debriefed about Reach, upon entering the debrief me and my brother, Ray, were informed that they couldn't talk about what happened on Reach. Both of the men nodded their heads before telling their own story about the fight. The officer dismissed Ray, making me become stressed and anxious about what was coming. She attempted to commend me for my efforts on the battlefield but I turned it down saying, "I did nothing out of the ordinary ma'am, could you put it on my father's grave instead? He died trying to evacuate but was struck down by a Zealot." The officer let out a little sigh before saying, "We will place it down at his funeral on Earth."
                       When me, Ray and my mother moved to Earth in the UNSC Frigate Javelin, the covenant were not far behind. Upon arrival on Earth I was greeted with the military welcome of 'you're being re-deployed' but this time it was in New Mombasa without delay me and Ray started packing for the long ride that awaited us on the new covenant war front. At New Mombasa we led a section of New Mombasa in being evacuated and managed to save quite a few marine lives. When I finally jumped into an evac pelican I was told that I had to pack my gear up again this time to be deployed in the 41st Battalion, Echo Company. Depressed from having to leave my brother behind, I decided to not make it take down my performance as a Marine. However, before deployment in Echo Company I was given time off to have a funeral for my father and mourn my father's death, Ray was given our father's dog tags as a way to remember him. However, I  was given our father's uniform and DMR as a remembrance to him.
                       Force Reconnaissance
                       After a month with Echo Company I decided to enlist into FOR-CON with my father's DMR. Hunting in the past gave me multiple skills that aided me in FOR-CON: marksmanship, scouting, stealth and spotting. But, it never made my training quicker. The first month and fourth months of my training was the more Physically demanding months, consisting of orienteering that took up the first week, that made us go over mountains and really dense woods, along the way we had to overcome certain obstacles, the most memorable being bear traps in a dense forest, where we had to get a trainee evacuated as they did not look over the way that they were walking and ran into a bear trap, meaning that they failed the training. These months also consisted of hiking and mountain repelling two sectors away that was filled with more than twenty mountains over five hundred feet tall, during these weeks no-one was injured or killed from the height, but one of the other trainees did suffer from Vertigo, so I had to take him back to the Forward Operating Base in that sector, meaning I was about two hours behind the other trainees.
                       The second and fifth months consisted of less physically demanding physical training, but most of the time was covert operations training, that utilized multiple scenarios on the simulators in the training center, one of them, my favorite, was taking down a High Value Target in a large hostile complex, that required us to take down the power to the area before going in to take out the target. My least favorite was one were fire-arms were not allowed, due to highly flammable materials in the area, and we needed to take down the entire fifteen officers in the center, whom were all attending a briefing.
                       Finally, the third and sixth months were for mentality checks, but still had the demanding physical training on in the background, although I had PTSD on my mental record, that did not delay my checks, due to most of the other trainees also having PTSD. During the time we were trained how to keep it together under pressure and not bend towards insanity that could lead to them being discharged, however this training was un-necessary for me, as I was completely sane, the only mentality 'defect' for myself was the PTSD.
                       I once again joined the 41st Battalion, Echo Company with their FOR-CON division aiding in multiple operations the most memorable being a reconnaissance mission to the crash site of a covenant Capital ship. The capital ship was scanned prior to the mission revealing: the main engine was leaking radiation, multiple life signs detected around the whole ship and 72% of the hull was damaged. My team was made up of eight FOR-CON members the mission was not to enter the ship but to analyse the exterior for Command. What was meant to be an easy mission turned into a firefight which FOR-CON was not prepared for, it required a helljumper squad to plant a havoc nuke at the crash site while FOR-CON got evacuated before the pelican returned for the ODST getting us to the Icarus in time to see the fireworks.
                       Orbital Drop Shock Troopers Training
                       When my service time in Force Recon flicked over to one year, I signed up for the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers' training system, for eight months of devastating training that means that I could transfer into the helljumpers. With my kit packed, I took my place on the Pelican en-route to the training centre on Earth, underestimating the chance of death that awaited me when I arrived. The Pelican ride was not that bad, but it was still long, and that was just the ride to the Frigate that would take me to my eight months of training required to be an ODST for the UNSC.
                       Month One
                       The first two weeks of my first month of ODST training was designated 'independent function' which  was basically a system that was meant to prepare me for any situation where my squad is unavailable and I need to stay alive until  one of three situations happens: My squad comes back for me; I get back to my squad or until evacuation comes. The exercise puts you in a training outfit with two weapons of your choice, and you need to survive in a fenced off environment for two days, although the environment is ten miles squared. This was the first crucial point in my training, if I didn't survive this, then I'm not ODST material. During the first day I managed to keep hidden from sight and move through the dense forest section of the environment, later on in the day I found a lone deer taking a drink, where I utilized my hunting skills and eliminated it without using my weapons, just using a combat knife. The second day was not as hard, except for a insurgent squad travelling through the forest, which I spared no time in taking out. We only did this scenario twice, but it was one of the most challenging tasks in the first two weeks, the rest of the time we were working on skills that can be used on the battlefield, like examining your motion sensor constantly when on your own, as to not be sneaked up on, and to use your VISR instead of a flashlight to make us almost invisible in night time conditions.
                       To end off month one we had to complete an 'Environment Adaptation' section on training, the first week taught us how to use blizzards or sandstorms to our advantage when completing our mission, this was the fun part, although most of us would get lost in the storms during this training in Siberia. The first couple of days were not that bad in Siberia, but on the third day, things got crazy and my team was lost in the storm for another three days, although that actually made us more experienced with adapting to our environment, by sticking us in a situation that would make us have to compensate for the new weather conditions. After finishing the tests, we went back to the training center to complete the rest of our environment adaptions class to finish off the month.
                       Month Two
                       To start off month two, we had to go through unconventional warfare training, this included how to exploit a hostiles power's: military, psychological vulnerabilities, economy and politics. This included days in a simulator following a Hotel-Victor-Tango in a political campaign and taking down propaganda that the insurgents had placed. We were actually ahead of schedule, within a day we would have finished the simulator, then we found out that from the announcer that the last thing needed to do was blow up the political caravan, so we moved up with two demolitions troopers tagging onto our squad to rig the caravan when the Hotel-Victor-Tango was making a speech to the community, with no witnesses. So we set out to where the speech was taking place, under the cloak of night, we took out one of the four guards of the vehicle, whom was standing out in the open about ten meters away from the group, the other three were huddled together on the right side of the vehicle, so we decided to shoot out the light above them, and rush them. It worked perfectly. After that it was simple, we planted the cee-four on the bottom of the caravan, and hid the bodies about five-hundred meters away. Then exited the simulator five hours ahead of the others.
                       As the end of the month approached we were faced with extended weapons training, this was the easier part of the first two months, it merely involved how to take apart, repair and use the following weapons: M41s, SRS99s, M90s, Battle Rifles and Designated Marksmen Rifles. This took less than a week to complete, but the rest of the two weeks allowed us to use the weapons on the range and get to feel for their weight.
                       Month Three
                       To begin our third month of training we started with probably the most familiar exercise to us, covert operations. The first thing we had nailed into our brains was flashlight discipline, to make us almost fully invisible we were told to use our VISRs instead of our flashlights for when we moved in darker locations, so we had normal vision without increasing our chances of being detected, then from the shadowed corners of the center we were in, an ODST walked out of each corner and boxed in my class, before being dismissed by the instructor. Then we tested it out for ourselves using a tunnel complex underneath the base, the instructor told us to hide and knock out anybody that walked passed us, without being shot by their stun rifles, ten minutes later marines dressed in insurgent gear entered the tunnels and wandered around without flashlights looking for us, after thirty minutes I realized only four out of our class of thirty made it out without being incapacitated. As the month gradually increased in time we learned to incorporate the advanced stealth tactics into escape and evade classes, were me and the others were captured and needed to escape the area, while evading enemy forces. During this we were put into squads of five and completed the simulation, but only three of the six squads, including mine, managed to complete the course.
                       Month Four
                       This month was not as crowded as the previous three months, the trainers informed us that we were going to be doing close quarters combat for the month. The first half was designated for sparring and learning all different types of techniques, this lead to a few broken ribs and occasionally my nose being busted, but it was relatively easy, we fought in a twenty-five foot by twenty-five foot square and fought till one of us tapped out, but the first week was for trainee versus trainee and the second was for trainee versus instructor. Surprisingly, more injuries were attained in the first week rather than the second, well to me at least. Finally, the last two weeks were dedicated to breaching and confined spaces, with our bruises from the following weeks fading away we were ready to start stacking up and putting a person with a shotgun at the front.
                       Month Five to Eight
                       In the final four months my time consisted of: basic piloting so that I can fly myself out of a roof spot if the bird's pilot was killed, this was my weakest spot but I can still fly a Pelican with, some, accuracy; technical courses, so that if anything needs repairing or rewiring I can get onto it, just needing someone to cover my six, so I can function more independently; advanced First-Aid so if one of my team goes down I can get them stabilized, but not at a medical personnel standard; formality took up one of the months that was something that came naturally, to salute at the correct personnel and to wear formal uniforms at every ceremony that is not a debrief or briefing.
                       ODST service.
                       After a couple of months of active service with the Fifth Marine Expeditionary Unit, I was transferred from the Icarus to another UNSC ship called the Defiance, with Warrant Officer Romano, where we joined the ODST team there to help take down a Remnant base, during that time I decided to change my specialization from the marksman position to a breaching specialist, after completing my one week training for becoming a breaching specialist, I went back to the Defiance, one week later we were under attack by two covenant remnant cruisers that decimated the Defiance, taking us down to the surface where we had to repel about two phantoms worth of remnants, when we finally got to a Marine inhabited Forward Operating Base, I was transferred back to the Fifth Marine Expeditionary Unit now on the Warspite.