Leonard Church

Leonard Church, also referred to simply as the Director, was a human scientist best known for his work with the FREELANCER Program. A former protege of Doctor Catherine Halsey, Church possessed technical genius which nearly rivaled Halsey's own and had been involved in both her MJOLNIR project and AI research before being recruited by Colonel James Ackerson for Project MNEMOSYNE. Church suffered a brief decline after his lover was killed in combat, but threw himself into his work after grieving. He was selected by Ackerson to be the director of Project FREELANCER due to his knowledge of AIs and MJOLNIR gear, plus his interest in furthering the UNSC's super-soldier studies without Halsey's oversight. He ultimately used the project for his own personal agenda and replicated Halsey's violation of the UNSC Colonial Mortal Dictata by cloning himself and creating an AI from a clone's brain, and went on to further violate protocol by forcing the AI to fragment itself; Church believed that he could extract some remnant of his dead lover from the AI's residual host memories, having achieved a similar result during his work on MNEMOSYNE. The plan backfired when two of the AI fragments went rogue, sparking conflict among the FREELANCER troops and bringing the project to a dismal end. Church avoided capture but committed suicide after his daughter, who happened to be one of the FREELANCER soldiers, confronted him over what he had done. Though his legacy was one of twisted desire and heartbreak, he would be cited as one of the key innovators in the early stages of the SPARTAN-IV Program thanks to his accomplishments.