Ronald Church

"Always pissed off about something. If you give him an order, he'll foul-mouth the order. If you don't give him an order, he'll be pissed off because you aren't giving him any orders."

- Alexis “Tex” Thames about Ronald Church.

Lance Corporal Ronald Church was an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) in the UNSC Defense Force. He was renowned among the other Helljumpers for his extreme sarcasm, satirical humor and general cynicism. Despite this, he was somewhat respected because of his survivalist talents and skill as a pilot, mechanic and technician.

Among the ODSTs, he was almost always simply called Church, a name many thought suited him, because of his shallowness and seeming disregard for everyone around him.

Early Life
Ron was born on Origami Alpha (largest asteroid in the Origami asteroid field) as the only child to the Church family, a family with roots from several very old families from the 22nd century. His father was Leroy Church, a very rich man, mostly living off the fortunes gained from being a major stockholder in Misriah Armory and Masver-Tor Engineering, both companies making great fortunes because of the ongoing Insurrection, as well as the fortune he inherited from his parents. Ron's mother was the Origami System Governor's assistant, Marie Church (née Lestrange ), giving her a great deal of influence over others.

As the heir to the rich and powerful family's fortunes and influence, both parents went to great lengths to raise Ron in the “right way”. While Marie early started teaching Ron about politics and standard subjects such as math and English, Leroy taught the boy about the business world, and how life itself was a “business” that had to be managed properly through the use of various “strategies” depending on the circumstances, comparing it to a battle.

Through this, Ron became very gifted at an early stage, although he also became cynical and vulgar for undisclosed reasons (though supposedly due to hatred towards his parents), traits that both parents agreed on being bad for the Church family's heir, but all attempts to suppress the traits failed, until they gave up and decided to do what they could to use it to their advantage.

Ron early became uneasy with the children at pre-school, partly because of being “a spoiled rich kid”, but mostly for his cynical and vulgar attitude. Another thing noted by the other children were his superior speed, strength, agility and endurance, something that made a lot of children – even teachers – fear that he would become a bully. However, despite despising the people around him – or at least acting like it – Ron didn't resort to bullying, and he became mainly known as the “strong, fast, cynical and spoilt rich kid”.

SPARTAN-II?
Unknown to himself and most other people, Ron was targeted as a possible SPARTAN-II candidate, given the number tag 106. As such, Dr. Catherine Halsey, along with her attaché, Lieutenant Jacob Keyes, travelled to Origami Alpha in order to see Ronald eye to eye. After arriving at the pre-school – under their usual cover as parents looking for a good pre-school for their child – Halsey and Keyes managed to find Ron quite easily, as he was sitting alone in a corner of the playground with his usual angry look.

Halsey went on to go up to Ron and start a conversation, quite quickly finding solid proof for his cynicism and vulgarity as he foul-mouthed her and Keyes for the major part of the conversation, telling them to “get lost” and “find someone else to ask your fracking questions”. Despite this, Halsey patiently continued the conversation, after a while asking him if he wanted to play a game. Although muttering a great deal of examples of the swear words he had learned (or invented), he agreed. When Halsey tossed the coin, he predicted correctly, albeit it took longer time for him to do so than John-117 and most other SPARTAN-IIs. After the game, he was quick to grab the coin, not caring about saying anything to Halsey after that, as part of his father's teachings “to always take the opportunity before anyone else”.

After studying her results closer after the visit to Origami Alpha, Halsey decided that Ron wasn't the kind of child she wanted for the SPARTAN-II Program, mostly because he was outside her age parameters, and cancelled him and 74 others from the program. Despite this, some people at ONI decided to maintain a close watch on him and the other denied SPARTAN-II candidates, and would later try to “encourage” the former recruits to join the UNSC Defense Force in one way or another.

Teenage Life
With his denial from the SPARTAN-II Program – against his and most other peoples' knowledge – Ron's life continued in the path his parents constantly tried to stake out for him, and his usual attempts to escape their plans by any means possible. Years passed and he became a High School student, as much despised as always.

With his “bad attitude” still out of control, Leroy and Marie decided to send him to UNSC Marine Corps boot camp, hoping it would teach him discipline. As such, on his sixteenth birthday, he was forcibly enlisted into the marine corps. However, instead of learning discipline, Ron used this to his advantage, ironically displaying talents his father had taught him.

After half a year at boot camp, he stole a considerable amount of credits from his father's account and used it to bribe the right amount of “corrupt” officers on Origami Alpha to permit him a transfer to the UNSC Flight Cadet School on Mars. Unknown to him, the supposedly corrupt officers were actually affiliated with ONI and their plan to have Ron in the military. A few days later, he was transported to Mars, while his parents feared that they had lost him forever, and instead planned on trying to have another child to inherit the Church family's legacy.

As an Airman Basic of the UNSC Air Force, he made quick progress in the Flight Cadet School, quickly outclassing even more senior cadets. This was also one of the first times in his life he truly enjoyed something. He completed the training at the school, was promoted to Airman and was assigned as co-pilot of the Pelican dropship Lima-256.

After a while, Lima-256 (passionately called “Betty” by Ron) was ordered to transport 1st Platoon of the 16th Marine Expeditionary Force. Among the 32 marines was the strikingly beautiful then-Corporal Alexis Thames. During and after the mission, the two fell in love and started a relationship, one that could continue due to the two being assigned to the same campaign. However, Ron, who for once loved a person, started to fear that they would have to be separated soon.

Joining the Helljumpers
"I joined the Helljumpers because of her. I wouldn't have done such a foolish thing otherwise. And how did it turn out? I got stuck in a unit of idiots and she ended up in a different unit, probably with some other guy who could hold her in his arms. Guess that proves how much love is worth, huh?"

- Ron some time after joining the ODSTs.

Battle of Alpha Aurigae (2526)
"It was the first time I faced those son-of-a-bitches myself. And I must say, I expected better from enemies with such advanced technology, but all they did was toss small monkey-like aliens at us. Trying to drown us with their bodies perhaps? If so, their commanders were either bad at math – cause we sure didn't drown – or the coldest mother-fuckers in the dadgum world."

- Ron about the Battle of Alpha Aurigae.

After Admiral Preston Cole 's “victory” at Harvest, he was given command of most of the UNSC Navy in order to fend off the Covenant invaders. For the upcoming campaign, ODST units from all over the human colonies were rallied onto the fleet to help in the struggle. Ron and the rest of ODA-205 were no exception.

The fleet, numbering a total of 300 vessels of varying classes, split up into smaller detachments to track down the Covenant and attempt to predict their next move. After a while, a prowler returned to the fleet and gave some vital intel about the Covenant fleet movements. After studying it for a while, Cole predicted the Covenant would attack the Alpha Aurigae system, home to the Origami asteroid field, Ron's former homeworld.

Despite not being at full strength, Cole and his 107 ships left for Alpha Aurigae, arriving just in time to set up a defense and establishing a military presence on the various asteroids, although ODA-205 (ever since nicknamed Blue Squad) was held back briefly so that they could be deployed wherever needed after the Covenant's attack. As Cole predicted, 12 Covenant warships arrived a few hours later and engaged the human fleet in a fierce battle over the asteroids, despite being vastly outnumbered.

Early in the battle, two of the Covenant task force's Assault Carriers managed to blast a hole in the UNSC formation. Using the opportunity, one of them made a short pin-point jump to directly above Origami Alpha and Origami Beta, sending legions of Unggoy to swarm the surfaces, before making another jump to reunite with the Task force.

As roughly twenty thousand Unggoy lead by a few Sangheili Zealots struck down on the two asteroids and their defenders like tidal waves, Blue Squad was sent down to help the Marine defenders, and if possible, strike back and drive off the attackers. To make it in time, the ODSTs used their traditional method of insertion, the SOEIVs to drop straight to Origami Alpha.

After reaching Origami Alpha's surface, the group proceeded to a nearby marine security checkpoint, only to find it overrun with hungry and savage Unggoy. In retaliation, the Ron and the other ODSTs engaged the small aliens – for the first time – and slaughtered them. They proceeded to the city of New Swan, capital of Origami Alpha, where the 12th and 23rd Infantry Battalions had been deployed.

But when they arrived, all that remained of the two battalions were four dozen marines, with small groups of Unggoy running wildly throughout the city. The two different groups decided to split away from one another in order to clear out the city and save as many civilians as possible. Moving throughout the city's battered streets, Blue Squad located and terminated all aliens they came across, slowly wiping out all resistance pockets and securing civilians.

However, two hours later, the UNSC fleet had reduced the Covenant task force to two ships, a Carrier and a Cruiser. In a desperate suicide run, the two ships blasted their way to Origami Alpha, dropping tanks, Kig-Yar sniper units and a Sangheili legion just outside New Swan, ambushing what remained of the city's garrison, stranding the dozen ODSTs in an enemy-controlled city.

To defend themselves against the coming attack, they took up defensive positions around the local police department headquarters. Ron also contacted the fleet, instructing them to send backup. However, no ground forces could be spared at that time, because of the struggle to liberate Origami Beta. After a great deal of silent cursing, Ron joined his fellow members of Blue Squad in the defensive barricade.

After a short while, more waves of Unggoy shielded by Kig-Yar and commanded by Sangheili arrived. Although fighting valiantly, the enemy's superior numbers and newfound use of strategy overwhelmed Ron and the others, forcing them further into the building. During the retreat, Tuck took multiple plasma hits to his armor, causing heavy injuries and sending him to the ground. As a Sangheili with an energy sword moved up for the kill, Ron punched it right between its eyes, sending it flying a few meters, where it was finished off by a shotgun shot by Heavy.

Just when the situation seemed to finally fall out of Blue Squad's control, the requested aid finally arrived. After a Longsword bombing run – which blasted roughly half the enemy contingent to shreds – half a dozen Pelicans filled with marines followed, systematically clearing out the city. With the reinforcements now available, Ron and the others burst out and repelled the Covenant attackers.

Several additional hours of savage fighting in New Swan city later, all Covenant hostiles were confirmed killed. Although Cole and his fleet had won the battle, it had taken heavy losses; 37 ships lost to destroy 12 of the Covenant's. However, Ron and the others in Blue-1 didn't worry about the results right away; their first concern was to get Tuck back to the orbiting fleet and make sure he received the treatment he needed.

Battle of Narcissus (2527)
"Nobody knows what the son-of-a-bitches were after, but the important thing is that it seems they got it, whatever damn thing it was."

- Ron about the Battle of Narcissus.

While Ron, Heavy, Griff and Med anxiously waited for Tuck to recover from his injuries, the fleet continued to scout the outer colonies for traces of Covenant activity. However, they didn't find any more Covenant ships, until early 2527, when the corvette UNSC Pekinese returned to the fleet and reported two Covenant ships besieging the lightly guarded colony Narcissus. Again without waiting for backup from his other battlegroups, Cole and his fleet of 71 ships jumped to Narcissus to stop the Covenant attack.

Upon arrival, they found the colony's defense force wiped out, yet the Covenant ships hadn't started to glass the planet. Although suspicious of the Covenant's intentions, Cole attacked in force, immediately destroying the first ship and heavily wounding the second. Just before Cole could order a second salvo, the battered ship left the system, leaving behind a considerable amount of ground forces. Ron and the rest of Blue Squad, minus the heavily injured Tuck, were ordered to follow with a marine contingent to the surface.

After having their feet on the ground, the group moved ahead to make a hole for the marines to attack a major outpost. After moving through the beautiful leaf-forest for a while, the ODSTs found and raided a small Covenant encampment, clearing it out. Inside the encampment they found several warthogs that had apparently been studied by the Covenant. Taking control of the vehicles, they drove through the burnt-down parts of the forest, clearing out another three encampments.

With a sufficiently large hole made, the marines attacked the Covenant outpost with tanks and the ODSTs up front, eliminating all of the defenders after a short firefight. After this, the entire Covenant presence on Narcissus had been taken out, leaving the UNSC victorious once again, although they lost a ship. Also, the Covenant ship had fled, something they had never done before, a fact which made Cole uneasy.

Unbeknownst to the UNSC, the Covenant had gotten what they came for; a cryptic Forerunner tablet which supposedly was a star map, which the Covenant hoped to be able to use to find more Forerunner artifacts. It later turned out that the tablet had coordinates for numerous planets in the surrounding clusters, although none of them had any surviving Forerunner relics. It proved to be to the Covenant's advantage anyway, as some of the marked planets were human colonies in the present era, including Svalbard II, Dwarka and Madrigal.

Operation: INCINERATOR (2527)
"And there you have the proof that I was the only thing keeping the ungrateful bastards alive. Had I not saved their asses there, they'd be ash right now. But of course, I only get a “thank you” afterwards. Not one friggin' medal!"

- Ron about Operation: INCINERATOR.

After the battle of Narcissus, Cole and his 70 ships continued to the XI Boötis A system, forming a perimeter around Svalbard II, the system's sole inhabited world. It was a dual purpose in this maneuver; one, it was highly likely that the Covenant would attack the system, seeing as it was on the very borders of UNSC-controlled space. Second, a considerable amount of Insurrectionists had holed up on Svalbard II, and with a good reason to be there, this presented the UNSC forces with a golden opportunity to wipe out the insurrectionists before the Covenant arrived.

The colony's Military Police force had managed to locate and mark four insurrectionist bases, one heavily guarded and directly underneath the capital city's streets. While Marine and MP teams were deployed to take on the minor bases, Blue Squad – now with a fully healed Tuck – were tasked with taking on the primary, underground base.

After touching down on the surface, Sora ordered Ron and Heavy to take the way through the sewers while she and the others would go for a secret entrance inside a downed factory building. After moving through the sewers for a while, the two encountered and defeated a squad of insurrectionist guards, stopping temporarily to interrogate the sole survivor. To his surprise, the guard told him that they knew ODSTs were on the way and were already leaving. In addition, they had also wired the factory entrance with explosives to blow up anyone going through there.

After hearing this, Heavy snapped the man's neck in anger. While Ron insisted that they carry out the mission to kill the Insurrectionists before they left, Heavy ultimately convinced him to turn around and save the others. They got out of the sewer and alerted the others in time to get enough distance between themselves and the exploding building, although splinters managed to hurt some of them moderately.

With their confused comrades out of harm's way, Ron and Heavy tried to repair the damage abandoning their orders had caused and rushed back into the sewers, but found the insurrectionist base abandoned. Although scorned by their superiors for abandoning orders, the two were thanked by their teammates, who now understood that Ron did indeed care for their well-being. In addition, it marked the start of Ron's and Heavy's strong friendship.

Battle of XI Boötis A (2528)
With the partially successful removal of insurrectionists from Svalbard II, the UNSC focused all their attention on the inevitable Covenant attack. Blue Squad and most other ODST contingents, among them Blue Squad 's rivals, Red Squad, were placed at the colony's local airbase in order to be ready to quickly travel for whatever required location, if required.

Two days after Operation: INCINERATOR, a Covenant task force consisting of eight ships arrived and engaged Cole's fleet. Although the starships were subsequently locked in heavy fighting, multiple Covenant dropships slipped through the UNSC perimeter and established fortified outposts on Svalbard II. An armored marine column was sent to take out the first outpost, only to return to base with 80% casualties.

As a result, Blue Squad was sent together with a second armored column to take out the Covenant outposts, thus stripping them of their foothold on the planet. While the marines and their vehicles attacked the outpost up front, the ODSTs took a detour around the battle, climbing the steep hills on the outpost's rear.

After reaching the top, they effectively ambushed enemy sniper and anti-vehicle teams, destroyed defense turrets and finally opened the outpost 's front entrance, clearing the way for several scorpion tanks to roll into the outpost and blast out most of the Covenant survivors. After a while, only the Covenant commander and his bodyguards remained. The commander ordered a desperate suicide charge, getting wiped out almost instantly by tank fire.

Personality
Ron was most of his time vulgar, insensitive, stubborn, very sarcastic and cranky/pissed off about something. These traits put him on edge with the other ODSTs (and individuals overall for that matter), although they eventually grew to get used to it. However, he isn't without emotion; during Operation: INCINERATOR he, together with Heavy, rescued the rest of his team from an Insurrectionist bomb-wired building, risking his life and threatening to jeopardize the mission. After this, he earned a somewhat strained respect from the other ODSTs and a strong friendship with Heavy.

In addition, he was intensively in love with Alexis Thames, to the point of enlisting in the ODSTs to have a chance to continue to be with her. Also, despite having broken up years before, Ron showed great concern for Alex, rushing to save her when she got surrounded by Covenant forces. At several other occasions, he proved that he still care for her, telling her to be careful and offering to assist her in various ways.

Some of ONI's psychological experts suggest that Ronald is cranky because of his survivalist talents; they think that he knows that he is more likely to survive most situations than the majority of the other ODSTs, which makes him uneasy, because he supposedly cares for them all deep down. This would explain his sudden change of mind during Operation: INCINERATOR. Others suggest his cynicism is a mental defective that he's inherited from his family, while others think a little of both. They can never be fully sure, however, because he doesn't “waste” any time on talking about it.

After the Human-Covenant War, he finally admitted that the first theory was the true one, in a rare moment of emotion talking out about his problems with the RYU operative Kaito-08, who passed this enlightening information onto the rest of ONI, something that supposedly annoyed Ronald even further.

An odd hobby that he has is to collect 'trophies 'during or after his missions. He usually didn't care about what items he picked up, as long as he could remember it later being found during that particular mission or battle. Some these items were used to keep his tightly-knit braids in place, while he kept others stored on his armor or in his sleeping quarters.

ODA-205/Blue Squad
"I wasn't the leader; they didn't like me enough to let me be. But I was the one they needed if their asses had to be saved out of another mess. It's almost like they did it for fun, see how long I could take cleaning their dirty mess."

- Ronald about ODA-205, “Blue Squad”.

Despite treating the rest of his teammates harshly just like any other people he met, deep down Ronald cared for them all, risking his life to save them on a few occasions. Aware of this, they harbored the most respect towards Ronald and were more patient with his attitude. He grew close to Heavy in particular.

ODA-204/Red Squad
"They were kinda like us, I guess. And in this case, that's not a good thing."

- Ronald about his thoughts on ODA-204, “Red Squad”.

As Blue Squad's constant rival, Ron appeared to despise Red Squad (like most people) and often tried to outdo their members to make sure “Blue” were the best. However, deep down, this is simply a slightly exaggerated friendly competition, and Ron and the rest of Blue has aided Red several times.

Appearance
"Black hair, gray eyes and pale skin? I guess my last name fits me…"

- Ronald about his appearance.

Ronald had raven-black hair which he tried to keep long (one of the few things he openly showed that he cared about). He would usually gather it up into braids which he would hold in place with various 'trophies' from his missions, such as Kig-Yar claws, Sangheili/Jiralhanae teeth and small splinters of rebel equipment, a thing which unnerved most people around him.

He also had gray eyes, coupled with his hair color and pale skin giving him a renowned 'scary/always annoyed' look that the people he knew despised and looked down upon. He was also unusually muscular, though not on SPARTAN-standards.

Strengths and weaknesses
Ronald was highly skilled in the use of grenades and grenade launchers, quickly learning exactly how to use them in the best way, making him the best grenadier among the ODSTs. He was also adept with assault rifles and accepted as one of the ODSTs' best engineers and pilots, the former giving him an adaptable and environment-manipulating advantage, such as being capable of locking doors and decrypt secure locks to take short cuts to reach his targets. This trait reinforced his already great survival talents, which was noted as his most important trait.

However, he never truly learned to skillfully use battle and sniper rifles, having difficulty to carefully aim, which is required from such weapons, partly because of his fired-up personality, but also because of general dislike of such weapons, referring to them as “a coward's helper”. Ronald himself would often say that somebody messed with the sighting systems while he wasn't looking, giving another reason for his poor aiming with said weapons.

His hot temper also made him unappealing for taking on leadership roles, despite having the capability for it. Strangely, he ends up making many of his unit's decisions anyway, at least after the death of First Sergeant Sora. He is also known to lose focus on the task at hand if angered enough.

Weapons

 * XM510 MGL
 * MA5B ICWS
 * MA5C ICWS
 * MA2B AR/C

Armor

 * Body Suit
 * ODST Battle Armor

Other equipment

 * VISR
 * M9 HE-DP
 * Bubble Shield

Quotes
"Oh, will you just shut up already!?"

- Ronald during a heated argument with Richard Tucker.

"Can't you do one fracking thing right?"

- Ronald after his team lost another training exercise.

Trivia

 * The character's behavior was inspired from Leonard Church, de facto main protagonist of the Red vs. Blue machinima series. The character's last name was also taken from the Red vs. Blue character.
 * The first name is a double-entendre; first and foremost it is a reference to Ronald Weasley from the Harry Potter series (the books are impressive, I encourage you to read them if you haven't already). However, it is also a reference to the character Ron Stoppable, a major character in the spy comedy Disney series Kim Possible, a show that my younger brother liked to watch a few years ago.
 * Swearing in the article is censored because Lomi some people don't like swearing. Hope it doesn't lessen the article's quality.
 * His survival talent is a reference to the Sole Survivor background choice in Mass Effect, in which the character has survived a situation no one else had. It's also a reference to Church in Red vs. Blue and his ability to return to the series no matter how many times he “dies”.
 * His talents is roughly similar to the Mass Effect specialized class 'Operative', which can use its tech abilities to manipulate the environment to maximum advantage.