David Kahn

"Sometimes I really wonder why I'm still fighting this war of mine. It's not like I've got a prayer of winning or even making much of a difference. But my enemies took everything I ever had and left me with nothing besides my hatred of them, a hatred that will always be with me no matter how much time dulls my pain. And so I won't stop and I won't give in, not while I can still strap on my armor and fire my weapon. The UNSC doesn't get to win until I'm dead for good."

- David Wellesley

David Wellesley is a former student of the UNSC Naval Academy who responded violently to the death of his entire family in separate incidents that were all perpetrated by the UNSC. He has since become a rogue element who targets and attacks any UNSC military targets that he stands a chance of damaging in some way.

Early Life
David was born into a wealthy and influential family at the height of the Human-Covenant War. The Wellesleys had a long standing tradition of naval service in the UNSC, and his father was a captain and a decorated war hero. From an early age, David showed great interest in joining the military, although he was more inclined towards infantry work rather than space combat. Motivated by his father's strict expectations, David earned top marks throughout elementary, middle, and high school and was valedictorian of his class when he graduated from the latter of the three. Although his grades were enough to get him a fast track into the naval academy, many believed that his father had pulled strings in order to secure a position for him. Angered by these rumors, David worked hard to excel and prove his detractors wrong. He applied for special warfare training and was a rising star in the school when disaster struck his family.

A Family Shattered
"My family dedicated itself to serving the UNSC. We did our part with utter conviction and loyalty, and look how we've been repaid."

- David Cameron upon learning of his mother's death

David's father had risen even further in the naval ranks and was serving as a personal advisor to Vice Admiral Andrew Owens, another war hero and widely considered to be one of the greatest strategists to emerge since the end of the Human-Covenant War. However, Owens made a fatal miscalculation during a mop up operation against Covenant Loyalist forces that resulted in the loss of over half his fleet, the worst UNSC naval disaster since Reach. In an effort to avoid discrediting its star admiral, the UNSC Security Council found a scapegoat in David's father, who they blamed for giving Owens faulty intelligence and advice during the operation. Disgraced and demoted, David's father resigned from the navy before committing suicide.

David's mother and younger brother were furious at the military and became extremely disenfranchised with the UNSC as a whole. It was David's brother who took action first, joining a fledgling Insurrectionist group that foolishly attempted to incite open rebellion in the streets of Chicago. All were killed during what the UNSC considered a minor incident and David's mother renounced all ties to the UNSC and left to join a small, non-militant group of rebels who had set up a base in the Outer Colonies. Throughout all this, David remained resentful of but loyal to the UNSC and continued with his studies. All of this changed when he received word that his mother had been killed during a heavy-handed raid on her group's base. Now the sole surviving member of his family, David became consumed with hatred for the UNSC and planned to help the Insurrection in any way he could. Making contact with a large group called the "Liberation Army" that was preparing for a long-term guerilla campaign against the UNSC, David was determined to do his part in order to avenge his father, mother and brother. Taking time off from his training in order to "set his affairs in order", David gave most of his family's fortune to the group and used the rest of the money to prepare the combat gear he would need to fight his new enemy. Gaining inspiration from his childhood obsession with 20th century science fiction, David built and designed a combat suit that was both distinctive and effective. "Admiral Owens, I bear a message from Peter Wellesley!"

- David Wellesley prior to assassinating Andrew Owens

Prepared for his new life, David made his opening act of rebellion from inside the UNSC. When Andrew Owens, the man responsible for his father's disgrace, visited the academy to give a lecture on naval tactics, David shot and killed him before fleeing to join the Liberation Army.

The Liberation Army
Now a wanted criminal in the UNSC, David used his special forces training to become a leader in the Liberation Army. He led its first mission to rescue Colonel Robert Watts from a maximum security prison where he was serving a life sentence and ensured that it went off without a hitch. Now headed by Watts, the Liberation Army began making hit and run attacks against UNSC targets. During these battles, David was almost always the leader of any infantry forces his side deployed and distinguished himself as an exceptional fighter. At the hight of the Liberation Army's success, his skills were increased considerably when some turncoat UNSC scientists augmented him and several others with the augmentations given to the SPARTAN-IIIs during the Human-Covenant War. As the UNSC stepped up its efforts to bring down the Liberation Army, David became known as a key figure in its organization. With his distinctive armor and high kill count, he was feared throughout the UNSC armed forces as an embodiment of all the destruction that the rebels could cause.

"You all might be able to just forget about all that we've tried to accomplish and hide your heads in the sand, but I can't stop fighting, not when I've only just discovered that my life's work is to wage war on the government that ruined my life."

- David Wellesley on the breakup of the Liberation Army

But the Liberation Army was ultimately unable to do lasting damage to the UNSC. With its losses mounting in every engagement they dared attempt, the army's already brittle foundation was shattered when Colonel Watts was assassinated by an HPA agent. Without any effective leadership besides David, who was no master tactician, the organization disbanded. David was unable to let go of his hatred for the UNSC and attempted to form alternate groups with which to make commando raids against UNSC outposts. All of these makeshift bands were killed during their high-risk missions and David eventually abandoned the idea of organized revolt. Still determined to hurt the UNSC in any way possible, he struck out on his own and began conducting solo raids against any military target that made itself available.

The "Reign of Terror" Begins
"So it begins..."

- David Wellesley after his raid on Sigma Octanus IV

After a year's worth of preparations, Wellesley began his one-man war on the UNSC. Traveling to Sigma Octanus IV, he landed at a civilian spaceport and made his way on foot to a marine outpost that was several miles from any civilian dwellings. Infiltrating the base, Wellesley stealthily eliminated the sentries before opening fire from a lookout tower. After killing over a dozen confused marines this way, Wellesley abandoned this position when the base finally went to full alert and he began drawing a large amount of fire. Using speed and a constant rate of fire to make the enemy believe that there were more than one attacker, Wellesley killed all fifty-one soldiers stationed there within an hour of unceasing combat. After blowing up the vehicle and ammunition depots, he escaped just ahead of UNSC reinforcements who had seen the smoke from his detonations. This successful attack kicked off a series of similar raids in which he would attack isolated outposts on UNSC colony worlds, kill the garrison, and perform any acts of sabotage he could before relief could arrive. After a raid, he never stayed on the same planet to attack another outpost. Instead, he smuggled himself offworld via a network of criminal contacts he was in touch with and traveled to his next target. "I understand that you blame the UNSC for something it did to you some years back. Well now I can understand how you feel, because I'm as determined to take you down as you are to bring down the UNSC. You can run, but there is nowhere in this galaxy that you can hide from me!"

- [[Agent 2995[[|undefined

As word of his exploits began to spread, David was moved to the top of every ONI assassin's hit list. For a few months he ceased his raids and merely killed any operative sent after him until a narrow escape from an HPA agent convinced him to continue moving. He sabotaged a number of shipyards before reverting to ground raids, albeit on a larger scale. Growing bolder, he struck larger targets than before, always inflicting a high number of casualties before making a hasty retreat from the area before the base could fully mobilize its forces. During these raids he became extremely adept at planning out his actions and predicting those of his enemies, taking great pride in being able to outwit as well as outfight the enemy. Unfortunately for Wellesley, he inadvertently incurred the lasting wrath of HPA Agent 2995, better known as Artemis, when he killed her lover during a routine attack on an ONI facility. Made responsible for Wellesley's execution, the vengeful agent forced Wellesley into temporary hiding and would continue to hound him for years to come.

In Hiding
"It's a funny world we live in... a year ago I was fighting a war against the UNSC. Today I'm fighting a war against poverty."

- Wellesley in his personal diary

Having temporarily abandoned his attacks on the UNSC, Wellesley sought to restore his family's fortune while he was living undercover as a civilian. Relying on mostly legitimate business and investment practices, he became a millionaire under the name of Fredrick Blake. From a penthouse on the Inner Colony world of New Africa, Wellesley became concerned with the needs of the poor and donated large amounts of money to charity organizations and orphanages. Finding peace in his new life, Wellesley began to forget his past hatreds and started to accept that to fight against the UNSC would always be a useless endeavor. However, he became bored with the peaceful life and after a visit to his family's grave he allowed his old obsession to be rekindled. Re-donning his armor, Wellesley donated almost everything he had to charity before leaving to resume his war. Unfortunately, the UNSC caught word of his return and managed to track him. Wellesley barely escaped an ambush when he found Artemis waiting for him at his latest target and fled with the HPA agent in hot pursuit.

Sabotage and Assassinations
Wellesley realized that his repetitive attacks were making it too easy for ONI to predict his movements. Hoping to diversify the kind of attacks he made while also doing more to damage the UNSC's infrastructure, Wellesley made plans to infiltrate the UNSC fleet orbiting Earth and sabotage as many ships as possible. Stowing away in a Pelican, he slipped through fleet security and ended up on the Wall of Stone, a UNSC Super Carrier. Jumping at the chance to destroy a UNSC flagship, Wellesley made his way to the ship's missile storage bay, where he attempted to arm the Wall of Stone's complement of nuclear weapons. He was discovered while trying to manually override the nukes' safeties and a firefight broke out in the bay. After eliminating several squads of marines, Wellesley finally managed to override the safeties. Fleeing the Wall of Stone in a Longsword, he escaped just ahead of the massive explosion that consumed both the carrier and a nearby frigate. Wellesley then proceeded to ironically become a legend for Longsword pilots when he managed to maneuver his ship through a storm of AA fire and critically damage another carrier when he fired the Longsword's missiles into its launch bay when its shields lowered to release fighters (Years later, UNSC flight instructors would begin to grudgingly display recordings of his flight in their classes). With his fighter severely damaged, Wellesley barely survived a crash landing in the outback of the Australian continent and fled the UNSC search patrols in order to hide in the urban areas of Sydney.

Now trapped on Earth by increased security at the local spaceports, Wellesley learned that one Fleet Admiral Davis Williams had just been appointed as the new chairman of the UNSC Security Committee to replace the recently retired Lord Hood. Justifiably seeing the Security Committee as the true governing body of the UNSC, Wellesley made plans to assassinate Williams made a speech in Chicago, at a spot that was coincidentally quite close to the place at which Wellesley's brother had been killed during his failed rebellion. Hiring a smuggling boat to get him to North America, David evaded military patrols as he traveled to Chicago. Once there he made his plans and preparations for the assassination.

"It's apparent to me now that I've been holding back all these years. Within the past month I've done more damage to the UNSC than I ever did in all the time I spent raiding its outposts!"

- Wellesley in his diary after assassinating Admiral Davis Williams

On the day of the speech, Wellesley snuck into a cordoned-off building and set up an outdated M99 Stanchion Gauss Rifle. Midway during the speech, he opened fire, killing Williams but failing to hit the three other members of the Security Committee who were accompanying him. Not willing to allow such high level targets to escape, he pursued them when their bodyguards escorted them from the scene. Ambushing their convoy, David killed the guards and took the officers hostage in a crowded shopping mall. After doing the best they could to clear the building, UNSC forces surrounding the building and sent in several special warfare teams. After a harrowing firefight, Wellesley killed the attackers and continued to hold his captives without issuing any demands. Now desperate, the commander in charge of the hostage retrieval sent in a team of SPARTAN-IIs to put an end to the situation once and for all. During what Wellesley considered to be one of the highest points of his career, he outwitted the SPARTANs and managed to single-handedly kill one of their number. Forced to flee by the remaining SPARTANs, David executed the hostages and fled the scene after suffering multiple wounds. Three days later he escaped the planet as a stowaway on a civilian vessel.

Delta Halo


David was still free and at large, but Artemis was still tracking him with all of her considerable talents. After hacking into several secure UNSC databases and learning of the HPA's purpose, he knew that Artemis was the best of a group that had been trained to be some of the best fighters and assassins in the UNSC. Realizing that he would always be on the run if he didn't find a way to deal with his pursuer quickly, David devised a plan to even the playing field between them. Rather than fighting Artemis on open ground, he would lure her into the most hostile environment he could think of: the Flood-infested Delta Halo.

Leaving several clues for Artemis to follow, David snuck past the Sanghelli blockade around the system and waited in a stolen Prowler until a frigate carrying Artemis entered the system. Fleeing to the surface, David abandoned his Prowler and was forced to immediately defend himself against all manner of feral Flood forms. Meanwhile, the frigate dispatched Artemis to the surface to ensure Wellesley's death. David encountered and ambushed the HPA agent. Evading his initial attack, Artemis managed to withdraw and pin David down with battle rifle fire but was distracted by the arrival of more Flood. David used the opportunity to outflank his opponent and bring down her shields in the hopes that she would succumb to one of the many Infection Forms in the area. But Artemis managed to find cover until her shield had recharged before charging and wounding David with a shot to the arm. A follow-up grenade blew David and several Flood forms down a steep ravine, and Artemis signaled for her Pelican to pick her up, certain that the rebel was either dead or infected. However, David managed to fight his way back up the ravine and made it back to his Prowler, which had miraculously escaped detection by the Flood. Escaping the installation, he realized that he would have to continue provoking Artemis into fights if he wished to be able to eventually kill her.
 * Note: Due to this incident, the UNSC and the Sanghelli finally reached a unanimous accord to destroy Delta Halo, an act that was carried out a few months later.

The Pursuit
Once she discovered that Wellesley had survived the battle, Artemis threw herself into the task of finding and killing him once and for all. David led her on a goose-chase throughout UNSC space, engaging her in combat several times but always withdrawing before she could deliver the killing blow. In between these incidents David made a point of continuing his raids on UNSC outposts, often doing as little as to blow up a weapons cache or killing only a few guards before moving on. While on the run, David began to doubt his lifelong mission for the first time. He had witnessed firsthand how the UNSC could survive even the most dramatic of his attacks and that over a decade of fighting against it had not even weakened its galactic position in the slightest. When Artemis finally trapped him on the mining planet of Vulcan III, he had decided to set aside his lifelong grudge once he had killed the troublesome HPA agent.

The Final Confrontation
"Fifteen years... that's how long I've been fighting this war. I've always fought for the Liberation Army, but since I'm the only one left I'm considered a terrorist and a murderer rather than a soldier. No one can seem to look past flags and nationalities to see someone's true intentions. I've never killed a civilian, and yet I'm Public Enemy Number One instead of a skilled guerilla fighter who the enemy generals fear and respect, all because I don't have a nation to hail from. And what gets to me the most is that I've really accomplished nothing in all the time I've been fighting. It's time to accept that it's over. Once I've killed Artemis I'll be free of this burden. I'll hang up my armor, assume a new name, and live peacefully for the rest of my life. Once I've killed Artemis..."

- David Wellesley's final entry in his personal diary

Armor
The suit that David Wellesley made at his home was built from military-grade metals he had bought with his family's extensive fortune. It was originally very simple, with its only electronic systems located in the helmet in the form of a few targeting systems. Once he had linked up with the Liberation Army, however, David gained access to more capable technicians who were able to give the armor several upgrades. The armor's plates are of a lightweight build but are still able to deflect most UNSC munitions without taking damage themselves. They are somewhat less resistant to plasma, as fighting the Covenant was not high on David's priorities. Despite the armor's strength, David has allowed several unprotected spots to remain uncovered in order to increase his mobility, with the most serious case being the legs. He originally intended to install additional weapon systems on his wrist gauntlets, but when those proved to be impractical he simply outfitted them with slots to which a modified grenade launcher or a flechette launcher may be attached in desperate situations. The large device he carries on his back stores the systems for both a motion tracker (which is fed directly to his HUD and can have its range adjusted) and a means by which he can eavesdrop on enemy radio signals.