Winston Zhou

"I'm a living weapon. Point me, pay me, and I'll shoot."

- Winston Zhou

In the Post-War galaxy, mercenaries, pirates and assassins are in high demand. Winston Zhou is regarded as one of the most sought-after for his indifference to morality, class, creed, or species. He rose to infamy for being an instrument of destruction in the criminal underworld, both lauded and despised for his actions, his only loyalty being seemingly to money.

Early Life
Born in the 'baby boom' following the end of the, Winston Zhou never knew his parents, being abandoned in one of Venezia's many orphanages not long after his birth. Even his name was not that of his biological parents, it being given to him at the orphanage. Winston was a solitary child, never having any friends and often being pushed around my others growing up. He was noted for being quite intelligent compared to others, possessing an excellent memory, performing well in school, academically and physically. As he grew older, Winston found himself reacting to his bullies more and more, until one incident in the orphanage had him beating another boy to within an inch of his life before he could be restrained. This led to him being ostracised by the other children, fearful that he would attack again. Weeks of being shunned by the others led to Winston running away from the orphanage at the age of nine, fleeing into one of Venezia's dangerous cities.

Winston wandered through the slums for some time, a mixture of anger and self-pity in his mind for several hours until he realised that no one from the orphanage had come to look for him; they hadn't even realised his absence. Dejectedly returning to the only home he'd ever known, Winston found that while he'd been away, a number of armed men had arrived there. The people who ran the orphanage had in fact sold the children to a group, whom Winston assumed were gang members, as child soldiers. The forty terrified children were transported to a warehouse, where they would undergo harsh military training, some dying due to the brutality of their new 'instructors'. For the young Winston, confused and easy to manipulate like the others, this would be their new way of life.

After a few months, Winston's unit of child soldiers were driven off to another part of one of Venezia's sprawling cities, whereupon they were unleashed by their handlers into a vicious firefight against a rival organisation. Frightened, and facing an execution by his own side if he attempted to flee, Winston and the other child soldiers opened fire on their foes, killing several. The general mindset that the children had been put in was that what they were experiencing was like a game, many of the others rationalizing what they were doing that way. Winston, however, held few illusions of what was happening, even at a young age, and remained in cover until a grenade exploded dangerously close to his group, killing several and trapping him under a pile of rubble.

The nine year old was eventually able to claw his way out, bleeding and exhausted. Looking around, he saw that most of the corpses around him belonged to the children from the orphanage, forced to fight in a pointless battle. Wandering through the ruins, having lost his rifle, Winston attempted to get help from some of the people living nearby, but was turned away time and time again. Heading into a partially collapsed building, Winston came across a nest of snipers working for the opposing faction. However, without a gun and any kind of uniform, the soldiers assumed that he was merely a wounded child, and patched up his relatively minor injuries before returning to their work. It was only then that Winston realised that they were gunning down more of the forcibly recruited child soldiers in the street below. Taking a knife, which had been discarded by the snipers, he cut their throats from behind, the savagery and speed of these attacks surprising his foes, three men being brutally killed by the child, who merely wandered away, a blood-soaked blade in hand.

Having taken his first few lives, Winston made his way through the ruins until he stumbled upon the survivors of the brutal battle that had just occurred. His superiors were surprised to see him returning, considering the fact that most of the casualties had been children. He and the others were loaded up onto a truck once more, and taken to a far-off outpost in the Venezian countryside, whereupon he was presented to several leaders of the '', a word unfamiliar to the young man.The unit of child soldiers that had survived the battle were rewarded with decent food, fresh clothes and somewhere safe to sleep in return for their 'valiant service', Winston and the others taking this in immediately, it being announced that they would be moulded into better soldiers by their trainers there, that battle being the first of many. One of the main people in charge, a man named Mal Roberts, would attempt to inspire the young soldiers with speeches about freedom from tyranny and oppression, something that Winston, unlike many others, never really took to.

Over the years, Winston proved to be an avid learner, both on and off the battlefield. By the time he was thirteen, he was already leading his own unit into battle against rogue factions on Venezia, those who fought against the centralised leadership that governed the majority of the planet. He was well-educated by his superiors, finding a much better life in the hands of the insurrectionist military than he ever had in the poverty of the orphanage. A solid day of work, which generally included going into combat, killing everything that fought back, and looting what they could from their foes would lead to Winston and his comrades being rewarded, while failure, though rare, would end up in harsh punishments. During this time, Winston became well-versed in managing his weapon, obsessively cleaning and keeping his rifle in pristine condition for use almost every day. The mid-2560s were a troublesome time to grow up in, particularly with news of heightened activity from various groups across the colonies filtering in over the years and causing more and more outbreaks of violence across the planet. When Winston was fifteen, he and his soldiers came up against their greatest foe yet: The United Nations Space Command.

Battle of Venezia
Following the series of devastating attacks that had hit the Inner Colonies in 2567 and 68, the UNSC dispatched a fleet numbering forty vessels, carrying hundreds of thousands of troops, in order to reclaim Venezia and bring it back under UEG control. Having been in control for decades at this point, the Insurrectionist leadership were able to put up a fight, successfully destroying several enemy ships before they could deploy their forces on the planet. However, with the losses of leaders such as Roberts and Ulan not long before, squabbles quickly broke out amongst the remaining leaders over what to do, some favouring retreat over fighting and vice versa. Winston's unit was sent out in January 2569, venturing into the besieged city of. While before, Winston and his allies were used to dealing with poorly-armed gang members, traitors, and fugitives, they were now going up against well-equipped and trained UNSC Marines, supported by a number of the elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.

The teenagers never stood a chance against their foes, the battle turning into a massacre as most of them were quickly surrounded and killed, Winston barely escaping by using the corpse of one of his subordinates as a shield as he crawled through a grate into the city's sewer systems. There, he fled through the city, unarmed save for a stolen machete, eventually surfacing in a safer area, one of the few places still held by the Insurrection. There, he was forced back into the fray once more, being given a rifle and told to fight once more. By this point, seeing his comrades slaughtered, Winston attempted to hide the moment they came into contact with the enemy, attempting to act as a frightened, innocent child, as he had done years before. However, once he was discovered by a group of ODST's he found that throwing himself to the mercy of his foe was not the best idea, as they prepared to execute him. Panicking, Winston was able to stab one of the men with his machete, attempting to use the body as a shield from the others, who immediately opened fire, one shot wounding him. Before they could finish him off, the troopers were cut to pieces in a hail of bullets.

Before he could flee once more, Winston came face to face with a middle-aged man, wielding a large machine gun. Unlike the distinctive uniforms that many rebel soldiers wore on Venezia, this man appeared to be a rogue or a mercenary. Giving a friendly introduction, the man introduced himself as Carlos Driscol, and offered to take Winston to safety. Not having any real options at this point, Winston followed him through the ruins, avoiding firefights until they were able to ambush a UNSC patrol. Driscol, using his machine gun, massacred the soldiers in seconds, stealing their warthog transport and trusting the teenager with an assault rifle as the pair drove out of the city. Winston did not trust his new companion, deciding to interrogate him at gunpoint as they drove. Rather then fearing him, Driscol calmly explained that he was merely passing through the city when the battle began, and had taken Winston with him to act as a partner, reasoning that anyone able to stab an ODST to death would be a formidable opponent.

Escape
The pair eventually arrived at a Venezian spaceport, which had been seized by the UNSC. The fact that they were both armed and driving a stolen warthog would instantly mark them as rebels, Driscol deciding to incinerate their vehicle to catch the attention of those patrolling the area, allowing them to infiltrate the spaceport unseen. The plan worked, Driscol and Winston managing to enter via a hole in the perimeter fence, slipping into the detainment camp for refugees attempting to flee Venezia. Here, Winston was given new clothes to replace his tattered and bloody uniform, and sent around the camp to gather information, while Driscol attempted to find a ship. Walking around, Winston recognised a few others as former fighters who had slipped in amongst the civilians and were trying to get offplanet. While this strategy might have worked, Driscol revealed that he was wanted by the UNSC for taking part in large-scale attacks two years previously, reasoning that their only way out would be to steal a ship.

Introducing his new partner to his old comrades, Winston was used as a distraction for Driscol and a dozen others to gun down the guards in the refugee camp before fleeing towards some of the civilian ships in the spaceport. While it took some time for the Marines to return from investigating the torched warthog, the rebels were still outnumbered, most of them fleeing towards the grounded civilian ships rather than fighting. Winston was wounded as a bullet hit his shoulder, the teenager dropping instantly. To his surprise, rather than abandoning him to his fate, Driscol began to carry him, taking him towards a ship that had been commandeered by the fighters. Allowing Winston to climb aboard, Driscol attempted to kick away a fragmentation grenade that had been thrown by one of the Marines, only to have it detonate, blowing off a large portion of his right leg in the process. Still under heavy fire, Winston dragged his saviour aboard the transport as it took off.

While aboard, Winston and the few survivors tended to Driscol's wounds, mending his leg as best they could while they slipped past the UNSC Fleet unnoticed. Eventually, the decision was made to place him in cryosleep for the duration of their journey to other frontier worlds. Winston, who by the age of fifteen had killed dozens of men and survived several massacres, was completely unsure of what to do with his life, and resolved to do whatever he could to save Driscol's life. After two weeks aboard the transport, they arrived at the Caucasus Asteroids, a large, independent settlement that had lost the majority of it's military protection due to an attack by the UNSC the previous year. Once there, they were able to get Driscol to a proper doctor, allowing him to recover and fitting him with a robotic prosthetic leg to replace his lost one. As a token of gratitude, the old insurrectionist allowed Winston to accompany him on his travels throughout the frontier worlds.

Training
"You've got skill, kid, I'll give you that, but no talent. I'll teach you how to fight."

- Abd-al-Qadir ibn Asad, upon meeting Winston.

For nearly two years, Winston and Driscol worked as freelance mercenaries on many lawless worlds that dotted the very edge of UNSC-controlled space, eking out a decent living in spite of the latter's advancing age. Winston, on the other hand, had become stronger, faster, and much more proficient in a variety of weapons. In early 2571, the pair arrived on the small planetoid of Escalera, which was home to a thriving independent community of Humans and Kig-Yar. Staying there for a few nights, they encountered an old ally of Driscol's, Abd-al-Quadir ibn Asad, a former Private Military Contractor also known as 'The Lion'.

Though in retirement, the old soldier took Winston in for training in the art of combat, Driscol having grown weary of their partnership, some part of the man actually caring for the boy's well-being. Finding a note from his mentor, Winston was left alone with Asad to begin his training. While as a child soldier he had mastered the basics of combat and killing, Asad's specialised training would teach him a number of lethal skills that would come in handy over the years, including infiltration, marksmanship, and several forms of close quarters combat, honing the teenager into a well-trained soldier. The older man was a harsh, if fair teacher for Winston, ensuring that his mistakes were punished, while triumphs were rewarded.

While Asad was certainly not the warrior he had once been, his brutal training regime, which would take place on all but one day of the week, also gave Winston a sense of discipline that he had never quite possessed, as well as the important virtue of patience. More than once he failed a test by rushing in too quickly, only to be 'killed' in training sessions. Winston would often ask questions about his trainer's past, learning a great deal about Asad's work heading a PMC that worked largely on the UNSC's payroll, against both the Insurrectionists and the Covenant until they dissolved, having lost a great deal of funding and members. Winston also had a great interest in the Human-Covenant War, which had ended nearly a year before his birth, learning in great detail about mankind's former foes and more importantly, the best ways to kill them.

Winston came to appreciate his apprenticeship under Asad, the two becoming good friends in the year of training that the former underwent. The old soldier, who had been initially suspicious of the disturbed boy left to him by Driscol, had come to put a great deal of faith in his abilities, hoping that his skills would be passed on for the better. Likewise, Winston saw Asad as a sort of father figure, as opposed to Driscol, who had been more of an aloof, unapolagetic ally. However, by the end of his training, Winston had no ideas of what to do with himself, knowing about little else aside from killing and war. Seeing talent in the boy, Asad was the one that finally suggested taking up solo mercenary work, giving him the equipment, weapons and money to start out in the business before sending him offworld on a transport shuttle towards the nearest colony world.

Mercenary Work
For several months, Winston drifted from settlement to settlement, finding work where he could as an enforcer, though he was often rather picky about what his jobs entailed, usually concerning the people involved. Having grown up in the slums of Venezia, he was very reluctant to act as little more than a thug collecting money from the poor. As such, Winston found it very difficult to maintain a steady stream of paying jobs. More than once he was confronted by hirelings from local crime lords demanding payment or his services. His generally violent reaction to these threats gained him a few enemies while starting out as a mercenary, though in terms of power these were little fish in a massive pond.

In late 2573, Winston was offered his first big time job, which offered nearly a million credits for the assassination of Toby Maxwell, the heir to a massive corporation that supplied many human colonies. Due to the importance of the target and the handsome payoff, he was one of dozens to apply for the mission, various would-be assassins and mercenaries working against each other for the winnings. Being barely twenty at the time, Winston was looked down on by many of his older competitors, who had been killing before he was born. Their target was located in a high-rise building in Kuiper, the capital of Circumstance, in the Inner Colonies.

Setting off with the others, Winston was well aware that the others would gladly kill one another to be first to the prize, and was proved right when another mercenary attempted to shoot him in the back, only to have his gun jam. Enraged, Winston easily killed his opponent, and set out to kill their target first, murdering or incapacitating any of the others he came across. It was this ruthless efficiency that got him into the company tower first, successfully breaking into the apartment of Maxwell with little trouble from security. The target was not present, as their informant had told them. Instead, nearly two dozen guards were waiting for the mercenary to arrive, opening fire on Winston seconds after he entered.

The young man was able to kill nearly two thirds of his attackers despite being heavily outnumbered, but wounds and a lack of ammo began to take their toll. Eventually, one of his foes, a man named Gordon Mills, forced him out of cover with the pretence that he would not be killed. With little choice, Winston stepped into the open, throwing his weapons down. Mills introduced himself as a fellow mercenary, and revealed that their entire mission had been a 'game' set up by none other than the target himself. Then, he promptly shot Winston in the face.

Out of sheer luck, the bullet did not kill Winston, though it did destroy his left eye and cause major damage to the side of his face, knocking him out cold. Believing him to be dead, Mills ordered his body to be taken to an incinerator at the base of the tower. Before his body was burned, Winston awoke, surprising and overpowering his captors in seconds, snapping the neck of one while forcing the other into the incinerator. Badly wounded, he was able to escape from the tower and into the lower district of Kuiper, where he eventually passed out due to blood loss.