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This fanfiction article, Derek Frendsen, was written by slowfuture and Distant Tide. Please do not edit this fiction without the writers' permission. |
Captain Derek Frendsen is a commanding officer in the UNSC Navy and a senior staff operations officer with the ONI Section Three - Asymmetric Warfare Research Group during and after the Human-Covenant War. He held some notoriety as the handler for the Spartan-III Headhunter special mission unit VIOLET-III, including his infamous top operative Joshua-G024, and their manhunt operation for the rogue ONI Colour Gang in 2554.
The suspected desertion of Team Xiphos operative Amy-G094 during the Created conflict froze Frendsen's career after an Section Zero internal affairs review in 2560 found he mismanaged the mental well being of Spartan assets with deathly consequences. Frendsen continued sideline work in ONI covert operations but pivoted his efforts to corporate alignment with Cascade Stronghold Technologies, becoming a senior consultant and oversight board member for their powered armor division.
Frendsen remains a Cascadian ONI power broker despite Section Zero efforts to retire him. His connections to corporations and essential efforts to slow Banished incursions on the human outer colonies using the Project SLEIPNIR-style framework for deep-space strikes has unified Naval Intelligence and private military interests for the new decade.
Biography[]
Officer Candidate[]
Derek Frendsen was born in 2507 to career UNSC naval officers who recently moved to the urban city Mindoro, Cascade in the UEG Outer Colonies. The decline of the Colonial Military Administration (CMA) following its quiet cold war with the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) amidst the greater Insurrection remained a down pressure on his family affairs with reshuffling of CMA resources into UNSC jurisdiction. Frendsen attended government-funded public schooling followed by entry into the off-world Corbulo Cadet Academy at the age of fourteen. Frendsen was considered somewhat eccentric by his fellow cadets, mixing love of aggressive physical activity and education honors: particular in human history, language composition, and political science. However, he chose to focus on a lifesaver's course, and by 2524, he was in his cadet academy senior year on career track with the UNSC Navy, beginning as a hospital corpsman assigned to Marine Corps units.
- Corbulo Academy of Military Science (Class of 2524)
- Zuma Company, Squad Zulu-Two (Z-2)
- Ensign Derek Frendsen, Class Nickname: "Papyrus"
- Zuma Company, Squad Zulu-Two (Z-2)
Promoted to ensign, Frendsen shipped out... Learned at time that he's second cousins with THE Jacob Keyes ("Uncle Jacob")... which becomes further pressure on him as the Human-Covenant War continues.
VIOLET-III Actual[]
Frendsen serving with ONI deniable operations on the colonial frontier.
- Main article: VIOLET-III
Lieutenant Commander Derek Frendsen was a battle-tested veteran of ONI covert operations by the end of the Human-Covenant War with time on projects for ONI Signal Corps, the Prowler Corps, and Section Three black programs. In the final days of 2552, Frendsen received an invitation from the Naval Special Warfare Command (NAVSPECWAR) in collaboration with the Asymmetric Warfare Research Group (AWRG) to oversee a limited Headhunter unit expansion with operatives recruited from Spartan-III Gamma Company. Unlike established "Cat-2" and non-company team (NCT) assignments, the special mission unit VIOLET-III received under-manned Spartan teams and retrained them as Headhunter binary fireteams.
Frendsen and his staff picked up Team Xiphos and Cloidem as their units fell into the expected two-person cell size for Headhunters and held established team dynamics useful for bypassing the partnership acclamation period seen with new Headhunter units. This unit cohesion and fireteam model(s) saw adoption with other ONI agents in charge of Spartans outside the dedicated Headhunter division, reflecting a different, diversified culture from traditional Headhunter candidate and operator teams.
Prior to entering Frendsen's care, Team Cloidem and Xiphos were pulled from Gamma Company as temporary ("expendable") non-company teams for above-average training performance. Cloidem suffered three casualties during the data extraction mission on New Asia leaving John-G164 and Clara-G235 their only survivors. Team Xiphos then faced Operation: CONTAGIO PURGATIO in April 2552 involving the Flood aboard a lost Covenant science station. Joshua-G024 and Amy-G094 survived, joining VIOLET-III. Despite the heavy casualties under Joshua's command at New Asia, Frendsen installed him as commanding officer over Xiphos and Cloidem. Joshua seemed to learn his lesson as future missions did not result in the similar consequences after 2552. However, this decision remained a controversial choice within VIOLET-III among Spartans and ONI staffers alike, underlying frayed-distrustful relationships among the tragic survivors despite their high compatibility rates.
- Team Xiphos
- Joshua-G024 - Codename: DAEDALUS
- Amy-G094 - Codename: HERA
- Team Cloidem
- John-G164 - Codename: AENEAS
- Clara-G235 - Codename: CELESTIAL
When Covenant forces finally attacked Earth in November 2552, Frendsen reportedly deployed VIOLET-III to London where they assisted days-long civilian evacuation efforts in Operation: RISING HOPE. John-G164 was severely injured in combat with Jiralhanae, forcing Team Cloidem to enter operational pause and Team Xiphos continued to pull double duty as the Covenant War finally seemed to subside in December 2552. VIOLET-III took a brief stint providing close protection services for UEG government officials on Earth, then on colonial worlds as 2553 Martian food protests exploded from riots driven by foot shortage into a greater 2554 Mid-Rim Protests. Behind the scenes, Frendsen ordered VIOLET-III to infiltrate and assassinate the leadership of protest and rebel organizations alike.
Character[]
Derek Frendsen in his field officer BDU with a PDR-6800 pistol carbine.
Personality[]
He was fascinated by the longevity of Jameson Irish Whiskey and modern applications for paper to the point of maintaining the internal ONI service announcement and security series on physical document controls for three years before frontline responsibilities drew him away from military administration once more. Described as someone who "likes the functionality of old things," Frendsen used his student stipend to connect with offworld, online communities fancying old technology and collector items.
Quotes[]
- "Look, Duceppe, these Spartans are not your friends or progeny. We care for them, yes, but we must keep our distance because it is very likely that one day a mission we give them will be their last."
- ― Frendsen to Major Duceppe regarding Spartan-Handler attachments.