List of Crusader characters

This is a list of characters appearing in the Origin Systems Crusader games. Interaction between the player and these characters usually takes place through a FMV cutscene playing, therefore each character's description is also accompanied by the name of the actor/actress portraying him/her.

Resistance characters

The Captain

The Captain is a Silencer, a fictional type of soldier in the Crusader games, and the silent player-controlled protagonist of the series, introduced in the introduction movie of Crusader - No Remorse. No name is ever given and it is unknown if the character is male or female, with even the Vetron in the intro movie identifying him as "???" despite successfully discerning the names of his squadmates. The Captain receives two nicknames in the game, "Tin Man" and "Red". The Captain was once a member of the WEC Silencer Corps before defecting. His origins are unknown. According to the game manual, Silencers are picked out in their adolescent years and recruited for life. They undergo rigorous training and are trained to be the ultimate soldier. He is distinguished by his red armor. During the course of events of Crusader - No Remorse, the player finds out that the Captain, and other Silencers, are possibly the result of genetic engineering and cloning. The Captain is shown joining the Resistance in the year 2196, after an attack on his team by a WEC Vetron for failing to carry out orders. The Captain joins Echo Base and performs several missions including sabotage, assassination, espionage and intelligence. At the end of the game, the Captain is tasked to destroy the WEC's new orbital space station, the Vigilance Platform.

The Captain survives the events of No Remorse and returns in No Regret, after successfully destroying the Vigilance Platform. He joins the Resistance on Earth's Moon and combats the WEC's Lunar Mining Cartel in a series of missions which include sabotage of key installations, espionage and the liberation of Resistance operatives. The game concludes when the Captain destroys the headquarters of the Lunar Mining Cartel and kills his nemesis, Chairman Draygan.

While The Captain never speaks, the occasional clue to his nature, that of a human, is revealed. He grunts audibly when injured, and screams when killed, all in an identifiably male voice. Though his defection was out of necessity, his loyalty appears inexplicably unshakeable, even when offered grandiose rewards to return to the fold by Dr. Hoffman and Senator Snell. If killed, the death animation occasionally reveals the caucasian flesh of the Silencer's chin under his helmet, and he always produces a blood puddle when he dies, confirming perhaps that he is not in fact an android as Denning posits. In the opening animation, just before his compatriots are slain, The Captain shows obvious distress, clutching the side of his helmet as if somehow sensing danger through a premonition of some sort, but the most revealing clue to The Captain's humanity is an E-mail from General Maxis, following the mission involving clone soldiers. Maxis confirms receiving an inquiry from The Captain regarding his origins, and reports Central searching all Resistance as well as WEC records but could find no evidence to prove, nor disprove that he is genetically engineered. This is consistent with the Vetron in the intro movie being unable to identify him at all.

Gen. Quentin Maxis

Citizen # 4R-3G9-8773-XXX

Age: 57 (at beginning of No Remorse)

Height: 178 cm

Weight: 88 kg

Brown hair, brown eyes

A former colonel of the WEC military, Quentin Maxis (Ev Lunning) began to feel a growing distrust of the bureaucrats and the means through which they governed while he was in the military. After abandoning his life with the WEC, Maxis joined the ranks of the Resistance, where he quickly became one of their most important leaders, assuming the rank of General, and apparently becoming the head of all armed forces in the Resistance. At present he is part of Central (the Resistance directive office) and from his hidden HQ directs the efforts against the WEC. Maxis is the man responsible for welcoming the Captain into the Resistance, convincing the rest of Central to give the Silencer a chance, as he sympathizes with the Silencer's apparent motivations for leaving the service of the WEC. His only appearance in No Regret is in the form of an e-mail (viewable from the game's help files). He offers condolences on the loss of Resistance's Echo sector personnel, and notes that even his most skeptical officers no longer doubt the Silencer's loyalty—and as such he is expanding the Captain's clearance on the Resistance server, allowing him access to information about the Resistance's activities, goals, and personnel on the Moon, where he assumes the Silencer will turn up next.

Col. Stephon Ely

Citizen # 9A-8T99-5613-XXX

Age: 40 (at beginning of No Remorse)

Height: 190 cm

Weight: 95 kg

Black hair, black eyes

Ely (Alex Morris) is the Commanding Officer of the Echo Sector Resistance base and the man the Silencer reports to for briefing during No Remorse. He is a tall black man who enjoys smoking cigars and chewing their stubs in the corner of his mouth. An ex-WEC soldier himself, Ely had an undistinguished career, aside from achieving the rank of Captain and qualifying for Special Forces duty, yet it seems to have been mainly lack of enthusiasm—he's admired and respected by his troops in Echo base. Colonel Ely is skeptical about the addition of a Silencer to his unit, but comes to trust the new recruit upon seeing the results of his missions, whether unqualified successes or snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Ely is captured by the WEC during a mission, probably because security forces were tipped off about his location by the spy in the Resistance. Sent for detainment to the "Darkside station" on the Moon, he is later rescued by the Captain. It's unclear if he takes actual command of the base. Perhaps due to his long captivity, he seems content to let Shepherd take the initiative, at least at first.

Lt. Col. Matt Shepherd

Citizen # 3D-24GT-4742-DDD

Age: 36 (at beginning of No Regret)

Height: 183 cm

Weight: 82 kg

Brown hair, brown eyes

Lt. Col. Shepherd (Rick Porter) was an officer working for the WEC Security Cartel on the Moon, but became a Resistance sympathizer upon witnessing the harsh treatment of the prisoners working in the mines. After working as a spy for the Resistance, Shepherd was helped to stage his "death" in a shuttle accident and later covertly returned to the WEC base on the Moon to become the first full-time Resistance officer of the lunar garrison. He has great admiration for the Silencer's skills, but is not above ribbing him a little if he makes a harmless mistake—or chewing him out if he makes a major one. He is also a fair strategist—among others, it's his idea to implant a program allowing the Resistance to take control of trams, granting them greater mobility on Darkside base.

Major Jo Anne Vargas

Citizen # 4V-9G31-4556-XXX

Age: 32 (at beginning of No Remorse)

Height: 173 cm

Weight: 56 kg

Dark brown hair, hazel eyes

An attractive and charismatic woman, Major Vargas (Suzanne Savoy) has been part of the Resistance for years and has often worked with Central in preparing various manifestos for the movement. She was assigned to the Philadelphia unit when that base was attacked by WEC forces and captured. Unknown to anyone in the Resistance, while in captivity, she struck a deal with Chairman Draygan to work as a double agent, spying on Resistance activities and reporting them back to the WEC. Rescued by the Silencer, she is taken back to Echo base. As rumor about the theorized mole spreads, Vargas drops hints and fires off misdirecting suggestions, such as hinting the mole could have infiltrated Central, rather than Echo base, and framing Brooks for the kidnapping of Colonel Ely. When her betrayal is later discovered, Vargas has the Resistance base destroyed and its personnel killed. Assigned by Draygan to direct the efforts to crush the Resistance from the Vigilance platform, she assumes the role of the game's final boss figure as the platform is on the verge of overload. The final confrontation finds her guarding the station's last lifepod, numerous bodies of guards, scientists and even senators strewn about her, implying she has been killing them all as they attempted to escape. Enraged that not only is her career with the Resistance over, but with the Consortium as well with the destruction of the Vigilance Platform, Vargas claims to have numerous backup plans in place once she kills the Silencer in a fight over the last lifepod, to which she has the only access card. She is ultimately slain, either by the Silencer's hand, or with the explosive demise of the Vigilance Platform (should the player realize that hers is, in fact, not the only access card available and steal the one on a box by the escape hatch, or strangely enough, discover that neither card is necessary to open it).

Sgt. Shannon Brooks

Citizen # 2N-9U3-2214-DXX

Age: 28 (at the beginning of No Remorse)

Height: 168 cm

Weight: 54 kg

Brown hair, hazel eyes

A fierce young woman, Shannon Brooks (Tonie Perensky) is a fanatical Resistance believer, mostly because of her early life: Brooks' parents were both killed when the WEC annihilated the city of Petra for declaring its independence from the Consortium. Among the operatives of Echo base, she probably feels the most distrust towards the Captain (she is also arguably the most skeptical of Major Vargas). Due to the spy's activities, she is captured by the WEC and even fingered as the spy for a short time, until the Silencer catches the real spy "red-handed" and rescues Brooks from a WEC prison. Brooks, though heavily injured, helps guide the Silencer through the Vigilance platform, and shows at least grudging respect for him. Brooks' only appearance in No Regret is in e-mail form, where she notes, approximately 46 hours after the end of No Remorse, that the Resistance's doctors have declared her fit for duty; apparently, she has also been promoted to Lieutenant. She also seems to genuinely like the Captain by this point, nicknaming him Red, and addressing him as sir in her sign-off (whereas in the early part of No Remorse, she was blatantly insubordinate and even threatened the Silencer's life more than once).

Cpl. Troy 'Wizard' Reaves

Citizen # 7B-8Y21-5489-XXX

Age: 26 (at beginning of No Remorse)

Height: 180 cm

Weight: 80 kg

Brown hair, blue eyes

Cpl. Reaves (Taylor Gibbler) is the head of Echo base's technical division. He is a specialist in informatics and picked up the nickname "Wizard" during childhood, due to his prodigious hacking talents. His computer skills are vital to the Resistance, not only because Reaves can infiltrate the WEC network and scavenge for information, but, most importantly, he is their "extraction specialist" (a position he's quite proud of), capable of tapping into the WEC teleporter grids and taking temporary control of pads, thus allowing Resistance operatives to get in and out of enemy installations quickly and easily. He has an active sense of humor; he is the first to call the Captain "Tin Man", and in the personnel files in one of No Remorse's manuals, added a number of handwritten joking comments in the margins (Maxis notes Reaves likely didn't know the General would be reviewing the material personally). Reaves was murdered by Major Vargas when she had the WEC troopers assault Echo base.

Cpl. Nicholas "Yo-Yo" Cardova

Citizen # 6Y-5B52-4589-XXX

Age: 32 (at beginning of No Remorse)

Height: 173 cm

Weight: 90 kg

Brown hair, brown eyes

A Latino man, Nicholas Cardova (Carlos Compean) has been in the Resistance for some time and has undergone a good share of operations. He is notable for his belligerent attitude, quick temper (both of which according to WEC files goes back to grammar school), and the number of times he's been promoted to and demoted from the rank of corporal—when the Silencer first meets him, he is a private yet again. Despite (or perhaps because of, in a society that values conformity and ignorance) his hotheadedness, he is actually quite intelligent, having attended college and majored in political science. Yet again it was his impulsiveness that got him into trouble; in his sophomore year he was convicted for "dissemination of anti-Consortium propaganda". After serving his three-year sentence, he was recruited by the Resistance, and has remained underground with them since. He initially welcomes the Silencer with pure venom. However, after several operations in support of the Captain, including one where he is restored to corporal and witnesses "the biggest explosion [he's] ever seen", his attitude reverses, and he becomes almost fond of the Silencer, if only because of the Captain's talent for destruction. He is killed after Major Vargas's betrayal leads WEC forces to Echo Sector base.

Pvt. Derrick "Taxman" Andrews

Citizen # 46-9L22-1677-XXX

Age: 38 (at beginning of No Remorse)

Height: 188 cm

Weight: 84 kg

Brown hair, green eye

Andrews (Gabriel Folse) worked for the most part of his life for the WEC in the Revenue Assessment Division (i.e. the IRS) and was nicknamed "Taxman" by Resistance members after his defection. Disgusted by the methods of the WEC—most likely by the El Paso Tax Insurrection of 2189—he became a Resistance soldier and was assigned to Echo base. Aside from Reaves, Andrews seems to be viewed as the least skilled fighter on base, and often appears nervous, particularly in combat situations. Andrews is one of the few Resistance operatives who is not hostile to the Silencer; in fact, he seems to have more respect for the Captain than anyone at Echo Base, possibly due to sympathizing with his defection and the attitude the others treat them with. During the fourth in-game mission, Andrews is ambushed by a squad of WEC soldiers. Badly outnumbered, he is killed in action, but not before managing to shut down a forcefield blocking the Silencer's way. It's very likely the ambush had been set up by the spy in the Resistance, who probably warned the WEC of the Rebels' upcoming raid. Andrews' death does nothing for the Silencer's reputation: Brooks threatens him with pain and death if they find out he had anything to do with the betrayal.

"Weasel"

A.K.A.: Alvin Tarkin, Leroy Cern, Alberto Devense, Sally Horrowitz, Lyle Lepardo, Antonio Zero

Citizen # Unknown

Age: Unknown, presumed early 30s (at beginning of No Remorse)

Height: 180 cm

Weight: 72 kg

Brown/silver hair, blue eyes

A mysterious fellow with brizzolato hair, Weasel's (Marco Perella) full name is unknown. Even the WEC database does not hold much data on his background since he is a "refusenik"—a man whose identity has not been registered. Weasel has at least half a dozen other known aliases (listed above), and has a truly staggering rap sheet, including crimes such as "exploitation of a minor" and "maintaining a bawdy house". His nickname probably stems from the weasel, whom he calls Baby, occasionally hanging on his left shoulder, or perhaps his ability to wriggle through tight spots. Weasel is portrayed as a slightly twitchy, theatrical man. In the game, Weasel works as a black market arms dealer, rather than as an actual Rebel operative, and is the individual the Captain has to rely upon for buying new equipment between missions if he can't find it during the missions. Barring finding secret and hidden areas in-game, one can get weapons and equipment farther along the power curve much sooner with him than in missions. It is speculated that Weasel was killed by WEC soldiers when Echo base was overrun, but unlike the others, his body is not found at the base (although that may be because the designers were able to use "generic" Rebel corpses for the others, but would have had to create a unique body for him).

Allen Denning

Citizen # 4F-16DT-2729-EXX

Age: 36 (at beginning of No Regret)

Height: 172 cm

Weight: 82 kg

Brown hair, brown eyes

Denning (Kevin Page) is a civilian operator in the Resistance. Imprisoned at 18 by the WEC for vandalism, his sentence was extended due to his adulthood, and he was later deported to the Moon, where he worked as a Di-Coreallium miner. After completing his term, he was offered a job as shuttle pilot thanks to the help of a WEC administrator, who was also a Resistance sympathizer. Introduced to the underground movement himself, Denning now acts as a courier and smuggler, but also takes part in Resistance guerrilla operations. Diagnosed with untreatable leukemia linked to Di-Cor poisoning, Denning has requested to continue Resistance operations as long as he remains physically able. Within the game, Denning is the first Luna operative to contact the Silencer, and guides him through the LMC's freighter to the plasma turbine, allowing the two of them to destroy it and get clear to the moon. Denning acts as the Captain's contact back at the Resistance's Lunar base during the fifth mission. He claims he has "never seen anything as efficient as [the Silencer] in [his] life", and wonders if he's an android, or perhaps genetically altered. Denning is killed in an ambush planned by Director Leach.

Marian "Torch" Leibnitz

Citizen # 9G-26TF-3732-AXX

Age: 30 (at beginning of No Regret)

Height: 193 cm

Weight: 132 kg

Black hair, brown eyes

A heavyset man, Torch (Troy Curvey jr) much prefers to be referred to by his nickname only. He was a problematic boy long before being arrested and imprisoned by the WEC. He always had a knack for explosives, and after entering the Resistance he became one of the movement's most trusted demolitions experts. Captured during a London operation, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on the Moon to mine Di-Coreallium. Torch kept his role as an active Resistance operative until an accident in the mines and complications from a poorly treated wound resulted in the loss of his left arm (which has since been replaced with a working prosthetic mining drill, a compromise he appears alarmingly content with). Currently he is tasked with mission planning and coordination, and his expertise in the mines makes him the go-to man for reconnaissance and aiding other Resistance soldiers navigate through often mazelike tunnels. He is also able to lend some of his demolitions knowledge, advising fellow operatives where and how to place explosives for maximum effect. Almost immediately after the Silencer teleports into the mines, Torch contacts him. At the end of that mission, he disappears, only to appear a few missions later after disposing of some LMC agents (hinting very obviously at the use of his mining drill arm to this end), and guide the Silencer through the mines to an ore separator that is to be destroyed. Throughout the rest of the game, Torch reliably provides navigational advice with enthusiasm and good humor, reacting with amusement if his advice is unheeded. In his last appearance in the game, he is well pleased with the Silencer's accomplishments. It can be assumed he survives later events in the game, though he doesn't appear in the final transmission to the Silencer from the Resistance base.

Professor Sekada

Professor Sekada (Melissa Deleon) is a female scientist formerly of the Consortium working at "Darkside station" on the Moon. Her research was aimed at seeking alternative power sources to Di-Coreallium—their funding came from Senators who believed that the reliance on Di-Cor was a mistake. When Sekada's work was about to show the first promising results, her lab was stormed by WEC troopers under orders from Director Leach. The guards destroyed the lab, killed all of Sekada's staff, imprisoned the Professor, and stole the research results. She is later rescued by the Silencer and then becomes a member of the Resistance, occasionally helping the other operatives by directing missions from the control room of the Resistance base.

WEC characters

President Gauthier

An unseen character, President Gauthier's (Grant James) presence is limited to his voice which is heard during some conversations with Chairman Draygan in No Regret. Presumably the highest-ranked politician in the Consortium, Gauthier seems to be the only person of whom Draygan is afraid, likely because the President is his only superior. Judging from his words, Gauthier is definitely hostile to the Resistance, but seems happy enough to let Draygan do all the dirty work for him, and definitely wouldn't mourn Draygan upon his death.

Chairman Nathaniel Draygan

Over the course of No Remorse Chairman Draygan (Everett "Woody" Skaggs) is the visible presence of WEC political power. A man in his mid forties with gray hair, Draygan is a strong opposer of the Resistance and he seeks to destroy the underground movement by any means necessary, be it plain old military assaults or devious nerve gas attacks. He is also the man behind the Vigilance platform, an orbital installation designed to be the ultimate solution against the Resistance. In the events of No Regret, Draygan has apparently become obsessed with taking vengeance against the Silencer, who has thwarted the Chairman's plans and projects time and again. The Silencer's dogged survival and success even seems to have unhinged him slightly, as he attempts to destroy the entirety of Darkside Station, which would kill everyone on-station—including the Silencer, the Resistance, and probably himself. This plot, too, is foiled by the Captain. Ultimately his failure leads President Gauthier to condemn him, leaving "this...carpet stain you call a soul" to the mercy of the Rebels. When The Silencer finally breaches LMC headquarters, Draygan is there to engage him directly, piloting a tremendous, heavily armed servomech, but is inevitably defeated. While there is no doubt the end result of the confrontation itself is fatal to the Chairman (his head visibly explodes all over the cockpit's glass dome), the following explosion of LMC Headquarters adds to the certainty of his demise.

Senator Everette Snell

A corrupt Consortium politician, Senator Snell (Ron Jackson) is a man whose main interest seems to be enjoying the power coming from his political position. Snell is also the man whom Draygan turns to when the Chairman requires the Senate to vote according to his desires. Captured for interrogation by the Captain, Snell is later able to flee from Resistance custody, but is shot by Draygan when he reports back to the WEC headquarters, possibly because he was of no more use to the Chairman, or maybe because the WEC suspected he gave up information to the Resistance.

Dr. Gregor Hoffman

While most of the population is led to believe that Dr. Hoffman's (Edwin Neal) research is aimed at preserving lives through his discoveries, the simple truth is that Hoffman is a classic mad scientist. As shown in his conversations with his assistant Doyle, Hoffman is more than willing to use Resistance prisoners like they are guinea-pigs for his experiments, like the "mind probe" project, and behaves with utter amorality mixed with more than a touch of theatricality. Hoffman is the mastermind of yet another project, aimed at creating the perfect soldier: he genetically engineered at least one batch of troopers which are supposed to be the newest members of the Silencer Corps (and may have created an earlier one, of which the Captain may have been a member). As the first group of this batch approaches physical maturity in their vats, Hoffman is killed by the Captain during a raid against the Consortium research center where he is working on his Silencer project.

Director Judith Leach

Judith Leach (Mary Chris Wall) is the woman in charge of the direction of "Darkside Station" on the Moon. Despite the relatively small size of the lunar base and the Lunar Mining Cartel itself, her position is crucial, as most of Earth's energy supply relies on di-coreallium, and at least half the known reserves in the solar system are on the Moon. Soon after being appointed she began a zero tolerance policy against the prisoners with the precise purpose of keeping di-coreallium production on schedule with the ever-growing demands of Earth industries. Leach is absolutely uncaring of the lives of the prisoners; her interest is to get the job done, whether that means increasing Di-Cor production or crushing the Resistance presence on the Moon. During his visit to the lunar base, after several attempts are launched to find and kill the Silencer (and the Resistance, too), Chairman Draygan has Director Leach arrested by his bodyguards, feeling she has failed the WEC too many times. Her status remains unknown since it is not clearly stated if she has been imprisoned or executed. However, in No Remorse, Draygan made it quite clear he is not above killing a subordinate personally, and members of the team that briefly worked on Crusader 2 stated she would have played a part in the game.

Other characters

There are other characters in the game who are not explicitly aligned with or against the Captain after he makes his decision to join the Resistance.

Professor Joseph Willmar

A slightly overweight, middle-aged man working for the Consortium, Professor Willmar (Rick Perkins) is a brilliant scientist working in the field of weapons development. He has struck a deal with General Maxis to help the Resistance to gain access to restricted structures by supplying key cards. He is nervous, unhappy, and worried about his role, often whining, "I'm just a scientist!", and at one point theorizing he'll be dead soon—from a heart attack. While working on his latest invention, the "graviton shield", he is arrested, probably because the spy in the Resistance revealed Willmar's Resistance complicity to the WEC. In an extraction attempt, Prof. Willmar is killed after stepping on a sabotaged teleporter whose signal had been scrambled by the spy, liquefying him (a fate shared by The Silencer should he be foolhardy enough to try to use the teleport pad himself).

Trina Jenkins

Trina Jenkins (Lisa MacKenzie) is one of the WEC's best known anchorwomen. She appears in the daily "WEC News" show (often in company of Josh Starns), reading the propaganda-filled "news" supplied by the Consortium. Usually such reports describe the results of the latest mission undergone by the Silencer as acts of terrorism or crimes against humanity while concealing the truth about such operations from the general population and downplaying the effects of the attack. She seems to believe what she says most of the time, although after the Resistance destroys a stockpile of nerve gas with a small nuclear bomb in No Remorse, she vehemently denies there was a mushroom cloud, calling the explosion a "celebration of recent Consortium victories against the Resistance". She then falters very slightly when she reads the next line: that due to a "small accident", the base will be closed for the next two years.

Josh Starns

Another "WEC news" anchorman, Starns (Doug Forest) usually appears on screen with Trina Jenkins, but on some editions he will be the only newsreader present. He too blindly reports the fake news provided by the Consortium. One example is when the Silencer kills Gregor Hoffman, in the midst of his engineering a new breed of soldier; Starns says that Hoffman was gunned down while working in the critical care unit of a hospital. Starns also tends to add opinionated statements derogatory to the Resistance, such as "if you're listening out there, Rebels, there's no escape, so you might as well give up", though whether these are scripted or his own ad libs isn't clear. Starns doesn't appear in No Regret.

Col. Anton Zurovec

Zurovec was the head of the Captain's team leading up to the beginning of No Remorse. Though a Silencer, he seems a bit idealistic, at once certain that it is not his place to kill civilians, and at the same time believing that the WEC will hear them out. He is killed by a Vetron while discussing with Vittek what they should do next.

Maj. Marcus Vittek

Vittek was one of the Captain's group leading up to the beginning of No Remorse. Vittek seems cynical and pragmatic, apparently thinking the three of them should not have let the civilians go, and is quite certain that the WEC will be hunting them down and killing them, as has already been tried by sending a Vetron after the three of them. He references someone named "Owens", who is implied to be a Silencer who was killed for committing similar acts of disobedience. He is killed while discussing with Zurovec what they should do next.

Trivia

References

See also