⊗ R/s App, Part 1

[betrayedtwin]

Player Name: Jchan
Player LJ: vampydirector
Email and/or AIM: vampwrite@gmail.com / vampwrite
Timezone: EST
Other Characters: Ten, Rory

Character: Agent North Dakota (or "North" for short. His real name is unknown.)
Series: Red vs Blue
Deviance: 2. His point of deviation hasn't happened yet, but will in the future in the middle of an important mission in season 9, episode 2. In canon, an alert is issued when a soldier is shot and lands on the alarm button, but for this deviance, he doesn't, and they're able to complete the mission in secrecy. It doesn't seem much immediately, but that mission's complete success will have huge ramifications down the line that don't involve knocking his sister, South, down on the ranking board, and will ultimately lead to a very different end to things years down the road.

Age: Mid twenties (same age as South, but technically still older)
Gender: Male
Species: Human

Canon Used: The online machinima webseries known as Red vs. Blue, and the Halo series in terms of terminology of weapons and basic mythology, though RvB is really its own bubble universe in the Halo universe (see chart in the reality description). We actually first meet North canonly in a mini-series called "Recovery One" (which is set between seasons 5 and 6), however...we meet him at the end of his life. Jump to season 9, which is partially set in the past (the other part is complicated and unrelated to this part of the timeline), and we get to see North alive and before everything in the series ever happens. Yeah for prequels!

Appearance: North is tall, well over six feet and even taller with his armor on. (He's actually one of the tallest agents in the Freelancer program (who we know of anyway), second to Agent Maine.) He wears purple-colored Mark VI MJOLNIR body armor with vivid green trim. He's usually armed with a sniper rifle and submachine gun (or SMG for short), but it wouldn't be unusual to see those switched out with a shotgun or pistol depending on whether he's in the middle of a mission or not. (He and South tend to rotate which weapons they're using if they're fighting together.) Underneath that armor, though, North is a regular human. He has blond hair and blue eyes ( ignore the blood in this one) with an aquiline nose. No doubt he has his own set of scars from rough-housing as a kid and any other injuries (from bullets, knives, etc) he might have sustained in training exercises and missions.

Psychology:
North is practically the antithesis of his twin sister, South. Where she is hasty and impatient, he's cautious and very patient, and tolerant of said impatience. This is a man who very much loves his sister and would do anything to protect her. But he isn't so blinded by this need that he won't let her make her own mistakes. Oh no. He's definitely had to make himself sit back while she went barrelling off into some situation that he knew wouldn't turn out in her favor, and if it didn't, he is the first to go in and pick her up off her feet. He won't say "I told you so"; by this point; it's somewhat implied, but he won't rub her face in it. He knows it'd only make her mad, and one of the many things he's learned over the years is how easy it is to piss her off.

North has this cool older brother feel about him. If he had any other siblings who were much younger than him, he'd be the type who wouldn't mind them tagging along--and probably would invite them halfway into their plottings to invade whatever activity it was he was going to do. He'd rather encourage an atmosphere where everyone can get along on some level so if there are any real problems aside from petty differences, those can be focused on instead. He's very much a good guy in that respect, and truly believes Project Freelancer is on the side of the good guys, too, since they're working towards finding a way to win the war. And he can take a joke and laugh just as easily at one no matter how bad it is (and can tell his own share of bad jokes too), and he can laugh when someone's making an ass of themselves and is only digging their grave deeper. While he is good-humored and all, he does know that line, and when that line is crossed--these days, that line tends to relate to his sister--he'll deflect and dodge the joke so the topic doesn't stay on that particular line-crossing item.

When he and South were growing up and their parents pushed them into activities together, he never minded doing the same thing. To him, it was a new experience and if he got to have a little fun from it? That was all the better. He finds looking for the positive things much more conducive to his time than the negative, even though in the back of his mind, the negative things crop up just as easily. Focusing on the overall positives of a situation is a bit of a coping mechanism, but in some respects, it does represent a slight naiveté towards certain things if he genuinely wants to believe something is one way. (But there will be that little voice in the back of his going, "But what if X isn't...?") He wasn't--as still isn't--one to really complain when he was forced into doing something he didn't want to do--South did that enough for the both of them--but if he was given leave to stop doing something he didn't like, you can bet he stopped and moved on without further ado. But even before he stopped doing something, he would have tried to make the most of the situation to calm his sister down so maybe she too could see something good in it so she wasn't completely miserable while doing [insert any number of activities they were forced into together as kids here]. He doesn't hold anything against his parents for doing the things they did to them growing up and such. He sincerely enjoys being a twin, and he wouldn't be the man he is without South.

He thrives in a group environment and is very friendly, but he's just as fine alone as he is with someone else. Gives him time to collect his thoughts, clear his mind, and as one of Project Freelancer's snipers, he needs a clear head and all the concentration he can get. He'd be the type who could be found carefully, lovingly cleaning his guns and putting the parts back together with the utmost care, all while maintaining this zen-like, meditative state (but if he gets that every single time, well, he could just as easily maintain his weapons with the same level of care if he's with his sister. He never minds her company.) But throw him into a leadership position and he's just as comfortable, and will easily rise to the occasion when he's put into that role. When he's in charge, he is as calm as a cucumber. (...Actually, that's a natural state of his anyway, come to think of it.) The mission objective becomes the most important thing to him and he will keep people on task and make sure his team is completely functional. This...isn't always the case as he normally has to consistently remind South to turn her motion trackers on when/if he's paired with her. (This goes for anyone else he's with. He'd rather be insistent on doing things if they're for safety reasons so the mission doesn't get blown than fail the mission, so even if the mission does fail for whatever reason, so long as he did everything he could to prevent it from happening, he'll accept the failure and own up to it.) While he'll always have her back, there's always that margin of error that exists for when he doesn't--and her personal motion tracker can cover that last bit of ground for him. Even in the midst of a fight, he maintains his cool. He has to. There is no room for mistakes and he knows becoming hot-headed makes one lose focus and leaves one open for getting hurt as well. He will tell someone to knock it off and quit being a fucking idiot.

He, like all the other Freelancers, had to pass various aptitude and skill tests, and only those with the highest were considered for the program, so it's safe to say that North is a damn smart guy and balances that with a good amount of common sense too. Because he grew up always having South's back (and playing the types of games they did as kids and all the extracurricular activities he participated in have also aided this development), he's very observant not just as a sniper, but with people as well. He's good at spotting potential trouble and tones of certain people's voices and is most likely to step in to prevent trouble from erupting. However...he isn't exactly perfect in that area. (After all, as far as we know, he isn't working with Internals to find the mole in Project Freelancer and isn't quite seeing the divide growing between the lower-ranked agents and the Director (and in some respects, with the top-ranked agents like himself.) But he can recognize when a quarrel would get a little too real or if it'd stay on a level where the two sides could learn a lesson from just beating the shit out of each other. (He's a bit odd like that.) In a real fight, though, he can easily apply his observational skills to locate another sniper with a second's glance and take 'em out in the next--or he could use just the direction the bullet came from and the sound the gun made in order to pinpoint that location too.

While he's in an environment that promotes and rewards competitiveness, he isn't about to be a backstabbing asshole. He has his own way of doing things. Standards he holds himself to but doesn't expect the others will, and he's conscious of the fact that he's marching to the beat of his own drum there. But just because someone is doing something slightly unethical or is cutting corners to achieve something doesn't mean he has to sink to their level. It just means he has to be all that much better to beat them fair and square--and that method has served him pretty damn well so far as he's currently holding strong to the fifth rank out of all the agents. He isn't afraid to improvise if, say, a fight isn't going too well. Half the time, it turns out to be a more efficient and optimal tactic--and he pulls this off the best with South. If there's one reason why they're usually partnered together, it's because they're a fucking awesome duo in battle.

One thing he does do, and it's very subtle, is the way he cajoles someone into sharing information they might not otherwise share with others. It's slightly manipulative, so he's using what he knows about that person just to confirm or deny things he's heard around the barracks. The information doesn't go to anyone else. He's very good with keeping secrets and just like many of the others in the program, he doesn't talk about his past too much. But with gaining that information from someone, he might offer up a tiny nugget of information of his own--and only his own--as sort of an intellectual barter system. This works best with those he knows pretty well, so he knows what sort of information will get their attention and make them think, "Hmm okay, he said this about Y, so maybe it's okay if I tell him about a little about X since he asked about it." And really, what he's fishing for isn't anything malicious, nor would he use it for anything bad either. He's a good guy, remember?

But he isn't above employing reverse psychology to get someone to do something, or rather trick them into it. (Though he doesn't do this while out on missions. He has an off-duty and on-duty mode that he goes into depending on the situation, and he simply doesn't have time to play mind games with someone while in the midst of a mission.) Again...the best person he can do this to is South. Who else would be the best at knowing which buttons to press? He knows what to say to get her pissed, what to get her moving, how to goad her, and he knows what not to say. There are times where words just won't help, so he knows when to leave her alone--and just how to encourage her with a mere gesture.

As much of a nice guy that he is, one would be a fool to forget that underneath all that, North is a highly trained, special operations soldier. Once that on-duty mode of his clicks on, watch out--because he's about to kick a lot of ass. He will take people out of they're threatening him or posing a danger to the mission, his sister, or anyone else on the team. He will not hesitate to kill. So if someone tries to stupidly pick a fight with him, he has to gauge that person's abilities, threat level, competency, and earnest and sincerity for really wanting a fight. If they're on the low side--like the person's being an ass for being an ass' sake--he'll take them out nice and quick, but leave them alive so they learn a lesson and remember not to fuck with him when he tells them to knock it off. But if they're serious...yeah. He'll step his game up too and when he does, that person had better be prepared for one hell of a fight. He'd most likely be looking to end it quickly since it's a fight he doesn't want, though. And at this point in his training, he has killed many, many people (or rather other soldiers and enemies. He doesn't kill civilians.) So adding yet another to his count really won't make him bat an eye or anything.

Headcanon-wise, he has a bit of a fascination with history and architecture, and took piano lessons as a kid. Probably can even still play some of the songs he learned back then too, and has a good ear for musical things like finding beats easily, that sort of thing. Pretty decent cook, too (and considering the diet they're probably on during training, finding any way to make the food appetizing comes with some skill.)

How North will be in the future once he's implanted with his AI, Theta...we don't know. He could remain the same, or his personality and attitude could change subtly or drastically depending on Theta's own personality and how much it effects North. Unfortunately, we might not know until Season 10, if at all.

Generally, though, North is what he is: a good, friendly, laid back soldier, who just so happens to be able to kick your ass ten ways to next Tuesday and give you another hole in your head if you're on the wrong end of his sniper rifle.

Other Skills/Abilities:
Alone or partnered with his sister, North is one hell of a soldier. (He isn't one of the top-ranked Freelancers for nothing, after all.) And while he's been trained with every weapon available to Project Freelancer and is proficient with them all, his calm, patient demeanor often lands him in the position of sniper/scout/your friendly eye in the sky. So stealth is something of a specialty for him, as is having one of the best set of eyes in the program (rivaled by only a couple, like Wyoming, and in the future, Tex) for shots that need the utmost care and precision. Granted, most use the sniper rifle for reconnaissance purposes only--though these soldiers tend to be...well, not the brightest...at all--but not North. His accuracy rating is top notch, and his hand-to-hand skills aren't anything to scoff at either. Yet one of the many training modules included martial arts training and his style works well no matter which side he chooses to fight with, though he does prefer the standard fighting stance. And no matter whether they're using weapons or going into close-quarters combat with just their hands/feet, he does have an advantage when partnered with South. They seem to have their own language for use in fighting, like subtle physical signals or simple vocal commands that say everything that needs to be said.

Even on his own, North isn't one to be taken lightly. He's fast and agile, even in that heavy armor and all that equipment, and stronger than your average human. (This can be said about all the Freelancers, really.) While he's not the strongest of the Freelancers (really, no one can top Tex in that department), he can lift huge guns and other equipment like they weighed nothing and he'd show no outward sign of strain or anything if he had to swing them around and stuff. He can also jump higher than a normal person even with his armor on and absorb the impact from dropping down a few stories to the ground with very little effect on his stride and without making a sound. It's all part of the stealth thing. Freelancers have this knack for pulling a Batman: they're there one second, but look away for even a second and they'll be gone when you look back.

Really, all of this can be attributed to all of the different combat training modules he's been put through during his years in the program (and will continue to be put through). As a Freelancer, he has to be ready for whatever the program, training scenarios, and other random factors decide to throw at him, so in preparation for this, he's been trained for infiltration (like undetected insertion from air-to-ground, ground-to-ground, etc), skydiving and mid-air/space combat, and vehicular training to operate the myriad of vehicles and ships available to Project Freelancer. While he doesn't have to fly himself to missions, if need be, he could operate vessels like the Pelicans, Hornets, and any other ship if the pilot was ever wounded an rendered unable to fulfill her/his duty. Also, he's received training to recognize any and all traps in a given location, or possible areas where a trap could be placed. Granted, no one's absolutely perfect in this area, but knowledge of them has saved their lives many times, and North's extremely observant anyway since he has to notice any signs of trouble the second they crop up in order to preserve the safety of his partner/team. Honestly, any situation he might be put in? He's received training for so he could survive and come out on top.

On to an integral part of his arsenal: his armor. His head-to-foot MJOLNIR Mark VI battle armor comes with many standard features, the first and most obvious being a ventilation/oxygen system that enables him to breathe (and one would assume it'd recycle or take care of the carbon dioxide emitted with each breath. They can wear just their suits for travel in space, so they have to have that sort of life support system). But other equipment, that we know of, consists of a motion tracker that can track the movements of people and things in the area (be they friendlies or enemies); a voice amplifier, which is like a glorified megaphone, a radio communications system that can be used for suit-to-suit communications or contact others from a very long distance. The radios can get damaged and jammed, but they're pretty strong and don't seem to have a range limit. There's also a computer system built into the helmet that houses the biocomm, which can check on a whole squad's vital statistics (current health status, heart rate, blood pressure, and brain activity like so) during combat in real time (but it doesn't work on dead people or robots), but only if the agent switches it on. At the same time, it displays such information like mission time (days/hours/minutes/seconds), recon footage that can be used to record what he sees and hears and can be played back at the same time as it's recording, and also displays certain battle stats, such as how close or far a ricocheted bullet had been detected from his current position down to a hundredth of a meter and the type of caliber the bullet was. The computer system is also linked to information from Command that he'd need in any situation, such as procuring the secure codeword for different Red and Blue outfits (no matter how stupid the codeword might be). It's what he can use to gain clearance as well as trust from the simulation troopers, and prove he's not a "dirty Blue/Red" depending on the side he's been sent to for the scenario. And also, the computer system records audio and video logs of what the agent sees so there is a record that can be studied later on for data crunching and all that lovely shit. If an agent is injured, the HUD will also reflect this, listing such things as oxygen levels within the suit (be they leaking or the agent's actual consumption of air), visibility, whether the armor enhancement is on or not, and armor connect, which...most likely means whether the helmet is completely sealed with the rest of the armor or not (or connected to Command. It really could go both ways), and probably any other relevant data the agent would need at that immediate point in time.

The armor itself can do a lot for the agent within it, but there are some differences between the armor the Freelancer agents receive, what the simulation soldiers get, and the real armor that the Spartans receive in the Halo-verse. (See reality description for the reasons why it's different.) The RvB versions of the armor can still go into lockdown if hit with this really strange paint the Freelancers use in training exercises that act as a live ammo proxy so they can see where they would have been hit had it been a real combat situation, and there's a safety protocol override that locks all armor with that specific upgrade. (The Mark V's and below don't have it, but no one's dumb enough to use the Mark V anymore.) All in all, the armor and all its components give the agents a tactical and practical advantage over the other soldiers they face. They're better equipped to use it to the full extent it can be used (whereas simulation soldiers still don't know about basic functions in their suits that have been standard features for years.) The armor itself is very, very durable, and in addition to his own sturdiness, it can help North compensate when he's wounded. It dispenses first aid in the form of biofoam right then and there so the agent won't have to pause in the middle of a fight. Of course, improvements are being made to it all the time, so the biosystems will improve as the years go on. Now, the armor isn't perfect and does have its weaknesses, but for the most part, North could potentially get hit by a speeding vehicle (armored or otherwise), or get shot a few times and still be able to get up and kick some ass. The armor has two different magnetic systems as well. On the back, waist, and legs of the suit, there are magnetic strips where he can attach his weapons and grenades so he doesn't have to fuss with a holster or anything. And if he needs to move around in zero-g environments? He can switch on another system in his boots that'll keep him on any metal surface. ( They're very strong magnets.)

Now, special to each agent is an armor enhancement. They're granted the use of one to use in combat, but right now they're not...the most reliable since all armor enhancements are missing a crucial piece that can regulate the use of it without harming the agent using it. And anyway, they have to get permission from Command to use it and be connected to the Command servers to record all data of the equipment's use since the armor enhancements are still in the beta phase, so to speak. The agents are trained to use them, however, and North has gotten pretty good at managing his own well enough. His particular armor enhancement is the creation of a bubble shield (but it should be noted the bubble shields are created differently compared to their Halo counterparts. See reality description for more information). The bubble shield is exactly that: a shield that looks like a giant, golden "bubble" comprised of hexagonal shapes for better protection and stability. It can prevent any bullets, rockets, grenades, shrapnel, etc, from reaching anything contained within the shield. However, it does have the added disadvantage of preventing those within the shield from using the same weapons to fire back. The bullets and stuff would just ricochet and yeah, it'd be a mess if rockets or grenades got involved... But in order to create a bubble shield, North simply has to have the system up and running, then perform a ground-pound to deploy it. (It should be noted that shields this big aren't normal and are probably a result of a size override thanks to the lack of an AI regulating it. Also, even though the rockets there in that sequence were repelled, the shield didn't absorb their momentum and force, so the ship was knocked downwards.) North isn't the type to use his armor enhancement without permission since using it even with clearance from Command will still lead to weeks of meetings and flack for using it. (Keep in mind using it does put the agent at risk of overheating/burning out his suit's equipment, and Agent Utah had died using the bubble shield in training.) It should also be noted that he and South both possess the same armor enhancement.

Other Weaknesses:
Underneath all that armor, North is still human. He can still get sick, get injured, and die just as easily as others can despite the huge advancements in medical technology in his reality. Plus as far as psychic attacks go, there's been no training for that. There aren't psychics in the RvB world, and there is a good chance Project Freelancer hasn't yet gotten to any training scenarios to test how agents do with another mind inside their own prior to the distribution of the actual AIs later on. There is only so much mental preparation one can do for that without...actually having another mind inside one's own, so it'd be safe to assume he would be pretty susceptible to attacks of that nature, but he'd handle them fairly well on a mental level considering his own future and tenure with his would-be AI, Theta. (But as we haven't yet met Theta in canon, I can't theorize if any of the AI's personality traits negatively or postively impact North in any way.)

Plus, while that armor of his is a huge advantage, it does still have its weak points. The armor's systems do have limits and if any shots hit critical areas, there's only so much it can do to help. It can help the agent from going into shock for too long and keep them alive but if it's armor piercing rounds to the heart or head, well, the agent's kinda fucked. And anyway, no armor is perfect. There are weak areas that aren't as protected as others, and no doubt a good shot or blow to the life support and other systems housed on his back and other portions of his body can do a number on him.

While also a strength, his sister is a weakness in that if she's in trouble and totally isn't aware of the imminent danger? He'll put himself in harm's way to protect her. He would die for her (and does years down the road in canon during an offscreen scene in the Recovery One mini-series, though the exact circumstances of his canon death are still unknown. They are, uh...dodgy and betrayal-filled--an indirect result of South's own actions.)

History:
Like his fellow agents in Project Freelancer, there isn't much known about Agent North Dakota, though in his case, it's doubled since he's a fraternal twin. He was born a little before his sister, "South Dakota"--or it seems so since he has that big brother attitude about him--and the two of them were fortunate enough to grow up with loving parents. Of course, these parents fell into the same trap as many parents with twins did: they dressed them up alike and tried to push them towards the same things. All. The. Damn. Time. Probably well into their teens despite much bitching, moaning, complaining and protesting about it.

While this had negative life-long effects on his sister, for North, he never had a problem with dressing alike. For him, growing up as a twin was the best thing ever. It meant he had a ready-made friend he didn't have to ask to go see, or someone he was barred from playing with when he got grounded (which wasn't too often, but it did happen). But even from a young age, he tried to make things better his sister when she was forced to do something she didn't want to do. He could easily tell--and would continue to tell throughout their lives--when something was bugging her. Granted, this did mean he sometimes had to step in before she hit a tipping point to diffuse a situation, but he didn't most of the time, knowing she could handle things well enough on her own. Really, stepping in was to save the other person some future pain.

But they always made a great team. They easily trounced any of the other kids and teams in games they'd play in school and for fun with others in the neighborhood. This is, of course, assuming they grew up in an area where there had been other children to play with, and most likely there were. North and South were probably stuck in the same classes in school and if one twin showed an interest in an activity, inevitably the other would be pushed into as well. North never minded it when it happened, and if South wanted to quit, he quit with her. He wasn't as flexible when it came to activities he really wanted to do, though, but again, he'd find a way to make it easier for her until he too moved on to something else.

When they were older, at least, they were able to find activities that they both enjoyed being pushed into and would use each other for training partners. Why not if they were going to be stuck together? They knew each other best and knew which buttons to press to egg the other on to try just that much harder.

While this sounds like a relatively normal childhood, one has to think that they were fortunate to have such a thing in a time of war, or in this case, the Great War. The games they played as children probably revolved around a future version of "cops and robbers" or pretending to be some of the brave soldiers fighting the alien threat out in the outer colonies of human empire (or even those facing off against the many insurrectionists plaguing all areas of the empire.) Hell, even some of the school extracurricular activities--such as track and field--could have dealt with such things, as well, to teach them teamwork and physical skills they might need if there was ever a military draft.

Now, some people would have been more than happy to stay out of the war. Earth wasn't anywhere close to being in harm's way; all the fighting was light-years away and the chances of the worst of the dangers making their way there were slim to none. But nonetheless, something happened that made North enlist--with South following close behind. How old they were when they did or why they did are unknown. They could have been running away from other responsibilities at home. Their parents could have been killed, leaving them with a huge pile of debt. North could have had a moment of temporary insanity. North could have figured that he didn't want to go into the family business, follow in his parents' footsteps, or go to college, and thought it'd be a good idea to serve; that it'd be the one activity that their parents wouldn't push South towards to keep them together. Whatever the reason, he enlisted and so did South.

It was in training that their skills got noticed. It couldn't be denied that the two fought as one fluid and cohesive unit. They'd developed their own fighting language over the years that was all too easy to apply to training scenarios with the other enlistees and other exercises. North's skills as a range attacker complimented South's close-range skills (though they could easily swap those skills if need be because that's just how they rolled). At some point in all this, they took a very important test, and their high scores combined with their combined and individual skills earned them entrance into Project Freelancer.

Once they were in the program, that was when the real training began. They no longer had to worry about working with idiot trainees who couldn't tell which way to point their damn gun or who could manage to load a clip in backwards. It was nice to be amongst other soldiers with skills as great as their own, but it came to no surprise to North that even the Director and the others in the program stuck them together. They were the only twins in the program when they were conscripted (or ever in the program) and no doubt word of their days in bootcamp had reached the ears of the special ops programs like Project Freelancer and many others searching for a way to end the war--but Project Freelancer got them first.

Some years passed--how many exactly, well, no one knows--and during that time, they both received almost matching armor (their colors only differ slightly) and matching armor enhancements, passing rigorous tests with them and received new names. North wasn't surprised that his name was paired with his sister's. Probably saw it coming once he'd noticed the pattern of agents being named after the 49 states of the United States (Florida no longer existed) and since North and South Carolina were being represented by Agent Carolina, well, he only had to wonder if he'd be given the northern or southern state for his new designation. But with a new name and climbing rank on the ranking board the Director kept, it only meant that things were only going to become harder and harder.

Together, the Director and his right-hand man, the Counsellor, subject them to varying psychological tests as well as physical ones up against the other top agents. Many of their training scenarios were conducted at off-world outposts with simulation soldiers fighting a fake civil war against each other in the name of the Red or Blue armies. And others were different missions the Director sent them on--dangerous ones, but ones that were vital to Project Freelancer. These were the most dangerous of all their training exercises and only the top agents were allowed to go out on them. And guess who were usually paired together as a team?

By then, North and South had risen into the top six out of all the Freelancers. South typically was ranked right ahead of him, but North didn't exactly mind. South was very talented and good at what she did--but then again, so was he. He just operated differently and would move up in rank in his own way because, well, even though he loved and cared for her, he too was competitive and being at the top got them the best of everything--and put them first in line for everything that was to come too. And there definitely were things to come.

See, their equipment was great and protected them very, very well--but when it came to their armor plus the usage of their armor enhancements, well...that's where things got a little interesting. And by interesting, it means that there were deaths and accidents. The armor enhancements worked a little too well or not at all, or close to right. Kind of like playing Three Little Bears except with protective equipment that could potentially be anything but. The human operators (aka the agents) couldn't operate it and maintain things at a safe level most of the time. So...something had to be done to regulate the armor enhancement's usage and power output so it didn't overload the armor's intricate and varied systems--or just outright kill the agent inside the armor and anyone else who gets in their path. Because of that, they were only allowed to use their enhancements when they were connected to Command's servers, or--and this is a big "or"--if the agent was in true danger and had exhausted all other possibilities, they were allowed to use it. But they'd get in trouble for using it anyway because of the potential and highly probable likelihood that their armor was fried, as well as possible security compromises if anyone lived to survive seeing it used. Project Freelancer was a secret special ops program, after all, and things were expensive. They literally couldn't afford anything to fall into the wrong hands.

So, the missions were starting to get even more dangerous for those sent on them, and testing phases started to go a little faster. Behind the scenes, a line was starting to be drawn in the sand between those who were the clear favorites and those who constantly stuck at the bottom of the ranking board. Up at the top where North was, it wasn't too apparent; then again, those at the top usually didn't have much time to spend thinking about such things. The line was subtle and not many were starting to truly notice it yet, but they would in the future once the next phase of training swung into motion--but the AIs had yet to figure into the equation. The only one Project Freelancer had was a smart AI called Alpha, except that wasn't common knowledge. Only a few knew of its existence, and none of those people were the Director's Freelancers. But already, plans were being sent into motion to obtain the multiple AIs needed for the program's true purpose--testing and studying soldiers with AI implants.

In North's near-future, he and South will be sent to the Bjørndal Cryogenics Research Facility to retrieve a crucial data file located there. What happens on this trip will be where North's timeline will deviate from canon. The team will successfully retrieve the data file (as they will in canon), however, an incident with a poor soldier fetching a couple cups of coffee won't end in his body accidentally striking a button and raising an alarm. Instead, the soldier is dispatched silently--and they leave as stealthily as they came. It might seem like a small difference, but thanks to the success of them not raising an alarm, Carolina won't be called in to back them up, North won't be shot multiple times, their Pelican dropship won't be chased through the Artic by a pair of Longswords, and thus won't have to use countermeasures like the Pelican's missiles, distraction flares to offset heat-seeking missiles, and North won't be authorized and ordered to use his bubble shield enhancement to protect the ship as a last resort. Oh, and the Mother of Invention, Project Freelancers mobile command center frigate, won't have to expose itself and take out the pursuing Longswords to rescue the Pelican and its crew.

And that's only the start. His deviated timeline will follow closely with canon's, but as a result of a completely successful mission and not half a one, South's number four rank won't be switched with North's number five. Her lack of punishment right then won't start her down a dark and jealousy-borne path. She'll be included in the eventual mission to retrieve the Sarcophagus--a crucial component the Director needs to fragment the Alpha AI--and the key to open it instead of being forced to sit it out. Team B's acquisition of the key while Team A acquires the Sarcophagus will succeed since CT was left behind with South taking her place. And because Team B does succeed, instead of failing long before they can get the package, North's successful leadership of the mission will earn up a raise in rank. Not only that, but Team A will be able to escape without worrying about the package, and Agents Maine, York, and Carolina won't be chased down a highway in a high-speed fight with the insurrectionists they stole everything from. And Maine won't be so badly injured that he'll lose the ability to speak (amongst the other injuries he sustains trying to protect the package. And why won't any of that happen? Because of the success of the mission to the cryogenics facility, the insurrectionists and other important civilians involved in all that wouldn't have been alerted to the security breach in the same way. Sure, Team A would alert the security in the building in which they located the Sarcophagus, but they wouldn't have been ready to launch a full-on armed air pursuit down a busy metropolitan highway.

But anyway, since North rightfully earned that bump in the ranking board, it shouldn't incite South's jealousy as badly since his canon promotion originally happened as a way to punish her for her hasty actions. Years down the road, after the AIs have been implanted and Washington's famous incident with the Epsilon AI has occurred, things might turn out differently for North and South. Most likely, the Director still would have used them as an experiment to see what would happen if one agent got an AI and the other didn't, but the deep-seated jealousy within South might not be there or be as bad--and she just might not betray her brother. (Granted, this could and probably will change once we see how North is with Theta, but as that part of the story has yet to be told, we can only guess.)

All that, however, is in the future and many parts of it are not even close to occurring yet (or some events may proceed in a different fashion depending on what we learn in the next season, so part of this future history is subject to change). For now, North's continuing to train and go on missions when ordered, but the wheels are in motion...

Canon Point: In North's personal timeline, it'd be pre-season 9, so before events in that season take place, and before events in S9x02 take place and set him on his deviated timeline.

[Note: For the reality description and samples, please go here]