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Lieutenant Ethan Matos was an officer and pilot of the United Rebel Front. Born in 2520 in the rebel enclave of Camp Lexington on the planet of Mamore to a former rebel infantryman father and writer mother. As a young child, along with interacting with other children, later, as a teenager, Matos interacted with rebel soldiers. Due to the fact many of the rebels he interacted with were young, idealistic fighters, their stories about what the Insurrection was fighting for colored his perception of the war as an honorable one.
This view was reinforced in 2536 when rebel pilot Jonathan Watts arrived from Eridanus Secundus. Seeing the military Watts as a living embodiment of what he thought the Insurrection was about, Matos began to socialize heavily with him and his mechanic, Brandon Foster. Over the course of these interactions, Watts and Foster taught the young Matos the basics of the D77-TCI dropship the pair flew, as well as some combat maneuvers Watts had developed.
In 2537, Matos' isolation from the violence of the Insurrection was broken when the SPARTAN-III's from Alpha Company assaulted Camp Lexington. During the assault, despite attempting to resist, unbeknownst to him, he was spared by Eugene-A133. Escaping the base, Matos was picked up by a group of rebels that had survived the assault.
Embarking on a two week march, Ethan and the survivors eventually came across an untouched rebel camp within Mamore's wilderness. Taken in by the rebels, and still idealistic about the Insurrection and angered at the United Nations Space Command for having attacked the base, Matos volunteered to join the rebels.
Due to his knowledge, albeit limited, of the inner workings of UNSC aircraft, Matos was assigned to the sole AV-46 attack aircraft the rebels had. Although he was initially positioned for nearly two years as a mechanic and munitions handler, he was assigned to fly it in 2539 when the original pilot deserted the Insurrection.
Much like his mentor, Jonathan Watts, Matos flew the aircraft in a dangerous manner, having a propensity for flying sometimes less than a hundred feet over UNSC territory, and maneuvering it sharply to avoid anti aircraft fire during attacks. However, also during his time as a pilot, Matos was ordered on many occasions to attack civilian targets. Despite the terrible damage his attacks were causing on the noncombatants of Mamore, Matos' separation from it in his aircraft, and his belief that it was a terrible but necessary side effect of the war kept him continuing these attacks.
Due to his effective detachment from his actions, as well as only interacting with rebel soldiers or sympathizers, he came to see his attacks as yet more justifiable due to alleged UNSC atrocities committed, especially the Far Isle nuking in 2492, which he saw as still needing to be avenged. In 2552, while flying support for Jonathan Ulan's forces, he was shot down by Orbital Drop Shock Troopers led by Captain Melissa McKay.
Escaping the area, Matos found his way aboard a rebel freighter, and came to the rebel controlled colony of Venezia, where, seeing the Venezians as the embodiment of the the colonial independence he adored, he quickly volunteered, and became a AV-14 pilot for a Venezian rebel cell in New Tyne. Pitted against the criminal organization known as The Syndicate, Matos saw them as lower than the UNSC, and as a result, was not above destroying entire Syndicate supported settlements, believing that the rebels had to "lay down the law".
These actions brought him the unwanted attention of the Syndicate, who, in 2555, launched a massive raid on the outskirts of New Tyne, during which Matos was shot down. Going to Cassandra Engel's underground clinic in the city, he was touched by her kindness toward wounded fighters, both Insurrectionist and Syndicate, which brought his previous, brutal, actions into perspective. Sticking around the clinic, Matos helped out, and a year later, began working as a freelance pilot for Engel, flying her out to isolated settlements in a bushplane he had "liberated" from a Syndicate hideout he had helped raid.
Under Cassandra's tutelage, Matos became a skilled medic, and, in late 2559, formed the Venezian Medical Corps. Working still as a pilot in the group, Matos continued this until he was forced to disband it in early 2561 with the UNSC reclamation, after which he went to the frontier colonies to continue aiding independence movements there.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Childhood[]
Teenage Years[]
2537 Mamore Insurrection[]
In 2537, Matos' sheltered life from the violence of the Insurrection was shattered when SPARTAN-III's from Alpha Company attacked Camp Lexington. Separated from his parents, he grabbed a rifle and attempted to find his way to the surface from the tungsten mine that the base was in. Hiding from the SPARTAN-III teams as they searched, Ethan, unbeknownst to him, was spared by Eugene-A133. Continuing to sprint through the corridors and avoiding SPARTAN-III teams for nearly one and a half hours, Ethan eventually found his way to the surface, where other rebel survivors were as well.
Without any mode of transport, Ethan and the rebels were forced to begin a long march away from the base, towards the last bastions of rebel resistance in the frontier. During the march, Matos' feet became covered in blisters, partially from the fact that he was wearing sneakers that were not suitable for the conditions, and also due to the length of the trek. For the last day of the march, Ethan had to be carried on a makeshift stretcher because he could no longer march on his basically destroyed feet. However, after two weeks, the rebels came across an untouched camp deep within Mamore's frontier territories.
Taken in by the rebels, Matos was immediately taken to the infirmary, where he spent another three weeks recovering from the toll the march had taken on his feet, including an early case of trench foot. With a long period of time to reflect, Matos became angered at the United Nations Space Command for destroying what he saw as a perfect life. His image of life as a rebel still clouded by delusions of glory, he continued begging the medics to allow him out of the infirmary early so he could join, but they continually refused.
Insurrectionist[]
Ground Crew[]
After he was released from treatment, Matos almost immediately expressed his desire to join the rebels as a part of their tiny air force, consisting a single captured AV-46 "Shaska". After having been allowed into the group, Ethan was disappointed to find that instead of piloting like he had hoped to have been assigned to, he was to be working as a mechanic and munitions handler for the aircraft. Although he was annoyed at having to do tasks that he saw as doing nothing major for the rebellion, he carried them out anyway. Using the knowledge of an aircraft's inner workings taught to him by Brandon Foster, as well as other rebels, he became extremely familiar with the inner workings of the Shaska, and, although he eventually came to accept his position, he still hoped to fly it at some point.
Pilot (2539-2552)[]
- "It's not pleasant, but it's the nature of war. If you kill enough of them, they'll stop fighting.[1]"
- ―Matos during his time as a pilot
After two years of working as a mechanic, Matos was informed one day after finishing repairs on the AV-46, that he had been chosen to be the new pilot, due to the former's desertion from the rebel cause. Although he thought it was because of his former work with Jonathan Watts, it was in actuality because the rebel commanders knew the former pilot had deserted due to the constant attacks on civilians he had been carrying out, and that Matos, young, and a dedicated supporter of the Insurrectionists, would most likely not have the same qualms as the former pilot did.
This was proven on October 3rd, 2539, when Matos was ordered to bomb a civilian village that had UNSC troops encamped in and around it. Far removed from the horror that was happening on the ground, and largely due to the fact he thought the orders were necessary to continue the Insurrection's cause. His point of view reinforced by only interacting with other rebel soldiers and sympathizers, Matos continued to attack targets indiscriminately, not seeing what kind of damage his attacks were doing, as long as he was hurting the UNSC. On other occasions, in order to get Matos to commit an act of terror, his rebel officers would convince him that there were UNSC troops billeted in a civilian town or it had some kind of strategic value to goad him into attacking it almost without question. The most infamous of these attacks came in 2551, when Ethan burned nearly of fifth of the town of Concord with napalm in an attempt to destroy a UNSC unit engaged in heavy fighting against rebel forces, which succeeded, but cost the lives of hundreds of civilians.
As a student of Jonathan Watts, Matos also came to use his seemingly reckless tactics to get an edge, flying sometimes less than one hundred feet off the ground over enemy territory to avoid being spotted by radar, or nearly destroying his aircraft from stresses as he tried to avoid missiles or anti aircraft fire. However, these tactics worked, and by 2551, Matos' aircraft had only sustained serious damage twice, and he had shot down twelve UNSC aircraft of different types, including an AC-220 Vulture gunship.
Shootdown and Escape From Mamore (2552)[]
It was this skill at flying that caught the attention of Major Jonathan Ulan in 2552, who recruited Matos to aid his ground forces against the UNSC ground forces, a unit of ODST's led by Captain Melissa McKay. Making low strafing runs, and using the mountains as cover, aiding Ulan's destroyer, the Revolutionary Fervor, Matos dealt heavy casualties on McKay's First Company. However, once the Fervor was disabled by Tess-B312, the ODST's turned their attention to Matos, who was quickly shot down, crashlanding in a village. Despite his merciless aerial attacks that he had been carrying out for the past decade, Matos was taken in and sheltered by the populace, who helped him make it to a spaceport.
Disguised as a refugee, Matos made it aboard a rebel freighter bound for Venezia, along with remnants of Ulan's forces. After a week of slipspace travel, the ship arrived at the colony, in the spaceport at New Tyne. Although he had heard of Venezia before, Matos had previously only thought of it as the epitome of what the rebels were fighting for, the embodiment of an ideal. However, his expectations were shattered almost immediately after he arrived. Speaking with a squad of rebels, he was enraged to find that a criminal group known as The Syndicate had begun to take advantage of the independence and lack of control on the planet. Although he had long before lost any sense of the war as an honorable and glorious one, Matos was still enraged at what he saw as the corruption of an ideal.
"Death from Above" (2552-2555)[]
Less than twenty four hours after he landed in New Tyne, Matos found a rebel group and expressed his intent to join it. With his background as an experienced pilot on Mamore, Ethan was assigned to fly one of the group's two AV-14 Hornets, which had been acquired in the influx of black market equipment due to the Human-Covenant War and acted as commander of the rest of the group's aerial forces, which consisted of two D77-TC Pelican dropships. Seeing the Syndicate as scum who "needed to be taught a lesson", he orchestrated a merciless aerial campaign against both Syndicate bases and settlements.
The aftermath of Matos' March 19th attack
Change of Heart (2555-2559)[]
In 2555, the Syndicate launched a massive raid in and around New Tyne. Scrambling to fight off the criminals, Matos mowed down several squads of thugs, before his Hornet was hit by a rocket from an M41 rocket launcher, crippling it. Crashing in a park, Matos was left alone by the thugs, who thought him dead. When he awoke, Ethan discovered his femur in his left leg was broken from the crash. Grabbing a ruined SRS99D, Matos limped his way to an unlicensed clinic he had heard about in the outskirts of the city, where he begged its operator, Cassandra Engel, to help him.
Despite Matos' infamous reputation, Engel decided to aid the downed pilot. As he spent nearly two months recuperating from his wounds sustained during the crash, Matos was touched by Cassandra's compassion towards fighters from all sides, as well as civilians who came seeking help. This also put his own actions into perspective, and with time to reflect, Matos came to regret the brutality he had shown against both the UNSC and The Syndicate. Wanting to atone for his actions, Ethan volunteered his services to Cassandra, who put him to work performing basic tasks around the clinic to help. Three months later, he offered to begin ferrying Cassandra to frontier settlements, using a bushplane he had, in his own words, "liberated", from an abandoned Syndicate base.
For the next four years, along with ferrying Cassandra to various frontier colonies, he also studied under her to become a medic. After four years under her tutelage, Matos had become a skilled medic, and left her employ, returning once again to the United Rebel Front, despite her urgings to the contrary.
Venezian Medical Corps (2559-2561)[]
After his return to the URF, Ethan began developing the idea of a large mobile medical force. After three months of planning, he put his idea into practice, recruiting various people, and training them in field medicine, as well as pilots. For two years afterward, Matos, along with commanding the unit, which he called the Venezian Medical Corps, also flew missions into the frontier to deliver life saving supplies or care to rebel troops or Venezian civilians. However, after two years of operations, Matos was forced to disband the Corps after the UNSC returned to reclaim the planet. Several months after the Insurrection on Venezia was defeated, Matos settled into an independent settlement, and was instrumental in saving Leon Saulius and evacuating off planet with him.
Frontier Freelance Pilot (2562-)[]
- "Is violence sometimes needed here? Yes. Should I do what I did as a young man, mercilessly slaughtering hundreds for a cause? No, and I refuse to ever do that again."
- ―Ethan on his policy as a freelance pilot
Ethan as a freelance pilot on the frontier colonies
Personnel Profile[]
Personality[]
Relationships[]
Jonathan Watts[]
Cassandra-G006[]
Skills and Abilities[]
Quotes[]
- "War is a dirty business. Killing civilians isn't something I adore, but if they're aiding the enemy or in the way, then they'll pay the price. Freedom doesn't come free."
- ―Matos, on his operating procedure as a pilot on Mamore
- "Here, on Venezia, is where we're going to show the UNSC we can, and will live free, and I'm not about to let some thugs get in the way. They're lower than the UNSC, bastards trying to make a criminal empire out of a righteous cause, and my conscience is clear killing each one of them and their supporters."
- ―Matos' opinion on The Syndicate, circa 2554
References[]
- ↑ Derived from a quote by Curtis LeMay
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}} † Deceased |
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