Randall Ezno

From FABT

Randall Ezno
RandallEzno.png
Biological information

Born:

10 March 2138 CE
Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, United North American States, Earth

Died:

19 September 2186 CE
In space over Paphos, Loropi, Silean Nebula

Physical information

Species:

Human

Gender:

Male

Height:

6.9ft

Hair:

Black (later grey-ish due to augmentations)

Eyes:

Blue

Cybernetics:

Reverse-engineered Reaper-tech/medical and combat

Political and military information

Affiliation:

Weapon(s):

M-96B Harrier
M-77 Paladin

Equipment:

Command(s):

Falcon Team Delta
15th Cerberus Commando Platoon
Ezno's Redwings

Era:

Asari Cycle
Pax Galactica Era

Battle(s):

 
"We both chose different paths, Shepard. Perhaps on one path we might have been allies, but it was not to be. You've proven you can't do what needs to be done. The Illusive Man can, and will. Sometimes the greatest heroes just have the weakest wills. It takes a mad man to bring us to victory."
— Randall Ezno rationalizing his loyalty to Cerberus to Commander Shepard on Rannoch in 2186 CE.

Colonel Randall Ezno was a former member of the Systems Alliance Army and member of the Blue Falcons, later a special operator and manhunter who served in Cerberus with the Cerberus Commandos, the commander of the manhunter and special operations unit called Ezno's Redwings when it was formed in 2185 CE, and the chief armourer and commander of the ground forces on the CAW Deliverance. A Canadian born within the United North American States on Earth, Randall would sign up to join the Alliance Army when he was 18 where he was then assigned to Eden Prime prior to the First Contact War breaking out in 2157 CE. As the Army transferred operations to the Systems Alliance Marine Corps on Eden Prime, Randall was reassigned to Luna, where he decided to go through the special operations training program to join the Blue Falcons. Passing with flying colors, Randall served with distinction in the Blue Falcons for 20 years where he was part of numerous anti-piracy and counter-terrorism operations as part of Falcon Team Delta, and he would later be deployed during the Theshaca Raids alongside the Black Jackals where his unit alone was responsible for shutting down over 18 separate pirate outposts and strongholds, more than any other special operations unit involved in the Raids. Impressed by Ezno's service record, and noting his extreme dedication to humanity, Randall was approached by Cerberus in 2179 CE to offer him a job as a Cerberus commando, at which point Randall retired from the Blue Falcons to join the pro-human organization, participating in many more special operations to protect humanity against all threats, outside and within.

By 2180 CE, Randall held the rank of lieutenant and led a platoon of commandos he called his "redwings", called as such for the platoon's insignia, a pair of falcon wings tainted blood red, a call back to his time in the Blue Falcons. In September of that same year, the Illusive Man started a program within the Cerberus commandos known as "manhunters", whose sole purpose was to extract high-value individuals alive for Cerberus, and Ezno's Redwings, as his platoon was now known within Cerberus, became the first of these manhunter platoons, serving as the template for all those that followed it, as Randall's time in the Blue Falcons had made him very adept at capturing VIPs of interest to the Alliance military, and now he could do it for Cerberus, training his platoon in this business until they were the best at it, becoming the Illusive Man's go-to unit for such operations. Garrisoned at "the Barn" in 2181 CE, the sole objective of Randall and his unit was the capture of alien VIPs to be brought back to the Barn for study, although the lie sold to Randall and his men was that they were threats to human interests: Randall never bought this story, but he never questioned his orders, believing the Illusive Man was doing it for the good of mankind. Inali Renata, the chief scientist in charge of the Barn's laboratories, was in frequent contact with Randall, and the two struck something of a close friendship, with Inali essentially being Randall's handler during his many extractions. In 2184 CE, Randall and his unit were briefly retasked to assist Feron Huul in retrieving Commander Shepard's body, representing a large-scale shift in Cerberus' focus from just protecting humanity's interests to preparing for war with the Reapers. Needing the best of the best, the Illusive Man chose Randall and his unit to assist in this goal, although his unit's involvement was cut short on Omega when Feron Huul left with Liara T'Soni to infiltrate the Broker's base on Alingon, and they were subsequently reassigned back to the Barn: Randall was briefly considered by the Illusive Man to join the team Shepard was building in 2185 CE to fight the Collectors, but ultimately chose Jacob Taylor due to his friendlier and more open demeanor, needing people Shepard could more easily trust.

In the six months lead up to the Reaper War between late 2185 CE and mid 2186 CE, Randall was one of the first test subjects for Cerberus' new Reaper-based cybernetic implants that would transform Cerberus' military into supersoldiers, and Randall served as the template for all further implantations, having reacted well to the implants and become far stronger, faster and more dangerous than he was before: however, as a result of the implants' Reaper origin, Randall, along with everyone else implanted in Cerberus, slowly and gradually became indoctrinated over time. As the Cerberus Commandos were reorganized into six individual and autonomous special operations brigades, with Randall's Redwings expanded to become one of these new brigades, called Ezno's Redwings, entirely dedicated to manhunting operations. Promoted to colonel and given command of the entire brigade, Randall continued to personally lead operations of the platoons at the Barn until part of the way through the Reaper War, when the Deliverance, sister ship to Cerberus' CAW Normandy, finally entered service. Chosen to be its chief armourer and commander of its ground forces, Randall and his original platoon of Redwings were assigned to the Deliverance, where he served for the rest of the war. Having to work with Cerberus' top assassin, the Illusive Man's attack dog and the disgraced N7 Kai Leng, Randall detested the assassin, viewing him as brutally incompetent and reckless, and Randall's professionalism and precision constantly clashed with Leng's anger and headstrong attitude, as did their ideologies: where Leng was racist and held a grudge against Shepard, Randall believed in protecting humanity but respected aliens, and held a deep-seeded respect for Shepard, regretting his decision, as he viewed it, to oppose Cerberus and their goals and forcing Randall to be his enemy, where he would otherwise prefer to be his ally. Regardless, Randall's first action in the war would be during the Citadel Siege, although much of it was spent on the Deliverance, coordinating operations on the ground. Later he led his platoon of Redwings to Rannoch during the Second Morning War to abduct Tali'Shepard during Operation Pinpoint, deployed via stealth by the Deliverance and acting while Shepard was otherwise incapacitated: the goal was to hold Shepard's wife hostage, forcing him to work with Cerberus instead of against them. Randall's team would have succeeded if not for the unexpected arrival of Peta'Yala, who was subsequently killed by Randall, but who had delayed them long enough for Legion to secure the loyalty of a platoon of geth primes, who then slaughtered Randall's men, with Randall himself barely escaping alive. Following the operation's failure, a first for Randall and his Redwings, the Deliverance went to Omega to refuel and rearm, and were present when the UGC, in conjunction with Aria's OLF, launched their invasion of the station. Randall and Leng fought on the ground during the operation, and even seized upon a chance to isolate and fight Shepard one-on-one during the Battle of the Tuhi District, an encounter Shepard barely survived, with Nyreen Kandros and Aria T'Loak arriving just in time to force Randall and Leng to withdraw. The Deliverance was ultimately given orders to abandon the station, with Randall and Leng leaving with the ship, in the hopes of linking up with the Fifth Fleet and Ninth Fleet, who were burning hard to assist the station. The Deliverance shortly after with the reinforcements, but the station had already fallen, and the advanced defenses Cerberus had built for the station were suddenly turned on their own ships, inflicting heavy casualties on the Cerberus relief force before they had no choice but to retreat.

Annoyed with the way the war situation was rapidly deteriorating for Cerberus, the Illusive Man grew wary of Randall's failure, pushing the manhunter to defeat Shepard soon. While Leng went to Horizon to deal with Miranda Lawson and retrieve Project Keyhold's data before it was lost, Randall was deployed to investigate rumors of the Normandy searching for a "Leviathan", but encountered trouble searching for leads due to the Alliance heavily classifying the investigation, with only Admiral Steven Hackett and the Normandy crew the only ones filled in. Randall was able to dig up a single lead that led him to a scientist named Ann Bryson, the daughter of Garret Bryson, with the latter in charge of the project investigating Leviathan. Before Randall could move to extract Ann on Namakli with his Redwings, the Reapers showed up and began their own assault, pursuing Leviathan as well. Randall fought his way towards Ann but was too late, with the Normandy arriving to extract Ann themselves, exfiltrating soon after. Losing their only remaining lead, Randall declared their investigation a failure, although Shepard's defeat at the hands of Leng on Thessia shortly after helped make up for Randall's lack of success. Not long afterwards, Armistan Banes orchestrated a plan to catch the Normandy in an ambush, leaking false intelligence that a Cerberus fleet was pushing to attack the turian colony of Aephus. When the Normandy arrived and deployed its squad to Aephus to help turian forces prepare for the attack, the Deliverance arrived behind the Normandy and launched a sudden cyberwarfare attack to keep EDI busy while they deployed Randall and his Redwings, plus Leng leading a squad of his phantom Wolfpack special forces, to board the ship and kill the crew, with the ultimate plan to destroy the ship. Boarding from the dorsal side of the ship, Randall and his team breached through the CIC and began killing the ship's marine detachment, before targeting the crew. Unable to breach the cockpit to get to Jeff Moreau, he has his men stay to breach it while he moves to the Crew Deck to continue the massacre before linking up with Leng in engineering to overload the ship's reactor. With Shepard's squad coming back, Randall tells his men to abandon breaching the cockpit and to exfil back to their shuttle, but Randall remains behind to ensure all his men get out, including Leng. Unaware that their ship was infected by an EDI-controlled puppet of EVA, the Deliverance was shortly after crippled when EDI triggered her trap, similar to how they crippled the Normandy, and the Normandy soon appeared to attack and board it, seeking vengeance. Merciless in their assault, the Normandy Squad went deck by deck, with much of Randall's unit wiped out in the process. Moving to the captain's cabin to protect his captain, Randall arrives to find Shepard already there, having killed the captain already. The two of them fight, but Shepard is ultimately the victor, having learnt from his previous fight with him on Omega. A badly wounded Randall asks to be given a soldier's death but Shepard, furious over the murder of his comrades, dragged Randall into an elevator and took him to the airlock, where he subsequently flushed him out into open space, leading to Randall's eventual asphyxiation, an ignominous end for such an accomplished soldier.

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