Cade McDonough

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Cade McDonough
Biographical information
Born:	Prior to 2525
Died:	January 2557
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Height:	Taller than 177.8 centimeters (5 ft 10.0 in)
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UNSC Armed Forces UNSC Marine Corps (formerly) Hakon (formerly) Ace of Spades

Rion Forge: "Cade, wait. It's not your fault."

Cade: "Why? Because I have history? That doesn't give me a free pass to spaz out on you like that."

Rion Forge: "Yeah. Actually, I think it does."

Cade: "No, it doesn't. Not for me."

— Cade and Rion after Cade experienced a moment of weakness and fear.

Cade McDonough was a former UNSC Marine and a salvager working on the modified Mariner-class transport ship, the Ace of Spades. He was romantically involved with the ship's captain, Rion Forge. In January of 2557, he was killed by the Sangheili Commander, Gek 'Lhar, during an altercation in the debris field of Trove, a Forerunner shield world.

Biography

War and Plunder

"It's a good job, Kip. Stop worrying. Cap is fair and we make a decent living, better than most out here."

— Cade reassures Kip concerning the ethical implications of their work.

At some point after his eighteenth birthday, Cade enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps. As a marine, he fought in numerous theaters during the decades-long Human-Covenant War. His encounters with Mgalekgolo especially left deep scars, as he saw people killed ruthlessly by them a hundred times or more. The last time he saw one was around 2551, after he had already been discharged and become a salvager. He killed more than his fair share of Unggoy and Kig-Yar, and even a few Sangheili, during the war. On a select few occasions, he had even seen Spartans in action. During the war, Cade's home world was Glassed by the Covenant and his entire family was killed. In one fell swoop, he lost his wife, his two children, his parents, and his siblings. When he was honorably discharged the return to civilian life was difficult for him, as he had nowhere to go and nobody to call family. Eventually, he found work on a salvage ship, the Hakon, and it was there that he first met Rion Forge. On Rion's twenty-fourth birthday in 2549, she got into a fight with a crew member named Sorely in the ship's cargo hold. A crowd gathered to watch the fight and place bets. When Sorely tried to throw Rion against the bulkhead, she instead was slammed into Cade. He caught her and whispered in her ear that Sorely had bad knees and a left shoulder injury before smacking her on the ass and pushing her back toward him. So shocked at his audacity, she was blindsided by a punch to the face and dropped to the deck. However, Cade's advice ultimately caused her to overcome Sorely, who she killed. Rion would go on to become the captain of the Hakon in 2551 after the deaths of its captain, Bjorn Birger, and his wife, Unn. Eventually Rion left the Hakon behind and instead acquired the Ace of Spades, a modified Mariner-class transport ship. Cade followed her. New Tyne, Venezia, became the place from which they conducted salvaging runs. On a few occasions, the crew stumbled upon human remains amidst wreckage. In July of 2556, the crew of the Ace of Spades vacationed on Sundown, and by December of that same year, it fell into one of its largest paydays ever. Rion personally participated in a four-way bidding war for a small piece of a Forerunner navigational databoard at a small bazaar on Komoya, and after winning the bidding war, she sold the databoard to a Sangheili for a large profit. In January of the new year, the crew returned to Venezia after having been gone for six weeks. There, another profit was made through the sale of a stasis field generator, Paegaas Workshop Spikers, and Mosa-pattern carbines.

While Rion was in New Tyne with Kip Silas and Lessa, two other members of the crew, Cade remained at the New Tyne Airfield so he could perform maintenance on the ship's track system. When the three finally returned they found him seated a story up on a catwalk, still hard at work. Rion notified him of a planned meeting to take place in fifteen minutes and he responded with a curt nod. When those fifteen minutes had passed, the crew found itself gathered around the ship's mess table to hear what the captain had to say. Rion revealed that she had used some of their recent windfall to purchase information regarding another potential claim; specifically, the wreckage of a ship that could very well be a military vessel downed during the war. The possibility of discovering a UNSC ship sparked a debate between Kip and the siblings, Lessa and Niko, as Kip believed the UNSC Salvage Directive would need to be followed in such a case. Cade leaned back in his chair and quietly observed the argument with crossed arms. Rion met his somber gaze before she added her voice to the discussion by assuring Kip that she would do the right thing if any heavy ordnance was discovered. When Cade then spoke, he told Kip he should stop worrying and that Rion would be fair. He then asked her what their destination was, to which she replied "Ectanus 45". Their prize was located on a moon in that system, Eiro. Cade thoughtfully considered the news and reminded Rion that it was right on the edge of the Inner Colonies, which was not their usual haunt and could lead to trouble for them. Rion was resolved to make the journey regardless, justifying it by way of the reward it could bring. After the conclusion of the meeting, Cade sparred with Rion after she worked out by herself. By the time they finished it had been an hour since they had left Venezia.

Eiro

Niko: "Hey, Cade? This bring back memories?"

Cade: "Yeah. It brings back memories, kid."

— Niko and Cade upon sighting the remains of the UNSC Roman Blue

Eiro is tidally locked to an uninhabited planet, but there is a narrow twilight ring on its surface that supports a small settlement. The crew's target was purportedly located around fifty-six kilometers from this ring on the dark side of the moon. Once settling into geosynchronous orbit, it didn't take long for Lessa to locate the ship. Given the moon's deathly cold temperatures, Cade joined Niko in sarcastically remarking on an eagerness to freeze. As Rion and Lessa stayed on the birdge to land the Ace, Cade, Kip, and Niko headed for the staging bay, referred to as the "locker room", to suit up. With sixty seconds until touchdown on Eiro's surface, Cade broached the subject of dead bodies over comms to Rion. The captain gave a noncommittal answer that suggested she didn't want to think about it unless and until they needed to. Once the two women joined everyone else, Cade showed Kip how to link his wrist commpad to his helmet's HUD and to the rest of the crew. Accepting Kip's thanks, he smacked Niko on the helmet as he walked past him and jokingly reminded him to not forget his plasma cutters, as he had done during a previous excursion. Cade rallied the crew to disembark into the snowy outside and upon first viewing the ship, a Halcyon-class light cruiser, Niko innocently asked him if it brought back memories. For his oblivious insensitivity, Lessa smacked her brother in the head, but Cade just calmly affirmed that it did indeed. After walking around the hall of the cruiser, it became apparent that at best, only a quarter of the ship was present and that it had been cut in two by a Covenant weapon. Cade identified the damage to have been done by a plasma energy projector. In order to cover as much ground as quickly as possible, Rion had the crew split up. Cade was directed to find an armory.

He set off in search of one near the bridge, as it was likely there were one or two located in close proximity to it. Around forty-five minutes after their scavenging began, Rion checked in with Cade over their comms. He let her know he had discovered a decent payload: thermite paste, small arms, rifles, jetpacks, body armor, and heavy ordnance. Rion reiterated that the heavy stuff would be left for the UNSC to recover but she instructed him to pack up everything else. After Rion went to explore the cabin of the captain of the cruiser, discovered to have been named the UNSC Roman Blue, she exclaimed and made other noise over the comms upon making some shocking discoveries. Cade and the others, unaware whether everything was okay, filled her earpiece. Just then, a hard blast struck the Roman Blue and made the whole thing shudder. Cade was the first one to react with a clear pronunciation that they were under attack. Rion ordered everyone back to the Ace of Spades, but seeing as she was still back at the captain's quarters, it would take her around fifteen to twenty minutes more than everyone else to get there. Cade let her know that he would by no means be leaving without her but she overrode him by reminding him she could fend for herself and that they had been in similar situations before. Cade reluctantly gave in and agreed to get airborne in their ship and to go dark and lie low to wait for a further signal from her. The unknown attackers Glassed the Roman Blue, but Rion managed to escape in one piece and the Ace of Spades remained hidden.

Rion reestablished contact with her crew after the coast was clear and the ship set down to pick her up with just ten minutes of her oxygen to spare. As the ramp descended, Cade was waiting for her. She could tell he was pissed at her from the way he commented on her general appearance and his use of her surname. The two of them made their way to the lockers to they could get out of their coldsuits. Cade used his knife to help Rion get one of her boots off that had pa