Lucas Browning

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Lucas Browning
Biographical information
Homeworld:	Vaslo, Alluvion
Born:	c. 2534
Died:	June 7, 2560
Cause of death:	Fatally stabbed by Jega 'Rdomnai
Parents:	Marcus Browning (Father) Betta Browning (Mother)
Siblings:	Taylor Browning (Sister) Penny Browning (Sister) Adeline Browning (Sister) Jillian Browning (Sister) Audrie Browning (Sister) Isabel Browning (Sister)
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Hair color:	Dark
Political and military information
Affiliation:	United Nations Space Command UNSC Marine Corps Boat crew
Service number:	42410-02214-LB

Lucas Austin Browning was a combat medic in the UNSC Marine Corps.

Biography

Early life

Lucas Browning was born in Vaslo, on Alluvion, circa 2534. Browning grew up in a household of nurses and caregivers, and went to primary school in Paugary. He was evacuated from the planet when he was still a child, presumably in 2542, when the Covenant laid siege to Alluvion. Eventually, Browning became a combat medic in the United Nations Space Command Marine Corps, and joined the marine complement on UNSC Infinity when the flagship was retrofitted over Earth.

Battle for Zeta Halo

Main article: Battle for Zeta Halo

On December 12, 2559, Browning was aboard the UNSC Infinity when it was ambushed by Banished forces upon arrival at Installation 07. As the Infinity fell to the Banished assault, Browning was evacuated onboard the lifeboat Papa Tango Delta 09 piloted by TJ Murphy. Browning was the last person to board the lifeboat as Spartan Bonita Stone held a collapsing beam above him so he could reach the lifeboat. During its escape from the flagship, Browning's lifeboat flew through a destroyed Banished dreadnought, but it lost its back section to weapon fire, and spun out of control as it entered the ring's atmosphere.

Browning's lifeboat crash-landed on the surface of the ring, and was lodged inside a crevice, leaving its occupants trapped. The crew took turns transmitting a distress call, which was answered by Spartan-IV Tomas Horvath of Fireteam Intrepid. However, after the explosion on the ring and its sudden slipspace jump, they lost contact with Horvath. The event, which fractured the ring, also buried the lifeboat deeper into the crevice, until Spartan Bonita Stone arrived and tore open the lifeboat's hull to pull out each survivor, including Browning. Over the next six days, Browning and other lifeboat survivors travelled across the region with Spartan Stone. They eventually rendezvoused with another group of survivors led by Spartan Nina Kovan. Browning bonded with two other non-combatants from Kovan's group, Erik Bender and Gavin Jo, who were supply staff personnel. The combined group became the "boat crew". Led by Stone and Kovan, they travelled to the UNSC stronghold at the wreckage of the UNSC Mortal Reverie; they arrived on December 19. Browning and Jo were assigned to the med bay within the ship's wreckage.

Browning participated in the defense of the Reverie when the Banished launched an assault on the wreckage on January 31, 2560. Along with other members of the boat crew, he was stationed at a medical tent near the secondary barricade. On February 2, as the UNSC defenses fell to the Banished assault, Browning and Gavin Jo were attacked by a Sangheili Enforcer. While Jo was impaled by the Sangheili's energy sword, Browning was saved by Spartan Kovan. Murphy and Bender tried to carry Jo to cover so Browning could tend to Jo's injury, but Jo begged them to leave as more Banished troops approached. Browning fled along with other UNSC survivors of the battle. In order to prevent the Banished from finding Spartan Kovan and the rest of the boat crew, Browning stole a Ghost and led the Banished troops away from his friends. He expected to be killed, but was instead taken prisoner by the Banished.

Captivity

On February 8, Browning was taken to Redoubt of Sundering, where he was horrified, then angry, to learn that there was a human working as an inspector among the Banished. The inspector determined that, based on his physique, Browning was either a scientist or a doctor, so Browning was taken to a holding cell separate from the others. Over the next three to four weeks, Browning was left in the cell and watched other humans survivors being processed at the outpost, until he, along with a handful of other prisoners, was taken to Chak 'Lok's Tower for interrogation and torture. During his initial torture session, Browning fainted at the sight of plasma cutters and woke up in an enclosed holding cell. He was fed in scraps or slops every couple of days. He met another prisoner, Spartan Hudson Griffin, who occupied a cell next to his, though the two never actually saw each other, and Griffin kept his identity a secret from Browning.

At some point following the fall of the UNSC stronghold at the Reverie, the Banished unearthed a Forerunner cylix underneath the wreckage, which had been converted into a Banished outpost. On April 18, under the orders of War Chief Escharum, Itacus forced Browning to interface with the cylix, releasing the Xalanyn known as the "Harbinger" from stasis. Upon her release, Browning caught the Harbinger's eyes, and she claimed that he will be hers. Browning remained at Outpost Tremonius afterwards; on April 23, when Spartan Stone was scouting out the Banished outpost, she recognized Browning from afar, then returned to Kovan to share her findings. That evening, Kovan snuck into Outpost Tremonius and into the Phantom that held Browning. He couldn't be rescued, however, as the Harbinger and the Banished had put a pair of shackles on Browning's wrists, with a node on the Phantom's hull that would detect the sensors and detonate explosives within the shackles if Browning leaves the Phantom. Browning informed Kovan of the Harbinger, and opted to stay under captivity. Kovan gave him several recording transmitters, instructing Browning to learn whatever he could about the Harbinger or the Banished, and left a tracking beacon to Browning's neck. The Spartan made a promise to find Browning, then left before a pair of Jiralhanae patrol approached. Browning would recount his encounter with the Harbinger, and, per Kovan's instruction, left them to automatically link to any UNSC data pad transmitters in his vicinity; his audio logs on the Harbinger were recovered by John-117 approximately a month later. The next day, on April 24, Browning was taken back to the Tower.

On April 26, Browning was transported to the Harbinger at the House of Reckoning; he managed to record the initial exchange between Chak 'Lok and the Harbinger upon his arrival. The Harbinger and the Banished had prepared a table of cooked food and water for Browning; halfway through his meal, however, the Harbinger stopped him so she can speak to him. Over the next several days, Browning was transported multiple times from his holding cell in the Tower to the House of Reckoning to speak with the Harbinger. On May 7, while he was in his cell in the Tower, Browning tried to describe his experience with the Harbinger to Griffin, but when he tried to recount the encounter, he could only speak in numbers. Griffin managed to comfort Browning, telling him to keep it to himself for now, and they would endure captivity together. By May 15, Browning's repeated encounters with the Harbinger had left him in a hysterical state in which he was involuntarily rambling to himself. The Harbinger placed a geas within Browning containing the preliminary access code to the Xalanyn prison, possibly as a backup plan. The access code was encoded in the memory of Browning's service number, resulting in him repeating his service number which was now the access code to the Xalanyn prison.

Browning was at some point imprisoned in Rdomnai Keep by Blademaster Jega 'Rdomnai. 'Rdomnai gleamed from Browning's ramblings that he had a shared connection with the Harbinger and a compulsion to serve her. During his captivity, Browning would often hallucinate his friends and family floating in and out of his cell like ghosts. Sometimes his mind would blend recent and past events, muddying Browning's recollections. One frequent hallucination was of Horvath making good on his promise of rescue before Browning would remember that the promise was made months earlier before Zeta Halo had fractured.

During his captivity, Browning's Kig-Yar jailers would peck away at him for sport. The Kig-Yar would release Browning and then hunt him down, calling it "snack time" and terrorizing the medic along with torturing him.

Rescue

On June 4, Blademaster Jega 'Rdomnai had Browning with him at Escharum's funeral where Browning was referred to by the other Banished leaders as the 'Rdomnai's pet which meant that Browning had endured the worst. Ballas attempted to kill Browning, but was blocked by the Blademaster, causing Sangheili Warlord Val 'Hasumai to recognize the human as the Harbinger's pet. 'Hasumai deduced that 'Rdomnai sought the secrets in Browning's mind that the Harbinger had shared with the human. 'Rdomnai quickly took Browning and fled while the Master Chief, watching remotely, ordered Joyeuse to follow and detonate the Eris tactical nuclear weapon payload to eliminate the gathered Banished once the Phantom was at a safe distance. Joyeuse realized that the human prisoner was the combat medic in the data drops that she and the Master Chief had accessed during their journey together across Zeta Halo and with what Browning knew about the Harbinger, they were going to need him.

Tracking 'Rdomnai back to Rdomnai Keep, the Master Chief found and freed Browning from the holding cells who was unresponsive at first and then mistook the Master Chief for Bonita Stone, believing that he was hallucinating again. After being assured that the legendary Spartan was real, Browning tried to warn him about the Harbinger, but the Master Chief interrupted him, slung the medic over his shoulders, and began making their escape.

Observing the rescue, 'Rdomnai decided to let them escape, hoping that a change of tactics and the illusion of safety would cause Browning to lead him to the Harbinger.

As the Master Chief fought his way out of the Banished base, Browning finally realized who his savior was which filled him with hope that he might actually survive. The Master Chief eventually broke through a rock wall into the outside world where Banished vehicles chased the two humans, trying to force them off of the island. The Master Chief managed to hijack a Banished Prowler, make it to the edge of the island, and jump into Echo 216 with Browning as the Pelican took a hit.

The Pelican eventually set down in a shadowy fissure on a landmass thirty kilometers away. By then, the pain medicine that Browning had been given had worn off and the Chief provided the medic with a spare flight suit to change into and an emergency foil blanket for warmth. With Browning's injuries making changing difficult, Fernando Esparza stepped in to help him.

The next day, Echo 216 came under attack from five Banshees, only for Horvath to show up and help the Master Chief take them down. Frightened, Browning disassociated from the havoc outside and after it was over, recognized Horvath's voice outside, learning that Stone was dead. With effort, Browning crawled to the hatch and addressed Horvath who remembered the young medic and was pleased to see that he had survived. Browning was devastated to learn that TJ Murphy and Isaiah Cameron were dead and the others were still fighting near the beacon tower the last time that Horvath saw them and Horvath encouraged him not to give up hope on Kovan, Bender and Dimik.

Unraveling the Mystery

Browning revealed to the two Spartans that the Harbinger had done something to his memory, encoding something into the memory of Browning's service number so that the numbers had a more significant meaning. The Master Chief recalled Browning repeating the numbers in his data drops and Browning told him that the Harbinger had called it insurance and a geas. Joy explained that a Forerunner called the Librarian had used technology to place a genetic imprint on humanity that could be instructions or subconscious orders that might pertain to a single individual or passed down through generations. As the Librarian had placed these within the humans seeded on Earth, in a way all humans have some remaining geas built into their DNA which is why they're recognized as Reclaimers by Forerunner systems. The AI theorized that the Xalanyn had similar technology or the Harbinger had simply co-opted the Forerunners' own systems. The AI suggested that if they could get Browning to a Lifeworker station, they could find the Forerunners' geas technology and not only remove the imprint, but perhaps decode whatever the Harbinger had placed in Browning's mind.

Browning's discovery and rescue shifted the Master Chief and Joy's focus from sowing chaos within the Banished to keeping the medic safe and deciphering whatever geas the Harbinger had implanted in his head. By the time that Echo 216 was ready to take off, Browning was asleep again, having exhausted himself by pulling himself across the floor to talk to Horvath. While Browning's condition was concerning to the point that Joy was surprised he'd lasted so long with all of his injuries, malnourishment and trauma, there wasn't much that they could do currently. Esparza was surprised to find a very old human settlement. Joy explained to Esparza that humanity was a hundred thousand years older than he knew and humanity's current civilization had simply rediscovered the Halo Array. Esparza landed the Pelican in a clearing three kilometers from Lifeworker Central and reluctantly agreed to accompany the others rather than staying with Echo 216. Passing through the jungle reminded Esparza of his daughter and how many missed opportunities came from his own phobias. Joy told Esparza that Zeta Halo had a long history of human settlements with the people calling themselves the Tudejsa. However, the Flood and some Forerunners' desire to use the Tudejsa in experiments to study the Flood led to a civil war on the ring. Near a building, Esparza noticed human sounds, but Browning warned him that it may not be friendlies as the Banished had humans amongst their ranks. Although Esparza already knew that, the idea of humans working with the Banished was hard for him to wrap his head around.

Leaving Esparza with Browning, the Master Chief left to check it out. Browning told Esparza about how he had encountered a Banished human inspector. Esparza was horrified that a human could do such a thing and considered the inspector to be a traitor and a monster. Browning revealed that using a human inspector had been a form of psychological warfare by Escharum. Esparza expressed his amazement at Browning's courage in drawing the Banished away from his friends, making Esparza realize how self-absorbed he'd been to feel sorry for himself. Esparza came to the conclusion that he'd been one of the "worst enemy" humans that Browning spoke of, albeit to a different degree than the inspector, because if he'd taken the time to look around the hanger bay rather than just fleeing, Esparza could've found others to join him. The two men bonded over their respective ordeals and experiences, particularly in the hands of 'Rdomani. The revelation of a shared experience seemed to offer comfort to the young medic. Noticing Esparza's continuing pain, Browning diagnosed him with a cracked rib or two at the very least from the effects of the torture machine. Esparza noticed that while Browning projected a willingness to "sort it all out," there was a hollowness and detachment to every obliging word and smile, as if Browning was on autopilot, projecting the shadow of the amiable personality that once defined him while in reality Browning seemed shut down. Worried about him, Esparza started cracking bad jokes to try to cheer Browning up.

Discovering that the sounds were from two ODSTs, Gainey and Hightower, the Master Chief retrieved Esparza and Browning and took them to a large UNSC encampment at Lifeworker Central. At the field hospital, the Master Chief turned Browning over to the care of Dr. Shoff who was one of the best field surgeons aboard the Infinity. The Spartan emphasized Browning's importance to Shoff, telling the doctor that the young combat medic had valuable intel and they needed him. Browning was treated for severe malnourishment, a lacerated liver, punctured lung, bruised kidneys and broken bones, a number of which had been broken, reset and broken again. Browning was given a high-nutrient IV drip which got him to around sixty percent nourished and rehydrated and he was given smart-assist splints to allow mobility to his legs while Browning's bones and muscles healed. Shoff injected Browning with a complete series of Targeted Nanoparticle Therapy and Repair programmed to repair and facilitate healing to his internal injuries.

Death

On June 7, Browning was fatally stabbed by Jega 'Rdomnai. The Master Chief and Joyeuse stabilized him temporarily in an attempt to get the dying medic out of the Silent Auditorium. The Master Chief was able to get him outside for long enough to see the sky before Browning died of his wounds, at peace and hoping that wherever he ended up, he would be reunited with Isaiah Cameron, TJ Murphy, Gavin Jo and Bonita Stone.

The next day, Browning was buried in a grave at Lifeworker Central that was personally dug by the Master Chief who refused help from anyone else. Amongst the attendees at Browning's funeral were the Master Chief, Joy, Esparza, Commander Wes Thompson, Dr. Shoff, Janina Yu, Cardenas, Gainey, Hightower and four Swords of Sanghelios warriors. Having been found by Esparza with the help of the Swords warriors and subsequently brought to Lifeworker Central, the remainder of the boat crew were also in attendance and they took Browning's death hard. The Master Chief and Esparza also took his death very hard, consumed by guilt and the anger that after everything the young medic had been through, they hadn't been able to save his life.

Personality and traits

Gavin Jo: "It'll be a miracle if we survive. We're scattered and outnumbered... and we don't even know when or if help is coming... I'm sorry. I'm just being realistic—to a fault, I know. And trust me, I've heard it my entire life. No one likes to hear the truth or look at the world through unfiltered lenses. I don't like it either, I hate it—I hate... this. But—"

Lucas Browning: "It's not in your nature to sugarcoat things. That's why you're good at what you do. Just the facts, right?"

Gavin Jo: "Right."

— Lucas Browning consoling Gavin Jo as the two contemplated the UNSC's situation on Zeta Halo.

Having grown up in a household of nurses and caregivers, Lucas Browning learned that a little attention and comfort could ease the suffering around him—this belief inspired him to become a medic. During the Battle for Zeta Halo, Browning experienced imposter syndrome and had feelings of self-doubt due to his young age and inexperience; the rest of the boat crew often called him "Doc", but he did not feel like he had earned the title. Spartan Bonita Stone described Browning as having an easily-recognisable "fresh-out-of-med-school face". Browning lacked a soldier's physique, which became thinner during his captivity under the Banished. By June 4, Browning was barefoot, and dressed in a dirty, bloodstained, threadbare uniform that hung loose on his emaciated frame. Browning had been tortured, starved, was near skeletal and covered in cuts and bruises in various stages of healing. His hair was long and matted and Browning had a beard which was shaved by the staff at the field hospital at Lifeworker Central.

Production notes

In Halo Infinite, Lucas Browning was portrayed by Jason Charles Miller, who also lent his voice to Spartan Voiceprint DF09 in the multiplayer component.

List of appearances

• Halo Infinite (First appearance)
• Halo: The Rubicon Protocol
• Halo: Edge of Dawn