Pedro Alvarez

Pedro Alvarez
Biographical information
Died:	c. October 31, 2556
Cause of death:	Suicide
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UNSC Navy
Rank:	Captain

Pedro Joaquin Alvarez was a commissioned officer serving in the UNSC Navy, and the captain of UNSC Saturn.

Biography

Pedro Alvarez was an Executive officer aboard the UNSC Lamplighter when Earth was invaded by thousands of Retriever Sentinels sent by 000 Tragic Solitude. He had repeatedly asked his Captain for orders as the Lamplighter came under attack from Retrievers, only to receive silence as the Captain just watched in what Alvarez couldn't tell was stupefied indecision or reverential awe. After which, Alvarez would relieve the Captain of command and take control of the Lamplighter. After the Retrievers had been called away, Alvarez would be awarded a Bronze Star for surviving the invasion, a promotion to Captain which he didn't want, command of a Paris-class heavy frigate and a bottle of Titan Smoke, which he planned to have for his retirement.

At some point after this, Alvarez would acquire a painting from Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son. He would put it aboard his heavy frigate and name it after the painting, the UNSC Saturn. He would often show new officers the painting and give a speech of how it came to be to see how the officers responded, which would give him and insight on their tactical acumen and thinking.

On October 4th, 2556, the Saturn would be deployed to the Marcey system to oversee a mining operation on the asteroid LV-31 to gather material to help rebuild the UNSC Home Fleet after it had been decimated by the invading Sentinels. During the operation, Alvarez would show the painting to the newly-transferred Lieutenant Anwar Shafiq. However, his speech would be interrupted by an alert. Upon arriving on the bridge, Alvarez would be told that communication with the mining team on Site 22 had been lost, eventually learning that the Flood had been unleashed from a Forerunner starship buried in the asteroid. The ship's Smart AI, Lycaon, insisted they enact Emergency Contact Protocol Upsilon and withdraw all ground forces, which Alvarez refused and ordered Fireteam Leviathan be deployed to quell the parasite, unwilling to lose the resources in the asteroid and sent from the ship. When Lycaon attempted to supersede his command, Alvarez called out Lycaon's override code, freezing the AI. After a moment, Alvarez ordered a Hazop group to support Fireteam Leviathan as he settled into his command chair, feeling the eyes of Saturn on his back.

However, the deployed forces proved ineffective and were quickly wiped by the Flood, with one of the Spartans being infected by them. He knew that once the Flood had consumed everything on the asteroid, they would turn to the Saturn, consume the crew and take to the stars. With no other choice, Alvarez chose to enact CORRUPTER and UPSILON protocols, ordering all remaining personal to return to the Saturn within seven minutes before it unleashes a barrage of Shiva-class nuclear missiles to wipe out the Flood.

After the asteroid had been destroyed and the Flood were supposedly wiped out, Alvarez pondered what he should do next, whether to initiate Final Dispensation for Lycaon and order his crew to go AWOL with him or face the trial that awaited for him. He opted to return to his quarters to drink his Titan Smoke, hoping to find the answer to his plight at the bottom of a large glass.

The next day, Alvarez was still drinking from his Titan Smoke as he attempted to justify his actions and continued to debate what to do. He managed to reassure himself that he had at least managed to avert the worst possible outcome in denying the Flood the ability to spread beyond LV-31, accepting the responsibility for a difficult decision for anyone in his position. After cleaning himself, he would be visited by Shafiq who had brought him a statistical analysis of the Outbreak on Site 22. As Alvarez looked through the losses, both personnel and assets, he found that one of their Condors hadn't been reported to have returned to the Saturn or been destroyed on LV-31. Realising the potential that the Flood had commandeered a Slipspace-capable ship, Alvarez ordered Shafiq to send him all the footage he could for him to review personally and and to tell nobody until they were certain of the facts. After Shafiq left, Alvarez sunk into his chair and contemplated the weight of his decisions.

For the next four days, Alvarez had not said anything to the crew who, already demoralized from the events at Site 22, began questioning whether he was fit for duty. Eventually, he would order Shafiq to assemble a select 193 of the crew, including marines, security personnel and some officers, in the hanger for an address. In it, after taking a moment to honor those lost to the Flood, Alvarez would tell them he had received orders from FLEETCOM and would be leaving the Marcey system, requiring all but select essential personnel to go into cryosleep. However, the crew was doubtful, with one senior comms officer asking what the orders were and when they came through as they hadn't found any record of any transmissions from the past four days. Alvarez tried to dismiss it, saying it was classified, which only further aggravated the crew. When Shafiq brought up a strange inconsistency with the assignment roster where three of the members of Leviathan were listed among the deceased. Alvarez dismissed it as a glitch in the system and asked Shafiq to report to his ready room so they could continue the conversation with the painting of Saturn, only to berate the crew for not following his orders after Shafiq refused his order. Alvarez would be fearful and furious after Shafiq revealed to the crew that one of their Condors escaped LV-31, and cried mutiny when they began arming themselves to storm the bridge to put Alvarez into cryo to send him to Earth for his court martial. Ultimately, Alvarez opened the hanger's rear hatch, sucking everyone in the hanger into space.

Following this, the remaining officers would start to plan behind Alvarez's back, forcing him to kill each one until he was the last one on the ship. On October 31, he would compose a final report where he admitted to his failure and reflected on what led him to his current situation, calling himself to a hollow copy of his old captain, and debated on how he "departs". He then made preparations to reactivate Lycaon and left the Saturn to do with it as he wanted, whether to return it to Earth, crash it into an asteroid or let it drift through space.

During his final report, Alvarez told Lycaon that he acquired the painting of Saturn Devouring His Son under "remarkable circumstances". In April, 2560, a member of the human population on Atropos, who had been stranded on the planet for 70 years, - an old man with a thick white beard and crooked teeth - would sell the same painting to Atun 'Etaree, telling him that he'd got it in "remarkable circumstances" before they were stranded on the planet.

Personality and traits

After the battle of Earth in 2555, where Alvarez had relieved his captain of command when he didn't give any orders as they were under attack, he would be awarded a Bronze Star, a promotion to captain and command of his own ship.

Alvarez also had a notable fascination with Francisco Goya and his collection of Black Paintings, particularly Saturn Devouring His Son, having managed to acquiring the original painting under "remarkable circumstances". After taking captaincy of a Paris-class heavy frigate as a reward for his efforts in taking command of the UNSC Lamplighter during the battle of Earth, Alvarez would name it after the painting and have it hung in its ready room. There, he would show it to any new officers that would transferred to the Saturn, often giving a speech of the context behind the painting's creation, to gauge into how they thought and tactical acumen.

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List of appearances

• Halo Infinite
  • Season 04: Infection (First mentioned)
• Halo: Saturn Devouring His Son (First appearance)
• Halo: Ascension on Atropos