Veta Lopis

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Veta Lopis
Biographical information
Homeworld:	Gao
Born:	May 7, 2520
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Female
Height:	177 centimeters (5 ft 10 in)
Weight:	65 kilograms (140 lb)
Hair color:	Black
Eye color:	Hazel
Political and military information
Affiliation:	Gao Ministry of Protection (formerly) UNSC Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Ferrets
Rank:	Special inspector (formerly) Lieutenant, Junior Grade
Service number:	93553-24752-VL

"I don't chase phantoms, Major Halal. I catch killers. Quite a lot of them, actually."

— Lopis in reply to Major Ira Halal during her investigation of the murders in the Montero Cave System

Veta Lopis is an Office of Naval Intelligence agent who formerly served as a special inspector of the Ministry of Protection on planet Gao. Following Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE in July 2553, she defected from the Ministry of Protection to the United Nations Space Command, having become a fugitive on her homeworld, now leading an ONI Ferret Team comprising Ash-G099, Olivia-G291 and Mark-G313. Lopis was given the sarcastic nickname "Mom" by the trio due to her protectiveness toward them.

Biography

Early life

Veta Lopis was born on May 7, 2520 on the Outer Colony of Gao. When she was seventeen years old, she was kidnapped and endured abuse in a small stone cellar for three weeks. She eventually escaped by breaking out and killing her captor with a rock, only to learn that her father had died of grief while she was gone. This traumatic experience instilled in her the desire to see injustice of any kind met with strict retribution and so she enrolled at the Avelos Academy to study criminal investigation and become a homicide investigator. Since the age of 20, Lopis took down multiple hardened killers, and had become Gao's top homicide investigator by her early 30s. Many of her childhood attitudes towards the UNSC were formed by the yearlong ordeal of the Blockade of Gao.

Veta's mother died around 2551. Her closest surviving family included two aunts and six cousins, all of whom lived on Gao, as of 2553.

Crisis on Gao

Main article: Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE

In May 2553, the UNSC's 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion arrived on Gao in search of a Forerunner ancilla in the Montero Cave System; however, the UNSC did not reveal their mission's goal to the Gaos, much to the fiercely independence-minded colonials' chagrin. The situation escalated when the ancilla, Intrepid Eye, began covertly murdering Gao citizens in the Montero Cave System in order to create discord between Gao's citizens and the UNSC. With many Gaos already accusing the UNSC for the murders, the Gao Ministry of Protection dispatched Lopis and her team to find the killer on July 2, 2553. In addition to her investigation, she was to covertly glean information on the UNSC's classified activities on Gao and report her findings to her superior, Minister of Protection Arlo Casille.

Lopis could not carry out her investigation entirely unhindered, with Major Ira Halal of the UNSC Judge Advocate General's Corps intent on ensuring she did not incriminate the UNSC unfairly and Lieutenant, Junior Grade Frederic-104 of Spartan Blue Team reluctant to reveal classified information, despite the battalion's commanding officer, Commander Murtag Nelson, ordering the Spartan to cooperate with her. Due to the brutal nature of the killings—which would have required enormous brute strength—as well as Fred's secretive behavior and Lopis' ingrained dislike and distrust of the Spartans, she initially believed the murderer to be one of the supersoldiers.

The caves

Veta, Fred-104, Olivia-G291 stand within the Montero Cave System, with Ash-G099 and Mark-G313 in the distance.

On July 4, 2553, Lopis and her team, escorted by Blue Team, arrived at Crime Scene India within the Montero Cave System to study a recently-discovered victim. From there, Lopis and her partner Cirilo, along with Fred-104, Ash-G099, Olivia-G291 and Mark-G313 made their way to the last known location of Major Ira Halal and Private Hayes, both of whom turned out to have been murdered. Lopis and Cirilo decided to follow a trail of an unidentified fluid—actually blood belonging to the wounded Huragok Roams Alone—deeper into the caves, accompanied by the Spartans. As they reached a large cavern after nearly a twelve hours' descent, they came under attack by Intrepid Eye's Aggressor Sentinels. Though the Spartans were able to destroy the Sentinels, Cirilo was killed and Olivia was seriously wounded.

At this point Lopis discovered the young age of the Gamma Company Spartans, along with their reliance on "Smoother" drugs to control their mentally unbalancing augmentations. Additionally, having witnessed Olivia destroy a Sentinel bare-handed, she began to suspect one of them for being the murderer, with Mark in particular drawing her suspicion due to his standoffish behavior. Ordering the others to stay put, Fred left to reconnoiter the area. While waiting for Fred, Lopis and the Spartans were approached by Roams Alone, a Lifeworker Huragok who began to heal Olivia's wounds. Having discovered the Forerunner Covert Support Base 4276, Fred eventually returned and decided that the party should take the Huragok with them, return to the surface and report to Commander Nelson.

With Olivia having lost her Smoothers during the fighting, Mark volunteered to take only one of the remaining five Smoother injections, leaving two doses each for Ash and Olivia. Mark took point as the group began their nearly one and a half day's climb toward the surface and eventually fell out of contact as he scouted ahead. As Lopis and the Spartans approached the surface, they began to come across bodies of Keepers of the One Freedom Jiralhanae warriors killed by Mark; during the group's time in the caves, the Keepers had landed on Gao and attacked the UNSC forces, seeking to take the ancilla for themselves. As they returned to Crime Scene India, Lopis attempted to question Olivia about Mark while Fred and Ash reconnoitered the area, though the young Spartan quickly grew upset with the inspector for suspecting her teammate. After the 717th's AI Wendell covertly contacted Lopis, ostensibly agreeing with her that Mark may be the murderer, she was attacked by a Jiralhanae and was narrowly saved by Mark's intervention, with the two killing the alien warrior together.

Return to the surface

Lopis fighting alongside Blue Team in Wendosa.

The party eventually reached the Gallery of the Inverted Forest where they were approached by a Forerunner inspection drone housing Intrepid Eye. While isolated from the others, Lopis and Olivia were confronted by Petora Zoyas, who held the Spartan at gunpoint and told Lopis that they should take both the Huragok and the Forerunner drone with them and covertly escape. Meanwhile, however, Fred used a scramble grenade to disable the inspection drone, generating a blinding flash of light; using the distraction to her advantage, Olivia promptly killed Zoyas. The incident made Olivia exceedingly distrustful of Lopis, convinced that the inspector had been in league with the rebel. Nevertheless, Fred trusted Lopis with weapons as the group surfaced at the embattled village of Wendosa and proceeded to reinforce the 717th, which had fallen under attack by the Keepers.

Informed that Fred was to return to the Montero Vitality Center with the ancilla, the group fought their way through Wendosa and Fred boarded a Falcon along with the remainder of Lopis' field team, but the craft was shot down and crashed in the jungle. Lopis and the Gammas reunited with the rest of Blue Team and decided to make their way to the Falcon's crash site before the Keepers could reach it, with Lopis insisting on coming along. After a series of sniper battles along the Briones Ridge, the group arrived at the crash site where Lopis managed to injure the Jiralhanae leader, Castor, with the Spartans' help. After Lopis narrowly survived a large rockslide by riding on Fred's inert, armored form, Blue Team was reinforced by the 717th's Alpha Company and Lopis and the Spartans were brought to the Montero Vitality Center to recover.

After regaining consciousness, Lopis was joined by Commander Nelson, who attempted to convince her to terminate her investigation, her entire team having been killed during the fighting. However, she was adamant to continue hunting the killer and reached an agreement with Nelson in which he allowed Lopis to gather evidence and then neutralize her suspect—whom she still believed to be Mark—to satisfy her personal sense of justice, in exchange for keeping the Forerunner presence on Gao a secret and officially pinning the murders on Keeper Jiralhanae. Nelson reluctantly allowed Lopis to gather material samples from the Forerunner inspection drone as well as the Spartans' armor at the battalion's Portable Spartan Support Module. While doing so, she covertly placed a small explosive charge in the power supply control unit of Fred's Mjolnir to ensure he could not stop her from eliminating Mark if he turned out to be the killer—having been provided with Mjolnir schematics by Casille earlier on. Meanwhile, however, Intrepid Eye recovered and attacked the humans in the module with the inspection drone, having decided that humanity should be "pruned" for individuals worthy of the Mantle after a conversation with Wendell, whom she then absorbed and took control of the entire module. As Lopis and Nelson attempted to escape, Intrepid Eye slammed the airlock's hatches shut, killing Nelson and trapping Lopis inside. Intrepid Eye then began to fill the airlock with a poisonous gas, but Fred, Ash and Olivia arrived in time and managed to save her while subduing the inspection drone.

Escape from Gao

Lopis: "And you want me to do what, exactly? Play the den mother?"

Osman: "Hell, no. Well... maybe sometimes. But what we really want you to do is lead the team and run the investigations."

— Lopis and Serin Osman on the formation of the Ferret Team.

While the 717th prepared to evacuate, Arlo Casille, who had recently been elected President of Gao, sent Gao Republic's military to forcefully remove the UNSC from the planet. Lopis, Fred, Ash, Olivia and Roams Alone escaped pursuing Gao MV-29 Wyverns and battle-jumpers through the jungle in a Warthog to regroup with the rest of Blue Team, having retrieved Wendell's data crystal chip—now covertly housing Intrepid Eye—and a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon. Lopis having now concluded that the murderer was in fact Intrepid Eye in light of the events in the support module, she attempted to explain to the Spartans that they could no longer trust Wendell; this was too late, however, as Intrepid Eye took control of Fred's armor through Wendell's data chip and attempted to kill Lopis. However, she was able to detonate the explosive she had placed in the armor earlier, powering down the armor.

Blue Team eventually regrouped and headed toward the Well of Echoes in Warthogs, with the goal of destroying the Forerunner base below with the HAVOK. On the way, Lopis received a call from Casille, who attempted to convince her to reveal her position to the Wyverns, ostensibly believing the inspector was the Spartans' hostage. However, Lopis realized Casille knew she had sided with the UNSC and was merely attempting to eliminate her. As such, she deceived Casille into believing that she and Blue Team were traveling to the nearby Singing Grottos, causing most of the Wyverns to change course. The group arrived at the Well of Echoes where they boarded the D102 Owl insertion craft Silent Claw. On board, Lopis was greeted by Rear Admiral Serin Osman, who offered her opportunity to place Intrepid Eye's data chip on the HAVOK nuke before it was deployed to make Intrepid Eye face justice for her crimes, but Lopis realized that ONI would never allow the ancilla to be destroyed and as such denied Osman's offer. Mark dropped the HAVOK into the Well of Echoes, destroying the Forerunner base as the Owl headed to rendezvous with Admiral Tuwa's battle group.

On the way, Osman revealed that she had been testing Lopis with her offer to destroy Intrepid Eye and that the inspector had passed by seeing through her bluff. Osman offered Lopis a new job within the Office of Naval Intelligence, announcing that Blue Team's Gamma Company Spartans would be reassigned under ONI to prevent their destabilizing augmentations from becoming a public relations hazard; should she accept, Lopis would be leading the three young Spartans in a new "Ferret" investigative team. Realizing she could not return to Gao and unwilling to let the Gammas fall to ONI's clutches without her supervision, as well as seeing genuine potential in continuing her former work on a much larger scale than before, Lopis accepted Osman's offer alongside Ash, Olivia, and Mark.

While furious about Lopis' betrayal, President Casille decided to announce to the Gao public that she was killed with the rest of her team during the battle, while blaming the Spartans for the murders in the Montero Cave System.

ONI career

Lopis, in SPI armor, on the surface of Meridian alongside Castor.

In the following months, Lopis, Ash, Olivia, and Mark underwent an extensive ONI training regimen, with Veta's training including twice-weekly close-assault drills to prepare her for intense combat. During this time, they visited multiple colonies, rarely staying in one place for long; at one point they were stationed on Jastolo. They primarily operated out of the ONI reservation known as the Mill. Lopis was given the rank of Lieutenant.

Neos Atlantis

On October 14, 2553, the Ferret Team participated in a training exercise against Oscar Squad at UNSC Recreational Facility 6055-NA-A on Neos Atlantis, during which Lopis operated under the cover identity of a UNSC major named Keely. While Lopis was overseeing her subordinates in the officers' club, Olivia was approached by the unscrupulous journalist Spencer Hume, who laced Olivia's zantelle with nicothiotal in an attempt to coax her into revealing classified information about the SPARTAN-III program. Upon realizing Olivia had been drugged, Lopis ordered Ash and Mark into action. A server who had sold Lopis a drink earlier attempted to stop Mark, only to be knocked down. While Mark seized Hume, Lopis encountered Oscar Squad's Commander Svenson. Thinking him responsible for drugging Olivia, Lopis incapacitated the man with a kidney punch. Announcing that she and her team were from FLEETCOM's Criminal Investigation Division, she ordered two ensigns to hold the server who had attempted to obstruct Mark. Lopis then escorted Olivia back into the Halsey Suite, which the team was using as a safe house, and administered a counteragent to the nicothiotal.

Mark and Ash returned to the Halsey Suite shortly after, with Mark having been attacked on the way by the server from the club. Before Mark and Ash could fully explain what had happened, they were joined by Admiral Osman, accompanied by Commander Svenson, who claimed to have witnessed Mark and Ash carrying a body and demanded an explanation. A brief argument ensued between Lopis, Svenson and Osman, with Lopis firmly maintaining her team had done nothing wrong. The admiral then left the suite, giving the Ferret Team two hours to resolve the situation. Ash and Mark explained what had happened—Mark had accidentally killed Hume when he was attacked and the two had disposed of the body afterward. After Hume's identity was discovered, Olivia used ONI's Facial Recognition Database to identify Mark's assailant as a former ONI commander named Ota Gallo, now working for the private security company Dark Moon Enterprises, which was attempting to undermine ONI by leaking classified information to the public. Attempting to recover Hume's belongings, now in the Ferret Team's possession, Gallo and two of her henchmen stormed the Halsey Suite soon after. The Ferrets managed to eliminate the attackers after a brief firefight.

As the team proceeded to evacuate, Admiral Osman returned to the suite with an armed escort. The admiral claimed Hume's personal effects and asked Lopis what had really happened to Hume. Lopis lied that Gallo killed Hume after the reporter was planning to name her as his source. While visibly incredulous, Osman was apparently satisfied with the explanation.

Operation: RETRIBUTION

Main article: Operation: RETRIBUTION

Assassination of Admiral Tuwa

On December 4th, 2553, Lopis and the Ferrets recalled during the final weeks of their ONI training to the Tisiphone system by Osman. They were asked to investigate the UNSC Donoma, a passenger schooner that was transporting UNSC Admiral Graselyn Tuwa and her family to Nephis for a family gathering. The vessel was attacked and boarded, leading to the assassination of Tuwa and the abduction of her husband Kerbasi and her children Catalin and Yuso. While Osman initially suspected Banished involvement, Lopis's initial investigation pointed to the Keepers of the One Freedom as the perpetrators. With this lead, Osman activated the Ferrets and Blue Team to track down the Keepers and try to recover the Tuwas alive.

Knowing that the Keepers were trying to acquire nuclear weapons, ONI set up an elaborate scenario to draw them out and locate their base of operations. They fabricated reports of an attack on the UNSC Taulanti, a munitions ship, in the Isbanola sector, where the raiders supposedly attacked with a heavily modified S77 Crow and made out with Argent V missiles, Gauss cannons, and HAVOK tactical nuclear weapons. Lopis and the Ferrets then posed as these pirates on Venezia. They centered their plan around the Trattoria Georgi, a restaurant in New Tyne that Keeper spies and smugglers were known to frequent. There, Lopis approached Ross Nyeto, a Gao gunrunner who had aided the Keepers and Arlo Casille during Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE. She convinced him that her crew had attacked the Taulanti and offered to pay him Boson beads in exchange for passaged off world, mentioning the HAVOKs within earshot of two Keeper Kig-Yar. Blue Team then moved in on the restaurant, with Linda in position outside and Fred and Kelly rapidly approaching on M121 Jackrabbits. The plan was for the Ferrets to escape in the chaos of the planned gunfight, but this was complicated by the restaurant's owner Georgi Baklanov, a prominent Venezian businessman who intended to hand over the supposed pirates to the Spartans. Lopis's team was therefore unable to extract cleanly, with Olivia and Mark injured in the clash with Blue Team, who apprehended Nyeto and killed everyone else left in the building.

As they fled from the gunfight, Lopis and the Ferrets were picked up in a minivan by Chur'R-Sarch, a Kig-Yar ship commander allied with the Keepers. She drove them to the spaceport and boarded the Stolen Faith, a Mudoat starsloop of the Rach clan. There, Lopis and Sarch agreed on transport to Shamsa for a supposed deal with the Banished, though the Ferrets assumed the Kig-Yar would try to keep the nukes for themselves and deliver them to the Keeper base. They did exactly that, dropping out of slipspace near the gas giant Pydoryn in the Shaps system and tried to kill the humans with ostanalus gas out of an abundance of caution. The Ferrets anticipated this and removed the gas canisters prior to this point. They then neutralized the crew and identified the location of the Keeper's Salvation Base on the moon of Taram. They realized that a Keeper boarding party was on their way to intercept them and prepared for the encounter, reconnecting the ostanalus back up to the ventilation system while relaying their position to Osman and Blue Team on the Sahara-class heavy prowler UNSC Silent Joe. The Ferrets eliminated several members of the boarding party when they entered the Stolen Faith before appearing to relent, agreeing to travel down to Salvation Base and discuss their cover story of selling the nukes to the Banished.

Assault on Salvation Base

After landing in a secluded corner of Salvation Base's spaceport, the Ferrets detonated the ostanalus and neutralized their captors while disembarking from the Stolen Faith. Knowing they had to buy time until the Silent Joe arrived in system, Lopis and Mark set off to locate the Tuwas while Ash and Olivia attempted to delay and misdirect the Keeper response to them. They located the bases detention center in a nearby grotto and entered the facility, not realizing the structure employed a time differential field and bestowed a calming effect on individuals within it. In a relatively short period that amounted to several hours outside of the field, Lopis and Mark moved through the prison, witnessing about a dozen other hostages and encountering but not engaging a team of Dark Moon operatives that were departing. They proceeded on until the found the bodies of the Tuwas, whose organs were harvested for their unique immunity to the asteroidea merozoite disease. This was a part of Intrepid Eye's plan to purify the human race so they would be able to assume the Mantle of Responsibility, using the disease to wipe out humans she deemed unfit to rule. She required the antibodies to administer to her "worthy" humans. Their corpses were planted in Salvation Base to frame the Keepers for their murders. Lopis was able to recognize this ruse based on inconsistencies with the state of the Tuwas and cell they were left in. She and Mark recovered the bodies and moved to leave the facility, reuniting with Ash before reaching the exit.

They emerged from the time differential field into a firefight between the Keepers, the Dark Moon operatives, and Olivia on board the Dark Moon operative's Turaco reconnaissance craft. The Ferrets immobilized two of the operatives with shots to the arms and legs as they were attempting to make it back to their ship and disabled the Turaco's Laser cannon, which was taken over by the Dark Moon AI Argie to try and prevent the company's operatives from being captured. Blue Team, having crash landed in an D102 Owl insertion craft while Lopis and Mark were in the detention center, joined the firefight at this point and disrupted a Keeper charge. Lopis engaged Castor and Orsun, who had recovered the wounded Dark Moon operatives, barely missing a killing shot on the Dokab. She then reached the Turaco with the rest of the Ferrets and Blue Team and advocated to Fred for recovering the other hostages in the detention center before detonating the now-active nukes in the Stolen Faith. Lopis was unsuccessful in this, and the team escaped Taram in the Turaco ahead of the destruction of Salvation Base.

Insertions on Gao and Meridian

After an initially tense meeting with Captain Piers Ewen and other specialists back on the Silent Joe, Lopis was able to narrow the Dark Moon team's point of origin to a lab somewhere on Gao, assuming that Arlo Casille was in part behind the planting of the Tuwas. The Silent Joe jumped to the system and the Ferrets and Blue Team deployed to the surface in the captured Turaco. Investigating the Yosavi Jungle, the team noticed a thick plume of smoke and came across the New Leaf Extractions Field Complex, a remote laboratory. After escaping Taram and interrogating the captured operatives, Castor had followed the Dark Moon connection back to Gao and raided the base, arriving less than two hours before Lopis and the Spartans. Lopis questioned some surviving civilian staff members and learned that Dark Moon had been using the lab as a operating base on Gao and had left the base with the Tuwa's organs in cryo-jars ahead of the raid, where the Keepers had killed every researched other than Anges Sabara, the lab's director. She also deduced that Casille was en route to check on the lab, and the Spartans ambushed and incapacitated his convoy. Lopis spoke with the president, who admitted to working with Dark Moon to frame the Keepers in order to remove their threat to Gao shipping but feigned ignorance to the organization's goals with the Tuwas. Castillo then pointed to Pinnacle Station above Meridian as a possible destination for the fleeing Dark Moon forces, as Sloan, the station's new administrator, had recommended the company to him. The Ferrets departed Gao for Meridian, leaving Castillo alive.

The Silent Joe arrived at Pinnacle Station less than an hour after the Papa-10 ONI security team met and executed the Dark Moon couriers and the subsequent firefight between them and Castor's Keeper force. Posing as security inspectors, Lopis and Olivia investigated the scene while the rest of the team remained on the Turaco, finding Sabara's mortally wounded body. There they came into contact with Sloan, who assumed they were a relief force for Papa-10 and unintentionally revealing an ONI connection in the Tuwa assassinations. He also directed them to the location of the ONI team, who had fled to the surface with the surviving Keepers in pursuit.

Arriving on Meridian, they pursued the two forces into the Jenny Lynn Tantalite Mine. They came to a location where the Papa-10 operatives had stolen a Traxus Heavy Industries Powder wagon and were most likely going to acquire explosives to fend off the Keepers. Confirming their suspicions, the team was hit by the concussive force from a gelignite packet detonation, causing minor damage to some of the Ferret's Semi-Powered Infiltration armor. They continued their pursuit until they came to a dead end where Papa-10 had engaged the Keepers, both sides having run out of ammo and fighting with rocks and mining equipment. Treating the ONI agents as friendlies, the Spartans engaged the Jiralhanae, killing all of them but Castor. Papa-10 then sped away in the load-haul-dump (LHD) machine, running over Fred in the process. Lopis and Castor were both able to cling onto the transport on the bottom and back, respectively, and stayed on it as the ONI operatives fled to a different mine exit. Both of them climbed onto the LHD, where Lopis planted C-12 shaped charges on the cryo-jars while Castor attacked and killed two of the three remaining Papa-10 members. Due to her mud-covered SPI armor, Lopis was unable to hide from the dokab and the two had a brief standoff, with Lopis wielding a mud-clogged M6C magnum. The LHD broke to the surface, with Castor's head striking the top of the mine portal and throwing him off balance. This and her SPI armor allowed Lopis to push him over the side before she jumped off herself a distance away. She witnessed the surviving Papa-10 operative rendezvous with Lieutenant Bartalan Craddog at a Pinnacle Station utility skiff and, seeing the operative raise a rifle in her direction, detonated the explosives, killing the pair and destroying the cryo-jars, ending any chance of Intrepid Eye creating an asteroidea vaccine.

Afterwards, the Ferrets were reassigned the the Mill by Osman, where they completed their training ahead of a major deployment. Before they shipped out, Lopis visited Fred, who was undergoing treatment for his injuries, and the two shared a moment.

Infiltrating the Keepers

During their infiltration of the Humans of the Joyous Journey, Veta Lopis adopted the distinctive hairstyles adorned by the cult.

Main article: Keepers Eradication Campaign

In 2557, ONI sent the Ferrets undercover to infiltrate the Keepers of the One Freedom. By joining an allied doomsday cult, the Humans of the Joyous Journey, the Ferrets were successfully able to penetrate the Keepers and spent eight months gathering intelligence on the faction and relaying it to ONI.

Eight months after the Ferrets infiltrated the Keepers, ONI put the intelligence that had been gathered to use and began a massive campaign to eradicate the Keepers. The campaign was highly successful, killing about 15,000 Keepers. As a result, the Keepers of the One Freedom were left decimated with less than a hundred members left.

Much to everyone's surprise, the campaign had an unexpected effect: Castor sought refuge with the Banished, forming an alliance with the much larger ex-Covenant faction. Although the Ferrets mission was originally supposed to end once the campaign was over, ONI ordered them to remain undercover in the hopes of getting a shot at assassinating Atriox, the leader of the Banished. However, Atriox vanished with his flagship the CAS-class assault carrier Enduring Conviction soon after and the galaxy fell under the control of Cortana.

Operation: WOLFE

Main article: Operation: WOLFE

In October 2559, during Operation: WOLFE, Lopis unexpectedly appears to Fred-104, surprising him as the Ferrets have been missing in action for more than two years and presumed dead. In reality, they have been working undercover amongst the Keepers of the One Freedom and help them to locate the Menachite portal complex on Reach. Lopis hands Fred a message capsule and orders to him to leave immediately, firing her M7 so close above his head that Fred isn't sure if she missed on purpose or not. Calling Fred a Demon and yelling at him to begone at the top of her lungs, Lopis fires another salvo at Fred's feet. Though confused, Fred runs off, deciding that whatever Lopis is doing, he isn't helping her by sticking around and asking a bunch of dumb questions. After a slipspace portal to the Ark is opened, the Ferrets provide Castor with cover from Atriox and join him in traveling to the Ark on a Eklon'Dal Workshop Lich, ostensibly to start the Great Journey.

Upon returning to the UNSC Infinity, Fred gives the message to Captain Veronica Dare and reports that the Ferrets are following the Keepers of the One Freedom through the slipspace portal over Reach to the Ark, Atriox's return is expected and the Keepers intend to initiate the Great Journey. Dare admits that its incredible that the Ferrets are still out there and Fred questions if she really didn't know. Dare states that even when ONI was whole, she wasn't read into every operation and Ferret operations were highly compartmentalized. Dare promises to pass along anything that she hears about the team and allows Fred to keep the top third of the message which is implied to be personal in nature, John-117 noting how close Lopis and Fred had become before her disappearance. Lopis' personal message to Fred was intended to help him sort out her disappearance and why she hadn't been able to warn him beforehand.

Battle on the Ark

Main articles: Second Ark Conflict, Battle of Epsilon Clarion

After arriving on the Ark, Lopis and the Ferrets become caught up in Castor's mission to fire the Halo Array, complicated by his alliance with Prelate Dhas Bhasvod's faction of Dhas Bhasvod's Covenant and the return of their old enemy, Intrepid Eye. The Forerunner archeon-class ancilla exposes their status as spies after using Lopis to activate a Cartographer and locate Epsilon Clarion. Lopis and the Ferrets make contact with forces from the long-lost UNSC Spirit of Fire who aid them in combating the Keepers and the Covenant. After learning the truth about Halo from Lopis and Intrepid Eye, Castor abandons his mission and the Spirit of Fire destroys both Epsilon Clarion and Intrepid Eye with an orbital bombardment of EMP MAC rounds on Lopis' order. Lopis and the Ferrets are rescued by Red Team, but Mark is killed by Bhasvod while covering their escape.

Ten days later, Lopis and the surviving Ferrets, recovering from their injuries, hold a funeral for Mark. Lopis sets aside any animosity towards Captain James Cutter over his potential role in the Blockade of Gao as they are on the same side now. Cutter offers Lopis his sincere condolences over Mark's death and an offer to talk if she ever wants to, something that she appreciates and accepts. Cutter reassures the Ferrets that Intrepid Eye has truly been destroyed this time and offers them the chance to join the crew of the Spirit of Fire and help in their ongoing conflict with the Banished. Lopis and the other Ferrets, wanting to continue to fight and with no way home, accept Cutter's offer.

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Personality and traits

Lopis is hardened, cynical and dedicated to her work. An exceedingly competent criminal investigator, she is highly observant and intelligent; in the beginning stages of her investigation of the Montero Cave System murders she managed to trick Frederic-104 into indirectly divulging classified information several times. As a result of the abuse she suffered as a teenager, Lopis developed a rigid and inflexible sense of justice; her personal code dictated that she invariably terminate her suspects once their guilt had been proven, rather than bring them to trial. During her investigation into the murders on Gao, she relentlessly prioritized the apprehension of the killer even when full-blown violence had erupted between the UNSC, the Keepers of the One Freedom, and the Insurrectionist-sympathetic Gao Ministry of Protection. She even attempted to interrogate Intrepid Eye while the ancilla was trying to suffocate her in the Portable Spartan Support Module.

The traumatic experience in her youth also left Veta with, among others, a fear of the smell of tobacco and men touching her hair, as well as a phobia of tight spaces. Despite these anxiety-inducing fears, Lopis refused to let them hinder her work and often insisted on clambering through the tight spaces herself, though her hesitance was noticeable to the Spartans. She also remained unable trust anyone enough to engage in physical intimacy after the incident, considering her friend and colleague Cirilo the "closest thing she had to a lover" but never returning his frequent advances.

Lopis got along well with her fellow agents in the GMoP. She was heartbroken at the loss of her entire team, and vowed to avenge their deaths. She was troubled, however, at the circumstances behind their loss, as most of her team had been killed not by the UNSC (who she initially believed were the aggressor party) but by her own people on Gao; indeed, Lopis' discovery of Arlo Casille's underhanded activities to assume Gao's presidency put her loyalties to the test, ultimately resulting in her defection to the UNSC.

Like most Gao natives, Veta Lopis had been brought up to despise and distrust the United Nations Space Command and particularly the Spartans from an early age. Over the course of Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE, she worked closely with the Spartans and despite her initial contempt for them, she grew to trust and respect the supersoldiers, being particularly endeared to the trio of Gamma Company Spartan-IIIs. When the nature of the Spartan-IIIs was revealed to her, she was appalled that a government could utilize children in such a manner and even proclaimed that she intended to take the teenage Spartans into protective custody. The Gammas quickly nicknamed Lopis "Mom" due to her perceived overprotective tendencies; although this often annoyed her, she did grow to become a maternal figure of sorts to the trio and believed she could treat them more humanely than ONI. Despite their initial friction, she also formed an unexpected rapport with Fred-104 and was genuinely upset when she thought him to have been killed. After Lopis reappears two years after being considered missing in action and presumed dead along with her team, it's stated that she and Fred had grown "kind of close" during their missions together and Fred had taken her disappearance and presumed death hard, suggesting that a deeper personal relationship had developed between the two. Part of Lopis' message is indicated to be personal in nature and addressed to Fred as Captain Veronica Dare cuts off the top third of the message, gives it to Fred and states that it's nothing that ONI needs to know about. Lopis' personal message to Fred was intended to help him sort out her disappearance and why she hadn't been able to warn him beforehand. During the funeral for Mark, Lopis had trouble maintaining her composure while delivering his eulogy, stating that she considered him her son.

Lopis is quite small in stature. Fred-104 considered her exceptionally attractive and noted that she looked more like a fashion model than an experienced criminal investigator. As a Ferret, Veta's appearance changes based on the needs of her current mission. After Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE, Veta had shaved her hair on the side of her head for Operation: RETRIBUTION. While working undercover in the Keepers of the One Freedom, Lopis and the Ferrets keep the sides of their heads shaved and a narrow braid of hair going down their backs.

Equipment

As a GMoP investigator, Veta Lopis favored Sevine Arms' SAS-10 pistol, with hers being equipped with a laser aiming module. During Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE, she equipped herself with several types of ammunition for the sidearm, including armor-piercing and explosive rounds. She and her team were additionally supplied with UNSC fatigues and infantry armor, as well as M7 submachine guns, during the operation.

Following her recruitment into ONI, Lopis was issued a suit of Semi-Powered Infiltration armor, custom-made for her small frame, for use on combat operations. She disliked wearing the suit because of the way it made her look like a Spartan. She also began using an M6C/SOCOM suppressed automatic pistol.

Gallery

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  Veta Lopis as she appears on the cover of Halo: Last Light.

List of appearances

• Halo: Last Light (First appearance)
• Halo Mythos
• Halo: Fractures
  • A Necessary Truth
• Halo: Retribution
• Halo: Shadows of Reach
• Halo: Divine Wind