Edward Buck

Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck (Service Number 92458-37017-EB) is a Staff Non-Commissioned Officer in the UNSC Marine Corps, and is an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper.

Summary
Counting time spent in cryo-sleep, Buck is a 25-year veteran of the war. He served in numerous battles throughout the Human-Covenant War. Watching so many of his fellow Marines die has left Buck thick-skinned and short-fused, but this wasn't always so. He was regarded as an extremely skilled Marine and by the Battle of Earth, was the commander of "The Squad" until Captain Veronica Dare took responsibility before the drop on New Mombasa, Kenya in October 20, 2552.

Early life and military career
Edward Buck was born in 2510 in New Albany in Lombard on Draco III. In 2528, when he was eighteen, he enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps and followed it through as a career. He served in many battles, including the Harvest Campaign and the Fall of Reach. At some point, Buck was in a romantic relationship with Veronica Dare, even asking her to marry him, though Dare unfortunately remained silent, a decison that continued to haunt Buck throughout all of his career. The two were eventually forced to split up due to Dare's job in ONI Section One. Buck's last known place of residence is Karnak on Draco III, where he is also a citizen. His civilian occupation is listed as student.

Fall of Reach
Buck was present in the Fall of Reach in August 2552, where he served with the 11th Shock Troops Battalion in New Alexandria. On August 23rd, he requested assistance from SPARTAN-B312. After receiving assistance from the SPARTAN, Buck left the center of the city. He was later evacuated, escaping to Earth.

Battle of Earth

 * Main article: Battle of Earth or Battle of Mombasa

During the Battle of Earth in October 2552, Buck's squad was a part of a larger ODST unit that was to be inserted onto the Prophet of Regret's flagship, which was stationed over the city of New Mombasa. His mission changed when Veronica Dare, now a captain in the Office of Naval Intelligence, took control of the squad immediately before the orbital drop, in order to use them for her own classified mission.

In mid-drop, Dare ordered the squad to steer their SOEIVs away from the assault carrier. Immediately after this, the carrier jumped into Slipspace above the city, generating a massive electromagnetic pulse that disabled the pods' electronic systems. As a result, the pods were scattered and crashed in several sections in the city. After the EMP, Buck's pod bounced off one building, deflected off a second, and landed upside down into Sector 6. He immediately made radio contact with Dare, whose hatch malfunctioned and wouldn't open. After a brief discussion, he realized that Covenant forces were heading for Dare's crash site. On his way to the crash site, he found the corpses of several Sangheili; upon asking Dare about the matter, and noting that the Jiralhanae appeared to be responsible, Dare told him that the information was classified. Later, Veronica contacted him, telling him the Covenant had found her and were moving in on her location. After fighting his way through a large unit of Covenant, including a Hunter pair, he made it to Tayari Plaza, Dare's crash site, where her pod was under fire by a trio of Unggoy. After dispatching the Unggoy he opened up her pod to find it empty. A Huragok approached him holding Dare's damaged helmet, and Buck backed away from the mysterious alien before Romeo, on a balcony overlooking the crash site and believing the Huragok to be hostile, shot it through the head.

Buck abandoned Dare's original mission and focused on reuniting his squad and evacuating the city in one piece. He and Romeo made their way to the New Mombasa Police Department's headquarters building, where he made contact with Dutch and Mickey via an NMPD officer. Dutch and Mickey, who were at the ONI Alpha Site, offered Buck an air evac via Pelican. On the way to the landing zone, Buck tried to contact the Rookie, but received no response.

When Dutch and Mickey's dropship arrived at the NMPD headquarters, it was ambushed and shot down by two patrolling Banshees. Romeo and Buck then moved through the NMPD Headquarters to find and rescue their squadmates on top of a neighboring skyscraper, defending it from waves of Covenant aircraft and infantry assaults. During the ensuing fight, a Jiralhanae Chieftain badly wounded Romeo with its gravity hammer, puncturing one of his lungs, before being fatally stabbed in the neck by Buck. Buck then led the other ODSTs to Kikowani Station, intending to take the train out of the city, but found that the train tunnels had been flooded. He decided to steal a Phantom dropship to escape the city, killing many Huragok in their recharge stations on the way out. They encountered a Scarab as well, which Buck destroyed. After finally making it out of the city, he realized where Dare might be and ordered Mickey to drive the captured Phantom back into the city.

He headed into the Superintendent's Data Center alone, going right through the Yanme'e hive. When he neared the Data Center, he was reunited with Dare, The Rookie, and the Huragok that had absorbed the Superintendent's subroutine, Vergil. Unaware as to the importance of the Huragok, he had a quick conversation with Dare as to why Vergil was so important, letting slip to Dare that he had killed "one or two" Huragok, much to her annoyance. After finally making it to the elevator, Dare punched Buck in the face, for "abandoning the mission"; a furious Buck complained that she had been missing in action, and that his squad was scattered only to be cut off by Dare, who gave him a passionate kiss for "coming back". Remembering the Rookie and Vergil were present, and that they were rather awkwardly watching, he congratulated the former on doing a good job.

After battling through a Covenant outpost, and boarding another elevator for the highway, the presence of the Covenant fleet was revealed to Dare. Irritated that Buck had neglected to inform her of the fleet, the two began arguing again, Buck protesting that he had been preoccupied with keeping the helpless Vergil alive. Taking the gunner position on various Warthogs and a Scorpion tank, Buck and the Rookie covered Dare and Vergil's Olifant down the highway, witnessing the arrival of more Covenant ships — including two assault carriers — and marveling at their size. When the first carrier started to glass the city, he was reminded of Reach and briefly began to panic before Dare calmed him down. The Olifant was later severely damaged by a Scarab. Knowing that the Covenant had glassed the highway farther along, Buck ordered Mickey to meet them at the entrance to the Uplift Nature Reserve.

Buck and the others took the next exit off the highway, and The Rookie and Buck secured a building to hold and wait for Mickey's dropship to arrive. After fighting off waves of Covenant, Mickey arrived, and as the squad was evacuating, an assault carrier arrived close to their position. A frightened Vergil then refused to get on the Phantom, and was shoved in by Buck while Dare pulled it into the gravity lift. The group successfully escaped the city as it was glassed by the Covenant fleet.

A month later, Buck and his squad guarded Vergil at an ONI orbital facility. They watched as Sergeant Major Avery Johnson interrogated the Engineer.

Trivia

 * Buck is voiced by Nathan Fillion, who also starred in Halo 3 as Gunnery Sergeant Reynolds. He is described by Nathan Fillion himself as "a bit hardened and a bit cranky." Fillion's likeness was also used to model Buck. Also, some of Reynolds' quotes are shared by Buck in the game.
 * Buck is unlocked for play in Firefight by getting the Tayari Plaza achievement.
 * Some of his lines, such as "Bam, said the lady" and "GORRAM!", come from the television shows Castle and Firefly respectively, which Nathan Fillion also starred in.
 * In an Easter Egg in the Epilogue cutscene after the credits, if you look to the left near the end of Johnson's talk with Vergil, the camera will pan over to Buck standing next to a caveman, he attempts to groom and eat off it.
 * Rarely, if you jump with Buck somewhere in the vehicle, he will sing the first few bars of "Dixie" in reference to The Dukes of Hazzard.
 * A Buck action figure was released by McFarlane Toys in June 2010.
 * Buck's armor takes substantial combat damage by the end of the Halo 3: ODST campaign. This can be seen in the form of various plasma burns on its outer shell, pieces of glass embedded in the torso, parts of drone wing on his chest plate, several badly scratched components, and noticeable splashes of Yanme'e blood on several areas.
 * Buck's voice can be purchased for 15,000 credits to use in Halo: Reach's Firefight mode. The description says, "Truly, If he were any better, he'd be a Spartan".
 * In the level "New Alexandria" in Halo: Reach, the player can follow Buck into the building after he lands, but he will disappear after a few moments.
 * According to his shoulder pad, Buck's blood type is O-.
 * At some point in his life his father died driving some kind of vehicle, according to a line in his Halo: Reach Firefight dialogue, the line being "Hey hey! My father had one these! ...it's how he died." As with any other vehicle line, this can be heard entering any vehicle, so it is unclear what his father actually owned, though it is doubtful it was Covenant.

List of appearances

 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Reach