Gage Yevgenny

"Years ago, I told my father it was 'just dirt.' But it's not just dirt. It's where we live. It's our dirt, dammit. And more importantly, it's about who's standing on that dirt. Those children. Your family. Your friends. And those freaks are going to pay for every piece of dirt they've taken from us."

- Gage Yevgenny

Gage Yevgenny was an enlisted UNSC Marine and Orbital Drop Shock Trooper who served throughout the Human-Covenant War. He served with the Colonial Military Administration before it was disbanded in the early 2520s, and like the majority of humanity, was fiercely opposed to the Covenant. After turning on his rogue Helljumper comrades when he succeeded in saving a class of civilian children, he was killed after manually detonating a nuclear device; the resulting blast killed both the criminal Marines and Covenant troops alike.

Early life
"What would we have said, or done, had we known what would happen to Harvest?"

- Gage Yevgenny speaking about his father.

Gage Yevgenny was born on the Human outer colony of Harvest in 2506 to a farming family. He lost his mother at a young age and his father raised him alone. He was an angry child and greatly resented helping his father on his farm, stating that it was just "dirt". He seemed to have a strained relationship with his father, often getting into arguments with him.

On January 3, 2524, the hour he turned eighteen, Gage joined the Colonial Military, wanting to do more with his life. After getting out of boot camp, Gage met Felicia Sanderson and Eric Santiago at the Utgard Spaceport. The three quickly became friends. They participated in Operation: TREBUCHET on Eridanus II in minor assignments, such as investigating possible rebel activity and riot control in Elysium City. After two months, they had made friends with Allison Stark, a Pelican pilot for the CMA, who often flew them to parties on weekends. One particular weekend, after the four flew a Hornet to a night club, an Insurrectionist bomb inside of the club detonated. The blast killed Allison, sent Eric into a coma, and heavily injured Gage and Felicia, who were pulled out of the rubble by ODSTs.

While recovering in hospital, Gage, inspired by the ones that saved them, decided to join the ODSTs. Felicia, who had nothing else to lose, decided to join along with him. They were assigned to Rahud's fireteam along with Mason and Kiko. However, after several weeks of hard training, they were informed of the Covenant threat and Harvest's destruction. Felicia fell into horrified shock and screamed at Gage for his disrespect toward the planet.

Human-Covenant War
"I had become a shadow of myself. A robot. Hitting my mark and killing the enemy, and waiting for the one day a stray flash of energy would kill me."

- Yevgenny describing his experience in the Human-Covenant War. Felicia was transferred from Gage's squad. Gage lost track of her, and for the next twenty-seven years, he fought hard in the war against the Covenant. He saw his first action in the Battle of Hat Yai. He participated in many vicious battles (such as the Battle of Asmara), and eventually was left the only survivor out of his original squad. He soon stopped making friends after seeing so many die. The war began to take its toll on him after countless crushing defeats, and he became a very serious, hardened man.

During the Battle of Skopje in 2547, Yevgenny and another ODST were rescued from approaching Covenant forces by a super soldier clad in green armor. The soldier led the survivors to safety while engaging smaller aliens with impunity and meeting Sangheili and Jiralhanae on equal terms. The ODSTs were led to a castle that was being used as the Marines' command center. Yevgenny, awed at the sight of the super-soldier, asked a comrade what he had encountered; he learned that he had been rescued by a Spartan, part of a top-secret project that had recently been unveiled by the Office of Naval Intelligence. Yevgenny became disturbed by the realization that the ODSTs were no longer the most elite fighters of humanity.

While holding up in the castle, he encountered the now Colonel Felicia Sanderson for the first time in over two decades, who had since shed her grief over Harvest. Colonel Sanderson had Gage transferred to the ship she was on, the, and while retreating the planet after another defeat, Felicia showed Gage that Eric had come out of his coma after five years and had become a pilot. The three were delighted to be together again, and already were having talks of retirement.

Disobedience and death
"They're all going to arrive, rook, and I'm going to blow the Shiva up the moment all the bastards show up."

- Yevgenny's final plan.

In August 2552, five years after reuniting with his friends, Gage was involved in an operation (on an unspecified planet,) to infiltrate a city under siege by the Covenant, who were looking for Forerunner artifacts. Simultaneously, several former CMA members were performing a clandestine operation to extract a massive supply of gold from a bank. However, after infiltrating the bank, the ODST team discovered a class of school children and their teacher hiding in the underground vault, hoping to survive the planet's inevitable glassing. After loading two Pelicans full of gold, the ODSTs knew there was no room for the children. To deceive the civilians, the troopers claimed that the gold would be used in the UNSC's war effort. Gage, who had seen too many people killed by the Covenant, was in strong favor of postponing the theft to save the civilians. The other ODSTs, who claimed that the children were as good as dead, disagreed, causing an argument. Felicia stepped in, wanting to call in more Pelicans, but the other ODSTs had already raised their weapons at one another. In an instant, Gage was shot in the abdomen, three other squad members were dead, and Felicia was fatally wounded. Gage rushed to her side, but she died in his arms.

Gage, in shock, went outside to find Eric, who informed him that the UNSC were falling back. Gage knocked him out with his gun and contacted the Chares for more Pelicans, claiming they were under heavy fire. He then flew Eric's Pelican to the pickup point and collected the artifacts the Covenant were looking for, as well as a Shiva nuclear device, then flew away from the city. Gage believed that the Covenant forces would follow him in pursuit of the relics. As he was being pursued by Covenant Banshees, he was "accidentally" shot down by ODSTs who knew of his betrayal.

Gage crashed near the mountains outside the city, and was found mortally wounded by the Rookie, who had arrived with Gage's reinforcements. Gage, who knew he was dying, told the Rookie his life story, right up until he crashed the Pelican. The Rookie, who had listened intently, promised to remember Gage and do whatever he could against the Covenant. Gage then told the Rookie that Covenant forces and the rogue ODSTs were on their way to the crash site, and warned the Rookie to get as far away as possible, as Gage was going to detonate the Shiva, killing them all. The Rookie ditched most of his gear and ran until he reached the other side of the mountain, at which point Gage detonated the nuclear weapon, killing himself, his renegade teammates, and thousands of Covenant troops. The Rookie, being the only survivor, hailed a Pelican and was informed that Reach had just been attacked, and that the survivors of Mount Haven were retreating to Earth. They escaped as the planet was glassed, but the Rookie would not forget Gage Yevgenny, his long and tragic life, or his sacrifice.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Dirt