Arlo Casille: Difference between revisions

{{Era|Post}}

Casille had one of his patrol corvettes get Castor's ''[[One Light]]'' to Gao's surface in the [[Montero]] region, where the Keepers and Venezian Militia began planning their retrieval mission. Casille sent his associate, [[Petora Zoyas]], to meet with the two factions to represent his interests.<ref>'''Halo: Last Light''', ''page 147''</ref> However, after mistakenly believing that the UNSC had already captured the ancilla, the Keepers attacked the UNSC compound at the village of [[Wendosa]]. Casille provided the Keepers' forces with numerous weapons to aid in their assault. All three sides secretly intended to take the ancilla for themselves, though none brought light to this matter.<ref>'''Halo: Last Light''', ''pages 153-154''</ref><ref>'''Halo: Last Light''', ''page 316''</ref> On [[2553#July|July 5, 2553]], after the Keepers began their attack on Wendosa, President Aponte called an emergency meeting between the [[Cabinet of Ministers]]. Aponte announced his intent to aid the UNSC in ending the conflict, though Casille opposed Aponte's plan and suggested that the forces attacking Wendosa were actually trying to liberate Gao from the UNSC. Casille initiated a vote to have the Cabinet order the Gao militia to support the UNSC's attackers, with the support of several ministers including [[Minister of Finance|Minister]] [[Trella Rangel]] and [[Minister of the Environment|Minister]] [[Saul Quarres]]. With only [[Minister of War]] [[Gasper Baez]]'s support, Aponte reluctantly agreed to compromise by having Gao remain neutral in the conflict, to which Casille agreed as he knew it would be difficult to continue to press for military action.<ref>'''Halo: Last Light''', ''pages 188-196''</ref> Meanwhile, the Spartans and UNSC began to resist the Keepers' attack, with both Zoyas and Linberk dying in the conflict.<ref>'''Halo: Last Light''', ''pages 210-212''</ref> Later that day, Casille returned to ''Esmeralda'' over Gao to ensure that [[Admiral]] [[Tuwa]]'s UNSC task force in [[Cordoba system|the system]] did not try to break Gao's sovereignty entering the planet's orbit. When several [[Pelican]] and [[Owl]] [[dropship]]s were deployed by the task force to aid the UNSC forces on Gao, Casille gave the order for his corvettes to destroy the craft. Not wanting to risk starting a civil war on Gao, the UNSC backed down from the fight. Realizing that he needed authority of all of Gao's military forces to prevent UNSC forces from entering Gao's orbit, Casille decided to make a proclamation to become president and announced this intent to reporter [[Gloria Baer]] of [[BuzzSat]].<ref name="ll268">'''Halo: Last Light''', ''pages 268-272''</ref>

Returning to the [[People's Palace]] in [[Rinale]] on [[2553#July|July 6, 2553]], Casille made a cabinet proclamation demanding Aponte's resignation with Casille intending to take his place.{{Ref/Reuse|ll268}} With Casille gaining the majority votes from the Cabinet of Ministers in his proclamation, Aponte was forced to resign and Casille became the President of the Gao Republic. Aware that Casille was likely to openly attack the UNSC forces, the 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion prepared to evacuate the planet with the captured ancilla.<ref name="ll291">'''Halo: Last Light''', ''pages 291-293''</ref> Shortly after becoming president, Casille ordered the [[Gao battle-jumpers]] and [[Wyvern]]s to attack the UNSC forces on Gao. Learning that Lopis had apparently been captured by the Spartans, Casille contacted her on her [[COM pad]] in an attempt to locate her and the Spartans, who held the ancilla. When Lopis accused him of bringing war to Gao to his own benefit, Casille played innocent and offered her the position as Minister of Protection. Realizing that Casille knew that Lopis was working with the Spartans and that he only cared about recovering the ancilla, Lopis mislead the president about her location before having the Spartans destroy her COM pad. Falling for Lopis' trick, Casille had most of the Wyverns search Gao's [[Singing Grottos]] for the Spartans and Lopis, when they were actually traveling to Gao's [[Well of Echoes]] to destroy the [[Covert Support Base 4276|Forerunner installation]] hidden within the Montero Cave System.{{Ref/Reuse|ll366}} Ultimately, the Spartans and Lopis succeeded in destroying the installation with a [[HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon]] at the Well of Echoes and escaping Gao aboard an Owl, with the ancilla in tow.<ref>'''Halo: Last Light''', ''pages 376-379''</ref> Realizing that he had been fooled by Lopis, Casille diverted nearly all of Gao's Wyverns to pursue her and the Spartans, however they managed to return to the UNSC task force safely. With most of Gao's forces pursuing the ancilla, the surviving elements of the 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion were able to evacuate from Gao and return to their task force in orbit, despite the efforts of the [[Gao Space Navy]]. The UNSC left the system shortly after.<ref name="ll380">'''Halo: Last Light''', ''pages 380-384''</ref>