Mshak Moradi: Difference between revisions

Mshak Moradi, a conspiracy theorist, often sent his opinions and theories to reporters and journalists, including [[Petra Janecek]].<ref name="HtT04">'''Hunt the Truth''', ''Episode 04: CROSSING THE BLACK''</ref> Moradi left a voice message in [[Benjamin Giraud]]'s inbox during the production of Giraud's series of biographical interviews about [[John-117]] in [[2558]]. Moradi's message concerned the discrepancy between [[Deon Govender]]'s narrative, which placed John in [[Elysium City]] in [[2524]], and a hard copy census registry which listed John as having died in [[2517]]. While Commander [[Michael Sullivan]] assured Giraud that the discrepancy was due to bureaucratic errors introduced by the glassing of [[Eridanus II]], Moradi insisted that there was a cover-up in action.<ref name="HtT02"/> Moradi later helped Giraud get in contact with [[Anthony Petrosky]], a retired [[Orbital Drop Shock Trooper]] that witnessed a [[martial arts|boxing]] incident involving John and several ODSTs aboard {{UNSCShip|Atlas}}.<ref>'''Hunt the Truth''', ''Episode 03: CRITICAL CONDITION''</ref>

Moradi told Giraud how to secure his line; regardless, he hacked into his network to ensure that the line was fully secure, as Giraud had done it wrong.<ref name="HtT06">'''Hunt the Truth''', ''Episode 06: BOXING STORY''</ref> Later, out of desperation for sources, Giraud contacted Moradi, who ensured their call was secured. He informed Giraud that the Master Chief has gone AWOL and some UNSC personnel even consider him to be a [[Treason|traitor]]. Moradi revealed that mysterious events were happening in deep space. However, Giraud had to end their conversation, as he was called down to the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]]'s [[Boston]] headquarters by Sullivan.<ref name="HtT04"/> Moradi was contacted by an [[Insurrectionist]] leader known only as "[[FERO]]". She had him cross flight itineraries so that Giraud would encounter actor [[Jakob Walker]]—who had been hired by ONI to act as one of their sources for Giraud—on his flight from Boston. After Giraud's encounter with Walker incited him to post all of his findings and recordings online for the public to see, [[Ray Kurzig]] and Petra Janecek arrived at his apartment, expressing their annoyance that Giraud had uploaded recordings of them online without their permission. When Giraud informed them that he had kept his line secure with the help of Moradi, Janecek claimed that Moradi was probably listening to them from Giraud's [[COM pad]]; to Giraud's surprise, he was. Moradi revealed how he had hacked into Giraud's network several weeks earlier and helped keep his line safe by rerouteing rogue monitoring bots, scrambling drone surveillance, and had Giraud placed on the same flight as Walker. Moradi revealed that the individual that contacted him was called FERO. After Kurzig and Janecek left, Moradi revealed that FERO was about to contact him.<ref name="HtT06"/>

Three days later, Giraud attempted to contact Moradi.<ref name="HtT07">'''Hunt the Truth''', ''Episode 07: WHO'S LISTENING''</ref> However, Moradi had gone dark while he investigated something for Giraud<ref name="HtT08">'''Hunt the Truth''', ''Episode 08: DRIP, DRIP, DRIP''</ref> and instead left "ridiculous" recorded messages on his answering machine. Giraud became increasingly annoyed with Moradi's recorded messages, though he began to worry that something had happened to him. FERO soon contacted Giraud and revealed her intent to bring down ONI in front of the [[Unified Earth Government]] [[Unified Earth Government senate|senate]] by revealing that ONI had conscripted children into the [[SPARTAN-II program]], which she hoped would lead to the UEG senators heavily reprimanding the intelligence agency.<ref name="HtT07"/> Shortly after, ONI shut down Giraud's communications for twelve days, claiming it was a "quadrant error". In response, Giraud moved his workspace to an undisclosed area. After checking his messages, he found that Moradi had called him and left him a message "to say hi". Giraud contacted Moradi, who revealed that residents of both the [[Inner Colonies]] and [[Outer Colonies]] were growing furious after John-117 had apparently [[Raid on Biko peace talks|attacked]] a peace conference on [[Biko]], however, the Outer Colonies were blaming ONI for using the Spartan as a weapon. Moradi later complied a map that demonstrated where each [[flash cloning|flash clone]] of each Spartan candidate—that had been left behind by ONI to cover their tracks—had inevitably died due to a [[Metabolic Cascade Failure|clone degeneration disease]]. The map revealed that Spartans were largely chosen from the Outer Colonies, since it was easier to cover their tracks. Additionally, the Spartans were later used to carry out the "political agenda of ONI" when the Spartans later returned to the Outer Colonies to quell insurrections. Moradi had also revealed that two Spartan-IIs, including [[Oscar-129]], encountered their flash clones, leading them to commit suicide. Giraud intended to use this information to help persecute ONI before the senate by showing evidence of ONI's abductions and experiments. <ref name="HtT08"/>

Knowing it'd be too risky to let Mshak continue accessing Waypoint and risk ONI discovering his survival, Sankar cut off her house from all Waypoint sources and left him under virtual house arrest. In the months without online access to any news sources, Mshaki grew more unhinged, turning to reading books and scrawling conspiracy theories to pass the time. But shortly after October 27, 2558, Sankar returned and gave him net access again in hopes that he could confirm to her the news of the Master Chief's death. In a relatively short search across "the slush", Moradi found transmissions by the religious group [[Triad]], who seemed to have inside knowledge about the mysterious colony disasters that the Chief's death coincided with. However, he and Sankar didn't have long to search, as ONI found their safe house and sent a strike team to attack. Fleeing for their lives, Moradi along with the rest of Sankar's party fled the planet on her personal ship but were captured by [[Kig-Yar]] pirates.<ref name="safe house"/>

Moradi was energetic, annoying, and unpredictable. He was frequently cheery about the data he had procured even if what it stated was morbid, and confident in his abilities to find secrets and avert ONI's radar. He would often persistently nag a target about something he had found and wanted to share, only to disappear for days and leave taunting voicemails to anyone who tried to call him.<ref name="HtT07"/> Mshak had a unique manner of speech that involved strange analogies.<ref name="HtT04"/> He also hated being kept from online access, going nearly insane when held in Maya Sankar's house and having no electronics to turn to. Undercover ONI operative Maya Sankar considered him to have a "heart of [[lettuce]]", sparing him from assassination after witnessing his lack of combat skills. When faced with a threat to his own life, Moradi panicked and was easily overpowered by her, even running into a wall when attempting to flee.<ref name="safe house"/>

Despite his unprofessionalism, Moradi was skilled at combing through "the slush", and even managed to hack ONI's flight and passenger schedules. Although he often spied on allies and manipulated what they encountered, Moradi claimed to have a code of honor in that he'd give someone a choice before offering them the chance to aid his hacking efforts.<ref name="HtT06"/>

Moradi was a gamer in his spare time. Prior to his house arrest he was an avid player of the online game ''[[Unggoy Farmer]]'', and was almost always high ranked on its leaderboards until his capture by Sankar kept him from playing it anymore.<ref name="safe house"/>