Meta

"Get off me!"

- Maine to a medical officer.

The Meta, formerly known as Freelancer Agent Maine, was a rogue Freelancer agent with goals to obtain armor enhancements and artificial intelligence to increase his power. He serves as the main antagonist of the Recollections Trilogy.

Project Freelancer
The Meta was conscripted to Project Freelancer during the Great War, under the assigned codename: Agent Maine. Shortly, Maine, along with Wyoming and York, faced a new recruit to the Project Freelancer, Agent Texas. Throughout the match, York attempts to coordinate their attacks against Tex, but both Maine and Wyoming refuse to listen to him. In the initial fight with battle rods, Maine is the last of his team to be defeated by Tex, going down only when she smashes her combat rod on his head. Later, during the paralyzing-paint pistol battle, Maine refuses to obey York and repeatedly attacks Tex head on, only to be paralyzed everytime. In the ninth round of combat, Wyoming and Maine switch their guns' ammunition.

Instead of using the paint, they use live pistol rounds. Together, they try to kill Tex, but both Freelancers are eventually immobilized. Maine manages to break free temporarily and attacks again, ramming a column towards Tex. Instead, it hit York, incapacitating him. After Tex neutralizes him again, Maine attempts a final attack by throwing a hand grenade at her, which misses and lands next to York, who was groggy from being severely hit. Tex, in an attempt to save York, shoots York multiple times with the paralyzing paint, which absorbs part of the explosion and protects him from some of the fragmentation. A medic is later seen attempting to assist Maine but he refuses the help by pushing the medic aside with his arm, saying, "Get off me" in a deep, throaty voice.

Mission for the Sarcophagus
He was later seen in the meeting room in the episode Planning the Heist, waiting to be briefed on an upcoming mission to recover the Sarcophagus. He is assigned to Team A with Wash, Carolina, and York, who are to infiltrate the building the Sarcophagus is being held in. Maine is later seen in the building with Team A. Maine, looking around the vault, finds a Brute Shot and decides to keep it as his own weapon.

Carolina, in an attempt to get the package off the roof, kicked Maine out a window since his weight would balance with the Sarcophagus as he was the biggest. When the Package reaches the roof, he lands on a ledge of a parking garage and fights the soldiers down there. Maine acquires a Warthog afterward and as Carolina and York fall to the ground after securing the package and the building being completely destroyed, he saves them in the warthog. Maine is later in the passenger seat of the Warthog. Team A goes to an overpass in order to get the password from Rhee Sebial. When Rhee drives under the overpass, Maine jumps on his car and stabs him with his newly acquired Brute Shot. Maine acquires the briefcase and gets into the Warthog with the rest of Team A.

Throat Injury
They are pursued by two Hornets and Maine is shot by a sniper. He recovers from the shot and York rams the truck, sending the Sniper flying off and Maine punches him into the wall of the freeway when he tries to recover with his jetpack. He then goes to help Carolina recover the briefcase, but is outmatched by the faster female opponent he engages. Maine then switches opponents with Carolina, securing the briefcase on his back. He engages the Sleeveless Insurrectionist, where the two seemed evenly matched.

After Carolina stabs the female trooper with the Brute Shot, she throws her pistol to Maine's opponent and he is shot in the throat several times. Still capable of fighting despite his wounds, Maine picks up his Brute Shot and attempts to kill the two soldiers attacking him and Carolina. However, he accidentally fires his Brute shot at the truck's rear, causing it to swerve. The truck then hits a car, sending them all flying off of it. Maine, unfortunately, gets hit by a truck and is knocked off the freeway.

Recovery
Much time after the mission, Carolina gave him her assigned AI, Sigma, in order to allow him communicate with other Freelancers. Later, Maine attends a class about AI along with Freelancers South, Carolina, North, York, Washington and Wyoming. Maine later participated in the mission to find C.T. in the Insurrection base, but appeared to be used only as a last resort. Washington throws a small transmitter, on which Maine lands in a pod directly. Sigma reminds Maine that the Sleeveless Insurrectionist was the one that shot him in the throat, and tells him to "sic 'em".

After easily dealing with the soldier, Maine proceeds to help Carolina with her own battle with the Red Demo Man and Female Insurrectionist. In the process, Maine sliced off the Demo Man's robotic arm and defeats the Female by throwing her off the roof of a building. Maine is later seen with North and South watching the Insurrectionist Leader 's ship escape the Longshore Base.

Following the mission at the Longshore Shipyards, Maine is seen loading his brute shot inside a Freelancer locker room with Wyoming. Both of their AIs, Sigma and Gamma, converse with Carolina about the significance of Agent Texas and Omega. During their conversation with Carolina, Maine is seen to have an immediate headache or pain in his head, suggesting that Sigma has some form of greater influence over him. Throughout a heated conversation between Carolina, the Director, the Counselor and Texas; Maine, Sigma, Gamma and Wyoming watch in the viewing room from above. Maine is later seen in the Recovery station, receiving treatment for the headaches which continue to plague him, which is considered unusual by the other Freelancers as York states his headaches only lasted a few weeks.

During Carolina's match with Tex, Maine observes the fight in a nearby observation canopy with the other Freelancers. When the Director bursts in and shouts "Allison!", due to his concern over Tex, all of the A.I. go rampant, sending everyone into severe pain and causing Maine to roar out in agony. Sometime after, Maine sharpens his Brute shot and loads up his armor, for unknown reasons, in the Freelancer locker room.

Post-war
Approximately one year after the conclusion of the Great War, Maine had either deserted Project Freelancer, was missing, or presumed dead. Maine's AI, Sigma, comes up with the idea of gathering up all the AI fragments in order to recreate the Alpha. Because of Sigma's idea, Maine began systematically hunting down Freelancer agents in the field, and stealing their A.I. and enhancements. Over the period of one month, Maine had killed four Freelancer agents, stripping them of their equipment. However, the multiple A.I. in Maine's head began to deteriorate his mental status. Most of the priority one recovery signals Agent Washington received during this time were a result of Maine's actions.

However, there was one signal that was not triggered by Maine, that of Agent New York, who was killed in action by Agent Wyoming. York's A.I. Delta was recovered by Agent Washington, which prompted Maine to begin hunting down Washington. Maine killed Agent North Dakota, stealing his A.I. Theta and enhancement, both to benefit himself, and to bring Washington into his sights. Maine spared North's sister South Dakota however, simply knocking her unconscious after she put her brother in a position to be killed. Washington, after faking South's death in order for her to help him fight Maine, who's identity was not yet known at that point, set out to a remote industrial area to wait for his attacker. When Maine began his attack, Washington implanted Delta into Agent South, both to protect Delta and to assist them in battle. As Washington fought Maine in a ranged firefight, South turned on him, shooting him in the back in order to save herself. South addressed Maine directly, lying that she had placed a timed charge on Washington's body, and that he could either go after her and Delta and lose Washington's equipment forever, or strip Wash of his enhancement and find them another day. Maine opted for the latter, and South escaped, now on the run from both Maine and Project Freelancer.

A.I. Rampage


Not long after this, a Pelican piloted by Agent Texas, with several Aliens on board crashed in Freelancer Simulation Outpost 17-B. The Blues of the outpost quickly secured the ship's cargo and brought it back to their base. The Omega A.I., which had been on the ship, remained behind and began to "infect" members of the team. The frequent infections eventually led to the deaths of all Blue team members, and the infection then befell the Red Team. Maine had tracked the ship to its crash site, and scavenged the Blue Base, acquiring cloaking from Agent Texas' body, and capturing the A.I. Gamma. Maine then attacked Red Base, seeking Omega, and after acquiring it, began "killing everything", leaving only one survivor. Maine and his captured A.I. then scrawled a cryptic message on the walls of Red Base; "We are the Meta", establishing themselves as a single entity. In response to the outpost's silence, Recovery Agents Six and Nine were sent to investigate and document the carnage. However, upon reaching the crashed ship, the Meta attacked the two agents, killing them.

The entire incident was brought to the attention of the Oversight Sub-Committee of the UNSC, who's Chairman launched a full investigation into Project Freelancer. A task force was sent to Outpost 17-B, and discovered the sole-survivor Walter Henderson hiding in a cave. Upon gaining information about the incident from Henderson, a fully recovered Agent Washington, who had been spared by Maine for reasons unknown, was tasked with gathering information from the soldiers in Omega's last known location; Blood Gulch, and also to stop the Meta by any means necessary. As of Chapter 4, it has shown the ability to manipulate a recorded radio transmission to trick Sarge into eliminating Washington. Later, it demonstrated an ability to manipulate time just like Wyoming, which means that it has acquired both the time-distortion mechanism and Gamma. However, it is wounded in a battle with Agent Washington, Church, and Caboose when it attempted to kill South. In Chapter 7, the Meta was revealed to be a Freelancer itself, Agent Maine. It was last seen in Last Resort/Zanzibar in O'Malley's old fortress attempting to recharge its power supplies. Although it was nearly defeated, the Reds interfered at the last minute, allowing it to acquire Delta. It also seems that Maine has acquired more than the three initial AIs, since several AIs emerged to confront Delta shortly afterward. It is also revealed that if a Freelancer (or anyone else) uses more than one AI at a time, they tend to go insane or possibly lose their free will to the AIs.

In chapters 10 and 11, Meta attacks both Washington's team and the reassembled Reds led by Sarge. Washington eventually rips off a turret and chases him away after inflicting several wounds. Eventually, in Chapter 14, he climbs on the back of a tank driven by the Reds and Caboose to infiltrate command.He then appeared in Chapter 16, as a cloaked figure, running under the window from right to left. It is difficult to see, but easily heard. In Chapter 18, as the Command soldiers attacked the Reds, the Blues and Washington, the Meta disengages its cloaking, and appears before them. The soldiers attack the Meta as the others escape to the motor pool. Meta later follow Washington and Church and wounds the former, but it stopped from killing him as the Alpha (Church) jumps into his head. The Meta begins to destabilize due to the presence of Alpha in its head, but is spared when the EMP destroys all the AIs.

Pursuit for Epsilon
At some point after the events of Reconstruction Meta is sent in along with Washington to capture the Epsilon AI on orders from The Chairman. Meta makes a reappearance in Chapter 12 of Recreation. Appearing at Blue Base, the Meta surprises Donut, who thinks that Maine is a new blue sent to the base. Donut assumes the reason for Maine's silence is that he's the 'strong, silent type', or foreign with a well-suiting accent. Donut tries to move Tex's body, and assumes the Meta's attempts to shoot or melee kill him with the Brute Shot are just acts of helpfulness. As he has Donut at gunpoint, Simmons arrives with news of the wrecked Mongoose but freaks and runs off when he sees the Meta.

Later, the Meta is seen chasing Simmons across Valhalla, shooting at him with the Brute Shot. Simmons warns Lopez about the imminent danger, and while Lopez runs in the base to get weapons and Simmons gets the rocket launcher the Meta comes over the hill. Simmons fires at it and misses, instead hitting the Mongoose and sends it flying over the Meta's head. The Meta prepares to return fire on Simmons, but Lopez hits him with two shots from the Missile Pod, forcing him to retreat a small distance and has trouble activating his active camo due to a lack of AI. He then screams in frustration (in a regular human voice) and charges at Red Base.

He is next seen coming down the river after the Reds while they try and work his jeep. As he approaches them gathered around the jeep, Washington intervenes and tells the Meta to stand down, and after being told twice he complied. It was The Meta and Washington not fighting that confused Simmons, which lead to Wash shooting Lopez and Donut.

Wash offhandedly threatens Doc, who Simmons implies made him call the medic, and the Meta rushed forward and knocks out Doc with his Brute Shot, though we see nothing after the Meta punches him. The Meta is next seen having problems with his armor enhancements, to which Washington advises he stop using them. It is assumed by Simmons, and later confirmed by Wash, that all the Meta's AI's actually were wiped out by the EMP, but the Meta is shown to still desire more, as he approached Doc when he mentioned having had one. After confirming Doc doesn't have one now, Washington orders him to inspect the Meta and fix his enhancements. Later, as Washington sees Sarge out in the middle of Valhalla, Wash orders the Meta to kill Doc and Simmons and come help him if Sarge gives him any trouble. Moments later, The Meta sees the explosion out in the distance and, sensing trouble, The Meta turns around and charges Doc and Simmons not before Doc charges his medical scanner.

After Doc shoots the Meta, he suddenly slows down due to damage to his time distortion unit. As he slowly attempts to punch Doc, Simmons tells Doc that the punch will still have the same impact, but is not believed, resulting in Doc being sent flying into a wall. Eventually, the Meta's regains control, chases the fleeing Simmons and destroys the Red's Warthog. He becomes distracted by the arrival of Epsilon-Church, who leads him away so that the Red's can escape. The Meta is next seen running towards them and Epsilon-Church, but is unable to reach them when Epsilon blocks the path. Frustrated, Wash tells him they have another lead while Doc, still stuck in a wall, calls for help. Washington later has the Meta remove Doc for interrogation, as he finds Doc's comical position irritating, but even the Meta proves unable (or unwilling, as Washington suggested pulling from the groin) to remove him. Instead, the Meta resorts to puling him out with the Warthog's cable, but only succeeds in removing the section of wall around Doc.

Searching at Sandtrap
After Doc tells them that Simmons mentioned something about sand, Wash brings the Meta and Doc along to Sandtrap to a recovery beacon, revealing that the Meta is helping to get a chance at capturing Epsilon. He digs up C.T.'s body, and Wash tells him she never received an AI. Suddenly, they find themselves surrounded by the Aliens. After the Aliens trick Wash and the Meta with a promise of a map, the two of them attack and kill the aliens. He is later ordered by Washington to search the camp for any clues of where Epsilon went. Although the Meta complains about doing so, he relents and goes down to the camp. After Washington has a light conversation with Doc about Freelancers not getting overtime, he goes down and asks the Meta if he found anything. The Meta replies by throwing a grenade, hitting the wall instead; presumably aiming it at Wash due to him finding the original Epsilon unit that Caboose left behind in Revelation Chapter 5.

After throwing it at Wash and Doc, Wash reveals that it is empty and orders The Meta to modify the Epsilon unit from a storage unit into a recovery unit. He does so while Wash tells Doc that the process will allow the former Freelancers to capture the A.I. When this is done Wash and Doc bicker due to the latters ignorance. After Doc walks off, Wash ask the Meta if they can track the Red using Heat signatures (a suggestion he had just rebuked, when Doc asked). The Meta successfully finds a faint trail of the Reds, afterwards Doc walks back and once again bickers with Wash. The Meta in a fit of rage, begins attacking Smith's corpse repeatedly, as Wash and Doc summarize because he cant use his armour enhancements. Soon afterwards Tex shoots Epsilon-Church activating the recovery beacon, and the three prepare to leave and find him.

Battle at Avalanche
When they arrive at Avalanche, they see Epsilon unconscious on the ground. Wash tells Doc to stop the car as both he and Meta think its a trap to lure them into a vulnerable position, and also that who ever set up the trap is a Freelancer. Doc however thinks that because their opponent is a Freelancer that they would know that Wash and Meta would know its a trap and not proceed. Wash thinks this to be too complicated, but several mines appear suddenly trapping them in their place. The Meta attempts then to exit the gunner seat. However, the mines explode, destroying the Warthog, and sending Wash, Meta and Doc flying out of the frame and causing them to drop their weapons.

Wash begins to recover from the explosion to see Tex walk toward him. When Tex prevents him from grabbing his weapon she asks where the Director is. Wash claims not to know and Tex almost shoots him when the Meta tackles her. They engage in a fist fight, until Tex knocks him away and uses a detonator to reveal a chaingun which flies into her arms.



The Meta runs for cover as she fires at him. When the chaingun runs out of ammo, Meta pulls out his Magnum while Tex grabs two more guns out of a block of ice. Wash, having fully recovered, attempts to use a spike in the memory unit to neutralize her. He fails and nearly loses it over a cliff. As the fight progresses Tex activates another detonator which causes the massive amount of ice behind them to collapse. During the next phase of the battle, Wash drops the memory unit and The Meta grabs it and continues to fight. At one point to escape the debris the Meta jumps in to air and Tex manages to grab him by the helmet and angle them so he lands cracking his spine on her back upon landing. Tex then activates another detonator to cause the cliff it-self to collapse. The Meta escapes by reclaiming his brute shot (which was also falling) and stab the ice with the blade to secure himself. When he gets up he engages Tex in melee and she pulls out a large knife to defend against the Meta's blade. She then gains the advantage and slashes his stomach then stabs him in the shoulder. Meta at that point, far from being defeated, fires a grenade at his feet sending both of them flying. Despite Wash protests at the matter, the Meta grabs Tex and stabs her in the face with the memory unit, trapping her inside, and then without efforts throws her body aside with one hand.

Betrayal


While Wash tries to get Epsilon to cooperate (with no result), he asks the Meta to give him the memory unit. The Meta, tempted by the chance to regain his lost power, instead attaches the unit to his back. Using the Tex AI to monitor his equipment, the Meta turns invisible. While Wash tells Doc and Epsilon to run, Meta melees him and fires at the others. Wash jumps on Meta's back to stall him, but quickly gets thrown to the ground as the Meta fires and knocks him down with a grenade. He corners Wash who tells him that this action was expected, but trails off when he sees a damaged Pelican flying rapidly towards them. During the landing, the Meta falls over and Wash, Epsilon, Doc, the Reds, and the Blues find the memory unit in the snow. When everyone leaves to help find equipment Wash can use to extract Tex from the unit, Epsilon and Wash discuss Tex's origins. The surprised duo then see the unit rising out of the snow with the Meta still attached to it.

The Meta attacks them and sends Epsilon flying. Wash battles with the Meta in close combat and manages to slash the Meta's neck twice with Tex's Knife before he turned invisible. Wash saw the telltale shimmer of Active Camo and threw the knife which landed in the Meta's chest. Still not showing any sign of tiring, he fires a shot and knocks Wash down. Sarge, Simmons, Grif, and Tucker at that point begin their assault.



The Meta backs up and activates the domed energy shield enhancement deflecting all of the shots. Jumping high in the air, the Meta fires two shots, knocking Grif over, and causing to Tucker roll to the side. As the Meta lands he uses the blade of his brute shot to slice Simmon's rocket launcher in half. Tucker draws his energy sword and attacks but his sword is deflected by the Meta's blade he gets knocked over. In the same motion the Meta turns around and uses his weapon to block a shotgun blast from Sarge. Grif jumps on his back trying to hold him but gets thrown down, Grif however managed to grab the brute shot before falling over. Sarge tries to hit the Meta with the butt end of his Shotgun but gets punched in the gut then Meta uppercuts him into the air. Before he lands, the Meta grabs his foot, dodges another shotgun blast attempt by Sarge, then throws him into Grif and Simmons. Tucker having recovered catches the Meta off-guard and stabs him right through his upper-left chest, getting the sword stuck, before getting punched in the face twice. As the sword only works for Tucker, the sword deactivates in the Meta's hands and he drops it to the ground. After taunting him, Sarge shoots the Meta in the torso four times with his shotgun as the two slow walk toward each other. The fifth shot however goes astray when the Meta knocks it out of Sarge's hand.

Death
The Meta grabs and holds Sarge by the throat as he continues to lose his breath. Sarge connects the tow-hook of the Warthog to the Meta's chest plate while Grif and Simmons push it over the edge. The Meta falls down and the capture unit disconnects from his back. The Meta flails wildly as he is being pulled toward the edge and in one last effort tries to kill Grif by grabbing his leg, intending to pull him down as well. However, Simmons holds onto Grif, temporarily keeping him from falling and causing Meta to let go of him. After losing his hold on Grif, The Meta gives a final less-than-human scream of horror and then falls off the cliff, plummeting to his death.

Acquired A.I. and Armor Enhancements
The A.I. that the Meta has acquired are: As Agent Maine, the Meta received Sigma from Project Freelancer by Agent Carolina. Wash had said in Recovery One Part Three that he had been assigned to the recovery of 5 different Freelancers, (York, North, and 3 others) bringing his confirmed A.I. count to 3. After he took Omega, Gamma, and the original Tex from the ship he would have had 6. Then after taking Delta from Caboose he would have 7. The last episode of Reconstruction shows The Meta at his peak of power having 7 A.I. After later gaining Epsilon-Tex in the capture unit, the total of AI's he's "collected" rises to 8. (albeit without the others)
 * Alpha just before the EMP went off at Command
 * Gamma from Freelancer Wyoming
 * Delta from Caboose
 * Theta from Freelancer North Dakota
 * Omega from Freelancer Texas
 * Sigma from Carolina, in order for Maine to communicate.
 * Tex/Beta A.I. from crashed Pelican
 * 1 Unknown A.I. he stole from other Freelancers
 * Epsilon-Tex in the Capture Unit

The Meta's symbol, which is comprised of Greek Letters, was originally created by Sigma - as shown in Season 10: Episode 6; possibly from the names of all the existing A.I.s at that point in time, bar Alpha. From what was revealed in the episode, Sigma believed this combination of A.I.s would create "Metastability"; the point where an A.I. can, theoretically, be considered human. The computer displays the results to be unstable. The A.I. symbols Sigma used to create the "Meta" symbol consist of: Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Theta, Iota, Xi, Sigma himself, and Omega. This is different from the one seen at the end of the Reconstruction Trailer, in which Theta and Iota are replaced with Lambda and Tau in the formation of the Meta's symbol.

The Armor Enhancements the Meta has acquired are:
 * Cloaking Device from Freelancer Tex
 * Temporal Distortion Unit from Freelancer Wyoming's helmet.
 * Super Strength
 * Overshields
 * Domed Energy Shield
 * Camouflage

After the activation of the EMP, the Meta was unable to use his armor enhancements correctly due to the fact that he no longer had an AI to run them. After recovering the Tex AI he was seen to use his Cloaking, Overshield and Dome Shield enhancements, and it is likely that the other enhancements are working as well.

Personality
Though he had some honorable qualities during his time as a Freelancer, including saving Carolina's life by taking a sniper round aimed at her spine, Meta was nevertheless aggressive, amoral and somewhat sociopathic. During his match with Tex, he, along with Wyoming had no qualms about killing her with live ammo. He was also extremely violent when angered. An example of this was when Sigma reminded him about the soldier who shot him in the throat, Maine was furious, eager to kill him for revenge.

Meta was stoic and a man of few words. He said very little when he was capable of speaking and was very proud of his power. He was also not above taunting his enemies with his strength, such as when he allowed the Sleeveless Insurrectionist to deal the first blow, then catching it and sadistically twisted his arm, forcing the soldier to his knees and defeating him with a single punch.

As the Meta, Maine had become a predator. Whether or not it was his own voalition or the A.I's will, he slaughtered everyone (including his former comrades) who got in his way. He was nothing short of a monster, willing to increase his power at the cost of countless lives. Despite his somewhat brutish personality, Meta was very devious, manipulating the Reds into attacking the Blues and using Washington and South as pawns to obtain A.I for his own possession.

Skills and Abilities
The Meta is one of the series' most lethal Freelancers and characters overall. During his time as a Freelancer, Agent Maine posessed an impressive level of physical strength, durability, stamina, and athleticism. He fought through multiple Insurrectionists in The Sarcophagus, and fought evenly with an Insurrectionist soldier after a sniper rifle round to the chest during Spiral. Maine was also the only agent shown capable of moving (and fighting) after being hit by rounds of paralyzing paint, a testament to his amount of sheer brute strength. He even managed to disarm Tex while painted, and it required a headshot to completely paralyze him.

Maine has been revealed to be quite heavy, capable of counter-balancing the Sarcophagus, and smashing a warthog's hood simply by landing on it. In his rematch with the Sleeveless Insurrectionist, he effortlessly defeated the soldier by knocking him unconscious (or causing him to die from the blow) with one punch. He is possibly the physically strongest and most resilient known Freelancer agent.

Shortly before the events of Recovery One, the Meta had killed four other Freelancers who were (according to Delta) better fighters than Wash. Later, when Wash confronted Meta at the Zanzibar power plant, despite Meta not being able to use its abilities due to insufficient power, Meta still managed to defeat Washington. The Meta is most likely (with its several armor enhancements) a more deadly and capable fighter than Tex. For example, when the Reds ask what he is, Church describes the Meta as being "like eight of her."

The Meta is also very durable, being able to survive around 10 Trip Mine explosions along with the subsequent explosion of a Warthog, both without taking an injury. He was capable of sustaining a few Chaingun rounds, getting physically beaten multiple times, receiving 5 knife related wounds, 2 embedded in the chest and back, a point blank explosion from his own Brute Shot, take 4 close range shotgun blasts, and even get an Energy Sword driven through his chest, all without any time to heal in between and still be able to move with his usual agility and strength without any sign of struggle despite these injuries (though some of these could be attributed to his armor enhancements).

Additionally, he is revealed to have incredible strength, as shown in Reconstruction Chapter 10 when he lifts a Warthog over his head and throws it at Grif with very little effort. Whether this is due to one of the many armor enhancements the Meta had obtained at that point, or simply his own sheer brute strength is unknown. His strength was later shown at the end of Introductions, as he launched a large stone block at Tex with simply a punch. In Season 10, Maine was able to stop a Warthog in its tracks when it attempted to run him over and destroyed it by easily tearing its tow hooks off and kicking it back with no visible effort.

Armor
In Season 9, the Meta is shown to wear an EVA helmet, a Mark VI chest and no shoulder pauldrons. In Season 10, the Meta keeps his EVA helmet and dons a Scout chest with Security shoulder pauldrons. During his first appearance in Recovery One, the Meta had full standard issue Mark VI armor in brown and red. Curiously, his old armor during Season 9 is still white and brown, with the brown armor with red trim having yet to be seen. For Reconstruction and Recreation, the Meta's armor set consists of the EVA helmet, Scout chest plate, left CQB shoulder and right EOD shoulder. In the episode Think You Know Someone, his chest is now Mark VI, but starting with Revelation, his right shoulder pauldron and Mark VI chest have been replaced with the EVA shoulder and chest piece. The reason for this is because the CGI animator, Monty Oum, was stated by Burnie Burns to only have certain models made for SPARTAN-II MJOLNIR armor at the time, with the EOD and Scout variants not being among them.

Serious Sustained Injuries
Throughout the series, the Meta has been injured in many ways and has survived countless times, with one exception.

Season 9

 * A sniper round to the chest by an Insurrectionist.
 * 9 magnum rounds to the throat by an Insurrectionist.
 * Hit by a speeding truck during a high speed chase.

Reconstruction

 * Sniper round to the foot by Church.
 * Machine gun turret fire from Washington.

Recreation

 * 2 missile pod shots from Lopez.

Revelation

 * Explosion from Tex's land mines.
 * Chest slashed by Tex.
 * Stabbed in the back by Tex.
 * Self-inflicted brute shot explosion.
 * Slashed and stabbed in the chest by Agent Washington.
 * Stabbed through the chest with an energy sword by Tucker
 * 4 shotgun shells at point-blank range, courtesy of Sarge
 * Pulled off a cliff by a Warthog's winch, resulting in the Meta's death.

Pop Culture
Its intention to kill and steal the enhancements from the other Freelancer Agents is somewhat comparable to Gabriel "Sylar" Gray's rampage from the popular American TV show "Heroes". There are traits similar to the Final Fantasy VII antagonist Jenova's effect, Reunion, in that the AIs seem to have a tendency to reunite with the original entity; in this case, Alpha.

The Meta also has some similarity to the Predator in the 1987 film directed by John McTiernan, in that both growl & roar, both can use highly advanced weapons, they both can turn invisible, and they also have the ability to record and alter voices.

Trivia

 * Meta speaks for the first time in the episode Lifting the Veil, where he yells "Get off me!" at a medic.
 * The Meta is one of the few characters to have his own theme music: "(When) Your Middle Name is Danger" by Trocadero. The only other characters to have their own theme music are Tex, Washington, Wyoming, and Omega. The music played for the Meta is the same music that is played in the Reconstruction Trailer and has been played in every chapter of Reconstruction the Meta has appeared in with the exception of Chapter 11.
 * Meta_Original_Armor.png Meta appears in Recovery One, but only his arm reloading a brute shot. (If a pause is timed just right, the Meta can be seen running across the screen.)
 * The Meta's armor changes more frequently than any other character in the series. In fact, the only armor permutation component to remain consistent throughout the series (barring the brief glimpse of him during Recovery One) is his EVA helmet.
 * Going along with the Meta's armor, the detail color also seems to change. In Reconstruction Chapter 4 while the Meta is using the voice changer, it can be seen that the detail color is blue, but later on changes to red.
 * As stated above, the Meta is the only character in Reconstruction that does not use Mark VI shoulders.
 * Barring characters that use the default Mark VI armor, the Meta is the only character from the Reconstruction series that can be recreated in Halo 3 without playing online matches. All that is needed to unlock all pieces of his armor is to complete the campaign on Normal (EVA helmet), beat The Ark on Legendary (EOD shoulder) and to get the Too Close to the Sun achievement (Scout chest plate). The CQB shoulder is unlocked from the start.
 * The Meta wears a Mark VI chest plate in Think You Know Someone, due to the fact that the CGI animator, Monty Oum, is stated by Burnie Burns to have only had certain models made for SPARTAN-II MJOLNR armor at the time, with the EOD and Scout variants not being among them.
 * "Meta" can be translated as "turning point" (usually in life) and "constantly changing" in Latin. Maine might have adopted this name when he decided to hunt the AI and equipment, and continued to change in identity, being that he could change armor color.
 * If Reconstruction Chapter 8 is paused at 3:01, the Recovery Symbol is visible on one of his shoulder pads as he goes and attacks Wash, meaning that Maine was possibly a Recovery Agent along with Washington and South (or that he had the equipment of a Recovery Agent he had killed). It can also be seen in other parts during Reconstruction, albeit only if carefully looked for. It is confirmed in Revelation that the Meta has the equipment to detect recovery beacons, as he hears Epsilon's beacon the same time Wash does.
 * Washington told Doc in Revelation that the Meta hates needles, which is possibly a warning not to poison the Meta's body.
 * Out of all the characters in the series, the Meta has the most shown/confirmed kills at 30+ kills.
 * Church refers to the Meta as "like eight of her[Tex]." However, in Revelation, the Reds and Tucker were unable to land a blow on Tex, but were able to hit the Meta repeatedly. Tex also proved to be an equal fighter to both him and Wash, though the Meta did not have nearly as many AI at this time as he did when Church made this statement. Although the Meta's combat ability may rely less on his reflexes, but rather his inhuman endurance and stamina which allowed him to outlast and defeat Tex.
 * In Revelation, the Meta's armor consists entirely of EVA armor except for his left shoulder, which is CQB.
 * Meta is seen without his helmet in the episode What's the "I" Stand For? (appearing to be bald), though Sigma obscures most of his face during the time. This makes him the seventh character in Red vs. Blue to have his face revealed on screen.
 * ​In the same episode, it is revealed that the name "Meta" derived from the term: Metastability, a level of rampancy in which an A.I. could be considered human.
 * The cause of the Meta's lack of speech is revealed in the episode Spiral, where he is shot in the throat by an Insurrectionist.
 * The Director refers to the Meta as Prodigal Son in chapter 19 of Reconstruction. The Prodigal Son is a character in the bible who recklessly wastes his inheritance but returns home in repentance as he is joyfully received by his family. This is an interesting comparison, as the Meta "wastes his inheritance" by killing Freelancers and stealing their A.I's; it can also be said that he returns home as he returns to Freelancer Headquarters in the final chapters of Reconstruction.
 * Also in line with Biblical references is the Meta's nature as a hive mind of AI and his writing "We are the Meta" in Valhalla. According the Gospel of Mark, Jesus of Nazareth encounters a possessed man who's demon identifies itself as "My name is Legion: for we are many." (Mark 5:9) implying that it is a collection of multiple entities possessing one body.
 * Meta's personality can be seen as childish at times, most notably during Relevation, where he refused to pull Doc from the codpiece when he was embedded in a wall, seemingly disagreeing with Wash when he says that they both witnessed Epsilon in his Monitor form, and refusing to leave a cave when he finds the empty storage unit which housed Epsilon.
 * Beginning from the episode Reunion, whenever the Meta is about to attack someone important, "Plagam Extremam Infligere" (Violent murder in Latin) can be heard chanting in the background. For example, it is heard when Meta attacks Epsilon-Tex in Revelation, Rhee Sebial in Season 9 and the Red Demo Man in Season 10.