Mark Temple

"Fate is not without irony. And the past is not without its just dessert."

- Temple in Battlescars

Mark Temple is the leader of the Blues and Reds, a group of Simulation Troopers that are very similar to the Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch. He serves as the main antagonist of Season 15.

Early Life
In his adolescence, Temple befriended another child named Biff and the two soon became close friends. Later on, Temple helps Biff talk to a girl named Georgina and the two begin a relationship with each other. Following high school, Temple and Biff enlist into the UNSC, where they are given to Project Freelancer as a part of their early Red and Blue simulation armies, though Temple and Biff remain unaware of Freelancer's intentions. The two are eventually transferred to Desert Gulch on Armada 8 and placed on separate teams, Temple on the Blue Team and Biff on the Red Team. Despite this, Temple and Biff remain close friends.

After a battle, Temple and Biff have a campfire, where Biff tells Temple about his plan to return home via medical discharge in order to be with Georgina. While uncomfortable with Biff leaving, Temple agrees to help him with his plan. The following day, two Freelancers, Carolina and Texas, arrive at the canyon and help the two teams in a game of Capture the Flag. When Carolina and Tex battle for the Blue team flag, Biff and Temple attempt to initiate their plan but Biff inadvertently gets impaled with the flag, due to Carolina and Tex's battle. Temple tries to comfort Biff but the latter bleeds to death; the other Blues and Reds watch as Biff dies.

Contact with the Reds and Blues
Several years later, Temple and the rest of the Blues and Reds construct an underwater lair below Desert Gulch, recruit other Simulation Troopers into their ranks, and begin a spree of terrorist attacks ten months following the Chorus-Charon War, in vengeance for the UNSC giving them up to Project Freelancer. The group also begin hunting down and killing ex-Freelancers, with Temple locking down their armor and having them die of thirst and starvation. After an attack on a UNSC outpost, Temple leaves his helmet behind at the crime scene.

The group eventually lead the Reds and Blues, as well as two IDA reporters, to Desert Gulch and confront them. Temple fabricates a story involving the UNSC capturing Church and hunting down Freelancer personnel in order to gain the Reds and Blues' trust when suddenly UNSC aircraft attack both groups. The sim troopers defeat the UNSC soldiers and later bond after a trip to gather supplies for a machine Loco is constructing. Afterward, the two groups follow a beacon to Wash and Carolina, where Tucker introduces them to the Blues and Reds. After Temple explains his "story" to the Freelancers, Carolina suggests they have Dylan publicize it, in order to avoid a physical confrontation.

However, once Temple has Wash and Carolina alone he reveals his true plans and proceeds to lock them in their armor. He then explains that he was worried Carolina would recognize his voice before locking the two inside a room with the other Freelancer corpses. Moments later, Temple threatens Loco to complete work on his device that he told the Reds and Blues was a cloaking device. After hearing a sound, the two Blues stop talking and discover a doll behind a pile of crates, leading Temple to question Jax of Dylan's whereabouts. He eventually finds Dylan searching through his network computer and takes her and Jax hostage. He then explains his early deployment on Desert Gulch and traps the two in the basement.

Assault on the UNSC
The Reds and Blues soon confront the Blues and Reds about their motives and quickly realize their sinister goals. Temple snaps at them when they refuse to cooperate, berating them for making friends with Freelancers. He further reveals that the Grunts have joined their cause as well and that the Red and Blues are the only ones yet to join. After all but Sarge and Doc refuse their offer, the Reds and Blues become imprisoned. Afterward, the Blues and Reds discover an intruder: Grif, though Temple briefly mistakes him for Biff. They capture Grif and imprison him with the other Reds and Blues, where Temple tauntingly reveals that the distress call from Church was actually an old log from Blood Gulch and that Loco edited the call to lure the Reds and Blues to him.

Temple and the Blues and Reds then leave to Earth to initiate their plan of drilling into UNSC headquarters. Unfortunately, the Reds and Blues manage to pursue them and infiltrate their lair. When Loco finally activates his machine, Temple defends it to ensure his plan is successful. When the Reds and Blues confront Temple, having defeated the rest of his teammates, Temple locks their armor and taunts them. Grif attempts to stop Temple but fails, prompting Temple to hold him at gunpoint. However, he is unable to shoot Grif, allowing Grif to distract him and Dylan freeing the crew from armor lock.

Temple then accidentally shoots Loco and is incapacitated by Tucker. As the machine grows unstable, a portal forms, with Church on the other side.

Personality
At first, Temple appears to be a reasonable, if somewhat awkward, version of Church. However, he later reveals himself to be a manipulative and highly sociopathic individual, obsessed with getting revenge on everyone involved with Project Freelancer. His manipulative side is demonstrated when he turns Tucker against Dylan and even turns Sarge against his own friends. He also seems to be very unstable, as shown when he states very passionately he has to "cut the head off" whoever is responsible for what happened to him and the other Simulation Troopers. Temple is so devoted to his revenge that he does not care for the consequences of his actions, such as when he stole a generator from a colony of refugees, which caused the inhabitants to perish and gained Locus as an enemy.

Temple considers the Simulation troopers to have been sold as cannon fodder to Project Freelancer in a game of target practice for super soldiers. His rage is shown immensely, even terrifying, as his need for revenge against the UNSC for selling not only his friend and himself to Project Freelancer, but for the life of every Sim Trooper that was killed in the training program, goes beyond pathological. While Temple sincerely considers himself to be the hero of his story, he is ultimately a man who let his more than understandable anger drive him insane and attempt to put others through greater torment than he endured, despite the fact it makes him just as bad or worse. It was his lust for revenge which eventually led to his downfall while he just wanted to get justice for what happened to him,Biff,his friends,and all other Simulation Troopers his campaign only lead to more death and lose as he turned into a sadistc killer who became something much worse than the people he was fighting against.

Temple is not above taunting his opponents either and finds pleasure in doing so. After locking Wash and Carolina he stated that the record for survival was 8 days 11 hours and dared Carolina to try harder since she was so competitive. He even let Caboose and the remaining crew hear the unedited version of Church's message (a plee to control for a plumber) and told Caboose that Loco, whom Caboose was very fond of, was the one who edited it.

Temple also has a liking to classic villains and dramatic performances, having researched good evil lair, Shakespeare, and villains on Bing. Upon exiting the brig after his speech in Grif Does a Rescue, he whispers "nailed it" showing he actively tries to act like a pulp villain. He is also willing to credit other's strength, as he admitted Carolina could easily defeat him and that Tucker fights just like the Freelancers and is, therefore, hesitant to directly face them in combat. This indicates that despite his obvious mental instability that Temple is a very self aware individual, readily realizing the limitations of his own skills and abilities when in comparison with others.

Camaraderie
Temple is shown to be capable of camaraderie, as evidenced by his lifelong friendship with Biff. The two of them were constantly ribbing each other throughout their lives and when Biff finally asked out Georgina after two years in high school, Temple managed to get the entire cafeteria to initiate a slow clap in response. This shows that despite his homicidal demeanor, Temple is capable of caring for others and that his intense rage is likely a result of the tragedies that befell himself and his friend. It is also later shown that Temple managed to rally the Grunts on his side, displaying some degree of leadership by motivating others to fight with him. In addition, Temple seems to care for the sim troopers he recruits, at least to a degree, though this could be because of his hatred for Project Freelancer and their treatment of the sim troopers. When the Reds and Blues refuse to join him, Temple is shown to be visibly hurt and angry by this, calling the crew traitors for befriending Freelancers.

Combat​
Temple appears to lack any sort of skill when using the sniper rifle, much like his Blood Gulch counterpart Church. The one time he managed to land a shot, was proceeded by many missed attempts beforehand. As shown in Battlescars when he brings Washington and Carolina to the trophy room and later in Belly of the Beast when he notices Dylan is spying on him and Loco, he tends to switch to his Tactical Magnum to fight closer opponents. He admits his lack of combat skills when trapping Agents Carolina and Washington in his lair, and went around it by locking the Freelancers in their armor and leaving them to die. His lack of combat skills is futher shown whe he accidentally shot Loco instead of Caboose and when Tucker easily disarmed him and knocked him out.

Unlike Church, however, he is an effective leader, as he led several successful raids on UNSC outposts, but he admits to taking the job only because of an absence of legitimate leadership, as Church had before him.

Kills
Temple has been responsible for many deaths since he started his vendetta against the UNSC, such as an entire colony according to Locus and several Freelancers.

Trivia

 * A temple is a holy place of prayers like the Church which fits the similarities to his counterpart.
 * Temple is the third antagonist with a sadistic nature with Malcolm Hargrove being the first and Felix being the second, although Agent Wyoming had in his first appearance expressed regret at not having time to torture a captive. Additionally, Temple is shown having a strong motive behind his sadism, as opposed to Hargrove's selfish, materialistic, and entitled nature and motivations, and Felix's greed for power and money. Temple resembles Felix more as he often taunts his enemies and is usually dramatic.
 * His armor occasionally appears white, however this may be an Error.
 * Temple acts as the opposite of Church as the series goes by.
 * He presents himself as a kind individual while Church presents himself as a jerk, but deep down Temple sees his men as expendable while Church does actually care for his team.
 * Church let go of his desire for revenge against Project Freelancer, while Temple never did.