Meta

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

Project Freelancer
The Meta's background remains almost completely unknown, other than the fact that he was conscripted to Project Freelancer during the Great War. The Meta was originally assigned the codename "Agent Maine", in keeping with the standard Freelancer naming scheme, and presumably was assigned an armor enhancement and a respective A.I. capable of running it; though it is unknown if Maine was in the implantation group behind Agent Washington, in which case he would not have received an A.I. unit.

Post-war
Approximately one year after the conclusion of the Great War, Maine had either deserted Project Freelancer, was missing, or presumed dead. During this time however, Maine had apparently become very power obsessed, and was fixated on the collection of Freelancer armor enhancements, and in turn the A.I. units capable of running them. During this time of human reconstruction, 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, to the point where he could only communicate in menacing growls and grunts. 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.

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, at which point the Omega A.I., which had been on the ship, 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 chapter ten and Chapter eleven, it attacks both Washington's team and the reassembled Reds led by Sarge. Washington eventually rips off a turret and chases it away after inflicting several wounds. Eventually, in Chapter 14, it climbs on the back of a tank driven by the Reds and Caboose to infiltrate command.

The Meta made an appearance in Chapter 16. As Sarge tells Simmons to save his ammo a cloaked figure runs under the window from right to left. It is difficult to see, but easily heard.

In Chapter 18, as the white freelancers attacked the Reds, the Blues and Washington, the Meta disengages its cloaking, and appears before them. The white freelancers attack the Meta as the others escape to the motor pool. It 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 is shown to have survived the EMP and 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 before recovering, but not before losing a huge amount of power. 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. The Meta acts very placidly in the last few moments of the series, not attempting to harm the Reds or Washington.

In the first chapter of Revelation, it is made completely clear that the Meta and Wash are working together when the two are seen standing together as if a team. 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 Vahalla, 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 temporal 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.

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 becon, and the three prepare to leave and find him.

When they arrive they see Epsilon unconsious 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 procced. Wash thinks this to be too complicated, but several mines appear suddenly trapping them in their place. The Meta attemps then to exit the gunner seat. However the mine explodes, destroying the warthog, sends 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 grabing 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 detanator 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, The Meta pulls out a pistol while Tex grabs to more guns out of a block of Ice. Wash having fully recovered, atempts 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 detanator 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 excape 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 anotther detanator 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 effortlessly throws her body aside with one hand.

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 moniter 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 tp 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.

Acquired A.I. and Armor Enhancements
The A.I. that the Meta has presumably acquired are:
 * Alpha just before the EMP went off at Command
 * Gamma/Gary from Freelancer Wyoming (confirmed by Delta)
 * Delta from Caboose (confirmed)
 * Theta from Freelancer North Dakota (confirmed by Delta)
 * Omega/O'Malley from Freelancer Tex (confirmed)
 * 3 Unknown A.I. he stole from other Freelancers
 * The AI shadow of Tex in the Capture Unit


 * It is unlikely that Agent Maine was assigned an A.I. at the begining of Project Freelancers experiments. Wash had said in Episode 3 of Recovery One that he had been assigned to recovery of 5 different Freelancers, (York, North, and 3 others) bringing his confirmed A.I. count to 4. After he took Omega and Gamma 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 having 7 A.I. After later gaining Tex in the capture unit, the total of AI's he's collected rises to 8.

The Meta's symbol, which is comprised of Greek Letters, consists of: Xi; Delta; Omega; Gamma; Lambda; Sigma; Tau and Epsilon.

The Armor Enhancements the Meta has acquired are:
 * Cloaking Device from Freelancer Tex
 * Temporal Distortion Unit from Freelancer Wyoming's Helmet.
 * Motion tracker enhancement.
 * He is able to simulate different armor colors in a chameleon effect, so long as he is not utilizing too many other enhancements as well.
 * Freelancer Washington's Armor Enhancement. Unconfirmed that Washington had any enhancements after the removal of Epsilon.
 * Super Strength.
 * Enhanced shields (Overshields)

Abilities
The Meta is one of the series most lethal Freelancers and characters overall. Before the events of Recovery One it had killed four other Freelancers who were (according to Delta) better fighters than Wash. Later, when Wash was confronted by it at the Zanzibar power plant, despite it not being able to use its abilities (due to insufficient power), it still managed to defeat Washington. The Meta is most likely (with its several armor enhancements) a more deadly and capable fighter than Tex; when the Reds ask what it is Church describes it as being "like eight of her." He is also seen to be able to survive a volley of Machine Gun Turret rounds and still be able to run away.

Weaponry
The Meta wields a Brute Shot (known to Donut as "The Kick-Ass Broom") as it's signature weapon, and can use its grenade launching abilities and blade to deadly effect. Also, it wields a Magnum pistol as a sidearm and has tried to kill Wash with it many times. In Chapter 3, while watching Caboose and Agent Washington depart from "Rat's Nest", the Meta carried an Assault Rifle, and Chapter 4, the Meta is briefly seen using a Battle Rifle when making the fake transmission. In chapters 10 and 11 of Reconstruction, the Meta threw a Warthog and several other large objects at Grif and the Reds. The Meta, being as powerful as it is, could be considered a weapon itself.

Armor
The Meta's armor set consists of the EVA helmet, Scout chest armor, CQB left shoulder armor and EOD right shoulder armor. Recently however, his right shoulder piece and Scout armor has been replaced with the EVA shoulder piece as opposed to the EOD and EVA chest piece. Reasons for this are unknown but it may have to do with losing all of his stolen A.I or, Lopez shooting him with rockets. Primarily he is white colored with brown shoulders and a detail color of cobalt (though in one episode it appears as red), but can change color from red to blue (and presumably to other colors) as well.

Kills

 * 3 or 4 Freelancers, including North Dakota.
 * Recovery Six
 * Recovery Nine
 * 3+ Valhalla Reds.
 * 4 Rat's Nest Blues, including Lieutenant Miller.
 * Burke, Dellario, Tubbs and at least 3 Last Resort Reds.
 * 10+ Command soldiers.
 * Various Aliens, including Smith

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".

It also has traits similar to the Final Fantasy VII antagonist J.E.N.O.V.A., 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 & they also have the ability to record and alter voices.

Trivia

 * 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, "The Warthog", Wyoming, and Omega. The music played for the Meta is the same music that is played in the Reconstruction trailer & has played in every chapter the Meta has appeared in with the exception of Chapter 11.
 * The 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. Its armor color is brown with red trim, and is possibly Agent Maine's original armor.)
 * Going along with the Meta's armor, the detail color also seems to change. In chapter 4 of Reconstruction while the Meta is using the voice changer, it can be seen that the detail color is blue but later on changes to red. It could be that when the Meta changes its color (it's seen as blue and red) and changes back to its usual white, the last color is its detail color.
 * 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 (destroy a Banshee with a Spartan Laser, Scout chestplate.). The CQB shoulder is unlocked from the start.
 * The Meta wears the Mark VI body in chapter 19 of Recreation, this is because the CGI animator, Monty Oum, is stated by Burnie Burns to only have certain models made for SPARTAN-II MJOLNR armor at the time, with the EVA variant being not one of 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 Chapter 8 of Reconstruction 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.
 * Agent Washington told Doc that the Meta hates needles, which has not been explained yet, but it is possibly a warning not to poison the Meta's human body.
 * Out of all the characters in the series, the Meta has the most shown/confirmed kills at 30+ kills.
 * The Meta's armor changes more frequently than any other character.