Leonard Church


 * See Also: Leonard L. Church of Blue Team

Dr. Leonard Church was the Director of Project Freelancer up until recently. Currently he is now under arrest for numerous protocol violations, as stated in the beginning of Chapter 19 of Reconstruction, the series finale. During the events in Reconstruction, he exchanges a number of transmissions with the Chairman, each one revealing more about the Director's personality and views, as well as slowly revealing the tensions he and the Chairman share toward each other.

Over the course of the Reconstruction series, through the various transmissions and through the information provided by Agent Washington in numerous episodes, it is eventually revealed that the Director and his Freelancer Project was given a single, "smart AI" to experiment with in his soldiers, known as the Alpha. In a severe abuse of power and protocol, the Director has the Alpha AI split into fragments to be copied; this was done by subjecting it to highly stressful scenarios to the point where it detaches portions of itself to maintain its sanity and survive. When the Chairman discovers this after looking into his personal files, the Director is immediately issued a warrant of arrest, and in the beginning of Chapter 19 he is notified that law enforcement members are on their way to detain him.

During Chapter 19 he speaks to Wash, who has infiltrated the base with the Meta following close behind. When negotiations with Wash fail, and Wash reveals he's known everything since Epsilon was implanted in his head, the Director orders the Meta to kill him — revealing he still had some level of control over Agent Maine (although this could be due to his bribing the Meta with the location of the Alpha, which it demanded). When Private Church appeared and entered the Meta's mind, incapacitating it and giving Washington time to activate the EMP, the Director attempts one final desperate plea to cooperate with Wash, who staunchly refuses before activating the EMP and disabling the entire base.

One last transmission was sent to the Chairman of the Oversight Sub-Committee during the Epilogue, with the Director sounding far more subdued and weary than he previously was. Revealing that he never had the chance to participate or sacrifice himself for the war, and that he has been haunted with the memory of his loved one who he lost long ago, he ends the transmission saying that he would come quietly and hope that the court would see things from his perspective. He also stated his belief that the courts would not be able to convict him, because though there are many laws against hurting and terrorizing others, he maintains that there are no laws against tormenting one's own self.

He then closes his transmission by stating his name, which is actually Dr. Leonard Church — revealing that Private Church/The Alpha was in fact designed from the Director's own personality and memories. (Tex is later revealed in Chapter 19 of Revelation, Reunion, to be a biproduct of the process and that she was what he remembered of his loved one, Allison, which may explain why he favored Tex in Project Freelancer while also shedding some light on Church's relationship with Tex.)

Trivia

 * The Director speaks in a subtle southern accent.
 * The machine the Director and Councilor communicate with Wash and the Meta through is actually the Cold Storage Monitor from Halo 3, which is located in the map Cold Storage.