Meta

Agent Maine was an Agent in the Special Operations program Freelancer. Now known as The Meta, Maine is now systematically hunting down the Freelancers; stealing their Armor Enhancements and AIs in the process. The Meta is the main antagonist of the Recovery One Mini Series and the Reconstruction sequel to the Blood Gulch Chronicles. It is (currently) represented by a Spartan-character model with a white EVA helmet and Scout torso with CQB and EOD shoulders and is the only character thus far not to have the Mark VI shoulder pieces. It is unclear if Meta is an alias adopted by Maine or the manifestation of a new entity as the result of collecting and implanting multiple constructs. Also for an unknown reason, The Meta growls and breaths in a similar way to the Predator. This is probably due to the insanity from having so many A.I.'s in his head at one time.

Recovery One
The Meta first appeared in the Recovery One miniseries as someone (or something) that was hunting down Freelancers. Most of Agent Washington's Priority One signals were a result of the Meta's actions. However, the one signal that was not caused by the Meta, Agent York, would prompt the Meta to begin hunting down Recovery One. It presumably killed Freelancer North Dakota and left the Agent's sister, South unconscious at the scene to slow Washington down (it was later revealed that South positioned her own brother to be killed by the Meta and by allowing it to scavenge his body to escape). It tracked down Washington and South while Washington was convincing South to implant the Delta AI. The Meta was unable to secure Delta at that juncture due to Sath informing it of a timed charge on Washington's armor. Given the option of it being able to retrieve Delta later, the Meta allowed South to escape.

Post Recovery One shows that a white figure is tracking Washington. There was an unidentified white figure (Wyoming) that attacked Washington at the beginning of Recovery One, when he went to retrieve Delta. The stealthed figure’s hands in Recovery One, as Sath is talking to it, are apparently that of a Spartan body type. Whether this was an unrefined aspect of the story or not, it could indicate that there are (not many but possibly) multiple warriors in the Meta, as this would be able to prove where all the AIs would be going (because as of current all armors are known to have a slot for one AI at any given time, it is not proven or disproves that someone can house multiple A.I.s, but it would require heavily modified armor, and would possibly drive the host insane from having multiple programs in his or her head). Alternatively, this could provide a way for Wyoming to return.

Reconstruction
It is revealed by the lone survivor of Outpost 17-B: Valhalla that the entity that attacked Recovery Six and Recovery Nine is called the Meta. According to Agent Washington, for reasons as of now unknown, was spared by the Meta, the entity that was described by Private Walter Henderson matches the profile of the being he had been tracking. The Private being debriefed on the incident indicates that the grounded ship had someone in it, "she looked like him.", and that after leaving Blue base he could no longer see the Meta. Recovery Command tells Washington that the Meta may be in possession of the Omega AI. This indicates that the downed Pelican reported by Recovery Six and Nine is the same that Tex and Wyoming left Blood Gulch with, and that the Meta stole her armor enhancement and AI. As of Episode 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, the only AI that can use it. However, it is wounded in a battle with 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. This speculation can be backed up with the example of Carolina; a Freelancer who Delta says received two AIs at once and went insane as a result.

In episodes ten and 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 as 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 attack the Reds, 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 follows Washington and Church and wounds the former, but it stopped from killing him as the AlphaChurch jumps into his head. Ultimately his fate is left unknown after Washington detonates an EMP.

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
 * Theta from Freelancer North Dakota
 * Omega/O’Malley from Freelancer Tex
 * Gamma/Gary from Freelancer Wyoming
 * Delta from Caboose (confirmed)
 * 3-5 Unknown A.I.-One of which could be the AI that Agent Maine was originally assigned, though if he had one at the beginning is unknown. The others are presumed to come from the agents that Wash had to recover prior to Recovery One.

If Maine did have an original AI, it is possible that it was Beta, and that he made his new title of the Meta by mixing the first letter of his name, Maine, and replaced the B in his AIs name, Beta, to create Meta. This is probable as both Omega and Gamma have done this, to become Om-Ali and Ga-Re (Gary), respectively. One of the A.I. could also possibly be Sigma, an A.I. which was originally the Alpha A.I.'s creativity, mentioned in Chapter 16.

The Armor Enhancements the Meta has acquired are:
 * Cloaking Device from Freelancer Tex
 * Temporal time control Unit from Freelancer Wyoming's Helmet
 * Strenth Enhancement from Freelancer North Dakota
 * Agent York's healing 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.
 * A bubble sheild from Sath

Possible Goals

 * It is possible that the A.I.'s & Maine are working together to get the Alpha A.I. As mentioned by Washington in Chapter 7 of Red vs Blue: Reconstruction, the A.I.'s who'd become obsessed with the idea of the Alpha & that some had taken drastic steps to get to it. Since Church is the Alpha A.I., an unknown twist is added into the mix.


 * It is also possible that Maine intends to unify all the "experimental" A.I. into a single AI. I. this is due to the fact they are all fragments copied from Alpha, if all were collected and then unified, you would theoretically be in possession of a smart A.I.- like the Alpha.

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 then Wash. Later, when Wash was confronted by it at the Zanzibar power plant, despite it not being able to use it's abilities (due to insufficient power) it had manged to defeat Washington. The Meta is most likely (with it's several armor enhancements) a more deadly and capable fighter than Tex; when the Reds ask what it is Church describes it as being "like 8 of her". Considering this, it can also be said that, with the AI and enhancements, it is as strong, if not stronger, than the Master Chief and other Spartans.

Weaponary
The Meta wields a Brute Shot 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. Since he is a Freelancer, he might have an original A.I. (at this time it is unknown if he did, due to knowing Agent Sath had not been implanted with an AI after the problems faced after Epsilon's "suicide" as well many Freelancers A.I. were removed after this as well. He may never have gotten one, or lost his original.  This is still heavily speculated due to the series being new.  Much is yet unknown.) and Armor Enhancement. The speculations of what his armor enhancement is have seen two theories. Either his ability to change armor color or record and alter radio transmissions. He also has the abilities of all the Freelancers he has killed or found dead.

Armor
The Meta's armor set consists of the EVA helmet, Scout chest armor, CQB left shoulder armor and EOD right shoulder armor.

Of note: The vocal modulator has 'Epsilon' on it. This might have been Wash's armor enhancement. The active cloaking that Tex possesses is not the same as the camouflage that the Meta uses, though they are similar. It's assumed that one of the upgrades allows for the cloaking of the radar (something which Wyoming managed to work around before, but hasn't been duplicated since.)

It is debatable whether or not Agent Maine is acting of his own accord, or being controlled by the AIs as a puppet. He never speaks, and in Chapter 19, the AI tell him what to do, and speak in his stead to the Director and Counselor.

Pop Culture
It's 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 some traits like the antagonist JENOVA in the that of the AIs seem to have a tendency not unlike the JENOVA Reunion Theory of Final Fantasy VII, in that all fragments of the original entity; no matter how small; have an inherent tendency to reunite with the original.

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/it's own theme music. The only other characters to have there 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/her/it's arm reloading a brute shot.(If a pause is timed just right, the Meta can be seen running across the screen. It's armor color is white with brown trim.)