Zak Derekson

Zachariah "Zak" Derekson is a main protagonist of the fanfiction series the Ronin Chronicles. He is a Second Generation Freelancer, under the callsign Agent California, and a Spartan-IV.

Early Life and Enlistment
Zachariah Derekson was born May 19, 2533, in the mega-city of New Angeles on the inner colony world of Elysium. He is the first born child of ODSTs Johnathan and Reiko Derekson, and is the older brother of Alice Derekson. Due to his parents' military background, Zak aspired to become a soldier and to protect others even as a child, and this was further strengthened when his father was KIA in an operation against the Covenant when Zak was twelve.

While growing up on Elysium, he formed a very close and brother-like bond with Nightingale Icarus Chase, due to their families being close friends.

Upon graduation from high school in 2550, Derekson enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps. During training he proved to be a very capable fighter, as well as a remakably fast learner. While not necessarily the best of his training regiment, his skills did catch the eye of the recruiters for the Second Project Freelancer. They found his skill set matched up with their criteria for candidates, and offered him a place as a Freelancer. He accepted, and was assigned the codename Agent California. He was subsequently placed under the command of another Freelancer known as Agent Arizona, along with Freelancers Indiana, Jersey, and Virginia. After serving for about a year with them, he became a competant and effective soldier, however he and his commander constantly clashed over moral differences.

1st Battle of Elysium
In 2552, California was brought back to his homeplanet of Elysium. Elysium had become a point of interest for the Covenant due to the hidden cache of powerful Forerunner weaponry. By creating an alliance with the Insurrectionists, they were able to gain access to this armory, and were planning on using its contents to wipe out the UNSC. Luckily, the Nightingales of New Angeles and New Kyoto had retrieved an important piece of information, the armory's weapons couldn't be used without a device known as a Forerunner Control Helix. With this information, the UNSC sent Arizona's team to retrieve the device from a Forerunner Fortress. The team descended into the Fortress, albeit not without the loss of Freelancer Jersey and Indiana. Upon reaching the device's holding area, the remaining Freelancers were ambushed by an Sangheili Zealots. California and Virginia were rendered incapacitated, however Arizona was able to break free and reached the artifact. However, upon picking up the device, Arizona became corrupted by some unknown force who granted him inhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and agility, as well as a strange ability to affect the human mind. As he gained these new powers, Agents Virginia and California had recovered and witnessed in horror as Arizona used his new powers on the Sangheili, and in his bloodlust, turned on the Freelancers. Started with Virginia, and using his abilities, he assaulted her mind and afterwards killed her by stabbing her in the chest with an energy sword. Afterwards, he turned on California. However, before the new Freelancer could be dealt any permanent damage, he was saved by an intervention from the now Jr. Lt. Chase, causing the traitor to flee the scene. California, as shaken as he might have been, was brought back to reality by Chase. Both discovered the Helix was gone and realized that the Covenant-Insurrectionist alliance were in possession of it. The two returned to the surface and were given orders to help the evacuation of the planet. While they were evacuating the people, the alliance had raised the armory's contents, revealing them to be a fleet of Cleanser Sentinels. In the ensuing battle, almost all of the New Angeles and New Kyoto Nightingales were KIA. The survivors, including Lt. Chase and California, found a way to stop the Sentinels. The two took a pair of Atmospheric Booster Frames and headed to the Prime Sentinel. After fighting off the soldiers on board, they reached the main control room, where after a standoff with the alliance's leaders, retrieved the Helix and proceeded to the reactor where, as Icarus had realized, they would destroy it, creating a Slipspace rift that would destroy all of the other Sentinels. However, before they reached the reactor, the two went through the escape pod wing of the ship. Realizing that by destroying the reactor, the destroyer would be killed, Icarus gave the Helix to a protesting California and kicked him into a specially designed cryo/escape pod, saving his friend. California's pod successfully activated, and landed safely in the Iizscara Ocean.

Recovery and Return
Approximately eight years later in 2561, Derekson's pod was finally recovered by his sister, Alice Derekson. Upon finding it, they discovered that it pod was still completely intact and had perfectly preserved the Freelancer in stasis. Derekson was awakened, and after two and a half months of rehabilitation from missing ten years of his life, he was returned to the military. Along with his Freelancer training and abilities, Derekson received the Spartan IV enhancements, making him even stronger. He was also finally given an AI, Omicron, and an armor enhancement, a Kinetic Thermal Expulsion Unit. As his old unit was KIA, California was reassigned to multiple different units during the first year after his recovery, during which he met many others who would become good friends, including Agent Japan, Acrion Sythe the Lone Wolf, and Danaxo Allium. Japan he met during his training with the Spartan IVs; Allium he became friends with when he had been assigned to work with him on an criminal investigation mission; and Sythe he became acquainted with after the latter tried to assassinate him, but chose not to do so in the end.

Alliance with Noble
In 2562, California was assigned with Special Operations and Fleetmaster Sangheili Toram Soramee on a mission to investigate the ruins of Sword Base on Reach. It was here he first met the rogue Freelancer known as Agent Noble. While they held the Freelancer captive, and before she escaped, she and California conversed, and by doing so made California see the things that were potentially very wrong with the UNSC's current leadership. And a month later, California decided to take the initiative and went to Agent Noble again. Not to capture her and bring her to the authorities, but to join her and help bring the UNSC's corruption down. The two, who had surprisingly developed some kind of affection for one another, both gladly served alongside one another. Also, during his time with Agent Noble, California met and became good friends with  Marc Graham, Agent Iceland, another Freelancer who had sided with Noble.

Noble, deeming their team to be strong enough to take on their mission, and began with taking out smaller targets. Eventually however, he was contacted by his old partner Toram Soramee. His partner suprisingly contacted them to ask for their help as a civil war was beginning on Sanghelios. California had told his old partner that they would go, however Noble, due to absolutely despising the Sangheili, vehemently disagreed with him.

This sparked a short, but major fight between the two over their views of the Sangheili. The result was Noble running off and Washington and Maine siding with her, and Zak headed out on a mongoose, feeling he needed to give Noble some space, but also because he received a message from his sister, telling that he needed to meet her at an abandoned ONI facility.

However it turned out that this was actually a trap. The UNSC, who was starting to get very angry at how the Freelancers were causing havoc for them, were contacted by Agent Arizona who was seeking revenge on Zak for the events on Elysium. He led his old subordinate into a trap, by using his sister as bait. Noble, who had very quickly managed to learn about Cal's predicament, had come to his rescue. However, due to her underestimation of Arizona's abilities she was brutally beaten and injured and were both brought aboard the UNSC Infinity.

Luckily, Agent Iceland had also been watching, and contacted Toram Soramee, asking him to bring a fleet to help them rescue their friends. During the rescue, Cal and Noble were able to meet with Jun-A266 (Noble's adopted father) and Alice, who was imprisoned aboard the ship and would've been tortured by Arizona had they not broken free. The Freelancers, now reunited and aboard the ship of the Sangheili Fleetmaster Toram Soramee, headed to Sanghelios to help with the civil war.

Sangheili Civil War
Upon landing on the planet, Zak was reunited with Danaxo, who had become a leader of a special operations division in the Soram Army. As part of the mission, a small strike team composed of Cal, Noble, Ice, Wash, Maine, and Jun were sent to a Storm Covenant fortress to eliminate a major leader of the Storm-Covenant. They successfully managed to infiltrate through most of the base, quickly dispatching most of the defenses. However, one fight against a massive, mutant Sangheili monster left Noble seriously injured. Although nothing happened at first, during another fight Noble's inner rage/automatic defense mechanism manifested and took over her body. This caused her to go on a rampage, that did completely eliminate all covenant threat in the immediate vicinity, but also nearly killed Ice who attempted to stop the form from killing everything. Zak after seeing his friends get hurt, then attempted to stop the rage manifestation, and with Omicron and Zeta's help managed to weaken it. However the fight drained most of his energy, and left him unconscious.

Ancient Prisoner
To Zak's surprise, his mind traveled into the Forerunner Helix that was always kept on his person. The Helix, Zak found out, wasn't only a device for controlling the Cleanser Sentinels, it was also a device used for holding consciousnesses. Inside the Helix, Zak found a Forerunner fortress and inside an imprisoned Forerunner Manipular. After releasing the young Forerunner, albeit with hesitation considering Arizona's fate, the Manipular revealed his name as Skyjumper, and that he was originally a guardian inside the Helix. He revealed that the Helix also served to imprison the consciousness of an extremely dangerous Forerunner criminal, and that he was placed their to stand guard. He told him after that the original prisoner was released and escaped alongside another human visitor that came a few years ago. Zak deduced that that must have been Agent Arizona, and Skyjumper told him that the criminal was likely sharing a body and mind with the traitor. Skyjumper then told Zak that the Helix contained an immense power that was meant to be wielded by a being of pure heart and light. However, due to his lack of knowledge, all Skyjumper could tell him was that the Helix's creator would be the only one who could reveal more. As a show of gratitude, Skyjumper released Zak from the Helix and Zak's mind returned to his body.

Battle Continues and Revelations
Upon returning, Zak found both Ice and Noble had recovered from their fight and the three of them rejoined with their allies, who in turn were joined by the Sangheili Spec-Ops team the Knights of the Alliance. The teams continued to clear out the base, though discovered that the Storm Covenant were in possession of a CSO-Class Supercarrier. They retreated back to the citadel to regroup and plan for the coming battle.

The Freelancers returned to recover from the battle, get armor repairs, and restock on ammo to prepare for the coming battle. Zak, due to Noble still needing recovery, took the place of leader and managed to stage a good defense of the main citadel, which they were told was the main priority. After the battle, Toram showed the Freelancer team exactly what it was that they were protecting: a Forerunner Star Map. Due to only allowing a reclaimer to access it, the Sangheili were unable to use it and only kept it for protection.

Upon activating it, the Forerunner Helix "communicated" with it, causing it to reveal the location of a shield world in a semi-remote system. During the inspection, the Storm-Covenant launched an ambush and stole the map, though not before the team already knew where to go. Zak, remembering the words of Skyjumper, took this as a clue to uncovering the mystery of the Helix decided to take a leave from Noble's team. The rest of the team was called back to Freelancer HQ, and Zak was joined by his sister, Danaxo, and Iceland.

Personality
Zak is an introvert, and is often seen as quiet and reserved by most other people. However among those he is close with he is known to be friendly, understanding, sarcastic, deadpan, and laid-back. He is also known to be very brave and courageous, always putting others' lives and well-being before his own.

One of the primary underlying traits of Zak is that he is an idealist. Considered by many to be virtuous, selfless, and honorable, Zak's drive and spirit come from his desire to help and protect others. A notable example of this is during his time with Noble's freelancer team when he became extremely critical of her unwillingness to help the Sangheili.

However, while he is known to be very calm and collected, others have occasionally seen him as cold and indifferent due to his seeming lack of interest in others. In truth he does greatly care about others' (as noted above) but lacks the assertiveness to express it. He also has been shown to be extremely inconsistent with his decisiveness, as while he may appear to be sure of his actions and choices at one time, other times he will seem very hesistant and tentative at another.

Physical Abilities
As a Freelancer and Spartan IV, Zak is an exceptionally skilled fighter. Extremely versatile in all types of weaponry, he has developed a sort of adaptability when it comes to weapons making him a jack of all trades. However, while he is adept at using all kinds of weapons, he doesn't possess mastery over any.

Kinetic Thermal Expulsion Unit
His Freelancer ability is the Kinetic Thermal Expulsion Unit (KTEU), a device attached to his wrists that allows him to spray an ignited napalm onto his hands which are specially fireproofed and extremely heat resistant. Using said napalm, he is capable to utilize it to greatly enhance his deadliness in hand-to-hand combat or, similar to the Jiralhanae Firebomb Grenade, he can create fireball like explosives for ranged usage.

Misc Skills
Aside from combat skills, he has also shown some talent with working computers, and apparently had a talent for playing a musical instrument as a kid, though it's never specified which one.

Alice Derekson
Zak has the closest relationship with his sister, as they've known each other longer than any other character. Their relationship (at least after Zak's return) is mainly rooted in both their parents being deceased, leaving them as their only immediate family. Both Zak and Alice admitted that the other was always the one who was there for them, through both good and bad times. While technically Alice is 10 years younger than her brother, because of his time in stasis they are biologically the same age. This has caused an extent of tension between the two as Zak occasionally acts somewhat over-protective of Alice, something that often times irritates her as she feels she is more capable than he gives her credit for. However, they both care for each other immensely, and have displayed a willingness to sacrifice their own lives to protect one another. They are often seen with one another, get along extremely well, and are able to work together in harmonious synchronization during combat.

Danaxo Allium
Danaxo and Zachariah met in the year after he awoke from stasis, when both were assigned to investigate murder and other crime reports on a colony world. During their investigation, both started off on bad terms, and argued quite a bit. This began impeding their mission, and nearly got them thrown off it. This lead them to deciding to put aside their differences and learn more about the other. After this, they learned more about each other, leading them to gain a much higher respect for the other after they discovered they had much in common. They became best friends after that. The two have shown to be able to get along very well, and Dax is usually the first person Zak would tell if something important happened.

Trivia

 * Zak, much like several other main characters, shares his birthday with his creator
 * Zak's is 75% Agaian and 25% Shinrinese.
 * Zak's favorite food is chicken udon, and his hobbies include listening to music and watching anime. Yes, you read that correctly.