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    Edward Buck

    Character » appears in 3 games

    Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck was the leader of a special ODST squad and one of the main characters in the Halo spin-off Halo 3: ODST. He is heavily inspired by Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, his voice actor's character on the cult classic TV show Firefly.

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    Overview

    Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck is a hardened ODST commander who leads the squad in Halo 3: ODST. He is a veteran of many battles in the war, including the massive defeat at the Battle of Reach. At one point in his life, Buck had a romantic relationship with ONI agent Dare, who reappears in his life shortly before the ODST's assault on New Mombasa at the beginning of Halo 3: ODST. Buck is affectionately known as "Gunny" by his squad.

    Buck is voiced by and modeled after actor Nathan Fillion. Fillion previously appeared as the voice of various UNSC Marines in Halo 3. One of Fillion's characters refers to himself as "Reynolds," a nod to Fillion's role as Malcolm Reynolds in the film "Serenity" and TV program "Firefly." Fillion's co-stars from those projects, Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin, also both lend their voices to Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, and their personalities and character interactions in the game are heavily influenced by the characters they played in Firefly.

    Personal History

    Edward Buck was born on the planet Draco III, which would much later become a target of invasion and destruction by the alien Covenant forces. At the age of 18, on December 5, 2528, he immediately enlisted with the United Nations Space Command "UNSC" Marine Corps, as he wanted to take the fight to the Covenant. During his numerous campaigns and battles, including time in the Harvest Campaign, he developed a romance with Veronica Dare and became a crew member of the Marathon-class ship, the UNSC Say My Name. According to his civilian identity, his occupation is listed as "student" and his last known place of residence was a city called Karnak, located in region Lombard of Draco III. Karnak came under attack by Covenant forces sometime during Buck's time in the military, and it was wiped out- nearly all civilians and personnel on-hand being killed.

    Halo: Reach

    During the Fall of Reach, Sergeant Buck was serving with the 11th ODST and was attempting to evacuate civilians in the ruins of New Alexandria during the Covenant siege of the city. Buck was piloting a Falcon during the aerial battle above the rooftops and was attempting to enter a building when he and his squad came under heavy fire. He radioed for support, and at the last second was aided by SPARTAN Noble Six. Noble Six used his own Falcon to clear out the hostiles, and helped escort Buck to a tower so he could complete a classified objective. Buck escaped the destruction of New Alexandria and eventually, the planet Reach itself- falling back to Earth and joining the 7th ODST.

    In the game's multiplayer customization options, Sergeant Buck is a possible voice for Firefight mode. After spending 15,000 credits, players can play through the wave combat mode with Sergeant Buck's various lines and quips coming from their playable character. The description for his voice reads "Truly if he were any better, he'd be a Spartan".

    Halo 3: ODST

    After he escaped Reach, Buck and his new squadmates; Dutch, Romeo, Mickey and the Rookie, served on the UNSC Say My Name and was prepared during the Battle of Earth to join a larger ODST unit and land onboard the Prophet of Regret's Slipspace Cruiser. As the squads pods descended towards the Cruiser, the ONI Officer Veronica Dare had the pods coordinates changed to land into the city of New Mombasa below. When Regret's flagship caused a slipspace rupture to leave, it triggered and EMP blast that knocked Buck and his squad's drop-pods out, sending them plummeting and separated into the city itself.

    Buck's pod smashed into a building and landed upside down in the streets. After forcing the pod open, he made radio contact with Dare, whose own pod was sealed. After he discovered the Covenant were headed towards her position, he raced off to rescue her. He fought his way through small squads of Brutes and Grunts, and regrouped with a small squad of Marines briefly, before he eventually came upon a whole squad of Elites killed by Brutes. He tried to question Dare about the oddity, but she told him it was classified. He continued fighting through heavy Covenant forces, including a pair of Hunters, and found her crashed drop-pod in Tayari Plaza. After killing off all the Covenant in the area, he found the pod was empty, and an Engineer was gripping her damaged helmet in it's tentacles. Horrified, Buck stumbled backwards as the creature loomed over him, but before anything could happen, the team sniper Romeo shot the alien through the head. The Engineer exploded, and Dare's helmet was sent through the wall of a tower across the plaza- which the Rookie would later find on his search for his lost team.

    Buck and Romeo decided to abandon Dare's original objective, and refocused on getting his squad back together and out of New Mombasa in one piece. He and the sniper made their way to the New Mombasa Police Department Headquarters, and made radio contact with Mickey and Dutch, who had reunited and were with the police. The two offered to pick up Buck and Romeo in their Pelican, but when they arrived, a Banshee caused critical damage to the vessel and it went down. Buck escorted Romeo throughout the winding towers to reach the crash site and reunited with Mickey and Dutch, bunkering down and using heavy weapons to bring down hundreds of Banshees and Phantoms, before a Brute Chieftain charged them. The Chieftain's hammer pierced Romeo's armor and nearly killed him before Buck leapt on to it's back, and used his Bowie Knife to tear apart it's throat and kill it. The crushed Sniper Rifle that Romeo dropped during the attack fell into the streets below and was also found by the Rookie as he chased his squad.

    The Gunnery Sergeant continued to lead his men through the city, eventually reaching Kikowani Station, where he and his men hijacked one of the Covenant's Phantom dropships and he personally escorted the team in a hijacked Banshee. The squad were forced to battle through building after building packed with heavy troops, as well as heavy air resistance and Engineers. After bringing down a Scarab, Buck came to a revelation, and knew what happened to Dare, ordering the vehicle to turn around. He ran through the Superintendent Data Center by himself and reunited with Dare and the Rookie, as well as an Engineer named Vergil, who was apparently incredibly important to the war. He helped escort Vergil across the streets in a Warthog, and later, a Scorpion, while Dare protected him in a civilian Olifant. He suffered a brief panic attack when he watched the Covenant fleet overhead begin to glass the city, but regained his composure with Dare's help, and pushed on to the entrance of the Uplift Reserve, where he ordered the rest of his squad to pick them up.

    He held off alongside Dare and the Rookie inside the building against wave after wave of Covenant resistance, killing many Brutes, Grunts and Drones in the process. Eventually, Mickey and the squad arrived in their hijacked Phantom, and the team managed to force Vergil inside and board, just as the Covenant began to glass the city- Sergeant Buck had escaped certain death once again.

    Physical Description

    • Home World: Draco 3
    • Date Of Birth: August 22nd, 2510 (age 42)
    • Rank: Gunnery Sergeant
    • Height: 188cm (6ft.)
    • Hair Color: Black
    • Eye Color: Brown
    • Weight: 195lbs

    Trivia

    • In ODST and Reach, playing Firefight mode or with the "IWHBYD" Skull on, Buck will quote or reference Firefly frequently, using lines like " I thought you guys were supposed to be shiny" and " Yeah, well... Here I am."
    • Buck had an action figure of himself produced in the oddly scaled McFarlane Halo toy series.
    • There is an easter egg at the end of Halo 3: ODST, during the post-credits epilogue. If you pan the camera to the left, past Sergeant Johnson's conversation with Vergil, you can spot Sergeant Edward Buck standing next to a Caveman, a previous Easter Egg from Halo 3. Buck will attempt to groom the caveman, and eat off of it like an ape.
    • It is possible to force Sergeant Buck out of his Falcon and join Noble Six in Halo: Reach. His voice in-game is randomly either Nathan Fillion or a generic ODST trooper, and his appearance is lacking his unique armor from Halo 3: ODST.
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