Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Colonel Burton

"You want the best, here i am..."

-Colonel Burton

Colonel Jack Burton is the commando of the Task Force Wolf, the sub-faction of the Federation of Aquila. This unit is planned to be voiced by.

Overview
* TBA*

History
"You want the best? Here I am."

-Col. Burton, beginning his speech at an Aquilan public high school.

Jack Burton is a Special Forces operative of Task Force Wolf. An incredibly skilled combatant, Burton had no trouble dealing with almost any foe he came across; using a machine gun, demo charges, or a hunting knife. In addition to this, he was also a skilled field commander, having planned and executed almost a dozen operations to date.

Famously known as the most highly decorated Aquilan soldier of the Global War On Terror, rose from humble beginnings: Born in the small town of Fulton, New York in 1988 as the second son of a foreman and a secretary at a local lumber company, young John enlisted with the Aquilan military after he had finished high school in an effort to serve his country and escape the provincial restrictiveness of his hometown. Guided by an iron will and steeled by several years of amateur football and hunting trips with his father, he got accepted into the Army's 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum. During the following years, he saw action against insurgents in Kalimor and Suramar, including one instance where his patrol was ambushed by a determined enemy force thrice their own number. He displayed exceptional bravery by saving four incapacitated comrades from the burning wreckage of their Humvee and leading a daring counterattack that scattered the assailants which earned him his first Bronze Star upon his return to the Federation.

During the 1930s, Burton rose in the ranks, continued to educate himself and applied for the 75th Ranger Regiment. In 1950, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and placed in command of his own battalion with outstanding accolades for his inspiring leadership and keen sense of tactics, particularly in the fields of reconnaissance and close-quarters battle. His first noteworthy engagement during the Global War on Terror saw him leading a heliborne raid against the derelict Voshkod bioweapon facilities on Rebirth Island, Kazakhstan after the area had fallen under MLA control.

By the middle of the decade, MLA-incited violence engulfed the entire Southern Continent and the Aquilans stepped up their efforts in the region. In 2025, Burton's Rangers provided the ground element in a joint US-Yemeni manhunt in Al-Hanad. Later that year, the CIA uncovered a link between the MLA and a rogue Luresian brigadier by the name of Ismail Khan who lent his underhanded support to the terrorists in an effort to win their assistance for the Uyghur separatists in his native Xinjiang. By this point, Burton had attained a unique reputation for his tendency to lead his troops right at the front. After a vicious engagement, Burton apprehended Khan and handed him over to the Elsword Ministry of State Security which subsequently terminated his employment with extreme prejudice. During the later years of the war, Burton also saw combat during operations in Lustria, Kalimor and the Caucasus, completing many dangerous missions to the fullest satisfaction of his superiors and adding to his legend as Aquilas go-to troubleshooter.

When Burton came to the Lustrian jungles, it was equivalent to returning home, as he had extensive knowledge and experience in tracking that he had learned from his uncle, a Cherokee chief. As a child, he had to follow his Hawke father's orders without any questions, or he would be flogged with his father's girdle. As a result of his harsh childhood, he was extremely disciplined at all times... Except once.

During one particularly harrowing raid on 1974 V.C. in North Lustria, Burton found himself at the edge of his discipline. He was outnumbered thirty to one, with over sixty Skink troops with IFV support attempting to hunt him down. Out of a small strike team consisting of First Recon and a Predator, only two of the First Recon members were still alive, though severely wounded. The Predator was nearly a burnt hunk of black metal, all crew members dead and only the minigun on top still usable.

An evacuation team was nearing the area, but if Burton couldn't hold out he'd be forced to escape or be captured, and the two First Recon with him wouldn't survive under either the jungle or the Lustrian forces. As the Regulars closed in, Burton in desperation went temporarily mad. As the PKs alive there would later recall, the colonel visibly strode over to the Predator, wrenched the minigun from it, and turned towards the League, and began to open fire. Waves after waves of Regulars were cut down, Burton laughing like a man possessed all the while.

It was only after his efforts allowed the rescue chopper to arrive, and they were flying back to safety, did the rescuers and Jack find out what the cost for freedom was - in handling a minigun with nothing but his own two hands, even a strong and fit man like Jack was in trouble: both his hands were broken, his wrists fractured, his arms little more than fragments and breaks.

With such severe injuries, Colonel Burton was deemed incapable of serving in combat for at least several months while both arms were fixed. He was temporarily retired and taken out of Lustria, but he still serves in another fashion - whenever off-duty, Colonel Burton goes to various universities, colleges, and schools, and talks to the students there about the courage, honor, and bravery needed to serve in the Aquilan forces. And once his arms were healed, and showed no lasting damage, he immediately jumped back into the fray.

There is a silver lining to Jack's ordeal: the effectiveness of the minigun against the League infantry and Burton's injuries while using it have led directly to the creation of the XM29 OICW, currently in use by specials force and Burton himself.

By the end of the war, Burton had earned himself a staggering list of awards, including the Purple Heart, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross, and even the Medal of Honor. He was promoted to a full-fledged Colonel in 1960 V.C. and continued to serve back home after Aquila's withdrawal from the global stage where his heroic exploits became the subject of a TV documentary production. At first, Burton was reluctant to share his stories and experiences with the media, but he eventually agreed to a series of interviews in which he tried to raise awareness of the troubles of the veterans and immortalize the memory of the many comrades he'd lost during his career. Tragically, the final cut largely omitted the depiction of Burton's more thoughtful, weary side in favor of glamorizing him as the war's most outstanding hero during a time in which the general public had grown tired of all the military bravado about honor and duty which rang hollow in an Aquila where the common sight of traumatized, disabled, and often impoverished veterans had shattered this romanticized ideal, if only momentarily. Such a weariness to war had also have him form an intergenerational friendship with the younger Pixie, better known as Tanya, who is similarly tired of fighting.

Burton's lifetime of restless fighting and ever-present death had left a mark on him as well as he found it increasingly difficult to adapt to the new uneventful desk job that never truly suited him. Up until now, he had lived the spartan life of a warrior with no family of his own and no real friends outside the service. Indeed, the closest thing to a civilian home he had was still his old room in his parent's house where he used to sleep at increasingly irregular intervals between his earlier tours of duty. The ineffectual meandering of Aquila's political leadership and the brutal austerity measures imposed upon the military during the early 2030s left the Colonel frustrated and without a goal which eventually prompted him to retire from active service altogether.

While Aquila recovered from its bitter post-war depression, Burton used a part of his sizeable unspent savings to purchase a little piece of land in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York where he built himself a cabin, far removed from all the protests and occasional riots that gripped the country until the creation of the Federation Of Aquila in 2000 V.C. He spent his time in tranquil solitude while keeping his senses sharp through hiking, hunting, climbing, and occasionally mentoring the local scout troops and living one day like the other at his own pace, seemingly at peace with the rest of the world.

That was until 2012 V.C. Shortly after Aquila's entry into the Russo-European War, Burton was approached by a group of military officials who urged him to return to active service under the rationale that the Aquilan military would require the help of every experienced soldier and officer available in the event that the unthinkable, a Voshkod attack on the Aquila homeland, like the start of the GVAW, or a total war, became a reality. After a long moment of quiet contemplation, the sixty-year-old veteran gave his answer: "I'll join under the condition that my skills and expertise aren't wasted at the rear while young, inexperienced, unproven warriors of this generation risk their lives in a fight that's way out of their league." Burton wanted to be with them, right there at the line, leading them, and perhaps finally giving his own life even if it meant saving just a single one of them.

Trivia

 * His face is based off Jason Statham. This is obvious that the players of Contra know that the cameo for Burton (mainly Townes and Ironside) in that mod is Jason Statham

Guardians of the Tacitus

 * Tanya Adams (Aquila)
 * Colonel Burton
 * Marian Hawke
 * Lee Ferguson
 * Naestra and Arahan (Alliance)
 * Emily Farron
 * Trevelyan and Wotjek
 * Muradin Bronzebeard
 * Frank Fullerton (ADI)
 * Ghost Stalker
 * Alisa "Valkyrie" Reinford
 * William G. Maryblood (Protectorate)
 * Rinoa Heartilly (Andora)
 * Frank Jaeger
 * Amiri
 * Elesis (Empire)
 * Black Lotus

Destroyers of Balthazar

 * Aranea Highwind and Chitzkoi (Voshkod)
 * Boris Bikov
 * Yunru
 * Alisaie Leveilleur
 * Shamir Nevrand (Brotherhood)
 * Kronya
 * Thrall (Horde)
 * Garona Halforcen
 * Narmaya (MLA)
 * Maiev Shadowsong
 * Almeida
 * Morathi (Collective)
 * Yuri Prime
 * Sylvanas Prime
 * Libra
 * ... (Scrin)

Neutrals

 * Apollo Diomedes (Coalition)
 * ... (Heralds)
 * ... (Order)
 * Courier Six (Survivors)
 * Dixie
 * Umagon
 * Artyom
 * Kais (Syndicate)
 * ... (Conglomerate)

DLC

 * Pyra/Mythra (Federation)
 * Mingxia (Corona)
 * ... (Party)
 * Venus (Skynet)
 * Nova (Dominion)
 * Lumine and Aether (Elemental)
 * ... (Autocracy)
 * ... (League)
 * ... (Legion)
 * Sarah Kerrigan (Swarm)
 * ... (Pirates)
 * ... (Elona)
 * Signy (Ascalia)
 * Eve (Confederation)
 * Taldeer (Kingdom)
 * ... (Goo)
 * Nika (Community)
 * ... (Security)
 * Geralt of Rivia (Imperium)
 * ... (Dynasty)
 * ... (Warlords)
 * ... (Cult)
 * Lelith Hesperax (Raiders)
 * ... (Theocracy)
 * ... (ASA)
 * ... (Insurgents)
 * ... (Bastion)
 * ... (Guardians)
 * ... (Hierarchy)
 * ... (Sundered)
 * Baine Bloodhoof (Ecumene)
 * Evangeline (Concordat)
 * ... (Contingent)
 * ... (Rangers)
 * ... (Eden)
 * Owen Grady and Echo (InGen)
 * ... (Hallows)
 * Frodo Baggins (Commnune)
 * Amihan (Encantadia)
 * Alena
 * Pirena
 * Danaya