Characters / Terminator Dark Fate - Defiance

Currently under construction.

Beware of spoilers! Spoiler Policy forbids hiding trope names, so merely seeing certain tropes could spoil what happens to certain characters.

The Founders

Major Chris Stevens

Major Chris Stevens

Voiced by: Josh Cowdery

A former Atlanta Police Department officer who took command of scattered US military forces during the Atlanta Pullback in the prologue, and would later become a seasoned officer within the Founders.

• A Father to His Men: He's extremely protective not only of his men, but of all of what's left of mankind. If a plan or strategy runs the risk of being too costly in human lives, he shoots it down without a second thought.
• Closest Thing We Got: Assumed command of the scattered US military remnants in Atlanta, in no small part due to the fact that most of the actual army officers had been killed in combat.
• Decoy Protagonist: Introduced as the player character in the prologue, only for the focus to immediately shift to his subordinate Lieutenant Church after the Time Skip.
• Game-Breaking Bug: One of the most persistent ones in the game's early days occurred when he reached the evac zone after being freed from a Legion prison, only to trigger a mission failure because the game treated his evacuation as his death instead.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: He shows up with Founders reinforcements during the climax of the Galveston mission, which is weird because until then he had been part of T-Force with no signs of leaving, making it unclear where and when he mobilized the forces he brings with him.
• The Load: Minor case, but escorting him to safety after he's freed is unusually tedious due to his extremely low speed. Afterwards he joins T-Force as a useless unit that costs 100 supplies a day - not much, but still a drain on scarce resources.
• Never Found the Body: He's assumed dead after the fall of Haven Base. Unsurprisingly, he turns out to be alive in Legion captivity regardless of whether or not you triggered Haven's self-destruct.
• Time-Passage Beard: Gains a moustache in the ten years following the prologue.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He's presumed dead after Haven is taken over by Legion not long into the game, more so if the player triggered the self-destruct.

Lieutenant Alex Church

Lieutenant Alex Church

Voiced by: Matt Yulish

The leader of T-Force, a detachment of soldiers through which the player controls throughout the game.

• Clear Their Name: About halfway through the campaign, he learns that the loss of Haven Base was blamed on him and he was marked a traitor and deserter, sentenced in absentia to death. Part of the rest of the campaign then revolves around getting Founder Command to exonerate him so he and T-Force can get back to fighting Legion undistracted.
• Ensign Newbie: Technically a Lieutenant, but is newly-assigned by Major Stevens to lead T-Force, which includes the more seasoned Sergeants Mason and Lazlo.
• The Leader: He's T-Force's commanding officer and thus basically the player's avatar.
• The Paragon: He and T-Force's actions in fighting Legion and various human criminal factions inspire the civilians they've helped to take up arms and join the war against the machines.
• Red Baron: He picks the arena name of "Troublemaker" for himself in Nueva Tortuga, which quickly develops into a title of respect and an outright rallying cry among the Movement as word of T-Force's exploits spreads. Mason cracks more than one joke about serving alongside a "rockstar" like his lieutenant.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the calm and rational Blue to Mason's brash and aggressive Red.
• Stuff Blowing Up: His in-game unit type is Ranger, giving him access to powerful demolition charges that come in handy during the commando missions he usually takes part in.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: When he takes to the field in person, getting him killed is an instant Game Over.

Sergeant Mason

Sergeant Mason

Voiced by: Bentley Kalu

One of T-Force's platoon sergeants and Lt. Church's second-in-command.

• Bald Black Leader Guy: Check, check aaaaaand check.
• Berserk Button: He really can't stand deserters, much less being called one himself.
• The Engineer: When he personally takes part in missions, he leads a squad of these, and just like them he's trained in laying and defusing mine fields, as well as fighting at close range with powerful shotguns.
• Fire-Forged Friends: His working relationship with Church can be summed up as Teeth-Clenched Teamwork for most of the campaign, but he eventually comes to respect Church and becomes less confrontational.
• The Lancer: Balances Church's idealism in protecting civilian lives with his own pragmatic focus on following the Founders' core mission of fighting Legion.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Church's Blue.
• Sergeant Rock
• Shotguns Are Just Better: He certainly thinks so when the topic comes up in dialogue. His character artwork shows him firing a 12-gauge pumpgun, and his in-game unit type is Engineer, who are equipped with shotguns by default.
• Sour Supporter: Resents Church for getting his friend Lazlo killed at Rio Grande, and frequently straying from their core mission.
• Last-Second Term of Respect: Often emphasizes his displeasure with Church's decisions by addressing the latter with a sarcastic 'sir'.

Sergeant Lazlo

Sergeant Lazlo

Voiced by: Joe Corrigall

One of T-Force's platoon sergeants.

• Rugged Scar: Has a cut over one eye.
• Sacrificial Lion: An experienced soldier whose primary role in the narrative is to demonstrate to the player that Anyone Can Die.
• Those Two Guys: Has this dynamic with Mason during the recon mission in the Rio Grande National Park.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies in the same mission he is first introduced in.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Stays behind to cover the rest of T-Force's retreat with the civilians rescued from the Legion convoy.

Big Bob

Robert "Big Bob" Timms

Voiced by: Andrew James Spooner

• Big Fun: Definitely on the larger side (hence his callsign), and one of the few sources of levity in this dark and gritty game.
• Blood Knight: He really enjoys Stuff Blowing Up, especially if he and his tank crew are the ones responsible for the fireworks.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He certainly has a reputation among those who know him. Dialogue during the Haven mission reveals he apparently once tried to build a prototype hoverbike from salvaged Legion HK Aerial turbines, with predictable results.
• Hidden Depths: He's quite knowledgeable about Integrator technology. It's never revealed where he got this knowledge from, but it sure comes in handy at certain points of the campaign, assuming he's still alive.
• Large Ham: He definitely makes his presence known on Haven.
• Production Throwback: The character of "Big Bob" first appeared in Syrian Warfare's DLC and his continued appearance in this game is possibly a reference to "Thick Bob" from Paradise Cracked as both look visually similar. (Cats Who Play has some former GFI Russia/Mist Land South developers who worked on Paradise Cracked.)
• Tank Goodness: Like Calderon, he is one of the first units able to drive a tank that the player gets their hands on and his voice lines complain about not being in a tank if he's on-foot. He drives a Bradley IFV at Haven Base, making him all but destined to be put in the Bradley you can salvage right in the next mission.

Sergeant Calderon

Sergeant "Mother" Calderon

Voiced by: Linsay Rousseau

• Blood Knight: When Mason who's always down to fight the "Wireheads" gets freaked out by her bloodlust, she is definitely this.
• Out of Focus: Unlike the other three hero units, Calderon has no special interactions during the campaign beyond her brief stint as a command squad during the defense of Haven Base, which for all intents and purposes is still a tutorial mission.
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the only woman among the game's four hero units, and also the only named female character in the entirety of T-Force.
• Tank Goodness: She first appears driving an Abrams tank at Haven Base and is with Bob for being the player's only starting tank-certified units. Rare is the player who doesn't immediately put her in the Abrams you get in the first story mission, right after she lost her initial one.
• You Are in Command Now: Minor case, but she's apparently the only one in T-Force other than Lt. Church himself who has had command training. When the command squads at Haven Base start evacuating, you can choose to have her dismount from her tank to oversee one of the base's logistics systems instead, like the warehouse or the vehicle repair bay.

Captain Blair

Captain Blair

Voiced by: David Menkin

• Ambiguous Situation: After going AWOL at Haven, then being MIA for much of the game and being a pain in the ass the whole time, he shows up in the final mission as one of Legion's cyborg infiltrators. Whether or not he was one from the beginning or was only recently converted isn't made clear.
• Jerkass: Boy, is this guy annoying.
• Nepotism: Finding out that his uncle is a high-ranking general with the Founders' command staff probably explains how this incompetent and cowardly jackass made it to captain.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He abandons the defense of Haven Base halfway through, leaving Lieutenant Church to pick up the slack and later successfully blaming the loss of the base on Church due to his connections to one of the generals in Founder Command.

Flinch the Hacker

Flinch

Voiced by: Tony Weaver, Jr.

• Badass in Distress: You meet him while he's being held hostage by the Cartel and is about to be sold off to the Integrators.
• Cowardly Lion: He constantly complains about not being cut out for the frontlines despite leading a squad of combat engineers, a specialized close combat unit equipped with plasma shotguns and all sorts of neat gadgets for hacking Legion armor.
• The Cracker: He's so skilled at hacking Legion hardware that multiple factions are after him to obtain his services, one way or another.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Some years before the events of the game, Flinch apparently tried to hack captured Legion robots in the middle of a Founders base, but only managed to make them go berserk and shoot at anything in sight, including Sgt. Mason. Unsurprisingly, many Founders are still holding a grudge over this incident and are disinclined to trust him and his hacking skills.
• Made a Slave: By the time you meet him he's a Cartel slave about to be turned into an Integrator slave. It's up to you how that turns out for him.

Major Kelso

Major Kelso

Voiced by: Eric Meyers

The leader of a group of Founders deserters encountered during the Vega mission.

• The Cavalry: If he survives the events at Vega, he and his forces show up to lend support for the final mission at Galveston.
• Face Death with Dignity: If you choose to execute him for desertion on orders of Founders HQ, he calmly accepts the sentence and takes full responsibility so his men can survive.
• A Father to His Men: He led his surviving men away from the Founders once he realized how callously they were being sacrificed in the meat grinder of Oklahoma.
• Made a Slave: He was captured and enslaved by the Integrators at some point between his defection at Oklahoma and the events of the game, but managed to escape on his own. A major part of the Vega mission is dealing with the Integrator strike force dispatched to recapture him.
• Military Brat: Implied to hail from a long line of military officers. If he survives the Vega mission, he gives you a trained tank crew led by his son as a farewell gift, which also unlocks an achievement called Military Dynasty.
• Old Soldier: Certainly up there in years and obviously weary of fighting, but still giving it his all nonetheless.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Far more so than anyone in Founders HQ. If he's still alive when you leave Vega, it's mentioned that the city under his care becomes a new safe haven for Movement troops and civilians in the area.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Deserted from the Oklahoma assault when he found out that he and his men were nothing but bait for Legion's forces in the city.

Lieutenant Saxon

Lieutenant Saxon

Voiced by: Joshua Collins

The leader of a Founder detachment sent to hunt down Major Kelso.

• Asshole Victim: For all of his taunting and relishing at collecting on Founder Command's bounty on T-Force during the battle for Oklahoma, no tears are shed when he and his unit are unceremoniously killed off (either by T-Force defending themselves, or Legion)
• Knight Templar: Has a very black-and-white view regarding loyalty to the Founders, which drives his pursuit of Kelso's band of deserters.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: He couldn't care less about how morally right or wrong Founder HQ's orders are; he'll follow them to the letter without question or hesitation regardless.

HQ

General Blair

Voiced by: Nathan Osgood

• Blatant Lies: He claims that his ardent defense of Cpt. Blair has nothing to do with the latter being his nephew. Nobody buys it for even a second.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: His rants are routinely dismissed by the rest of Founders HQ, and Actual outright calls him a pain in the ass in a private conversation with Church.
• General Ripper: He's part of the command staff responsible for sending countless Founders to their deaths in the meat grinder of Oklahoma for no gains at all.
• Jerkass: An even worse one than his nephew. It apparently runs in the family. Unlike the good captain who disappears from the narrative after Haven, General Blair remains a 100% antagonistic force during the entire latter third of the campaign.
• Karma Houdini: He never suffers any consequences for all the shit he did during the campaign and before.
• Nepotism: He's Captain Blair's uncle, and it's all but spelled out that his nephew only rose to this rank because of their relation.

HQ Actual

HQ Actual

Voiced by: Kyle Chapple

One of the few US Army officers to survive the Atlanta Pullback, and the eventual founding leader of the Founders.

• Face–Heel Revolving Door: He starts out as an antagonist by agreeing to brand T-Force as traitors and deserters, then turns into an ally by giving them a chance to clear their name, and eventually turns into an even bigger asshole by cheerfully denying them evacuation from the massive Legion army converging on Galveston at the climax of the final mission.
• General Ripper: Although he initially comes across as a Reasonable Authority Figure, it turns out he's just as callous about needlessly sacrificing Founders troops as the rest of HQ.
• Glory Hound: He wants all the glory of the Galveston mission for himself and gets increasingly annoyed as circumstances force him to let T-Force give more and more support to his forces.
• Karma Houdini: If he got his comeuppance for his actions at Galveston, the game doesn't mention it.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Is willing to hear out Church's side of the story regarding the loss of Haven Base and the subsequent disappearance of T-Force from the Founder chain of command, and ultimately calls off the bounty on T-Force after exonerating them of desertion. Unfortunately, his reasonability pretty much ends there.
• Supporting Leader: Ensures that T-Force gets whatever manpower, supplies and weapons they need for the Fort Worth assault after the successful destruction of the Legion factory in Oklahoma.
• You Are in Command Now: Assumes command of all surviving US military forces after the President, the Chiefs of Staff and the entire chain of command were wiped out in the months following Judgement Day.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Pulls this on T-Force and all their allies at the climax of the final mission at Galveston, leaving them stranded in hostile territory with a massive Legion army converging on them from all sides.

Civilians

Kondo

Kondo

Voiced by: Akie Kotabe

A tech-savvy survivalist who T-Force encounters shortly after fleeing the destruction of Haven Base.

• Armor-Piercing Attack: His laser sniper rifle is able to just barely damage Legion armor so while he has a low chance of success alone, he can support other units attacking armored vehicles by possibly getting a lucky shot with his rifle to possibly damage a component.
• Friendly Sniper: He's friendly to T-Force and brings an laser sniper rifle if recruited.
• Glass Cannon: Packs a very high power sniper for how early he joins and his EMP grenades and hacking can turn robots into allies for even more firepower but being a 2-man sniper team, will get cut down fast if anything more than a few Homunculi attack him without support. This makes him one of the hardest hero units to keep alive, especially in his introductory mission where his location is being attacked by Legion troops the moment you gain control of him. If you don't retreat him down the mountain path behind him immediately and have a transport vehicle waiting on the other side, he's as good as dead.
• Heroic BSoD: Starts to suffer this in dialogue if his squadmates die in combat, saying how he "can't lose everyone again!"
• Hollywood Hacking: Will likely be the first unit that the player obtains that is able to hack enemies, comes with EMP grenades for disabling robots and is able to hack into Legion robots quickly if the player helps his plan.
• Production Throwback: Is one for "Sintu" from COPS 2170: The Power of Law (Cats Who Play has some former GFI Russia/Mist Land South developers who worked on Cops 2170.) as both are Asian civilians who have similar facial hair and are great marksmen who also happen to have a romantic partner called Charlie and his squad name is even Sintu-2!
• Searching for the Lost Relative: Was separated from his wife Charlie after the latter was taken prisoner by Legion.

Criminals

Balzano

Balzano

Voiced by: Salvatore Scarpa

The leader of a gang terrorizing the inhabitants of the town of Abiquiu.

• Dirty Coward:
  • Flees Abiquiu as soon as the fight between Legion and the combined Founders-Movement forces heats up.
  • Similarly abandons his temporary allegiance to the Founders in Oklahoma once the battle against Legion intensifies, going as far as demanding T-Force to fetch him a troop carrier HEMTT truck that he can flee in, in exchange for not pursuing the bounty placed on T-Force by Founder Command. He does pull an Abrams tank out of Hammerspace as a farewell gift though, so at least putting up with this asshole isn't completely useless.
• Guns For Hire: He's a mercenary leader who moonlights as a battlefield scavenger and Small-Town Tyrant while unemployed.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Oh the other hand, under certain circumstances Balzano will come to T-Force's aid in the final battle at Galveston, providing a bunch of powerful mercenary squads.
• The Mafia: Balzano is an Italian-themed name.
• Small-Town Tyrant: His gang of looters dominates Abiquiu and zealously guards a field of wrecked Legion units, from which they salvage anything useful.
• Starter Villain: Encountered in the first actual story mission, Balzano is portrayed as a powerful and resourceful enemy, but there's really not much to him. He either dies during that same mission or becomes a completely harmless "enemy" later on who then turns into an outright ally without any further player input.

The Movement

Jessica Kidd

Jessica Kidd

Voiced by: Tiffany Samples

The leader of The Movement, a ragtag band of civilians and militia fighting an independent war against the machines.

• The Cavalry: Her forces show up to lend support for the final mission at Galveston, out of gratitude for Church and T-Force's assistance throughout the campaign.
• Hero of Another Story: Leading her own forces in the war against the machines, with T-Force offering their assistance whenever they cross paths.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Depending on how you resolve the Abiquiu mission. If you support the Movement forces there in pushing Legion out of the area, she and Church become instant buddies, but woe betide anyone who takes the sneaky route. They'll have a much harder time getting on her good side, with Kidd being extremely confrontational and working with Church only because she has no other choice under the circumstances.

Lucia Flores

Lucia

Voiced by: Montse Hernandez

A Movement contact based in Nueva Tortuga.

• Amazon Brigade: The spy squad she leads during the Integrator Main Camp infiltration is exclusively female. One of them appears to be the prostitute from the Nueva Tortuga brothel whom Church's recon force interacted with during that mission.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: If her dialogue picture is anything to go by, she's outrageously good-looking for someone who's been surviving and fighting in a post-nuclear-apocalypse Robot War for ten years running.
• The Cavalry: Her forces show up to lend support for the final mission at Galveston.
• Deadpan Snarker: Half her dialogue consists of her snarking at Church and Mason, usually at their expense. Mason in particular is frequently left speechless by her sass and plain refusal to budge under his attempts at bullying her into submission.
• First-Name Basis: Her family name is only seen on her in-game unit in the missions she takes part in, but no one ever uses it.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Shortly after helping Lucia's Movement forces and Luiz's rebels overthrow the Cartel leadership in Chihuahua, T-Force is informed by Kidd that the city was wiped out by Legion. Later, when T-Force regroups with the rest of Founder Command for an offensive in Galveston, Lucia is revealed to be alive and leading a Movement contingent to join the fight.
• Ship Tease: Develops some very light romantic undertones with Church as the campaign progresses, but nothing ever comes of it. Church himself doesn't even seem to notice, and if he does, he shows no reaction to it.
• Spicy Latina: A native of (New) Mexico, Lucia doesn't take shit from anyone and definitely knows how to handle herself in hostile territory.

The Cartel

Miguel

Miguel

Voiced by: Luis Bermudez

A Cartel enforcer based in Nueva Tortuga.

• Blood Knight: Despite knowing he is losing the fight, he choose to have his fun until the end, including by doing more Kick the Dog.
• Defiant to the End: Even in the face of overwhelming defeat by T-force, unlike the Major, he don't run away and continue to mock Church until the end. His body is found among the dead in the security HQ at the mission's end..
• Everyone Has Standards: He chews out the Major for treating his men like they are expendable when the captured machines started attacking them, and even more so when he tried to run when the uprising starts.
• The Spartan Way: How he test new recruits since he only wanted the best. He sends them to fight Legion Spiders in the arena and potentially getting into a firefight with some unwanted guests in the city.

Mayor Gomez

Mayor Gomez

Voiced by: Luis Bermudez

The corrupt Cartel-aligned mayor of Nueva Tortuga.

• Dirty Coward: Has no intentions at all to fight in the defense of the city he rules. Once the Movement's slave revolution starts, he tries to get the hell outta Dodge immediately, ostensibly to "inform his superiors in person" about what's happening.
• Mayor Pain: Willfully ruling a town full of drug runners, slavers, Legion collaborators and other assorted scum automatically qualifies him for the title.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Certain approaches to the Nueva Tortuga mission prompt him to try and flee the town in his helicopter, giving you ten minutes to stop him before he escapes.
• Zero-Effort Boss: Until he make his dash to the helicopter, he is just standing in the courtyard of his mansion.

Julio Escobar

Julio Escobar

Voiced by: Julian Rebolledo

The ringmaster of arena fights in Nueva Tortuga.

• Affably Evil: Easily the most pleasant Cartel member to deal with.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Despite being the head honcho of a Blood Sport arena in a town run by The Cartel, he's by far the least depraved and obviously evil member on the whole map.
• Blood Sport: He organizes the deadly fights in Nueva Tortuga's arena.
• Large-Ham Announcer: He chews the scenery every time a fight in the arena starts.

Gabriello

Gabriello

The Cartel boss in Chihuahua

• Bad Boss: Sends his non-combat servants to fight T-Force, despite knowing that they will not last a minute in combat against them.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He is the first major villain in the game.
• Genre Savvy: He knows well that Church will try to save as many people as possible, and try to use this against him.
• Salt the Earth: In his final act of desperation, he ordered the use of the fortress guns to destroy his own settlements.
• Villain Respect: He gave some praises to Church after learning that "The Great Troublemaker Himself" leads the invaders.

The Integrators

In General

• Cyborg: Basically their hat. They're so enamored with Legion's technology that they've become more machines than humans themselves, which naturally doesn't endear them to the other human factions.
• Deal with the Devil: You can befriend them, but doing so requires lots of sacrifices and is widely disliked by the game's cast. Whether or not it's worth it is up for debate.
• Elite Mooks: Their copious use of Legion weaponry makes their forces one of, if not the most dangerous opponent on the battlefield.
• Jerkass: The vast majority of their members are unpleasant to deal with.
• MacGyvering: Their vehicles are amalgamations of Legion tech fused with human technology.
• Machine Monotone: Their voices are heavily distorted by their implants, making them sound like this.
• Transhuman Treachery: The Integrators consider humanity a failed species fit only to be replaced by machines, and although they (mostly) don't directly support Legion, they sure aren't making the Resistance's lives any easier with their antics.

Legion

In General

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Takes the place of Skynet in the Dark Fate continuity.
• I Have Many Names: The Founder's epithet for Legion's forces are "wireheads", while The Movement calls them "chromes", and the Ratz gang of scavengers dubs them "bolters".
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Legion units are generally black or dark grey, with red for glowing optics or minor accents.
• Suicide Attack: The Swarm drones are capable of this though their extreme fragility means this is rarely successful.
• The Goomba: The Homunculi are weak humanoid robots that exist to give Legion a human-like basic enemy (not unlike the T-400 from Terminator: Dawn of Fate) using only basic plasma weaponry for the most part and occasionally a trophy SMAW.
• We Have Reserves: Will constantly send in more units on some maps in campaign to harass the player even after the player has succeeded in all objectives. (Mainly Homunculi and the basic armored Legion carriers.)