Aegis

Aegis is an Ethereal formerly aligned with the Ethereal Collective, having defected to XCOM following the death of the Ravaged One.

Biography
Grown as most Ethereals were, Aegis was 'born' in a lab after a gestation period of nearly a century. His batch was part of an experimental group grown to see if it were possible to increase psionic potential without negating other positive traits. The experiment itself had only a 50% success rate, quite literally as half the batch was birthed with extremely high psionic potential but also suffered significant mental handicaps. Rather obviously, Aegis was in the successful half.

Though unconfirmed, Aegis suspects his mentally disabled batch mates were either experimented upon or otherwise converted into biological material by the Creators in charge of them.

The Ethereal Empire
Even at a young age the ideology of the Aegis Division appealed to him and, when he showed a strong affinity for defensive psionics, he spent his early decades honing his own talents into that of a defender. He worked towards that goal in a span of fifty years, extremely fast for such a young Ethereal. Afterwards he was assigned to the Skyllian sector, which was on the outskirts of the Ethereal Empire, and was initially one of the more 'outlaw' sectors of the Empire with some other alien species occasionally raiding and observing. Aegis stopped, quite literally, all illegal activity within one month of his assignment and there was no further activity until the Synthesized struck.

When war broke out Aegis participated from the very beginning, defending worlds and protecting soldiers with little-to-no support, even successfully taking down a Director Flagship on one occasion. He often worked closely with the Battlemaster of the Sigma Sector (whom would later become the Battlemaster of the Ethereal Collective) and their partnership, like all Aegis-Battlemaster pairs, were near unstoppable on the field.

At some point during the war he was approached by the Imperator who requested his help in a plan to ensure the survival of the Ethereal race. Together with the other select few whom had also been approached, Aegis entered cryostasis to wait out the conclusion of the war.

Upon awaking in modern times Aegis actually participated very little in the founding and development of the Collective itself, a contrast to the Battlemaster, whom quickly became a public figure as the Commander of the Collective Military. He was skeptical as to whether the alien races recruited were acceptable forces for the "coming war" and instead focused more on improving himself.

XCOM
The early conflict between Collective forces and XCOM drew Aegis' attention and, more out of curiosity than any real motivation, he reached out to telepathically contact the Commander of XCOM. His attempt was successful, though it took several encounters before the Commander realized Aegis was an actual being and not just a part of his dream. Their interactions involved little more than not-especially-serious attempts to convince the Commander that surrendering to the Collective was the wiser choice, which were soundly rebuffed. Not that Aegis was particularly concerned. On a whim he telepathically transferred the understanding of Ethereal Script to the Commander, citing it as "an experiment" to the incredulous human.

What was originally a fit of whimsy took a more serious turn after XCOM slew the Ravaged One. Aegis confronted the Commander on the matter, who retorted that they had passed the 'Test' the Collective had lain out for them. Incredulous, Aegis declared that XCOM had already passed their test when they slew the Hive Commander and that they shouldn't have had the capability to kill an Ethereal. This perplexed the Commander who countered that the Imperator had hinted otherwise.

Realizing there was more at play than he'd previously assumed, Aegis withdrew from the communication, stating it would be the last time he and the Commander would speak that way. However, just before cutting contact, he provided the coordinates for EXALT's Headquarters, once again flummoxing the Commander.

Defection
A relatively short time later Aegis would go to Earth himself and lured an XCOM Squad, led by Patricia Trask, to him. After a brief confrontation where the Ethereal made it absolutely clear that he had the squad was hilariously outmatched, he released them from his psionic hold and surrendered.

Upon Aegis' own request, the stupefied squad took him back to the Presidium to meet the Commander, though he would have to wait until the Commander returned from his final meeting with the UN Council. Until then he was held in the Alien Containment Unit in Dr. Vahlen's lab, though the humans' precautions did little more than irritate him.

When the Commander returned and the two men finally met in person Aegis told the XCOM Council about the war with the Synthesized and reason the Collective had been created. Then he stated that the Imperator was no longer adhering to those reasons and Aegis had left to make a point. Aegis then proceeded to offer the Commander his limited support.

By his own declaration, he viewed humanity as the best leaders the Collective could have (as humanity would be integrated eventually it was just a matter of when, not if) while the Ethereals themselves were more suited to supportive, advisory roles. To support this belief, Aegis would provide XCOM with vast quantities of Intel on the Collective and the various races and individual Ethereals that were a part of it. He would also help train the fledgling Psionic Division and offer his own insight for various projects that were undertaken.

One thing Aegis refused to do was take to the field himself. His argument was that his presence alone would restrain the Collective's attack as the Battlemaster would be reluctant to provoke him. However, if Aegis took the field then the conflict would escalate beyond XCOM's ability to face as the other Ethereals would respond in kind.

Though disliking it, the Commander accepted that reasoning for the immediate time being.

Aegis' restraint did not stop the escalation as the newly formed ADVENT mustered its army against invading forces, but merely slowed it down. The Battlemaster himself would personally take San Francisco and then level Los Vegas while Caelior claimed Japan and the First and Second Guardians would carve out swaths of Central America and Alaska.

The tipping point came during Operation: Sherman when escalation stepped up yet again first by ADVENT's mass counter attack and then the Battlemaster's retaliatory strike to Washington DC where he slew President Trudant. The Commander, no longer willing to indulge Aegis' reluctance to fight his fellow Ethereals, gave the ultimatum: Help us fight directly, or leave.

Apprehending Caelior
Reluctantly, Aegis agreed to take the field and his presence was announced to the world at all when he deployed in Busan Korea and singlehandedly drove back the Collective forces amassed there. This would send shockwaves throughout ADVENT and the Collective. After Busan, Aegis was deployed in Japan where Chinese forces had mostly succeeded in driving the Collective out. In response to this Caelior entered the battlefield with the intent of executing the elder Ethereal, only to be stopped in his tracks by Trask's newly developed lower-brain telepathy. Seeing Caelior writhing in pain under Trask's psionics, Aegis plead for the younger's life, citing that the Imperator and Battlemaster both had sent him out to die at XCOM's hands. When the Commander remained unconvinced and Trask expressed an eagerness to slay the helpless Ethereal Aegis offered alternative solutions, including the methods of a Death of Personality which would destroy Caelior's memories but leave him alive as a virtual blank slate.

His arguments eventually swayed the Commander, who had Trask incapacitate Caelior for safe transport and they returned to the Presidium where Dr. Vahlen rendered Caelior medically paralyzed from the neck down and fitted with neural explosives should he prove violent. Only then was the captive Ethereal permitted to wake.

Still striving to ensure Caelior's continued survival, Aegis revealed to him how the Empire had used the younger Ethereal as a propaganda piece and manipulated his apparent victories and then revealed how the Imperator and Battlemaster had betrayed him into XCOM's hands. The revelation shook the already rattled Caelior, who was left mentally and emotionally unbalanced at the revelation. With the fight and defiance now thoroughly doused from him, Caelior wearily asked what would become of him. Would he be executed? Experimented upon? He knew how XCOM operated.

Seeing an opportunity, Aegis asked the Commander if there was, perhaps, a place for Caelior among XCOM forces, provided they could ensure his loyalty. Though still skeptical, the Commander wasn't entirely against the idea provided Caelior was willing to cooperate. When it was affirmed, the Commander agreed to give Caelior a chance, though he would be placed in stasis (at Caelior's own request) until the Manchurian Restraints were completed.

Personality and Traits
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Notable Relationships
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Psionics
Aegis is an accomplished psion and, having spent centuries honing his psionic disciplines, is an unmatched master of defensive psionics. Capable of projecting vast quantities of specialized shields, stasis fields, and even tailored constructs at a whim, he is more than capable of clearing an entire battlefield on his own, crushing his foes under psionic shields and even cutting them to ribbons by materializing fields inside their very bodies.

He also boasts a second, lesser affinity for telepathy. However, while it is impressive compared to most human psions, his telepathic capabilities are vastly inferior next to telepathic specialists such as the Overmind, Insomnum, and the Imperator.

Education
Aside from his psionics, Aegis, like all Ethereals, has received an extensive education throughout his long life. While not scientist, he is more than capable of keeping up with (and even exceeding) the greatest scientific human minds on a vast array of topics. As Haley Yates, XCOM Psychologist, put it: "Aegis' claim that he is 'not a scientist' is, excuse my language, complete and utter bullshit".

As it stands, the minimum level of education most Ethereals received by their first century included:


 * Ten years in biology
 * Ten years in physics
 * Ten years in psychology and mental influence (His words, not mine)
 * Twenty years in various computation fields
 * Five years in biomedicine
 * Twenty years in genetics
 * Ten years in quantum theory

And that isn’t counting military service, psionic training and a dozen other electives most Ethereals did just because they could.

Appearances, Sources and References
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