Isaiah Cameron

Isaiah Cameron
Biographical information
Born:	Before 2534
Died:	May 14, 2560
Cause of death:	Run over by a Terror Wraith
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Eye color:	Brown
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UNSC Navy
Rank:	Lieutenant (c. 2557) Lieutenant, Junior Grade (c. 2558) Ensign

Isaiah Cameron, nicknamed Cam, was an Ensign of the UNSC Navy who served aboard the UNSC Infinity as a bridge communications officer. He was later a part of the boat crew during the Battle for Zeta Halo.

Biography

Early life and career

Isaiah Cameron was born to a military family. His father, grandfather, great-grandfather, two uncles had served or were serving the UNSC with distinction. Cameron and his four cousins would follow in their footsteps. Among Cameron's family members, there was an admiral, two five-star generals, and a couple of captains.

On February 21, 2557, Cameron—now a Lieutenant—was present during the commissioning ceremony for the UNSC Infinity. He would later be assigned to the ship as a comms specialist on the bridge. During his time onboard the flagship, Cameron—being an all-star track athlete in his adolescence—won the annual Bow to Stern relay on Infinity twice. At some point between 2558 to early 2559, he was demoted from Lieutenant, Junior Grade to ensign.

Battle for Zeta Halo

Main article: Battle for Zeta Halo

On December 12, 2559, Cameron was aboard the UNSC Infinity when it was ambushed by Banished forces upon arrival at Installation 07. As the Infinity fell to the Banished assault, Cameron was evacuated onboard the lifeboat Papa Tango Delta 09 piloted by TJ Murphy. During its escape from the flagship, Cameron's lifeboat flew through a destroyed Banished dreadnought, but it lost its back section to weapon fire, and spun out of control as it entered the ring's atmosphere.

Cameron's lifeboat crash-landed on the surface of the ring, and was lodged inside a crevice, leaving its occupants trapped. Although the lifeboat lost its communication capabilities, Cameron was able to salvage parts from the operation console to build a makeshift antenna, which he then pushed out of a small tear on the lifeboat’s hull to broadcasting a distress call. The crew took turns transmitting a distress call, which was answered by Spartan-IV Tomas Horvath of Fireteam Intrepid. However, after the explosion on the ring and its sudden slipspace jump, they lost contact with Horvath. The event, which fractured the ring, also buried the lifeboat deeper into the crevice, until Spartan Bonita Stone arrived and tore open the lifeboat's hull to pull out each survivor, including Cameron. Over the next six days, Cameron and other lifeboat survivors travelled across the region with Spartan Stone. They eventually rendezvoused with another group of survivors led by Spartan Nina Kovan. The combined group became the "boat crew". Led by Stone and Kovan, they travelled to the UNSC stronghold at the wreckage of the UNSC Mortal Reverie; they arrived on December 19. Cameron was assigned to the command center in the bridge as a comms specialist.

Cameron participated in the defense of the Reverie when the Banished launched an assault on the wreckage on January 31, 2560. Along with other members of the boat crew, she was stationed at the secondary barricade. On February 2, as the UNSC defenses fell to the Banished assault, Cameron and Robin Dimik fought alongside each other as the secondary barricade overran with Banished forces, before fleeing along with other UNSC survivors. Cameron and the rest of the boat crew—minus Lucas Browning, who drew Banished away from the group and was captured—hid in a cave from the Banished; they waited until Kovan returned with supplies, then set off on the morning of February 5.

Over the next month, Cameron and the rest of the boat crew travelled across the region with Kovan; with the enactment of the Rubicon Protocol, the group was resolved to deter the Banished's efforts. Led by Kovan, the boat crew carried out numerous guerilla operations against the Banished. On April 18, they reunited with Spartan Stone. The group noticed the increased air traffic towards the Reverie—now a Banished outpost named after the Chieftain who led the assault on the wreckage—and decided to investigate. Arriving at the area on 22 April, while Kovan and Stone investigated the newly-constructed outpost, Cameron and the rest of the boat crew made a supply run to scavenge from a ledge that caught some of the supplies the Banished had thrown into the chasm below the outpost. They linked up with only Kovan at the camp.

On April 27, Murphy confronted Kovan—questioning why Stone had not rejoined the group at the camp and why Kovan refused to divulge why—and it was revealed that Stone had entered the Forerunner subterranean structure underneath the outpost to investigate the Banished excavation. More importantly, Browning was alive, and the Spartans kept that a secret, knowing the rest of the boat crew would want to launch a rescue. At Murphy's decision, the boat crew followed Kovan back to Outpost Tremonius to track down Stone. They snuck into the outpost and took the Banished elevator into the Forerunner subterranean structure underneath. There, they discovered Stone's lifeless body and recovered a data chip Stone had hidden away from her killer. with the Banished taking the elevator down, the boat crew was forced to escape by venturing deeper into the facility. Hours later, while they were resting, the boat crew was approached by submonitor 091 Adjutant Veridity, who revealed Stone's data chip contained data the Banished had stolen from the ring's Conspectus network, including the ring's galactic coordinates. The boat crew realized they could transmit the data to the UNSC to summon reinforcements, but doing so required the Installation's monitor 117649 Despondent Pyre's support to decrypt the data. Under Veridity's guidance, the boat crew set out to the monitor's facility, the Conservatory, to free Pyre from Cortana's lockdown.

On May 3, while en route to the Conservatory, the boat crew linked up with Spartan Tomas Horvath, who was separated from UNSC forces since the ring fractured nearly six months ago. That evening, Cameron and the rest of the crew caught up with Horvath. They decided to use one of ring's beacon towers as a supraluminal communications array to broadcast the ring's location to UNSC space and summon reinforcements. In order to access the beacon tower, however, they still needed to release Despondent Pyre.

On May 9, the team arrived at the Conservatory's main chamber, Pyre's Cradle. Pyre, along with a number of submonitors, were sequestered by Cortana within an energy barrier. As a human and thus, a Reclaimer, Horvath was able to deactivate the barrier and awaken the monitors. Although Pyre was initially uninterested in offering any assistance, upon hearing news of the Harbinger being released, the monitor granted access to the beacon towers. She also gave the humans a data key that they must insert into the central plinth of a beacon tower in order to transmit the ring's location and data to human-occupied space. However, Pyre ordered Veridity to remain with her to counter the Harbinger, leaving Cameron and the other humans to travel to the beacon tower without Veridity’s presence.

On May 14, the team translocated to the vicinity of a beacon tower near the Conservatory. Cameron and Dimik placed explosives at a wooded ravine leading to the beacon while Horvath provided overwatch. As they detonated the explosives, the beacon tower fired its supraluminal message to UNSC space, and the two raced towards the beacon tower. However, the Banished was made aware of the UNSC presence; Jega 'Rdomnai led Banished reinforcements to the beacon tower. Before he could reach the tower, Cameron was run down and killed by a Banished Terror Wraith after he was unable to get out of the way in time. After Bender managed to kill the Wraith's pilot, Kovan hurried to Cameron—knowing he had passed—and dragged his lifeless body by the collar behind cover at the tower.

Personality and traits

Robin Dimik: "I'm a safety specialist. Glorified firefighter, really. Work in prevention and de-escalation of explosives, fire, plasma, you name it. If it explodes or burns, I know how to stop it."

Lucas Browning: "What about you, Ensign? Assuming you work in comms."

Isaiah Cameron: "Yeah. If there's a button, I know how to press it."

— Isaiah Cameron half-jokingly downplays his role as a bridge communications officer.

Born into a military family and high expectations, Isaiah Cameron displayed some signs of low-esteem, calling himself the weak link due to his injured leg. Though, Cameron was not entirely pessimistic, being hopeful of rescue when he and his fellow survivors were trapped in their lifeboat, and later comforted Dimik, saying that they survived the retreat from the Reverie.

Cameron possessed a great technical understanding of repairing or repurposing communication devices. He salvaged parts from a Bumblebee's operation console and built a makeshift antenna to broadcast a distress call.

List of appearances

• The Commissioning (First appearance)
• Halo: The Rubicon Protocol