Adam Andrews: Difference between revisions

|spouses=[[Dan]] {{C|husband}}{{Ref/Twitter|Id=TwitterHarupisDanAdam|haruspis|1754598081419436147|Alex Wakeford|Y=2024|M=2|D=6|Quote=Dan is his husband, aye.}}

As a child, Andrews and his family would often travel to Arcadia on holidays. On [[2531#February|February 9, 2531]],{{Ref/Game|Halo Wars|Halo Wars Timeline Events|Timeline Events|Detail=9 February 2531}} the family were present in [[Arcadia City]] during the midst of an attack by the Covenant. As a child, Adam had a habit of wandering off alone throughout the city to visit the various museums, chase [[drymander]]s, and watch {{Class|Banta|transport}}s in the city spaceport - something which meant he was separated from his parents when the Covenant attacked the city. During the battle, Adam hid inside the Arcadia City train station with the hopes of trying to find a train to transport him away from the fighting - though was ultimately found by [[Sergeant]] [[John Forge]] of the [[UNSC Marine Corps]] and transported to evacuation. When initially found, Adam was trapped in the train station due to the failure of the doors, and as a child was not strong enough to manually open them. Forge characteristically made his presence known to Adam by offering to perform a magic trick - before prying the doors open and putting Adam in the passenger seat of his [[M12G1 Gauss Warthog|Gauss Warthog]]. Adam asked Forge if he had any other magic tricks, to which Forge replied that the next would be stalling the Covenant and getting everyone offworld. During the drive to the evacuation transport, Adam noticed the ace of spades card nestled in Forge's shoulder pauldron. Due to Forge never having introduced himself formally, he would stick in Adam's memory as "the magician" long after the battle was concluded.{{Ref/Reuse|Hippocratica}}

During the evacuation, Adam's parents had boarded transport ''[[Cargo 3]]'' - a vessel which ultimately attempted to evacuate too early in the battle, and was subsequently shot down by Covenant {{Pattern|Oghal|Banshee}}s. Adam was spared this fate and had been taken to a different ship. Once the fighting was over, Adam found himself an orphan, and was instead adopted by his aunt and uncle. His newfound parents had difficulties with raising Adam as they had never intended to have children of their own, though Adam noted later in life that despite that, they did care for him well. During the time immediately after the battle, Adam was treated well, though eventually the special treatment stopped as the trauma of losing his parents faded into memory. In this time, Adam would wonder what it had been like for his parents in their final moments, and would sometimes get angry that they had never attempted to look for him. However, as he grew up and learned more about the battle, his position on the matter shifted as he realised there was no realistic way that anyone could have fought through the crowds to get to an evacuation shuttle. Instead, he felt an inescapable guilt that although his wandering had allowed him to survive, it meant his parents' final moments were filled with worry for their missing son.{{Ref/Reuse|Hippocratica}}

 

The other outcome of Adam's survival was that he had inherited the [[Optican]] corporate empire, originally founded by his parents. This pushed him into an academic career, in which he went to university while at the same time learning how to manage a company. Around [[2541]] he had an interest in an undefined sport, though not for a particular team - his interest was fuelled by the engineering work done by the people behind the scenes to advance the health and safety of the sport, and realised that an Optican sponsorship deal would be appropriate. By the age of 22, he still faced pushback from the Optican board of directors - who were reluctant to have to work for someone so much younger than them - though his majority stake in the company meant that they could put up little actual resistance. The loneliness that he experienced as a result of having to balance university studies with managing an interstellar corporation eventually saw him establish a romantic relationship with his then-roommate [[Dan]],{{Ref/Reuse|Hippocratica}} who he would later go on to marry.{{Ref/Reuse|TwitterHarupisDanAdam}}

 

After the end of the [[Human-Covenant War]] in [[2552]], Adam continued to use Optican as a tool to help in the rebuilding of humanity. With a new [[Unified Earth Government]] initiative pioneered by [[President of the Unified Earth Government|President]] [[Ruth Charet]] to rebuilt the UEG's infrastructure and a health plan for the survivors of the war, Optican (and Adam) was front-and-centre. This saw him dealing with subjects as varied as [[artificial limb]]s, advanced wheelchairs, instant-application [[medigel]], physical therapy, mental health, and the study and treatment of diseases from dozens of worlds - all of which had been spread thanks to the immense movement of refugee populations in the war. Unusually however, one of the very first partnerships Adam invested in following the war's conclusion was a partnership with [[Misriah Armory]] - a military-industrial corporation usually known for building weapons for the [[United Nations Space Command]]. The Optican-Misriah partnership had resulted in the creation of the [[EV-44 Nightingale]] - a tiltrotor aircraft and brainchild of Adam Andrews, originally intended as a purely medical support aircraft though eventually turned into a highly-customisable airframe that could support "the best of both worlds".{{Ref/Reuse|Hippocratica}}