Zhao Heng Lopez

Sergeant Zhao Heng Lopez was a UNSC Marine stationed aboard the UNSC Red Horse in 2552, and a long-time veteran of the Human-Covenant War.

Biography

Lopez led a small squad aboard the human prisoner ship, Mona Lisa, where she was ambushed by an unknown hostile. After the ambush, Lopez and her men split into two teams. While scouting the medical bay, Lopez found an ONI Major named John Smith locked inside a safe room. As they interrogated Smith about the experiments with the prisoners and the Flood, Smith broke free and killed two members of Lopez's team with a concealed knife, leaving her with MacCraw, a fellow Marine. After the incident, Lopez and MacCraw headed to the bridge of the Mona Lisa in order to enact the Cole Protocol. There they learned that not only had Smith stolen their only Pelican, but a Shiva-class nuclear missile was being prepared for launch against the Mona Lisa. Captain Tobias Foucault of the Red Horse then told Lopez that two escape pods were left on the lower deck, omitting the fact that the pods were designed for single occupants. As Lopez and MacCraw defended the pods, Corpsman Ngoc Benti arrived with Clarence, a prisoner named Patrick Rimmer, and his Sangheili companion, "Henry". Clarence, under strict orders from ONI to not let anything but the Marines leave the ship, executed Rimmer. Angered, Henry began to strike at Clarence with his cricket bat until Benti, who had already been heavily wounded on the way and showing signs of infection, sacrificed her life by pushing both herself and Clarence into the oncoming Flood horde. MacCraw then escaped in one of the escape pods, leaving both Henry and Lopez to fend for themselves. As the timer for the Shiva launch reached thirty seconds, Lopez and Henry fled into the airlock only to find that the pod couldn't fit them both. Lopez was last seen fighting with Henry for the escape pod with only ten seconds to spare. Lopez was probably defeated in the fight for the pod as she was already wounded and had no ammunition left in her assault rifle. Even if she won the fight, she would have likely been killed by the blast of the Shiva nuke.

Trivia

• Lopez was apparently Roman Catholic, as she commonly referred to her subordinates as her "rosary beads". She also constantly remembered the smell of the pews at her mother's church.
• Her name suggests that she was of Chinese and Hispanic ancestry.
• Lopez may also be a personification of the segment of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" that states "Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death." This is best exemplified as to how Lopez refers to her soldiers as her "kids," and they stand with her through the horrors of the Flood.

List of appearances

• Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
  • The Mona Lisa (First appearance)