- "It's cos' o' immigrants like you, and like you, I lost my job. The government took away my rights. Started making up all kinds of shit to scare me. Shit. I don't even recognise America these days."
- —Baker to JJ Collins and Rahul Shah
Beaver Baker is a soldier operating at the U.S. Army's SBX-1 interceptor base.
History[]
Early History[]
Prior to joining the U.S. Army, Beaver Baker appeared to hold another job before he lost it to a migrant worker, causing him to develop an enmity for foreigners. Baker then enlisted in the Army, and in addition to his combat training, he also became a specialist in signal analysis.
Baker was eventually assigned to the SBX-1 nuclear missile interceptor platform in the Pacific Ocean prior to the early 2020's, serving under Lieutenant-Colonel Clark Marshall's command. After meeting the Spanish-born JJ Collins, Baker took to irritating her with his uncouth demeanor and sexist remarks.
In his off-time, Baker enjoyed hunting big game for sport, eventually earning a trophy for buck hunting. Baker also played poker, both in person with fellow soldiers and on the internet against faraway players.
Even as he continued to serve the Army, Baker became disenfranchised with America's ideals, coming to believe that the allowance of immigrants into the country by the government had caused his earlier job loss, and that the government was making up reasons for people like him to be afraid in order to keep them in line.
Baker was soon approached by one of SBX-1's janitors, Alexander Kessel, a mercenary who was planning an operation to take down the interceptor platform in order to allow Russian terrorists to fire nuclear missiles upon America. Kessel offered Baker $10 million to assist his team in taking over the command center once the operation was underway, to which Baker readily agreed.
A few days before Kessel and his mercenaries were ready to begin, they learned that Collins had been reassigned to SBX-1 due to a stalling in her career, and would arrive on the day of the mercenaries' operation. Baker warned Kessel that Collins would be trouble and that they should kill her at first chance, but Kessel decided against this.
Interceptor[]
Baker was in the command center when they were alerted to an active shooting incident at Fort Greely, the U.S.'s primary interceptor facility, caused by associates of Kessel's. After Marshall arrived with Collins, Baker sarcastically asked if Collins had missed him; she responded that she hadn't. Marshall inquired about the status of the Russian submarine - the K-83 Danilov - that had been lurking around for the past several months, to which Baker confirmed it was still nearby.
In an effort to distract him, Baker asked Rahul Shah if he was still interested in a poker game against the janitors later; Shah protested that it wasn't the time to talk about it since they were in the middle of an emergency, though Baker brushed off the Greely incident as being a result of a "crackpot with a grudge". Turning to Collins, Baker needled her by saying he'd have invited her were it not for the talk going around following her situation, and boasted his skills to Shah by pointing out how he played against the best poker players around the world on his laptop. Irritated, Collins suggested he shut up, and before Baker could respond, Shah reported that SBX-1 was being assigned primary early warning status.
After Marshall told everyone to set their differences aside, Baker feigned ignorance of the situation by asking if he was certain that it wasn't merely a drill. When Collins picked up and relayed NSA radio chatter about a Russian ICBM base in Tavlinka having been attacked and sixteen of their Topol-M missiles taken, Baker faked shock, then again when the crew watched a video of a Russian terrorist confirming the missiles' theft and their intent to fire them on America.
Shortly after Marshall and Collins left the command center, Baker heard gunfire in the nearby corridor, signaling that the mercenaries' assault had begun. He and Shah then peered into the corridor to find Collins grappling with an assailant. Before Baker could consider making his move to assist Kessel's team, a burst of gunfire was let loose during Mikael and Collins' skirmish, clipping Baker in the side of the head and rendering him unconscious.
After Collins killed Mikael, Shah checked on Baker's condition, determining that he'd be okay, and soon Collins ordered him to put a bulletproof vest on Baker. The pair continued to check on Baker periodically as they worked to lock down any other routes the mercenaries might attempt to use to breach the command center.
Baker finally regained consciousness around the time that Kessel and his team broke down the first blast door. Without being noticed by Collins or Shah as Kessel made a final attempt to bribe them into opening the door themselves, Baker retrieved a concealed pistol he'd hidden within the hunting trophy at his station. Once they'd refuted Kessel's offer, Baker cocked his weapon, drawing their attention to him. Smirking, Baker he shot them in their vests, causing them to collapse in pain, before opening the second blast door for Kessel, bumping fists with the mercenary leader as Kira commended his work.
As he and Nikolai zip-tied Collins and Shah to chairs, Baker was called out as a traitor, though Baker claimed that America was the traitor for letting immigrants like them to enter the country and take over his job. Confessing that he no longer recognised America these days, Baker revealed that he'd decided to look out only for himself and take Kessel's $10 million for his help, to Shah's disgust. Collins snorted at Baker blaming everyone else but himself for his failures like a loser. Vexed, Baker drew in close to Collins and warned her against talking further, threatening to assault her when it was all over. After retorting that was the only was he could ever get any, Collins goaded Baker into lowering his guard by pointing out that women don't like being given demeaning and sexualised nicknames before headbutting him. Though infuriated, the amused Kessel held back Baker from retaliating against Collins.
After Kira had hacked into the EBS system, the White House's Situation Room made contact, and when General Dyson inquired to Kessel about the SBX-1 staff, Baker revealed his new allegiance as he casually ate some snacks and offered a sarcastic salute. When Dyson questioned how Baker and Kessel could betray their own country, Baker remarked that he'd pledged himself to the old America, then stood back as Kessel began broadcasting the mercenaries' intent to the people of America and ordered the first missile be fired at Los Angeles. When Shah refused to go along with Kessel's attempts to use him to speak out against America and instead insulted him, Baker offered to take care of it, and punched Shah unconscious.
Collins soon managed to get loose, however, and as she began grappling with Kessel over his gun, Baker ducked for cover as a wave of gunfire cut down Nikolai. Drawing his weapon, Baker tried to take aim at Collins, only for her to use Kessel as a shield before launching a kick that forced both men back into the corridor. After Collins let loose some shots at Ivan when he came investigating the commotion, she turned the gun back at Baker and Kessel and attempted to open fire on them, only to find that the gun was out of bullets, and so quickly sealed the blast door again to lock the assailants out. Baker and Kessel proceeded to watch through the window as Kira, the only mercenary left in the command center, fought with Collins in order to try to reopen the door for the pair, only for her to be killed and the L.A.-bound missile to be destroyed.
Baker, Kessel and Ivan stood in the corridor, with the former seething over the turn of events, reminding Kessel that he had warned him about Collins earlier and that they should have killed her sooner. Kessel tried to calm Baker and claimed that this was only a setback, though this set Baker off further as he shouted that Collins had shot their missile down. Kessel pointed out that they had 15 missiles left. Baker continued to fret over the possibility of her shooting down the rest, and about the consequences they would face for attempting nuking and showing their faces to the world. To this, Kessel reminded Baker that he had backup plans in place.
Baker watched as Kessel attempted to use Collins' own father as leverage to make her open the blast door, though this failed as Frank encouraged his daughter to continue fighting. As Kessel stormed past, Baker remarked that his father would have made him open that door if it had been him. He then witnessed Kessel activate his final ditch ploy by activating SBX-1's scuttling protocol in order to sink the platform and leave the terrorists free to fire the missiles as they pleased.
Moments later, Baker watched through the blast door's window as Shah dropped out of the lower hatch in order to re-pressurize the ballast hull to slow the sinking. After reporting that Shah had finally grown some balls, Baker stepped in when Kessel ordered Ivan to take of Shah, moving his arm in front of the other mercenary and insisting on doing the job himself before taking Kessel's sidearm and heading to the hull.
Baker soon arrived at the hatch leading into the hull, quickly dropping into the walkway and aiming his gun at Shah whilst he was in the midst of pressurising the hull. Resigning himself, Shah turned to face Baker, and attempted to reason with his former comrade, telling Baker that he wasn't a murderer. Baker seemed to hesitate and agreed, lowering his weapon. But as Shah sighed in relief, Baker declared "I'm a fucking patriot" before taking aim at and killing Shah. Taking Shah's earpiece, he then taunted the listening Collins that Shah couldn't answer the phone and that it was now just her versus the three of them.
Proceeding along the rungs situated around SBX-1's exterior, Baker began the arduous task of traversing over to the command center's lower hatch. Kessel soon radioed Baker for a progress report, as Collins had taped up the window to prevent him seeing into the room, with Baker assuring the mercenary he was almost there. But as Baker emerged into the command center, he saw no sign of Collins, reporting this to Kessel. Seeing the upper hatch open, Baker concluded that she'd fled onto the roof, then quickly moved to let Kessel and Ivan into the command center again.
Believing that they were firmly in control of the base, Kessel ordered the terrorists to fire all of the remaining 15 missiles. As Baker started to gather up some of his belongings, he paused to watch the warnings flare up about the missile launches, whooping in excitement. Kessel then ordered Baker to kill Collins, but as he began to move, Baker hesitated and went to put his bulletproof vest back on as a precaution, musing how Kessel had made everything sound so simple when recruiting him, and before he headed out, Baker asked Ivan to hand over his knife.
After scaling up the hatch to the roof, Baker quickly began searching for Collins, but found no sign of her anywhere. Baker radioed Kessel to report that she wasn't on the roof, prompting Kessel and Ivan to sweep the command center while Baker continued to scope out the roof.
Baker eventually began heading back toward the hatch, and spied Collins using his own laptop to serve as a jury-rigged launch console for the interceptors. Quietly sneaking up behind her, Baker held his gun to Collins' head, warning that he couldn't let her do that before shoving her against the wall. Collins tried to reason with Baker and warn that he would die there, though he remained certain that he would escape with Kessel on the Russian submarine the mercenary had hired. Collins claimed that Kessel had already fled, and in irritation Baker pressed the muzzle of his gun against her wound, but Collins insisted that she had seen Kessel leave. Dropping his guard, Baker reflexively looked in the direction Collins' indicated.
Collins quickly disarmed Baker and dodged his initial slash with his knife, and the two rivals then engaged each other in hand-to-hand combat, with Baker trying to strike at her as she used her own belt to parry him. Though he soon managed to get Collins in his grasp and start strangling, she managed to grab a nearby bar and use it to get some distance from Baker, kicking him in the groin and wrapping razor wire from the bar around his neck. Even as the razor cut into him, Baker managed to force Collins over towards the hatch, boasting that some razor wire wouldn't kill him. In response, Collins replied "Gravity, darling," before moving to throw Baker down through the upper and lower hatches around the command center.
Before he fell, Baker managed to grab onto Collins' vest, dragging her down with him. But as he plummeted down, the wire around Baker's neck went taut, the razors cutting through his neck completely and decapitating him, with Baker's separated head and torso plunging into the sea below SBX-1.
Personality[]
The very epitome of the term 'redneck', Baker is a very intolerant, egotistic and self-entitled person. Claiming that it was because of foreign-born workers that he lost his original job, Baker has no empathy for immigrants or migrant-born U.S. residents, even if they are in fact legally considered citizens. He is also extremely sexist, taking any and all opportunity to demean Collins, showing her zero respect despite being his superior, but did admit something of an attraction to her, implying a desire to rape her.
Despite these character defects, Baker considered himself a patriotic American tired of the growing leniencies allowed by its government and people, and yet had no problem siding with Kessel's mercenaries to devastate the U.S., the fact that millions of innocents would die as a result not moving him in the least. Notably, however, his primary motivation for joining Kessel was greed, as he eagerly accepted the mercenary's monetary offer, which he saw as his right for the self-proclaimed disrespect he'd suffered.
He is a considerably talented liar, as Baker was able to conceal the full extent of his disdains for years so that he was seen by his superiors as being little more than a common workplace jerk. He also cleverly hid the fact that he was traitor to the rest of the operatives at SBX-1, such as when he casually played off the seriousness of the facility's entry into primary early warning status, and when they received word of the Russian terrorists revealing their intent to attack the States, Baker feigned utter shock.
Skills[]
- Expert Combatant: As a trained soldier in the United States military, Baker has been trained in several forms of hand-to-hand combat. He was able to match Collins during their fight, initially using his size, strength and possession of a knife to his advantage, before being outsmarted by the more savvy Collins, who wrapped a razor wire from his neck and forced Baker to fall so that he was decapitated.
- Expert Marksman: Being a trained soldier, Baker is an accurate marksman and capable of using a variety of different firearms, including pistols. He expertly shot Collins and Shah in the middle of their bulletproof vests in order to merely stun them before he allowed Kessel into the command center. He was later able to rapidly take aim at Shah in the ballast hull and cleanly execute him.
- Expert Analyst: Baker has trained to manage and operate military communications systems, being able to provide and manage technical support. During his posting to SBX-1, Baker would analyse data related to the facility's directives, such as detecting hostile missiles and tracking foreign vessels near the facility.
- Expert Hunter: Baker is an accomplished big game hunter, having earned at least one trophy for killing a buck deer.
Equipment[]
- Pistols: Baker first used a concealed handgun hidden inside one of his hunting trophies and smuggled into SBX-1's command center in advance, Baker used this upon regaining consciousness to shoot both Collins and Shah in their bulletproof vests in order to disable them and allow the mercenaries access. After he lost this weapon while being forced out of the command center by Collins, he took Ivan's handgun when he went to confront Shah in the ballast hull, using it to execute his former comrade. Baker later used it to hold Collins at gunpoint, only to be disarmed when she made him lower his guard.
- Knife: A combat blade which Baker took from Ivan before he set out to find Collins, later using it in his fight against her.
- Laptop: A personal computer owned by Baker, which he claimed had as much processing power as SBX-'s entire command center. During his spare time, he would use it to connect to the internet and play poker against various people from around the world.
- Bulletproof Vest: A combat vest worn by users to protect the vital spots in their torso from enemy bullets. After he was rendered unconscious, Shah put one on Baker, though after he awoke and revealed his allegiance to the mercenaries, he removed it in order to take of his uniform jacket. Baker later put it on again before he went to confront Collins on the roof as a precaution.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- It is implied - but not confirmed - that Baker was the one to place the bounty hunt photo of Collins in her new quarters in order to needle her.