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Elizabeth 'Libby' Louise Gant, also known by her call-sign Fox, is a U.S Marine, and Shane Schofield's initial love interest.

History[]

Early History[]

Around a year after graduating from high school, the 19-year-old Elizabeth Gant fell in love with a new, young English teacher, dating then quickly marrying him. By the time she had turned 20, she became pregnant with his child. However, a few months into the pregnancy, Gant returned home early and walked in on her husband cheating on her with a cheerleader he'd been tutoring. A few weeks later, the stress caused her to have a miscarriage, and she promptly got a divorce.

Filled with a newfound hatred for men after this, and believing herself unable to trust any man again following her ex-husband's infidelity, Gant decided to use apply her anger by becoming a soldier, enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. Within a few years of her enlistment, Gant reached the rank of Lance-Corporal, and was given the call-sign Fox.

Gant was soon assigned to Marine Reconnaissance Unit 16, and during a barbecue held at Pearl Harbor, Gant met other members of the unit, among them, her new commanding officer, Lieutenant Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield. During the lunch, Gant was watching him with curiosity when she noticed that Schofield wasn't talking much, and from the far-off gaze she interpreted him to be having behind his wrap-around sunglasses, realised that he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. Gant came to the assumption that he was interested in someone else, a woman that he couldn't have. When he caught her looking at him, Schofield struck up a conversation with Gant, and as the pair spoke about mundane things such as their favourite holiday spots, Gant was surprised to find herself becoming attracted to Schofield and wishing that it was her that he had been thinking about so deeply (unaware that this was in fact the truth).

Despite her feelings, Gant opted not to try and take things any further with Schofield, knowing that if her superiors found out about her attraction to her commanding officer, they would reassign her, and decided that she would rather be close by and unable to touch him than to be further away and still not touch him. Even as she managed to establish a good working relationship with Schofield, a few of the other Marines in the unit cottoned on to Gant's affection for Schofield, with some even giving her the nickname "Dorothy", in reference to how the character from The Wizard of Oz liked the Scarecrow the most.

Ice Station[]

Gant is with the first team to arrive at the station, and is mocked by Hollywood over her somewhat obvious affection for Schofield after making her own fun of Hollywood. She is briefly knocked out at the beginning of the scuffle with the French by one of their crossbows, but recovers and kills Cuvier toward the battle's end with his own arrow.

While preparing diving equipment to reach the ice cavern with the spacecraft, Gant admitted her feelings for Schofield to Book, but said she didn't want to admit the feelings to Schofield himself, preferring to be close and unable to touch him than be further away and still not touch him, earning Book's respect.

Along with Montana, Santa Cruz and Sarah Hensleigh, Gant is part of the team that ventures down to the cavern. While they are down there and the others are working on opening the craft, Gant discovers that there was once another ice station, which was building an unauthorised stealth fighter during the 1960s. After witnessing Montana kill Santa Cruz, as he is part of the Intelligence Convergence Group, she is wounded by him, but is inadvertently saved by a mutated elephant seal.

When Schofield and his group arrived, Gant killed Hensleigh, revealed to also be a member of the ICG when the paleontologist held the group at gunpoint. After being taken to the USS Wasp aircraft carrier by Schofield, Gant is transferred to a military hospital in Pearl Harbor, where she awakens to discover Schofield hasn't left her side.

Between Ice Station and Area 7[]

Following the fallout from the Wilkes crisis, Gant followed Schofield and Mother in being reassigned to the President's Marine One helicopter unit, HMX-1, to keep them out of the press's eye.

During the next year, Gant and Mother became good friends, to the point where they developed a code-word "Paris" that they could use to subtly signal for help from the other if they were being hit on by an unwanted admirer, though Mother never had to use it.

Somewhere during this time, Gant was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant. Hoping to continue advancing her career, Gant began studying part-time to apply for Officer Candidate School.

Around late June, Gant and Schofield went out on a date in Washington, D.C., with the two having dinner and then strolling along the Potomac together. Though the date went well, they parted awkwardly at the end when Schofield dropped her off at her home, as, despite Gant's hope that he would, Schofield didn't kiss her before he left.

Area 7[]

A week after her date with Schofield, and indeed on the day of her 28th birthday, Gant and the rest of the Presidential detail was making its way to Area 7, with Gant stationed onboard Nighthawk Two on the journey from Area 8. During the flight, Gant continued her studies for the Officer Candidate School, but was interrupted the advances of the Domestic Policy Advisor Nicholas Tate III, who presented her with an expensive necklace for her birthday and suggested that they go on a date. Unable to deter Tate by pointing out that she was already seeing someone, Gant open used the word "Paris" to get Mother's attention for help. Mother quickly came to her aid, throwing Tate off and claiming that the pilot needed to see Gant; taking the opportunity, Gant politely-but-firmly turned down Tate and gave the necklace back to him, reiterating that she was seeing someone else.

During the battle against the forces at Area 7, Gant and her team are separated from Schofield when they try to escape on the X-rail. While awaiting their return, Gant comes up with a plan to mimic the signal transmitting from the President by modifying an AWACS plane's black box.

After surviving the battle arranged by prisoners freed during the chaos, Gant sets out to find the control for the transmitter on the President's heart, but is captured by Lucifer Leary, the only remaining prisoner. After waking up, she manages to contact Schofield, who comes to rescue her and kill Lucifer, also kissing her. Learning Caesar also has a heart transmitter, Gant manages to stop it transmitting and replace the signal from her black box, allowing Schofield to kill Caesar. Later, after being awarded medals for saving the President's life, Gant and Schofield go out on another date.

Between Area 7 and Scarecrow[]

Schofield and Gant officially declared their relationship to the Corps, and due to policies regarding relationships between members of the same unit, Gant was reassigned to another unit. 

After Schofield's father John committed suicide and left twelve million dollars to his son, he refused to acknowledge the money, and so Gant suggested that Schofield donate all of it to a Washington hospital.

Upon graduating second in her class from the Officer Candidate School, Gant was promoted to First Lieutenant, and then - thanks in part to the recommendations from both the President and Mother - the Corps assigned her command of Marine Reconnaissance Unit 9, with Mother serving as her Team Chief.

During their off-duty time, Schofield, Gant, Mother and her husband Ralph began planning a holiday to Italy, the quartet intending to rent a Tuscan villa for two weeks and then visit the Aerostadia Italia airshow in Milan featuring two X-15 planes.

16 months after the Area 7 incident, Gant was assigned to lead her team of Marines on an Allied mission to destroy an Al-Qaeda base at the Karpalov coalmine, where Osama bin Laden's second-in-command - Hassan Zawahiri - was hiding out. While Schofield was intended to lead his team alongside Gant's on the mission, he was reassigned at the last moment.

Scarecrow[]

After being debriefed on the plan at MSC California 2 outside the mine's entrance, Colonel Clarence Walker sent Gant and her team in to try to aid the Allies' efforts to capture one of the coalmine's air vents and rig a targeting laser so that a bomber could drop its payload and destroy the terrorist base, with Gant and her team being wary of the methane levels as they made their way through.

As they began moving on foot, Mother brazenly suggested to Gant that Schofield would likely propose to her on their trip; though exasperated, Gant quickly realised that Schofield had indeed already told Mother he was going to propose, lightly labelling him a chicken by using Mother to determine if she might accept. As they approached the barricade of the Allied forces, Gant told Mother that they would continue the conversation later before moving to get an update on the situation from Major William "Sphinx" Ashcroft, who explained how the terrorists had dug themselves in and weren't giving them any ground to get to one of the air vents.

Gant was then surprised when apparent reinforcements showed up, but as she watched Sphinx approach them, Gant was aghast as she saw the new force abruptly behead Sphinx and open fire on the Allies. She and Mother were forced to vault over their barricade to avoid the slaughter, and were further surprised to see that the Al-Qaeda men were also under attack from another unknown force. After they set up a beacon for a bomb to strike the mine, Gant and Mother witnessed the fourth force behead Zawahiri before a rushing throng of the terrorists separated them. Before she could start looking for her, Gant found herself surround by the new force, whose leader, Damon "Demon" Larkham, surprised Gant by revealing that he knew a lot about her history. After bringing up her relationship with Schofield, the Demon introduced his IG-88 troops and revealed their intent to use her to get to Schofield, abruptly knocking her out and capturing her.

Intending to use her to draw Schofield into a trap and simultaneously collect their reward from other persons killed at the mine, an IG-88 sub-team brought Gant aboard a Hercules heading for France. When Gant eventually regained consciousness, she discovered her situation and saw that the bounty hunters and a pair of MI6 agents were interrogating the also-captive General Ronson Weitzman for information.

After the rescue, Gant accompanied Schofield and Knight to a castle, the Forteresse de Valois, in France to find out what the bounty hunt is for. However after meeting the castle's owner, Jonathon Killian, one of the organisers of the bounty hunt, they are identified and forced to flee. In the ensuing chase, Gant is shot by a fighter jet and captured along with Knight. Gant is viciously beheaded via a guillotine in castle by Cal Noonan on Killian's orders. Before she dies she pleads for Knight to tell Schofield she would have said yes to his planned proposal.

Upon learning of her execution, a distraught Schofield attempted to commit suicide, but Mother convinced him not to, prompting him to seek vengeance. Gant was avenged when Schofield beheaded Noonan in the same way he killed her.

After Death[]

The Corps sent Schofield to a series of psychiatrists to help him cope with Gant's death, however this did not help. Eventually he located a psychologist on his own, Dr Brooke Ulacco, who began treating Schofield. She taught him how to compartmentalise his memories of Gant using a technique called the method of locci, in which he kept his memories of her inside the idea of a submarine. Ulacco also told him that he could use this to also eject his memories completely if he wanted, however Schofield decided against it, believing that his memories of Gant were a part of who he was.

When Schofield was captured by the Army of Thieves, Marius Calderon attempted to torture him psychologically by bringing up the gruesomeness of Gant's death and his inability to save her. However Schofield was able to use Ulacco's teachings to seal away his memories of Gant during this time, and Calderon was none-the-wiser about his failure to break Schofield. (Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves)

Personality[]

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Skills[]

  • Expert Combatant: As a trained U.S. Marine, Gant has been trained in several forms of hand-to-hand combat.
  • Expert Marksman: Being a trained soldier, Gant is an accurate marksman and capable of using a variety of different firearms.
  • Expert Tactician: After qualifying in the necessary training programs, Gant proved herself as a skilled strategist, allowing her to lead reconnaissance teams. Though she did not have much time to demonstrate her skills, Gant was presumably able to formulate battle strategies to fit the changing needs of the situation.

Equipment[]

Weapons[]

  • MP-5:
  • MP-7:

Vehicles[]

Other Equipment[]

Relationships[]

Unknown Ex-Husband[]

.

Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield[]

When Gant joined the USMC and met Shane Schofield at Pearl Harbor, she immediately became attracted to him. Schofield seemed to feel the same, and despite becoming good friends, neither admitted to their feelings. It wasn't until her injuries sustained during Ice Station that they became closer, with Schofield never leaving her side until she woke up from her coma.

Shortly before Area 7, they go on a date, which goes well until an awkward ending with Schofield not kissing her. When she hears Schofield's side of the story, Mother helps him realise that Gant's feelings for him were genuine and that she did not care about the scars on his eyes. Thus, when he next sees her, Schofield kisses Gant, and they later go on another date. By Scarecrow, they have disclosed their relationship to their superiors, resulting in them being placed in different units as is protocol. Schofield intended to propose to Gant in Italy, however she was killed, almost driving Schofield to suicide.

Between Scarecrow and Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, Schofield has being haunted by Gant's death, and sees a psychologist who helps him to get past her death.

Trivia[]

  • Gant is the first major recurring character to die, if you do not count Schofield's momentary "death" in Ice Station.
  • In Ice Station she holds the rank of Lance-Corporal, in Area 7 it is Staff Sergeant, and in Scarecrow she is a First Lieutenant.
  • Her birthday is revealed in Area 7 to be July 3rd.
  • Although little about her past life or family situation is known beyond her short-lived marriage and pregnancy (and subsequent divorce and miscarriage), Gant has a sister named Denise, who visits her in the hospital and the end of Ice Station
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