Staff Sergeant Lennard Parry, called "Len" by his friends, was the commander of the remaining Coalition of Ordered Governments engineering corps and a member of the 3rd Ephyran Engineers. He was in charge of the Evacuation of North Gate, and commanded the sappers and engineers in keeping Jacinto City running during the Locust War. After the COG moved to Port Farrall and then Vectes, Parry and his men worked on building housing for civilians and keeping military structures running for the army. However, in the face of Lambent attacks, Parry was forced to direct the evacuation of Vectes and the dispersal of the COG's civilians to several locations on the mainland.
Biography
Locust War
Cleaning up Halvo Bay
- "Okay, buddy, I understand. Nobody's going to draft you as an engineer all the time you're willing to do this."
- —Parry to Dizzy, after Dizzy refused an offer to join the Engineering Corps
Three months after Emergence Day, Parry was a corporal serving in the Coalition of Ordered Governments Engineering Corps. He was placed in charge of running cleanup crews in cities that had been hit by Locust attacks, and directed civilian volunteers in the cleanup efforts. He became friends with one of those civilians, a man named Dizzy Wallin who had lost his family on E-Day. The cleanup crews were assigned to Halvo Bay a week after it was attacked by the Locust. They were ordered to recover the bodies left in the city to prevent disease from spreading, and Parry reminded the workers to wear gloves and a mask, and to take fifteen minute breaks every two hours. After working for several hours, Parry joined Dizzy during one of his breaks, and asked him why he was a volunteer, since they didn't get many from the refugees. Dizzy said he used to be in the merchant navy, and that he hadn't been with his family when they had died, and only learned about it afterwards. He felt that he hadn't done enough to find them, and thought that if he could give somebody else closure like it had been given to him, he might feel better. Parry told him he could join the army and become an engineer again or drive vehicles, but Dizzy told him that he felt like he needed to do this. Parry said that he understood, and that nobody was going to draft him as long as he was willing to volunteer for jobs like the one they were doing. They returned to work, but a few minutes later, Dizzy alerted everyone to the fact that he had found someone alive under the rubble, and Parry rushed to join the rescue efforts. They freed the civilian, a woman named Rosalyn, and Parry began checking her out for wounds since they hadn't brought paramedics with them, while Dizzy tried to comfort her.[1]
Investigating the Sewer
Ten years later, Parry had been promoted to Staff Sergeant and was in charge of trying to keep basic services in Ephyra running as the Locust destroyed more and more pipelines and aqueducts. He was selected to accompany Col. Victor Hoffman, Sgt. Marcus Fenix, Sgt. Drew Rossi, and Tyran National Utilities manager Slader into a southern outfall sewer in Ephyra to look for signs of the Locust using it. As the Gears scouted the sewer, Parry and Slader examined sections of the sewer and discussed ways to detect or stop the Locust when they were in there. They guessed that they would need monitoring equipment to be set up, along with regular foot patrols of Gears to sweep the sewer. Once Hoffman, Marcus, and Rossi were finished scouting the sewer, Parry and Slader went back with them to a ladder out of the sewer that led to Almar Street, where Cpl. Aigle was waiting to hose them down with disinfectant.[2]
Halting the Locust Advance
- "Very decent of you, Drew. I'd love to spend an hour not up to my knees in other people's crap for a change."
- —Parry to Rossi, after he offered to set the explosives for the sappers
Three years later, Parry was working in the Jacinto City section of the East Barricade, directing sappers in attempting to slow the Locust advance through the sewers. Parry and his men figured out the Locust were using the western outfall sewer to dig through the other sewer lines, and that the line was filled with gas from ruptured methane pipes. He contacted Hoffman and received permission to use explosives to destroy the sewer and halt the Locust reinforcements from reaching the city for a few weeks, and that the utility company was willing to shut off the line. He met with Rossi and his squad along an embankment, informed them of the situation, and recommended that they avoid starting a firefight with the Locust. Rossi offered to have Pvt. Dominic Santiago set the explosives, and Parry thanked him for not having to go wading around in crap for an hour. Pvt. Jace Stratton noted that this really was blowing shit up, and Parry complimented him on his witty comment. He then handed out flashlights to all of them along with a map of the sewer, and warned them that they needed to hurry once they were down there, and to run like hell once they were finished. Several minutes later, Parry and his people had cleared the area, and Bravo detonated the explosives and managed to clear the blast area. Rossi contacted Parry and informed him that Dom's explosives had collapsed the sewer and made a big hole in Jacinto. Parry told him to tell Dom that he was an honorary sapper now, and that he hoped that this would halt the Locust advance for a bit.[3]
Evacuation of North Gate
- "We haven't cleared everything. Just the priority list and every single spare part we could pry loose. No telling if we'll ever be able to come back and retrieve anything later."
- —Parry to Hoffman, after he and his sappers had finished preparing the convoy
A year later, Parry had been placed in charge of the entire COG Engineering Corps, who were responsible for keeping the Jacinto City running combating acts of sabotage carried out by the Locust. One week after the Lightmass Offensive, Parry was in charge of the sappers who worked on putting dismantling the North Gate Agricultural Depot when it became threatened by approaching Locust forces. When Col. Victor Hoffman and Delta-One arrived with the convoy of vehicles the equipment from the depot were to be loaded on, he told them where to park their APCs in the convoy line. Parry then ordered his sappers to begin loading the vehicles as fast as they could.[4] After the Gears returned from killing a group of Locust, Parry informed Hoffman that the convoy would be ready to go in half an hour, and that they had gotten everything on the priority list and every spare part they could. Hoffman congratulated him and his people on their fast work, and the convoy rolled out from the depot.[5]
Port Farrall
- "The first thing you do is split into two shifts- because this is going to go on for a lot longer than you think, and by the time you're too tired to think straight, you won't have anyone ready to take over."
- —Parry, directing civilian volunteers in Port Farrall
Six months later, Parry was assigned to prepare Port Farrall for habitation, after Jacinto had been sunk in order to flood the Hollow in an attempt to drown all of the Locust. He directed civilian volunteers in his efforts to prepare the city, splitting them into two shifts and telling them that the work would take a lot longer than they thought, and they would likely be working until they could no longer think straight.[6] He and his crew also recovered a large number of machinery and raw materials on the south side of the city after Chairman Richard Prescott revealed the existence of a hidden COG facility.[7] A week after arriving in Port Farrall, Parry's teams had gotten several smaller buildings habitable. He talked with Pvt. Augustus Cole, and agreed to try and arrange for a private room for Cpl. Dominic Santiago, but Dom refused the offer.[8]
Lambent Pandemic
Battle of New Jacinto
- "We've got water and generators, we've got food, the field latrines are intact, and the weather's good. All in all, it beats having grubs smashing through the sewers and water mains all the time."
- —Parry to Hoffman, while working to repair New Jacinto
Several months later, the COG had moved to the island of Vectes and established the city of New Jacinto in the old Vectes Naval Base, with Parry directing his engineers in building housing for the civilians. However, the island came under threat from Lambent attack, and Parry was put in charge of building the fortifications and traps to defend the island. He coordinated with emergency response manager Royston Sharle to do so, going over maps of the island with him.[9] After the Battle of New Jacinto, Parry coordinated the cleanup from the battle. He and his team inspected every building to be sure they were still safe for inhabitation, and began working on fixing the buildings damaged during the battle. He wore a helmet during the inspections, which he normally didn't do. While inspecting the Admiralty House, Parry informed Hoffman that the building was mostly stable, but that he couldn't guarantee everywhere in it would hold. He also told him that he had had to shut off power to the building and that the CIC had been transferred to the Emergency Management Command Vehicle for the time being. Parry also mentioned that Prescott had returned to the city and was in his office. Hoffman thanked him and told him he was doing a good job, and to set up a meeting at eighteen hundred with Sharle. Parry told him that he would find a safe location for the meeting and radio him, and that he would have a better idea on how inhabitable the city was by then. However, he was optimistic, telling Hoffman that they still had water, generators, food, latrines, and good weather on their side, so he much preferred it to fixing sewers and water mains back in Jacinto.[10]
Examining a Stalk
- "Yeah, it's a fissure. That fits the survey map. Stalks follow the path of least resistance. Like everyone else."
- —Parry, after inspecting the roots of a stalk
Several weeks later, Parry and some of his engineers were assigned to examine a Lambent Stalk that had emerged in the center of Vectes. Parry contacted Dizzy and had him bring his Assault Derrick rig, "Betty", to the site in order to pull the stalk out of the ground. He talked with Hoffman and Prescott as he waited for Dizzy to arrive, and directed Dizzy to park the rig back against the stalk when he got there. They then tied chains around the stalk, but Dizzy was concerned about the dead grass around the stalk. Parry was also disturbed by it, and said they would need to wash their boots down when they got back to base. Sgt. Marcus Fenix began putting sticks around the edges of the dead zone in order to check if it was still spreading, and Parry began speculating about what was causing the toxic reaction. He noted that a lot of plants emitted a poison that killed other plants around them, like walnut trees, and Marcus commented that Lambent walnuts were the last thing they needed. Dizzy wondered if the chains around the stalk would hold, and Parry told him he might have to do some repairs to Betty afterwards. He connected the chains to the rig, and then monitored the stalk with the rest of his crew as Dizzy began to drive the rig forward. The stalk then began snapping, and Parry told Dizzy to slacken off, but the warning came too late, and the stalk fell forward onto the back of the rig. Luckily, it was only some minor damage, and Dizzy then began drilling holes through the remains of the stalk in the ground under Parry's direction, while the others examined the inside of the broken off stalk. When they finished, Parry told Dizzy that he had got it spot on, and began lowering a camera down into the hole to examine the stalks roots. Cpl. Damon Baird became upset when he saw the camera was from a JACK bot, but Parry told him they had fifteen cameras and only one bot, and he didn't need that many to keep it operational. Baird was still upset, so Parry told him they could send him down instead to check it out, causing him to back off. Parry then looked at the information on the monitor and confirmed that the stalk had come up through fissures, following the path of least resistance to emerge. Sgt. Bernadette Mataki's dog Mac then began barking, alerting them to a possible danger, and Parry saw several glowing, glittering lights on the monitor's screen. Dizzy told Parry that he didn't think it was water reflecting, and Marcus hauled Parry back away from the hole as Polyps began rushing up. Everyone opened fire, and Marcus used a grenade to take out the polyps before they could all emerge. Hoffman then ordered Parry to begin making a map of where all the fissures on the island were, and to have them declared no-go areas and arrange to have them monitored daily. They then noticed the dead zone was still spreading, and Parry snatched the bot camera away from Baird as he tried to take it back while they were all distracted.[11]
Finding Imulsion
- "Jackpot. Now all we have to do is pump this stuff out."
- —Parry, after inspecting the newly discovered Imulsion field
A week later, Marcus and Cpl. Dominic Santiago discovered an Imulsion field south of Pelruan while looking for stalks. Parry took a team of engineers and former Gorasni crew members of the Emerald Spar Imulsion Platform to inspect the site and prepare it to be drilled to gather the Imulsion. Parry was pleased with the find, with multiple pools of Imulsion coming up through the forest floor and around dead stalks. Parry told Dom he planned to bring in Dizzy to knock down the trees between the field and the road, and set up trackway to make transportation easier. He asked Stefan Gradin what he thought of the Imulsion, and he and fellow Gorasni Borusc Eugen signaled to him that it was good. Parry then overheard a conversation between Marcus and Hoffman on the radio, learning that a dead zone with no stalks had appeared and was spreading fast, and that Hoffman wanted the farms in its path evacuated and cleared of food. Parry asked how fast it was spreading, and Marcus told him that Baird had been watching it happen, and that it could reach Pelruan within fifteen days. Parry was disappointed, trying to figure out how he could stretch his sappers to cover both the evacuation and building an Imulsion pipeline, and Dom told him that at least they would have fuel to move everyone. Parry told him that the hard part would be recovering whatever supplies they could, and it would be time-consuming. He returned his attention to the Imulsion field, and he ordered Rena to find some tractors to haul lumber away, because Dizzy would be there soon and clearing a path. Rena commented that she hoped Dizzy would be sober when he arrived, but Gradin commented that it would be if he was drunk, because he would actually have the courage to clear a path to the field. Prescott then contacted Parry and wanted an Imulsion sample brought to him, and Parry gave Dom a sample in a jar and asked him to take it back to VNB aboard KR-239. He then began making calculations about where to lay pipelines and how long they needed to be.[12]
Battling in the Imulsion Field
- "Okay, everyone clear the area. Everyone, get clear of the imulsion. Now!"
- —Parry, ordering his people to leave the Imulsion field after polyps were spotted in the trees
Several minutes later, Dizzy contacted Parry and said that he was heading his way, and to get everyone clear of the forest path to the field. Parry told him it was clear, and to knock the trees down so they could clear them out. However, after only a few trees were knocked down, Dizzy contacted him again and said that polyps had fallen onto Betty. Parry said they couldn't see any from where they were, and wondered where they were coming form. Dizzy then told him that they were in the trees, and moving right toward him and his crew. Parry ordered everyone to clear the area and get far away from the Imulsion, and contacted Marcus to request backup. Marcus told him they would be right there to help, and asked if everyone had gotten clear yet. Parry told him that the grindlift had gotten stuck in an Imulsion seep, and Dizzy and Pvt. Samantha Byrne were stuck in it. Parry called additional Ravens in, and he and his men charged the polyps, firing to give Marcus and Dom cover to reach the Rig and rescue Dizzy and Sam. They surrounded Betty and held off all the polyps, and the Gorasni joined them in defending the area. Eugen then contacted him and said that they needed the Ravens to drop soil to contain the fires before they detonated the entire field, and Parry relayed the order to the incoming Raven pilots. The Ravens arrived and dropped the soil on the fires, putting them out, saving the Imulsion field, while Parry and the others finished off the polyps.[13]
Making Plans
- "But we've got to be able to sustain animals at sea indefinitely. There's no guarantee of finding grazing."
- —Parry to Bernie, while discussing what animals they could take aboard the ships
Several weeks later, Parry attended a meeting at the Admiralty House to discuss possible evacuation plans with Prescott, Hoffman, Baird, Bernie, Cpt. Quentin Michaelson, Commander Miran Trescu, and Sharle. They were eventually joined by Marcus and Dom as well, and Bernie began outlining a plan where they would take pigs and chickens with them if they lived aboard ships, as well as a small selection of other farm animals for breeding purposes. Parry pointed out that they would have trouble sustaining animals at sea indefinitely, and that they had no guarantee of finding grazing grounds on the mainland. Michaelson told him that the navy used to take animals on long deployments in the Silver Era, so they would have to work out their own system.[14]
Collapse of the COG
Scouting the Mainland
- "Plenty of cabling, sir. Even if it's not connected to anything, it'll come in handy."
- —Parry, working to determine if Vonner Bay was habitable
Three months later, Prescott had abandoned the COG and disappeared at sea. Hoffman, Trescu, and Michaelson attempted to hold the COG together, but it was close to collapsing due to the increasing Lambent attacks. Plans were made to divide the COG up into several different settlements on the mainland, and Parry was selected to accompany Hoffman, Trescu, Marcus, and Sharle aboard KR-239 and scout for inhabitable locations on the mainland. They first checked Port Farrall, but found that it was overrun by stalks, dashing their last hope of holding the whole COG population together. They then headed to inspect other cities further down the coast, but needed to fly over Jacinto City to reach them. Parry got nervous as they got closer, not wanting to see what had become of the city, and was as horrified as the others when they saw not a trace of Jacinto was left, with only a large bay in its place. They eventually reached Vonner Bay, and Lt. Mel Sorotki landed the Raven on one of the roads leading into the town. Parry joined Hoffman and Marcus in jumping out of the Raven and securing the area, scanning for signs of Stranded. Parry then began looking for a manhole cover, and eventually found one and lifted it with Marcus' help and began investigating what was below. Hoffman asked him what was doing there, and he told him that there was a lot of cabling, and even if it wasn't connected to anything, they could take it and use it. They then continued to wander from street to street, looking for habitable buildings to move people to. Sharle suggested they could fit several thousand people in the town, and Parry agreed. They then returned to the Raven and headed for Gerrenhalt to see if it was still inhabitable.[15]
Evacuating Vectes
A week later, Parry attended a meeting with Hoffman, Trescu, Michaelson, Shale, Major Aleksander Reid, Keir Ingram, and Lewis Gavriel to discuss if it was time to leave Vectes after a Lambent attack had killed over two hundred civilians. Parry agreed with the others that it was time to go, and left Hoffman and Michaelson alone while he left with the others to begin working on the evacuation.[16] As they prepared to evacuate, Parry was placed in charge of determining which settlements the certain vehicles needed to be assigned to, and directed his people in stripping Vectes Naval Base of any usable materials.[17]
Personality and Traits
Parry took great satisfaction in his job, feeling that it was good work to make sure society was able to continue functioning.[18] Parry rarely wore a helmet when he was working.[10]
References
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