- "Hank Daggerknife is the name, and killing Blues is my game, sir!"
- —Daggerknife in Fifty Shades of Red
Hank Daggerknife was a Red Team soldier that came from a family of military leaders. He was one of the simulation troopers chosen to participate in an unnecessarily violent competition meant to determine the leader of the Red Team stationed at Blood Gulch.
Role in Plot
Daggerknife is first seen lined up next to several Red Team soldiers, including Sarge, Buckshot, and MacGruff, where he and the others introduce themselves.
After the introductions are finished, the group is given the task of defusing a bomb attached to a Warthog as a means of testing their communication skills while under pressure. For this task, Buckshot is given the position of the bomb defuser while Sarge volunteers to guide him through it.
Once the countdown on the bomb begins, however, Sarge disregards the bomb defusal instructions and orders Daggerknife to watch the cliffs for any Blues that might attack. Eventually, Sarge's antics lead to Buckshot's demise, causing him to die in an explosion that left the Warthog somehow completely intact. Regardless, the other Reds, including Daggerknife, began to rally around the Warthog and cheer, much to Special Officer Lemons displeasure.
Daggerknife is later seen as one of the only two survivors of a firefight that took place between the remaining Red Team soldiers. He, along with the other Reds, had replaced his rubber ammunition with real bullets under the assumption that Lemons had mistakenly put rubber ones in instead. Because of this, the other soldiers were killed, leaving Sarge and Daggerknife as the only possible nominees for the promotion.
However, Lemons refused to give either of them the promotion and states that they are both equally insane, prompting the two to figure out who gets the promotion by themselves. This leads to an argument, one in which Sarge, knowingly or unknowingly, manipulated Daggerknife into committing suicide just to prove that he would die for the Red Army.
Personality
Dagerknife was shown to respect Sarge greatly, due to them essentially having the same personality. He was also completely loyal to the Red team, however, he was also totally insane and incompetent.
Trivia
- Daggerknife has the same color armor as Simmons, a soldier whom Sarge later leads in the Red Army.