The Meta

The Meta, formerly known as Freelancer Agent Maine, was a rogue Freelancer agent with goals to obtain armor enhancements and artificial intelligence to increase his power. He serves as the main antagonist of the Recollections Trilogy.

Project Freelancer
The Meta was conscripted to Project Freelancer under the assigned codename: Agent Maine. Shortly after, Maine, along with Wyoming and York, faced a new recruit to the Project Freelancer, Agent Texas. Throughout the match, York attempts to coordinate their attacks against Tex, but both Maine and Wyoming refuse to listen to him and repeatedly attack Tex head on, only to be paralyzed every time. In the ninth round of combat, Wyoming and Maine switch their guns' ammunition with live pistol rounds. Together, they try to kill Tex, but both Freelancers are eventually immobilized. Maine manages to break free temporarily and attacks again, ramming a column towards Tex. After Tex neutralizes him again, Maine attempts a final attack by throwing a hand grenade at her, which misses and lands next to York. Tex, in an attempt to save York, shoots York multiple times with the paralyzing paint, which absorbs part of the explosion and protects him from some of the fragmentation. A medic is later seen attempting to assist Maine but he refuses the help by pushing the medic aside with his arm, saying, "Get off me!" in a deep, throaty voice.

Mission for the Sarcophagus
Maine was later seen in the meeting room in the episode Planning the Heist, waiting to be briefed on an upcoming mission to recover the Sarcophagus. He is assigned to Team A with Wash, Carolina, and York, who are to infiltrate the building the Sarcophagus is being held in. During the mission, Maine, looking around the vault, finds a Brute Shot and decides to keep it as his own weapon. Carolina, in an attempt to get the package off the roof, kicks Maine out a window and uses his weight to balance the Sarcophagus up to the roof. When the Package reaches the roof, he lands on a ledge of a parking garage and fights the soldiers down there.

Maine then acquires a Warthog afterwards and saves Carolina and York in the warthog, after they secure the package. Team A then goes to an overpass in order to get a briefcase from Rhee Sebiel. When Rhee drives under the overpass, Maine jumps on his car and kills him with his newly acquired Brute Shot. Maine acquires the briefcase and gets into the Warthog with the rest of Team A. They are then pursued by several Insurrectionists where Maine is shot by a sniper. After he recovers, Maine joins Carolina in battling the enemies, but is outmatched by the faster female opponent he engages. Maine then switches opponents with Carolina, securing the briefcase on his back. He engages the Sleeveless Insurrection Soldier, where the two seemed evenly matched. After Carolina stabs the female trooper with the Brute Shot, the latter throws her pistol to Maine's opponent and he is shot in the throat several times. Still capable of fighting despite his wounds, Maine picks up his Brute Shot and attempts to kill the two soldiers, but accidentally fires his Brute shot at the truck's rear, causing it to swerve. The truck then hits a car, sending them all flying off of it. Maine, unfortunately, gets hit by a truck and is knocked off the freeway.

Becoming The Meta
Much time after his injuries, Carolina gave Maine her assigned A.I., Sigma, in order for him to communicate with the other Freelancers. Later, Maine attends a class about A.I. along with Freelancers South, Carolina, North, York, Washington, and Wyoming. Maine later participated in the mission to find C.T. at the Longshore Shipyards, but appeared to be used only as a last resort. Washington throws a small transmitter, on which Maine lands in a pod directly. Sigma reminds Maine that the Sleeveless Insurrectionist was the one that shot him in the throat, and tells him to "sic 'em."

After easily dealing with the soldier, Maine proceeds to help Carolina with her own battle with the Demo Man and Girlie. In the process, Maine slices off the Demo Man's robotic arm and defeats Girlie by forcing her off the roof of a building. Maine is later seen with North and South watching the Insurrectionist 's ship escape the Longshore Base. Following the mission at the Longshore Shipyards, Maine is seen loading his brute shot inside a Freelancer locker room with Wyoming. Both of their A.I., Sigma and Gamma, converse with Carolina about the significance of Agent Texas and Omega. During their conversation with Carolina, Maine is seen to have an immediate pain in his head, suggesting that Sigma has some form of greater influence over him.

Maine is later seen in the Recovery station, receiving treatment for the headaches continuing to plague him, which is considered unusual by the other Freelancers as York states his headaches only lasted a few weeks. During Carolina's match with Tex, Maine observes the fight in a nearby observation canopy with the other Freelancers. When the Director bursts in and shouts "Allison!", due to his concern over Tex, all of the A.I. go rampant, sending everyone into severe pain and causing Maine to roar out in agony.

Sometime after, Maine sharpens his Brute shot and loads up his armor, for unknown reasons, in the Freelancer locker room. After the Mother of Invention lands forcibly on a frozen planet, Maine takes advantage of Carolina's weakened state, who had fought against Tex, and steals her two A.I., Eta and Iota. Maine then proceeds to throw Carolina off of a cliff. Maine's A.I., Sigma, then follows up with the idea of gathering up all the necessary A.I. fragments in order to recreate the Alpha. Because of this, Maine, now known as the Meta, continued hunting down the remaining Freelancer agents in the field, stealing their A.I. and armor enhancements.

Post-war
Over a period of time, Meta had killed four Freelancer agents, stripping them of their equipment and A.I. However, the multiple A.I. gathered in Meta's head began to deteriorate his mental status. Most of the priority one recovery signals Agent Washington received during this time were a result of Meta's actions. However, there was one signal that was not triggered by Maine: Agent New York, who was killed in action by Agent Wyoming. York's A.I. Delta was recovered by Washington, which prompted Maine to begin hunting down Washington. Maine killed Agent North Dakota, stealing his A.I. Theta and enhancement, both to benefit himself, and to bring Washington into his sights. Maine spared North's sister South Dakota however, simply knocking her unconscious after she put her brother in a position to be killed. Washington, after faking South's death in order for her to help him fight Maine, who's identity was not yet known at that point, set out to a remote industrial area to wait for his attacker. When Maine began his attack, Washington implanted Delta into Agent South, but South turned on him, shooting him in the back in order to save herself. South addressed Meta directly, lying that she had placed a timed charge on Washington's body, and that he could either go after her or strip Wash of his enhancement and find them another day. Meta opted for the latter, and South escaped, now on the run from both Meta and Project Freelancer.

Not long after this, a Pelican piloted by Agent Texas, crash landed in Freelancer Simulation Outpost 17-B. The Meta had tracked the ship to its crash site, and scavenged the Blue Base, acquiring cloaking from Agent Texas' body, and capturing the A.I. Gamma. Meta then attacked Red Base and acquired Omega and Tex herself, leaving only one survivor. Meta and his captured A.I. then scrawled a cryptic message on the walls of Red Base; "We are the Meta", establishing themselves as a single entity. In response, Recovery Agents Six and Nine were sent to investigate and document the carnage, but the Meta attacked the two agents and killed them.

After manipulating a recorded radio transmission to trick Sarge into eliminating Washington and attacking South Dakota, Meta uses Wyoming's time distortion unit to escape from Wash. However, he is wounded in a battle with Agent Washington, Church, and Caboose when he attempted to kill South. Meta is later seen at Zanzibar attempting to recharge his power supplies. Although he is nearly defeated, the Reds interfere at the last minute, allowing Meta to acquire Delta.

Afterwards, Meta attacks both Washington's team and the reassembled Reds. Washington eventually rips off a turret and chases him away after inflicting several wounds. Eventually, The Meta climbs on the back of a tank driven by the Reds, Blues, and Wash to infiltrate command. He then reveals himself at command, as a cloaked figure and the command soldiers attack him. Meta later follows Washington and Church and wounds the former, but it stopped from killing him as the Alpha (Church) jumps into his head. The Meta begins to de-stabilize due to the presence of Alpha in its head, but is spared when the EMP destroys all the A.I.

Pursuit for Epsilon
At some point after the events of Reconstruction, the UNSC release The Meta, along with Washington, so he can capture the Epsilon A.I. by orders from the Chairman. Appearing at Blue Base, the Meta surprises Donut, who thinks that Meta is a new Blue sent to the base. Donut tries to move Tex's body, and assumes the Meta's attempts to shoot or melee kill him are just acts of helpfulness. As he has Donut at gunpoint, Simmons arrives with news of the wrecked Mongoose but runs off when he sees the Meta. The Meta chases Simmons across Valhalla, shooting at him with the Brute Shot. Simmons warns Lopez about the imminent danger, so Lopez runs in the base to get weapons and Simmons gets the rocket launcher, as the Meta comes over the hill. Simmons fires at the Meta and misses, instead hitting the Mongoose. The Meta prepares to return fire on Simmons, but Lopez hits him with two shots from a Missile Pod, forcing him to retreat. The Meta attacks the Red base several times, eventually forcing the Reds to use all their ammunition. He later walks down the river after the Reds, while they attempt to start his jeep to escape. As he approaches them, Washington intervenes and tells the Meta to stand down. Wash then shoots Lopez and Donut and, now working with Wash, the two hold Simmons as their prisoner.

When Doc arrives at Valhalla, he is knocked out by Meta and taken prisoner, along with Simmons. The Meta is next seen having problems with his armor enhancements, to which Washington advises he stop using ever since his A.I. were destroyed in the EMP, but the Meta is shown to still desire more. Later, as Wash confronts Sarge out in the canyon, the Meta is ordered to kill Doc and Simmons if Sarge gives Wash any trouble. Moments later, Meta sees an explosion out in the distance and, sensing trouble, charges Doc and Simmons, but not before Doc charges his medical scanner. After Doc shoots the Meta, he suddenly slows down due to damage to his time distortion unit. As he slowly attempts to punch Doc, he eventually regains control, chases the fleeing Simmons, and destroys the Reds' Warthog. He becomes distracted by the arrival of Epsilon, who leads him away so that the Reds can escape. After the Reds escape with Epsilon in hand, Washington and the Meta interrogate Doc.

Sandtrap
After Doc explains that Simmons mentioned something about sand, Wash brings the Meta and Doc along to the desert, following a recovery beacon. The group dig up C.T.'s body and suddenly find themselves surrounded by the Aliens. After the Aliens trick Wash and the Meta with a promise of a map, the two of them kill them. Meta is later ordered by Washington to search the camp for any clues of Epsilon. Although the Meta complains about doing so, he relents and goes down to the camp, where he finds the Epsilon unit. Afterwards, Wash orders the Meta to modify the empty unit into a capture unit. Meta does so and the group successfully find a faint trail of the Reds and, soon after, hear a recovery beacon and prepare to leave and track it down.

Avalanche
The beacon leads the group to Sidewinder, where they see Epsilon unconscious on the ground. Unfortunately, they get caught in a trap of mines set up by Epsilon-Tex. The mines explode, destroying the Warthog, and sending Wash, Meta and Doc flying. As Wash begins to recover, Tex confronts him about the Director's location, but Wash claims not to know. Suddenly, Meta engages Tex in combat, in which Tex uses a chaingun to fight him off. The Meta runs for cover as she fires at him, where Wash, having fully recovered, attempts to use a spike in the capture unit to neutralize her; but fails and nearly loses it over a cliff. As the fight ensues, Tex activates another detonator to cause the cliff itself to collapse. The Meta escapes by reclaiming his Brute Shot and stabs the ice with the blade to secure himself. He then engages Tex in melee and, despite Wash protests at the matter, grabs Tex and stabs her in the face with the capture unit, trapping her inside.

While Wash tries to get Epsilon to cooperate, he asks the Meta to give him the memory unit, but the Meta, tempted by the chance to regain his lost power, instead attaches the unit to his back. Using Tex to monitor his equipment, the Meta turns invisible, melees Wash, and fires at Epsilon and Doc. Wash tries to hold him, but Meta knocks him down and corners him. However, he soon trails off when he sees a damaged Pelican, operated by the Reds and Blues, flying rapidly towards them. During the landing, the others regroup towards the memory unit in the snow. When everyone leaves, Epsilon and Wash discuss Tex's origins. The surprised duo then see the unit rising out of the snow with the Meta still attached to it.

The Meta attacks them and Wash battles with the Meta in close combat. After Meta incapacitates Wash, Sarge, Simmons, Grif, and Tucker suddenly return and begin their assault. The Meta activates a domed energy shield enhancement, deflecting all of their shots. Jumping high in the air, the Meta leaves his domed shield and attacks, slicing Simmons' rocket launcher as he lands. The Meta then proceeds to battle the four soldiers, dispatching all of their oncoming attacks. Grif, however, manages to grab Meta's Brute Shot during the fight. Eventually, Sarge begins to slowly approach the Meta while firing his shotgun. As the two get closer, the Meta dispatches the shotgun out of Sarge's hand and chokes him.

Death
Sarge then connects the tow-hook of the Warthog, given to him by Washington earlier, to the Meta's chest plate while Grif and Simmons push the Warthog over the edge of the cliff. Sarge disconnects the capture unit from Meta's back and the Meta is dragged down the cliff by the tow cable. The Meta flails wildly as he approaches the edge and, in one last effort, tries to kill Grif by grabbing his leg, intending to pull him down as well. However, Simmons grabs hold onto Grif, temporarily keeping him from falling, causing the Meta to lose his hold on the latter. The Meta then yells in rage and falls off the cliff, plummeting to his death.