A Closer Look: Daniel Michaelson

(Today we look at another character, Seth the Combat Support Specialist.)

Fenrir File: 441

Area of Origin: Seattle, Washington, USA    Born: 11/5/2070 (30 years old)

Background: Combat Support Specialist

Spirin Bonded: Surge    Earth(Silver)/Air(Lightning)

Jaeger: Blue Sabre   (Experimental Feline Model 01, or EFM -01)

(File photo upon X-Com entry.)

Basics: Daniel Michaelson was a child prodigy student who was accepted to MIT at a young age. His parents went to Mars, and he witnessed their deaths on his webcam via Kaiju. Wanting to avenge his parents, he desires to become a Jaeger pilot and fight Kaiju. The U.S. Military strung him along for awhile, and now he is getting the chance he's wanted in the ranks of X-Com.

(The Blue Sabre)

Full Background: Daniel Michaelson was born to two very loving, well-educated parents. His mother was a scientist, and his father a mechanical engineer. Both of them worked on Jaegers in different support capacities. Daniel grew up playing in labs and with tools, around giant robots, kaiju remains, engineering diagrams, and all manner of advanced scientific materials. Daniel was doted on, in a good way, even when he was at work with his parents. His mother, Barbara, would always make it a point to explain things very well to Daniel, and at a very young age he was understanding the basics behind all manner of chemistry, jaeger engineering, biology, fuels, even anatomy. His dad, William, was similar, only more hands on, loving the time they would spend getting greasy working on all manner of machines.

It was no surprise that Daniel performed well academically, and at 14 years old a decision was being made in the family. Daniel had been accepted as a prodigy student to MIT, and Mom and Dad had made the decision to move to the Mars colony and work on building Jaeger there. Daniel didn't want to leave home. He was excited to be accepted to MIT and didn't want to leave the planet yet. And so, his parents promised to figure out a way to come back by the time he graduated, and they left on the most advanced human craft made by that point.

Daniel would talk with his parents every week over galactic net video calls, (Skype over planets essentially) getting help with his homework, learning about the planet, keeping contact the best he could. Daniel missed his parents terribly, the young man still a little too young to be truly on his own.

Every so often, two of his parents best friends, two older looking scientists involved in the Jaeger program, one Herman Gottlieb-Gieszler, and Newton Gieszler-Gottlieb, would come by and spend time with young Daniel. He did enjoy their company, they were both certainly characters, stubborn, intelligent, but caring and helpful as well. They helped Daniel make it through Jaeger Engineering 101 and Kaiju Biology 101, the trio spending time on group calls with Daniels parents going over every intricacy of the courses. Daniel was performing incredibly well, straight A’s, a favored of his teachers, and like by his classmates. His parents were telling him of their work on mars, terraforming the world, building the worlds 2 defensive Jaegers, and studying the planet. Daniel was fascinated by it all, but he just wished he could reach through the screen, and shake his Dad’s hand, or hug his mother…

(The two scientists in their younger years.)

Then, a horrible even occurred… Daniel has the date burned into his memory. November 15th, 2085… A comet encased Kaiju impacted into the Atlantic Ocean, and a tsunami was on its way to the east coast. Daniel called his parents from his dorm… and when they answered, they were both terrified from their own disaster. Daniel remembers their faces, fear etched all over them. His mother was shaking, his father trying to stay calm, but Daniel could see in his face, inevitability…fear… “Daniel, our Jaegers are losing. A comet kaiju just crashed down here, I don’t think we can stop it.” William said to Daniel. He placed his hand on the screen, and Daniel put his hand to his, his own fear of the Tsunami approaching fading for the time. He could see the screen shake, hear a loud crash, like an explosion far away. He could see his mom looking at a screen out of Daniel’s limited view. “Will… the 2nd Jaeger just fell. The artillery won’t stop it. There’s nothing left.”

Daniel looked at his parents’ horrified faces. They turned to the screen, shaking more and more with each step as the Kaiju came closer to the civilian eco-dome. “Daniel, we love you. We will always love you- OH MY GOD!” Hit mother screamed as the Daniel heard a massive crash, and the sound of metal getting torn apart. Daniel started to cry, and he looked on, his father looked at the screen, “I’m so sorry Daniel. I’m sorr-“ The screen was knocked to the ground, but the feed was still active. The camera was aimed towards the ceiling of the dome, and Daniel could only watch with tears pouring from his eyes, as a massive scaled arm reached down and picked up his parents. He could hear them screaming, and he watched as a massive maw, resembling a tusked snapping turtle, closed around them… and they were gone.

(The Kaiju responsible for the destruction of the Mars colony.)

Daniel cried, watching the creature tear the building apart, scoop up other scientists, and their families… and then his door opened, and a psychology teacher, Ms. Gonzales, began to shout at him. “There’s a tsunami coming, we have to get to the bunker, now!” Daniel was locked in pain, tears pouring down his face, and so Ms. Gonzales grabbed him by the arm and dragged him half way across campus to MIT’s Kaiju bunker. She made it with 5 minutes to spare before the tsunami hit the east coast. 

After his parents’ death, Daniel was lost… angry, depressed, without purpose. Herman and Newton began to spend a significant amount of time with Daniel, helping him make it through school, and helping him with his grief. When Daniel graduated MIT at 20 years old with multiple Bachelors of Science degrees, Herman and Newton were there, watching over him proudly. They then offered him a job in a good lab, studying the differences between the comet encased Kaiju and the rift Kaiju. Daniel accepted, and spent the next 5 years working in that lab, with Herman and Newton coming and going fairly frequently. Neither of them ever saying where they were going.

Daniel was growing impatient… he had learned many things at his time in school and at the lab. He learned that the comet Kaiju were substantially older than any rift Kaiju, for one. For two, he learned that each individual comet Kaiju is a unique genetic structure, unlike the rift Kaiju which appear to be ‘grown’ or ‘engineered.’ 

(Crates and crates of parts...)

Daniel wanted to use his knowledge in a more active capacity against the invasion forces… and he wanted to kill the tusked turtle kaiju that killed his parents. Even if that meant taking a Jaeger to Mars. Leaving the safety of the lab, he went to join the U.S. Jaeger program, citing his extensive academic background and knowledge of Kaiju anatomy as qualifications. Unfortunately for him, the military really wanted combat medics, and blew a bunch of promises up Daniel’s ass about learning field medic work then he would be gifted with his own Jaeger the next time they built one. 

After 3 years of advanced medical training, Daniel was shipped off to boot camp. He excelled there like he did in almost all things, but he was becoming more and more fed up with the broken promises. Daniel was beginning to demand the military keep its promises, and while he never did get to sit in an actual Jaeger, he was given simulator time… which was better than nothing. Daniel, once completing both basic Jaeger and Infantry training, was reassigned to the U.S. Marine ‘local support unit’ which was essentially a much better armed National Guard, dispatched to cities under assault by Covenant and Overseer forces. 

Daniel has spent 2 years now hopping in one transport plane to another, often parachuting in behind enemy lines, keeping those around him alive and keeping civilian casualties to a minimum. On one such mission, something extraordinary happened. The covenant was doing substantial damage to Boston, Massachusetts, a place very familiar to Daniel, having spent his college years there. Daniel had gathered a large amount of people into a Kaiju bunker to keep them away from the covenant troopers. Unfortunately, the door panel had fried itself after opening, and the door wasn’t closing. He was trying his best to rewire it, keeping his body behind the wall as plasma bolts impacted near him… doing more damage to the electronics. Finally Daniel had no choice but to try and fight off the forces pinning him down. Peering out with his assault rifle, he let loose a few rounds, but they deflected right off the energy shield of a covenant jackal. Daniel felt fear as he watched the creature approach, he was all that stood between that plasma weaponry wielding creature. Then, ‘floating’ down behind the Jackal, was a peculiar looking creature. It looked like a small silver robot, with vibrantly electrical blue eyes and a glowing blue lens on its chest. The jackal didn’t seem to notice it, and it paid the price as the small creature took a swing with its right silver arm, electrical energy arcing off it. The little robot impacted the back of the Jackal’s head, and the alien fell forward, blood pooling from a massive crack on the back of the head as it hit the ground.

The creature then looked at Daniel, “Surge man! SURGE!!!!” It seemed to shout excitedly, almost dancing it seemed. Daniel was confused, but the creature seemed friendly. It then said “SURGE!” Once more before fading from a solid little robot to a silver/blue energy and flowing into Daniel. Daniel was confused, but he could hear the creature’s voice, “All good dude, surge that door!” Daniel was not any less confused, but he followed the weird directions, and touched the melted wires on the door panel. Electricity flowed into the panel from Daniel, and the lights on the panel lit up, and the door closed. Daniel, and this little ‘Surge’ creature, had done it. The little energy robot spirin has been with Daniel ever since.  

Once Daniel ‘bonded’ with Surge, (as Daniel has since started calling him) the U.S. military started taking him more seriously, but they still have yet to give him an actual shot at piloting a Jaeger. At the moment, Daniel has been deployed to Seattle, Washington, to help with a covenant assault going on there.  

Daniel was integral in the victory over the covenant forces. On the flight back, he was contacted by Newton and Hermann. At least Daniel has family in the program... and Newton has modeled an experimental Jaeger that drifts with his cat, Sigmund Freud. 

(Who loves kitty!)