Epsilon

"...a great love is a lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all that you think about. You can focus on it, and try to force it, but the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient, and you hold still, then maybe... Just maybe... It will come to you."

- Epsilon

Epsilon is an artificial intelligence unit created from the memories of the Alpha A.I.He was used by the special program Project Freelancer and was assigned to the Freelancer, Agent Washington previously known as Recovery One. In its current state, Epsilon is now known as Epsilon-Church, since after recovering its memories it has recovered the personality and consciousness of Leonard L. Church, the original Alpha AI Unit.

Epsilon Incident
Epsilon is a fragment of a "smart AI". Artificial constructs were all subject to a number of algorithms to ensure stability, but these procedures failed to predict Epsilon's eventual rampancy. Alpha was tortured in order to 'fragment', resulting in extra AIs for Project Freelancer. Each was not a full AI, but an aspect of Alpha's personality. The last thing that Alpha fragmented was its memories, as it would otherwise have been driven insane by what it had experienced. These included memories of other AIs, as episode 6 of Recreation confirms. These memories became Epsilon. Unfortunately, Epsilon proved unable to cope with the memories and entered full rampancy. Worse, this happened while it was inside its host, Agent Washington. The construct's rampancy caused Washington to become temporarily insane, as he was unable to differentiate the AI's deteriorating thoughts from his own. The incident caused the board of directors to supposedly terminate the use of AI implantation out of fear of a worse incident arising. This caused future agents, namely South to miss out on the program.

In the storage unit
He was revealed in chapter 16 of Reconstruction to have been removed from Washington and then taken back to Freelancer Command. Wash also revealed that he gained all of Epsilon's (and therefore Alpha's) memories as a result of the incident, and now has full knowledge of Project Freelancer's experiments. This is also why he no longer trusts AIs; for fear that his knowledge would be discovered and eventually reach command (which would likely result in Wash being imprisoned or killed).

During the Epilogue of the Reconstruction series, Caboose is seen, apparently about to attempt to implant Epsilon into the body that Tex once used, but throughout Relocated he is seen fiddling with Epsilon, along with Tex's body and the destroyed ship, finally seen in Part Four with parts from the ship, Epsilon, and Tex's body, stating that they "can be together...forever." In Recreation, Caboose is again seen modifying the parts, to little avail, even going so far as to light himself on fire. He is also seen telling Epsilon stories of the events of "The Blood Gulch Chronicles," because, as Caboose claims, Epsilon enjoys being told stories, and even makes an odd humming sound when spoken to. In Chapter 4, Catching Up, Caboose reveals to Donut his intentions; to use Epsilon, parts from Tex's body, and parts from the ship "to make a new super best friend," although he has had little success.



Caboose is seen taking Epsilon to the Red Base's secret Hologram Chamber, upon hearing of its existence by Donut. Inside the chamber, the container opens revealing Delta, which Epsilon explains as him talking a form which had expressed reliable information in the past. Caboose asks if he could take other forms, Epsilon explains he could, if they were in his memory banks (such as Delta, as Epsilon had detailed memories of his fellow AI Frag, leading a few to believe he must have been the last to eject from the Alpha). Epsilon then suggests that Caboose heads to the desert where Tucker was last spotted, noting an energy spike there he could use to create a new body. Caboose agrees, and Sarge and Grif are convinced to join him.

Caboose inserted Epsilon's AI program into a new body, a Forerunner Monitor, and it has since assumed the character and attitude of Church.

Epsilon-Church
In Relocated, Caboose held onto the AI hoping to create a new "best friend" from Tex's old body and the Sheila AI he had scrounged from the downed Pelican in Valhalla, but with no success. During his attempts he told Epsilon stories about his last few years with the Blue Team. Due to Caboose's total lack of reality, however, the stories were skewed and incomplete.

After several unsuccessful attempts at creating a new "best friend" he decided to make use of the Red's new HoloRoom to work on his project, in Recreation. It was in there, after sneaking past the Reds, that Epsilon used the HoloRoom to create an image of Delta (an AI Caboose was familiar with) in order to communicate a plan it had to Caboose. Epsilon stated during its talk with Caboose that it was able to take on any form and/or character of any individual in its memory.

Epsilon asked Caboose to investigate the message that Donut delivered to the him earlier about a distress beacon from Tucker, which Caboose agrees to. When the Red's discover Caboose in their HoloRoom, Sarge and Grif volunteer to join him in order to get the Blues noticed and put back in Command's database (Simmons deleted all references to the Blues in the database during Reconstruction per Sarge's orders) and to rescue Tucker.

Upon arriving at the coordinates that Donut gave them, Sarge, Grif and Caboose enter a minefield and consequently destroy the jeep in trying to get out. The team that is currently working at the dig site are very secretive and only allow them just enough time to fix their jeep. Grif notices as they look for parts that all the jeeps in the are seem to have their radio's pulled. When Caboose looks for it himself, he tries to integrate Epsilon into the jeep. As always, Caboose winds up getting the team into trouble with C.T., the leader of the dig team. At that moment the dig team members are attacked by Tucker and he covers Sarge, Grif, and Caboose as they head into the pyramid at the dig site. Inside Tucker brings the team up to speed on C.T.'s plans for the weapon stored in the pyramid, but Caboose wanders off and starts looking for parts.

When Tucker, Sarge, and Grif finally find Caboose, he has installed the Epsilon AI into a Forerunner Monitor and it has taken on the personality of Church. It is soon apparent that Epsilon-Church has the attitude and character of Church, but none of his memories other than those supplied by Caboose's stories which were wrong, like that Tucker was Captain Flowers back from the dead; Grif was wearing yellow armor also thinking that his name is spelled with two F's; and that Sarge is a pirate and captain of a ship. He is also still learning about his new body and is unable to fully control it.

Epsilon-Church still maintains the acerbic and sarcastic attitude of Private Church as well as his character of always taking charge. However, due to lacking the experiences Church had at Blood Gluch which led to his angry and world weary attitude, Epsilon-Church seems to be slightly more selfless and optimistic. Soon after being activated he lost control of his body, and drifted around, he dealt with this, but while trying to turn on his long-term memory, he instead shut off his short-term memory. It was turned back on when Caboose meleed him.

In episode 17 he realizes he can levitate objects such as boxes and crates, and in episode 18, he kills an alien with one such box. He is later disabled by Jones and grabbed by C.T and after a long chase is stopped by Tucker, yet seems to also destroy Epsilon. Later C.T. has Tucker cornered atop a forerunner structure at gunpoint, Epsilon comes to the rescue and shoots C.T. with his "laser face", having seemingly remembered how to use it. Tucker then asks Epsilon-Church to "shoot the yellow guy", but he's not too sure he can do it again.

Searching
In Revelation, Epsilon is being worshiped by the Aliens, and is slightly abusing the power. He then starts having memory flashes, including a vision of Valhalla and a dark figure entering the Blue Base.

In Episode 4 of Revelation, Epsilon-Church rages at the sight of Agent Washington, firing a laser in the process and blocking an entrance to the remaining reds and himself. He then started panicking about them "Finding Her", shortly before shutting down. It is believed that Epsilon-Church had gone through horrible experiences with Washington, explaining its/his anger at seeing the latter. It is also unknown why he thinks that Washington will "Find Her", much less why Wash discovering "Her" would be bad.

In Episode 6 of Revelation, a memory of the Delta AI tells Caboose that Epsilon is looking for a specific memory. He also notes the Epsilon may restart a cycle and "that must not happen". Delta also reveals that the rest of the AI are with Delta, yet Epsilon must not know of their presence. This could mean that the Alpha AI (who was seen in the Recreation trailer as Church) may have escaped with the other AI fragments and is now trying to recomplete itself.



Later, Epsilon-Church manages to get himself and Caboose past F.I.L.S.S., who mistakes him for the Director. He and Caboose enter a room filled with identical Churches, though whether or not these are robots, clones, or even the copies from Sidewinder is unknown. He then reveals he has been looking for something, a metallic box, which, when opened, has cold air escape. In Revelation Chapter 9, it was revealed to be Tex. After Tex soundly defeats the others, including Tucker (and excluding Caboose as he was not allowed to enter the battle by F.I.L.S.S.), she is suddenly hit in the head by the deactivated Monitor shell of Epsilon-Church, who is revealed to have downloaded himself into a new Church body. However, his entry into the fight ends up contributing nothing, as Tex promptly starts beating him with his Monitor body. Caboose, in a rare moment of usefulness, utilizes the opportunity to activate a facility-wide armor lock via F.I.L.S.S. The lock proves ineffective against Church, as the A.I. still believes him to be the Director. With his privileges, he frees the others (the Reds only after they agree to not attack Tex), and then enters her mind to calm her down before he does the same for her. She agrees to not beat up both the Reds and Blues, but refuses to allow Tucker to get away with his ex-wife joke. After Church tells F.I.L.S.S. to disable armor lock for all units, she awakens and promptly punches Tucker in the face.

After the altercation, Church has a chat with Tex, who asks him to give her complete access to F.I.L.S.S.'s files. When he questions her motives, she tells him that she simply wants to find out who she is. He tells her she is "my girlfriend," but she finds that description "underwhelming." He then agrees to give her access, and is briefly present when she questions F.I.L.S.S. about the location of Freelancer HQ. When the A.I. advises against this, Church reveals to her that the others had already destroyed the base long before, prompting her to leave to ask them personally. Church leaves the room, returning only after Tex had come back as well, having enlisted Simmons to help probe the facility's A.I. further. She admits to having not found much, but then shows Church a picture of a Freelancer base and ask him if he recognizes it. He acknowledges this, which confirms her suspicions and prompts her to leave for this installation.

Freelancer Facility
Not wishing for her to go alone, he decides to accompany her. Before he goes, however, he accesses the personal journal of the Director. In it, he discovers a startling truth about who, and what, Tex is. He has all the logs transferred to him, and then commands F.I.L.S.S. to delete all of the entries. At the Freelancer base, Tex makes quick work of the guards, and then leads Church into the facility. He realizes that he's been here before, and she tells him the story behind the base. This had once been the holding facility for the Alpha, whom she had attempted to rescue with the help of other rogue agents. However, she had arrived too late, the Alpha's mind was already long gone. It was at this point that Epsilon was most likely born, having been the final fragment the A.I. needed to remove to retain its sanity.

Later outside of the base, Epsilon attempted to stop Tex, asking where she was going. She replied by saying that there was only one person who "knows what happened to me": the Director. Church, incredulous, reminds her that no one evens knows who he is. Tex does not repute this, but states that if anyone would know anything, it would be the Meta and Agent Washington. Church tries to convince her not to pursue them, telling her that they may not know anything either. Tex, however, doesn't mind that possibility, since she would just then dismantle everything the Director ever built, starting with Wash and the Meta. Church, once again, tries to convince her otherwise, saying how the Director built "all this" for her and that facing Wash and Meta was suicidal. He then reminds her that she doesn't even know how to find them, much less where they are. Pulling out her pistol, Tex replies that she wouldn't need to since they would be coming to her, shooting Epsilon in the foot. She then reveals that F.I.L.S.S. had told her that the recovery beacon would not activate until they left the bunker, which she needed to use to bait Washington. Epsilon, now in pain and his beacon going off, tells her that he would have helped her. Tex retorts that he can't even help himself, since he brought her back to "take on all the things you can't handle."

Tex leaves him in the snow as shes goes to prepare for the two agents' arrival. An indeterminate amount of time later, Wash and the Meta both arrive as predicted. Wash is quick to realize that Epsilon is just being used as bait, but incorrectly concludes the trap being used. This leaves them with no time to escape the explosives that Tex had cleverly placed beneath their feet. In spite of their extreme proximity to the explosions, however, the two survive. Tex is forced to engage them in hand-to-hand combat, while Epsilon can only look on, still apparently in shock over her shooting him (he once again remarks that she shot him when Doc goes to check on his condition). When she loses the fight and is contained in the Meta's capture unit, Epsilon lets out an anguished cry, and demands Wash release her. Wash replies that he can't, but that the A.I. would be coming with him anyway. Epsilon refuses, and tells him he is willing to fight (much to Doc's dismay). Wash is disappointed to hear this and prepares to capture him with the unit as well. Unfortunately for him, the allure of power overcomes the Meta again, and he uses to captured Tex to gain her stealth camo abilities.

Epsilon is then forced to flee as the Meta begins to attack anyone around him. Being his one ticket to freedom, Wash attempts to protect Epsilon, but is easily defeated. Fortunately for them all, the timely arrival of the Blues and the Reds takes out the surprised Meta. When the Capture Unit is found by Epsilon, he repeats his demands that Wash free Tex from her imprisonment. Wash states that because the unit is one-way, he can't reverse the process without the proper tools, but agrees to freeing her, on the condition that Epsilon surrenders. Epsilon accepts and Wash then orders the Reds and the Blues to gather the materials he needs. They quickly take off in search for the items. While they are gone, Epsilon says that there is another way to free Tex. He proposes to enter the unit himself to find her to which Wash strongly disapproves, stating that if Epsilon is lost in there, Wash will return to prison. In an attempt to appeal to the latter's emotions, Epsilon explains what and who Tex really is and asks him if he could imagine having an unsure existence, that no matter what you did, you were doomed to fail. Just then, the Capture Unit slowly rises out of the snow on the cloaked Meta's back, revealing that the Capture Unit was still attached to him. Wash then quietly sighs and says that he is beginning to understand the feeling.

In the finale, N+1, Epsilon is severely injured by the now recovered Meta. As the battle ensues between the Reds, Tucker and Wash against the Meta, he barely holds himself together. When the Meta is finally defeated and the Capture Unit is found, he knowingly defies all reason and jumps into the failing unit to find Tex. Unfortunately, Epsilon fails to get out in time and he becomes trapped inside the Capture Unit. When the Recovery Force shows up to clean up the scene, they toss the Unit in evidence due to its lack of power and bad condition making it of no use to the Chairman. In Epsilon's monologue at the end of the episode, he declares his decision to wait for Tex to come to him, because every time he tries to find her, her memory is pushed farther and farther away. In the meantime, he conjures up Alpha's first memories of Blood Gulch, saying, "...hell, if you have to live the rest of your life in a memory, you might as well make it a good one."

Reliving Blood Gulch
In Episode 1 of Season 9, inside the memory of the Capture unit, Church, while 'replaying' his memory, starts a monologue about himself, but is repeatedly interrupted by Tucker. Back in Blood Gulch, he heads to the cliff to check out modifications to the Red's new vehicle. As they spy on the Red team, they argue about what they added, Church finds out that Donut is now acting as the leader of the Red Team, and they added Rocket Launchers to their jeep (after a argument about whether they added Rockets, microwave, or a radio). The Reds start shooting rockets at them, Church decides to go down the cliff, saying "If we're gonna do this, It has to be done the right way, or there's no point in doing it at all".

He reached Red Base and was greated by shots fired at him. He asked if the reds knew who he was and with their responses realized he'd made a mistake as the reds did not yet know him. Sarge wanted to hear what he had to say however Donut wanted to shoot him. Donut suggested that he wound Church and then Sarge can interrogate him. Simmons made the agreement that for every shot Donut had on Church would

equal 5 minutes of Church being able to talk to them. Church is asked where he wants to be shot foot or arm and Church says foot. He then begins to talk before he is shot in the foot by Donut who says his five minutes have started. After yelling about his injured toe Church tells each of the reds what is wrong with them with the exception of Simmons whom Church says is "pretty much spot on." Donut decides hes heard enough of Church and aims his DMR so Church leaves heading back to Blue Base leaving the reds to debate over whether what Church said is true or not.



When Church returns to Blue Base he is greeted by Caboose. When asking why Caboose didn't help Caboose says he was just following Church's orders. Church angrily walks away only to be stopped by Tucker who says Church is back early then he thought he would be. When Church asks how he thought he could be early as he spent half an hour limping through the canyon Tucker says he thought Church was dead and that never is later than 30 minutes. Caboose agrees and Church yells at him. As Church and Tucker continue talking now about a medic Caboose makes a call to command. He comes out saying he did so and that he bought a food dehygrator. Church asks if command said who they were sending and Caboose says yes. After a pause Church asks if he remembers and Caboose says no angering Church even more. He is later seen on top of Blue Base continuing to try and get answers from Church. When Caboose gets confused Church gets mad yet again and goes to get Shelia to turn on. When Tucker sees him yelling at Shelia to activate he asks if its for Tex. Church says its incase things get out of hand while Tex is there and Tucker takes Church and Caboose to the beach end of the canyon to teach them how to impress ladies. Church gets bored and wants to leave and often questions Tucker. In the end Tucker has Caboose and Church roleplay with Church being the man. When Caboose doesn't act like a steryotypical woman both Church and Tucker yell at him so Tucker has Church hit on Caboose. When that works Tucker says "See its not that hard." After another earthquake Tucker asks Church why he is so calm during the earthquakes and Church explains to him how everything in the memory unit is fake except for him and Tex. However neither Tucker nor Caboose seem to be able to understand. He continues to try and explain with Tucker and Caboose finding ways to try and prove him wrong. The Blues then start talking about Church and Tex and Church and Tucker get into an argument over whether what Church does to Tex is stalkerish or romantic. Church then notices a grenade and when it turns out to be none of the Blue Teams comes to the conclusion that someone threw it at them before it explodes. It is revealed the grenade thrown was only a flash grenade. However when Tucker, still blinded from the flash, bumps into Church, who is also still blinded, they believe they are under attack and begin to fire blindly in the air. Tex comes down to them and they complain about the flashbang. When asked about the dead soldier she was told about Church made up a soldier so she would stay in the canyon. Later while Tex was on a call with Command he and the rest of the Blues talked about keeping her in the canyon and Andersmith, the soldier they made up. Tex comes down saying she'll stay to help with Anderson and when asked how says by killing a red. Church obviously less than excited say "Oh great."

Trivia

 * Epsilon was revealed to be stored in Freelancer Command in Episode 15 of Reconstruction instead of being deleted, and was removed from storage by Washington.
 * Epsilon was able to send flashes of images to Church while he was merely standing near the A.I. towards the end of Episode 15 of Reconstruction. Because of its connection with the Alpha, its contact with Church allowed him to remember several of his former memories; memories that Epsilon witnessed.
 * He is revealed to be Alpha's memory by Agent Washington, with its mental breakdown the result of Project Freelancer's misuses of the Alpha AI.
 * Epsilon can be seen in the introduction to Part Four of Recovery One during a flashback.
 * During Reconstruction & Recreation, Epsilon is represented as a portable gravity lift, but from Chapter 14 of Recreation to Revelation 9 he is represented by a Forerunner Monitor (the Monitor in Forge mode of Halo 3) and in a normal Church body from Chapter 10 in Revelation and onwards.
 * Because Epsilon is Alpha's memories, Epsilon-Church can be seen as a back up copy of the Alpha as the two are nearly identical. Burnie Burns even said in an interview that they were the 'same person but separate'. However, Epsilon-Church seems to be slightly more selfless with regard to others and more affectionate towards Tex, with both Tucker and Tex herself noting that he's even more whipped than the "original" Church was. In Season 9, Epsilon himself referred to Alpha as being "kind of a dick," further distinguishing the separate identities. Also, when Epsilon and Alpha met in Reconstruction, Epsilon may have gained Alpha's memories.
 * In Episode 4 of Revelation, Epsilon panics about Wash and the Meta finding "her." This is probably a reference to Tex, as Epsilon thought Valhalla was the location of Freelance Offsite Storage Facility.
 * One could say Epsilon is even worse with the sniper rifle than the original Alpha was. In the episode Rounding Error, he did not know how to zoom (This could be due to the fact that he never actually used it in Revelation, the season before).