Gungnir Squad is an Alliance squad dedicated primarily to rendering entire worlds unihabitable in the hopes that such wholesale destruction can cause significant damage to the Reapers. The squad is one of the few in the Alliance Navy (or, indeed, any regular navy) to be authorized to employ biological and chemical weapons if it deems their use necessary to carry out its objectives.
History[]
In the wake of the First Contact War of 2157 CE, certain xenophobic elements within the Systems Alliance flirted with possible extreme measures that could be employed if the non-humans ever became irreversibly hostile towards humanity. Among these measures was the authorization of a little-known branch called the Systems Alliance Biological Research and Engineering Division, or SABRE, headed by an Alliance scientist, Dr. Eudora Branner. Much of SABRE's work remains classified, though those who know of the program have long suspected that Dr. Branner and her team were creating biological and chemical weapons.
Following the Reaper invasion in 2186 CE, SABRE's headquarters were evacuated, and most of its high-level operatives regrouped as Gungnir Squad.
Base of Operations[]
Gungnir Squad operates out of the SSV Wernher von Braun, an Alliance carrier allocated for SABRE.
Current Members[]
Eudora Branner: The Arbiter[]
Dr. Eudora Branner is a scientist in the Systems Alliance who has spent most of her career working in the darkest corners of the Alliance's scientific research arm. Originally a doctor who battled against viruses and microbes that threatened colonists, Branner devoted her life to studying germ warfare after losing a treasured colleague in the First Contact War.
Though she is a brilliant scientist, Branner's career has often suffered because of her troubled personal life, particularly her battles with her ex-husband, Evelyn Gargosh.
Remy Banks: The White Knight[]
Capt. Remy Banks was a former security chief at the SABRE headquarters. Though not scientifically gifted, he has risen through the ranks by putting down multiple attempts to sabotage the SABRE facilities and never questioning his orders. When SABRE closed down, he naturally followed Dr. Branner into Gungnir Squad, where he has made a name for himself by mowing down both Reaper forces and the civilians that they preyed upon.
Banks' good looks and charm hide a ruthless, amoral personality. He will kill anyone he deems a threat, and never give it a second thought.
Robert Hamdard: The Virus Virtuoso[]
Dr. Robert Hamdard is one of SABRE's most senior researchers, and one of the galaxy's best experts in the field of viral engineering. He has long boasted about his ability to turn microscopic creatures like tardigrades, hydra, and brine shrimp, into carriers of potent viruses, and has claimed credit for creating the powerful virus called "Killfire" (though, in fact, this virus was accidentally engineered by one of his former subordinates, Dr. Lorelei Mobious.)
Jennifer Reardon: The She-Wolf[]
Lt. Jennifer Reardon was a former security officer at the SABRE headquarters. Prior to the Reaper invasion, her career had languished, the result of a poor work ethic and general bad attitude. The galaxy-wide crisis has given her a new opportunity to make a name for herself, and she has seized that opportunity with alarming enthusiasm.
Reardon has no qualms about her work or the overall mission of Gungnir Squad. She doesn't care.
Hayley Kwan: The Ingenue[]
Dr. Hayley Kwan is a junior viral researcher. Recruited out of college by Dr. Branner, she was only vaguely aware of SABRE's true purpose when she signed on, and has been horrified to discover that she had been aiding a germ warfare unit. Nonetheless, she remains with the unit out of a mix of loyalty to Dr. Branner and fear of the consequences of leaving.
Naive and idealistic, Kwan currently serves as the team's conscience. How long she will last in that role remains to be seen.
Milo Caragonne: The Cowboy[]
Milo Caragonne was a former security officer at the SABRE headquarters.
Evelyn Gargosh: The Devil[]
Evelyn Gargosh is a former admiral in the Systems Alliance Navy, and the founder of the Office of Alliance Territorial Hegemony (or OATH), a black-ops branch of the Alliance. He is also the ex-husband of Dr. Branner. From the end of the First Contact War until 2184 CE, when OATH's machinations was finally exposed, he played a role in orchestrating the deaths of untold numbers of non-humans, and for that, he was stripped of his rank and sentenced to a long term in prison. However, between the Reaper incursion and Cerberus' attacks on Alliance bases, he eventually regained his liberty and convinced his ex-wife to recruit him as Gungnir's chief tactician.
Gargosh is thoroughly immoral, but as Dr. Branner moves her work out of the lab and on to the battlefield, his cunning is proving useful.