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William James Carter is the lead character in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. Carter is a former war hero and CIA agent (2nd class) recruited by Director Faulke to be a member of the Bureau. As an agent, Carter is the primary protagonist for much of the main campaign, until the revelation of Asaru.

He appears in the game The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and is voiced by Mark Hildreth. He also appears as an XCOM Hero in XCOM: Enemy Within.

Background[]

William James Carter was born on November 4, 1920, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Beryl and Jeremiah Carter. He joined the Army on December 17, 1941, leaving college to enlist shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He reached the rank of Master Sergeant with commendations for his service in the Burma campaign. His service ended on October 25, 1945, after which he returned to college on the G.I. Bill, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Indiana University,

Shortly after graduating, the CIA recruited Carter in 1948 as field operative. His quick thinking and bravery served him well and he rose through the ranks, earning personal commendations from both Director Hoover and President Truman. In his private life, despite the death of his mother, Beryl Carter (nee Douglas), in 1952, he had a stable life: He married Julia Crenshaw and the couple had a son, Richard.

His family provided him with a stable foundation. Carter excelled at deep cover assignments, serving for weeks or months at a time in Indochina and the USSR. In 1959, during a deep cover assignment in Laos, a fire at his family home in Arlington killed his father, wife, and son. However, due to the communications blackout of his mission, Carter did not learn of the tragedy until he returned in 1960. He alternates between blaming himself and the agency for the tragedy—this, as much as anything else, led to his drinking problem.

Following a string of disciplinary charges in December of 1960, William Carter was reassigned to domestic operations only. Continued problems led to a further demotion to administrative duties in June of 1961. He was assigned to the Bureau at Myron Faulke's request, with the CIA's director noting that he is only good as an expendable asset due to his self-destructive tendencies.

Myron, this one's aggressive, temperamental, and defensive, but he gets the job done. I don't recommend him, but the Bureau is your department. If you insist on him, I don't recommend a long-term position. The man used to be a hero, but now he's busy destroying himself - He's not useful for much anymore except as an expendable asset.

–J. Edgar Hoover

The Crisis[]

Carter has been tasked by Faulke to deliver a briefcase containing a top secret item to Groom Range, to present it before the Bureau's leaders: Director Faulke, J. Edgar Hoover, and General Deems. His arrival coincided with a self-destructive bout of drinking (triggered by Carter flagellating himself by looking at the last postcard from his son over and over again) and the Zudjari assault on Groom Range. A sleepwalker Air Force officer attempted to seize the briefcase, posing as Carter's escort down to the sublevel, but Carter intervened. Shot point blank in the shoulder, he nonetheless attempted to overpower the officer, only to suffer a savage beatdown at her hands.

He lost consciousness, and upon waking up found the Groom Range complex under assault from Zudjari storm troops, and the sleepwalker that tried to kill him burned and twisted to a crisp, with the contents of the briefcase gone. Mysteriously restored to full health, Carter decided to follow orders and link up with Faulke and the rest of the leadership, fighting his way across Groom Range under siege by alien forces. After linking up with Faulke, Carter attempted to secure General Deems, only to witness him shot by Angela Weaver, due to his infection. Carter and the two surviving agents in his team were forced to fight their way out of the facility, now increasingly assimilated by Zudjari technology, and only barely got away onboard the Skyranger.

His quick thinking allowed six survivors to get away, detonating an experimental Elerium bomb to deter any pursuit attempts. The explosion prevented any pursuit and allowed Carter, Faulke, Weaver, Nils, Kinney, and Barnes to reach Site X. Carter was shortly designated a senior field agent and put on the frontlines of the desperate war against the Zudjari invasion.

Revelation and fate[]

After the assault on the Zudjari homeworld, where it is revealed that it was not "Carter" who was in action this whole time, rather it was Asaru, the Ethereal inhabiting his consciousness. Carter, refusing to be slaved to another being, briefly breaks free of Asaru's control near the end of the campaign and threatens to kill them both with a bomb should Asaru decide to stay in him.

If Asaru leaves his body, Carter is then knocked out cold by the Ethereal's new host and becomes inactive for the first half of the final mission, after which he resumes his pursuit of the host, hellbent on exacting vengeance and injuring Leon Barnes in the process. When the player is presented with a choice of who to save sometime later, Carter will go to the unchosen party's aid, though ultimately fails to prevent their death.

Finally, he will attempt a final attack on Asaru's new host at the entrance to the Mosaic chamber where he is restrained. It is impossible to talk him out of attacking, but the player character can have whoever they've saved knock him out and take him back to the Avenger. The other option is to shoot him, which renders him dead.

Either way, agent Carter is not seen or heard from again after this point.

Abilities[]

TheBureau AgentCarter

Agent Carter is a squad leader and able to enter Battle Focus mode to activate his own enhanced abilities and to issue his team combat orders or activate their abilities. Carter can be advanced to Rank 10. As Squad Leader, Carter has his own unique set of abilities as he ranks up including:

Rank Abilities Bonus
1 Heal Heal all damage for the entire squad.
2 Lift Raises a target out of cover.
3 Grenadier Doubles grenade capacity.
Medic Recharges Heal ability faster.
4 Silacoid Deploys a friendly Silacoid
5 Lift Enhancement Makes Lifted enemies significantly more vulnerable to damage.
Silacoid Enhancement Silacoid makes significantly greater damage.
6 Drone Deploys a friendly Drone.
7 Combat Drone Drones deployed are combat-focused with a Lift beam.
Support Drone Drones deployed are support-focused with a healing beam.
8 Mind Control Controls an enemy's mind, making it fight its allies.
9 Powerful Mind Control Controlled enemy has more health and does more damage to enemy forces.
Damaging Mind Control Once Mind Control ends possessed enemy takes substantial damage.
10 Reduce Cooldown Reduces cooldown on all abilities for Carter and his Agents.
Increase Weapon Damage Increases damage done by Carter and his Agents.

Behind the scenes[]

  • There is no engineering program offered by Indiana University, though as Agent Carter mentions in a cutscene staying in "Mrs. Hawthorne's boarding house back in Terra Haute" during college, it is likely that he went to Indiana State University or possibly Rose Polytechnic.
  • Carter can lose his hat if it's shot off.
  • If left idle, Carter may pull out a cigarette and start smoking.
  • Carter appears to be ambidextrous, constantly switching trigger hands during combat.
  • Carter can speak fluent Russian, as shown when he convinces the Russian infiltrator that XCOM's cause is just and implores him to either walk away or join them.
  • Carter's bond with Asaru is somewhat foreshadowed by the reactions of various NPCs when interacted with, with most of them commenting on how unusually good he is at performing his tasks or is not like how he was described in the dossier. All of which gives hints to a change in character, which is implied to have been Asaru's all along.
    • When the player assumes control of Carter in the first mission, a faint glow can be seen around the edges of the screen, similar to Asaru's perspective seen near the end of the campaign.
    • During the third base visit, after Dr. Dresner's test, Dresner will comment that Carter said his name and rank during the incident, a reference to the Geneva Convetion rules regarding information that a prisoner of war is required to release to his captor.
  • In XCOM: Enemy Within, renaming a soldier "William Carter" will transform them into a unique XCOM Hero unit resembling Carter. He appears as an Assault Class soldier and wears a fedora. Like the other Hero units, he has much higher stats than regular troops.

Gallery[]

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