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Stephen Walters was a human telepath who left Psi Corps and eventually became one of the most notorious leaders of the resistance.[1]

History[]

Early life[]

Born on June 15, 2155 in Casper, Wyoming, USA, in 2172, Walters joined Earthforce at the age of seventeen where he served in the 355th North American. He won the Earth Alliance Silver Star for bravery at the Battle of Douala. In 2173 Walters struck a superior officer and was only saved from a court-martial because of his previous meritorious conduct. Walters left Earthforce and served as a mercenary soldier in the CAB until 2175 when his telepathic abilities manifested. Voluntarily joined the Psi Corps, Walters was immediately assigned to the special ops division doing mostly undercover work.

Vacit's Man[]

In 2180, Walters was selected by Psi Corps Director Kevin Vacit to work as his exclusive agent in the field, completely off the books. His first assignment being to break telepath resistance member Fiona Temple out of the re-education camp in Kuala Lumpur and infiltrate the Underground (unbeknownst to Walters or to Fiona herself, she was Vacit's daughter, thus he tried to protect her while simultaneously accomplishing his goals).

Posing as a fellow prisoner, Stephen quickly befriended Fiona after she is brought out of the coffin-like sensory deprivation box and saves her from a beating by a mundane guard. Eventually Fiona was taken to the office of Psi Cop Teal-Montoya who presented her with the unconscious form of Matthew Dexter, a prisoner whose mind she had reached and fell in love with while they were both in the coffins. Teal-Montoya tried to convince her to join the Corps, emphasising that as a fellow P12 she would be quite valuable in breeding stronger telepaths. When she refused Teal-Montoya informed her that she would have a P12 child, whether she chose to or not and attempted to force himself on her. Walters, who had slipped past the guards, took down Teal-Montoya with a nerve toxin dart that Vacit had provided him with. Walters tried to get Fiona to leave with him then and there but she refused to go without Matthew. Walters reluctantly agreed and had Fiona use her abilities to convince the drugged Teal-Montoya to trasfer his clearance to Walters so they could steal a Corps helicopter and escape.

Going Rogue[]

In 2185, Stephen and Matthew went on a snatch-and-grab mission to rescue a young telepath named Remy Ligeau in the Canadian wilderness whom they'd heard the Psi Corps were after. They quickly discovered there was something very special about the boy as three Psi Cops had been sent to take him from his parents. It turned out that the boy was a telekinetic. During the rescue mission, Stephen realized that Matthew's feelings for Fiona were truer than his own, and resolved his jealousy towards the other man. He was badly wounded and recovered back at base. Stephen confessed to Fiona and Matthew that he had been a spy for Director Vacit, but they forgave him and he remained a valuable part of the resistance leadership. He subsequently stopped sending Vacit reports.

In 2189, Walters went into hiding along with Fiona and Matthew as Fiona was pregnant and they wanted their child born somewhere safe where even the other resistance members couldn't find them. After the child was born they named him Stephen Kevin Dexter after Walters and asked him to be the godfather. They soon nicknamed the baby 'Little Stee' to distinguish him from his godfather.

In September they came out of hiding with their new baby, they stayed at the Styx Hotel, an abandoned tourist attraction cut out of a series of caverns beneath the Appalachian Mountains that the Resistance was using as a stronghold. Unfortunately the Psi Corps picked up Jenny Winters in the nearby town and a deep scan quickly turned up the location of the Styx Hotel as their eastern base of operations.

During the ensuing raid, Fiona and Matthew entrusted Little Stee to Walters and sent him to lead a group out to escape though the caves while they set the self-destruct. After making it out into the woods, Walters leaves the baby with a young girl named Valerie in the basement of an abandoned house with orders to stay and wait for him to return. Walters makes his way back to the stronghold though woods swarming with Bloodhound Units in an attempt to help Matthew and Fiona. The pair had been caught in a crossfire and Walters only arrives in time to feel their mindscreams as they perish together. Distraught Stephen makes his way back to the abandoned house to find the basement empty and no sign of either the baby or the girl. Though Walters didn't know if Little Stee was alive or dead, he was certain that if he hadn't been killed then the Corps had him and would raise him as their own.

The Black Fox[]

By 2190, Walters had assumed control of the resistance and in 2192, Stephen planted organic matter cloned from his own tissue at a bombing in Nicaragua. The Corps matched the body fragments to Walters' DNA and concluded he must have been killed, allowing him to continue to lead the underground without fear of pursuit.[2]

In 2204, Walters was a part of a big Resistance cell in Kazakhstan, UIN along with several other senior resistance fighters including Nielson, Brazg, Kashiwada, D'Amico, Enoch, Deitz and Klassen when it was hit by Psi Corps MetaPol forces. While several high profile persons were captured, Walters, Nielson and Brazg managed to escape. In the aftermath a Psi Corps forensics team found some strands of Stephen's hair at the scene and DNA from the living skin cells confirmed Walters was still alive and well. Stephen came to be spoken of in Psi Corps as "the Black Fox" and "the only Psi Cop to ever go rogue", though this was inaccurate as he had been only a black ops P8 rather than an actual Psi Cop.[2]

It wasn't until 2222 that the Corps picked up his scent again. Walters now the only remaining leader who had survived the '89 purges travelled by canoe with one of his lieutenants Johnathan Stone, to his home among a Polynesian community in New Zealand. After spending a short time there he left Stone behind and finally moved off Earth for the Mars colony. Shortly afterwards Stone was tracked to the island by Psi Cop Alfred Bester who picks up in Walters' telepathic signature in Stone's mind. Bester pursues Walters to Mars and eventually discovers his location, in a buried complex out in the lowland wilderness and with support from Department Sigma personnel, lead by Natasha Alexander herself, they raid the base, capturing or killing everyone inside. In the midst of the intense fighting, Bester comes across the fatally wounded Walters; his body pinned by debris, one arm severed at the elbow and one leg hopelessly broken and twisted. Even in his weakened state, Walters instantly recognises the telepathic signature of the Psi Cop as Little Stee, the lost son of Fiona and Matthew. Walters confronts Bester, with the truth of his parentage. Bester, who had been raised to believe his real parents had been killed in a bomb planted by the Dexters flies into a rage, emptying his PPG's Energy Cap into Walters.[2]

As the fighting dies down Bester's partner Erik Andersen finds the Psi Cop collapsed in a fugue state by the body Stephen Walters, his fist still clenched tight around his spent PPG, unable to let go.[2]

References[]

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