Richard Blake

Major Richard Blake was a high-ranking official of SRPA; holding the position of Director of Advanced Tactical Ops, and Commanding Officer of The Sentinels. During the Chimeran War, Blake led the defense of the United States against the invaders, organizing and leading ground assaults and other missions. He is a supporting character in Resistance 2 and plays a similar role to Rachel Parker in Resistance: Fall of Man. He was killed on board the Chimeran flagship, trying to deliver the fission bomb to the ship's reactor during Operation Black Eden. It was later revealed in Resistance: The Gathering Storm, that he was in fact a Sentinel, but it isn't entirely elaborate on as to how he became a Sentinel.

SRPA
Nothing is known about Blake's life before joining SRPA. He became a major in the army and at some point joined SRPA and became Director of Advanced Tactical Ops. After Project Abraham, Blake was injected with the serum at some point and made into a Sentinel, although he hardly went into a battle and so did not require a lot of maintenance when it came to inhibitor treatment.

Iceland
Blake, at the orders of SRPA Executive Director Lyle K. Parsons, organized the capturing and retrieval of Sergeant Nathan Hale when intelligence was received about Hale and his apparent resistance to the Chimera virus. Blake personally led a Black Ops team to Britain, and caught up with and successfully retrieved Hale following the destruction of the Chimeran Tower in London. They then proceeded back to SRPA Station Igloo in Iceland with the intention of inducting Hale into the Sentinel Program.

Unfortunately, however, the station was already under attack by Chimeran forces upon their arrival. The VTOL they were on was shot down, though both Hale and Blake survived. Acting quickly, Blake organized the evacuation, while attacking invading Chimeran infantry and vehicles, and went to initiate the kill code to destroy Daedalus; however, the code failed to work and Daedalus was accidentally released. Blake and Hale managed to escape the base with Dr. Fyodor Malikov just before the base was destroyed, escaping back to SRPA 3.

Resistance: The Gathering Storm
Blake directed SRPA operations during the early phase of the Chimera's invasion of America.

Blake was present in Sheridan, Wyoming while over-watching the negotiations between President Noah Grace and Daedalus. Blake expressed his disgust over this as he briefed to Nathan Hale over the recent negotiations. After Grace was killed by Nathan and Daedalus' eventual escape, Richard Blake and government agents arrived to the scene, which he calmly stated of notifying Vice-president Harvey McCullen of his ascendancy as president and simply ordered Hale to continue his fight against the Chimera.

The Invasion of America
Two years later, on May 15th, 1953, the Chimeran Fleet begins its two front assault on America. SRPA 3, an undersea base in San Fransisco, was attacked by incoming Chimeran forces. Blake was in the central control station of the base at the time, and that room just happened to be the first part of the base attacked by a Kraken; the Kraken's attacks caused the room to flood and it's doors to seal. Somehow, Blake (and presumably other personnel in the room) escaped and ordered an evacuation of the base. Blake continued leading SRPA missions across the country--though very rarely appearing in-game.

From some unknown location, he helped coordinated the defense of the country and was mostly responsible for the coastal defenses for the Liberty Defense Perimeter. He directed Echo Team on their missions in Orick, California and Twin Falls, Idaho. After the mission in Twin Falls was completed, Blake ordered Echo to received emergency inhibitor treatment, yet Hale refused and instead goes to Bryce Canyon, Utah to rescue Dr. Malikov, despite Blake's demands (who Hale ignores by switching off his headset). Blake later contacted Hale at Bryce Canyon and informed him that the Chimera were pushing through the country and out-thinking them, and that the only way to stop them is with Malikov's help. After rescuing Malikov, Echo headed to Chicago to shut down the tower network at a hub tower there. Blake directed Echo Team and helped them clear an air corridor to the tower. The mission failed as Daedalus reactivated the tower from Iceland.

Blake immediately launched an assault on the Holar Tower to stop Daedalus. It is revealed that it is a trap. After most of his forces were killed, Blake ordered them to fall back. Following the botched assault, the Liberty Defense Perimeter soon fell afterwords and the Chimeran Fleet gathers at the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico. After fighting for six weeks, Blake led X-Ray Squad in an attempt to take a nuclear fission bomb to the field H.Q. in Cocodrie, Louisiana, and load it into the Chimeran flagship and destroying it along with the Chimeran fleet over the Chicxulub Crater in Operation Black Eden. Blake went missing en route to the H.Q after his convoy was ambushed by Stalkers. The Major was later founded with X-Ray Squad by Nathan Hale and Joseph Capelli, in which the group proceeded to escort the bomb and board the Chimeran flagship through a Chimeran shuttle.

On board, Blake went with X-Ray Squad and attempted to move the bomb closer to the ship's engine room while Hale and Capelli went to the bridge to direct them. On his way there, he and X-Ray squad were overwhelmed in a Chimeran ambush. Radio contact was lost after this, and it is later revealed that they had been killed (as Hale finds the corpses of Blake and X-Ray Squad as he goes after the bomb).

Personality
Blake appears to be mostly calm and patient. He also can be quick to anger in a high pressure situation if it is called for. He can also be quite convincing. He is a firm leader to his men but he also applies a large level of respect and trust to them and so he receives it back greatly. He is informative to his men and tries to keep very little secrets to maintain an element of trust. He is a quick and resourceful leader and can think out the best solution when it matters most. He usually directs battles via radio link from a base and is rarely seen fighting.

He does understand technical and scientific information as well, and puts it to good use alongside SRPA scientists. He has had many differences and quarrels with Malikov in the past as Malikov has led to problems such as the creation of Daedalus and Hale trying to rescue Malikov at Bryce Canyon. At times, Blake is often very skeptical of Malikov's strange theories and ideas (despite the fact that Malikov is a scientist), but trust and accepts his ideas.

Description
Blake is a tall man with prominent brows, cave-like eyes, and a pugnacious jaw. He has dark eyes with short dark-brown hair. He has a parade-ground voice. He wears a black SRPA T-shirt and green armor padding on his torso like that of the Black Ops. He wears a headset on his ear for communication like the Sentinels and has a pouch on his trousers. He does not usually carry a weapon unless in the middle of combat and if so it is usually a standard issue M5A2 Folsom Carbine. Blake was very resourceful, and also carried a HE .44 Magnum as a backup weapon. He has a very unusual hair style that would suit the 50's style in that he has a small wave of hair pushed to the front to make a short fringe which creates a gap all along the back of his hair.

Trivia

 * It is possible to see Blake's corpse alongside some dead Black Ops soldiers against some cover when the player sees two Ravagers defending the Titan with the fission bomb. It can be seen here (from the size of the bullet holes) that he was shot in the chest multiple times by a Ravager, and the left side of his face is swollen, possibly from a blunt attack.


 * Note that in the The Gathering Storm Blake's personality differs than in the game.