James Grayson

""Alright run! Before my better judgement kicks in and I kick your ass!""

James "Jimmy" Grayson was a British lieutenant in the Royal Marines who, after being forced to kill his own brother inside a Chimeran conversion center, deserted and became a mercenary, gaining infamy for single-handedly destroying dozens of conversion centers. Later, he was saved from death row by Raine Bouchard and played a pivotal role in Operation Overstrike.

Biography
James Grayson was a Lieutenant with the Royal Marines fighting in Chimera-occupied Britain, a few months prior to the liberation of Britain (by Nathan Hale). Initially shirking off his wartime duties following the traumatic loss of his father, an RAF officer, which led to him giving up his own RAF career and briefly turn to petty crime. James was inspired to return to service, this time as a Marine, when his older brother Johnny went missing-in-action (MIA) during a mission while fighting the Chimera in France.

Resistance: Retribution
Prior to America's intervention in Operation Deliverance, Grayson and his team raided a Conversion Center in Manchester, England, and stumble upon Grayson's brother, Johnny Grayson, who had been converted into a Chimera. Grayson is then reluctantly forced to kill his brother due to the protocol's regarding the infected. As a result, Grayson has an emotional meltdown that eventually drives him to desert his team behind and launched his own personal vendetta against the Chimera, destroying over twenty-six Chimeran Conversion Centers throughout Britain in the process.

After the Battle of London, Grayson is eventually captured and brought into custody for desertion, a capital offense. He was put to trial to which Major Stephen Cartwright, his commanding officer at the time, testifies against him. He is found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad. However, Maquis Lieutenant Raine Bouchard visited Grayson in his cell, hoping to enlist his help in the Maquis due to his invaluable source of intelligence on conversion centers. Grayson is reluctant to join them at first, but after Bouchard reveals to him that the Chimera have recently evolved a new process of converting humans into Chimera and that she and her father, Claude Bouchard, have been developing a serum that would hopefully stop the new process, Grayson agrees. He also demands that he be given his brother's jacket back before he leaves his cell. James is released and officially designated as a SRPA-contracted Maquis mercenary. While he supports his "comrades'" mission to destroy every Conversion Center in order to gather enough information to create a permanent cure to the virus, in truth, James is only supporting them to gain retribution for his brother's death.

Grayson participated in Operation Overstrike in which he accompanies the first squadron over to Rotterdam, Holland. His VTOL was shot down by Chimeran gun towers over Rotterdam and was forced to evacuate. Grayson, along with Bouchard, rendezvous with Colonel Roland Mallery and the Maquis before he sets off to destroy one of the Chimeran gun towers, preventing the second squadron from suffering the same fate that the first squadron had. Along the way he is assisted in gathering enough explosives to destroy the tower by Major Cartwright. Grayson destroyed the fuel line connecting to the gun tower and then accompanies Mallery to the tower itself. After a brief struggle with a Chimeran dropship, the two successfully destroy the tower.

Grayson and the Maquis then gather at Bonn, Germany to investigate a unique Conversion Center unlike any other seen so far for Bouchard's research. Grayson strongly intends to destroy the Conversion Center, even though he was under strict instructions not to. As the group enter Bonn, Grayson was then separated from Bouchard and Mallery, but eventually fights his way to a service elevator that takes him down into the Conversion Center. Upon entering he comes across a terrified Mallery who informs him that Bouchard was apparently dead: taken and drowned by the Chimera. Grayson refused to believe him and sets off to rescue her by himself. He eventually tracks down Bouchard through directions Bouchard had given him through his radio, although he made sure he had already planted the explosives he was carrying with him along the way. He and Bouchard escape the Conversion Center through the use of a Hammer and the Conversion Center explodes soon afterward.

Bouchard, who is now furious with Grayson for destroying the Conversion Center, and the Maquis prepare to follow the Carriers' to their next destination as they flee from the area, although Grayson received a message from Cartwright requesting his help in Gerolstein. Grayson and Bouchard argue for a moment on whether helping Cartwright before Grayson is struck in the back by Mallery, rendering him unconscious and left there by the Maquis. When he awakens he uses the Hammer he used to escape from the Conversion Center and travels to Gerolstein to assist Cartwright in destroying the Earth Movers that threatened to destroy the Maquis fortress headquarters in Luxembourg. He arrived on the scene and, along with Cartwright's help, destroys the two remaining Earth Movers and then proceeds on to the Maquis headquarters with Cartwright.

Moments after they arrive, the base is under attacked by an all out assault from the Chimera and all personnel within the base were forced to evacuate. Grayson assists Rachel Parker in escaping from the base before he tracks down Bouchard and her father, Claude. He stumbles upon Bouchard's father extracting blood from her for the purpose of the serum he is developing. Grayson demands that they both come with him but Claude refuses before he is killed by a Burrower. The heart-broken Bouchard then proceeds to complete the serum herself before she and Grayson are attacked by Chimera forces. The two fend off the attackers and Mallery shortly arrives as well to extract Bouchard. Grayson and his allies successfully evacuate the base before it is destroyed.

Grayson and his comrades regroup at the Maquis' last remaining safe zone in Reims, where plans for the assault on the Paris tower were being finalized. During this time Grayson and Bouchard argue on who will take Claude Bouchard's serum over to the Chrysalis Lair, the heart of the new Chimera Conversion process, and use it to infect and kill the Carriers to halt the Chimeran Conversion Centers throughout Europe. Grayson reveals that Bouchard was infected back in Bonn, but he is subdued and taken away by Maquis soldiers under Mallery's orders. Now imprisoned within yet another holding cell, Grayson is visited by Bouchard for unknown reasons. He threatens to kill her due to her infection but he finds that he is unable to do so and instead he questions her as to why she even came to visit him. Bouchard, under the influence of the Chimeran virus, strips nude, then offers herself to Grayson. It can be assumed that the two of them did engage in sexual intercourse but it is unknown at this time.

One hour after Bouchard and Mallery leave for the Chrysalis Lair, Grayson was freed from his cell by Parker and Cartwright and is given a second sample of Bouchard's serum to use at the Lair should Raine Bouchard fail. Grayson fights his way through the Paris Catacombs, encountering several Cloven along the way, and confronting delays from Mallery. During his journey he discovers a holding center that houses thousands of female human bodies for use in the new conversion process, which forces him to realize just how selfish he had been in his vendetta against the Chimera. As he reaches the outskirts of the Chrysalis Lair, Grayson leaves his brother's jacket behind, finally letting go of his vendetta. As he enters the tower he encounters Mallery, who has been infected with the Chimera virus. The two engage in combat to which Grayson ultimately kills him by snapping his neck.

Grayson proceeded on to the very heart of the Chrysalis Lair and uses the serum to infect the new conversion process. After inoculating the serum, he is then confronted by a Chimeran Bouchard, after being completely consumed by the Chimera virus, in the form of a large Hag calling herself "The Chrysalis". Grayson and Bouchard battle one another and Grayson once again triumphs after a long struggle with her. He approached the dying Bouchard to remind her of the serum's infection against the Chimera and hopefully put her to ease, but not before Bouchard reveals that the Chimera are just too advanced, that they just went and evolved yet another process of converting humans (this new process reveals to be the Spinners). Bouchard is then completely succumbed to the virus and Grayson, after apologizing to Bouchard, killed her with a gunshot to the head.

Following the destruction of the Paris tower by Cartwright's task force, Grayson reunited with Parker and Cartwright outside of a small memorial for fallen Maquis and British soldiers. Grayson laid down Bouchard's dog tags upon the memorial and Parker reminds him that he should not allow her death to destroy him as he had allowed his brother's death to do so. Shortly after Parker offers him the position of Major within the British army, but Grayson simply turned down the offer. Cartwright returned with Johnny's jacket and hands it to him, to which Grayson then attempts to lay it down upon the memorial but is stopped by Parker, who insists that he keep the jacket. Grayson then leaves Parker and Cartwright, but not before mentioning a possible application for a Colonel position within the Maquis.

Grayson is heard of again in Resistance 2 where a report for Specter Team on December 12th 1951 mentions that he had came under SRPA contract. Grayson was eventually accepted as a Colonel into the Maquis and was last heard of leading a dangerous mission into the heart of Russia, to discover the source of the Chimera invasion. But when the mission had ended on June 12th, 1953 the Maquis listed Grayson as missing in action and was never seen or heard from again. But rumors had begun to spread of a British soldier in Russia known as the "Cloven Killer", indicating that Grayson was still alive.

Fate
The last scene of Retribution depicts Grayson in Russia wearing his brother's jacket, staring up in awe at Saint Basil's Cathedral. But as Grayson turns around, his eyes were revealed to be bright gold, similar to the Sentinels. Its possible that Grayson was infected with a similar strain as most Sentinels and has now entered a state of infection similar to that of Nathan Hale. How Grayson came to be infected is currently unknown (though it is possible that Grayson inherited the virus through having sexual intercourse with Raine Bouchard who was already infected at the time and had transferred the virus to him. However, this is only based on speculation). There is also some speculation that he might be the main character in a hypothetical Resistance 3. Whether he remains as a rogue infected Human who fights the Chimera in Russia or he's found by SRPA and joins the agency as a Sentinel is unknown.

Personality and skills
James Grayson is characterized as being rude and vocal. His attitude is attributed from his past background: the burden of losing his father in the Chimeran war, unemployment, taking care of his widow mother, and the shaky relationship with his brother Johnny, who James believe that he doesn't care for his family. Grayson is sarcastic and most often uses nicknames for both his allies and enemies: referring the Chimera as "gorillas" and the French Maquis as "frogs".

Despite his attitude, he is known to be tactfully skillful in utilizing Chimeran technologies such as piloting a Hammer. This is due to his experience of infiltrating and destroying Conversion Centers which allows him to learn certain Chimeran technology.

Grayson's "do or die" attitude kept him alive throughout the Retribution storyline. His military experience and adept ability to make it through the harshest situations, characterizes him as by far, Retribution's most influential and important protagonist.

Appearance
James Grayson's Combat jacket has on it's back a Chimeran Skull and two rifles resembling a M14 EBR in a skull and crossbones formation. In infected mode, Grayson wears a SRPA uniform and has glowing yellow eyes.

Trivia

 * His surname may be a nod towards Nathan Hale, who during Resistance: Fall of Man the Black Ops called him (Black Ops Morse Code) Grayskin.
 * James, as well as his brother Johnny's eye colour keeps changing from blue to brown in Resistance (comics).
 * Since Grayson's jacket has a picture of two M14 EBR rifles in a Skull and Crossbones fashion. It can be assumed that real world weapons such as the M14 are present in the alternate timeline of the Resistance series and are being used by Humanity.