Elijah York

Sergeant First Class Elijah "Switchblade" York (callsign Obsidian Zero-One) was a US Army Delta Force operator and the leader of Team Obsidian. He fought in both the Second Russian Civil War and World War III alongside his fellow Delta operators in Team Obsidian, forming strong bonds and friendships with the team's members.

Early Life
Elijah was born into a middle class family in Duluth, Minnesota in August 1988, and was the eldest of three children. When he was 11, his family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. He lived a relatively normal and happy life with his family.

Military Career
At the age of eighteen, Elijah chose to enlist in the US Army. Although his mother was initially unhappy with this, his father was proud of him and encouraged him to be the best soldier that he could be. He had difficulty adjusting to military life at first during basic training, but he soon got the hang of it and began to excell in nearly everything he did. This led to his transfer to the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Unfortunately, while Elijah was in training his father fell ill, and was eventually diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme astrocytoma, an incurable and highly aggressive form of malignant brain tumor. By the time he came home, his father's mental capacity had degraded severely due to his healthy brain matter being squashed between the tumor and the inside of his skull as the malignant growth continued to increase in size. Elijah was unable to tell his father about his transfer before the cancer killed him.

At his father's funeral, Elijah promised that he would be the best soldier he could possibly be, as that had been one of the last things his father had told him to do before his death.

Service Prior to 2011
York first saw action in Somalia between late 2008 and early 2010, assisting the UN-backed Transitional Federal Government weed out leaders of Al-Shabaab (a remnant of a militant Islamist faction called the Islamic Courts Union) and helping to keep peace between the Somalians and the Ethiopians. He quickly ascended the ranks to Staff Sergeant, and he was transferred to the 1st SFOD-D and sent to Pakistan, where he was placed in command of Team Obsidian. After further success in combating Taliban terrorists along Pakistan's northern border, York was promoted to Sergeant First Class.

Operations Against OpFor
In 2011, Team Obsidian was deployed into a country in the Arabian Peninsula, after Khaled Al-Asad launched a bloody coup d'etat which succeeded in toppling the government. While USMC Force Recon units attempted to hunt down Al-Asad, Army special forces attacked other cities in an effort to prevent OpFor from sending reinforcements to defend Al-Asad. Curiously, while OpFor did retaliate against the Army, they did not seem concerned that US troops were hunting for their leader. However, the reasoning behind this became clear when OpFor detonated a nuclear warhead in the capital city. York, Team Obsidian, and all other remaining American troops were withdrawn from the country immediately following the warhead's detonation, as a precautionary measure.

Operations in Mainland Russia
Between 2012 and 2016, York led Team Obsidian in several missions of undisclosed nature in the Russian mainland, helping the Russian Loyalists fight the Ultranationalists, an extremely violent group of anti-western radicals wha sought to restore the Soviet Union.

Civilian Life
After returning home from his deployment against OpFor in late 2011, Elijah decided to move to New York City, and by February 2012 he had begun settling into his new apartment in Manhattan.

In early 2015, Elijah began dating a young woman named Ally Sampson.

Russo-American War
In August 2016, heavily-armed gunmen slaughtered hundreds of innocent civilians at Zakhaev International Airport in Moscow. Based on the attackers' usage of standard issue American weaponry and the discovery of an American corpse clad in body armor outside of the airport, Boris Vorshevsky, president of the now Ultranationalist-controlled Russian government, accused the American military of authorizing and perpetrating the attack. Russia declared war on the US and launched an invasion of the eastern American coast.

When the Russian assault on the US began, Elijah had been vacationing with his family in Orlando, Florida. His family was evacuated further inland, and he was sent to Miami, where he met up with the rest of Team Obsidian.

The Battle of Miami
In Miami, the Russians had managed to achieve dominance in the skies above the city, and the US Air Force was unable to maintain a foothold over Miami in order to provide air cover for evacuation efforts. Due to this, the US Army engaged the Russian forces in an attempt to push them back to the sea. However, Russian troops had taken civilian hostages, and were holding them captive within fortified locations, in order to prevent US troops from shelling or bombing these locations. In response, Team Obsidian and a handful of other Delta Force units were dispatched to rescue the hostages so that the Army could attack these locations without endangering innocent people.

The Battle of New York
"Seeing the city you live in become a war zone isn't something that one easily forgets. I doubt I'll ever look at New York the same way again."

- Elijah commenting on the battle.

After Miami was evacuated, Team Obsidian was sent to Elijah's home city, New York, where the Russian invaders had erected a number of well-defended communication and radar jamming devices, which made it impossible for the US Air Force to gain air superiority over the city, and as a result the Russians were able wreak havoc upon the city, slaughtering large numbers of civilians. Now, with the invaders having been forced into retreat across the east coast, the Russians were making a desperate and aggressive last stand in New York, hoping to secure the city and regain a stable foothold on the US mainland.

Upon arrival, Elijah was shocked and infuriated at the sight of his home having been ravaged by the Russians. Keeping New York City out of the hands of the Russians quickly became a personal matter for him.

It became even more personal when he unexpectedly ran into his girlfriend Ally, whom had been moderately wounded, while en route to a Russian jammer near Central Park. Elijah was forced to patch up Ally's wounds in the field and have her tag along with Team Obsidian until a helicopter was available to evacuate her.

After all of the jammers had been destroyed, US troops went on the offensive. After having Ally evacuated to safety, Team Obsidian helped to mark SAM emplacements for SEAD strikes by AC-130 gunships so that AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters could provide close air support for US forces.

The Russians were soon forced out of New York City, and they began to pull out of North America as a whole.

Personality & Traits
"Most things in this world can be solved without violence. War isn't one of them."

- Elijah York

Elijah was a very peaceful person by nature, avoiding conflict wherever possible. However, he was drawn to the military by a desire for justice and a drive to protect others, as well as a fascination with firearms to a lesser extent. Pragmatic and realistic, while Elijah believed that most things could be solved through diplomacy and compromise, he also believed that such things were not always effective, and thus violence was occasionally necessary, although not exactly justified. Henceforth, he did not bother holding back in combat; he was a ruthlessly efficient killer.

Elijah despised the Ultranationalists, and was disgusted by the animosity that they displayed towards innocent civilians during both the Second Russian Civil War and World War III. He held OpFor in similar regard, although he saw them more as blindly obedient pawns deluded into following Al-Asad through propaganda, rather monsters like the Ultranationalists whom were fully aware of the inhumane acts that they committed.

Trivia



 * Elijah wore a 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge, engraved with the Japanese Kanji for "peace", on a chain around his neck.
 * He kept an ace of hearts tucked between his helmet and the strap of his goggles during combat.
 * York and the rest of Team Obsidian are the primary protagonists of Call of Duty: Catalyst, and are set to be featured in the stories Deus Ex Machina, Hairtrigger, and L'Acte de Clôture.
 * Elijah is an atheist.