Richard Danvers is the mysterious leader and supplier of the Cleaners, and the main antagonist in the Battle for Brooklyn DLC. During the events of Army Terminal, it is revealed that Danvers was actually a high-ranking Black Tusk officer all along, working under Natalya Sokolova's orders to lead the Cleaners and attack Brooklyn. It is also revealed he was the one in charge of the Cleaners' operation at the Meret Estate.
History[]
Little is known about Danvers' past or how he joined the Black Tusk, but he eventually climbed up their ranks to become one of Natalya Sokolova's most trusted officers, and was put in charge of becoming the Cleaners' new leader after Vivian Conley's death. Alongside SFX artist Matthew Grant, Danvers would manufacture a powerful new accelerant for the Cleaners' incendiaries called "the purple flame" (or "Greek Fire", in some instances). Using this experimental weapon, he would be ordered by Sokolova to lead an operation alongside Cleaner Commander and Hunter Program Agent Wright to recover Mackenzie Meret from her Estate, in which they would also take the opportunity to test-run their new weapon.
Despite the failure of the mission itself, the results of the Purple Flame's capacities were considered a major success, as such, Danvers' Cleaners would begin to mass-produce the weapon at the H5 Refinery in Brooklyn, where their troops would also launch a massive attack in the city's Dumbo region in an attempt to capture Doctor Jessica Kandel and recover Gordon Amherst's 3D Printer from The Bridge Settlement, thanks to intel given by the Rikers' new leader, the "Rat Queen", who was once a close friend to Theo Parnell and a member of the Settlement, where Kandel originally was at. This prompted Melanie Hoskins to call for backup, bringing agents from Washington, D.C. to their aid.
The D.C. agents would slowly dismantle Danvers' operation by recovering key power positions from Dumbo and invading the H5 Refinery, where Cleaners Commander Jasinski would go as far as to deploy an experimental Warhound, "Violet", supplied by Danvers himself, in a attempt to stop the agents, but to no avail. Despite their best efforts and having defeated the Cleaners on-site, the agents would not be able to stop the self-destruction of the refinery, as they were warned by Hoskins that the Rikers (under Danvers' orders) were simultaneously attacking The Bridge.
Defending the Bridge from the Rikers' attack, and counter-attacking by taking down their main bases and depots throughout the Brooklyn Heights region, the agents would launch an attack at their stronghold in The Art Museum, where they would learn of the Rat Queen's true identity as Theo's former friend Sarah Moretti, and apprehend her for questioning. Under interrogation, Sarah would reveal the location of Danvers' stronghold at the old Army Terminal, south of the Bridge. The agents would assault the compound, taking down Cleaner forces guarding the entrance until, once entering the laboratory itself, discovering the Site was a secret Black Tusk stronghold that was being used as an R&D lab for experimental tech using the Purple Flame, such as Flame Warhounds equipped with the purple accelerant, as well as other prototypes. The agents would eventually locate a massive Small-modular-reactor with nuclear properties being used to power the whole facility, as well as a massive armored Zeppelin. Danvers and his crew would board the zeppelin, which was armed with Purple Flame bombs, and lift off with a course set for the bridge, which they planned to destroy. The agents would begin hacking multiple SAM Launchers on the stronghold's roof with the help of ANNA, which would lead Danvers to activate an experimental Marauder drone equipped with a powerful laser generator that could set anything on fire to protect the zeppelin. Defeating the Marauder, the SAM launchers would blow the zeppelin out of the sky, stopping the Black Tusk's plan and killing Danvers in the process.
An intel footage that Division agents recovered nearby revealed that Danvers was after Amherst's 3D Printer and discussed with Moretti about the right time to get the key and steal the printer. Given what the printer is capable of, Danvers' demise stopped Black Tusk from claiming it.
Network[]
As part of his reign of terror on Brooklyn, Danvers had 16 high-ranking personnel from Rikers and Cleaners code-named after NATO's Phoentic Alphabet, where they formed his network of assets in the city.
However, his asset network would unravel after his demise, as all 16 of his assets would be found and put to the ground by Division agents.
Past activities[]
Later on, while Division agents were busy finding The Manager in Washington D.C, they did a number of test-runs on the Descent simulation program as they usually do, they recovered a number of comms involving Richard Danvers' activities prior to the events that unravelled in Brooklyn
Helping the Queen[]
This intel that agents recovered involved Danvers suggesting Sarah Moretti to do propaganda broadcasts as "Rat Queen" for her fellow Rikers across Brooklyn, maybe even sway some of the Rikers who already joined The Bridge settlement.
He assuaged Moretti's first concern about the risks of doing live broadcasts, ensuring her that his associate, Matthew Grant, can do recordings of the broadcasts, citing it's better for her to edit the message and send the ones she mean to send. And when Moretti was apprehensive about using her actual voice for the broadcasts, he also assured her that thanks to the Descent tech that Grant was given to, voice filters, pitch modulation, and automated glitches can be used to mask her voice when recording the broadcasts, and make her voice sound in any way she desires, including Keener's if Sarah desires, but she has to match his cadence.
An awkward gift[]
Just like with the previous comm the agents uncovered from the simulation, they uncovered the next two comms involving Richard Danvers, mostly about Matthew Grant's weird attachment to Violet. The first one involved Danvers showing an upgrade for Violet, where it can bark, which Grant loved.
The second one involve Danvers interrupting Grant's "playtime" with Violet, asking him what he was doing, only for Grant to say it's nothing.
Personality and Traits[]
Richard Danvers, to put it plainly, is a manipulative, sociopathic and vindictive bastard. While he appears caring for the well-being of his allies, they were only a means to achieve Black Tusk's goals, as he didn't care for the loss of Cleaner personnel as long as the goals were accomplished.
Furthermore, he used Sarah Moretti's grief and rage to his advantage, turning her more unhinged and psychotic and even helped her in faking her death to become the Rat Queen.
His reports on Sarah and Matthew Grant showed him not being fond of their personality and traits, feeling that the latter's lack of attachment to reality could be a liability, while he saw the former as unreliable and wouldn't recommend having her beyond the Brooklyn mission.
The attacks he led on the Bridge and their allies showed his willingness to even kill the civilians, just to weaken the Bridge's logistics and defenses
Both his vindictiveness and manipulation were displayed during the Division's siege on the Army Terminal, try to coerce them to joining Black Tusk and taunting them by claiming they've been surrounded by good people for so long, they've forgotten what a "snake" looks like. When in truth, he is the snake.
Abilities[]
Richard Danvers is the final boss of Battle for Brooklyn's final mission, the Army Terminal. He pilots a massive Black Tusk Zeppelin equipped with Purple Flame Mortar Launchers and 3 bottom-mounted Razorback stations that can deploy massive amounts of Striker Drones. His zeppelin can't be damaged by normal means, as such, the agents must use ANNA to hack the local SAM Launchers in order to destroy it.
Danvers also activates a massive LM-21 "Marauder" quadcopter drone equipped with missile launchers and a powerful Laser in place of its usual Minigun.
Trivia[]
- Similar to Charles Bliss in the first game, Danvers serves as the campaign's overarching antagonist behind many of the events, and, much like him, is never actually encountered in person throughout the story, instead, dying aboard an armored aircraft that serves as the final boss encounter.
- Through his dialogue giving orders to Marty "Sparrow" Kincaid throughout the Army Terminal mission, it can be speculated that Danvers was also behind the Black Tusk's operation to supply the Hyenas in Shades of Red, as "Sparrow" was the direct contact between Bichon and the Black Tusk in Space Administration HQ: Theo Parnell.
- Although his face wasn't fully revealed, the found footage and ECHO collected from Army Terminal/Art Museum respectively gives a somewhat close look at Danvers' face. A bald Caucasian man with full beard.
- Additionally, his outfit features a unique blue shirt with a black chest rig over it and black pants, not utilizing a full Black Tusk uniform. His model also features what appears to be a SHD Smartwatch on his right wrist.