Agents of Monarch

By H.R.C. Stanley


Richard "Rick" Stanton

Date of Birth: 10th October 1959

Nationality: United States

Monarch Activation: 24th May 1989

Occupation: Crypto-sonographer

Areas of Expertise: Audio forensics, sub-frequency acoustic signal processing, sound wave calculation, cognitive and temporal audio processing, biorhythmic threat assessment

Education: University of Michigan - MS Mathematics, Carnegie Melon University - PHD audio and communication engineering

Next of kin: Dennis Stanton [son], Kelly Stanton [daughter-in-law]

Status: Alive

Background:

Stanton began his career as a communications engineer before joining Landsat as a satellite mapping technician in the 1980's. While working for Landsat, he overheard company rumours about a covert expedition to the uncharted Skull Island in 1973, and reached out to one of the supposed project leads, Houston Brooks. The two quickly became friends, and Brooks introduced Stanton to his colleague Ishiro Serizawa. With both Brooks and Serizawa believing him a good fit for the organisation, Stanton was recruited into Monarch, where he remains to this day. Stanton oversaw Monarch's satellite tracking system before being assigned to the underwater surveillance base Castle Bravo.

As a Crypto-Sonographer for Monarch, Stanton's job is to tune into the sounds given off by the Titans around the world and use them to predict behaviours and movements and issue early warnings to the organisation. Stanton records all of these sounds and catalogs them in Monarch's Titan audio forensics database dubbed "the Ark." Stanton is described by fellow Monarch members as brilliant but high-strung, and his dedication to his work gives him little time for his personal life. Stanton has been divorced three times, and is effectively married to his work.

Overseeing a sophisticated global network of sensor arrays that he commands like a rack mount of vintage synthesizers, Dr Rick Stanton can tune into the heartbeat of the world. As Monarch's leading early warning specialist, it's his job to turn sound into strategy, by analysing the sonics of superspecies to predict the behaviours they will enact upon the world. Recording everything, Stanton catalogues Monarch's expansive Titan audio forensics database known as "the Ark."

As brilliant as he is high-strung, Rick would much prefer to be alone in a lab than in a room full of people that don't have the necessary perspective to understand his brilliance. He began his career as a communications engineer for SETI before joining Landsat as a satellite mapping technician in the 1980's, an experience he credits with giving him a "god's eye view of the world."

Becoming increasingly intrigued by company whispers of a covered-up mission to Skull Island in 1973, he reached out to one of the rumoured Skull Island project leads, Dr Houston Brooks, and the two like minds soon became close friends. Brooks introduced him to Dr Serizawa who knew a true believer when he saw one, and shortly after Stanton was offered a position at Monarch. To most, the idea of Titans sounded like a crazy conspiracy theory; but to Stanton, it sounded like a dream job opportunity.

Dr Stanton also oversaw the Monarch Sciences satellite tracking system until he was offered a field assignment on Monarch's underwater surveillance team at Castle Bravo and jumped at the opportunity. As a longtime proponent of Dr Brooks' Hollow Earth theory, being stationed underwater puts his ear to the wall of what he believes is a vast and unexplored ecosystem deep within the Earth.

His dedication to his work has put strain on his personal life, and he's been divorced three times as a result. He said as quoted: "I can measure the distance between sub-aquatic splinter pulses ten miles apart without using a harmonic density amplifier, but I apparently can't detect a woman's heartbeat." He remains married to the insanity of his job, and it's truly the happiest he's ever been in a relationship.


To be continued...