David "Section" Mason

"This is what Menendez planned all along. Taking out the G20 leaders will cripple capitalist governments across the world."

- David Mason

Lieutenant Commander David Mason (codenamed Section) is a playable character and the main protagonist in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. He is the son of CIA Agent Alex Mason, and also a member of SEAL Team Six and the JSOC counter-terrorism force. He is also the Commander of all Strike Force missions from the U.S.S. Barack Obama.

Early Life
David Mason was born in 1980 to CIA Agent Alex Mason and his unnamed mother. Raised in his father's hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska, David's relationship with his father soured after the death of his mother. Due to his father's past experiences, harsh upbringing, and his commitment to serve the U.S., David held a deep resentment towards his dad but did not want to lose him, which was why he had his dad promise to not go on any more missions for the military.

In 1986, the retired Alex Mason returned to active duty with the CIA to rescue Frank Woods, leaving the young David in the care of Jason Hudson's wife, Jenny. In 1989, Raul Menendez kidnaps David, drugs him unconscious, and brings him to Panama prior to Mason's mission to capture General Manuel Noriega. Menendez's moles within the CIA helped facilitate Noriega's capture and fool both Mason and Woods into believing that they would be trading the captured dictator for Menendez. After Woods is tricked into shooting and possibly killing Mason, believing it was Menendez, the narco-terrorist kills Jason Hudson and leaves both the young David and crippled Woods alive. David later comes out of his trance only to see his father unresponsive. Believing his father to be dead depending on the players actions, David starts to cry while Woods attempts to comfort him only to lose consciousness from his wounds.

With no family to turn to, and guilt ridden about shooting his best friend, Woods took the young David Mason in and raised him.

Early Military Career
When David became of age he either enlisted in the U.S. Navy or graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy as a Naval Officer and eventually made it into the Navy's elite U.S. Navy SEALs. After a few years in the regular SEAL Teams, David was accepted to try out and accepted into the ultra-elite SEAL Team Six. David Mason would also rise to the rank of Lieutenant Commander before the event of Black Ops II occured.

Events of Black Ops II
Thirty years since his last encounter with David, Raul Menendez rises to power and plans to launch a cyberattack in an attempt to start the Second Cold War. On April 19, 2025, David, now a Navy SEAL Commander codenamed Section, with his ally and close friend Mike Harper and a team, goes to Woods' retirement house and asks him about his knowledge on Menendez. Woods recounted his adventures with Mason from his rescue at Angola, up to Nicaragua, when he assumed Menendez was dead. When Section questioned why Woods was still alive even though Menendez paid him a visit, Woods ignored the question and told him to go find "that maniac".

The day after, Section, along with Harper, Javier Salazar and Crosby went to investigate the presence of Menendez's soldiers at Myanmar. Here, they discovered that Menendez was planning to use Celerium as a basis for a cyber attack that could cripple the entire cyberworld. They also learned that Menendez was using all his cartel money to hire PMCs, SDCs, and Mercs. He was using the facility in Myanmar to build his own army of CLAWs, quadrotors (MQ-27 Dragonfires), ASDs, and MQ Drones. With the help of a scientist named Erik Breighner, Section and his team retrieved a Celerium core, which he later gave to Admiral Briggs who brought in an extraction team.

About one month later, Section and his team went to investigate Menendez' second-in-command, DeFalco, who was spotted in Pakistan. They were able to infiltrate Anthem, and managed to record Menendez' conversation with the leader of the ISI force, revealing that General Tian Zhao of the SDC was secretly in alliance with Menendez, and that they would have a meeting on June 17. They managed to escape after almost being compromised, but ran into Zhao's forces. However, Zhao let them live, since he assumed they were only after Menendez and not knowing his secret.

The intel recorded from the conversation also revealed that "Karma", which was then assumed as the cyberweapon Menendez planned to use, was on Colossus. Section, Harper and Salazar went to Colossus, and after fighting through several PMC soldiers, found out that Menendez planned to bomb the entire floating island. They also discovered that "Karma" was not a weapon, but a woman named Chloe Lynch. They located Chloe at Club Solar, but at the same time DeFalco also appeared and took several bystanders hostage. After Chloe decided to give herself in, Section and his team gave chase. They either managed to save Chloe and kill DeFalco, or let DeFalco escape with Chloe.

Knowing that Woods still had some information, Section went to The Vault and asked about what happened at Panama. As the story was told, Section was shocked to find out that his father did not die by the hands of Menendez, but rather Woods himself. Knowing that it was not his fault, Section reassured Woods that Menendez would be defeated.

Trivia

 * He is the fourth playable character known to see their reflection in-game, the first being Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's John Price in "Dust to Dust", the second being Raul Menendez in "Time and Fate" and the third being Frank Woods in "Suffer with Me".
 * Liam O'Brien was David Mason's voice actor during the E3 2012 LA demo. In the finished version of the game Rich McDonald portrays David.
 * In the Mission "Cordis Die" during the E3 2012 gameplay, David Mason's reflection has many differences to the finished ingame cutscene, the largest being he doesn't have any glasses on and he bears a resemblance more to Harper than his finished self.
 * David Mason also appears in Black Ops II's outro dancing and also holding a Cordis Die sign.
 * David Mason is the only playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops II that stands over 6 feet tall.
 * David is the only main character in Black Ops II who is scripted not to die.
 * David is currently one of two characters in the Call of Duty series who is seen as a child, as well as an adult; the other being Raul Menendez.
 * Also, David is the first playable character in Call of Duty series to be a son of another playable character, Alex Mason, making this the first father-son relationship on-screen in the series.

Дэвид Мэйсон

David Mason