Touchstone, true name Stuart Coleman, was security chief and second in command/ 2IC of the Red Section paramilitary-terrorist consortium. He was also a right-hand man to the commander, Singularity.
He played a significantly antagonistic role in Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror.
Background
For most of the nineties, Coleman operated in the National Security Agency on classified assignments before disappearing during the course of a mission. Most people generally assumed he was killed in action or missing, but Coleman was alive and merely hiding under new aliases, such as Franklin Baxter, while becoming involved with underworld figures and criminal activities. He partnered with Grant Morill to be the head of security and second-in-command of Red Section, a paramilitary group. With Morill assuming the codename Singularity, Coleman took on the alias Touchstone.
Touchstone and a unit of soldiers tried to eliminate Gabriel Logan when the Agency investigated Red Section's Mafia ally Viktor Yavlinski. He eventually engineered the kidnapping of Addison Hargrove's daughter Blake in exchange for information on Project Dark Mirror, and knocked the elder Hargrove down a cliff after an attempt to assault him missed him.
Logan was present at the meeting and made a personal vendetta to find Touchstone. He traced Coleman to a section of the mountain observatory where he lost possession of the Agency's MB-150 rifle. Touchstone used the weapon against Logan, but sustained injuries in an exchange of gunfire. Logan dropped Coleman from the cliff to suffer the same fate he believed Hargrove had endured.
Personality and characteristics
Touchstone is ruthless and does whatever he must do to get the upper hand. He kills a casino security guard before the latter can talk and orders his troops to sweep up the mess, telling them nobody must leave alive. Later, Addison comments that he brought guards when the deal was that he should have been alone. She then strikes him; in retaliation he kicks Hargrove to her apparent death, when in reality she had prepared for that eventuality beforehand and tied herself with a bungee rope to the platform railing.
During his fight with Gabe Logan, Touchstone is either cunning, cowardly, or a mixture of both. He runs off when Gabe tries to target him and leaves his men to deal with the enemy threat. When Logan finally confronts him inside a gondola chamber, he knocks Gabe down and steals his most powerful weapon - the MB-150. However, he is still no match for the IPCA commander and is ultimately dropped off the mountain, ironically reflecting what he did to Addison, but for him the consequences were fatal.
Strategy
Red Section's security chief, and the man you obsessed with over Addison's death. Teresa told Logan to wait it out until reinforcements arrived, but Gabe decided to do otherwise. But here it seems Gabe made the wrong call: Coleman knocked him out, and stole his most powerful weapon.
This fight can take a little while. First of all, you don't have a sniper rifle, and he does. However, remember that Desert Sniper you found from the grunts? Well, use it. First, take the M67 grenade you grabbed in the bathroom (provided you still have it) and toss it at the door area on his platform while he's nearer that end. Touchstone will run towards the canister and it will explode, removing almost all of his body armour. Anyway, there's a medkit and a flak jacket in the back corner and a flak jacket under one of the platforms that Touchstone stays on. Every now and then, the gondola will come around, and there will be two enemies on it. They'll alternate between carrying SSP 90s and Sweeper 12 gauges. Obviously, you'll want to keep appropriate distance from the shotgunners. Anyway, my only suggestion is to use cover and eat down Touchstone's health and shields until he's gone. However, whenever a new gondola of soldiers arrives, make them your top priority, since they can hurt you pretty bad if left unnoticed. Also, do NOT keep under cover, stay moving, because every now and then, Touchstone will fire one of the special darts, and it could kill you if you're not careful... Anyway, good luck.
Things to remember
- Pay attention to subtitles: they will more often than not tip you off to Touchstone using your special darts.
- If enemies arrive, do your best to dodge the darts from Touchstone, and kill the grunts first.
- Keep moving, and remember you can always duck back into the door to reheal/ reload etc if everything goes to hell.
Quotes during battle
- "Hmmm...I wonder what this button does...?"
- "Pin him down, I'll finish him off!"
Trivia
- His codename refers to any physical or intellectual measure by which the validity or merit of a concept can be tested.
- He is rather fond of eating at exorbitantly expensive places, as evidenced by a hidden evidence found in the Konigsberg casino.
Gallery
