Los Angeles Resistance Cell (V Series) - The Taylors

The Taylors

Benjamin Taylor was a medical doctor and oldest son of Caleb and brother to Elias. Ben helped the family to become more financially stable when he became a doctor, but didn't marry as he was too interested in studying medicine and too dedicated to the Hippocratic oath to take advantage of women he took care of. Caleb regularly considered Ben's practise a more worthwhile job and constantly nagged Elias to become something more worthwhile than a black market dealer. However, this enraged Elias, who liked his life the way it was, and this led to a severe conflict between him and Ben. This conflict lasted for 10 years, while Elias was steadily distancing himself from the family and Ben became part of Doctor Rudolph Metz's staff and became a good friend of Doctor Julie Parrish.

When the Visitors arrived on Earth, Ben and his colleagues were all eager to learn the secrets behind Visitor physiology, but never got an opportunity to study them in detail. Meanwhile, ominous changes appeared in society, such as a sudden wave of ostracization against scientists, and the growing influence the Visitors had over the government and local authorities. This concerned Ben to the point where he joined Julie's new-found L.A. Resistance Cell, a group dedicated to fight the Visitors. Ben tried desperately to get Elias to help the group, as he had many useful contacts in the black market and could get the Resistance badly needed materials and supplies. Elias however refused, as their conflict was still strong.

Ben, Julie and former-Officer Brad McIntyre raided Stamos Pharmaceutical Company for lab equipment for their new headquarters. Just as they were poised to escape, the Visitors guards saw through Ben's act and began chasing him, separating him from the others. He ended up running down an abandoned multi-story car park and, when trapped by a Visitors shocktrooper, was shot by his laser rifle and knocked off the three-story ledge and landed in a pile of garbage below. Julie narrowly rescued him and got him too Elias, but, due to severe internal injuries he suffered in the fall and unable to call an ambulance without alerting the police, died of his injuries in the car several minutes later. The shock of his death finally led Elias to snap out of his juvenile attitude and he cried, cradling Ben's body in his arms.

After Ben's funeral, Caleb and Elias joined up with the Resistance to fight in his name, and the conflict turned Elias into the responsible adult Ben always wanted him to become.

Caleb Taylor was a worker at Arthur Dupres's chemical plant and widower with two sons; Benjamin and Elias. His family was in turmoil when Caleb constantly nagged Elias about becoming more worthwhile than a black market dealer, often using Benjamin; a doctor, as an example and this led Elias to despise Benjamin. Caleb was injured in an accident at the plant, and is rescued by one of the Visitor technicians; Willie, which leads them to become friends. When Benjamin joined the Resistance and is killed by the Visitors, Caleb and Elias both become active members of the Resistance to avenge his death. When Willie was captured for research into the Visitors biology, Caleb vouched for his survival and freedom as he considered him more trustworthy than most Visitors. During the discussion for the final attack on the Visitors with the Red Dust toxin, Caleb feared nuclear annihilation and voted against it, while Elias supported it. Caleb is proud of the man Elias has now become and accompanies Elias, Mike Donovan, Julie Parrish, Sancho Gomez, Harmony Moore, Willie and many others onto the Visitor Mothership orbiting Los Angeles and helped kill the entire crew with the Red Dust, allowing the ship to be captured by the Resistance and Earth be saved from destruction.

Whether he is still alive during the Second Invasion or he lived to see his second son, Elias, die in combat, is unknown.

after Ben's casket is placed in the funeral hearse, Willie says that he feels sorry for Caleb's loss, but Caleb pushes Willie blaming the visitors for Ben's death.

Elias Taylor was the youngest son of Caleb Taylor and juvenile brother of Benjamin and an influential member of the black market and a petty thief and criminal. He was in constant conflict with Ben as Caleb constantly compared the two and found Benjamin better, leading to an estrangement that lasted for 10 years. Elias was asked by a desperate Benjamin to aid the newly-founded Resistance with materials and weapons that Elias could secure, but he refused. Elias finally became a man when he was devastated by the loss of Benjamin when he died of injuries inflicted by the Visitors.

Elias and Caleb then became active members of the Resistance, and although he still resorted to using criminal practises to achieve objectives, he still remained conscious of what he was doing and remained loyal to the cause. He vouched for the use of the Red Dust despite the threat of nuclear annihilation by the Visitors, saying that they were the only chance the Earth had. Caleb was touched by his deep belief in the cause and reconciled with him. Elias was part of the Resistance assault team that stormed the Visitor Mothership in orbit above Los Angeles and helped secure the command center and bring the ship back to Earth in Resistance hands.

Having obtained "Hero of the Resistance" status and gained a widely-respected reputation with the population shortly after the war's end, Elias decided to leave his criminal past behind and go into the restaurant business. He bought a broken-down restaurant in Los Angeles, and brought back its former glory and made it into a high-successful business, which he named Club Creole, with Willie as its bartender, and then began expanding his blooming business to encompass marketing and entertainment products, making him fabulously rich. One year after Liberation Day, when the Visitors launched the Second Invasion, Elias feared for his business's safety, but nonetheless provided support for the Resistance by allowing them to use the club's hidden Prohibition-era bordello, providing a perfect hideout from the Visitors and headquarters for the movement. Elias himself remained with the group, often going on missions with the team, while maintaining his public facade as a neutral propierter for both humans and Visitors in the new "Open City". Though his restaurant is ultimately destroyed by Science Frontiers security personnel for being a Resistance hotbed of activity and forces Elias underground, he kept doing his part for the cause with unwavering loyalty.

When Caniff Printing, a newspaper shop loyal to the Resistance and publishing an underground newspaper, was seized by Science Frontiers security personnel and 6 Resistance agents, including Robin Maxwell, captured, Mike Donovan sent teams of two all over the city in an effort to locate the hostages. Elias and Willie were the ones who found the hostages, trapped in the shop. Willie initially wanted to leave back to the hideout to warn the others, but Elias wanted to know what the mysterious new platform was outside the shop and crept closer. Unfortunately, this was actually the platform for a Visitor disintegrator ray and, when the Visitors spotted Elias, turned the weapon on him and fired. Elias was vaporized.

When Mike was about to lead an attack on the shop to free the hostages, he gave a speech about Elias Taylor; their fallen hero;

"Now Elias is gone, but it's up to us to do something about it. Now we know he wasn't perfect, he took advantage of what we went through to set himself up. Flashy restaurant, the whole nine yards. But when it counted, when the Visitors returned, the truth was he cared too much to turn his back on us. He took us in, he gave us a place to stay and he paid for it with his life. And if you think about it, we're all together right now because of him. I'd say we owe him one."