8 replies to this topic

[Viscoun]

 

"Troops, today you're gathered here on Triumph Platform for one, singular purpose. The fifty-thousand people living on this hunk of flying scrap are putting their lives in your hands, and you'd damn well better remember that every time you take a shrike on. That you're doing it for the greater good. For your families, for your friends. Everyone you know and love. And even if you're a loner who doesn't love anyone, think about how nice it is to be alive. To feel the wind in your hair when you're on one of your missions. And imagine losing that, like we lost Port Flight. If you won't live for yourself, live for everyone else.

 

"Look to your left. You see that bit of broken bridge hanging off the edge of Anteria, way over there? That there is proof that your lives could end in even a matter of seconds, if that's what whoever's up there wants for y'all. So you better prove to him or her that you're living a life worth living, before they drop you down the deep end, and you turn into a shriveled lump of acidified mush and disappear below the clouds."

 

The commander paused, and looked over everyone present. There were less than he thought. Much, much less. Either command had missed someone, or Port Flight had taken more people with her than he'd thought.

 

He switched his communicator on and patched it to headquarters. "Get me the log on all available hands ASAP," he ordered.

 

"Understood. Data coming through the system now."

 

Pulling his data-slate out from his pocket, he took one last look at the pilots, and then began flipping through the roster.

 

[Post your finished portfolios here!]

[The Illuminati]

Jaegal

Spoiler

Theme: Galvanize (The Chemical Brothers)

Name: Devona Jaegal
Age: 28 yrs. (pre-hypersleep)
Gender: Female
Rank: Master Sergeant

Background
Devona was once an orphan and grew up on the lower tiers of a small border colony. To escape her life of poverty, she became an enforcer for underworld gangs. When she finally reached the age of 18 yrs., she enlisted with the Valkyrie Protectorate and never looked back.

Years later Devona received a mysterious message from a member of the gang she used to belong to, asking for her help on XZ-5. She ignored it at first but when it was reported the next day that Port Flight had simply vanished in the middle of the night, she immediately set out for the mining colony. After 10 yrs. spent in hypersleep, she finally arrives on the colony and immediately begins her secret investigation into the mystery Port Flight's collapse.

Mech.: Galvatron-818

Primary Weapon - Solar Cannon X-653 (right arm): high damage, long cooldown.
Secondary Weapon - Ferrari Minigun C-6 (base of the left arm): high rate of fire, low damage, low cooldown.
Primary Reinforcement - ZZ3 Arc-Lasergrid (repulsive barrier): An energy shield that safely deflects small objects traveling at rapid velocities.
Secondary Reinforcement - X18 Cronus Armor (mech armor): An outer plating that offers a high level of protection against enemy fire, temperature extremes and radiation.

Edited by Obsession, 28 January 2015 - 07:03 PM.

[Siderealmidnight]

Spoiler

<Theme - If you're cool like that.>

 

Name: Volya Kedrov

Age: 29

Gender: Male

Rank: Major

 

Background: Volya was born in Triumvirate to parents who had been hired from one of the most prominent companies in the Federation to be in charge of maintaining the vast and intricate mining spire against external damage from the atmosphere and aggressive wildlife, as well as create countermeasure to reduce the likelihood of such instances in the future. Maintaining the spire, the main source of trade with the rest of the Federation was a full-time job, so Volya spent most of his childhood either at a private school in Anteria, or within the inner workings of the spire with his parents.

 

Spending so much time around the spire in Point Flight Volya got to see the Valkyries frequently growing up, and to a mind already predisposed towards mechanical complexity the breadth of flying mecha fascinated him. When he was sixteen Volya expressed an interest in joining the Valkyries as a mechanic, to gain as in depth a knowledge of the various kinds of Valkyrie as he had of the mining spire. His parents, avid mechanical engineers in their own right, were delighted to see Volya's desire to head down a similar path and supported wholeheartedly his desire to enter the Valkyries.

 

So it was that, at the age of eighteen, Volya enlisted in the Valkyries as an airman. He would enjoy the rigors of piloting and repairing the mecha until a year later when the entirety of Port Flight collapsed into the planet's atmosphere. As one of the few surviving members of the Valkyries (he had been visiting his parents in Anteria at the time) his year of experience served to promote him to senior airman, a position he would regret having as the shrikes only grew more aggressive after the destruction of Port Flight. As no one could afford to be strictly support staff anymore Volya was thrown into battle alongside his duties as a mechanic, and it was found that he had a talent for operating the remaining Valkyries, most of which were out of date models that would have otherwise been disposed of for more efficient control schemes and slicker forms. His skills as a pilot promoted him to Staff Sergeant, and since then he has dedicated his life to servicing Valkyries when he can and piloting them when the sitiuation calls for it.

 

In that time his skills at both repairing Valkyries and piloting them have only improved, securing his promotion to Major. Using the increased access to resoures to be found at that pay grade he has created a prototype, The Nephtis, based upgraded technology from old Earth with the parts from Valkyries too heavily damage to fly anymore.

 

Prototype- Magatama Mk. 3 (Primary and secondary weapon, primary reinforcement): A series of six low-yield engines linked to a ring on the back of the Nephtis that serves as both control tower and yield amplifier for them. The engines are modular in that they can change from propulsion devices to energy cannons based on user input (only two cannons active at a time). When used in conjunction  with the ring, which can be operated independently from the Nephtis the engines can be used to create a high-yield energy cannon or a directional shield which is able to block projectiles from the direction it's facing in a hemisphere. 

 

Prototype- Ablative Armor (secondary reinforcement): In the wake of increased shrike attacks Volya is testing a type of armor that evenly disperses force and heat throughout the system, using a series of coolant tubes within the Nephtis to offset overheating.

 

 

Personal equipment:

1xToolkit

1x Sunglasses

Extras:

In the past several years Volya has had to split his time between Valkyrie maintenance and maintaining the mining spire against increased Shrike activity.

Volya is acknowledged as the unofficial chief mechanic, at the cost of ignoring all other leadership responsibilities.

[Darkoda]

Spoiler

 

Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5gO8WMXsMI

Name: Coco Gelato

Age: 25

Gender: Female.

Rank: Major

 

Background: Back before she came up with her current name, Coco was a tinkerer. She saw mines and machinery and equipment and dreamed of ways to open them up, to play and manipulate and operate and turn them into something new, something beyond what they were. Her habits also drifted towards people, lost limbs, permanent muscle injuries, failed sight, organ issues? Coco wanted to fix it all, make something that worked better. She wasn’t driven by a desire to help her fellow man or anything of the sort; she just felt compelled to improve on things to prove that she could.

 

Funnily enough, people with that kind of thought process make very good innovators with the right teaching and Coco was also a brilliant little maniac. She excelled in her classes to the point that despite concerns about her eccentric nature, primarily her willingness to take risks that made it a wild guess if her results would be brilliant successes or unmitigated disasters, she was headhunted for an experimental research division when she was but fifteen.

 

It took a few rounds of ethics courses drilled into her head, but she blossomed wonderfully with the new topics she could pursue to her heart’s content, on top of more advanced tutoring on everything that caught her fancy. One of her main interests was in those bloody birds that kept tormenting everyone. Just how did they get bodies so enduring? It was something she wanted to understand, she wanted as many of them as she could get to cut them up and play until she pried all their secrets loose.

 

If she knew just how much trouble it would cause, she might have managed to reign in her obsessions just this once.

 

The military was also very interested in the Shrikes, and moreso her given her habit of getting results (after a disaster or two, but given the subject, nothing of importance would get caught up for one). Of course Coco herself was decidedly not interested in joining the military proper, not wanting to risk her skin more than usual. This wasn’t a problem before when they essentially hired out her research team and let her play around with the Valkyries – and did she have some ideas for those, that Reaper project especially, so much fun, though a few adjustments were needed here and there.

 

She would have been fine if that Port didn’t collapse and they passed that conscription law. But what was the difference between being conscripted and what she was doing normally? Well when she wasn’t an official part of the command structure they couldn’t make her actually do manual labour like piloting. She wasn’t happy about it. She still isn’t happy about it.

 

 

Mech: Violet Spark - Her personal Valkyrie, designed by her, stuffed full of her odds and ends that needed testing but lacked test subjects to do so. Suprisingly small at only twelve feet tall.

 

1. Primary weapon: S.O.L : Rapid fire streams of her experimental energy fired from the generation points (those arm blades) on her mech. There is another hideously complex explanation involving targeting and the nature of the energy that translates to it being capable of homing onto the marked target. What does it do exactly? It was designed to incinerate all the fleshy bits and nerves and other irrelevant bits on the Shrikes, leaving their bones, beaks and talons preserved for collection. It’s also very good at frying electronics and other energy sources, which made working with it….well there were a few accidents.

 

2. Secondary weapon: F.O.E: Those cannons, when dealing with annoying things can fire two heavily concentrated beams of doom. Focused that much, the energy tends to shift to ‘destroy everything’ She can adjust the output to instead generate energy sabres for…stuff.

 

4. Primary reinforcement: Those glowing bits on the mech? Experimental energy source fuelled by a series of reactions designed to make near limitless energy in short bursts. Theoretically. It’s the mech’s engine, weaponry system and a very handy shield given what happens when things come on contact with it.

 

5. Secondary reinforcement: F.U.B.A.R – The results of her work, her mech’s body is built out of an alloy forged from Shrike bones and armor and some other violations of nature. Lightweight yet extremely hard to damage, suitable for Coco’s testing purposes.

 

 

Personal equipment: Recorder, her music collection, palm laptop for any flashes of brilliance.

 

Extras:

Coco Gelato is not her real name. Unfortunately, everyone who knew her real name was in Port city. It’s commonly understood that she just enjoys forcing people to show military respect to ice cream.

 

She has an addiction to chocolate.

 

She tends to be hopped up on sugar and caffeine to keep going.

 

Despite how destructive her failures can be, she actually does have ethics and won’t test things involving live people without warning. That said if anything happens, she’s sorry in advance.

 

Rumour has it that the Reaper program was partially fueled by her desire to torment people after being forced to go though physical training.

 

She is working on a project to have remote controlled Valkyries – there is enough of a delay currently to render it unwise to use for combat. So far, her research has slowed dramatically due to the lack of spare Valkyrie for her use.

 

She is effectively the head of R&D after the Port Flight incident; with her superiors gone, she was officially conscripted out of necessity.

 

Unofficially it was because no sane general trusted her with what she knew without supervision and because she was one of the few people who could reliably maintain the more experimental equipment.

 

Her latest project involves Valkyries produced from Shrike inspired alloys. The sole reason she doesn’t complain more about being forced into the front lines is due to the opportunity to get her own research material/alloy base materials.

 

….That and having a monopoly on the base’s chocolate supplies. 

[Misty]

Spoiler

 

 

 

Name: Augustus Sephtis Hadrian the Fifth
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
Background:
Sephtis Hadrian’s father despising him is the worst kept secret in the military mostly because their disagreements are nearly legendary at this point. They are only legendary because Sephtis’ father is the Lieutenant General of the Triumvarate. Sephtis is the son of his first wife, a lovely and innocent creature who seemingly took the edge off of his father, Augustus Hadrian’s often sharp and cruel personality. When she died from complications in childbirth, it was fairly clear that their relationship was off to a rocky start when he refused to even see his son and instead had him immediately given to a herd of nannies and butlers.

Sephtis craved his father’s attention as many children do and it was only after his father remarried and his wife gave birth to a baby girl, Cecelia, that Sephtis realized that while he had his father’s name and the birthrights that came with it, he would never receive his father’s love or admiration – a tough lesson for a seven year old to accept. Even tougher still was his step mother’s desire to mother him which he rejected at every turn (although he did take quite the liking to his step sister, possibly because she was the only one in his life who showed unconditional affection and admiration for him.

His father, feeling that Augustus couldn’t spend his life in a nursery playing with his precious daughter, sent Augustus to the military academy and turned a blind eye to his son’s triumphs for years pausing only to sign a waiver when Sephtis turned 14 so that he could become a test pilot. (An act made possible by the fact Sephtis was top of his class and years ahead of people twice his age in his understanding of tactics and piloting (a feat largely made possible by his sharp intellect and lack of a family or social life.)
In the decade since becoming a test-pilot, Sephtis has moved ranks in leaps and bounds largely due to his great success on and off the battle-field. Although he maintains the outwards appearance of living with his father, step-mother and sister, Sephtis only appears at gathers and family dinners with them, the reality is that he often sleeps anywhere and everywhere but his home (usually the place of whatever floozy he’s charmed lately.)

 

 

1. Primary weapon: Dual wielded power swords of some variety
6. Tertiary reinforcement: back-up generator
4. Primary reinforcement: Shield Generator
5. Secondary reinforcement: Reinforced plating



Personal equipment: A picture of his younger step-sister, chewing gum, cigarettes, a lighter his father gifted to him upon his graduation, a pack of cards in case he gets stuck inside, and a headband to keep his hair from his eyes.

Extras:
- He has a tattoo of a roman eagle on his back
- He calls his Mecha Prometheus
- Often called upon to test pilot new mecha before they go to their pilot
- Is well trained in the wielding of swords
- Good at cards or anything else that requires charm, manipulation, or mind games.
- Several scars across his chest from a previous mission in which his mecha was totaled and he spent time in the hospital.

-He has sad eyes.

 

[Diabolical Rhapsody]

Spoiler

Theme: What a smile hides

 

Name: Esthelle Vargas

Age: 22

Gender: Female

Rank: 2nd Lieutenant

 

Background: Esthelle parents were miners or extractors as they are known in Port Flight.They worked to earn an honest living and loved their daughter who due to complications during birth was born a quadriplegic. Never having known the use of her limbs, young Esthelle's life was dominated by one thing and one thing alone. The digital world. Out in the digital universe her inability didn't matter, rather her young, creative mind was appreciated.

 

She did nothing groundbreaking, well sort of in a rather oblique way she may have, but that wasn't her intention. Through hers and others like her, the up and coming Sierra Lifesystems developed the "Eckankar" project. By the expert use of bionics and other digital wizardry they would be able to replicate or mimic the life of regular humans.

 

The tech was stratospheric in prize but with Esthelle being in the core development group she had a discount, one which her parents could pay through fifteen years of labor but alas life isn't so easy. With the fall of the skybridges and loss of operations, they lost their jobs and a means to repay the cost of seeing their beloved child mobile again.

 

But, yet again Esthelle found the answer herself. As a part of a legion of programmers, they managed to improve upon the underlying architecture for "Eckankar" to give it multi-portability across systems. Now the mechanical appendages were merely for the aesthetics of humanoid form that many were accustomed too. With a breakthrough implant, Esthelle's team had directly ported the process to brain.

 

The more creative and dynamic the brain, the more the opportunities. This earned her another upgrade and a new life. As when the chance presented itself, Esthelle leaped at it to serve the cause of her planet and the fact that the heroine she idolized happened to be in the force herself.

 

Afterall, it wasn't everyday that one could have the opportunity to be in presence of a magnetic icon like Isabel Mendoza.

 

1. Primary weapon: T-127x "Thunderbolt" Plasma Rifle.

2. Secondary weapon: XV-3900M "Masamune" Plasma Blade.

3. Tertiary weapon: U.V.B.G "Gorgon's Eyes" (Ultra-violet Beam Generator.) Fires a high frequency laser to split enemies in two.

4. Primary reinforcement: Shield Generator.

5. Secondary reinforcement: -

6. Tertiary reinforcement: -

 

Medusa

 

Personal equipment: Giro - Multi-system Portability manager.

 

A bag for storing her arms and legs. 

 

Direct port XJ-76 wires.

 

Extras: Is a Manga enthusiast

 

- Peppy and talkative, she can be a bit annoying at times.

[Imnostrong]

Spoiler

 

all credits for the image goes to emerson tung

 

Name: Jethro "Octo" Murdock
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Rank:
  TSgt: Technical Sergeant
 
Background:
 
Former militia sniper, graduated from Port Flight Militia academy being the top of his class when he was 18th years old
got into an accident in Port Flight when some of the shrikes broke the city defense line and massacre a whole block of Citizen quarter.
this happened a few years before the city goes down.
He survived but his face has to be wholly reconstructed due to heavy injury in his face.
 
Even though it was not his fault, he was one that was deemed to bear the responsibility of the incident and dishonorably discharged form the Militia
 
Forced to an early Retirement, Octo become mercenary for hire and get into some many kind of trouble.
Bar fight, Violence, Theft, Illegal Possession of galactically-banned-Fire Arms and many more

 
When the city goes down, he was there left alone.
No one would care for such a trash, no one would even mourn about him when he passed away.
world would be much a better place without him.
 
but just as he was about to give up on his live. an unknown Valkyrie approach him from the skies
saving him and several other citizen that was trapped in the building near him.
 
after that he turned over a new leaf.
Assigning himself to the Valkyrie Protectorate
dedicated his live to pay up his life-debt
 
 

 

Valkyrie - Zero-D4 Nobunaga Mark-5

 

 

all credits for the image goes to emerson tung

 
Height: 35ft
Weight 70 tons
Equiped with The 07-AG Control system, a device that enables a heavier than air object to overcome gravity and achieve controllable weightlessness in the atmosphere.
 
1. [Primary weapon] Muramasa MK-7 
detail: 14ft Monomolecular Coated Condensed Pure Steel Alloy
 
2. [Secondary weapon] M1K EMRC 
detail: 18ft long Electronic Magnetic Rail Canon also used as hilt or launcher for Muramasa MK-7, a
 
3. [Primary reinforcement] D3 Shield
detail: Plasma Powered Shield generator
 
4. [Secondary reinforcement] NV15 Cloak
detail: 3 Senses Cloaking device - Visual - Smell - Sound
  
[Operating System] Windows 7
detail: Just Kidding, it's just a standard operating system
 
[Personal Equipment] XC0M "Christy" CPSR
detail: 2ft long Convertible Plasma Sniper Riffle
 
[No-Extra]
 
 

Edited by imnosaint, 04 February 2015 - 02:29 AM.

[Diabolical Rhapsody]

Fiesty-Pants (Missy) CS:

 

Spoiler

 

Name: Isabel Mendoza

 

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Rank: Lieutenant Colonel

 

Appearance: Isabel is one who holds a rather memorable appearance. While suited up with her exosuit, she is actually often much smaller than the other pilots. Sacrificing extra armor for the sake of greater speed and maneuverability, alongside exceptionally powerful weaponry, most would scoff at her appearance. That is of course, until they see her effectiveness in combat. Her suit, called "Reaper" by both the military and the press is mostly a skin-tight suit that is a high frequency shield generator. Part of an experimental surge to try and make faster and more powerful weapons, her arsenal is the result. It is a black suit, stretching tightly across the curvature of her form, with patches of gray where there's only the slightest reinforcement to protect the shield generators. Her helmet is also black, but with a reflective silver visor. Upon her waist resides her main weaponry series, which is two almost primitive looking weapons.

 

Yet they are anything but.

 

Outside of her suit, Isabel's appearance is just as memorable as the miniature weaponry she uses. With olive skin, deep pools of blackened eyes and long, curling chestnut hair, she can be quite the sight to behold if she wished to be. Usually with her uniform that is of a gray tone, she upholds the standards and regulations set to her position strictly. The commander of a small strike unit which utilizes weaponry much like her own, the grade of their cooperation, skill, and teamwork harnessed by her talents has brought their effectiveness to new heights. Yet she is one to still quip a cunning smile, and is known for having a bit of a dry wit, so not only can she be stunning if she chose to be, but quite sociable as well.

 

Biography: Isabel comes from a family that is of strictly military pedigree. Her family dates themselves back to the first pilots of the last great wars that humanity buried themselves within, and it is a tradition she continues today. Raised and trained in a military academy from the age of seven, she is very much indoctrinated into the military way of life. By the age of sixteen, her family signed a waiver to join the Valkyrie forces, and by the age of eighteen she was a full bonafide pilot.

 

With the experimental programme she found herself conscripted into, the young Pilot joined the Reaper Program, which now is notorious as ever. It was a two-pronged effort. First injecting the pilot with variety of medicines and other chemicals, increasing their perception, reaction time and physical durability. Second then came in the form of the exo-suit program. Designed to even further enhance those three facets, it also came with heavy and extraordinarily powerful weaponry.

 

For the intention was simple. Design a soldier that was fast, incredibly strong, but small. So that he or she was harder to hit or detect.

 

Little did they know how well they succeeded.

 

On the battlefield, Isabel and her small complement of soldiers also involved in the programme showed remarkable results and success. Having embarked on several different missions and suffering no losses while causing horrific numbers upon their adversaries. This did not last however, as Shrikes also have a tendency to adapt, and laid a trap for Isabel and her comrades.

 

In a horrific ambush, she was barely able to escape.

 

A few years later, after having been promoted to a Lieutenant Colonel, she finds herself on the front lines once again. The last Reaper.

 

Reaper

 

 

Equipment:

-Primary Weapon- -Arc Blades- These two swords which are long, slightly curved, and thin are sheathed on her hips. With each blade nearly several feet in length, they don't seem to possess the kind of punch other suits normally have until she makes impact with them. The moment she draws them, a superheated conductivity runs through the already razor sharp edge of the blade. So hot is it, that it slices easily through almost any existing substance, many have seen Isabel slice a Shrike in half in the blink of an eye.

 

-Secondary Weapon- -Rail Gun- A long-range weapon with projectiles that fire at speeds of thousands upon thousands of miles per second. Designed as a grossly effective improvement upon the archaic sniper rifles of old, this longarm is holstered vertically across the upper middle of her back. Though compact, it also packs a powerful, armor piercing punch.

 

-Armor Reinforcement- -Shielding- This reinforcement is what gives exosuit it's overall chassis and protection. As small, aerodynamic, and form fitting as possible.

 

-Propulsion Systems- -Omnidirectional Thrust Control- A series of pulse-generated thrusters on her heels, hands, and back. Allowing her to travel at up to three times the speed of sound while in the atmosphere, and even faster outside of it. With this also comes a series of three other thrusters on her outer thighs and biceps that grant greater mobility, which is key during close quarters combat.

 

[JumpinJR]

 

Spoiler

Theme
 

Name:  Jack o’Connor,
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Rank: Staff Sergeant
 

Background:  
I started the camera, a blue light clicked on.  A sound that reminded me of a bell went off.  I eased my way back into the chair, exhaling slowly.  The screen infront of me turned on, showing my face and the well lit room.  After a brief pause I started.  

 

“Hey there, Specialist o’Connor here.  Uh...”  I hated this already.  Damn doc, damn assistant... nice legs though... Shit I’m recording.

 

“So Doctor Cecil thinks I should make a video journal.  It’s supposed to help me process my interactions with the system.  She says ‘no one will view the entries unless a situation arises.’  I guess that means I start going crazy or I’m dead and they need to replace me...”  I exhale.  I hate this.  Talking to myself.  I take a look at the notes given to me by the Doc fore I left this morning.  Topics to start on.  History.

 

“History... alright, what the hell.  My dad was miner.  My mom a nurse.  Don’t know too much about them.  Mom died in childbirth of my younger sister.  Dad died in accident when I was 4.”

 

“So my sisters and I, we got taken in with our uncle, dad’s brother.  Jacob, he’s a good guy.  He already had one girl, brought us in without a second thought.  I should have been better to him.”  I take a breath and pause.  I try to figure out how much I want to tell.

 

“So I grew up, lived my life the way any mostly orphaned in mining city does.  Badly, and with as little contact with the law as possible.  Rolled with a crew for awhile.  Brawled, drank, robbed...”

 

“I got bored of that, fell out with most of the crew, some still talk and drink with me.  About two years ago, the family needed money.  I knew about one of these warehouses.  Where Sagitarius did some research, so I broke in.  Figured, steal something that looked important, sell it, hope I don’t wind up shot.”  For some reason addmiting to larceny isn’t as painful as talking about the rest of my past.  I should probably read something into that.  I’ll just drink instead.

 

“So, jump a fence, pick a lock, etc... and I find myself on a catwalk in a large open area.  Like massive hanger large.  Right near me, there are these two pools of what I thought were water or something.  The far one was this lime green, and the one beneath me blue.  It kinda creeped me out.  There was this... this humming.  I lost my nerve, I turned around to leave when I realized I could hear a splashing.  I turned around and, in the green pool, there was this woman, splashing around.  It took me awhile to realize, she was drowning.”  I was getting excited, I didn’t like this part of the story, but it always got me excited.

 

“I didn’t see anyone else in the area, so I jumped... Four stories down... into the mysterious blue liquid.  No one ever accused me being rational.  I got in the stuff.  And pain erupted from every part of me.”

 

“It felt like I was being torn apart.  I wanted to scream, but the idea of having the stuff in my mouth, my throat kept me from.  I remembered why I was in there.  The woman.  I swam.”

 

“Every movement felt slow, and the pain made it worse.  I kept going, I got to the edge of the blue and realized there wasn’t a barrier.  It wasn’t two pools near each other, it was one giant one.”

 

“I swam through the divide, where the blue turned green or the green turned blue, and suddenly, the pain was gone.  I felt sore, if could still feel the effects, but no more pulling.  I managed to get to the woman, who had stopped struggling and was sinking. I got her above water and we floated to the edge.  I was trying to force her out, when all her weight disappeared.  Then I felt myself get yanked from the pool.  I didn’t have time to look at who got me out before something heavy slugged the back of my head.”  I took a breath.

 

“I woke up two days later, an effect of the blue.  I got yelled at for breaking in by the guards, threats, whatever.  Then someone came in and had them leave.  Doctor Cecil, good guy.  Talks to much.  Bit rabbity.  He explained he was working on new way for Valkyries to be piloted.  The blue stuff, emersion fluid he called....  Actually he called it something with lots of numbers and large words.”

 

“Anyway, at the moment it hadn’t been tested by a human, that made me feel really good.  He wanted me to stay on base for awhile while he ran tests.  He’d pay.  So I stayed there for about three weeks.”

 

“Turns out I’m, what he called, a prime candidate to pilot the Valkyrie he’s building.  He offered to pay me to test it, and if the situation arose, actually fight in it.  I wasn’t a huge fan.”

 

“I was going to walk, then Shelly came in.  Oh, Shelly is the woman who was drowning, Doctor C’s assistant slash minder.  She came into thank me for saving her.  She brought her kid with her.  The kid asks if I’m the hero who saver her mommy.  I try to tell her I’m no hero, but Shelly is practically shouted yes.  The kid lunged for me, giving me a hug.  She started saying ‘thank, thank you much mister hero.’  When the were leaving, Shelly kissed me on the cheek calling me a hero.” I realize I'm smiling like an idiot, I try to get serious.

 

“Look, I know it’s stupid but, the life I’ve lived... the person I was... hearing someone think of me as hero.  It felt right.  I took the job.  I had to go to to training for basic Valkyrie piloting, longest two weeks of my life.  I apparently had a knack for it, still hold the record for a speed course.  Now I pilot the Aleph.”  I smile to myself as I think about my ride sleeping in the hanger a building away.  I’m suddenly aware of how tired I am.  I slowly rise from my seat.

 

“Okay, that’s enough for now.”  I flick off the camera.   

 
1. EchoTech HiPower Beam Weapon:  “This?  This is the face lazer of doom.”  A high powered, high damage, wide beam weapon.  Four second beam, five second cool down.  Fired from face of Aleph.

2. Variable Weapon Mode Shift:  “So... I can either punch or stab someone...” The hands on the Aleph can shift between a blade or fingered mode. 
4. Hyper core directional shielding: “Blue Shields... okay” The Aleph’s core generates a shield that completely surrounds it.  The shield can be focused through the hands of the Aleph
5. Titanium alloy skin: “Shiny Chrome body, very sexy.” Self explanatory.  
 

^that, but more chrome
Aleph
 

Personal equipment: Small caliber firearm, kept in storage with emergency supplies.
 
Extras:
Sunglasses
Cigarettes
Gray baseball cap
Photo of his sisters