Character Name: Claudia Hildebrand Age: 24 Species: Panther Appearance: [img]http://i.imgur.com/BrWysvH.jpg?1[/img] Claudia possesses a classical, elegant beauty combined with a powerful yet athletic form built to top physical condition over years of intense training. Her fur is almost entirely black despite her head of long, red hair, and she has vibrant green eyes full of determination. Her wardrobe seems to consist of nothing but BDU trousers, boots, and tank-tops, with the occasional dress uniform thrown in for good measure, thus nearly everything she wears is military standard. Personality: An exile from a noble house and a soldier to the core, Claudia's dignity, honor and devotion to duty are without measure. Perpetually cool, collected, and deeply sarcastic, even in the heat of battle, her attitude tends to come off as overly strict or stuffy among her fellow pilots, but somewhere beneath the hardened warrior is a cultured woman with a love of music, comic books, and friendly competition, as well as a shady past that she prefers not to discuss. To put it bluntly, her past experiences have instilled in her that honor is earned, not inherited, and despises anyone born with a silver spoon in their mouth who hasn't worked to get to where they are in life. She holds everyone around her to the same high standards she holds herself to, and will gladly lay down her life for her brothers and sisters in arms, regardless of personal feelings. Her respect is hard-won, but if you win it you will win a friend for life. Personal History: Claudia hails from the nation of Wulfram, bordering the Drennian Inland Sea not too far from Landen. Wulfram is a heavily autocratic nation with a strong sense of nationalistic pride and a proud military history. This has allowed them to remain largely independent despite more then a few incompetent rulers in their time, many of whom viewed the populace as an expendable resource. Like many loyal citizens of Wulfram, Claudia loved her country, but despised the men who ruled it. This is unfortunate considering that her family has been the ruling class in Wulfram for years and her father Johan Hildebrand reigned as supreme dictator. Claudia was destined for an easy life of luxury thanks to her status as the princess of Wulfram, but by the time she was a teenager she hated her family so much that she would have given up everything just to get away from them. Thus when she was fifteen, she lied about her age and enlisted in the [i]Wulframsten Heer[/i] as Claudine Jaeger, first serving as a tank driver before being reassigned as a GEAR pilot. She excelled in this role despite the infamous mechanical faults in the standard line of Wulfram GEARS and even earned the Wulfram Eagle medallion for her unit's actions at the Battle of Kyle's Ridge during the War of Zhao Succession. Johan, blissfully unaware that the decorated soldier was his own daughter, had her transferred to an elite GEAR unit more suitable for her talents and made sure she was well compensated for her service to the country. She even had a GEAR specially configured for her, courtesy of one of her older brothers, Erik Hildebrand, who shared her disdain for their family and had gone into the GEAR manufacturing business to escape their stifling influence. Unbeknownst to Claudia, who had willingly exiled herself from politics, things were looking bad at the top. The previously mentioned War of Zhao Succession was a Pyrrhic victory that had taken a heavy toll on the armed forces and Johan Hildebrand was already busy asserting Wulfram's claim on a minor province with ties to the Southern Alliance, which many feared would cascade into a war against the Alliance which would leave Wulfram decimated. A band of military officers with dubious intentions managed to capitalize on this fear and spearheaded a military coup against the Hildebrand government. Hildebrand's family members and cronies were rounded up to be put on show trials, and Johan himself was, according to eyewitness accounts, beaten, stabbed, gunned down by a dozen assault rifles, set on fire, thrown from the balcony of his executive mansion, and fell on his own statue, which impaled him. Claudia's elite GEAR unit, meanwhile, remained faithful to the old government, and when they encountered Erik Hildebrand, who had narrowly escaped the rebellion's death squads, and learned that their squadmate was in fact the daughter of the recently deposed Johan, they agreed that they should leave as soon as possible. Thus Claudia, her brother, and a few of her surviving squadmates managed to flee across the border and into Landren territory to seek asylum as Wulfram crumbled into a chaotic civil war. Claudia was one of many who escaped the collapse of Wulfram, and like her fellow countrymen, she was utterly shocked at how different Landren was. Whereas order and obedience were the law of the land back home, here was a new nation where prosperity and freedom was the norm, with a government that actually cared for its populace instead of sending them off to die for another useless patch of dirt. Claudia almost felt guilty for loving this new nation more then her old one, and within a few months of living there decided that there was no better way to serve her new homeland then to join the LDF. Sher served a few tours of duty before her actions and past exploits earned her a reassignment to the 101st Tactical GEAR Unit, and was given a new GEAR based heavily on the unit she used back in the [i]Wulframsten Heer[/i]. It was awkward to say the least, but Landren was a much better nation to protect and serve, Claudia admitted. Weapons and Equipment: -[url=http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/payday/images/3/3a/M308-pimped.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130808184833]G308 Carbine[/url], a semi-automatic rifle with multi-role functionality. Each clip holds ten bullets, and the rifle has suppressor, laser sight, and infrared scope attachments. -Standard LDF-issue semiautomatic pistol, with optional laser sight and flashlight attachments. -[i]Wulframsten Heer[/i] combat/survival knife, more or less identical to its Landren counterpart. -GEAR Pilot helmet, suit, and flak jacket. -Standard survival kit -Military-grade custom PADD strapped to left arm -Several comic books stashed in the cockpit, usually issues of [i]Super Thunder Princess[/i] or [i]Automatic Man[/i]. Personal Theme: [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT8lOJ7juxE[/url] -------------------------- GEAR Name & Serial Number: CHDB-34 Black Tiger, "Dynamo" Appearance: [img]http://img00.deviantart.net/46e8/i/2009/163/e/b/space_mecha_by_t_rob.jpg[/img] [i]Note: This was concept art for the GEAR unit when it was still being developed as a long-term flight unit. The manufactured models do not possess the shoulder-blade-mounted thrusters.[/i] Role: Multi-role, Tank destroyer, hit and run assaults. Normal Loadout: -VSK-88: A GEAR-caliber anti-tank rifle comparable to an AT gun, built to smash through armored surfaces with extreme prejudice. The rifle is semi-automatic with an eight-round clip, but the recoil severely impedes accuracy during rapid fire. It works best at medium to long range, and is wirelessly integrated with the GEAR's optical systems for accurate targeting. -WF-42 Jaeger: A highly adaptable selective-fire GEAR battle rifle based on a Wulfram design commonly associated with the [i]Schwarztiger[/i] model GEARs. The 30-round magazine attached to the left side can be swapped out for a 500-round drum to let the WF-42 serve as an LMG. -M5 Vulkan: A purely Wulfram innovation, the Vulkan is a light artillery weapon mounted on the back of the GEAR that fires barrages of incendiary rockets, six at a time. Nasty against infantry and the weaker top armor of tanks, but is very slow to reload and not very accurate. -ZA-R "Sucker Punch": A compact rocket launcher mounted on the right forearm, which can fire high explosive and armor piercing rockets. -12 mm Anti-Infantry machine gun: Exactly what it says on the tin. Mounted on the left forearm. -Collapsible GEAR-sized Tomahawk: Perfect for hacking through armor. Other Systems & Equipment: -Smoke canisters and chaff defense systems to break line of sight and confuse enemy targeting systems. The Sucker Punch can also fire defensive flairs. -Long range scanners and communication equipment standard to most GEARs. The sights include all the standard infrared and thermal vision for tracking heat signatures, as well as an integrated HUD for tracking critical systems and information in combat. The system used by the CHDB-34 also possesses a thermal spike detection radar, which idly scans for, locates, and alerts the user to abnormal increases in thermal energy not assigned to designated friendly targets, such as from an engine or a large gun firing off. -Additional shock absorbers and reinforcement joints located in the arms and back to better handle the recoil of the VSK-88 -Advanced targeting system synced directly to the weapons, primarily serving as electronic scopes for the handheld weapons and a trajectory prediction system for aiming the Vulkan. Other notes: The CHDB-34 Black Tiger model was initially a prototype GEAR designed by Kosch Industrial, designed to be a fully flight-capable anti-air GEAR. While this project turned out to be a catastrophic failure due to the limitations of the available technology, GEAR designer Erik Hildebrand retooled the initial design of the failed prototype to serve primarily in a tank-destroyer role, as the original GEAR was designed to be lightweight and maneuverable, but sturdy enough to handle the impact of repeated stress. The newly redesigned GEAR, dubbed the Panzerexoskelett [i]Schwarztiger[/i], was wildly successful on the battlefield, if mechanically unsound, and it entered into production during the War of Zhao Succession. After Erik Hildebrand fled to Landren with his sister, he went back into GEAR manufacturing and was employed at a high-level position at Custer Manufacturing and helped the company manufacture a newer version of the PzExsk [i]Schwarztiger[/i]. Dubbed the CHDB-34 Black Tiger, the new design brought the model up to Landren standards and corrected many of the Wulfram version's mechanical faults, and the GEAR has served as a very reliable tank destroyer ever since. On a more personal note, Claudia's variant of the CHDB-34 Black Tiger is nicknamed Dynamo, after the main character of the [i]Super Thunder Princess[/i] comic book series, Donna Dynamo.