[hider=Pilot]
[b]Name:[/b] Catherine ‘Kat’ Talford
[b]Callsign:[/b] TBD
[b]Gender:[/b] Care to make a guess?
[b]Age:[/b] 45
[b]Job:[/b] Pilot/Combat engineer

[b]Appearance:[/b]
Kat spent most of her life fighting, on the road or in a workshop. Her body is the ideal build for working machines, being rather slim and small, able to fit and reach where she needs to during a maintenance. As far as fitness goes, she is strong enough to tighten all of the screws she needs to and move around canisters of POL, but won’t be knocking the lights out of anyone.

Her face seems worn out by her years, a bit rugged and wrinkled. Catherine dyes her hair a silver color and if you combine the two she looks older than she actually is. She wears quite a short cut to fit under a helmet, with her hair barely reaching under her ears. The woman’s dark green eyes contrast with her skin and fair hair.

While in action she wears a combat jumpsuit of black color, made with protective padding and plates, as well as a helmet with tactical visor. On the base she changes to orange overalls of the maintenance crews. In her downtime she prefers comfortable clothing, like sneakers and sweatpants.

[b]Biography:[/b]
As a farm girl, Kat was no stranger to manual labor from the get go. However, the tools and especially the tractor always attracted her attention more than the soil or the crops. She was able to disassemble the engine for maintenance and putting it back together in working order at the age of 12. It came to no surprise that her teachers recommended her for a technical university.

Unfortunately for Kat, the only university that didn’t require her to pay tuition fees her parents simply didn’t have was the military academy. Thus, she was bound for two years of service after graduation. fortunately for her not much happened during those two years and she spent most of her time training and keeping her abilities sharp.

The military life wasn’t for her though, and soon after leaving she found herself running around with a mercenary band, keeping their vehicles in working order and acting as a gunner for their SPG. The band got a bit of name for it, and attracted the eye of the military. All were asked to join the new institute, and initially all declined. But when the recruiting officer started sweetening the deals, Kat couldn’t resist the lure of being a test pilot and getting her hands on new gear before it even hit the shelves.

[b]Personality:[/b]
The wrench wench. Everything in Kat’s world has an analogy in something mechanical, and if you want to explain something to her, that is your best approach. Her head is good for technical stuff and little else. It does her well in card games though, which are her favorite past time other than ‘more work’.

She is a little bit worse off as far as common sense goes, coming off as a bit stupid in the general, day-to-day business, and with her enthusiasm about any given piece of tech a bit as an overgrown kid that loves legos.

She is friendly enough not to care that she’s one of the oldest ‘cadets’, knowing she has actual experience behind her skills rather than maybe a fancy noble name. Kat doesn’t usually initiate conversations, most often too busy being elbow deep in grease, but if one finds her with anything, she will not shy away and talk or help.

[b]Skills:[/b]
Indirect fire - Specializing in piloting support vehicles and weapons, Catherine is capable of calculating the ballistic trajectories for providing indirect fire support, rather than a direct fire gunner with knowledge and aim for weakspots. She prefers area effect weapons.

Mechanic - Spending most of her waking days doing machine maintenance, she can repair most gear, from mechanical through hydraulic to electronic.

Combat engineer - A part of her role is clearing obstacles and building infrastructure for the force, like tearing down and building bridges.

Basic medical training - Something she picked up on her own in the support role, she can provide basic medical aid to other pilots alongside repairs she makes to their vehicles, like stitching up lacerations. For anything including and above broken bones though, one is better to see a medic.

[b]Extra:[/b]
Steel salvation, Steal salvation or Steel salivation - the possibilities are endless.
[/hider]
[hider=Spirit]
[b]Spirit name:[/b] Big Fucking Wrench, BFW for short

[b]Spirit appearance:[/b] Big fucking wrench, one that you would use to tension tracks or other heavy duty stuff.

[b]Spirit power:[/b] Repairing the systems of a targeted mech. Only usable on a vehicle that is not in active combat. Usually a pilot with a damaged mech will retreat to Kat’s position further behind the line, get fixed up and return to battle rather than having to return to base or continue the fight with damaged mech.

[b]Spirit origin:[/b] BFW is an item that grown close to Kat’s heart, both as a working tool and as a thing to whack a-holes with. It was a keepsake from her early years, pretty much the only tool from that time that is still with her today, mostly due to having little on it that could break. At some point in time, the item become home to exhibit magical properties, electronic equipment that has been damaged miraculously coming online again in its vicinity. Having it examined, Kat was told that a spirit has made it’s home in the tool, but since it is an inanimate object, not much more could be found out about it other than its affinity for fixing electronics.
[/hider]
[hider=Mech]
[b]Mech name:[/b] Colossus

[b]Class:[/b] Epée / Support

[b]Appearance:[/b] 
The Colossus is a second-line and covert-ops mech, sacrificing armor protection for greatly increased mobility. As such it is rather deviating from the humanoid shape of most mechs.

The legs are completely redesigned, being reverse jointed and featuring a “mercedes star” shaped feet for added stability with a central track for movement on paved roads and quick, skate-like turns. They feature additional hydraulics that help free up stuck mechs or haul broken ones back to base for repairs. Their parts are in an off-axis configuration, allowing the ‘thigh’ and ‘shin’ to fold next to each other completely and thus step over larger obstacles than common designs or lower the Mech for easier embarkation or to duck behind smaller cover.

The cockpit is a two-seater with climate control, allowing for the pilot of a serviced mech to rest up and refresh. It is, however, rather large target and due to its size does not come with any ejection system. It takes up most of the frontal torso.

The Colossus has two arms, however they bear no weaponry. they are more akin to robotic manipulators on an assembly line, one ending with a welding tool and the other with a manipulating claw.

The core is mounted behind the upper pilot seat, and behind the copilot is a small cargo bay that can be used to carry spare parts or for additional, mission specific equipment.

[b]Weapons and tools:[/b]
The Colossus specializes in indirect fire from behind the front lines. As such, all of its weaponry is mounted on it’s backside to fire in high arcs. The primary weapon is a lightweight artillery cannon mounted over the right shoulder.

The secondaries are both missile weapons, a shoulder mounted cruise missile launcher and two rocket pods in between the heavier weapons.

The ammunition capacity is rather low, necessitating a careful planning for the mission loadout. In prolonged engagements, the Colossus is fast enough to return to base to resupply, however with the logistics mechs coming to service alongside it, its time during calm periods in battle is better spent repairing the combat mechs or ranging for the next part of the operation.

[b]Upgrades:[/b]
[ - ] Prototype: As an untested piece of [s]garbage[/s] technology, the systems of the Colossus may be prone to breaking and other malfunction.
[ + ] ???

[b]History:[/b]
The new force was presented with the challenge of not only putting mainline fighting machines on the battlefield, but also with keeping them operational and supplied. The Colossus is one of the prototypes for the new line of support mechs designed with their role in mind rather than through modifying an existing frame to suit the new purpose. As unproven equipment, it has been assigned to Mecha carta to undergo combat trials much like the new generation of pilots to find out if everything works as intended. The manufacturer requested that the Mechs are to be given to pilots with mechanical training who would be able to provide useful feedback on its performance and possible improvements.
[/hider]