Model: OAC GT-011/S

Specialty: Mass Production General Purpose HFV

History: The eleventh HFV manufactured by the Olympus Arms Company's factories on Mars, the GT-011 is their third attempt at mass-production. It has been quite successful, having been adopted by numerous organisations on both the red planet and the colonies as a general purpose HFV five years ago to replace its predecessor, the GT-009. While not without its flaws, the GT-011 is considered to be an especially effective machine, a reputation it has upheld in skirmishes against pirate forces. The current variant of the 011, the Type S, has been equipped with a more powerful reactor, furthering bolstering its strengths.

Appearance: Standing at a height of 24 metres, the GT-011 is larger and more heavily armoured than the average HFV. Its humanoid form, usually painted in a shade of butterscotch shared by the Red Planet, is noticeably bulky, and two powerful thrusters have been attached to its back, providing it with incredible speed. Most units come with a large shield that can be placed upon one arm, which also serves a secondary function in storing equippable weapons. Its cranial unit is mounted with vulcans, and also possesses three 'eyes', with two serving as cameras while a third doubles as a targeting sensor, and in contrast to the colour of its armour, are a stark red instead.

Features:

• Targeting Sensors
• Forearm-mounted shield

Armaments:

• 60mm Vulcan Gun (2x): mounted on cranial unit.
• 100mm OAC.OnH Machinegun: clip-fed
• OAC.OnP Beam Rifle: fires a stream of particles; very hot, do not stand in the way.
• Beam Saber (1x): stored within recharge racks either on its body or within the shield, the beam sabers utilised by the GT-011 and other machines are, despite their name, essentially streams of plasma held within a magnetic field shaped into a blade.
• OAC.OnR Bazooka: contains eight rounds.
• 3-Slot Grenade Rack

Weaknesses: In comparison to other general-purpose HFVs of its generation, the Martian-built GT-011's armoured frame makes it significantly larger and heavier, turning it into a larger target, and also limiting its effectiveness on Earth, where the blue-green world's gravity poses a problem, one that it usually doesn't face on Mars or in space. Although it possesses incredible speed, its manoeuvrability is an issue, taking longer than other HFVs to turn 180 degrees and in general being less capable of avoiding attacks.

Model: Mm C44 "Bradley"

Specialty: Mass Production General Purpose HFV

History: On the 3rd of July in the 105th year of the Solar Age, the autonomous O'Neill cluster of New Copenhagen declared total war upon its neighbours, with its leader, the eccentric Governor Werribee Bradley, announcing his intention to unite the colonies of the Earth Sphere into a single entity. Backed by an existing arms manufacturing industry and wealth gained from a strong relationship with asteroid miners, the colony was able to rapidly produce significant numbers of HFVs for its war effort, and within two months had already occupied three of its closest neighbouring colonies. Of its many HFVs, the most infamous was the Mm C44, a general purpose mech that soon grew to symbolise New Copenhagen's armies. The brainchild of the governor himself, exactly eight hundred and thirteen units were produced by the Vimana Institute, and were his vanguard against those that opposed him, the relatively high performance of the machines superior to much of what the colonial militias could deploy. However, it would be the intervention of an UN coalition in the fourth month of the war that ended their advance, with the Earth-built machines managing to be achieve technological parity, or even superiority, with the C44s. Six hundred and ninety-two of the "Bradley"s (a moniker given to them by coalition forces) would be destroyed, and by Christmas that year, the UN had successfully expelled New Copenhagen's forces from its occupied colonies, bringing an end to Bradley's ambitions (although he would escape arrest). The surviving C44s would find their way either into the hands of UN member states or amongst mercenaries and pirates, and are still a distinctive sight throughout the space routes.

Appearance: The "Bradley" is merely 19m in height, but due to the presence of its large backpack, which stores the secondary reactor, appears to be far bigger in size. The standard colouring of the unit when in the service of New Copenhagen had been a navy blue, with the backpack painted in black, although following the polity's defeat, they can be found in all sorts of different colourations depending on the pilot. Most units however, still utilise an offensive shield, which tends to be attached upon the forearm, and can swivel around to block enemy attacks from different angles. The "Messer" drone protrudes from its right shoulder, a rounded object with a gun pointing out from it. Unlike most machines produced in the Earth sphere, it lacks a signature mono-eye, with its cranial unit instead possessing a prominent, light blue visor that protects its sensors and cameras. Two miniature "horns" also jut back from its head just above its Vulcans, smoothing back down in an almost 'punkish' look.

Features:

• Long-range targeting sensors
• VI-EX02 Reactor System: each "Bradley" unit possesses a secondary backup reactor that provides it with greater energy use, as well as allowing it to serve as a power source for the weapons of other HFVs if necessary, such as the GT-010's Mega Beam Cannon.
• Offensive Shield: swivel-mounted; beam-coated; contains two small missile launchers
• Rocket Anchor (2x): each arm of the C44 is equipped with a rocket anchor, which can be launched to grab onto foes or parts of the environment.
• VI-R01a Drone Control Transmitter: certain command units during the war were equipped with a transmitter that allowed control over a single drone weapon.

Armaments:

• 60mm Vulcan Gun Pod (2x): mounted on cranial unit
• Repeating Beam Gun (1x): the "Bradley" utilises a small repeating beam rifle as a standard weapon at short ranges to great effect, its high rate of fire making up for the reduced power in comparison to the more common beam rifle, and thanks to the presence of its secondary generator, is longer-lasting
• Beam Saber (6x): stored in recharge racks in its legs and in its backpack
• 3-Slot Grenade Rack
• VI-R01b "Messer" Drone: certain command units control a single drone that, when not in use, is attached to its right shoulder, serving as an extra, fixed beam gun that feeds off its secondary generator; when launched however, it can be flown up to 500m away, and acts as a weak beam gun (due to reliance on internal batteries to fly) that can harry or hurt enemies. It can also be equipped with a camera or other surveillance tools.

Weaknesses: The C44 "Bradley" is highly limited in regards to long-range combat, with its "Messer" and its weak beam gun serving as its only source of attack beyond close proximities. While it can use its rocket anchors to reduce the distance between it and enemies, such tactics rely on being able to catch its target. It was also built entirely for space and colony-bound combat, and can barely function within atmosphere. The second reactor can be dangerous, with any damage dealt to it possessing far riskier effects upon the pilot and the machine compared to the main reactor.

Model: OS Type 2 "Rook" (??? Specification)

Specialty: Mass Production General Purpose Skirmisher HFV

History: ???

Appearance: At a height of 18.5m, the ???'s space variant of the standard OS Type 2 is slightly taller and bulkier, but still remains faithful to the 'walking tank' aesthetic of the United States' mainstay HFV. It is definitely more heavily armoured than the original Rook, but despite the fact it is actually incredibly mobile, possessing a number of multi-directional thrusters across its body, as well as four powerful accelerators on its legs, allowing it to match modern machines quite easily at the cost of greater power consumption. It retains the two large shoulder shields (now increased in size), although they are more rounded in comparison to those of the original. Certain models also possess extra weapon hardpoints on their forearms.

Features:

• Long range sensors
• Detachable shoulder shield (x2)
• Beam-treated heavy armour
• Bazooka autoloading backpack

Armaments:

• 550mm Missile Launcher (x1): A bazooka that fires 550mm caliber missiles. It uses a double barrel type of magazine that can hold up to ten missiles at a time. The rear barrel can be adjusted via a slide based on the range of the target and the ammunition type currently used. The weapon is reloaded from a backpack mounted autoloader that can hold up to 50 missiles before needing a reload.
• DyPW Variable Beam Rifle (x1): A beam rifle with two settings - powerful, single-shot bursts and a rapid-fire mode with lower power.
• 90mm Linear Railgun Rifle (x1): A weapon that fires high-speed projectiles.
• 80mm Forearm Gatling Gun
• Beam Saber (x2)

Weaknesses: Although this variant of the standard Rook is incredibly fast and mobile, capable of matching modern machines, its operating time has suffered as a result. It is essentially a skirmisher unit, one built more for hit-and-run attacks (hence its use by a pirate advance force), and while in possession of beam-treated heavy armour, will be a sitting duck the moment its power runs out. It has no recharge racks for its beam sabers either, and its beam rifles feed off its power generator, thus ensuring greater ammo dependency for the machine. It is also rather immobile under gravity.

Model: OS Type 2 "Rook" (OSDT Specification)

Specialty: Mass Production General Purpose HFV

History: One of the many variants of the standard Rook is the (OSDT Specification). Due to increased demand for space-capable HFVs and the loss of US support following the dissolution of the Omni Program, the OSDT took it upon themselves to request refits and upgrades for a number of their existing Rook units, thereby allowing their aging machines to reduce the technological gap between them and the more expensive, newer HFVs. While the (OSDT Specification) still lagged behind recent developments in HFV technology, it was an upgrade that the OSDT's base Rooks sorely needed. Only twelve units were successfully upgraded, with two of them having been assigned to the Jannah.

Appearance: The OSDT's variant of the US mainstay HFV does not differ radically from original design, maintaining the similarity to a bipedal tank that essentially defines the OS Type-2. It stands slightly taller, at a height of 18.8m, and while its mass is generally the same, its effect on the Rook's mobility is lessened by the (OSDT Specification)'s focus on space performance. Indeed, the refitted mech possesses prominent multi-directional thrusters, allowing it to manoeuvre better in vacuum, as well as two, slimmed-down accelerators on its legs. While the rotating leg shield has been removed, the leg armour and the inner frame has been reinforced, thus maintaining adequate protection. Indeed, the OSDT's Rook has a generally bulkier appearance, having layered on more armour to increase its survivability. The two large shoulder shields remain, but can now detach to be deployed as cover. An antenna now protrudes from its cranial unit instead of utilising the shields, a sign of technological progress over the years.

Features:

• Long range sensors
• Detachable shoulder shield (x2)
• Beam-treated heavy armour
• Bazooka autoloading backpack

Armaments:

• 550mm Missile Launcher (x1): A bazooka that fires 550mm caliber missiles. It uses a double barrel type of magazine that can hold up to ten missiles at a time. The rear barrel can be adjusted via a slide based on the range of the target and the ammunition type currently used. The weapon is reloaded from a backpack mounted autoloader that can hold up to 50 missiles before needing a reload.
• 60mm Chest Vulcan (x2): Two 60mm Vulcans are attached to the hardpoints on the Rook's chest, providing it with the increased application and versatility provided to other HFVs by their 80mm head vulcans.
• OAC.OnP Beam Rifle: Fires a stream of particles; very hot, do not stand in the way.
• Beam Saber (x1): A stream of plasma held within a magnetic field shaped into a blade.

Weaknesses: While the addition of extra thrusters and the complete rehaul of the power generator to meet modern standards has drastically changed the Rook's operational time and general manoeuvrability/speed in comparison to other HFVs, its status as an upgraded ancient machine still keeps it from catching up with more modern mechs. It is still noticeably slower, a fact that enemies can easily take advantage of. Its beam saber lacks a recharge rack, so also has limited operation, and its continued reliance on ammunition is a major issue, especially when its mounted ammunition hoppers are easy targets.

Name: Levi Astrauckas.

Age: 24.

Gender: Female.

???: Y.

Skills: Levi has spent 5 years working with the OS Type 7 and with the accumulated experience, is an experienced HPV pilot and a particularly talented pilot for the Type 7 specifically. As lesser skills, she's also capable of general maintenance and lesser repairs to most OS-series HPV's and also has an idea of how to command a squadron of HPV's, although both are in need of development.

Appearance: Levi stands at a common 5'7 with a light complexion, short and vibrant dark brown hair, bland hazel eyes and a maintained above-average build - built enough to do the day-to-day as a soldier, but nothing outstanding and nothing more than that. Both her ear lobes are pierced once but she only wears jewelry in the left ear - a single 4mm silver stud; the other one fell out and was never found again about 4 months ago. She wears a silver ring with an onyx gemstone on her left index finger and a simple black leather necklace around her neck.

[Inspiration]

Personality: Levi is much of a tomboy when it comes to her personality: she wears hoodies and tracksuits around in her casual attire, keeps her hair cut somewhat short, visits the gym at least twice a week, finds it appropriate to punch her friends in the shoulder in response to a bad joke and finds leisure working on OS-series HPV's. She's normally cool-headed but is known to become aggressive, borderline irrationally so, in certain situations. She values pragmatism, is irritated by long solutions, secretly enjoys quiet walks on the beach or among nature - not that she'd ever admit it - and has a soft spot for anyone who's new at something and is trying really hard to pick it up, especially if they're struggling at it.

History: Levi was born in a suburban area on the west coast of the United States to a middle-class family as the oldest of two, with a younger brother. Her father was a retired soldier who had since found his passion in making watches and her mother was an administrative assistant for a local automotive workshop. Growing up, Levi mostly took after her father but found something of an interest in automechanics through her mothers workplace.

Her time in school was fairly standard. Throughout elementary school she scored consistently high, generally getting B's with the odd A, with a healthy social life to boot. Throughout middle school towards her second last year of high school her grades dipped towards D's at standard until she eventually dropped out in favor of an automechanic apprenticeship at 17 years of age. While she enjoyed all of the first week of her apprenticeship, the remaining 2 years grew more and more tiresome until she eventually abandoned the apprenticeship.

After about a month of unemployment, on her fathers suggestion, she started looking into a career in the United States Armed Forces, which - following a fateful discovery of a thread on a questionable set of online forums late one night - led into her looking into a career at CAPEI, which she found much more interesting. After initial testing found a surprisingly high compatibility with a HPV pilot career, she soon enough found herself training as a Type 7 HPV pilot, which has led to a 5-year career in the diminishing CAPEI landing her where she is now.

---

Model: OS Type 7 "Arcen".

Specialty: Heavy Assault.

History: The "Omnienvironmental Series" (OS) is a series of HPV's produced by "Omni Program", the United States of America's response to the discovery in Siberia forty years ago. Through collaborative action between NASA and DARPA, a total of 9 entries into the series were successfully completed. Within the past 15 years, the United Nations increased funding to the Omni Program due to the valuable contributions made to CAPEI and as such, the program was seen to be much more an annex to CAPEI funded by the United States than a United States defense program. In a bid to gain office, the recently elected administration used this perception and promised to dissolve the program if elected; within 100 days of taking office the program was dissolved, partly contributing to CAPEI's current state.

The Type 7 "Arcen" was one of the more recent developments by the program. With a total of 20 units produced before the program was dissolved the model is fairly rare; the models that remain are mostly used as something of an MMORPG-esque tank within their HPV squadrons in the United States Armed Forces, with a small number remaining within CAPEI and an approximately equivalent number unaccounted for. The Type 7 was initially designed as a Heavy Assault unit with the capacity to break through thick enemy defenses when grouped together in squadrons, although not nearly enough units were made to make this practical, thus their new purpose within the United States Armed Forces.

Appearance: The OS Type 7 is an imposing and heavily armored machine. It stands at 22.3 meters tall with a standard weight of 29.7 metric tonnes, a maximum weight capacity of 74.02 metric tonnes, a sensor range of 18500 meters, an OS Ultracompact Fusion Reactor Mk.III capable of outputting 16540 kilowatts of power, and a series of positioned rocket thrusters capable of outputting a total of 197800 kilograms of force. The machine is normally left unpainted to reduce production cost but in the case of Levi's Type 7, it's painted white with black trims and details. A single red eye adorns a slit in the helmet, with a long 'fin' coming from the top of the helm.

Other than it's imposingly thick armor, the machine has 4 additional arms coming from the upper hull bearing long and relatively thin shields constructed almost entirely of raw armor, with thrusters concealed by the ends for omnidirectional thrust. These were made so that the pilot can provide themselves a shield using anywhere between a wall of all 4 shields fashioned for an onslaught or barrage or parry using 1, but also so that they can grapple - thus the shape and construction - while keeping their hands free. A 80mm quad-barreled gatling gun is also hard-mounted on the upper left arm with the capability to move to the top of the left forearm for use.

[Inspiration]

Features:
• Heavy armor.
• Four shields, borne independently from the main arms.
• 80mm quad-barreled gatling gun hard-mounted to the left arm.

Armaments:
• 80mm quad-barreled gatling gun (1x), belt-fed from a compartment in the unit's back.
• Beam saber (4x). Two are stored in each of the forward-resting shields, intended to be used one at a time with an additional drawn in the case that one is lost. The warranty is void if both are used at once.
• 4-slot grenade rack (2x). One per rear-resting shield.

Weaknesses:
Whilst the Type 7 has competitive speed for the amount of armor it bears, this is mostly due credit to the thrusters on the four shield arms. For each arm severed, the Type 7 loses both defense and speed; the arms are vulnerable for a section between the mountings to the unit and the shields themselves, a reluctantly-made flaw so that the shields could actually move around the unit.

The hard-mounted gatling gun prevents a weapon being wielded in the left hand, and the belt itself may be severed. The back of the unit also has less armor than the front, with the upper back storing the ammunition for the gatling gun - a direct hit causing a fire may cause the ammunition depot to explode for devastating effect. A talented enemy pilot may also prompt a panicking or overwhelmed Type 7 pilot to tangle the shields and the gatling gun feed for damage to either one or both plus any further effects.

Whilst the single "eye" on the unit within an armored horizontal slit highly reduces the chances of visibility being eliminated for the pilot, the units peripheral vision is hindered significantly as result. The unit relies on sensors more than most HPV's, which a talented enemy pilot might exploit.

The ejection mechanism takes a few seconds longer than on most suits, as some armor has to be abandoned before the standard process can begin.

Whilst the Type 7 functions as intended in zero gravity and in earth atmosphere conditions, it struggles in the atmosphere of most other planets, such as Mars. This makes it much more cumbersome to use and potentially flares out some of its weaknesses.

Name: Russell Collazo

Age: 27

Gender: Male

???: Let's go with N

Skills: Russ is a competent HPV pilot, capable of handling some more difficult maneuvers and operating any equipment in Recon-Class vehicles. Outside of his machine he is very physically fit, and has extensive training as a rescue worker, knowing various field first-aid techniques and disaster relief.

Appearance: Russell is a physically imposing man, standing tall at 6'2 with a wide, muscular frame. His skin is mocha-colored, with plenty of hair coating his arms, legs, and chest. His hair is shaved down to little more than stubble, sitting above his big bushy eyebrows. His eyes are dark brown, and his face is covered in numerous healed nicks and scars. Off-duty, he prefers less-than-flashy clothes, like tank-tops and cargo pants.

Personality: Russell is a fairly relaxed individual, coming off to people as carefree and friendly. He shows a great deal of camaraderie towards people he serves with, having no qualms with teasing and joking with them, and getting as good as he gets. In general, he has a great deal of compassion, holding himself to a high standard concerning other people's lives and violence. While he doesn't demonize fighting, he dislikes it a great deal, which is why he prefers to play a supportive role in combat. Under pressure, he shows nerves of steel and intense focus, and while he follows orders he's been noted to take liberties with his actions when directed against his morals, skirting dangerously close to insubordination.

History: Russell was raised in the Northwestern USA, the second oldest in a very large family. His parents both worked in the medical field, and were busy often. Russ had a lot of siblings, most younger, though him and his older brother Felix were close for most of their early lives. Sometimes things got tense between them, as they both spent a great deal of time helping raise their siblings due to their parents stressful jobs, but in the end they were as close as siblings could be.

A few years later, when Russell was in Highschool, trying the best he could to follow in his parents footsteps towards becoming a doctor. The first few years he maintained a high grade average, and took plenty of classes related to medicine and the like. Meanwhile, Felix had since graduated and joined the military. While Russell didn't support this choice, his love for his brother meant that he didn't try to talk him out of it, and he let him go. Unfortunately, as his studies continued, Russell began to see how stressful it all was, and soon found that he had trouble keeping up. Like his brother, he had a more direct mindset, and while Felix may have chosen to fight enemies of his country, Russ just wanted to help people directly.

Once he finished High School he started on the path of Disaster Relief. He went through the college required, learning paramedical skills and the like, before quickly getting himself out in the field with a non-profit organization. He was very passionate about his work, and really had purpose working to help people in the world. He was often on the scene of things like Earthquakes and other natural disasters, assisting the wounded, clearing rubble, ect. Then, after several years on the job, he grew disillusioned with the fact that it didn't seem like he was making a difference, especially as the introduction of HFVs to the war machine of the world caused more suffering. He left the job.

After some soul searching, he discovered CAPEI. While he himself had always been a bit of a skeptic, he decided that the group probably could do a great deal of good for humanity, and admittedly the idea of aliens with even more advanced weaponry arriving horrified him, knowing how violent humanity was with this technology they were barely understanding. He applied for a career, netting a job as a reconnaissance HFV pilot. While his attitude about extraterrestrials wasn't in line with the group's purpose, he does believe that CAPEI can bring humanity together again like it once was, if brought back to its old status.

===

Model: LST-0500 'Flash'

Specialty: Recon/Scouting

History: The LST-0400 Model of HFV was an early rendition of the vehicle, designed by the US government as a lightweight combat machine. Its early models saw a great deal of use in training pilots, due to its fast movement even within Earth's gravity. However, as combat vehicles, they were quickly outclassed by Mass Produced HFVs, which, while larger and bearing more armor, costed less due to less maintenance being needed.

Some years after they were put in the storage shed, CAPEI (in its prime) recovered the designs and began producing updated models designed for reconnaissance and scouting - The LST-500. They were outfitted with long-range sensors and various jammers, falling into the class of support roles intended to respond to alien threats before they even knew where the humans were.

As CAPEI became more and more pointless, LSTs began to gather dust. With no alien threat coming, their parts were far more useful in other HFVs more suited towards dealing with combat. All but a handful were decommissioned or sold off to other groups who needed sensors on a regular basis.

Russ's LST, which he calls 'Flash', is a somewhat modified variant, some of its weapons having been swapped out long ago before he acquired it.

Vague Inspo, I guess. Kinda drifted far from it.

Appearance: The LST-0500 is smaller than most combat mecha, standing at roughly 20 meters height. It has a high-powered FA-3 Compact Fusion Reactor MK.2. It lacks the thick armor of most other HFVs of the generation, utilizing thin plating across the body instead. It is painted grey with streaks of black in an attempt to provide suitable camouflage at long range. Its head has two yellow eyes facing forward. Its body is thin in the waist, with a large chest cavity where the reactor is stored, with large legs and thin arms.

It has thrusters placed on its back, on its shoulders, and some on its legs as well. All pivot and can adjust direction rapidly. As well, it has a large antenna connected to a hump on its back that can be retracted or extended. It has heat vents placed all over its torso and legs, small slits that open periodically.

On its right shoulder is a large grenade launcher, attached so it can move horizontally. On its left arm there is a pilebunker attached on top of the forearm, a large metal spike ready to launch forward at a moment's notice. Its light weight weight and low armor give it unparalleled control over horizontal and vertical movement, even in higher gravity situations.

Features:
-Long Range Sensors
-Communications Interceptor
-Radar Countermeasures.
-Multi-Directional Thrusters

Armaments:
-50mm Light Machine Gun, clip fed
-Shoulder-Mounted Belt-Fed Grenade Launcher (LST carries both high-explosive grenades as well as signal-jamming electrical smoke grenades)
-Explosively Launched Pile-Bunker

Weaknesses:
-Poor in direct combat, especially against multiple opponents
-High thruster use and small reactor mean frequent overheating, must vent heat frequently
-Low armor means both pilot and reactor and visible

Russ's LST doesn't do particularly well in direct combat. Its machine gun isn't very useful against armor unless it can sustain fire. The lack of armor makes fighting quite dangerous, as the HFVs armor is sparse so most defense relies on Russell's ability to dodge and weave, which, in turn, can cause issue with the core's heating. That said, if combat has to happen, he does have the ability to outpace most combat mechs in speed, and if he uses his countermeasure against visuals well, him and the massive stake strapped to his mech's arm can be quite an opponent - but generally only against single targets, due to his melee weapons slow reload and the finesse it takes to get into a position to use it.

---

---

Name: Charles Seymour

Age: 26

Gender: Male

???: Y

Skills: For six years, Charles has been piloting and working on the AP-0998 "Paladin" Mech, making him an extremely capable and highly experienced pilot. In addition, he has an average level of maintenance and repair abilities, capable of repairing minor and intermediate types of damages. He also happens to be a 2nd degree black belt in judo, which goes for self defense both inside and outside of the mech. As only some leadership try outs, but prefers to be given direction actions provided by a superior officer.

Appearance: Charles Seymour is 5'10" with a slightly tanned skin color, jet black hair, cold winter-blue eyes, as well as wearing black glasses. He has a rather fit body, having a well-defined six-pack on his stomach, and visible muscle strength in the arms. He used to have his ears pierced back in the day, but have since kept his ears naked, the holes already being healed up. He does have a black dragon tattoo on the right backside of his neck.

Personality: Charles Seymour may look like a retired punk who is trying to accustom to the real world, but he is anything but so. Despite having a more gothic backstory, he is known as being a calm and serious individual, but also having a soft side for anyone being in a bad mood. He is rather polite, usually wearing formal clothes and loose suits, who often wants to talk out of harmful situations. However, he is far from defenseless, being more than capable to actually defend himself, using techniques he learned from taking judo classes. It's actually quite rare to see him angry, usually being calm in even the toughest of situations. In the mech, Charles is also incredibly focused and concentrative at the mission at hand, often following most orders by the superior officer.

History: Charles Seymour was born in a rather wealthy family in the south side of London, England. As a child, he was often bullied at school, mostly for being too "soft" and being "edgy". Of course, this has to say that while he wasn't exactly a spoiled brat, his gothic outlook during his youth made him look like one indeed. However, at the age of 12, he decided to train in the art of Judo, just as a way to defend himself instead of simply taking accepting the punches and kicks that were thrown at him. And it pays off, with Charles having broken the arm of an eighth grader in middle school, when he was in seventh.

It was during high school where Charles started fresh, completely trying to drop most of his former self, while only still keeping some of his path with him, which included a dragon tattoo that he got during eight grade. He started working out more, continued practicing his judo skills, and having a more open social life, eventually being a pretty decent magnet for the girls at school. In addition to all of the psychical and social exercise, he also worked in auto-mechanical classes, and eventually getting interested in working for CAPEI. So as soon as he finished school, it was off to military school.

Charles was quite the pilot when it came to training, earning high scores in training sessions. He was then transferred into becoming a pilot for the HPV at the age of 20, eventually setting eyes on a AP-0998 "Paladin" as his personal mech of choice. Now as a pilot for currently six years, he works to restore the former glory of CAPEI as well as to keep peace throughout the solar system.

---

---

Model: AP-0998 "Paladin"

Specialty: Defensive Assault Unit

History: The company known as the Interplanetary Robotic Engineering Corporation (IREC) designed the AP-0998 "Paladin" mech as a successor to their previous AP-0888 "Knight" mech series. It was designed after the "Knight" mech to basically be bigger and better, while also bseing served as convoy units. Their size was increased by 20%, while also being outfitted with stronger, lighter, and more durable armor made by a special metal-alloy. They also become equipped with a lighter shield that can be moved more easily, as well as be capable of blocking stronger projectiles, and having a slightly stronger forcefield around the entire mech. Despite seeing battle during the waning years of the war, only 10 mechs were actually created, with only three being destroyed in battle.

After the war, only five mechs were still kept operation, with the other half being shut down and turned to scrap. Four were transferred into the interplanetary police force as riot-control units, with only one being now in the possession of Charles Seymour.

Appearance: The AP-0998 "Paladin" unit is a massive mech to behold, standing at 25 meters tall, weighing in at 32.457 metric tonnes, and includes a DA-176 Multi-Fusion Reactor Mk. II core. The mech is colored a deep orange, with a black chest, yellow stripes in the same location, as well as the bottom of the feet, and green eyes. Two pairs of fins are located on the mech's shoulder pads, as well as two more around the upper thigh region, for better mobility, protection, and increased speed. In addition, a massive crest can also be found at the top of its head. On the left arm, the Paladin mech also comes equipped with a solar-powered wrist shield, which is capable of reflecting most laser projectiles, bullet/missile projectiles, and bouncing off most metal melee weapons. It also comes with four rocket thrusters, two being in the back torso, and two on each shoulder pad.

Features:

• Light-weight/durable Armor
• Single Layered Shielding
• Detachable solar-powered shield from left arm

Armaments:

• 70mm Heavy Assault Rifle
• Detachable solar-powered shield: Can block most projectile attacks with the help of mech's natural shielding.
• Beam Sabers (x2): Stored at the two thigh fin compartments.

Weaknesses: For most mechs of this size, weight, speed, and power are moderately average. While the Paladin's shield can block many projectile attacks, the force-field the mech uses around it isn't the strongest in the world. While still surprisingly durable, if one good hit hits the back of the mech, it can cause a good chunk of damage.

If a very well-trained marksman or swordsman/axeman user can strike the coupler connecting the shield to the left arm, it can break said shield off from the mech, leaving him open.

While it can activate its I-Field at will, it takes up a good chunk of energy, only allowing one minute of shielding before it runs out. It can protect itself from laser projectiles but bullets and missiles can still penetrate him.

Name: Sasha C. Mackenzie
Age: 23
Gender: Female
???: Y
Skills: In a way, Sasha’s skillset was bound to lead her to working with HFVs. She had an interest in robotics from an early age, and excelled at video games. Specific ones, admittedly, but they played a key role. Both lead her to excel first as a pilot and later as a technician on the very machines she piloted. Put her next to an HFV and Sasha could tell you exactly what was wrong with it, and more likely than not, how to fix it. Those fields by far are her best, but Sasha is a passable academic in most STEM fields. Liberal arts tend to be a much weaker area, given that she never saw them as applicable in her life, but she has a passable grasp.

Given her line of work, she has a decent level of athleticism and excellent hand-eye coordination. She might not act it all the time, but Sasha is very quick on her feet and swift to learn. Additionally she has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of mecha both real and fictional. Not everyone would call it a skill. Sasha would.
Appearance: Fairly short, at 5’4”, Sasha nevertheless manages to a tiny little ball of energy. Whether it’s due to the caffeine intake that seems to be a familial trait or her own natural enthusiasm no one will ever know. Her blonde hair is usually kept pulled back into a pony-tail while she’s on duty, since hair getting caught in the machinery never goes well, and more often than not there are grease stains on her skin. Said skin, be it because of her heritage or living in a colony, tends to be paler than most people’s. Sasha is actually quite good-looking, if she bothers to dress up, but she usually prefers her uniform. If that, given how often she casts aside the uniform’s outerwear to avoid getting grease on it when working.
Personality: Enthusiastic, in a word. At least when it comes to her job. Sasha is friendly enough overall, but show her an HFV she has never seen and you won’t get her to shut up. At all. She doesn’t always seem like the brightest star in the sky but her first impression can be deceiving. The extent of her mecha fangirl status can be shocking at first, given the enthusiasm with which she talks about humanoid machines both fictional and nonfictional, but her knowledge of HFVs is invaluable when it comes to restoring, maintaining, or designing them.

What most people don’t see so much of is her ability to be shockingly hot-blooded. If she has chosen to take a task seriously she will persevere through anything to accomplish it, with evident intensity. This serves her well on the battlefield, even if her demeanor might seem a bit eccentric, but it can make her very reluctant to flee and just as easy to anger if you harm someone she cares about. Despite her enthusiasm she takes every battlefield seriously, in her own way.
History: Gerspenritter, like most colonies on and around Mars, is almost entirely run by a private entity. A valid member of the UN like any other it is nonetheless the site of X (Pronounced “Cross”) Corp’s primary headquarters and R&D facilities. A significant portion of the population works, in some fashion, for the company while the rest of the community grew around these workers. Gerspenritter is something of a paradise for scientists and engineers, with its constant development and innovation. X Corp has been a leader in robotics since the dawn of the Solar Age, and Gerspenritter was one of the earlier colonies; the earliest have been in use for more than a hundred years, but Gerspenritter has been around for a modest eighty six years. The colony has always been on the cutting edge of modern technology, both in its publicly funded and available projects as well as X Corp’s developments. Though they (both the colony and the corporation) have stumbled a few times they have always recovered.

This is the colony where Sasha C. Mackenzie, daughter of a X Corp roboticist and an independent computer scientist, was born. There Mackenzie family home was something of a mess most of the time, with components, computers, and blueprints scattered across any available surface and a coffee maker constantly providing a steady flow of caffeine. Both parents were happy to share their skills with their daughter, and Sasha as a result had a knowledge of technology from a very young age. As interesting as she found it all, it was her father’s work on HFVs that truly fascinated her. The young girl had been raised on mecha, and been surrounded with the evidence of their reality from the day she was born. X Corp manufactured high-end HFVs, fulfilling contracts both for government armed forces and Gerspenritter’s own security forces and the entire colony reflected the theme.

So it wasn’t really a surprise when Solar Age”, an exceedingly popular HFV-simulator franchise, caught like wild-fire. The original, the eponymous Solar Age, was a sleeper hit famous for being developed from real military HFV simulators. The game required a specialized controller, but it was renowned for its accuracy. The third installment, “Solar Age: Last Judgement”, was the most dedicated. It could only be played using a full sized simulator, and was most commonly played at local arcades or in tournaments that might encompass players from dozens of colonies. Sasha had no way of knowing that it would lead to her future career, but she played Last Judgement as often as she could. And she was good. When competitive play of the game began in earnest, Sasha was at just the right age to get in on the ground floor. Just barely, actually. The very first official tournament that she entered required her to lie about her age (fourteen, a week and a half shy of fifteen) on the official registration form. To try and make sure that no one caught the deception she attended in a full costume reminiscent of those from her favorite TV shows, complete with a full face mask. She didn’t expect to make it past the first round, let alone place, but little Sasha Mackenzie took second place in the tournament.

She built something of a reputation, too. The mask had stood out, and so she kept wearing it at tournaments even though she had no need to hide her identity. It was a gimmick, now, something that set her apart. As though her rankings in Last Judgement didn’t do that already. Without anything to call her, given her intentional anonymity, the Last Judgement competitive circles took to calling her what she was; a Rising Star. And others had taken notice, too. Due to its accuracy some organizations had taken to using the Last Judgement competitive scene to try and find pilot candidates, a way to supplement those they found through traditional armed forces recruitment. And X Corp wanted to offer Sasha a job.

At the age of seventeen Sasha began working as a test pilot for X Corp, putting the very machines her father helped work on through their paces. X Corp, in addition to her salary, paid for her to take the courses necessary to be licensed as an HFV technician. Within a few years she was helping to maintain, modify, and engineer the machines she piloted. This set of skills was why she was eventually let in on X Corp’s next generation Project Paper Tiger. It was well known that the Ozzies were failing, but X Corp still needed to sell HFVs. And in order to sell the most HFVs, it needed to make the best presentation.

And that was where Paper Tiger came in. But the project needed combat data. Real combat data. So after some discussion, the completed prototypes were loaned to the Ozzies with the pilots and technicians to use them. The Ozzies got a bump to their waning fighting force, and X Corp got a way to gather combat data. But of course, X Corp still needed to protect its interests. Only its own technicians would work on the HFVs, and only its own pilots would fly them. In order to guard against industrial espionage, the pilots couldn’t make themselves well known…

Which is why Sasha C. Mackenzie is on board as the XC|PT-001’s technician, and the champion Rising Star is out of retirement with a vocal modulator to help the masquerade.

Name: Aina Virtanen-Schneider
Age: 22
Gender: Female
???: Y
Skills: Aina has a tactical mind, and her thoughts are oriented to be from the perspective of a strategist. She spent most of her youth in higher schooling, given her family heritage is the out-of-wedlock daughter of the head of Schneider Electronics. This is not including her time as a soldier and commissioned officer. Given the chance to transfer into the HFV command, she did so.

Appearance: More or less like this.

Personality: Due to her mostly shielded upbringing, Aina has been shaped over the course of her service into a more cool, commanding woman. She hardly shows emotion, in any situation that she has so far encountered, although the prospect of actual intense combat has yet to be tested. Her speech mannerisms do still reek of upper class life however, and as a result she is often called disparaging names like 'Princess' and the like.

History: The girl known as Aina was born to the late head of the Schneider Electronics conglomerate and his Finnish mistress, Mikko Virtanen. Given the volatile nature of French business at the time, the two decided that it would be best for the mistake to simply be tucked away somewhere. So, paying for the child and her mother, Pierre Schneider had the two return to Finland to raise the child. Because of this, Aina was afforded the highest quality of living, and her mother slipped well into the role of a noble widow of sorts. In such an environment, it was only expected that Aina would learn plenty of things normally not useful in the civilian world, but a matter of course for the higher class.

Science, mathematics, foreign languages, history, all of these topics were covered, and given the Finnish nature, even she had to undergo her compulsory conscription in the armed forces. As a result of this, she was also trained quite intensively in military history, command theory, strategy and tactics, and most any other subject relating to performing well in the armed forces. It was when she graduated from the academy then that her mother passed away, and with that, her one major reason to leave the army vanished. Taking the commission out of the school, Aina became a 2nd Lieutenant.

Although fresh out of schooling, she hasn't actually been put through proper combat in any real capacity. Mostly before transferring over to HPVs, Aina was given local garrison roles or the like, and it was after a year of doing nothing that she took the chance to leapfrog over to pilot school. In this branch, she seemed to have found what she was after. The suits they piloted were massive, and could operate in any environment- She quickly fell in love with her first unit, which she pilots still, the SEBiCW-03B Ortega.

Model: SEBiCW-03B Ortega
Specialty: Mass Production Breakthrough Unit
History: The Ortega was a design variant of the base SEBiCW-03A Mash, a unit with nuclear powered leg-thrusters giving it a unique hovering movement, intended to fill the operational void created by the unit. The Mash and the heavy weapon support variant of the same suit, the 03K Gaia were both superb weapons in their own field, but the armor of the Mash was found to be too thin and inadequate for prolonged engagements. As a result, designs were drawn up to create a self-contained breakthrough unit, meant as a foil to other companies far more cumbersome designs. Besides this, the base hull was the same, which meant that production was eased on the industrial side of things. To help in it's role, additional armor was cast onto the fronts and sides of the unit, bringing it up to par with modern units and weapons. It was given a unique multi-barreled cannon as well, besides the standard weapons of a Mash. Additional thruster heads were added to the legs, so that the unit retains the high maneuverability, or something close to it, of it's predecessor, but with the additional armor and firepower.
• Head Height; 18.6 meters
• Max Weight; 81.8 metric tons
• Standard Weight; 62.6 metric tons
• Power Output; 1269 kW
• Sensor Range; 5400 meters
• Max Acceleration; 0.71 G
• Max Speed (Running); 80 km/h
• Max Speed (Hovering); 224 km/h
• Propulsion; "Ground effect" hover jet thrusters: 58200 kg (Total)
Appearance: Basic Look.
Features:
• Enhanced Leg Thrusters
• Reinforced Super-Hard Steel Alloy Frontal Armor
• Hull-Mounted 130mm Missile Pods
Armaments:
• XGC84-D5J 100mm Gatling Cannon
• GIAT-50D Beam Diffusion Repeating Gun
• GIAT SHB Type 1
Weaknesses:
• As is the case with many mobile weapons of the day, the unit has one main sensor array in the head unit, and beyond that the overall sensory suite is rather lack luster.
• The cockpit is very spartan and hardly made with pilot comfort in mind, with an auto-eject system never implemented and only a makeshift forward facing manual system. In combat, this delay can be the difference between life and death.
• The operational role of the particular class of suit does mean that some alterations needed to be made in the interests of ensuring proper power distribution. As a result, the servo-joints in the arms and legs are far slower then it's original incarnation. This means the Ortega has a rather slow traverse speed on the appendages, leading to potential problems in close quarters. This can, of course, be averted generally by simply turning the entire unit.
• Given it's method of power and propulsion, the leg-thrusters are prone to becoming fouled up with dust and debris if not properly weatherized, which can lead to damage and loss of efficiency.
• As well as dust, the very nature of having small nuclear fission reactors in the legs means there is always a risk of catastrophic damage in combat.
• Using ballistic weapons limits the unit's operational time to however much ammunition it carries. This is somewhat mitigated though by the addition of a beam rifle.
• The nature of the Ortega's weapons and role means that it is not suited for anything more then mid-range combat at the extreme. The weapons it carries are far from accurate and have a low effective range before their penetration coefficient drops off far too low to harm anything other then the lightest armored objects.

Name: Josef King
Age: 38
Gender: Male
???: Y
Skills: King is a career soldier and has spent the last eighteen years in, around, or about the OS Type 2 frame. The early points of his career was spent as a frontline HPV pilot, racking up combat experience against pirate and mercenary holdouts. As such King could be considered a seasoned veteran with dozens of successful operations under his belt. While both his piloting and reflexes could be considered slightly above average compared to the younger pilots, King more then makes up with general experience.

Appearance: King is a heavily built male with a clear African complexion, brown eyes with a shaved scalp. His physical build is incredible, 5'10" with a barrel chest flanked by thick slabs of muscle. Numerous electronic tattoos run down his fat biceps, weaving a complex pattern of red and yellow light against his ebony skin. His outfits usually consist of the sleeveless variant of the UN standard BDU or a wide collection of white tank-tops.

Personality: Loud, bombastic, and full of confidence. King is a respectable man in all accounts. He possesses a veteran's honor, holding more loyalty towards the well being of his fellow soldiers then his own career or the orders of his superiors. Despite his reputation being tarnished by an accident involving killing his superior, King did not let the misguided allegations keep him from setting his eyes forward and proving himself as a proper soldier. He is a hopeless romantic and superstitious, believing in the idea of entwined fate and the way of the stars. He is honest and never holds back in expressing his thoughts and feelings. He even openly admitted to liking fighting on the battlefield, as it gives him the thrills when life and death are on the line

History: King was born on on Luna Prime, the capital city of the US funded Luna space colony, as the oldest of five brothers. His father and mother are career miners, who migrated to Luna in search of work and a fresh start outside of Mars itself. Despite the efforts of his parents, King's household was definitely on the low income side of the fence and Josef's educational and work options were limited to Luna City's miner's guild and by the time he was seventeen he was working as a rock-hauler within the Lunar surface.

Josef's entry into the United States Armed Forces was more of an escape then anything else, there was money to be made as a soldier then a miner and King refused to support his family with the meager income of a rock-hauler. At the time the USAF was currently in a massive recruitment drive to counter increasing pirate activity an were in desperate need of individuals who were used to functioning in low gravity environments. King ended up as a HPV pilot within the newly formed 57th Solar Lances, a unit made up of space-born individuals and assigned to protect the entirety of the United State's assets within the asteroid belt.

Military life agreed with Josef King and he ended up spending the next twenty years within the Lances, his career being a collection of HPV combat against pirates and corporate mercenaries- gaining the rank of sergeant and the command of his own squadron of Rook type HPVs. During a combat sortie King's machine suffered damage to it's main thruster and ended up smashing headlong into the cockpit of his direct superior, a fresh faced lieutenant named Juan Garcia. Lieutenant Garcia was killed instantly, and although the following investigation ruled the incident as an unfortunate accident, King's reputation within the Lances was tarnished beyond repair.

Rather then removing a decorated soldier King was 'volunteered' for transfer into the United Nation's CAPEI, a politically honorable position that pulls Sergeant King from the Solar Lances and frontline combat.

Model: OS Type 2 "Rook"
Model number: OS-T2 King Custom
Specialty: General Combat.
History: The "Omnienvironmental Series" (OS) is a series of HPV's produced by "Omni Program", the United States of America's response to the discovery in Siberia forty years ago. Through collaborative action between NASA and DARPA, a total of 9 entries into the series were successfully completed. Within the past 15 years, the United Nations increased funding to the Omni Program due to the valuable contributions made to CAPEI and as such, the program was seen to be much more an annex to CAPEI funded by the United States than a United States defense program. In a bid to gain office, the recently elected administration used this perception and promised to dissolve the program if elected; within 100 days of taking office the program was dissolved, partly contributing to CAPEI's current state.

The Type 2 "Rook" was one of the first developments by the program fitting the need for a general purpose combat unit, a position that the OS-1 "Ray" lacked due to it's lighter armor and equipment. While considerably more low-tech compared to the other OS models in it's line, the "Rook" can be considered the backbone of the program. Though the unit's heavy armor and firepower are relics from an older generation of combat vehicles, the preservation of these throwback features translates to practical dependability in general-purpose warfare, the reasoning behind its continued deployment. It's high quality manufacturing is also greatly appreciated by the soldiers who use it as well as it's very low mechanical failure rate and short sortie time. Several hundred Rook variants were produced before the program was shut down, making the 'Rook' a somewhat common sight among UN pilots. Despite their age the models that remain are easy to repair, solid in combat, and fully compatible with more top of the line weapon systems.

The Rook's basic operation system is unified across all of its variants, which makes it easier for pilots to adapt to different machine types. The cockpit is screenless and relatively cramped with the pilot controlling the suit in a standing position. Due to the screenless cockpit, the pilot has to wear a helmet which connects all external video feed and other data directly to his or her retina. The helmet also possesses the ability to interpret inputs based on minute movements from the pilot's head or eyes.

Appearance: At nearly twice the mass of the OS Type 1 'Ray', the mainstay mobile suit of the OS line is comparable in design to a bipedal tank, markedly less advanced and less maneuverable than the mass-production types of the other major powers. The machine stands at 18.3 meters with a standard weight of 89.3 metric tons and and a maximum weight of 121.5 metric tons. Due to the Rook's immense weight, it could instantly become a deathtrap if it were to lose its mobility. To prevent that worst case scenario, the Rook is equipped with a Leg Shield to protect its lower joints. While it is only equipped on the left leg, it is possible to immediately direct the shield into the direction of the attack and provide adequate protection. If the Rook were to shoot in squatting position, the shield is large enough to provide cover for the entire body. Stable fire can also be enabled by this position since the main gun can be placed on top of the shield
Inspiration

After gaining veteran status King was permitted to further upgrade his personal HPV with a tight selection of combat upgrades, his Rook has been modified with the addition of nine rotatable thrusters to permit adequate multi-directional maneuverability in weightlessness for function in space combat, as well as replaced the leg-shield for a pair of high grade accelerators. Mounted on each shoulder of the King Custom is a large shield, which also function as a large antenna, improving the suit's communication ability. The shoulder shields also contain composite radar and other functions that are required or necessary for a squadron leader to lead effectively.

King's Custom 1
King's Custom 2

Standard Features:
Heavy Armor
Bazooka autoloading backpack.
Veteran upgrades:
An additional four tons of armor.
Thrust improvements.
Enhanced sensor suite

Armaments:

200 x 25 mm Caliber Smooth-bore Gun x1: The main weapon of Rook It's capable of rapid firing the solid 200mm solid bullets it loads. In addition, a wide array of ammunition can be loaded including armor piercing, flares, grenades, rocket propelled munitions, anti-aircraft and others. On either side of the barrel, there are two sheets of heat sinks that are made of super hard carbon material that can also function as a blade

550mm Missile Launcher x1: A bazooka that fires 550mm caliber missiles. It uses a double barrel type of magazine that can hold up to ten missiles at a time. The rear barrel can be adjusted via a slide based on the range of the target and the ammunition type currently used. The weapon is reloaded from a backpack mounted autoloader that can hold up to 50 missiles before needing a reload.

Shoulder shields x2: Mounted on each shoulder of the King Custom is a large beam-treated shield, which also function as a large antenna, improving the suit's communication ability. The shoulder shields also contain composite radar and other functions that are required or necessary for a squadron leader to lead effectively.

Weaknesses:
Slow: Despite it's upgrades, the Rook is still middle of the line compared to late era suits and likely wont be able to keep up with a faster HPV's maneuverability.

Energy limit: A common issue with the early OS line is it's choice of reactor, the Mark-III OS-generator is a relic of an older times- reliant on an electronic battery based system that holds a charge for a set amount of time. Each Rook with a standard reactor will only be able to function in combat for roughly two hours.

Beam weaponry" The King Custom's shoulder shields and backpack are the only beam-treated parts of the HPV, making the rest of the suit vulnerable to beam attacks.

Ammunition reliant: This HPV will run out of ammo and require some sort of reload. In addition the backpack mounted ammunition hoppers are ideal targets for hostile HPVs, a well placed shot though a heavily armored hopper will disable the Rook in a incredible explosion of munitions.

Name: Jack Thor

Age: 40

Gender: Male

???: N

Skills: A skilled mechanic with surprising abilities at the multitasking and fine control required by his vehicle. Has also become something of master at evasive flight out of necessity.

Appearance:

This guy. Including the hair.

Personality: He once entered the galley of the OSDT shouting if anybody had ordered a large ham...while holding a very large ham from the local supermarket. Needless to say, Jack has something of a larger than life personality. A warm smile that could thaw the chillest of hearts and a protective, fatherly attitude towards his teammates. Has something of a minor obsession with late 20th century America.

History: Although of Norwegian stock, Jack was born and raised on Gerspenritter. As expected of one raised on a corporate colony he has worked for X-Corp in some form or another for most of his life. Starting as a mechanical engineer before showing surprising skill at piloting mecha and being transferred into the test pilot program. In an effort to forge a better life for his wife and ten year old son Jack decided to take advantage of the generous bonus and hazard pay available and volunteered to be a part of the XC|PT squadron. The idea of being able to help humanity as a whole simply sealed the deal for him, even if the OSDT was all but a name in a ledger it was still a group devoted to helping everybody and not just one group.

Name: Father Joan Heidenreich, OSDT Chaplain

Age: 26

Gender: Female

???: Y

Skills: Skilled pilot and capable enough mechanic, public oration, soothing spirits, quiet hymnals, photographic knowledge of relevant Scripture, Saturday morning cartoons.

Appearance: Standing at five and a half feet even and thin, the chaplain tends towards a naturally lithe, willowy figure. It's made easier to notice by her priest's robes, which are somewhat tighter than an average frock, and her standard-issue military uniform. Her rosary tends to hang from her slim neck no matter what outfit she wears, the polish blending into her dark skin. A pair of startlingly green eyes and stark white hair offset her natural skin tone, and the gentle smile she often wears is more than bright enough despite how faint it usually is. Off-duty or on Earth, she will often default to distinctly unholy sundresses (even daring to show her knees off) or casual blue jeans.

Personality: Even for a priest, Joan is atypically gentle and polite. In fact, it is difficult to even determine why such a beatific soul would want to be attached to a squadron of HFVs in the first place. In truth, it is both the excitement of the profession itself and her concern for those who thrive off that excitement - her understanding of the thrill of jockeying is most of what drives her to act as spiritual and psychological counsel for those on board Jannah. For those seeking something besides a sermon or advice, Joan is also surprisingly willing to get up to mild, good-natured mischief, which she explains away serenely as trying to bring a sense of levity to those few who choose to live in the moment.

Biography: For the first half of her life, the clergy was about as far away from Father Joan's long-term plans as you could get. Joan grew up with a passion for literature, whiling away her days reading voraciously and imagining lush fantasy lands and what lay in the farthest reaches of space. Growing up on Earth in an age of space colonies and evidence of extraterrestrials only kindled the fire of adventure in the young Earthling growing up, and she had no time to debate theology or dole out advice when there was adventure to be had.

Then, at the age of fourteen, Joan was in an enormous car wreck along with her parents and three older siblings. Though only her parents were wearing seat belts at the time, all four children nonetheless escaped the family van with more than moderate injuries. In the hospital, Joan was baptized, and told repeatedly that the family's good condition was nothing short of a miracle - an act of God. Never being particularly religious, or having much idea of what religion pertained to besides the pieces that had seeped into popular culture or modern idioms, Joan was now possessed with a childlike belief in miracles. Her path in life diverted as such, and upon graduation she went to school for philosophy and began a path to the clergy.

Upon leaving the seminary a year ago, Joan requested what must have seemed a bizarre choice for one who so nearly had her life taken by machinery as a child - the OSDT, where she was posted upon the spaceship Jannah to serve as a support pilot and adviser to the crew. In truth, she sees a little of herself in those who deign to pilot such dangerous vehicles, and seeks to give them the same peace of mind that the Father feels daily, and seeks to stave off any feelings of despair or loneliness with all her might.

Name: Husam ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Farsi

Age: 25

Gender: Male

???: Y

Skills: Husam is a man with a rather diverse, yet non synergizing, set of talents. He’s a skilled poet, a remarkable gamer, a good singer, handy with a sketchbook, and a refined model builder. A combination of his upbring and solo endeavours has proven Husam adept in knowledge of the humanities, although he’d probably still get lost in the ramblings of a professor. However on the battlefield the thing that matters most is Husam’s remarkable reflexes. His speed and refined accuracy is the primary reason he ended up in the cockpit of the Sword Shroud. Outside of the cockpit, his reflexes and muscles making him decent enough at dodging blows until he can run away, but lack of any real training means he won’t be fighting back anytime soon.

Appearance:
Standing an impressive 191 cm, Husam falls firmly in the middle ground in terms of height on the team. While he towers above the Rising Star, Jack Thor makes him into Peter Dinklage. That said while he may not strike as much of an imposing figure as certain others, Husam is nevertheless possesses a rather built physique. While this fact is often obscured by his tendency to wear baggy clothing, there is little denying the musculature prevalent under his tanned skin. Another peculiarity in the young man’s appearance is the long dyed hair, truth be told Husam isn’t entirely certain why he felt the mood to dye his hair pink, it might simply have been a result of trying to figure out J-Pop bands better. This long pink hair is generally kept in a neat ponytail, although some of the strands still fall to his shoulders.

Personality: On any other team, Husam might be called eccentric, instead certain other members of his team have stolen that title away from him. Nevertheless Husam is remarkable for his devil may care, relaxed attitude one moment, to a frightening intensity for things that fill him with passion. Expect him to go into long rants about the things that strike his fancy, which among other things include bullet hells, model building, j-pop, and fantasy novels. When Husam is passionate about something, it shows, otherwise his movements are almost lethargic in nature. He’d much rather brush off the mediocre tasks of the day and lounge around than to continue on things he finds to be a dredge.

Still, one thing that is consistent about Husam is his tendency to look out for those younger than him or below him in stature. He finds it a part of his duty as a human being to prepare his fellow humans, the only thing that varies is the intensity of his advice. Depending on the situation it may be a larger than life attempt to instill virtues in others or just a bored “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

History: Growing up in Earth, Husam’s early life was rather privileged. Of course such was to be expected for a member of the Saudi ruling class, although Husam was an oddity in that his father decided to marry a persian women, hence the epithet he bears to this day. Nevertheless his early years went by rather smoothly, the wealth of his family ensured that his every need was always attended to. As one can imagine, such complacence wore the young man down, it wasn’t long before Husam grew bored with his day to day life. After all he never found himself wanting for anything and as a result rarely seemed to express any level of interest in his day to day activities. This boredom soon manifested as a lethargy that wore down everyone the young man met. Yawning is contagious after all.

By the time he was in his teens, his family had enough of the young man’s boredom. It baffled them how a many could be so blessed and yet not seem to possess any appreciation or care for the many gifts he had received. As a result his father issued a simple proclamation, Husam was forbidden from entering the family home or taking part in any of the family estate until he had found himself a passion in life and pursued it. Until such a day came, Husam was not to be considered a part of the household. Of course his parents were not monsters, so they still provided him with enough money and clothes to send him on his way, not to mention he had already received an exemplary education, but for all intents and purposes the boy was alone by the age of 16. Outside of simple clothing and the cash he possessed the survive, the only real companion he had was the handhold P5P he used to idly pass the time.

While it didn’t show at all times, Husam did eagerly want to find something to find a passion in, not just to make his father proud but to also acquire some semblance of an identity outside of his family. As fate would have it, his first opportunity to illustrate his passion came in the form of an arcade offering the latest installment in the Solar Age series: Last Judgement. The game itself was nothing too special to Husam, but the feel of piloting an HFV felt nice. Not to mention years of playing bullet hells on his P5P left his reflexes well equipped for the game. It was these reflexes that played into the boy’s lethargic playstyle. Husam never made a name for himself killing other mecha or topping the leaderboards, those goals just didn’t appeal to him, instead Husam found a different source of enjoyment in the game.

Never get hit.

And indeed, he didn’t. With practice it became a rare day to ever see Husam hit and practically impossible to actually shoot him down. “The Persian,” as Husam soon found himself called, soon became a slight whisper among the Last Judgement fanbase. In contrast to actual legends like “Rising Star” and “That Crazy American,” Husam was more of an urban legend often accused of cheating. Nevertheless certain parties did take notice of this untouchable man.

Two years later these parties got in touch with the untouchable man. However the Husam they found was quite the changed man. The thrill Husam had found in the game had been a new experience, and thus the lethargic man soon began throwing himself into other new experiences in hopes of finding other sources of passion. Somethings, like truly getting invested in bullet hells, were a logical step ups from prior past times, while other things, like model building, was a result in finding a joy in watching something he bought with his own hard owned cash come to life. Then there were the things totally out of left field like J-Pop.

The man also soon found a joy in the humanities, from writing poems, reading novels to even singing and dancing. For the first time in his life, other worlds opened up for the lethargic man. Suddenly a brimming intensity had been unlocked, one that made itself known every time the man found himself in love with a new hobby. It was this cheerful and energetic man, that the parties from X Corporation would soon get to know.

As Husam soon learned, part of Last Judgement’s purpose had been to scout out potential new pilots, and it just so happened that Husam fit the criteria rather well. The development team had taken note of the man with the highest evasion stats in game. While nothing else was extremely remarkable, those sort of reflexes were more than enough to guarantee further investigation. After a few interviews, which served to peak Husam’s interest in the project, the young man was soon brought onboard as a test pilot for the company.

A year later, Husam visited his father once more, and the two sat down and had a long talk about the young man’s newfound vigor. While both agreed it was not yet time for Husam to come home, that had never been the purpose of Husam’s visit. After two hours of conversation and reminiscence, followed by eight hours of goodbyes, X Corp had received a new major shareholder and Husam had received the blessings of his family.

Currently Husam’s duties as a test pilot have placed him with Project Paper Tiger, a design he did have a notable source of influence on. Of course his influence was not in the mechanical sense, but rather in ideas such as the concept art and more importantly the control scheme and OS. The 002 is specifically tuned for Husam to pilot to it’s top capabilities taken advantage of the man’s remarkable reflexes and aim. Although in Shroud Form, this is rarely too apparent, but Sword Form does bring it to center stage.

As part of X Corp’s current deal with the Ozzies, Husam is also on loan, but in order to guard the interests of the company, the official reason behind his presence is to represent his father’s interests. When 002 flies, few know the identity of the man behind the X emblazoned mask.

Name: Yusof Pavel Sokolov
Age: 56
Gender: Male
???: N
Skills: At the age of 20, Yusof signed on with the Tula Titan Arms Corporations testing pilots, after serving two years in the Russian Navy. Still only four years after the Siberian Discovery, HPV's at this time were still in a late developmental phase, and many testing pilots were lost during this crucial time. Yusof was one of the survivors, and moved on to becoming a career HPV Pilot with 35 years experience by the time he hit 56. The knowledge Yusof has of his suit goes beyond the regulations, numbers, and paper capacities. It has developed into something he does relatively naturally, each button in his cockpit is known by heart to an extent where he doesn't need to think about where it is to press it, in many ways the suit is an extension of himself. This is only due to pure experience however, as in his early days he was regarded as a mediocre pilot. It is his sheer familiarity with the suit which is his strongest advantage. Outside of the suit, the 56 year old Sokolov is the picture of human health, incredibly muscled and trained in basic military facets such as hand to hand combat and basic firearms use. He is also noted for being an impressive Tenor, something which he reminds everyone through frequent singing.

Appearance:


An imposing man, many are put off by their first look over Yusof Sokolov. He stands at an impressive 6'6'', is broad shouldered, and features a wide scar across the bridge of his nose. His face is rough looking and stone cut, characterized by a strong jaw and squared skin. Instantly recognizable are the man's impressive and well kept mutton chops which adorn the sides of his face, in stark contrast to his otherwise conservative shortly cut hair. The man is also the picture of health, looking about 12 years younger than he is, he is also noted for being relatively muscular and incredibly fit. His eyes are the only betraying feature of his otherwise stern appearance, never appearing truly angry, but more dull during unhappy times, and jolly in happier ones.

Personality: Yusof is a larger than life figure, staunchly outgoing and out spoken, the sort of person you either like straight away, or are annoyed by forver due to his bombastic nature. He speaks loud, and is sure to make quick friends of everyone he meets despite his imposing appearance, taking up the position of the 'heart' of any group. Fiercely loyal to his well fought comrades, Yusof greatly respects strength but neither condemns cowardice or insecurity, in his mind everyone has the capacity for greatness, should they choose to peruse it, something which he frequently pushes his comrades to stride for.

History: Born outside of St Petersburg Russia to an alcoholic father and abused mother, the childhood of young Yusof was an uncomfortable one. Life was a relatively frightening day to day endeavor for the boy. Schooling and education was non existent, Yusof only learning to read by the time he was already 12. At the age of 16, the world changed with the Siberian Discovery. Fear and panic was abundant, however things took a positive turn for a young Yusof when his father found work assisting in the excavation of alien devices in Siberia. With his father gone, Yusof began to improve his situation. At 19, he signed on with the Russian Navy using fake credentials, and served in the position of an ensign for two years before he volunteered to test pilot the TR-76 HPV for Tula Titan Arms Corporation.

Testing went on as it does, and Yusof served with mediocrity as a test pilot, far from the worst fate as many test pilots during this time died in fatal accidents. Yusof was also noted with making one of the first space flights with an HPV during this time. As the testing and prototype phases ended, many of the TR-76 suits found themselves dismantled. Only 32 remained, Yusof's own suit being one of the lucky ones, Yusof oversaw the modifications which would make the suit it's own viable weapon in the modern world among the other newer suits. As each TR-76 pilot oversaw the modification of their suit, each was unique in it's own right. Yusof's was modified in the manner that it had it's own miniature nuclear reactor, a self sufficient power source which would last hundreds of years, allowing for extended operation times. As well, Yusof oversaw the installation of his own 'Override button' which had become popular among other TR-76 pilots, as well as his secondary weapons, the Rip Guns installed on his suit's hands. It was also his idea to construct individual motors for each arm, rather having each be powered by the primary motor. This complicated the system's internals somewhat, but also had the advantage of increasing the strength of the suit's arms multiple times over. With his suit modified, Yusof would go on to spend the majority of his service time in the Russian Federation's own HPV task force.

By the time OSDT made it's own Taskforce, Yusof was already a distinguished pilot. When the international organization began requesting pilots from the multiple HPV equipped nations, the Russian Federation was reluctant, sending only a handful of pilots, and saving the rest for itself. From here, Yusof served in the OSDT task force to this day across the solar system, earning himself a reputation among his peers as the 'old man' of the unit.

Model: TR-76 'Senta'
Specialty: Mobile heavy defense
History: The TR-76 (Tyazhelaya Rama 76), meaning simply 'Heavy Frame' 76 in Russian, is a single model line of HPV's produced by the Russian Tula Titan Arms Corporation. One of the earliest responses to the Siberian Discovery, and one of the Russian Federation's self produced HPV's, the TR-76 was first designed as a platform on which to test the viability of many HPV technologies which would move on to make other, entirely different variants produced by other countries and corporations viable, making the TR-76 somewhat of a spiritual ancestor to many modern HPV's. 54 models were produced, of which only 32 would go on to be built into self sufficient weapons themselves, and avoid the dismantling which removed the others. The remaining 32 would go on to be constructed from testing platforms into their own viable suits by Tula Titan Arms. The rugged and heavy construction of the model became it's trademark feature, earning the nickname 'Senta' or 'Wall' in Russian across HPV Pilots due to it's incredibly durable design. The interior of the entire suit is reinforced with space rated steel riveting and titanium interconnecting beams. As well, the model is designed for simplicity and easy repair, further increasing it's durability and infamous toughness. While the majority of the suits were withheld by the Russian government, many have trickled out and into other organizations, making the TR-76 somewhat of a rare sight.
Appearance:


At a glance, the TR-76 is visibly older than most HPV's. It resembles a person only in the sense that it walks on two legs has two arms and a 'head', but the rest gives off an industrial, military vibe. It's chest is broad, it's shoulders massive, it's head sunken into the hull with no neck, and it's legs wide. It is visibly unmanueverable, and looks like the sort of thing to walk through obstacles rather than around them. Standing at 34 meters tall, it is imposingly large, both an advantage and a disadvantage in that it makes taking cover very difficult.
Features: The TR-76 is made for simplicity, and does not come with many bells or whistles. It's electronics suite is outdated limiting the sensor arrays which can be fit on it, even with upgrades. However, some TR-76's are equipped with a safety override, a last resort button which disables the suits safety inhibitors which limit movement speeds to the maximum the machinery can handle. Using the override removes this inhibitor, allowing the suit to operate far faster than it's intended. This in turn damages the suit's machinery including the primary engine and joint drive shafts, and if used long enough can result in a total meltdown of it's nuclear reactor. The miniature nuclear reactor itself is the suit's primary power source, allowing for an extended operation time as it does not need to recharge or refuel. Despite this, operation times are still limited due to other fluids in the suit requiring replacement, such as hydraulic fluid and oil, which are also essential to the suit's operation.

Armaments: x1 MMP-140, 140mm twin barreled automatic assault cannon. The Multi Munitions Platform 140 is an American produced HPV weapon made for the OS line, firing large 140mm shells in an alternating pattern between it's two barrels. The trademark of the MMP-140 is it's extreme modularity in ammunition, capable of firing every kind of special munition imaginable, as well as it's decent stopping power for it's rate of fire. The cannon is strapped to the right forearm of the suit, and has a large handle which is gripped by the suit's hand. It can be quickly detached and dropped to allow the use of the hand, and is fed by belt connecting to the suit's interior magazine.

x4 CAG's. The German produced 'Close Assault gun', affectionately named the 'Rip Gun' due to the impressive sound it makes, is a 35mm 8 barreled Gatling cannon with an impressive barrel melting rate of fire. The intention of the weapon is to be a backup when the primary is lost, made to whittle away enemy armor at close range. Two of these are hard mounted on the top of either hand.

X1 Zhavda Missile Pod. Produced by TTA, the Zhavda Missile pod is a light missile pod equipped with 122mm guided missiles, 6 of them per pod.

X8 200mm Manticore rockets. The Manticore rocket is a soft lock high explosive rocket intended for use at medium range against lightly armored targets, relying on it's impressive high explosive payload to blast away the enemy. The TR-76 mounts 8 of these, 4 under each shoulder pad.
Weaknesses: Due to the suit's impressive weight and old design, it is incredibly slow and unmanueverable. The legs are separated a great distance by the pelvis which contains their drive shafts, and as such cannot fully close and have a very limited range of movement beyond a simple walking motion. As well due to the incredible weight, taking flight takes a considerable amount of time and fuel to do. An interior magazine is both an asset and a curse, as while it reduces the weight the suit needs to carry in disposable magazines, it also means that once out of ammunition, the suit needs to be reloaded by technicians in a proper maintenance bay, this includes all rockets and missiles on the suit. As well due to the internal magazine, the suit can only use a certain number of weapons which it can carry ammunition for. It also lacks any melee weapon besides it's fists, which while are considerable due to the independent motors running each arm, still cannot keep up with modern HPV melee weapons. Due to the suit's dated electronics suite, it's sensory arrays can only be upgraded to a certain point to be compatible to the system, which is lackluster when compared to most suits. The rough design features no ejection seat and only very basic life support. The lack of a turning head limits the pilots view range to exactly where the torso is facing. A nuclear reactor power source, while offering greatly extended operation times, can be damaged to the point of a meltdown, resulting in a small nuclear detonation.

Francis Bertrand, age 26, is the leader of the Jannah's Lumen Team, and thus goes by the callsign of Lumen 1. A man of Polish-German descent from Warsaw, he joined the European HFV Academy when he was sixteen, familiarising himself with the finer tenets of piloting with trainer variants of the American OS Type-2. After two years of the education, he was officially inducted into the military, and initially transferred to the Moon to protect the factories of the lunar-based arms manufacturers. However, his stint there ended as quickly as it started, joining up with the UN Coalition against New Copenhagen near the end of the insurrection, proving his skill and earning him a role with another bodyguard detail in Earth's Outer Colonies. However, his new duties did not gel well with him, and soon he had requested a transfer to anything but acting as a meatshield, and found himself serving with the OSDT, a position that he has now been in for around four years.

A man of great nobility and honour, Francis is willing to put his life on the line for his word, a trait that has endeared him greatly with his partner Marco. While he appears rather aloof and mission-focused, he's pretty personable when you get to know everything underneath that professional demeanour. Including, of course, his generally sardonic sense of humour and impatience with the overly foolish. In battle, he can be quite exuberant, although his boiling blood expresses itself in a more restrained manner than most. What netted him the position as Lumen Team's leader, however, is his ability to read strategies and the like on the fly. His fast-moving mind is a valuable asset to them.

He's a terrible singer, but a great dancer. Dancing is one of his hobbies.

VA is Takehito Koyasu.

---

Model: OS Type 2 "Rook" (OSDT Specification) "Bertrand Colours"

Specialty: Mass Production General Purpose HFV

History: One of the many variants of the standard Rook is the (OSDT Specification). Due to increased demand for space-capable HFVs and the loss of US support following the dissolution of the Omni Program, the OSDT took it upon themselves to request refits and upgrades for a number of their existing Rook units, thereby allowing their aging machines to reduce the technological gap between them and the more expensive, newer HFVs. While the (OSDT Specification) still lagged behind recent developments in HFV technology, it was an upgrade that the OSDT's base Rooks sorely needed. Only twelve units were successfully upgraded, with two of them having been assigned to the Jannah.

Appearance: The OSDT's variant of the US mainstay HFV does not differ radically from original design, maintaining the similarity to a bipedal tank that essentially defines the OS Type-2. It stands slightly taller, at a height of 18.8m, and while its mass is generally the same, its effect on the Rook's mobility is lessened by the (OSDT Specification)'s focus on space performance. Indeed, the refitted mech possesses prominent multi-directional thrusters, allowing it to manoeuvre better in vacuum, as well as two, slimmed-down accelerators on its legs. While the rotating leg shield has been removed, the leg armour and the inner frame has been reinforced, thus maintaining adequate protection. Indeed, the OSDT's Rook has a generally bulkier appearance, having layered on more armour to increase its survivability. The two large shoulder shields remain, but can now detach to be deployed as cover. An antenna now protrudes from its cranial unit instead of utilising the shields, a sign of technological progress over the years. Francis' personal unit has also been painted a lighter shade of green than most other Rooks, and also possesses the three bright-blue streaks on one shield, the symbol of Lumen Team.

Features:

• Long range sensors
• Detachable shoulder shield (x2)
• Beam-treated heavy armour
• Bazooka autoloading backpack

Armaments:

• 550mm Missile Launcher (x1): A bazooka that fires 550mm caliber missiles. It uses a double barrel type of magazine that can hold up to ten missiles at a time. The rear barrel can be adjusted via a slide based on the range of the target and the ammunition type currently used. The weapon is reloaded from a backpack mounted autoloader that can hold up to 50 missiles before needing a reload.
• 60mm Chest Vulcan (x2): Two 60mm Vulcans are attached to the hardpoints on the Rook's chest, providing it with the increased application and versatility provided to other HFVs by their 80mm head vulcans.
• 100mm OAC.OnH Machinegun: Francis has equipped a clip-fed OAC weapon onto his personal Rook.
• OAC.OnP Beam Rifle: Fires a stream of particles; very hot, do not stand in the way.
• Beam Saber (1x): A stream of plasma held within a magnetic field shaped into a blade.

Weaknesses: While the addition of extra thrusters and the complete rehaul of the power generator to meet modern standards has drastically changed the Rook's operational time and general manoeuvrability/speed in comparison to other HFVs, its status as an upgraded ancient machine still keeps it from catching up with more modern mechs. It is still noticeably slower, a fact that enemies can easily take advantage of. Its beam saber lacks a recharge rack, so also has limited operation, and its continued reliance on ammunition is a major issue, especially when its mounted ammunition hoppers are easy targets.

Marco Veltro, age 26, is a member of the Jannah's Lumen Team under the callsign of Lumen 2. An ethnic Italian from the colonies in the Earth Sphere, he was conscripted into becoming a HFV pilot during the New Copenhagen Revolt, serving alongside the Colonial Militia. Following the end of the war, he continued to pilot in the defence of his home, and during this period fell in love with Irene Junkers, the daughter of an influential senator. Unfortunately, their relationship only lasted for nine months, for the elder Junkers disapproved of him, and was able to pull enough strings to kick him into the OSDT, where he has served for the last three years.

He's a hopeless romantic, always trying his best to make love blossom (although he still hasn't gotten over the entire 'getting kicked to the boonies' thing despite his Francis' attempts to help), and is fond of helping his friends and colleagues into relationships. He also ends to be quite a gentleman, although despite his chivalrous manner is actually an incorrigible gossip; sweet and juicy rumours are, in his eyes, the bread and butter of his life on the Jannah. However, his greatest quality is his loyalty, and thus will never reveal the secrets of anyone if it is their wish. Those who befriend him are his friends for life, and he will always be there to protect them, even if it costs him. This heroism however, is tempered by a powerful caution in battle, especially with his machine of choice; through his years of experience, Marco has grown used to using the M5-改 properly, delivering precise strikes much like a scalpel.

Great wingman, both in dates and in fights.

VA is Hikaru Midorikawa.

---

Model: Jiangnan M5-改

Specialty: Custom Mass Production Anti-Dissident HFV

History: Developed as a riot control mech by Shanghai's Jiangnan Heavy Industries seven years ago, the M5 first entered service with the Colonial Militia, acting to deter any rebellious sentiment or anti-government demonstrations following the end of the New Copenhagen Revolt. Armed with powerful, high-pressure hoses, the mech served in its original capacity for only a short-time before a fatal accident occurred during a protest, the subsequent public outrage forcing its retirement. Following this incident, the M5 was rapidly repurposed to serve as a combat HFV instead, with the initial batch of fifty undergoing refits and customisations to become the M5-改. Despite the non-lethal purpose for which it was developed for, the M5-改 has proved itself to an effective, albeit somewhat underarmoured, weapon against separatist movements, and one has found its way into the hands the OSDT.

Appearance: The M5-改 is a sleek machine with long and thin limbs which, with its apparent hunch, appears to evoke an intimidating, insectoid nature. It stands at a height of 17m, which is considerably shorter than the average for most of its contemporary HFVs. However, this height fails to include the large, pincer-like protrusions from its back and hang over its shoulders, which serve to add at least another metre. While the standard model tends towards greys, blacks and whites, the OSDT's unit is tan, with a stark white colouring its limbs and 'pincers'. Due to being part of the Jannah's Lumen Team, it has three bright-blue streaks (the emblem of Lumen) dashed across its left leg). Two large claws are attached to the sides of its long arms where the shields would usually be, each one possessing four grey appendages. Several nozzles can be found on its body, such as on its palms, on its knees, and even a few present upon its torso, right underneath the module that holds its LRAD. Its cranial unit is highly angular, with what appear to be "bunny" ears and a forehead that juts forth prominently. A single horn extends from the top of its head, curving like a scimitar. There is a single large 'eye' present in the centre of its head, sharing the sensor style with so many other HFVs made in the Earth Sphere.

Features:

• Long-range sensors
• Multi-directional thrusters
• Electronic countermeasures
• Claw Arms: the M5-改's long arms possess claw attachments on its sides where most other HFVs would possess shields.
• Modified LRAD (atmosphere usage only): a legacy of the M5-改's history as a riot control mech, the new and improved LRAD can still serve as a crowd-dispersal 'sonic weapon' within atmosphere, but is more commonly used as a powerful warning signal when other measures are useless; its effect on other HFV pilots can vary from utterly miniscule to minor effects, depending on their noise protection, although at high intensities underwater it can be a dangerous distraction to those dearth of diligence.
• Landspinners (ground usage only): when within atmospheres, the M5-改 can rapidly travel across ground via 'landspinners' attached to its feet, which can best be described as highly-effective, HFV-sized rollerskates, thus providing it greater mobility.
• High-pressure hoses: once utilised only for water cannon or fire retardant purposes, the hose nozzles built into numerous parts of the M5-改's body (most noticeably two large pincer-like cannons hanging over its shoulders as well as the openings within its hands and feet) now launch a far greater variety of things, whether it be particulate clouds to hide itself from enemies, or powerful spurts of plasma at close-range which can deal significant harm to enemies.

Armaments:

• 158式超级自动步枪 (literally: Type-158 Super Automatic Rifle): colloquially known in English as the "Super Vulcan", the M5-改's main weapon of choice is essentially a handheld 80mm Vulcan, differing from most HFVs which have them mounted on their cranial units. Although it has been referred to as a "Super Vulcan", it is not significantly more powerful, but does boost greater range and a larger amount of ammunition.
• 屠龍超騷亂大爆炸 (literally: Dragonslaying Super Unrest Great Explosion): while not an actual weapon, the "Riot Buster" (which it is colloquially known by in both English and Chinese rather than its grammatically-irregular and highly-random name that had been written in Traditional for no apparent reason) is a command of the M5-改 that allows it to simultaneously release incredibly large and powerful clouds of plasma from its well-placed nozzles, engulfing anything in close-range in a massive hot explosion. Doing so requires the fragile HFV to not move, and immediately after flushing all its hoses leaves it immobile for twenty seconds.

Weaknesses: As a retrofitted riot control mech, the M5-改, despite all its upgrades and reinforcements, was never truly built for direct combat against other HFVs. It lacks the armour of most of its contemporaries, and relies entirely on its incredible speed and mobility to survive upon the battlefield. Any well-placed strike could easily cripple or destroy it, which tends to shunt the machine into a support role. Its weapons are also lacking, with close-range combat too dangerous and risky for regular use, and its single long-range option weak against any non-human target.

Name: Lydia Popova
Age: 24
Gender: Female
???: N

Skills: Lydia, as a former stunt pilot, has developed an impeccable sense of timing and precision in her piloting, and has trained herself to better handle the stresses of a HFV. As such, she has an above average amount of experience compared to most pilots, especially thanks to a number of skirmishes with pirate forces. She has also been trained in the use of firearms and hand-to-hand combat, and her strong level of fitness has allowed her to leverage that training in the rare situations in which she must resort to them. Her poker skills are pretty good.

Appearance:


Personality: As befitting a former stunt pilot, Lydia Popova is quite a daredevil. She has a fondness for risky gambles, even when failure could easily end in her death, for in her eyes, risk is a source of excitement. Knowing that danger could easily be around the corner is something that brings her blood to boil, and as such it is quite common to see her engaging in somewhat unorthodox behaviour, especially on the battlefield. However, she has mellowed out significantly since her youth, and while she has changed very little in regards to her gambling mind (with her tactics generally conveying this trait of hers), the presence of her colleagues has restrained her, as she is unwilling to so easily risk their lives on a whim.

Indeed, there is a sense of insouciance to her, which has also contributed to her discipline issues. A generally upbeat person by nature, Lydia can easily be caught in the flow of the situation, to the extent where she has, from time to time, disregarded protocol. She can be overly familiar with others, even her superiors, and, like so many other of her crew members on the Jannah, is a constant target of Captain Pajari's exasperated reprimands in regards to proper decorum (outside of the ship's weekly poker nights). All in all, she's a pretty positive figure, but is frequently caught up in her own atmosphere to the detriment of others.

She's also a massive foodie.

History: One of the first children to be born within the Jovian Sphere, Lydia spent her early life growing up on the Europa Habitat, where her parents were key figures in the establishment of the colony. It was not a particularly exciting childhood, especially given the lackluster sophistication of the habitat, so when she turned fifteen, she immediately left her home for the colonies closer to the Earth Sphere, seeking a more fulfilling life. She would find it in a troupe of stunt pilots, slowly growing experienced to the operation of HFVs and other mechs in the process. Her affinity with the machines provided her with greater ease in learning their functions, and soon she fell in love with them.

By her nineteenth birthday, Lydia joined the military in order to become an official HFV pilot. After a one year training period, she was soon bouncing around the garrisons in the Earth Sphere, although she spent the majority of her time stationed at the L3 colony. However, her discipline issues, demeanour and general habits soon grew to annoy her superiors, and by the time the Pasiphae Habitat lost contact with the rest of the human settlements, Lydia had been booted straight into the OSDT, where she was assigned to the Jannah.

Her reassignment coincided with the inclusion of the GT-010 to the Jannah's roster of HFVs, and she became its main pilot as the third member of the ship's Lumen Team.

---

Model: OAC GT-010 "Popova Colours"

Specialty: Limited Production Artillery HFV

History: The tenth HFV manufactured by the Olympus Arms Company's factories on Mars, the GT-010 is a derivative of the GT-009 mass producton model designed to serve in the role of long-range fire support. Twelve units were initially constructed, but issues with company contracts, as well as rising part costs, resulted in a limited production run for the GT-010. Four of the units were eventually handed to the OSDT, with one assigned to each of the task force's three ships, and the last dismantled for spare parts on the Tin Hau.

Appearance: Standing at a height of 21 metres, the GT-010 is not particularly dissimilar to the GT-009, although it does possess greater armour and bulk than the machine it was based upon. While the standard colouration is butterscotch, like many other OAC machines, Lydia Popova's has been painted grey, and three streaks of bright blue, the emblem of the Jannah's Lumen Team, can be found on its right shoulder pauldron. A single cannon is mounted prominently over its left shoulder, while two missile banks have been built into its chest. Each arm is equipped with a shield, both of which can be utilised as weapon racks if the need arises. Its cranial unit is mounted with vulcans, and also possesses the three 'eyes' common to the OAC's line. Unlike some of its relatives, however, the GT-010 has two sensor optics, with the last one an improved camera. Every single one of them is a shining blue.

Features:

• Sophisticated targeting sensors (x2)
• Forearm-mounted shields (x2)
• Integrated missile banks (x2)
• Shoulder cannon

Armaments:

• 60mm Vulcan Gun (2x): mounted on cranial unit.
• Mega Beam Cannon (1x): the shoulder cannon built into the GT-010 fires a powerful beam of concentrated exotic particles with deadly effect; however, it is a power-hungry weapon, and requires the HFV to be stationary when in use.
• OAC.OnM 'Badger' Missile Banks (2x): the integrated missile banks on the GT-010's chest can launch eight missiles each at a time.
• Beam Saber (1x): stored within recharge racks either on its body or within the shield, the beam sabers utilised by the GT-010 and other machines are, despite their name, essentially streams of plasma held within a magnetic field shaped into a blade.
• OAC.OnR Bazooka II: contains sixteen rounds specialised against highly-armoured targets; they have a slow rate of fire.

Weaknesses: As an artillery unit, the GT-010 lacks strong close-range abilities beyond the use of its single beam saber, and thus is far less effective in such situations. While not considerably heavier or larger than the standard HFV, usage within Earth atmosphere is not recommended, as it was originally optimised for space operations. Its rate of attack is noticeably slower, and thus a fleet-footed HFV can clearly take advantage of its inability to react as quickly in regards to weapons use.

Buddy Wang, age 25, is the fourth member of the Jannah's Lumen Team. His callsign is Lumen 4, although when he formerly served with the People's Liberation Army Spaceforce he 'earned' the callsign of Forgetter of the 8, a dig at his complete and utter lack of social skills. It was this awkwardness and inability to read the atmosphere that managed to irritate enough people to shunt him and his two years worth of Earthside experience in the OSDT, serving in a realm that he had almost no familiarity with. Indeed, Buddy is more or less the team 'rookie', both in piloting and other activities.

Those in contact with him tend to perceive him as overly rude and blunt, to the extent where they assume he has a raging hatred for everything. The fact of the matter, however, is that he is a socially awkward fellow who has no idea how to deal with people properly. He stoically and strangely jogs through life without a filter between his brain and his mouth, which really gets him into a lot less trouble than it should. The patience of his Lumen teammates has been a great help to keeping him away from bad situations, no matter how much condescension he seems to aim in their general direction.

He's voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki.

---

Model: OS Type 2 "Rook" (OSDT Specification) "Wang Colours"

Specialty: Mass Production General Purpose HFV

History: One of the many variants of the standard Rook is the (OSDT Specification). Due to increased demand for space-capable HFVs and the loss of US support following the dissolution of the Omni Program, the OSDT took it upon themselves to request refits and upgrades for a number of their existing Rook units, thereby allowing their aging machines to reduce the technological gap between them and the more expensive, newer HFVs. While the (OSDT Specification) still lagged behind recent developments in HFV technology, it was an upgrade that the OSDT's base Rooks sorely needed. Only twelve units were successfully upgraded, with two of them having been assigned to the Jannah.

Appearance: The OSDT's variant of the US mainstay HFV does not differ radically from original design, maintaining the similarity to a bipedal tank that essentially defines the OS Type-2. It stands slightly taller, at a height of 18.8m, and while its mass is generally the same, its effect on the Rook's mobility is lessened by the (OSDT Specification)'s focus on space performance. Indeed, the refitted mech possesses prominent multi-directional thrusters, allowing it to manoeuvre better in vacuum, as well as two, slimmed-down accelerators on its legs. While the rotating leg shield has been removed, the leg armour and the inner frame has been reinforced, thus maintaining adequate protection. Indeed, the OSDT's Rook has a generally bulkier appearance, having layered on more armour to increase its survivability. The two large shoulder shields remain, but can now detach to be deployed as cover. An antenna now protrudes from its cranial unit instead of utilising the shields, a sign of technological progress over the years. Buddy's personal unit has also been painted yellow, and also possesses the three bright-blue streaks on one shield, the symbol of Lumen Team.

Features:

• Long range sensors
• Detachable shoulder shield (x2)
• Beam-treated heavy armour
• Bazooka autoloading backpack

Armaments:

• 550mm Missile Launcher (x1): A bazooka that fires 550mm caliber missiles. It uses a double barrel type of magazine that can hold up to ten missiles at a time. The rear barrel can be adjusted via a slide based on the range of the target and the ammunition type currently used. The weapon is reloaded from a backpack mounted autoloader that can hold up to 50 missiles before needing a reload.
• 60mm Chest Vulcan (x2): Two 60mm Vulcans are attached to the hardpoints on the Rook's chest, providing it with the increased application and versatility provided to other HFVs by their 80mm head vulcans.
• OAC.OnPX Long Beam Rifle: Fires a stream of particles; very hot, do not stand in the way. The "Long" variant of Olympus Arms Corporation's standard beam rifle possesses a greater range, and can be used as a melee weapon as well. However, it is more power-hungry than the standard beam rifle.
• Beam Saber (2x): A stream of plasma held within a magnetic field shaped into a blade.

Weaknesses: While the addition of extra thrusters and the complete rehaul of the power generator to meet modern standards has drastically changed the Rook's operational time and general manoeuvrability/speed in comparison to other HFVs, its status as an upgraded ancient machine still keeps it from catching up with more modern mechs. It is still noticeably slower, a fact that enemies can easily take advantage of. Its beam saber lacks a recharge rack, so also has limited operation, and its continued reliance on ammunition is a major issue, especially when its mounted ammunition hoppers are easy targets. Buddy's increased amount of beam weapons can also pose a small issue to power.

Name: James Harrison

Age: 34

Gender: M

???: Y

Skills:
Harrison is a career soldier and an experienced HFV pilot, and is thus a practiced marksman, tactician and melee combatant both inside and outside a mech suit, showing high levels of dexterity and athleticism.

His technical know-how and adaptability have been beyond that of the average grunt since the beginning of his career, making him well-suited to more advanced and/or unconventional hardware. As a result, he has strong experience in the use of beam weaponry, demolitions, and drone warfare. His training in sword techniques transfers well to the use of Beam Sabers in close-range mech combat.

Appearance:
6 feet in height, athletic but not heavily built, caucasian skin tone. Black hair, length within military regulations, fringe pulled back baring forehead; sharp eyebrows; close-trimmed beard. Slate-grey eyes, chiselled features.

Speaks in a firm baritone with the Estuary accent of his native London.

Flight suit: Martian red, stencilled with personalised designs (PMC logo now replaced with OSDT insignia), light armour plates in key areas, utility belt.
On-duty apparel: OSDT fatigues, utility vest, hip-mounted sidearm holster, hobnail boots.
Off-duty apparel: slim jeans, t-shirt or turtleneck, jacket or gilet.

Personality:
Level-headed and professional, James is a man who takes his work seriously and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. He is pragmatic and mission-focused, but not ruthless: he sticks to his own moral code. His sense of humour, when he shows it, is of the dry and sardonic variety the Brits are known for. His serious and critical attitude can make him difficult to get along with, but those who earn his respect will find him to be a strong ally and a dependable friend.

In his spare time he enjoys factual reading (mainly on the topics of science, technology and human history), classic film and literature, the sports of fencing and tennis, caffeinated beverages, and the odd video game.

History:
James Harrison was born in London, the son of a military man and a robotics engineer. With his father usually away on tours of duty, his mother gave up her career to raise the boy. Possessed of a sharp mind, the young James did well at school, particularly in the sciences thanks to his mother’s influence, while his father’s saw that he found success on the athletics track.

At 21, after graduating from university with a degree in Applied Physics (his dissertation project was on military beam technology), he followed in his father’s footsteps and enlisted in the British space fleet. His skills and specialist knowledge got him earmarked early on for the fleet’s HFV program, but he would not be assigned to it for another three years.

Harrison was 25 years old and one year into HFV training when the New Copenhagen rebellion began, and his unit was assigned to the UN coalition formed to combat the rogue colonist threat. He cut his mech combat teeth fighting Bradleys and other rebel HFVs out in the colonies.

Less than a year after the end of the war, he received the news that his father had been killed in action defending a UN convoy from a pirate raid. A few months later, his mother was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, of a form difficult for even modern medicine to combat. Treatment would be expensive, and the military widow’s benefits would barely cover it. Finding that life in the fleet reminded him too strongly of the loss of his father, and wanting to take care of his mother as best he could, he left the British military and signed up with Marineris Security Solutions, a Mars-based private military firm. The generous salary would be more than enough to pay for private medical care for his mother, the work promised opportunities to fight pirates like those that killed his father, and shipping out to the Martian Sphere felt like a fresh start.

Thus began Harrison’s seven-year career as a military contractor (or as some less generous individuals might say, a mercenary). His contracts were many and varied, from escorting convoys to ‘mediating’ disputes between rival corporations; from attacking pirate strongholds head-on to guarding valuable or vulnerable facilities. And it was good work: the pay was good, the assignments were rewarding, and the company took good care of its troops, providing them with high-grade equipment and training.

In the latter years, however, Harrison began to have concerns about the ethics of certain of MSS’ clients and, by association, MSS itself. Some of the assignments his squad were dispatched to perform began to look legally questionable, particularly those that took them out into the asteroid belt to deal with increasingly unsavoury-looking groups. A series of damning news reports concerning other PMCs didn’t exactly alleviate his suspicions.

Six months ago, Harrison’s mother succumbed to her cancer and passed away. No longer needing a corporate salary, and feeling disillusioned with PMC work in general, he soon decided quit the company and return to the military fold. But with the growing stigma against contractors, former or otherwise, the British recruitment staff were leery, and he found himself shunted off to an old, semi-defunct UN taskforce: the OSDT.

He has since been assigned to the Jannah as a marine and reserve HFV pilot.

Model: Mm C44 ‘Bradley’

Nickname: ‘Kyuzo’

Specialty: Mass Production General Purpose HFV

History: On the 3rd of July in the 105th year of the Solar Age, the autonomous O'Neill cluster of New Copenhagen declared total war upon its neighbours, with its leader, the eccentric Governor Werribee Bradley, announcing his intention to unite the colonies of the Earth Sphere into a single entity. Backed by an existing arms manufacturing industry and wealth gained from a strong relationship with asteroid miners, the colony was able to rapidly produce significant numbers of HFVs for its war effort, and within two months had already occupied three of its closest neighbouring colonies. Of its many HFVs, the most infamous was the Mm C44, a general purpose mech that soon grew to symbolise New Copenhagen's armies. The brainchild of the governor himself, exactly eight hundred and thirteen units were produced by the Vimana Institute, and were his vanguard against those that opposed him, the relatively high performance of the machines superior to much of what the colonial militias could deploy. However, it would be the intervention of an UN coalition in the fourth month of the war that ended their advance, with the Earth-built machines managing to be achieve technological parity, or even superiority, with the C44s. Six hundred and ninety-two of the ‘Bradley’s (a moniker given to them by coalition forces) would be destroyed, and by Christmas that year, the UN had successfully expelled New Copenhagen's forces from its occupied colonies, bringing an end to Bradley's ambitions (although he would escape arrest). The surviving C44s would find their way either into the hands of UN member states or amongst mercenaries and pirates, and are still a distinctive sight throughout the space routes.

This particular ‘Bradley’ was recently captured from a pirate outfit by Rising Star of the Paper Tiger squad. The Jannah techs have since patched it up, cleaned the previous owner’s blood out of the cockpit, and approved it for Harrison’s use. He has christened it ‘Kyuzo’, after the master swordsman of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.

Appearance: The ‘Bradley’ is merely 19m in height, but due to the presence of its large backpack, which stores the secondary reactor, appears to be far bigger in size. It utilises an offensive shield, which is attached upon the forearm and can swivel around to block enemy attacks from different angles. The ‘Messer’ drone protrudes from its right shoulder, a rounded object with a gun pointing out from it. Unlike most machines produced in the Earth sphere, it lacks a signature mono-eye, with its cranial unit instead possessing a prominent, light blue visor that protects its sensors and cameras. Two miniature ‘horns’ also jut back from its head just above its Vulcans, smoothing back down in an almost 'punkish' look.

The previous owner had given this unit an orange paintjob, which Harrison has elected to keep. The techs have sprayed over the old pirate emblems and applied an OSDT insignia and serial number, but he has not yet had time to paint his own designs on.

Features:

• Long-range targeting sensors
• VI-EX02 Reactor System: each ‘Bradley’ unit possesses a secondary backup reactor that provides it with greater energy use, as well as allowing it to serve as a power source for the weapons of other HFVs if necessary, such as the GT-010's Mega Beam Cannon.
• Offensive Shield: swivel-mounted; beam-coated; contains two small missile launchers
• Rocket Anchor (2x): each arm of the C44 is equipped with a rocket anchor, which can be launched to grab onto foes or parts of the environment.
• VI-R01a Drone Control Transmitter: as a command unit, this ‘Bradley’ was equipped with a transmitter that allowed control over a single drone weapon.

Armaments:

• 60mm Vulcan Gun Pod (2x): mounted on cranial unit
• Repeating Beam Gun (1x): the ‘Bradley’ utilises a small repeating beam rifle as a standard weapon at short ranges to great effect, its high rate of fire making up for the reduced power in comparison to the more common beam rifle, and thanks to the presence of its secondary generator, is longer-lasting
• Beam Saber (6x): stored in recharge racks in its legs and in its backpack
• 3-Slot Grenade Rack
• VI-R01b ‘Messer’ Drone: this unit controls a single drone that, when not in use, is attached to its right shoulder, serving as an extra, fixed beam gun that feeds off its secondary generator; when launched however, it can be flown up to 500m away, and acts as a weak beam gun (due to reliance on internal batteries to fly) that can harry or hurt enemies. It can also be equipped with a camera or other surveillance tools.

Weaknesses: The C44 ‘Bradley’ is highly limited in regards to long-range combat, with its ‘Messer’ and its weak beam gun serving as its only source of attack beyond close proximities. While it can use its rocket anchors to reduce the distance between it and enemies, such tactics rely on being able to catch its target. It was also built entirely for space and colony-bound combat, and can barely function within atmosphere. The second reactor can be dangerous, with any damage dealt to it possessing far riskier effects upon the pilot and the machine compared to the main reactor. In addition, Harrison is not yet familiar with piloting this class of mech, so teething problems are quite possible.

Name: Eran Toast
Age:23
Gender:Male
???: Y
Skills:
Eran is versed with most things that involves his mech and combat tactics of mechs. He's more of a jack of trades when dealt with most things that would come his way. A little skilled in all, but a expert at none.
Appearance:
Eran is a short tanned man. About 5'8" with short black hair and eyes to match. The only noticeable feature on him is the scar that travel's from his lip down to his trimmed beard. That and that unsettling yellow smiley face on his neck.
Personality:
A firm but fare man. Eran has high discipline and follows a code of "Honor" that sets him apart from most modern day fighters. That's not to say he is a killjoy and unpleasant to be around. Eran has a good sense of humor, mostly dark due to his time in service. He also is usually what he refers to as "disappointing optimist", letting others see how good they have it, even when they don't.
History:
At the age of 19 Eran Toast joined signed up to be one of the new units the UN designed. The unit was an experiment to use HFVs on the ground. He was a apart of the "Ground Shakers" 1st HFV division. After 4 years of service and some education, he was accepted into the OSDT to fly a space bound HFV. Lucky enough for him it was similar to his older model.

He took a liking to the new concept and has never had so much time in his life. He wishes that the OSDT and it's personnel weren't so...formal. Maybe it's just him due to the "Characters" that were in his last unit.

Model: GS-Mk2 "Riptide"
Specialty: Fast speed Support.
History:
GS-Mk2 is the child of the much older G-Mk1, a Mech only used as ground support. It's frame and cockpit have stayed the same, only adding features that would allow the Mech to survive spacial confrontations. It's design can easily tell its age by its boxy design of the first HFVs created. The Purpose was to keep a fast small sized Mech that can be used as a EWAR platform. Its weapons systems only useful on weaker Mechs or critical parts of Mechs.
Appearance:

Standing at 6 meters.
Features:
-Long Range Sensor
-Electronic Counter Measures(ECM)(Disengage lock on, disrupt radars, change targets, Sensor Dampener, Communication jammer)
-Target Painter(Allowing tracking turrets and Missiles to more easily hit its target.)
Armaments:
50mm Autocannon(x1) Magazine fed
550mm Missile Launcher(x1)
Weaknesses:
GS-mk2 has fast speed compared to the average mech, but is also comparably fragile. Not much armor has been added due to the Mech's role and the speed it uses as it's defense. It also has a chance of screwing up it's own systems if too many Targets have been selected for its ECMs.