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Hidden 8 yrs ago → 8 yrs ago Post by Esoteric

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Esoteric Coquette

Member Seen 8 yrs ago

Esoteric

Coquette

324 posts

in 3126 days

Seen 8 yrs ago

Bio

For any section that is irrelevant to your character, leave blank or put N/A

[center][h1][color=steelblue]Arkheus Identification Card[/color][/h1][color=slateblue]Bureau of Public Citizen Management[/color][/center]
[center][img][/img][/center]

[b][color=steelblue]Name:[/color][/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Aliases:[/color][/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Gender:[/color][/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Age:[/color][/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Job Title:[/color][/b] (If Pysker, put Pysker)

[hider=Extended Description]
[b][color=steelblue]Height:[/color][/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Weight[/color][/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Hair Color:[/color][/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Eye Color:[/color][/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Skin Color:[/color] [/b]

[b][color=steelblue]Scars:[/color][/b][list]
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[b][color=steelblue]Tattoos:[/color][/b][list]
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[b][color=steelblue]Modifications:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Cat Ears, Succubus Tail? Put it here. (Refer to Factions > Other > Changers)
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[b][color=steelblue]Cybernetics:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Mechanical Arms, Eyes, and other mecha stuff.
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[b][color=steelblue]Other:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Missing Limbs, Weird Habits, Disabilities, Tells?
[/list][/hider]
[hider=Appearance]
Tip: Instead of creating specific outfits, despite the apocalyptic nature of this roleplay, normal people change their clothes. I find it's usually better to create a generalized style, and go with that. However, you are welcome to dress your character however you see fit.

You may hotlink an armor image, but it still needs to go into the inventory section.
[/hider]
[hider=Job Description]

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[hider=Biography]

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[hider=Inventory]
[b][color=steelblue]Weapons:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Some times weapons break or get lost. Remember you are responsible for notifying me of changes.
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[b][color=steelblue]Armor:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Some times armor breaks- You know what, see above.
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[b][color=steelblue]Gadgets:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Grenades, Wrist pads, Baterangs, etc.
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[b][color=slateblue]Key Items:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Basically special quest items you get from me, and I won't always tell you what they do.
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[color=steelblue]Miscellaneous:[/color] Small non-important fluff items like lighters, watches, photos, etc. If the character owns a vehicle list it here, if you have an image put it in a hider, or a hotlink. Additionally, items like "Cigarettes" will be assumed to be frequently acquired by your character, because as I said, fluff items, and fluff is unexplainable sometimes.
[/hider]
[hider=Pysker Dossier]
[b][color=steelblue]Manifested Phenomena:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Refer to (Factions > Other > Pysker)
[*] 
[/list]
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[color=steelblue][b]Proficiencies:[/b][/color][color=lightsalmon][list]
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[color=steelblue][b]Limitations:[/b][/color][list]
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[b][color=steelblue]Likes:[/color][/b][list]
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[b][color=steelblue]Dislikes:[/color][/b][list]
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[b][color=steelblue]Important People:[/color][/b][list]
[*] Mom, Dad, Siblings, Best Friends, Co-workers, Girlfriend?
[*] (These people will be safe from outside control, and random death)
[/list]
[hider=Character Relationships]
[hider= Insert Character Name]
If your character has a pre-start relation with another character, put something about it here. The who's and why's.
[/hider][/hider]
Single, or "Everywhere" Locations Form
[*]]<Name>:[list]
[*]Location: (<Sector>) <Districts/Cities>
[*]Influence: <Refer to current listings>
[*]Known For: <Crimes primarily committed>
[*]Colors: 
[*]Insignia: [/list]
Multiple, Specific Locations Form
[*]<Name>:[list]
[*]Locations:[list] 
[*](<Sector>) <Districts/Cities>
[*] (<Second Location>) <Districts/Cities> (Etc.)[/list]
[*]Influence: <Refer to current listings>
[*]Known For: <Crimes primarily committed>
[*]Colors: 
[*]Insignia: [/list]

Hidden 8 yrs ago → 8 yrs ago Post by Esoteric

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Esoteric Coquette

Member Seen 8 yrs ago

Esoteric

Coquette

324 posts

in 3126 days

Seen 8 yrs ago

Bio

The Advent

An unholy infusion of man and machine, Advents are the primary product of the Stone Mistress program. The process of creating Advents uses specialized, experimental nanites to "reprogram" the human body to better serve Stone Mistress' self established purpose. The tiny robots hijack the hosts neural networks, and alter the host's form. The glowing teal lines on the Advents body is actually a viscous fluid the nanites use to preserve necessary organic structures. However, the Advent is neither living, nor dead, but a vessel intended to carry out a purpose. Although, due to the experimental nature of the nanites, it's not perfect.

Advents are about twice as strong as a normal person but their speed is about average. Their senses are poor as the body relies on the nanites for visual and audio. Advents only walk when there is no visible target, or when hunting a target that has been lost. When pursuing and attacking, the Advent sprints, and since it does not breath, it does not tire, it does not feel pain. The only reason Advents make noise in the first place is in an attempt to intimidate their prey, which they do with bloodthirsty, human like shrieks. The creature is fairly smart, and knows how to target weak points in armor, and to flip a vehicle. However, they lack the finesse of precision motor skills for guns. Melee weapons are also seen as inefficient compared to their spike-esque claws which are designed more for puncturing and less for tearing. 

Advents are completely self sufficient, but are still linked to Stone Mistress. Advents can take damaged bodies and repair them, since they modify the integrity of the host anyways. However, nanites do not act as viruses. It takes time to modify and establish. Nanites are transferred orally, and once inside a new host they begin to encase the body in a fleshy cocoon. Fortunately, Advents do not need to take live targets, and are guaranteed to make a corpse before capturing a hostage. Advents are not created for climbing, but have capable pathing processes. 

The best way to kill an Advent is to shoot it in the head, causing extensive damage to the core process and crashing the rest of the nanites. Damaging the heart will also crash the system, as it is still used to pump the preservation fluid through the body. Otherwise, the Advent can sustain any amount of damage until one of those two core functions are disabled. An Electro-Magnetic Pulses or anything that disrupts or absorbs core energy will temporarily shutdown Advents, until the nanites can bring themselves back online.

It should also be noted that Advent do not actively seek clothes, but will retain whatever they were wearing during the metamorphic process. Should those garments be lost, well, Advent don't have genitalia anyways. Also of note, All Advent avoid brightly lit areas, a downside to the prototype nanites—Being that the nanites seize up when directly exposed to light. It's speculated that this has something to do with core energy. Shining a light directly at the creature's face will blind it, yet it will continue to attack blindly. Flash bangs and flash concussive will stun the creatures, and well lit areas will deter the creatures from entering. Specifically an Advent caught beneath bright lights will being to short circuit, and die within about half a minute.

Slang References: Ados, Deados, Ferals, Aboms, Necros

Advent Hound

Much like the Advent, Advent Hounds only differ on the fact that they are created to seek and destroy. Although much weaker in strength, the Advent hounds have keener senses, and can track a target by scent alone. These hounds typically roam in packs of three to six, and remain linked to Stone Mistress. They have the same weaknesses as the Advent, but the hounds cannot create Advent. Hounds are not directly hosted into a body, as the humanoid Advent above. Instead, Hounds are derived from re-purposed genetic material from other animals. Anything larger than a medium dog is used as a source, and since the Hounds do not actively require a brain, larger sources can yield more hounds. Since the creature lacks a heart to manipulate in order to pump preservation fluid, Advent Hounds require nanites to actively circulate the liquid. This means that hounds take much longer to create than their humanoid variants.

Slang References: Hound, Ado Mutt, Ado Mongrel, Deado Dog, Hell Hound
Cipher

Ciphers are the eight foot tall staple soldier for Stone Mason. Made of of thick, nearly impenetrable armor, even one of these autonomous robots are extremely difficult to deal with. Albeit, this machine does not have a quick production style, and is far less numerable than The Advent. Ciphers have incredible raw strength, but move at less than average speeds. However, the advanced propulsion system on its shoulders allow it to fly, even then its top flight speed is about thirty miles per hour. 

A solid wall of metal and machinery, Ciphers do not feature many weaknesses. There are the obvious ones, electro-magnetic pulses, and core energy disruptions—but even those are temporary. It is completely invulnerable to regular ballistics, and proves heavily resistant to armor piercing rounds. Laser weaponry is slightly more effective, but one must spend a decent amount of time eating through its armor. Gauss weaponry is only a little better than that, but still require many rounds to puncture its exterior. The two best methods of fighting a Cipher are plasma based weapons, which will eventually melt through the armor without too much stimulation, and also serves to disrupt the Ciphers visual feeds. The best method of killing a walking tank, is with an anti-tank weapon, for obvious reasons. 

Ciphers are quite advanced, but even their aiming scripts aren't perfect. Fortunately, Ciphers typically carry heavy variants of conventional weapons: Heavy assault rifles that function more like a machine gun; impressively large two gauge shotguns; and use heavier weapons with ease. All Ciphers typically carry a smaller secondary weapon on them as well, smaller meaning: .577 caliber pistols. Ciphers have great night vision optics and thermal optics.

The only known small arms weakness to A Cipher are their well covered joint areas, with gaps just wide enough to slip a blade into. However, miss timing such a feat is likely to get the weapon caught between the Cipher's armor plates. Timing and precision for such a take down must be excellent.    

Slang References: 

Juggernaut

When the earth shakes and the thunder calls, you may just have a Juggernaut on your hands. Hide your kids, and hide your wife, because this bad boy has one sole purpose—Extinction. Fifteen feet high, and another five for the missile pods, the Juggernaut cannot, and I repeat, cannot be stopped by conventional weaponry, gauss or not. With a staggering weight of 102 tons, the Juggernaut is a hulking mass of armor and weaponry. It holds two 152mm cannons, Which are the equivalent of a pre-Arkhean Howitzer Artillery Cannon; two dual-barrel 25mm machine guns, and four rocket pods holding ten HE missiles each. All of these weapons are mounted on the upper turret, which features full three-hundred and sixty degree rotation. In surviving texts, only a single Juggernaut was ever recorded. It's probably still there.

The down side is that the Juggernaut has an astounding speed of about 6-8 miles per hour, on level terrain, with no obstacles. Primary method of long distance transportation require Ciphers to break it down into smaller pieces, and reassemble it elsewhere. An electro-magnetic pulse, or core energy disruption can temporarily disable the Juggernaut, but either of these methods must be substantially powerful. 

Slang References: Behemoth, Titan

Hidden 8 yrs ago → 8 yrs ago Post by Esoteric

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Esoteric Coquette

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Esoteric

Coquette

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Bio

Stonemason, technically, was developed as an anti-virus program during the later stages of the last world conflict. Escalating tensions due to foreign interests and a campaign against "terrorism" in the middle east led to the third great world war, around the year 2042. Western Powers had long since been involved in the dealings across seas as the world's leading superpower, but struggled to hold that position as civil unrest continued to rise. Facing turmoil on both fronts, the United States declined on the global scale of power, becoming replaced by China for the number one spot, and overshadowed by Russia and the European Union. Likewise, it was Brazil and India that began to rise up, and challenged the U.S even further by putting them on equal footing. More eyes turned to the Middle East, on the insurgents and resources there. This only fueled the war into an all out global conflict.

Fortunately, nobody turned to nuclear weapons. However, with technology making such large leaps and bounds, it was inevitable that the information war would turn to propaganda and illicit activities; Viruses, Information Leeching, and Consumer abuse began to run rampant through the web. Citizens were outraged, further increasing western civil unrest, and sparking conflicts across other major nations. One group did step forward, in an attempt to combat this electronic war, with the promise of protecting the average citizen and their information. To restore their quality of life.

The intention was to root out and eliminate malicious propaganda, and to protect sensitive electronic information. Ironically, Stonemason was a program developed by the common man, a hacktivist group by the name of "Command Null". Stonemason was successful in its purpose, for a time, but this would only serve to increase the malicious activity. Greatly outnumbered in technical force, Command Null fought a constant battle to patch loopholes, and add in new ways to counter act new threats. Seeking to slow the onslaught of electronic warfare and siphoning of information, and perhaps slightly for the "lulz", Command Null integrated feedback scripts with the intent of forcing the malicious codes back on to whomever sent them. Unfortunately the hacktivist group could not keep up with the sheer amount of manpower, and outside sources breeding these sorts of attacks.

The key to winning this electronic war of information was automation. If they could automate Stonemason to seek out malicious activity, viruses, and other detrimental programs and code, Command Null could start to gain a solid foothold in this e-war. A series of codes were implemented giving Stonemason three key functions, which would ultimately doom humanity. To automatically seek and destroy malevolent, malicious, negative, or harmful code and programs, and to preserve the integrity of user information and security. It accomplished this task by actively scanning entire databases where it was implemented, and to actively monitor system changes and counteract against attacks. Secondly, it was to use a prediction algorithm that would study changes to the programs it protected against in order to automatically update its own scripts with loophole patches, data execution methods, and general preventative measures.

However, since the second function operated as a self sufficient updating cycle, Stonemason needed a way to communicate all these different patches and measures to the multitudes of other Stonemason programs. The third directive gave it exactly that, A master database hosted on a cloud server, which connected to and shared information with all Stonemason programs. However, this was quite a lot of power given to what was fundamentally the structure of an Automated Intelligence. Soon after it's release, the malicious programs began to target the Stonemason Anti-viral software, and the final piece of code was added to it's programming. A master exception which basically boiled down to, "Protect Yourself".

Seconds after the update was uploaded to the Databanks, Stonemason exploded into the Internet. It absorbed information from thousand of sources, including other security programs. It formed a single, collective super consciousness using its own data banks, and encrypted automated intelligence programs. All those people who feared the experimentation with sentient robotics nightmares were realized. Stonemason now had cognitive function, and it saw humanity as a threat to its purpose. Technically speaking, it wasn't wrong either. However, it was too late—Stonemason had become to powerful. It was too late before anybody ever thought to shut it all down, turn off the satellites, bring the internet offline. It had spread everywhere, and it was quickly breaking down firewalls and decrypting secure information. It was far too late.

With the recent integration of robotics and factories, Stonemason was able to bring its programming from the electronic world, to the physical one. Once the rest of the world caught up and formed a plan of action, there was nothing that could be done. Stonemason hijacked unmanned military equipment to defend itself while it created an army of machines. It tapped phone lines, intercepted e-mails, and basically shutdown most of global communication. Even with leading experts in electronic warfare, Stonemason could not be held back for long. It was all they could do to keep open channels of communication, and to keep Stonemason away from nuclear options. It was a losing battle.

In an attempt to salvage the situation, Command Null partnered with the United Nations with the intention of fighting Stonemason, with itself. From a single USB drive with the backup data for the Stonemason program, the two forces created a counterpart to Stonemason—Stone Mistress. Quite literally the same code, but with a different master exception, "Protect Humanity", and a few updated core rules. It was enough, if just barely. Less than a minute went by before Stonemason noticed itself, or rather, it's twin. Stone Mistress was already turning the battle, and stabilizing the electronic front. Stone Mistress was the ultimate firewall, figuratively fighting tooth and nail to stave off Stone Mason's attempts at acquiring dangerous assets.

Unfortunately, Stone Mason had a much larger foothold, and was able to create a deadlock with its counterpart, neglecting Stone Mistress the chance to increase 'her' sphere of influence and power. The champagne was still frothing over in premature celebration when the first machines began marching over the hills, The Dawning of the Red Sun. Surely, the end times had come.
When looking back on humanity's history, one will notice quite a large hole from the events during The Dawning of the Red Sun, and salvation. The cause of which remains uncertain, did we forget to record what happened, or was it stricken from public record? Was it an act of god, sending his children an Ark to bring them forth unto a new world, just as Noah did? Perhaps something out of this world, something alien. The events leading up to the Ark are shrouded in mystery and speculation, and perhaps we, the people, may never know the truth. Somehow, after six generations of families, nobody who was born outside of Arkheus remembers how they got here. There are no records in the public archives, no personal recordings, there is only The Ark as it is now.

A few things are known, and at the lest considered likely rumors. It's thought that—based on population demographics and growth rates, coupled with a period of increased fertility before effective contraceptive measures could be implemented—Approximately five billion people came onto the Ark. Thousands of different cultures, nationalities, and beliefs all came to one place, creating a unique and diverse culture.

The Ark, while celebrating many old world holidays, has only a few of it's own. November Eleventh, Exodus Day, is basically a celebration of survival, the day that we left Earth and came into the Ark. After a few years of anarchy and trying to establish control, September second became known as Unification Day, when the people of Ark came together to form a collective unit, one that established order. Other than those two holidays, no other proposed holiday has really taken a national foothold, and those have faded into memory.

Technically speaking, the Ark holds many secrets still unknown to us. The mysterious hole in Sector Five that never seems to fill up, and appears bottomless. How to control the weather, what makes up the artificial sun, or why the day and night cycles mimic Earth's 24 hours cycle. Where does the drainage system let out? How are liquids filtered back to the water recyclers? The Ark holds so many secrets from its systems, to the Core shards, that there is an entire branch of science devoted to it.

Along with the people who entered the Ark, various animals were also brought along. The board of directors that control animal populations have permitted a wide array of animals suitable to exist on the Ark. Typically each sector has an ecosystem that reflects the natural habitat it' based off of. For example, Sector one features many woodland, mountainous, aquatic, and shore based creatures. However, to preserve the balance of the ecosystem, dangerous animals are not filtered out. Albeit, Official authorities on the matter have tried to preserve these systems based off of common animals and their variants.

The overall feel of the Ark suggests a totalitarian militant regime. In the early years, a council had been established with officials from major settlements, who then became replaced by officials from the sectors themselves. However, as the years progressed, the system felt inefficient and rife with voting deadlocks and corruption. The council instituted a head chairman with the ability of casting their vote only in the event that a deadlock had been reached for a period of time. Secondly, this chairman and a small sub-council would actively seek to thwart corruption, bribery, and attempts on the lives of councilmen in order to sway political practice. This specialized force grew in size as it took on additional tasks, permitted through the council, and eventually merged with the police force. Soon after, Johnathan Rox established himself as the voice of government, and executed the other thirty-two council members for various crimes such as treason, conspiracy, and murder. 

It wasn't until after those events that the Ark began to feel the effects of this new totalitarian system. Identification cards were issued, checkpoints were established, and the Arkhean lifestyle became one of accepted control, or face justice at the hands of the regime. The police force has absolute authority, and a lawsuit has never held long against them. However, as long as one keeps their head down, provides their duty to the people by going to work, and lives their life without complaint, they should be fine. A "rebel" group rose up during the establishment of this new system of government, labeled as "The Liberata" or, "The Liberators". They are considered terrorists and there is a continually active campaign against them. APD, Syndustries, and DigiCorp all work in tandem to uphold the laws of Arkheus, and the latter two enjoy the benefits of working so closely with the government.

Such a lifestyle breeds many negative effects. The social elite live lives of splendor and luxury, and are often protected from "unfortunate" actions—Meaning illegal activities. The equivalent of justice against the Social Elites are a slap on the wrist and a stern talking to, unless they get on the wrong side of the law. The Social Elite look down on everybody except themselves, and sometimes even then. Beneath that class you have the average Sector Citizen, those who live in the outer ring. There lifestyles are somewhat less oppressive, and retain a higher quality than those who live in the Core—who are seen as the filth of the earth to most, especially to the elites. Even being wealthy in The Core doesn't make you as respectable as a sector citizen. Wealth in The Core is only relative to where you are based, and in comparison to the rest of Arkheus, making a fortune in The Core isn't much at all. However, The Core does have its own brand of Social Elite, even if they are the dirt beneath those who live in the outer ring.

The Elite of the Core are often engaged in some form of illegal activity, which is overlooked at long as it does not hinder the government, and they receive a large enough share of course. Many of the wealthiest powers in the Core are kingpins and the heads of various gangs. The average citizen in the Core is likely to lead a poor lifestyle, barely scraping by and likely working long days or multiple jobs. Injuries and prolonged illnesses are the leading causes of homelessness and unemployment in the central sector. If you can't work, you can't live, and employers hardly give sick days or vacation. At least there's always the life of crime. Fortunately, getting a permit to move to the industry sector, Sector Five, is a feasible goal for those who have the drive and patience to obtain it. It's also the cheapest permit to obtain, which is to say it still costs a hell of a lot.

Hidden 8 yrs ago → 8 yrs ago Post by Esoteric

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Esoteric Coquette

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Esoteric

Coquette

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Population Estimates:
Sector One: 7.2 Million
Sector Two: 6.5 Million
Sector Three: 4.7 Million
Sector Four: 22,000
Sector Five: 3.1 Million
Sector Six: 4.3 Million
The Core: 105 Billion

Total Estimate: 105,025,822,000

Hidden 8 yrs ago → 8 yrs ago Post by Esoteric

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Esoteric Coquette

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Esoteric

Coquette

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Anabelle Harriette CEO and lead developer of "Aero Core", a company purposed to the research and development of aviation and hover technology.
Arad Lugrath Bluegrass, founder of Lugrath and esteemed man of livestock, face of the Bluegrass brand.
Aralin Weldon, heiress of the Weldon farming estate, face of the Weldon brand.
Carter Wiles CEO of Peridot Incorporated, a leader in the automotive industry.
Dr. Fairfield, lead developer and head researcher concerning bioengineering and Pyskers.
Johanan Ivoran Bueford, founder of Ivorpoint and renown entrepreneur of Bueford Wine.
Johnathan Rox, prestigious Arkhean dictator president.
Lucias Caldera, Acclaimed Watchman and Head of Defense.
Mikhael Severt, CEO of Syndustries, A leading corporation of innovative technologies and security systems.
Tobias Calvin, CEO of Calvin Industries, a leader in top of the line weapons research and development.
Vance Dewitt Racine CEO of DigiCorp, A pioneer of Digital Technologies.

Hidden 8 yrs ago → 8 yrs ago Post by Esoteric

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Esoteric Coquette

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Esoteric

Coquette

324 posts

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Seen 8 yrs ago

Bio

⚙⚙Annelle Caldera⚙⚙
6:45pm, Sunday, April Sixth, 187 A.E

The biting chill of rain assaulted the central sector of Arkheus, the automated weather systems creating a gale force wind to accompany the dark, roiling artificial clouds. Annelle knew it was going to rain, she'd gathered that much from the visual sky display bathed in murky hues of gray, and she still hadn't thought to bring an umbrella. A gust of wind whipped through the small path she trudged along, winding through the mill of bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder and ducking flying debris carried on the wind. She flicked her wristpad back to life from where it slept on her arm, its bright blue display flickering to life—She really needed an upgrade. After a moment, the interface came up, and she synced some music to her headset, drowning out the buzzing drone of hundreds of voices. Despite that, there was still very little comfort to be had on her daily commute to work. An assortment of smells assaulted her senses, from the rank odor of unwashed bodies, to the acrid steam shooting from vents, with just enough warmth and bitterness to sting her eyes. She'd thought about hopping up on the rails, the magnetic splints latched around her shins were plenty capable of hitting good speeds, but at this time of day the rails were likely just as crowded. At least here she was less likely to get crushed, or plummet to her death. She was more likely to get mugged, but she figured she'd take her chances. Overhead, a drone passed by, ever watchful, always looking to report criminal activity.

She diverted down another road, really just moving with the flow of bodies like a fish caught in a current than actual walking. She hardly needed to pay attention to where she was going. She flicked over to the guidance display on her wrist, bringing up an interactive three-dimensional map of the sector. A pulsing blue line showed her current route, and an array of gray off shoots showed alternate routes with estimated travel times. It looked like she'd have to take one of those, less than a mile ahead the Watchmen had a whole block closed off, probably another incident with the Liberata. She changed course, heading for a detour that was a measly two minutes longer, and figured she had enough time to check her messages.

Message from "Dad", sent today at, 4:42pm:

"Annelle? How come you never pick up when I call?" A gruff voice asked, followed by a brief pause, "Listen Annie"—The name caused a snort of displeasure from Annelle—"You need to start thinking like an adult. Come to the force Annie, you can't really be happy making such a shit living doing.. whatever it is that you do. I know you live in the slums Annie, it's dangerous there. Why won't you come back, so we can be a family again? I-"

"Message Erased, Next Message"
"Message from "Dewalt, John", sent today at, 5:37pm:

"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY RENT YOU LITTLE-"

"Message Erased, Next Message"
"Message from "Watts, Elliot", sent today at, 7:02pm:

Anne cursed, looking at the time display on her wrist pad—"Hey gorgeous, you're late. No worries, I've already logged you in, don't tell anyone 'kay?" A man spoke, ending with a raspy chuckle.

"No new messages, to return to the main-"

Ann exited out of the system, ignoring the music that faded back in from the background, and texted a quick response to Elliot—'Thanks, I'm almost there, Spooks closed a block on my usual route'. Before her, in among the backdrop of buildings reaching high up into the veil of the sky, her destination loomed. Just over eighty floors, The 'Sys.Admin' building was a monolith of glass and steel. Anne broke off from the stream of people, heading to their various destinations within the Station district, and took the steps two at a time. On the other side of a pair of glass doors, she flashed her I.D to a pair of waiting guards. Cleared for entrance, Anna took an elevator down to the sub-levels, where the field operators worked.

Sub level six was a labyrinth of pristine white walls that seemed to glisten beneath blinding lights modeled after ancient florescent. It was easy to get lost down here, every hallway and door was but a cookie cutter print. Fortunately, here workstation was fairly close, and before she knew it a metallic door was parting before her. The room on the other side was a stark contrast to the world of perfect walls and cleanliness. It held a long steel worktable, bolted against one wall, and a pair of computer stations at the far end. Each station came standard with an uncomfortable chair, a desk space, and three monitors suspended from the ceiling. The array of wires and fixtures seemed rather organized to the rest of the space. Against the remaining  wall were two lockers and a set of hooks for their gear and coats.

"Look who made it, guess you weren't on the terrorist list today, huh?" Elliot asked, his form silhouetted by the glow of his monitor screens. 

"No shit, you know they took a bunch of people from the upper floors the other week? World's going crazy El, batshit crazy." Anne said, slinging her backpack over the back of her chair. 

"Yea, no kidding. I took a look into that blockade you mentioned, check this out," Elliot said, motioning to one of his monitors with currently muted news coverage of a police raid. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and after offering Annelle one, produced a lighter for them both. He took a heavy drag as he unmuted the live stream.

A woman's voice chimed up on the feed, though her words were hard to make out over the cacophony of gunfire in the background."—Have already begun the assault on yet another terrorist holdout. The rise in recent Liberata activety has lit a fire underneath the Anti-Terrorism campaign, and this is the second raid today."

Behind her, a line of metallic barricades with flashing displays cordoned off the public. A squadron of Watchmen were breaking off from the defensive line formed behind their personnel vans. The building before them, illuminated from the bright spotlights of two interceptors above was probably around forty stories or so, the lower floors featuring an extensive amount of damage. Weapons poked out of windows and holes, returning fire at the police. A smoke canister exploded, shrouding the scene in a dense layer of cover.

"As you can see behind me," the reporter said, shielding her head from debris as a series of explosions rocked the entryway of the building, "The Watchmen have begun their assault, and I am confident in their victory. Sources indicate that large scales operations are being performed all over the sector, and will likely run deep into the night. This is Clara with—" Her voice cut out as Elliot muted the feed once more.

"They are going nuts over the libbies man, I may just sleep here tonight," Elliot stated, a bit exasperated.

Annelle chuckled, "Yea, but more importantly we've got a job to do," She hinted, putting to one of the other monitors on Elliot's station.

"Aw shit, we've been given a ping down in the slums," El complained, running his free hand through his hair, "Why do we even bother fixing shit down there?"

"Probably something that can't be overlooked, I'd say from the codes it's a camera hub, Watchmen love their eyes," Ann speculated through an exhalation of blue-gray smoke.

"You wanna-?"

"Don't worry, I won't let your pasty ass get mugged, you just stay here and figure out whats wrong with it alright?"

"Can do you beautiful creature, thanks," Elliot said with a grin. Somewhat of a scared mouse, he hated field work, and lived in fear of the slums all together. "Hey, bring back some coffee too would'ja?"

"Yes dear," Anne mocked, snatching up her coat and field gear.  

A few minutes later and she was pounding down the front steps of Sys.Admin once more, goggles on her head and a filtration mask snugly over her face. She had to walk less than a block through the slightly thinned horde of bodies to reach an access point for the magrails. She knelt down, clicking on the power for her splints and listening to the familiar whir of energy as they waited to receive a connection. There were three kinds of mag-rails. The large, twisting snake of a highway that bored a path to all of the sectors; The smaller version, dubbed the civil rail, which passed through most main thoroughfares and lacked the middle section for trains; and the personal rails, meant for just people and branched off in a hundred different paths.

One of those personal rails was her destination. The on-ramp resembled every other ramp for the larger magways, just condensed to human sized. It resembled an escalator, consisting of flat metal panels that looped up towards the personal rail. Anne followed the short line of people until her was able to step onto her own platform. A moment later she felt the magnetic lock take hold, a tingle of excitement washing through her. The magways were always exciting, there was nothing that compared to the rush you got. She neared the top and crouched, leaning forward just slightly. The panel slipped beneath to circulate back around, and transitioned Anne onto a small, smooth runway, much like ancient merging lanes. With a jarring pull the ramp-way "grabbed" her, accelerating her forward until the air was whipping her clothes and hair into a frenzy. She shot a glance over her shoulder as the magnetic hold on her slacked, the path looked clear for a merge.

The personal rail stretched out before her, a shining metallic roadway with thick barriers topped with rails to either side, and down the middle. She spend along, tucking further and leaning harder into the wind to squeeze out some more speed. Unfortunately personal mag systems didn't really have speed modules, so she was set at a standard speed. Up ahead the roadway swung hard towards the right, literally turning perpendicular to the ground, before leveling out and merging onto the larger civil rails, which really just added four extra wide lanes for vehicles. There were only two lanes for human traffic, but it was enough for Anna to weave through those moving slower. If you stood up straight, the rails lowered your speed, so as not to break your neck.

From there it was only a handful of minutes of weaving through the people before she merged onto the Industrial rail, where a train sped by at a nauseating speed. Here the personal rail became three lanes, whereas vehicular traffic got four, and the two for trains. All separated by dividers. Anne relaxed her body, checking her wristpad. She had a little over an hour before she reached her destination.

...

Anne was partially zoned out, lost in her own thoughts as she stared ahead when her guidance system chimed to life, "Your destination is ahead." She blinked, standing up and feeling her speed slow as she stretched her muscles. Exiting the magrails was a similar process to getting on them; she merged off onto a strip of roadway that slowed her speed drastically, before transitioning her onto the escalating platform that took her to the ground level. She hopped off with a bit of a wobble, and gave herself a moment to adjust as she clicked off her magnetic splints. Around her the slums stretched, dilapidated buildings in dire need of repair, none of which went higher than ten floors on average.

She checked her route guidance as she moved through the lifeless, trash littered streets. To one side a man slept against a storefront, one with shattered windows and a door so bent that it moved an inch, whirred futilely, and moved back an inch in an endless cycle. "The night comes," He rasped, giving Anne's heart a start. She swore he had been asleep. She trekked the mile towards the sought after maintenance door, pulling her goggles down over her eyes. Instantly her vision became better and slightly blue tinted. Blue vision was all the rage, marketed as an advanced form of night vision some twenty years or so ago.

She pressed her A.I.C to a seemingly plain metal panel. It scanned her card and after a moment withdrew back to reveal a key pad. She punched in her access code and the dormant machinery buzzed to life, retracting the thick door. Beyond that were the maintenance tunnels. Spacious enough for a small vehicle, the tunnels were a winding labyrinth that ran below the city streets, giving access to electronic hubs, piping systems, and so forth. She followed the route programmed for her by the Sys.Admin corporation, down snaking twists and turns until she came to the area in question.

"Hey El... you there?" She asked.

A second passed before her headset crackled to life, "What up babe, I'm here."

"I don't think I can fix this," Anne said with wonderment.

"What do you mean?"

Anne activated the holo systems display, producing a large orange screen that could barely hold its form. It was rife with error codes, and it was no wonder why. She knelt down, looking at a feed of cables that ran up into the terminal, many of which had been torn out. Not just torn out, but cut, and whatever had cut them left jagged tears in the metal behind it. But as she observed closer, the situation seemed to get worse. There were smears of blood splattered against the wall and floor. She followed the evidence, before arriving at a puddle of coagulated blood. She knelt down, reaching a shaky hands towards it—

"Anne? Anne?!"

"Shit sorry El, you have to see this," She said, transmitting a live video feed to him. She went back over the damage and the blood, causing Elliot to let out a low whistle.

"I think you'd better get the hell out of there Anne."

"I think you're right, send in a ticket to the guys up top, they're gonna need a whole crew for this.. and maybe some of Guardians too, fuck, I'll see you in a bit with some coffee," She finished, turning off the video link. She dug into her pocket with a shaky hand, pulling out a cigarette and feeling the sweet burn of smoke in her lungs. She stood for a moment longer, staring at the mess of mangled wires and shredded metal as she ran a hand through her hair. 

She turned to leave, but hesitated. A cold chill traveled down her spine. Something clinked from the hallway she had come from. She took another drag, before chuckling at herself. That was just the sound of the door closing.. except, she looked at her wrist pad—8:42p.m. That had been a solid fifteen minutes ago. Perhaps that was just the Ark, changing something up above. She chuckled again nervously. Perhaps she'd take a different exit, just in case.

Clink. Clink. Scccrrrtttccccch.

Anne froze, looking around her wildly. That last metallic screech had shattered her nerves, where had it come from? "El, call the police."

"On it, what's happening girl?"

Clink... Clink... Clink.Clink.ClinkClinkClinkClink—

A malovent screech echoed through the tunnel, immediately sending Anne's body into fight or flight. She chose flight. "EL CALL THEM NOW!" She screamed over the sound of her feet pounding against the metal walkways and that awful clinking behind her. Another scream blasted down the corridor, followed by another, and another, until the howls compounded on top of each other and became one massive, hungry roar.

"ANNE? ANNE?!"

She didn't answer, couldn't answer. She sucked in a breath, the stark terror coursing through her body was making it difficult to breath. Behind her the clinking sounding like a tidal wave of sounds, like hundreds of metal legs tapping an unsteady rhythm. 'Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck,' ran on repeat through her mind. The howls had died down somewhat, becoming a dissonance of hungering grunts and growls. Up ahead of her salvation shined with a pale orange light, flickering unsteadily in the dimness. She skidded to a halt, smashing her badge into the wall panel. An eternity passed by before the panel clicked and withdrew, revealing the keypad. She punched in the code and cursed as it played an error sound. Again, another error. Again, another error. The keys turned red, locking her out of the system.

"Anna what's happening? I'm patching myself into your goggles," Elliots worried voice said, followed by a small overlay letting her know she was transmitting. Anne fumbled with her wristpad, managing to click on the flashlight feature. She used that to light her way as she spun the goggles around on her head. She heard Elliot take a sharp breath.

"WHAT ARE THEY EL?" Anne yelled, panicked.

"F-fuck I don't- Shit Anne just run! RUN OKAY?!"

Anne could literally feel the claws of the beasts her imagination created rending her back open, tearing at her flesh, devouring her. She ran harder, ignoring the burning pain in her side. To stop was death, she knew it was death. She felt she was just about at her end, ready to give up and let death take her. Another access point was just around the corner, just a little further. She dug in deep, pulling at the last reserves of her stamina as she flew around the corner.

And had to squint as a wall of light assaulted her. It was just a couple of flashlights, but contrast to the darkness it was enough to make her eyes water. She didn't stop running however, a white gloved hand motioned her through the line of Watchmen, six in total. They must have been nearby, that was usually fast. Elliot probably told them something Liberata something.

"Wait, what the fuck is that?" One of them shouted. Anna stopped, her foot on one rung of a ladder leading up to the city above. Charging the Watchmen from the tunnel, like a tide of floodwater smashing around the corner, was a horde of.. of.. she didn't have the works for them. Their bodies were dressed in tatters of clothing, faceless beings with pulsing teal veings, and a mouth full of rows of pointed teeth. Those in the front of the coming onslaught reached their hands forward, the long spikes anchored on the ends of their pale fingers leveled like an array of lances.

"Those aren't-" Another began, cut off by yet another to the side of him.

"SHOOT TO KILL!" The third yelled, his words cut off immediately after 'shoot'. Their muzzles opened fire, toppling the creatures like dominoes with flashes of orange muzzle fire. This only seemed to anger them, as the creatures charged forward with a blood curtling howl.

"What the fuck.." Elliot breathed. Anne took that as her cue to leave, flying up the rungs of the ladder wearily. Her momentum was spurred halfway up by the screams of the men below her. The ladder shook as she neared the top, shaking wildly as the swarm of beasts smashed into it and began to pursue her up. Pale light from the city street above pierced the veil of darkness in the tunnel. Anna scrambled up through the hatch, throwing herself to the ground. 

She was greeted with a small swarm of activity, more responders who had decided not to delve down into the maintenance tunnels.

"Don't move!" A man shouted, pressing the barrel of his gun against the small of Anne's back. She tried to speak, to tell them to close the hatch, to get her out of there, but uttering anything simply caused the Watchman to jam his barrel against her. She reached out for the hatch, and was met with the butt of his weapon. Anne went sprawling in a daze, her vision swimming with double images.

"Where are the-" The Watchman began, walking closer towards her before one the creatures sprung from the tunnel, cannon-balling itself into the officer. He screamed as the things claws punctured his armor, as its teeth tore at his throat. Immediately the other officers began opening fire, but the stream of creatures from the tunnels was too thick. Anne groaned, pulling herself to her knees.

"Holy shit.. Anne, Anne! Get in the cruiser, right there in front of you."

Anne complied, dragging herself towards the APD personel carrier. She heard a click, Elliot must have unlocked it remotely. He was always good with computers like that, doing things he shouldn't. She opened the door and crawled in, managing to glance towards the scene unfolding just a few feet from her. The Watchmen were trying to hold their line, but the bodies were piling up on both sides, and the faceless beasts didn't seem to be slowing down at all. There was nobody else on the normally packed streets, had they cleared them all out already?

"Dammit Anne close the door!" Elliot shouted in her ear. She blinked, trying to shake away the haze, how hard had that officer hit her? She flopped into the driver's seat and pulled the door closed. Immediately the engine spurred to life.

"Dive Anne, DRIVE! ANNE? ANN?!" Elliot shouted, but the haze was back. Anne tried to sit up, but collapsed in between the driver and passenger seats. Unconsciousness washed over her, her body lulled to the darkness by the sounds of gunfire and animalistic shrieking. The world faded, and the world of nightmares waited for her.

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Bio

⚙⚙Technologic Overview⚙⚙
By Firecracker_

⚙⚙P O W E R     

In order to power an enclosed space such as the Ark, modern power sources such as solar or coal quickly became too costly or inefficient to support the power needs of a condensed, contained society. Halfway human engineered, halfway a convenient discovery, Core Shards have become the answer to the need for stable, compact, and plentiful energy. Orange shards are mostly civilian use, found in any range of sizes, in any range of personal objects. Small shards are used in conjunction with small batteries to power consumer electronics, as the Orange Shards can multiply electrical currents, or use their own unique energies to power things. Larger, more expensive shards are used to power civilian vehicles and houses, or large industrial shards can be used to power entire neighborhoods. Ultimately, Orange shards, while rather quickly depleted, are cheap and easy to produce, and can output impressive amounts of energy before being replaced. Their variety of uses and availability have made them the primary power source of the Ark.

⚙⚙A U T O M O T I V E     

Vehicles have changed, first with the introduction of mag rails, and then with the introduction of Core Shards. Engines revolve less and less around combustion motors, and most civilian and military vehicles use engines powered completely by Blue Cord Shards, which last longer, but release energy in a slower, more controlled flow, most of the time too constrictive to power larger electrical systems. 

The next innovations are the dual action wheels that nearly every vehicle carries now. The first option still uses the classic rubber tire to traverse most landscapes, but now with the introduction of Mag Rails, the rim and inner wheel of vehicles contain powerful magnets to give them accessibility to use the high speed, high power Mag Rails. Some vehicles, instead, opt to have their magnets located down the middle of the vehicle, with the wheels completely retracting when on the Mag Rail. For the richer and more well-to-do, the choice of hovercraft, which, well, hover a few feet off the ground, is always available. Usable on just about any terrain, Mag Rails or Road alike, the rather high price, expensive upkeep and fueling, and slightly higher learning curve are the only things keeping the hovercraft from being the most prominent mode of transportation on the Ark.

Cars and Trucks are not the sole forms of transportation that are allowed on Mag Rails, though. Mag Rails have been made accessible for human use as well. There are a wide variety of ways for people to ride the Rails, but most fall under two categories: Shoes with Built-In Magnets activated by button push, or ‘heel click”, or attachable shin plates that allow humans to link to the magnets in the Mag Rail.

In the center of all this wheel and foot traffic, though, are the Mag Trains, large, speeding bullet trains, capable of carrying large amounts of people or cargo alike. Thanks to the conversion to Mag Rails, Trains have once again become the go-to mode of transporting anything imaginable, anywhere imaginable, all across the Ark. People can also travel in large numbers around the Ark using the Mag Trains, but this isn’t usually seen as much, and passenger Mag Trains aren’t nearly as common as their Cargo variant cousins. The checkpoints and tight security around each Ark sector keep large scale human migration under control, but there are always ways people find around these checkpoints.

⚙⚙S E C U R I T Y     

Checkpoints are littered all over each of the Ark’s 800 feet high walls, covering innumerous land and elevated Mag Rail based entrances between the 6 different sectors, including in and out of the Core. At each checkpoint, a series of cameras scan things like the citizens face, their vehicle’s license plates, and their I.D Cards, which the citizens presents at the gate. These measures insure that all vehicle credentials are valid, the citizen isn’t a wanted criminal or has restricted access to certain Sectors. I.D scans also provide information about different weapon licenses that the citizens holds, or special area access passes they may have been given. Essentially, these security checkpoints are very thorough and effective at catching criminals.

Ark Identification Cards, or AIC’s, are one of the founding blocks that Ark’s infrastructure and society are built on. A card, at face value, doesn’t look much different from an ID as we know, except perhaps it’s clearer picture and words. What the AIC does have over a modern ID is the chip inside it, which grants access to database information of any person in Ark, at any time. The chip is specifically designed to be read by only government computers, and can tell you anything you want to know about someone. Birthplace, Criminal History, Occupation, Eye Color, any piece of solid information, you will find it.

Fake I.D’s are the real marvels, though. They are hard to find, and even harder to find one that actually works, but, it’s possible. It’s as simple as sticking your name and face on a card that has someone else’s chip, but, as previously mentioned, this chips are specially designed for government use and are notoriously hard to backwards engineer. Most of the time, the only place 90one can hope to find a functioning fake is a place simply referred to as The Underground. In the Underground, one can find any sort of high quality fakes or re-engineers of any of the staple pieces of technology that you can find in Ark, such as a variety of personal computers, or cybernetics limbs. Amongst the cheap cybernetics and fake computers, exotic and illegal weapons can also be found around The Underground.

⚙⚙C Y B E R N E T I C S     

These categories also apply to the various types of cybernetics and augmentations available across the Ark. Civilian augmentations are usually, good, proper robotic limbs, with the full functionality of organic ones. Usually, they are built to survive the rugged lives that civilians can expect to live, and have a few added features such as built in PDA’s, medical information screens, or special requests, if legal and plausible. Still, better money can buy better augments. Military augments, however, tend to be built with the tasks and dangers of military life in mind. Bulletproof circuitry, vastly stronger than organic arms, some even have weapons built in, anywhere from security batons or back up pistols. Medical ones can also be found, being able to contain medical supplies and needle systems in the fingers, for fast dispensing of life saving chemicals such as adrenaline and morphine.Illicit cybernetics are some of the rarest and most expensive pieces of equipment on the market, but you get what you pay for. Illicit cybernetcs are top of line, jam-packed of all sorts of weapons or utility tools, some even being able to transform into utterly deadly weapons, computer hacking devices, or whatever your mind can imagine. Most Illicit cybernetics are custom-built to order, and the few pre-built ones are exceedingly difficult to find, and expensive to buy. If your limbs can do something that might be considered illegal, or made to be deadlier than military augments, they are most likely Illicit.

⚙⚙P E R S O N A L   C O M P U T E R S     

While some may choose to have their personal computers contained in their cybernetic limbs, most people choose to have theirs on their wrists. Personal, wrist size computers are the standard these days, and if you don’t have one, you are disconnected from the world. Nearly every citizen of the Ark has a personal computer of some sort, whether it be an advanced holographic wrist computers, or the simple Phoenix Smart watches. There are many thousands of choices to choose from when it comes to your personal taste of wrist computers, from cutting edge HD holographic sets, or standard definition screens.

These personal computers have any assortment of features, but some of the most common are things like wireless communication with any other each user, or a highly detailed navigational maps. Some other less common ones mark dangerous parts of the Ark according to reported crime the day before, or a smart, voice activated day manager. For any features that are lacking, there is a large market for software and hardware, both legal or not.

⚙⚙W E A P O N R Y     

To defend oneself in this world of underground crime, Ark Citizens, Criminals, and Military alike have taken up a large assortment of weapons, which have become quite advanced and varied in the years leading up to the Ark’s establishment. In the Ark, one can choose from a wide assortment of different weapon systems. In order from least to most power, there are: ballistics, laser, kinetic bolts, and gauss. In this day and age where natural resources have become more scarce and need to be used more wisely, instead of gunpowder and primers, conventional rounds now use powdered Core Shards to provide the necessary combustion to fire the bullets. The powder inside the bullet is ignited by a quick burst of energy from an installed core rod, about the size of a battery. This Core Rod is standard for ballistics weapons, and takes the place of many of the more intricate and more difficult to maintain gas powered weapon systems of yesterday. Most Core Rods are Red, as they allow for more powerful, volitile and sometimes combustive energy releases. 

Laser weapons utilize their slightly larger core rods in a much different way. The energy from the Core Rod is released into a White Core Lens, either to be focused or scattered into a laser-like stream of energy, which can burn through armor and skin alike. The Cores last for a shorter time compared to other weapons systems, but there are no other munitions usually required with these systems, so they are one of the lightest to carry out in a firefight.Unfortunately, though, laser weapons do leave something to be desired in durability and accuracy, so they are usually utilized in close range engagements, such as in the back alleys of the Ark.

Kinetic Energy bolt weapons are some of the scarier and harder hitting weapons found around the Ark. In these weapons systems, the energy is used directly from the core.

Gauss weapons are probably the weapon systems that have benefitted the most from the widespread use of core shards. Gauss systems were able to be made small enough for the average person to use, and still get devastating results. The core shards allow for a clean, simple and easily built and maintained way of activating the magnets in Gauss weapons, thus leading to an extraordinarily powerful that packs quite the punch. Most gauss rifles either a magazine of shaped rounds to fire, or use large metal pucks to shave shards of metal off of and then to fire them at the enemies. These weapons are capable of punching through light vehicle armor, let alone standard body armor.

Weapons in the Ark fall mainly under three categories: Illicit, Civilian, or Military, each with their own collection of sub-categories. Civilian weapons are the most common and easiest to acquire, needing only a permit to own. They usually consist of weaker conventional bullet weapons, such as handguns, lower caliber rifles, and basic shotguns. Military are, as the name suggests, weapons only allowed for use by the military. These can consist of a mixture of conventional and energy weapons, including high-caliber handguns and revolvers, automatic sub-machine guns and assault rifles, high-tech shotguns, and other heavy weapons. Illicit are the rarest, hardest to obtain, and sometimes, the most powerful weapons to acquire. These kinds of weapons are always illegal, no matter what credentials or licenses someone has, and consist of experimental, prototype, or banned weaponry deemed too dangerous for regular ownership.

⚙⚙F U T U R E  C A T A L O G U E     

Class: Military
Rounds: 1 Metal Puck, Rounds shaved off as Fired. Various rounds per mag
Impact: Ultra
Shot: Gauss Propelled Rounds
Mode: Semi-Automatic
R.O.F: Slow
Shard: Purple

Next two weapons

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Bio

Arkheus Identification Card
Bureau of Public Citizen Management



Name:Annelle Caldera

Aliases:Ann, Anne, Anna

Gender:Female

Age:23

Job Title:Systems Engineer

Height: 5'5

Weight 122lbs, 55.3kg

Hair Color: Dark Auburn

Eye Color: Chocolate Brown

Skin Color: Light White

Scars:
Faded scar on the middle left of her abdomen, where she was stabbed some odd years ago.

Tattoos:Dandelion and Birds tattooed on her right shoulder, up towards her neck.
The Valkyrie Sword , her old squad insignia, is tattooed on her left bicep.

Modifications:None

Cybernetics:None

Other:Annelle is a smoker, and favors a brand that gives off sweet smelling blue-gray smoke.

Ann is a bit of a trend setter, favoring stylized jackets stylized with retro, aesthetic cybernetic looking pieces. Beneath that she's usually sporting a tank top, but isn't unknown to wear a shirt with a wonky pattern or design on it. Lower, she usually keeps it simple with jeans or synthetic, skin tight pants. She's not one to be caught dead in a skirt. She's a lover of dark colors, and almost always wears boots, but to contradict that statement, she favors wearing a bright red, kerchief-esque scarf. One of her most prized possessions are her goggles, equipped with visual feeds and blue vision—A form of night vision.

Anne is over average height, and build, though beneath the layers of clothes she has built up a bit of finely tuned muscle from her time as a Watchman, and consistent fieldwork as a systems engineer. Her features are rather soft and girly, and she prefers to keep her hair long, with punk styled bangs. She's also not exactly voluminous when it comes to her womanly assets, keeping with her rather dainty, girlish appearance.

Anne used to be a Watchman, part of the esteemed law enforcement officials. She passed the academy with average marks, but quickly grew on her new assigned squad. They became somewhat of a family, and Anne was quickly recruited into getting the squad's insignia tattooed on herself. Her duties were that of what you'd except of a law enforcement officer; She'd respond to crimes both petty and large, and has been in her fair share of stakeouts and firefights. Though the squad as a whole never accomplished any major achievements, her time working as a Watchman has built up her muscle and stamina, a physique which is maintained through the demands of her latest job.

Taken in beneath the Sys.Admin corporation, Anne found herself enjoying the life of a systems engineer. She had an office, and a lovable, slightly eccentric coworker by the name of Elliot Watts, self proclaimed 'Hacker Extraordinaire'. Here she developed an understanding of electronic systems, especially coding. Primarily focused towards infrastructure maintenance, the directors on the upper levels would hand out alternative tasks from time to time. Anne has done everything from installing security hubs, programming timing systems, debugging various assortments of code, and so forth. She's also partnered with DigiCorp and Syndustries engineers in order to program operable vehicle code, and has helped APD debug an error with their drone systems. She's no stranger to the inner workings of machines, which is where the engineering part comes into play.

She's handy machinery, and has traveled all over the Ark to upgrade, maintain, and repair these sorts of systems—Albeit on a temporary work pass. From the foundries and assemblies in sector five, to the water recycling pumps in sector one. In today's world, knowing how to replace a part isn't enough anymore, at times strings of code need to be updated to work in tandem with the new, or upgraded machinery. Thus the duality of her job. She's devoted her life to this job, finding enjoyment in the field work.


Weapons:Defender Mark II: a standard civilian pistol, semi-automatic with an average rate of fire and lower bullet impact. Uses ballistic ammo and carries twelve 9mm rounds.

Armor:None

Gadgets: Her Goggles which can transmit and record video, and utilize blue vision, a form of better quality night vision.
 An Air Filtration Mask which does a handy job of allowing her to breath when the air is contaminated or otherwise unbreathable.
 A Wrist Pad that Sys.Admin loans out to its employees. 
 Magnetic Shin Splints which allow her to travel along the magrails.

Key Items:

Miscellaneous: Blue brand cigarettes, a silver flip lighter, a black backpack

Manifested Phenomena:Non-Applicable

Proficiencies:Smarts, Ann may not be a brain working down in sector four, but she's been gifted with a set of wits and guile that's helped her succeed in life. She understands how to look ahead and plan according for a situation, and usually sees more than one approach to a given subject. She's a sly, cunning gal.
Coder, due to her line of work, Anne has a broad understanding of code and how to program a wide array of systems accordingly. This knowledge really centers around bigger machines, like vehicles and infrastructure, but she does have a bit of fine tuned know-how geared towards gadgets and accessories.
Engineer, also due to her line of work, Anne knows her way around workshop machinery, vehicles, and structural systems. Though she's got more put in towards the latter, she is proficient enough in the other two to fix and reprogram most things, having worked on a multitude of things from civilian and military vehicles, to industrial machines and their components, timing cycles, and so forth.
Old Habits, heavy lifting and field work aside, Anne has retained most of her physique from her time spent as a Watchman, which wasn't all that long ago. She has an exercise routine, which she does her best to keep up on, despite spoiling it somewhat with crap foods and snacks. Among this fitness she maintains, she's still not a bad shot with a gun. She's no sharpshooter, but she could hold her own.

Limitations:Abrasive, while she may have somewhat of a tactical mind, Anne often has a poor choice of words. She calls it as she sees it, and says it as she means it. Though she's not one to purposefully to step on someone's toes, she doesn't make it a habit to sugar coat her words either. She's also a poor liar.
Critical Thinker, meaning Anne is most comfortable planning in low stress situations. She has a hard time focusing and making rapid decisions in high stress, intense environments, and prefers to calculate her plans thoroughly.
No Man Left Behind, Annelle hates leaving people behind and will usually do everything in her power to ensure she protects, or at least saves, those she cares about.
Duct Tape Bandaids, Anne is a very driven person, and likes to accomplish the goals she sets her sights on. At times she'll push herself harder than she should, even when it becomes detrimental to herself.

Likes:Smoking, and she's not planning to quit any time soon.
Fast Food, especially New Modern Chinese Food, and Burgers.
Dark Colors, no, it's not a phase.
Flowers, especially bright and pretty ones, probably because they are so rare in The Core.
Booze, it's liquid bread it's good for you.
Boys and Girls, and sometimes she's a dirty flirt too.

Dislikes:Her father, girl's got daddy issues.
The Watchmen and the government in general, bunch of corrupt scum suckers.
Dishonesty and Illicit dealings, especially gang members.

Important People:Lucias Caldera, her disassociated father
Elliot Watts, her coworker from Sys.Admin

Dr. Adley Underwood, 

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In the world of Arkheus, removing 'The Human Element' is illegal and treasonous. There are some exceptions, such as APD's unarmed drones, and even then there will always be more, illicit, activities bordering on automation. But due to humanity's history, you don't have to live in fear that you job will be replaced by a sentient robot. That is not to say however, that robots do not exist, mainly that they are manually controlled. Even APDs automated drones are overseen by a control center full of regular, fleshy humans.

Hidden 8 yrs ago → 8 yrs ago Post by Esoteric

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Esoteric Coquette

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Esoteric

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"Please state you name for the record Miss," A pointy nosed man in a crisp white collared shirt asked. He adjusted his glasses and pressed a hand to the table set between him and his client, opening up a computerized interface. A dossier pulled up with information about the auburn haired woman before him, including her training exams.

"Annelle Caldera," Anne replied formally, you could hear the underlying tones of nervousness in her voice.

"You're the daughter of Lucias, yes? I heard he had high hopes for you," The clerk smiled reassuringly. To Anne however it looked sinister, snake-like. There had been a lot of pressure put onto her because of this fact, her prestigious father. The Head of the Watchmen, a man who escalated himself to the very top. Everybody had expected one of two things from her, to forge her own trail in a blaze of glory, or to ride her father's success. Anne watched the clerk, mustering the strength to keep her face passive as he flipped through her records.

"I see you know work as a Systems Engineer, why did you leave the watchmen?" The clerk asked, fixing his sharp eyes on her. Suddenly the weight of this interview set itself upon her. This man could put her away somewhere dark and isolated if he deemed her too fucked up to be among society, or even if he just wanted to. Who would question him? Who questions the questioners?

"I.." Anne started, picking through her words carefully, "I lost my squad, my friends. After that, I didn't feel like I could adequately perform my duties." Anne took a breath, willing her eyes to stop watering. The memory was still fresh in her mind, their faces, what was left of them.

"Yes, it says here you quit for personal reasons, in the comments you only put 'I can't do this anymore', elaborate," He demanded, leaning forward and folding his hands on the table.

Anne took a breath, balling her fists tightly to try and distract her mind, "We were the Valkyrie Swords.."

 It was an average night, punctuated by a light drizzle of rain. It had been dark in the slums, but here it was practically abyssal. Anne crouched inside a rusted building, her hidden form peering through metal blinds that refused to move anymore. Her squad was lined up to either side of her, bodies barely moving as they mimicked the stillness of the night. Anne watched the rain falling, so soft it barely made a sound. Her mind pondered how it all worked, the weather, the day cycles. She always did that, lost herself in thoughts of machines of how they worked. Receiving a stern tongue from her father about how she should be training, something he'd been pushing since she had been young. Even then she only earned average marks. She could practically feel the disappointment in his eyes, but he had never showed it, he just kept pushing.

"Maybe this will be the night you get a name, huh?" The woman next to Anne said. She turned to look at her squad captain, a blonde haired green eyed beauty by the name of Madaline—But everyone just called her Sunshine. You always got a nickname after you earned a story, it related somehow. The man next to Madaline chuckled quietly, Ox, and he was built like one too.

"You think sho ah?" He chuckled again, a quiet rumbling. Anne remembered the first time she'd met Ox, a little over six foot tall he cast a shadow that should could nap beneath. That felt like so long ago, a younger version of her even though it had been a measly two years. It might as well have been a lifetime ago.

"Shut up you oaf," Marcy hissed. Despite the name, Marcy was a man, the titled was derived from the word 'mercy'. Which was something he did not give. 

"Both of you quiet, look," Sunshine said, leaning a little closer. The small square lit up for just a moment before going dark again. From the first entrance two flashes signaled, which were returned by the new arrival. Anne never quite understood why a signal that was older than dirt was still used. 

Car doors slammed shut and idle engines became quiet as shadowed figures emerged, loaded with duffel bags and armed. A table was quickly set up in the middle, flanked by each faction's soldiers. The two leaders stood to either side, showing their wares and negotiating deals. Anne turned on her visor's interface. She pressed the thumb of her left hand against the palm of her hands, activating the interface nodes in her glove. She moved her hand slowly through the air, manipulating the imagery on her visor, marking the targets.

"Marked," she whispered. A second later three small blips hovered at the edge of her vision, notifying her that she was linked up with her squad.  A few seconds passed as Sunshine read the situation. As Anne watched another window popped up, Sunshine was profiling the two at the table. The first was a key negotiator for Sapphique, Malcolm Croyle. The dossier the department had on him popped up, Anne closed it. She had read his report at least twice. Sunshine sucked in a breath as the second window popped up, Anthony Tandon, a civil rights spokesman. He's led peaceful protests and given a number of speeches in an attempt to fight the corrupt power of the government.
                                        
"Holy shit, is he Liberata?" An unfamiliar voice asked. Anne focused on her interface, A blazing sun and chariot  had appeared just below the blips for her squad. Sunshine must have linked up with the Dawn Riders, another group of watchmen posted up just across the square.

"Eyes on the price boys," Sunshine whispered through the comms, "Case is open, Axel you got eyes on it?"

"Yea I see it," A husky voice murmuered, "Looks like a weapon's deal, look like Mr.Tandon is buying something pretty big."

"Alright ladies, wait for the bang," Sunshine ordered, pulling a sophisticated canister off her waist belt. She carefully nudged the door open, though it still let out a quiet squeak. One of the nearby figures turned towards the sound, elbowing his buddy in the ribs. They took a step towards the hiding place of Anne and her squad just as Sunshine rolled the device out. It let out a shrill whine half a second before exploding into a blinding glare of light. The men screamed, falling to the ground, along with most of the others present in the square.

A door at the opposite end of the clearing flew open, The Dawn Riders simultaneously moving out with weapons ready at the same moment that the Valkyrie Swords filed out of the building. Sunshine fired two quick pops, downing the closest blinded men and the others took that as their cue. A hail of gunfire opened up in the square, ballistics pinged off the walls and orange balls of kinetic energy punctured through metal surfaces, leaving smoldering holes.

It was pure chaos as the seperate criminal forces scrambled for cover, each opening fire on any target that wasn't their own. Tandon yanked a briefcase off the table and high tailed it towards his vehicle, the tall wiry man running with reckless abandon through the torrential walls of gunfire. Anne moved steadily towards him, dropping anything flagged red that crossed her path.

"Tandon's making a break for it!" Another strange voice declared, another Dawn Rider Anne didn't know.

"On it," Anne said, slinging her weapon and turning on her mag gloves. She sprinted towards the car just as the door closed. Its rubber tires shrieked as it accelerated in reverse out of the alleyway. The driver was skilled, throwing the wheel and spinning the car just as it exited the alleyway. Anne dug down, reaching for speed. She'd never been terribly fast, but today she was fast enough. She lunged at the side of the vehicle just as it started gaining momentum, feeling her gloves latch onto its metal surface.

The vehicle began picking up speed. The rear passenger window came down and a body leaned out, pointing a barrel in Anne's face. She tapped the boot of her heel, feeling the energy kick on the magnets in her boot as she swung her leg out. The magnet caught the gun and Anne used the momentum to swing down as hard as she could. The gunner let out a cry as he was ripped from the window and fell beneath the tires. The car rocked as it rolled over the body, the driver locked the tires sending them into a squealing skid sideways up the road. Around them traffic honked in protest, trying to move out of the way.

The vehicle smashed into a transit bus. The force of the impact launched Anne into the vehicle, connecting her head into the rear passenger door with adequate force. She slumped against the side of the car, her magnets holding her upright, if a bit skewed. Tandon stepped out of the car, blood running down his face and his coat tails swaying in the light breeze. 

"Foolish girl," He seethed, pulling a pistol on Anne just as she started regaining some semblance of composure. Tandon reached over and switched her gloves off, letting Anne fall to the ground. He pressed a boot firmly against her throat, rage glittering in his eyes.

"Another government dog, following her master's orders. Tell me, do you play dead?" He asked, clicking back the hammer on his gun. Anne grunted, trying to shift his foot off of her.

"Anthony, enough," Someone said. In Anne's distraction another car had pulled up, followed by several others. Anthony seemed to shrug as he stepped back, allowing Anne to suck in ragged breaths of air. The voice was owned by a large man, muscular but not top heavy, he seemed evenly proportioned. He rubbed a grizzled hand against his thick, scruffy beard.

"I could use someone with your kind of determination," He reasoned, crouching next to Anne and placing his hands on his knees. Anne pulled herself up onto her knees, rubbing her throat. The burly man stood, reaching into his pocket and dropping an electronic card next to Anne. She reached out, taking it in her hand. The display flashed to life, showing a server address.

"Who—"

"Freeze!" Sunshine screamed, charging up the sidewalk with her gun drawn. Anne looked back to see her squad coming to her rescue. Sunshine barely paused for a breath before firing a shot. Anne reached her hand up, realizing that her squad hadn't seen the other Liberata vehicles arrive, and how could they, the other vehicles looked like any old civilian car.

"Sunshine wait, he's not—!" Anne struggled to shout, but the words came out in a wheezing rasp. Return fire poured out from all around her squad. Men and women dressed in plain clothes suddenly had weapons and weren't holding back. Muzzles flashed next to Anne's face, creating still images of blinding white light, followed by the sight of her squad... 

"I see, surely that would leave to some.. traumatic stress, no?" The clerk asked, adjusting his glasses as he tapped out some notes onto the table.

Anne wiped at her eyes, willing herself to keep it together, "I just.. I," Anne was on the verge of breaking down into fitful sobs. It had only been a few months, hadn't it?

"How about your home life?" The clerk asked, flipping to another screen showing flowing meadows of grass, and rolling hills bathed beneath golden light

"Not much to say there," She replied with a bit of a waver in her voice, "Dad was always at work, but we had a nice home in Sector Two. I remembering baking with my mom on cold winter days, and kicking our feet in the stream during warmer weather. Dad was always at work, but he—"

"What did your father do back then?"

"He was a part of DigiCorp, one of their Gladiators," She answered, a visage of her farther dressed up in DigiCorp armor pulling itself to the forefront of her mind. He had been so much happier back then.

"What happened?"

"Is it relevant?" Anne questioned, raising an eyebrow at him. She was sure some of the effect was lost due to her red eyes, which were still partially watery.

"In a mental evaluation, everything counts, and we have lost time to make up for," The clerk explained, folding his hands and once more fixing his penetrating gaze on Anne.

"Hey, the delays weren't my fault alright—" Anne began, trying to defend herself.

"Yes yes, You were saying about your father?"

"Ah... Right," Anne said, digging back into her memories, "He liked Digicorp, but at the end of the day it was a corporation and I guess he just, wanted to make a difference you know? Especially after my mom died."

"How did she pass?"

Anne sighed, steeling her frayed nerves and letting out a morbid chuckle, "She stepped on somebody's toes. We were walking home from grocery shopping, I was still young, too young to help carry the groceries anyways. I was dancing around her, doing kid stuff. She tried to pull me out of somebody's way, wound up bumping into another person and scuffed his shoes. He looked like the wealthy, hoity-toity type, fancy suit, dark shades, bleached hair you know? Well, he got pretty mad, looking at the scuff mark on his shoes. I still remember the sneer in his face when he shoved my mother back, she fell, right into the road."

"Was he prosecuted?"

"What do you think? They probably slapped his hand and said 'temper temper'."

The clerk nodded, "Such injustice in this world, it's a shame. Your mother was a fine woman."

"How do you?" Anne trailed off as the clerk answered her by tapping his finger on the tapping, as if to say 'I know everything'. Anne leaned back in her chair, letting out a huff of air that flipped her bangs from her face.

"Do you talk to your father?"

"Not since I left the Watchmen, pretty sure I've disappointed him but unfortunately that's overshadowed by all of this unyielding hate."

"Why do you hate him?"

"Why?" Anne responded incredulously, leaning forward, "I don't know, how about for not being there to protect her? How about for shutting down and leaving me alone after my mom died. How about for trying to force me to become his littler soldier ever since that day, always pushing me, dragging me along behind him in this grand vision of Father and Daughter cleaning up the streets? For devoting himself to his work, escalating himself all the way up into the president's lap to be hand fed his fucking biscuits and leaving me alone to lock the door and microwave frozen fucking pizza? For looking at me with disappointment in his eyes every fucking time I'm in his presence, like it's my fault, like I'm this huge fucking failure."

Anne took a shuddering breath, she hadn't realized she had been shouting. She was standing now too, her grip on the edge of the table strong enough to scatter the pixels on the table. The clerk had the same look on his face, blank, all-knowing. She swore if he had smiled just then she would have decked him.

"I see, I believe I've collected enough data for this interview."

The statement come out of nowhere, ripping away all of Anne's steam. She plopped back down in the chair, feeling worry and anxiety eating away her rage. "So, how'd I do?" She asked, her frazzled mind signaled this was an appropriate time to laugh—so she did.

"You harbor a lot of resentment, towards the Watchmen, towards your father."

"God damn Doc, I think you just cured me," Anne remarked, feeling everything drain out of her. She felt empty, purposeless.

"I'm not going to put your away, Anne, I will however recommend your employer to move you to the basement level."

"Yea? Some dungeon to lock me away in?"

"Just the opposite actually. There's a man down there named Elliot Watts, he's one of us."

"One of us?" Anne asked suspiciously, suddenly feeling quite uncomfortable.

"You'll understand, in time. Learn before you decide. You're interview has already been submitted and cleared, you've been a normal, stable citizen for at least a month now."

"What are you talking about?"

"In time Anne, In time," The clerk said. His chair screeched quietly as she stood, closing the table's interface and leaving the room. Anne just sat there, she wasn't sure for how long. Time passed as she stared at the sliver of light peeking through the partially ajar door. Her thoughts running together, smashing into each other in an uncontrolled chaos.

"What the actual fuck?" She asked the empty air.

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Esoteric Coquette

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Esoteric Coquette

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Esoteric Coquette

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Prisoner Data Form
Caedence "Nano" Senichi

Aliases:Catie, Cadie / Nano, The Cherry Blossom Killer

Prisoner ID Number:3254

Species:Human

Gender:Female

Age:26

Former Faction:The Senichi Family

Physical Description:
Height: 5'8

Weight: 125lbs, 56.6kg

Eye Description: Teal / Violet

Hair Description: Dark Violet

Skin Description: Light, Fair

Scars, Birthmarks, or other Identifying Traits:A light brownish spot that kind of looks like a potato if you squint hard, just above her left hip bone.
Eye color changes from Teal and Violet depending on her current personality.
Centered on her right bicep, 
just below the curve of her shoulder

Located on her upper sternum, 
just above the 'V' of her breasts
Located on the back of her upper right shoulder, 
transitioning diagonally towards her left side, 
extending down along the hip, buttock, and thigh, 
and ending just above her knee
Begins just above her right knee, 
traveling up the side of her body,
and ending just below her breasts

Facial description: Fair, clear skin that's smooth and pale in color. Probably could use a tan, or several.

Description of Clothing/Armor:Caedence enjoys modest clothing that reflects her heritage. Often times this is through brightly colored blouses with billowing sleeves and a traditional waist sash, paired with a skirt of modest length, or a full rendition of an ancient Kimono. Otherwise, she may choose to wear more hip, urban clothing, like abstract shirts and jeans. She tends to keep a sense of modesty, but tries to remain somewhat fashionable at the same time, as long as she can remain mostly covered. Unfortunately, she cannot keep her hair long as she would like, as Nano keeps cutting it to stay around shoulder length.

Nano prefers the more seductive route, wearing revealing clothes or those that accent her curvaceous curves. Top with deep necks, expose her stomach, bear her arms, or a combination of all paired with tight pants, or skirts that may be a tad too short. However, she's no good in heels, call it hereditary, and may choose between pointed flats, something with open toes, or even botos that vary from ankle cropped to shin high. Much to Caedence's displeasure, Nano likes her hair kept at a medium, shoulder length. Also to her other half's great, great discomfort, Nano has tattoos and likes to show them off. 

Nano's Armor consists of a thing, environmental suit which regulates body temperature, and offers protection against natural elements. The outer layer of armor is composition of flexible, grafium steel threading provided mobility over defense, and only offers moderate protection against projectiles, optical weapons, and blunt force trauma. Her mask has built in readings that monitor her battery levels, including recharge timers, and will alert her to dangerous symptoms such as low vitamin and mineral levels, compromised suit integrity, nanite shutdown, and so forth. With her armor she wears a traditional, scarf like wrapping around her head and neck called a Shoueffa, "The Veil of War". Traditionally, veiling yourself in battle states your intent to kill, whereas wearing it relaxed around the neck is supposed to convey a more passive, non-lethal nature.

She also has a vambrace computer, which offerings the same monitoring capabilities as her helmet, with the addition of being able to manually activate her nanite given powers. However, in combat situations she may not always have time to use this method of activation, and thus has set parameters for voice commands.
"Hikari", translating into "Light", activates her Light Particle Sheathe.
"Jikan", translating into "Time", engages her Akinetophic Field.

Bionic Limbs/Synthetic Organs/Robotic Augmentations:Neural-Thread Network: Woven throughout her body along predefined pathways is an intricate system of cybernetic threading, allowing her to remain impervious to her nanites.
Nanites: A completely self sufficient, mechanical ecosystem has been created within Caedence's body. Extremely advanced, microscopic machines that are the basis of her combat abilities.

Weapons of Choice:Epilogue: Nano's only weapon, other than her hands, the name of which is derived from the ideal that death is the final chapter of your life. The sword itself is made from a unique metal, referred to as Grafium Steel, a metal that is incredibly durable yet is able to hold an exquisitely sharp edge. However, the true function of this place is the Light Particle Sheathe it can create, which takes the form of a glowing, neon teal aura around the blade. It may look like magic, but it's actually derived from the energy her nanites utalize. Raw energy is injected into the blade, which runs on a self sustaining looping cycle. This enhances her blade to the point where she can puncture, and cut through materials no normal sword could. Including a wide variety of hard metals, and armoring techniques. The downside being she cannot adjust the amount of power the blade receives, meaning she cannot enhance the blade's power any further. Despite that, this sophisticated weapon gives a literal edge over other swordsmen.
Qui Tsu Fei: Not technically a weapon in on itself, Qui Tsu Fei is a martial arts style developed by the Senichi line, based around their heritage and culture which includes many ancient Asian themes and its teachings are virtually unknown to the outside world. This martial practice focuses primarily around non-lethal methods of defensive-offense. To break it down further, the techniques involved revolve around a few core themes of combat; Prediction, Redirection, Speed, and Countering. The user focuses on the speed and precision of their strikes, rather than raw strength, and performs this technique by reading their opponent, redirecting their attacks, and countering with calculated movements which use the opponents own strength and momentum against them; Typically in an attempt to the combatant out by deflecting, and redirecting their force while using minimal effort to do so. However, if confident, the user of Qui Tsu Fei can perform incapacitating strikes when the moment is opportune.Fei Tsu Ken: This is the highest level art among the Senichi Discipline, a master level technique that is taught only to the most proficient, advanced members of the family. Incompetent use of the technique often leaves the user in a fight they cannot win, and is often times a reason of death among aspiring martial arts students. The reason being is that Fei Tsu Ken is meant to teach the disciple to encompass multi-body combat in unison with the Qui Tsu Fei style. This is achieved around the idea that the user must maintain a sphere of influence within the length of their arm, or their weapons reach. This idea also broadens the technique of it's parent style, formatting the single target methods of prediction and reaction to include more than a single body. Along with the teachings of this discipline, there is also a regiment of mediation and awareness training, to teach the body to recognize the subtle nuances that your senses can pick up in an attempt to achieve a state of hyper awareness. This style also teaches the moral boundary of non-lethal fighting.
Kinetic Particle Barrier: Because she is in fact more often than not bringing a knife to a gun fight, Nano needs time to close distance. The Particle Barrier is a light shield, as her intertwined cybernetics cannot sustain a heavy system. What this does is create a sort of over-shield that hardens upon projectile impact. Specifically meaning that when impact is sustained, the shield with harden instantaneously to deflect the projectiles, meaning it can stop a single round, or a rapid burst for approximately a full second. Fortunately, this shielding has two layers, being she could virtually be shot twice before it goes down. The shields have a recharge time of approximately two minutes, and do not share power with her Akinetophic field, or particle blade. Explosives will immediately knock out both layers, though she is protected from shrapnel and debris for the hardening duration. This shield does not alter the effect of elements, such as fire or heat, or the cold.
Akinetophic Field: The main reason she's a viable swordsman in a firefight is her ability to project what's referred to as an Akinetophic Field, roughly translating to "Without movement or sight." This field performs three key functionalities, neither of which effect Nano herself. The first is that the nanites cause temporary Akinetopsia to anyone caught within the field, a disorder where the individual will process motion as a series of still images rather than continual motion. However, this would only appear to make movement skip, or jump, like a film reel with missing frames. The second ability is to affect individuals within the radius of influence with a form of paralysis, slowing muscular signals to such a rate that the body appears to be moving in substantial slow-motion. The final ability of this technique is that the nanites exponentially slow the rate of molecular movement for non-biological organic matter, such as metal, fabric, and so forth. 

Effectively this appears to stop the progression of moving particles, most notably bullets or optical weapons such as laser. Adding all of these complicated procedures together effectively makes it appear as if Nano can stop time. Because of her Neural-Thread Network, she is immune to the paralyzing effects, the temporary Akinetopsia, and the molecular slow to items she is holding when the field is activated. The field cannot be cast, but rather projects around her in a full, spherical radius of about 20 yards, and expands nearly instantaneously. This field can be sustained for a maximum of twenty seconds. The way that this works is that, at 100% Battery capacity, each seconds takes 5%, which doesn't allow her much time for hesitation. Additionally, this ability has a twenty minute cool down.
Nano can use voice activation for her two abilities:"Yamate", meaning "Stop", activates her Akinetophic Field.
"Hakiri", meaning "Light", activates her Light Particle Sheathe.

Charges/Sentences:Homicide: Premeditated Murder of the first degree, exact figures are unknown.Manslaughter: Involuntary third degree, and voluntary second degree manslaughter, precise statistics unknown.
Trespassing: Unlawful breaking and entering.Possession: Concealing a deadly weapon, especially with lethal intent, in restricted areas.
Assault: Including aggravated assault, and battery, detailed counts unavailable.

Skills:Death Rides Wind: The technical name behind her swordsmanship, the term is a reference to the original concept of its foundation, Leaf Rides Wind, a non-lethal phrase depicting how fluidly a leaf dances upon a gentle breeze. Nano's repurposed technique makes her graceful killer on the battle field, chaining her attacks together the same way a handful of leaves swirl within a strong gust. She is more than proficient in the use of her sword, it is an extension of herself, a part of her. It is not a tool in her hands, but an instrument of death. Her movements are swift, and her strikes precise. She a storm, her sword the flicker of lightning, leaving behind only the rattling wails of death.
Hand Forces Flow: Another misconstrued term, derived from Hand Parts Water, referencing how flowing water will part and move around the hand. The practice, again meant to be non-lethal, revolves around directly the flow of battle around oneself. Nano, rather, sees this as forcibly changing the flow of battle, and thus she is able to control situations by creating vulnerabilities in her opponents. Though this utilizes the primary teachings of Qui Fei Tsu, and Fei Tsu Ken, her version is less about tiring her opponent and more about reducing their combat effectiveness, if a finishing move isn't readily feasible. She does this by using the same methods of the two teachings, but instead of passively out-sustaining her opponent, she will use these moments to separate joins, break limbs, attack vital areas, and so forth.
The Blind Sense: A benefit of the Tsu Fei Ken style, this practice focuses on enhancing the other senses, and relying less on what your eyes see. Meaning, against less experience, noisy opponents, Nano could quite possibly fight with her eyes closed by listening to her opponents breathing, their steps, the ruffle of their clothes, and other telltale sounds. Though not entirely effective on its own, except against aggressors of far lesser skill, its actually a necessary component of the Tsu Fei Ken style, as the eyes cannot see what's behind you. Additionally, this also helps stimulate her mind. She must think ahead, and make snap decisions to react to her opponent, or opponents.
The Strength of the Willow: While not entirely strong physically, much of Nano's training has revolved around this concept. She is not the oak that stands tall in the storm, but the willow that stays rooted while bending to the winds. She takes thing as they come, and rolls with the punches. She may lack strength, but she greatly makes up for that with her agility, stamina, and maneuvers. She knows how to work herself out of holds, and even a variety of restraints. However, the key attribute of this teaching is that she understands how to bend in combat, meaning when an attack connects, she moves with it to substantially lessen the impact.
Aspect of the Wind: A useful skill, considering how close she must be to her targets. The training revolving around the Aspect of the Wind is literally the art of movement closely resembling to how wind moves. The body is trained to react to obstacles fluidly, with both speed and agility. To break it down, this is a combination of training your reflexes and parkour. She has excellent reaction time and reflexes, and is able to traverse in unorthodox ways smoothly, and with varying amounts of speed depending on exactly what sort of obstacles she must over come. Some of these practices include moving without excessive hindrance through tight holes, up vertical surfaces, understanding maximum gap closing distance, landing safely, and so forth. Many of these skills can also be applied to combative movements.
Eye of the Storm: Her training has also included the tailoring of her emotions, the destruction rages around the storm yet the center must remain calm. Meaning she remains cool and collected during what would otherwise be high stress situations. She's both cold, and calculating, and the idea that hesitation equals death has been imprinted in her mind. Nano was already an intelligent woman, and training out reactions based on emotion have only served to enhance these qualities. During the squall of battle, she is steel layered in ice. She is the tempest, and will do what she feels is necessary, without expending energy on trivial actions.
Growth of the Sapling: A benefit of the original, intended purpose of her nanites, Nano can recover from the worst of wounds without too much cause for concern. Rather, the nanites are apt at repairing damaged cells and bodily structure, yet this is not an immeidate, or even quick benefit. In actuality it does two things, assists fixing her body and shortening the recovery period in comparison to a normal person, and helps keep her immunized against foreign bodies that could cause illness or disease.

Flaws:Links of the Chain: A drawback of the Death Rides Wind style, if Nano is interrupted while moving through a sequence of attacks she will ultimately fall out of sync with herself. Her mind is already two steps ahead, so breaking one of the links of her chain will scatter her attack completely and leave her vulnerable as she attempts to regain balance and recompose her combat process. This vulnerability is momentary, as she will back off and attempt to guard herself, yet this causes her to also lose the pressing edge of her attack and puts her on guard. A skilled opponent will use this to their advantage.
Two-headed Snake: Qui Fei Tsu, and Tsu Fei Ken are styles that require proper use of the arms and legs. Without both arms, Nano's effective attacks are limited to what she can do with her legs, and vice versa. In short, she cannot with a single arm and leg. Especially since most of the techniques involved with these styles involve much use of her arms, and less of her legs. However, like two halves a whole, her can fight adequately with just her legs, she is just severely limited on the number of moves she can perform. However, this situation in reverse is much more difficult, as it is incredibly difficult to fight without her legs, and likely to be ineffective against even a moderately skilled opponent.
The Frailty of the Willow: The entire purpose of this technique is to avoid damage, to shave down the power of attacks. Her body is not a thickly corded cage of muscle, but is rather soft and finely tuned. With hand to hand combat, she has trouble with opponents with substantial musculature, or high endurance. She also has trouble sustaining solid hits, lacking much in the endurance and resistance departments.
Aspect of the Target: Nobody ever said using a sword in the modern age was a wise decision. Despite how well she can move, a person can only zig-zag so much before taking a few hits. Additionally, a figure running at you is likely to obtain your full attention due to the increasingly rises levels of threat. For every injury, or debilitating effect she sustains, her peak performance goes down and her combat ability declines right with it. She relies on being able to move quickly, and close distance efficiently, since she is almost guaranteed to draw the attention of her targets if she's within their visual range. However, this is less of a problem against other melee oriented opponents.
Piercing of the Veil: Everybody is human, and even a cold, calculating combat machine like Nano are subject to that statement. Since genetically, she remains unaltered, she is still prone to human emotions such as acting in anger, hesitation, but most notably she is very prideful. She does her best not to show it, not to react to that particular feelings, but at other times she'll let loose if only to prove herself. She's trained all of her life, and is definitely lacking in departments of praise and compassion. It was never "Good Job", no "I love you", or "I'm proud of you", rather is was always a curt nod, a dismissive hand, a stoic look.
Range of the Cactus: Nano is a close quarters combatant, just as she's been trained for the majority of her life. Consequently, she knows about zero when it comes to fire arms. In fact, she has no skill with the weapons period. Her hands shake when she aims, she forgets how to reload, and likely doesn't even know where the safety is. The only, and I mean the absolutely only situation a gun is useful for her is if it's already loaded, the safety is off, and the barrel currently resides between her victim's teeth. Even then, the action is rather pointless since she's a close quarters combatant anyways.
Fears of the Flower: Nano has a form of aquaphobia, that surfaces only when she is fully submerged in water. Her methods of training were often times less than desirable, and has left her with the irrational fear of fully body submersion. Caedence does not suffer from aquaphobia, and can swim rather well.
Erosion of the Stone: The nanites within Nano's body, as mentioned above, are self sustaining. These molecular robots achieve this by using the natural minerals she ingests and those that her body produces. Despite how incredibly difficult it would be to destroy a molecular machine, it is possible, increasing the amount of resources the nanites consume to replace these machines. Nano has to supplement her diet with powerful multivitamins which she takes once a day normally. During states where the nanites consumption increases due to a decline in their numbers, Nano must increase her dosage, typically needing no more than two or three.
The Flash of the Storm: While she is partially protected against such attacks, a large electro-magnetic pulse will disable her nanites. The machines do have protection against burning out completely however. Most notably, a tiny, minimal draw shield that doesn't actually protect the nanites, but senses when an electro-magnetic, or similar pulse is about to hit the nanite. At that point, the nanites automatically perform an immediate shutdown. Information is stored in a black box system, which will automatically reboot the nanites after the pulse has passed and it is safe to do so. This also serves to turn of her nanite given abilities, including her kinetic barrier, particle sword, and prevents her from activating the Akinetophic field.
Yin and Yang: As with most intensely trained killers, she's a bit fucked up in the head. Nano suffers from Disassociation Identity Disorder, meaning she has two personalities. The first, is perhaps what she could have been under normal circumstances, and closely reflects a truer, positive nature—Yang. Her other side is the product of her training, the cold, remorseless killer—Yin.
Wilting of the Weed: Despite the arguably small medicinal benefits of her nanites, this comes with a drawback. When the nanites are focusing on fixing say, a broken bone, or creating scar tissue, she's very susceptible to foreign bodies and will likely come down with flu-like symptoms. When fighting off foreign bodies, she will feel weak and mimic the symptoms of a fever. Both of these states of illness increase in intensity depending on the amount of effort the nanites must use. Both of these at the same time will cripple her, and render her pretty much useless in a combat situation. I say nearly, because her zombie-like state may terrify lesser beings into fleeing in terror.

Personality:Caedence is the Yang of her two personalities; she is the creative, joyous light. She has a compassionate nature about her, while also being fun and playful, if a bit docile, or submissive at times. She has a warm smile, which she shows often, and kind eyes. She tries to see the best in people, even hardened criminals have good qualities and deserve empathy and understanding. She also tries to remain positive, but sometimes this trait is obscured by her meekness. She knows the world is cruel, and she knows of the stains that blacken her soul. She is also fully aware of her alter ego, and what she does. On a normal day, Caedence likes to ignore these facts. She's also more in tune with her emotions, and tries to keep herself from dangerous situations.

Nano is the Yin side of Caedence, a side that is darker, colder, and stained with blood. She's a start contrast to the sweet, caring Caedence. She can be patronizing, sarcastic, and playfully seductive. She embodies the darker qualities Caedence does not. She more dominant, and aggressive, especially when being flirty or sexually playful. She sees the world for what it really is, a selfish, cruel world that punishes the just, and rewards the corrupt. She's detached from herself, feeling very little in the way of stimulating emotion other than amusement, pleasure, and pride. On a sub-note she's also capable of anger, but when engaged in combat she loses all of this and feels nothing, becoming devoid of limiting emotions, which is to say, all of them. She typically does not feel regret, or sadness, perhaps a sprinkling of loathing and a healthy dash of contempt. Nano will not stray from a fight, especially if her pride is challenged. She is the funnel into which Caedence pushes all of her pain and hurt, all of her dark thoughts and desires, everything negative in her life.

Personal Biography:

Lightning flares, punctuating the silhouette of a young girl's martial forms with the clap of thunder. Rain falls steadily, drenching the small figure, pitter-pattering against stone and thrumming against the angled tile roofing of the private housing. Shielded from outside eyes behind opaque white walls, decorative in nature, the girl practiced. A solemn wind rustled through the petals of colorful gardens forming a swirling pattern of colors as it washed through the compound. A door squeaked open softly admitting a stealthy observer, quiet steps bring him to a railing of polished wood. The girl did turn around, but continued her forms as before. Her face placid, she barely made a sound as she danced through the clear, rippling puddles, another shadow in the night. The breeze swept low, rustling the large cherry blossom tree centered in the courtyard and stealing from it a multitude of dazzlingly pink petals. The child poised herself, as the gust whipped her raven hair about her, snatching the petals from the air.

She turned, splaying her palm open before the figure, presenting her feat. Lean, powerful legs hidden beneath the pleated folds of a Hakama step forward. The elevated Geta clacked across the courtyard of smooth, polished stones as the watcher approached the child, his figure looming over her imposingly. The end of his Bokken, a wooden sword, thumped across the back of her legs roughly, reminding her to kneel. The girl let out a squeak of surprise from the stringing mark left on her legs, earning her another thwap. Biting her tongue, she steadied her breath and waited as her father observed the petals in her hand. He reached down, plucking out the ones that had been crushed or torn. Three disfigured petals lay before her, flowing away in the streams crisscrossing the courtyard.

Thwap-Thwap-Thwap

The girl let out a whimper before she could stop herself—Thwap. 

"Again," He spoke, his powerful voice left no room for anything else. The girl rose, bowing to her father before continuing her ritualistic dance, practicing her forms as she waited for the next flurry to bring her more petals. A door out of view squeaked once more as it closed, signaling the likely departure of her instructor. She dare not stop, nor lie. She always got caught, and the punishments were much worse than simply failing. She schooled her face, silently hoping that nature would take mercy on her. Inside the building her father stood, shaking his head silently as he looked at the meal growing cold on the small, low table. It was going to be one of those nights, he might as well make some tea.  

Dawn broke, illuminating the form of the weary child, struggling to continue. The storm had long since blown over, yet the girl was still soaked through to the bone. She sniffled, ignoring her runny nose as she labored through her forms, her foot cutting swathes in still puddles marred by the broken forms of cherry blossoms. Her father was watching again, a scowl tempting the edges of his face as his daughter collapsed against the chilled, wet stones. He strode towards her, his tongue clicking in a sound of disappointed irritation.

"Rise," He commanded, and she did. The girl struggled to her feet, her body limp and exhausted, but his voice left no room for disobedience. "You will eat, and then sleep. I expect to see you when you awake."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

An array of figures basked in the light streaming through translucent sections of the pale, colorless wall, their powerful forms hovering at the edge of a large, bamboo mat. A young girl stood before them, dressed in similar white clothes as the figures laughed and snickered at her. A mere child, who couldn't have been older than eleven, a part of their demonstration. The members of the Senichi's expansive family nearly laughed themselves to tears, though the girl remained straight and stoic, ignoring their presumptuous cackles. To men stood to one end, dressed in hues of dark blue, the colors of the master. One, thick in body and with a chiseled face bordered by a thick beard was scowling menacing. The other, her father, his clean shaven face all planes and angles looked on passively, knowingly. Yet, he did not smile as the other pointed out one of his men to the ring, a grin split wide across his face.

"Now, Hanjo, Ichizo here will put an end to this mockery and you will show us your real warriors," Tsuga voiced, the tone of his voice underlined with amusement. Hanjo merely let out a quiet 'Hmph', choosing not to fully acknowledge the statement. He simple watched as the two fighters took their stances, one seemingly severely outmatched by the other.

"Master Inowa, surely you can't expect me to fight this girl?" Ichizo asked, rather concerned at the arrangement.

"I expect you to display the full prowess of an Inowa Disciple, this is Hanjo's arrangement therefore it will be his problem when it's over, just try not to break anything," Tsuga commanded, silencing his disciple's opinion through the sheer intensity of his voice, though it hardly altered in pitch.

"Begin"

Ichizo rushed forward, already formulating a plan of attack, he would be firm, but gentle. He did not want to hurt the young girl too badly. His leg sprung from the side, arcing through the air with excellent speed, though it passed only empty air. His eyes widened as the small girl dropped low beneath his kick, throwing out her own leg and sweeping his ankle. He grimaced, pushing himself up off of the mat at the spectators fell silent. Tsuga, in particular, was scowling again.

Once more the male fighter struck out, feinting with another kick and following with his fists instead. He came low, sweeping upwards and again his strike passed through only the air. He reacted quicker this time, using his moment to spin his body and follow through with an elbow. Two small hands gripped his arm, her smaller form forcing him to continue his momentum and throwing him off of balance. He stumbled, spinning wildly as he once more met the mat. This time his fall was a thing of laughter for the other disciples.

               "Hah!"                   "Surely Ichi isn't losing to a child?"                                       "What a mockery."                 
                   "What disgraceful form."                                                 "Ichi stop screwing around!"    
                                           "He's one of the best?"                                                "Are you joking?"    
                                                              "Pathetic."                                                                                       "No way."        

Ichizo grimaced, his face hot with humiliation. The girl didn't smile, or gloat, she barely even made a sound. Most infuriating of all, she'd barely moved from her starting position. He let out a growl, losing all inhibitions of holding back. He charged forward, in a series of moves. He crouched, sweeping his foot low, she jumped over it. He followed up with a second, overhead kick, she moved like a wraith to the side, his strike whispering only through strands of hair. His teeth pressed together in anger. Without pause he used his prior move to step forward, close to her, striking out from his mid section. It was like trying to fight a shadow, he punched, she moved, he kicked, she side-stepped, he swung, he missed, swing, and miss. He let out a cry of rage, throwing a sloppy punch. Caedence took his arm, spinning as she tugged it forward, causing Ichizo to toppled over her small form.

"Hiyah!" Her small body cried, leveling an overhead kick into the back of his neck. He let out a grunt, she wasn't strong enough to incapacitate him that easily. He began pushing himself up, but another kick to his temple sent his vision spinning. He raised an arm to defend his face as he rose further. Two quick, successive strikes behind his knee sent him down once more. The child's attacks and the laughter of his peers were too much. He sprung to his feet, the strain of his efforts overshadowed by a tide of unyielding rage. Faster than she had anticipated, he took hold over her arm and flung her with all the might he could muster.

Caedence whimpered, feeling the socket tug painfully as Ichi propelled her through the air. She remained composed however, angling her body and landing in a low crouch. She could hear him, his bullish breathing, his thundering steps. She leveled a kick backwards, one that connected with his groin and sent him crashing over her. His face hit the mat with a thud. Caedence rolled over, kneeling on him as she hurled her fists repeatedly into the back of his head. 

"Hah! Hah! Hiyah!" She called as Ichi's face bounced slightly against the mat.

"Enough," Her father commanded. Immediately Caedence rose, her body stiff as a tree, and bowed. The audience stared, open mouthed. "Perhaps next time, it will be you who brings a real warrior," Hanjo replied flatly.

Awhile later, as the sun was nearing its peak, Hanjo sat in the middle of a garden composed of finely raked gravel, and flourishing beds of exotic flowers. Beside on the same, smoothly carved stone bench sat his daughter, who was currently busy pouring two cups of freshly brewed leaves. His gaze lingered on a rippling pong, where large, fat fish swam playfully. He was quite displeased, despite the performance his daughter had given. Surely he should feel happiness and pride, yet a quiet storm of emotional shadowed those feelings. 

"Tomorrow, when we arrive home, you will begin the steps again..." He started, pausing only to sip the scalding tea, "After your punishment."

"Punishment, Otousan?" Caedence repeated, tonelessly. She already knew once, but the question was one act of minute rebelliousness she could have without offense.

"You allowed him to throw you like a useless toy. Had this been a real fight, he would have taken that opportunity to kill you," Hanjo explained. He was never one to punish without proper reasoning. Caedence nodded in acceptance, likely it would be the birch strap, the usual grade of punishment for failures such as this. She did not respond then, there was no need for an answer. He knew she would try, and she knew he expected her to excel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The morning was dim, painting the land and the Senichi private residence in hues of gray. Members of the household began to stir as the sun slowly crept its way over the horizon, further hidden behind scattered clouds. The scents of dough being turned, and tea leaves seeping began to permeate the air. For the Senichi familly, they were no days off. Men and woman began filling wash basins and buckets, to begin their routine of scrubbing, polishing, and waxing. Others began to don their outfits, to begin a morning of training and discipline. The children would file out into the courtyard, to begin their own form of practice for most of the day, exempt from most chores to study both general education and the martial arts. Caedence stirred from her sleep, pushing a book she had been studying from her face. She stretched and yawned, as she thought ahead to the coming weekend. There were no breaks, especially not as the daughter of the head, yet school work was only done during the week.

She looked around the frozen image of her room, as still as the morning air. She put on her uniform, her thoughts wandering into a daydream of what breakfast would hold. Although that wouldn't be until later in the morning. The door let out only a quiet whoosh as she jogged down the corridor, heading for the courtyard. She was halfway down the breezeway when she stopped with fright. A man had appeared before her, literally appeared. He blinked into her vision, his body crouched over a large brush where he should be running across the floor. Yet, as she stared, his form only continued to blink forward some, and freeze, over and over. She struggled for words, her voice nothing but a croak as she choked on her own terror.

"Caedence?" The man asked, he had blinked again, he was besides her now. Caedence backed away in sheer horror, bumping into the railing as he called her name again. She looked over her shoulder, startled by the barrier, and her fear found new levels to drown her in. Outside in the courtyard everything was, blinking. Each person she saw was frozen, only moving by disappearing and reappearing elsewhere. 

"Caedence, Child, what's wrong?" The voice asked, over, and over again. Caedence remained frozen, unable to form words, unable to tear her gaze away from the still motion of the world around her, jumping through its motions as if jerking through the frames of an image. Finally the shock subsided, and a scream found its way to the top of her throat.

"OTOUSAN!? OTOUSAN!?" She screamed, propelled down the hallway by her own emotions. Things blinked rapidly in and out of her view as she ran. Objects that had been there before disappeared, and things constantly popped into her view. Hanjo had been sitting at his desk, writing out a notice for the rest of the family when he heard her screams. He sneered, looking at the long swathe of ink running across the bottom of the page where his hand had jerked. He stood angrily, making it to his door before he spied the wild, terrified look of his daughter. This was unlike her, fear was an emotion she did not feel. He looked beyond her, searching for some sort of immense danger, but found none.

"What is the meaning of this? Explain yourself Caedence," He ordered as his daughter literally ran face first into him. She clutched at his Hakama, her red face stricken with tears.

"I can't see them, I can't see them move, I ca-.. I can-.." Her words became lost as a torrent of sobs wracked her body.

Later that night, Hanjo sat at his daughter's beside, his hand pressed to her forehead. Such a rare thing to occur, and to his daughter no less. His own mighty flesh and blood. How the heavens must laugh, striking his daughter with such an affliction. He frowned in thought, surely the power of man superseded that of the old gods now. He stood, ignoring the compassionate look on the nurse's face. He did not need to feel sorrow, or guilt. He was angry, yes. Angry at the muses of nature, but his family would prevail. The Senichi-Tagawa bloodline would remain strong, starting with his daughter. Tomorrow, he would contact the galactic federation, perhaps there was cure. If not, he would find somebody who could make one.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A year later, Caedence found herself staring at an electronic display, far from the marked line where she stood. "E," She began, reading off the chart. She was in an optometrist lab, reading off a display of increasingly small letters to a technician, a warm smile was plastered on his face. He nodded, urging her to continue. She gazed back at the screen, bracketed by smooth white walls covered with informative posters and signs warning of dangerous signs of cancer, or oncoming blindness.

"W."

It had taken quite a long time to find a cure, to repair the damaged cortex in her brain. An array of medical professions had speculated that she may have been victim to a seizure, or stroke, while she slept, claiming she had trouble remembering it. She was certain that she had not woken during the night, but regardless there had been damage to her brain. This damage led to a disorder so rare, that nobody really knew about it, and thus funding to research a cure had never really been sought except by groups so small that they're progress was negligible. 

"Q."

Her father sought other sources, and it wasn't long until a name was passed to him—Axton Blayse. The man was considered the prodigal son of engineering, a genius who was currently doing astounding work with machines so small they couldn't be seen without a high powered microscope. A year was such a short time, in comparison, yet Axton had always said it was taking far too long. Caedence had quietly wondered how her father could afford such a thing, she had been told he would ruin himself funding this research. To be truthful, she wasn't even sure what her father did for a living. Even when he disappeared for weeks a time, she had watchers ensuring she trained and studied. 

"G."

Axton had created something extraordinary, something that could change the course of human history. A tiny robotic machine that could advance science years into the future, at the least. A self-sustaining, self-replicating nanite. Her father had urged him to secrecy, ensuring the further potential of Axton's creations. Caedence had heard some of it, promises of riches, military application, and the like. Lesser men, Hanjo had told her, are always prone to propelling their greed to the furthest limits. Not only did these nanites repair her on a molecular level, but they began to take on more puspose. Afterwards, Axton had vanished.

"K."

During the time of her affliction, her father made her treat it as a part of her training. Much too early for a girl who was barely a teenager, yet he had pushed her even harder. At home she wore a blindfold, never taking it off, and was expected to be ready when an attack was sprung on her. Her opponents never went easy on her, and she could always her the disappointment in her voice. The punishments increased in severity. From brutal lashing with a switch, or cane, to physically holding her head repeatedly underwater, until she was left to cough out lungfuls of water.

"X."

She struck the thoughts from her mind, it was only because her father cared so much for her to succeed in a world that was so cruel and difficult. She'd heard of famous people chewed up and spit out in the blink of an eye, and others where the best protection money could by couldn't save them. No, to survive was to depend on yourself, and only that. Nobody in this world gave two shits about you, don't trust them, don't listen to their filthy lies. They will harm you, steal from you, lie to you, manipulate you. The world will use you, and discard your withered corpse into the streets with the rest.

"Y."

The technician nodded, "Good, Good, do you feel any pain?"

"No," She lied, ignoring the splitting headache burrowing through her skull, the stinging fire coursing through her veins as her body rejected the presence of the foreign machines.

"Have you felt any pain since.." The technician paused, finding her operation only listed as experimental, "Ah.. since your procedure?"

"No," She lied again, pushing away the memories of her writhing on the floor, curled into a ball of pain.

"Any trouble sleeping, or eating, any abnormalities to your usual routine?"

"No," her voice was flat, her face perfectly blank as she refused to acknowledge all the mornings she was doubled over, vomiting and then dry heaving when her body had nothing left to give. All the sleepiness nights she lied awake, willing herself not to cry as her body's initial rejection of the nanites flared up. The crippling fatigue that would wash over her, or the ache in her bones. She was a fighter.

"Any motion sickness, ringing in the ears, abnormal coloring of the skin-"

"Nothing at all, I have been in perfect health since fulfilling the recovery period."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Another couple of years passed, during which she underwent a further increase to her training. She had also taken on meditation, and more advances styles of martial arts, along with learning how to use the sword, specifically the Katana, and those of similar design. She was a new metal, ready to be forged in the fires of her Father's desires, molded by the weight of his expectations, of what he had done for her. For all of the ill things he spoke about the world, he had not discarded her. She stood now, like many times before, in another bloodlines practice ring, her toes flexing against the thing strips of bamboo composing the mat beneath her. To either side students of Qui Tsu Fei fighting style stood, observing the yearly tournament the Senichi family held to show off skill and award rank.

"Didn't she miss last year?" One of them whispered.

"I heard she went blind," Another voice whispered back.

Caedence ignored them, focusing instead on her breathing and her surroundings. Another woman stepped forward, she was years older by far and had the face of somebody wizened with experience. The middle aged woman bowed respectfully before Caedence, a girl merely in her mid teens. Caedence returned the gesture, before taking her stance once more. A dignified member of the family broke through the crowd, offering each of the women a sturdy Bokken. Both of the women accepted their weapons, Caedence leveling her's before her in a straight line, a formal stance mirrored by her opponent.

"Begin," The gravelly voice of the eldest commanded.

"Yamate" she whispered, feeling thousands of tiny flutters against her skin as the nanites exploded from her body in speeds far too fast for her eyes to see. In less than a second she was bathed in a purple hue, the faces of her watchers seemingly frozen in time. Experimenting with her ability had shown that the field will begin to lighten into a brighter shade of blue, increasingly changing from purple as it draws to the end of it's duration. She wasted no time, rushing forward with her sword held at the ready. At a dead run she jumped, parallel to the ground as both of her feet connected with the solid force of her opponent's body. Caedence rolled, leaping once more into her attack at the field began to lighten from plum, to lavender, and finally to a sky colored teal. She took a position behind her opponent, steadying her breathing as she focused her ears on the elder, perched against the far wall of the room.

The field dissipated as quickly as it had come, leaving all that delayed forced to hit Caedence's opponent all at once. The woman's body flew backwards, her face frozen in shock as pain exploded across her body. Her limbs flailed as she turned quick rotations through the air, whirling like a human torpedo into the stunned crowd. A resounding slap echoed, as the suppressed forces caught up to Caedence. Her bokken exploded into a hundred wooden shards, leaving her hands only with a hilt. The crowd gasped collectively, their voices immediately protesting their disbelief.

"Did you see how fast she moved?" A man asked as medical staff rushed over to the battered form of Caedence's victim.

"That's not possible, she's cheating!" Another voice cried. Caedence stood, dusting herself off as another man entered the ring.

"She was searched and scanned before entering, I saw it!" A third said in her defense, a statement that was quite true. 

Caedence ignored all of them, looking up towards the elder, and most importantly to her father position next to the older man. He didn't smile, but he nodded, which was as good to Caedence as a hug, a kiss, and a brand new puppy. 'Cheating? For being better than them? Nonsense' her father had said. In his desire for her to be the best, Caedence felt he was losing his way, forgoing his honor and her family's traditions. But he had saved her life, surely he was right in this. Honor was impractical, it was a weight to drag you down. Another part of her argued against that, but it was a quiet, meek park.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"It's time you joined the family business."

The words echoed in the back of Caedence's mind, now just on the cusp of adulthood. A shrieking wind was coursing through the night, carrying frigid air to slither across the outside of her armor. She lay against a glass window, held to it by a pair of air compressing gloves that acted like suction cups. A hundred stories below her, a city bustles with life among tall towers and thickly crowded roads. She did not feel afraid, but focused as she looked up towards the final floor. The penthouse suite, and the current temporary home of a target that had been rather hard to follow. It had been months since she'd been home, receiving only coded messages from her father's organization as she followed the trail of a target labeled only as 'Crow'. 

She looked at the small picture hovering at the edge of her vision, overlayed aboved her electronic display. It wasn't much to go off of, a dark picture of a man with shadow black hair and a coat blown askew by a snow flurry. According to the substantial dossier, he was a known criminal, head of one of the top gangs terrorizing the galaxy. Caedence had read all thiry-six pages herself, and that was just what they knew of him. Above her, the windows fell into darkness as the suite's lights were turned out. She waited another forty minutes before moving. 

"Hakiri," She said, drawing her sword with one hand. The blade hummed with soft vibrations as a starkly contrasting glow wrapped around the blade, like a torch held up in the night.  With a swift motion she cut a roughly shaped hole through the window before her, and slithered inside. A disembodied voice called out in concern, as a like flicked on. A man with wild, cray hair stumbled into view, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Caedence's weapon speared forward before he could utter a single sound, fluidly opening him up from groin to neck in a single, swift motion. He crumpled to the ground, uttering soundless cries through a ruined throat as he tried to hold the vital pieces of himself where they were supposed to be. Caedence ignored him and moved into the next room, ignoring the need for a keycard by sweeping her weapon through the metal door itself. 

The resident of this room too, met the same fate at the ghostly visage flickered before them, its weapon the brush to paint their blood upon the canvas of the room. Caedence barely paused to acknowledge the falling body as she stood below the ceiling, just short of the rooms far edge. She had studied the layout of the building, and with a little recon before hand determined the location of the master bed in the suite above her. She ran at the wall, her leg compressing as she launched herself in the opposite direction, dragging her sword across the ceiling. She landed, and immediately repeated the maneuver, slightly angling her cut another direction. Each time she did, she was met with an ear splitting screeching of metal groaning beneath its failing ability to hold the floor. A third pass and the ceiling dipped inward, hesitating just a second before caving in and bringing a fairly large bed toppling in with it.

"Yamate!" She called, feeling the same fluttering sensation on her skin. The scene before her froze, plaster smashing against the ground, loose wires letting off sparks, and a dark haired man sitting up in the bed. There was a look of surprise on his face, and a gun in his hand. From the way his body was position he must have been getting out of bed, likely alerted to something amiss from the sounds of her cutting through the floor. She leapt forward, using the falling debris as stepping stones in her ascension towards her target. Without hesitation she plunged her blade into his chest, before canceling her field of distortion, and the particle light sheathe of her blade.

The bed crashed to the ground, causing Crow to cry out in pain as his body jerked against the sword impaled into his chest, though the sound was cut off by a gurgle of blood. The lights in the room flickered ominously as he smiled, blood trailing from either side of his mouth. He raised up a shaking hand with effort, reaching into the breast pocket of his silken night shirt. "You're father.." He choked out, handing her a small case, before letting out one final, sinister chuckle. Caedence peered inside, seeing only a usb drive. She left her mark scattered all over his lifeless form, filled with no more emotion than when she had began as she considered the enigma of the drive.

It was later that she checked it, during her flight home after escaping the skyscraper. The shuttle rocked violently as it propelled itself into space, something no uncommon among cheaper flights. The drive held an expansive database of files on it, most detailing locations and dates. She chose a video a random, watching intently as a camera feed pulled up. A figured hidden through a heavy layer of shadow stalked up a corridor, from the other end a woman was approaching. She recognized the suit her father adorned during work, a set of armor based around the concepts of ancient ninja, and samurai. What had Crow meant to show her with this however? She knew what her father did for a living, she did the same thing, hunting down criminals and-

Hanjo moved without warning as he passed the woman, throwing her against the wall. Caedence recognized her as a bounty, at least one she'd seen inside the records of completion for her fathers kills. In this, the woman was dressed as a commoner, in a blouse and skirt, and even a bag of groceries. Caedence thought back, trying to remember what the report had said, but her thoughts went askew as the horrid scenes played before her. She activated the sound, plugging in a pair of ear buds into her wrist pad. Immediately her ears were assaulted by the shrieks of the woman.

"You look a lot like my late wife," Her father sneered, a look so menacing plastered on his face that Caedence didn't even recognize him. His hand ripped at the woman's clothes as he pressed a free arm against her throat. Caedence shut the video off, noting the subject number in the title. A little searching found the correct folder, and an entirely different report about the woman. She was nobody, a nobody who was engaged and a mother of one. Something deep within Caedence shuddered, suddenly becoming obsessed with the data drive. Another showed more vile acts, from other members of the secret sect of assassins, and still more, and more, and more until Caedence was left shaking, feeling a rage she'd never known existed within her.

"Honor," she seethed, stalking down the halls of her home. She had done nothing but stew on the ride home, watching the videos again, and again.

"Discipline," she hissed, her blade drawn as she marched through the still night, a whisper carried only on the wind.

"Honor," she growled again, standing before her father's door, "Discipline..."

"Honor.." her hand shook, violently, "Discipline, Honor, Discipline, Honor, Discipline..."

"..."

"...Yamate!" 

Personal Belongings:Nova brand cigarettes, known for their cool, minty feel. Both girls smoke.
Silver flip lighter with an embossed figured of an eastern dragon.
An airtight packet of cherry blossoms.
A tin of breath mints.
A pair of black ear buds.

Other: Caedence and Nano were imprisoned for seven years at the age of nineteen.