Appearance: Firuzeh stands at about 176cm with a muscular but at first seemingly softer frame that, while not exactly that of a seasoned soldier, shows she is no stranger to exertion. She has relatively smooth olive skin, occasionally marred by scarring and other damage - bullet wounds, miscellaneous damage from an eventful life. If one were to closely examine where skin meets synthetic material on her right shoulder it would become plainly apparent that her decision to have the arm replaced was not an unnecessary one - the tissue is distorted and ugly, almost burned in appearance, with heavy duty connections visible protruding from her skin and connecting to the arm. A closer inspection would reveal to an experienced technician that the initial installation was rushed, much of the skin around the prosthetic having died off, leaving the latter improvements and additions exposed for all to see.

Her right arm has been replaced in its entirety, including the shoulder, with a high quality cybernetic, carbon nanotube muscle fibers plainly apparent where laminated graphene plates do not cover. Rather than hide the appearance of the bionic limb, she flaunts it proudly, even going so far as to have laser etched one of the plates covering the area her bicep with her initials and various other designs. The cybernetics are present elsewhere in her body, but are all subcutaneous and far less overt in their effects, primarily skeletal reinforcement to prevent her from breaking her own ribs with the power of the arm. Her current model is externally similar in appearance to the original, but three months before embarking upon the Ark, she called in every favor available to her, replacing the entire arm replaced with a model on the bleeding edge of development.
Firuzeh keeps her hair in a tight braid tucked away while on the job, but in her free time she leaves it loose and flowing. Her hair is dark, wavy, and thick - reaching well past shoulder length. Her left eye is of a minty green hue, warm and friendly for the most part, but years of misfortune have taken their toll, and the mania of her time in the milky way before departure for Andromeda is visible. Her right eye is prosthetic, part of the eye socket replaced with dark grey composite material, the skin noticeably absent over it. A small scar runs the distance from her lower lip to her chin, a greater scar - evidently a burn - mars the left side of her neck, and her nose is bent at a permanent angle.

Background:

Firuzeh was born in Isfahan, Iran, to a family with a long and illustrious history of working in the medical profession, with accomplishments ranging back centuries, and a few relatives even popping up in medical history books. In fact, joining the medical profession had become such a universal career in her family, with a few black sheep now and then choosing to become generals, inventors, or kebab merchants in Tehran, that the usual response to a baby on the way was to speculate on what discipline the child would enter, rather than the sex or personality of the baby.

From day one, Firuzeh was gently pushed towards medicine, and while she took to the subject fairly well, most children would have had they been steeped in the medical world since the day they could walk. Every family reunion was marked by questions into prospective fields she wanted to enter, if she wanted to visit her aunt’s workplace for a day, or the occasional excessively detailed retelling of a particularly grueling surgery.
But moreso than medicine, she took to history in her early life, from a young age rushing to explore the ancient ruins of past civilizations that dotted the landscape of Iran, near obsessively engrossing herself in books about the civilizations that used to dominate the land, ancient battles that dictated the fates of empires, and more. Far more than any of the numerous attempts to pull her deeper into the medical profession, this love for history engendered a love of learning - about anything - in her, alongside a fierce thirst for adventure and exploration. Exploring the insides of someone’s diseased heart was interesting, but she felt the lure of the unexplored galaxy. When news reached her of the First Contact War, it drove this lust for exploration into overdrive, and for a time she completely abandoned any pretense of wanting to be a doctor, instead boldy proclaiming she would be the galaxy’s best explorer - in ten years at any rate. Throughout all of the exitement, she lead a mostly normal life like most any other child, reading, learning to cook, making friends, and playing games of all sorts.

As she grew older, she was faced with a decision. Deep inside she still longed to explore, but the reality of the world had settled on her shoulders, and she no longer thought exploring the galaxy would be something she could do. She was a city girl with a rich family who’d been groomed for medical work her entire life, not fit to fight in a galaxy chock full of danger and machine guns pointed her direction. Eventually, she followed her family’s lead and was admitted to university a year early, a classic overachiever, having decided (with some sadness) that she would become a scientist.

Despite her misgivings, she handled university as well as could be expected, earning a PhD in cybernetic neuroscience, a master’s in bionic technology, and her bachelor’s in biomedical engineering. Upon her departure from university, she had at least three job offers in prestigious earth based medical firms. However, she was not content to stay put, and when an opportunity presented itself - a field research opportunity on the colony of Elysium, she jumped at the chance.

She made her way for the colony, eager to begin work that seemed right up her alley. They were there to test out a new generation of cybernetic enhancements on any willing colonists - ordinarily there would have been a push to find colonists willing to undergo augmentation, but the colonies held few transhumanists, and primarily they studied a group of colonists already sporting cybernetis. It was an assignment she was greatly excited over, and coupled with the beautiful scenery of Elysium, and it was nearly perfect.

She even met nonhumans there, with the occasional turian or Asari popping up, and she forged a friendship with a quarian on her pilgrimage, nearly driving her insane with incessant questions about life in the migrant fleet, and anything she’d seen on her pilgrimage. With said quarian as a mostly voluntary guinea pig, she figured out how to adapt dextro food paste, and actual dextro foods, to Persian recipes she’d learned from her black sheep kabab merchant of an uncle. It wasn’t an exact copy, or anything close to it, but the fact that she could cook with dextro ingredients excited her to no end, like most every other new thing she encountered.
Then the Skyllian Blitz began.

Initially, she tried to stay out of the fighting, hunkering down in the research lab with the other scientists, happy to let the professional fighters hold off the pirates and slavers. However, her patience wore thin, and as the defenses wore thinner she snapped one day, seizing a Carnifex off a dead pirate who had made it a little farther than most and rushed to aid in whatever way she could. Whenever the pistol overheated she would compensate with biotics - having never recieved more than rudimentary training, she had little fine control, but plenty of power - at times her target would barely notice, at others her biotics would render a pirate into a fine paste. The bloodshed shocked her at first, but as the fighting wore on she began to take a liking to it, near the end of the blitz taking an almost disturbing joy in killing her fellow living beings. At some point she acquired a Mattock, and developed a fondness for applying the butt of the weapon to the face of any pirate unfortunate enough to close to melee range with her.

However, her luck ran out one day. A particularly well hidden batarian sniper packing a Kishock landed a hit squarely on her, thankfully missing her vital organs, but sundering her right arm and shoulder from her body. She still doesn’t remember much of the incident, beyond a dull impact on her shoulder, and waking up two days later with an arm significantly less fleshy than before. Her colleagues had saved her life, at great personal risk, with her quarian friend risking heavy machine gun fire to bring her bleeding body into the lab, where they grafted the cybernetic to her in an emergency surgery, as well as replacing much of the shoulder it had to attach to.

Despite her own better judgement and the desperate attempts of the lab staff to stop her, she had dragged herself outside again to continue fighting. She didn’t have the energy to run from place to place, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t shoot at anything stupid enough to pop its head up within her sights.
In an ironic twist, her foolhardy decision to continue fighting rather than resting saved her life. Something, she didn’t know what, hit the lab, leaving it a smoldering ruin strewn with body parts and priceless equipment. She thought the deaths of countless soldiers and pirates had hardened her, but the loss of everybody she had come to love and care for over the months on Elysium hit her like a sledgehammer, and she collapsed next to the burning wreckage, what little energy she had left evaporating in an instant.
She didn’t move from the area for a whole day, when an armored gauntlet grabbed her by the shoulder. Expecting a Batarian, she accepted her fate, dropping the rifle she had been clutching, only to be faced with a tired looking Alliance marine.

Miraculously, she had survived, despite everything. But she had nothing left. No job, no friends - only dull ache and the same thirst for adventure - though it was more a thirst for vengeance now. She had spent a few days recuperating, trying to come to terms with the loss of everyone she had come to know - but it never came. Burying her grief, she staggered out of the ruined colony on a packed shuttle, but unlike the rest of the shuttle’s occupants she was not returning to earth - far from it. Something had awakened on the planet, a more bloodthirsty side of her. She enjoyed burying a bayonet into the jugular of a slaver, revelled in the violence. But also a sense of fear over returning home. Her work was destroyed, she had nothing to show for it.
And so she did the only thing that seemed illogical, putting out feelers for any freelance work, be it legal or otherwise. She had nothing to call home beyond a planet now light years away, a planet that offered nothing but safety and comfort - and dull mundanity.

So, on Elysium she stayed - after a brief foray into orbit, helping with the rebuilding and taking whatever odd jobs came her way. That changed one night, inebriated and bored, she came across some crewmembers of a run down, questionably functional old ship and joined, in spite of whatever good sense might have otherwise dictated.
She spent three years on that ship, given the dubiously affectionate name of ‘Jalopy’ - and she spent those three years with the ramshackle ship’s equally ramshackle crew. Criminals, outcasts, oddballs, and other misfits crammed into the small confines of the Jalopy, barely scraping by, serving triple duty as a close quarters combatant, chef, and maintenance for crew cybernetics. There were times the crew as a whole went hungry, missions going poorly, customers reneging on contracts, and they were the three least comfortable years of her life, at one point she lost an eye which had to be replaced with a prosthetic - but she loved every second of it. The thrill of being out within the wider galaxy, the excitement and adrenaline, the joy of a fight, the satisfaction of killing… she struggled with her until recently latent bloodthirst, going through phases of normalcy and phases where she kept herself locked away, terrified of her own mind. But with every brush with death, every new battle scar and war story, she found herself bonding tighter with the crew, coming to see them as a second family, her adoptive kin among the stars. She stuck with the crew, the Jury Riggers, through thick and thin, right up until the end when, burdened by loss of members, increasing costs, fewer contracts they were forced to split up.

Firuzeh returned to earth for a time, at a loss for what to do. She couldn’t fit back in with her family, many of whom thought she had died in the Skyllian Blitz, and her purposeful lack of contact left a rift between them that would never truly heal. She missed the daily thrill of a new challenge every day, sights unseen before, and the rush of combat, the visceral satisfaction of fighting and killing. She sought therapy for a time, trying to reintegrate herself, to suppress the bloodlust that had awoken on Elysium - nothing worked, and she drifted listlessly for a few months between research positions, and at one point taking a job with a private military contractor in the Attican Traverse.

For a year and a half she lived as the CQC specialist of a security team hunting pirates, defending ships from pirates - general activities involving the shooting of pirates. Building up a reputation for themselves, the team began to be assigned to heavier and heavier duties, eventually deployed in strike teams to counter the attacks of Eclipse, Blood Pack, and other mercenary groups. The experience culminated in half of the team being wiped out, a company Eclipse, far bigger size nearly overwhelming the strike team. Firuzeh herself nearly died as well, suffering a collapsed lung when a bullet penetrated her armor, and losing her right eye to another bullet. Miraculously, she survived, and spent a month in intensive care, unceremoniously discharged from the PMC and sent to earth to recover.

For another year, she spiraled into a mire of depression, unemployed and living with family. She was healed within a few months, but her mind was not. She even fell into homelessness in the end - unwilling to dip into her savings, family unwilling to accomodate her.

It was on Nowruz that she was finally set back on course by none other than her uncle, the black sheep street food vendor of her otherwise upper class respectable family. He took her to a fire temple in Yazd to pray and to… simply think. He took her to all the old archaeological sites she had loved when she was younger, to therapists who did not try to convince her something in her needed fixing - she knew, deep down, there was something wrong with her - most people didn’t respond to hellish combat conditions with glee, they shouldn’t enjoy the act of killing another thinking, feeling individual - but it was something she became confident she could control, even if that fragement of her mind continued to haunt her thoughts.

Once more she began to find real work, first a simple research job in a biomedical lab right in Isfahan, but one of her job applications bore fruit, and it was with renewed vigor and passion for the fields she had spent years learning to study that she ascended the steps to a ship bound for the Citadel, a promising biotechnology firm having gotten hold of some visionary grad students and a small chunk of money with which to begin research. It was a refreshing change of pace for her - no long built up networks of nepotism, just the boundless energy of young scientists pushing forward, sleepless nights subsisting on energy drinks and fatty foods supplying an edge of their own where other labs would have had experience on their side. They got their start by latching on to old projects that, while they had shown promising results, were impractical to produce on a commercial scale - or streamlining and modernizing the cast-offs of prior research, applying modern innovations to older concepts and prototypes. The team had already made leaps and bounds in the field, and Firuzeh eagerly joined in, applying her own repetoire of knowledge and her extensive firsthand experience with using cybernetics.

Firuzeh began to feel herself settling into a comfortable routine, and despite the lack of adrenaline surges, the dearth of death defying dashes from munitions depots and flaming wreckage, the old thrill of learning and pushing the boundaries of her own knowledge and skill filled her with enthusiasm for the challenges of each day she had not truly felt in three years. Over the two and a half years she worked with the lab, she personally tested of many of the devices they themselves were prototyping, or had developed and had yet to receive approval for larger scale implementation from the bureaucracy of council legislation. Some she applied experimentally, confident in their safety but distrustful of the ability of comparatively uneducated subjects to provide feedback, whilst some were all but finished products. Some were intended to boost performance in stressful situations, moderating heartrate and nervous responses to optimize performance in combat - but the ones that drew her interest were those intending to prolong human life even further. Injections to strengthen the myelin sheaths over nerve cells, implants to optimize the heart and keep it pumping strongly for longer, some implants attempted to store copies of relatively undamaged DNA and counteract accumulated damage over time, and some were purely for vanity - keeping skin softer, wrinkle free. Any implant that showed promise and no side effects she eagerly applied to herself - whether or not they would give her any benefit she didn’t know, but she went with them anyway.

It was in the midst of this she learned of the Andromeda Initiative, and it sent her old wanderlust into overdrive. Now, more than anything, she yearned to be one of the pioneers - not to some old part of the galaxy that someone else had discovered but couldn’t be bothered to colonize. No, she could go to frontiers and environments never before seen by human eyes, to stand upon the precipice of discovery and adventure unrivalled since the age of exploration. First contact had enthralled her - but the galaxy was a known quantity, the other species inhabiting it, while fascinating, held star charts and data on all of it. This… this was true discovery, pushing the boundaries like never before, like she had dreamed of as a child, the prospect filled her with excitement.

Eagerly, she applied.

And was denied.

And then applied again, and again, determined to make it aboard the Initiative. She resorted to everything within her means and within the bounds of the law to be accepted, taking classes in every single concept she could imagine might make her a more enticing prospect for a spot in the Ark Hyperion. Normally, she gathered, she would have been accepted right away - someone with combat experience and great skill in cybernetic technology would be a boon. At the same time, someone with the documented psychological issues she had on her profile was less desireable. It was an uphill battle, but at last, six months before scheduled departure, she was accepted, along with the small portion of her family she had persuaded to join her, some had come for religious reasons, some for the same sense of adventure as Firuzeh herself, and in the case of her Uncle, allegedly because he was bored.

Firuzeh was one of the first of those asleep on the Ark to be awoken, her expertise in cybernetics a direly needed skillset in the aftermath of mutiny - that there had been one at all millions of light years from home shocked her. She set about her task with diligence, but working what amounted to maintenance duty threatened to send her into another slump - there was no exploration or excitement in fixing the neural connections in someone’s arm. The Pathfinder was out on her ship, attempting to find them a home - but it was minimal comfort to Firuzeh.

With the miraculous activation of Remnant technology on Eos, the world became habitable, and Firuzeh leaped at the chance to get off the Nexus, fighting through the ‘requests’ of those higher up that she remain on board, and managed to join an APEX team. They had the beginnings of a home in the new galaxy - and nothing enticed her more than the thought of killing the ones who wanted to push them from it.

Personality:

Firuzeh is an inquisitive but introverted woman, not openly social with those she is unfamiliar with unless inebriated - . When comfortable with those around her, she is energetic and playful, eagerly injecting herself into conversation or otherwise. She harbors a free-spirited rebellious streak, and chafes under the control of another - she will follow instructions readily enough if she sees the wisdom in it, but considers ‘obedience’ to be all but a dirty word.

In spite of this, she becomes a wholly different person in a fight - it is not merely the rush of adrenaline she enjoys, but the bloodshed, the visceral sensation of driving a knife into the stomach of another. Firuzeh enjoys fighting and killing, she harbors a bloodthirst that, while under control, still scares her to contemplate.

Reason for being awoken from Cryo (Specific jobs, skills, and Initiative Application): Firuzeh is an experienced cybernetic scientist, and was awoken to attend to the maintenance requirements of the Initiative’s many cybernetically enhanced individuals. In addition, she boasts impressive combat skills, though arrived too late to contribute to suppression of the mutiny, in the war against the Kett her skills will be well used.

Equipment:

• M-6 Carnifex - It’s a Carnifex.
• M-76 Revenant or M-23 Katana depending on mission
• HyperGuardian Armor set
• Savant Bio-Amp
• Logic Arrest Omni-Tool

Powers:

• Biotic Charge
• Lance
• Nova
• Omni Grenade
• Concussive Shot
• Flak Cannon

Font Colour: None

FCybernetics and Effects:

Firuzeh has a profound weakness to EMP and electrical weaponry, while such weapons will not permanently injure her beyond that of a normal person if she is not subjected to them for long, such an attack will leave her cybernetics temporarily disabled, and she will become all but useless for a minute or two as her systems reboot. Additionally, the plethora of hardware she has installed into herself gives her a metabolism to be feared, and she must consume a prodigious amount daily to keep herself running. She has skeletal reinforcement, primarily in her upper body, enabling her to use the full power of her cybernetic limb, as well as greatly increasing the resistance of her upper body to skeletal damage. In addition to the obvious benefit of her arm, capable of handily outclassing any normal human’s in feats of strength though lacking in miscellaneous features - designed purely for dynamic strength and durability as a combat cybernetic - Firuzeh has implants that modulate her heart, lungs, adrenal glands, and nervous systems, enabling her to respond to combat and general stress more fluidly than normal. Her eye is capable of viewing the world in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums, and possesses telescopic capabilities, enabling her to focus on targets further away than normal, albeit at the cost of needing to keep the second eye closed. Additionally, her arm has had eezo nodes installed at key points, mirroring those of her own nervous system, enabling her to utilize the prosthetic for biotics as she would her natural arm.

Only time will tell if her implants to slow the process of aging will have any effect, however.
Items brought to Andromeda:

• One copy of the Avesta
• One small stone, taken from ruins of Persepolis shortly before final departure from earth, suspended in clear plastic
• E-reader, with extensive library of recipes, personal notes on cooking, and anything else conceiveable in relation to food
• Shiraz grape seeds, for cultivation upon approval
• Saffron seeds, also for cultivation upon approval
• Her computer
• Miscellaneous small items

Appearance:

---

Background:


Personality:


Reason for being awoken from Cryo:


Equipment:


Powers:

• Trip Mine
• Omni Grenade
• Concussive Shot
• Disruptor Ammo
• Cryo Ammo

Font Colour:
FFDEAD

Appearance:

Reyna is athletic and it shows in her body, as expected from someone fit to join APEX squad. Her arms and legs are toned well, and she’s got abs outlined on her torso. Even so, Reyna is a woman who doesn’t reject her femininity and occasionally indulges in pampering herself when time allows her to. She isn’t very tall, standing at the modest height of 5’6”, leaving her looking up at most of the other soldiers or security personal both on and off the Nexus and she weighs in at around 140 lbs, 28F, which is rather heavy for her size, but most of it is muscle that she has earned while on the job. She has a sturdy frame, and has just a few curves around her waist and back. Underestimating her because of that isn’t wise, since she packs a lot of strength in her figure. She practically exudes confidence and pride in her posture.

Button nose, thin eyebrows, smooth skin, freckles - her soft facial features are occasionally tarnished by a scowl, which is not her standard go-to disposition like her enthusiastic and full of life demeanor. When you do get to see her when she is excited, you witness the emboldening her green eyes and the stretching of her lips to form a toothy grin that shows well taken care of teeth. Her natural bright red hair is fashioned into a curly faux hawk, and is well groomed. There is little oil that naturally accumulates in her hair, so it often remains lightweight and fluffy. She has scars over her knuckles from the various fights she has gotten herself in, on her fingertips from climbing on rock, bricks, and concrete, but overall, doesn’t have too many aside from a long one next to her right eye from a blow she received while on the job.

She has a couple of accessories, which compose mostly of piercings. She has two piercings on her left outer brow, one tongue piercing, and piercings that nobody has any right to knowing about. On her right shoulder blade is a simple tattoo of a compass, which she got without her mother’s knowledge when she was in her teens. It’s somewhat special for her. It has part to do with her love of adventure and part to do with, despite its simplicity, loving the design. There's another tattoo in black ink that goes around her neck that almost looks like choker thanks to its thin, honeycomb-like design.

Background: Reyna's father was an N7 soldier, Riley Baker, and her mother, Cheyenne Baker, was a photonic engineer - a techy that worked with light, lasers, and was apart of a team that developed cloaking technologies. As a result, she was piled on with expectations since an early age. Though some of her father's rigidness and discipline left a mark on Reyna, he was never around for very long as his duties kept him busy and away from home, which left most of the responsibility of raising the child with her equally overworked mother. Much of her technical know-how and ingenuity managed to rub off on Reyna, but that might have done more harm than good since the problem child was then able to get into even cleverer trouble and mischief whether it was sabotaging equipment (shitty toilet water shooting up your butt, or reprogramming the A/C to give hot air when you asked for cold, or cold when you asked for hot). Usually, threats of her father returning home would instill the fear of God into her, so it might be safe to say her relationship with him wasn't the healthiest. His lack of presence invited blatant disregard for his authority, or at least whenever he wasn't home. An active fear of her father and his punishment would influence how she views and approaches men later in life. One possible reason for her father's distance is a sense of failure on his part. He had hoped a child might follow in his footsteps, and to aid in that, followed the steps known to safely make Reyna a biotic. She never showed any signs.

It wasn't all bad though. Her mother only ever pulled that card when Reyna was truly out of control. Aside from that, the pair got together swimmingly all throughout her childhood and adolescence! She'd often join her mother on business trips to the Citadel, and every time she did, Reyna would be utterly fascinated by the wide array of species and cultures on board the station. The funny elcor, the weird hanar, the cool turians, the scary krogan, the mysterious quarians, the captivating asari - and the station! It was so huge and exciting, she thought she would never be able to explore every single inch of the place. The First Contact War was before her time, and dad was barely around to leave any mark of his prejudice on her as a man who had fought in it. She was an explorer at heart, and nothing fascinated her more than the fantasy of searching for and exploring new lands, and that was shown in her fascination with exploring the Citadel. It got her into trouble more times than she could count, with one time in her early adolescence nearly risking her life when she snuck inside a docking bay during a ship's take off on one of her many "expeditions". A lack of proper maintenance and thorough inspection of the engine's filters exposed her to a burst of eezo dust and made her terribly ill.

Rushed to Huerta Memorial Hospital, she was promptly taken care of. The team managed to restore her vitals to normal levels and they kept her in their care for a while to be sure the exposure to element zero wasn't going to leave any lasting effects on her. A frantic mother came rushing to her side the moment she heard the news, paired with the rare sighting of her father. His apparent concern somehow both warmed and annoyed her at the same. Then came the shit: Citadel Security Services got on her and her parents' asses for entering/allowing kids to enter restricted areas of the Citadel. Of course, Reyna was never allowed, and eventually C-Sec came to understand that after also coming to understand Reyna's stubborn attitude and... "free spirit". They were ordered to keep her on lock-down while on the Citadel, or to keep her on Earth. Her parents agreed, though they didn't seem to care much. Her mother was just relieved that she had her daughter alive and healthy. Her father? Well, he seemed pretty pleased with the news of the latest test results. Thanks to the exposure to element zero, Reyna had become a registered biotic at age 14.

After they returned home, she was grounded for months. Nothing but catching up on her studies and exercising when she needed to, but on top of that? Her father Riley had additional plans. He was so happy for his little girl, both for her health and safety, but also for her newfound potential. He seemed to invest more time into her than he did in her earlier childhood, and managed to scrounge up the money for L3 implants and the services of biofeedback therapists, but not before exposing her to a bunch of vids featuring the asari huntresses and their biotic abilities. He wanted Reyna to get amped up and ready for it instead of just forcing her to get machinery shoved into her brain - and it absolutely worked. At first. As she got older and began approaching adulthood, just beginning to get a grasp on the simplest biotics, she had a lot of time to slow down and start thinking, listening and reflecting more. Over the years, the more she thought and the more arguments that she has been hearing between her parents and pretending to be deaf to, the more her relationship with her father seemed to deteriorate again. As it did, the more that her biotics seemed to be this nasty, disgusting thing that her dad wanted for her so that she'd be "better off in the end".

Still, not every fiber of her being hated him. Some part of her looked up to him and what he did, she was just sad that he wasn't a better father because of it. She didn't want to follow directly in his footsteps, but some part of her did want to make him proud even if she didn't want to admit it. That's one of several reasons why, in 2177 when she was 16, her heart sank when she the news reached her from Akuze, regarding the pioneers and fifty marines killed by a thresher maw. It was one reason why she wanted to enlisted with C-Sec 2 years later, but they only took council-represented species and individuals who have proven their merit. So she was forced to settle with enlisting in an Alliance peacekeeping force. Her dad might have showed her which end of the gun fired the bullet, but he never had the time to show her tactics the way the Alliance did, nor did he have a specialist that taught her how to use her biotics more efficiently. She became the subject of some belittlement among the force when she stood quite shorter than the rest of her new comrades, but she was determined to not let it deter her. She received training as a recruit for about a year until she was released into the field at 19.

It worked out for her in any case, even as young as she was. She was always an athletic one, and the regimen from the program did help to cool her head down a little as well as show her a thing or two about guns and explosives. Her days as a troublesome kid actually came in handy - she knew cities, ship, and station layouts rather well. Whether it was figuring out where all the nooks and crannies were, giving chase, or giving insight into what a suspect might be thinking, she had something to contribute. The tech knowledge that her mother taught her came in handy time and time again when it came to knowing how to work the consoles and terminals, and her casual nature made her rather approachable to civilians. She excelled most of all in close quarters combat scenarios, whether in the general sense or hand-to-hand, she demonstrated the martial skill and strength to thrive in those situations. Some of her compatriots called her the smallest krogan ever, though whether it was supposed to be an endearing tease or mean-spirited taunt was sometimes hard to discern.

Predictably, however, her personal interests lied outside standing bored around some doors. It was only a year in when she put her two weeks in, and moved on to something that might take her to farther away places. She signed on with a private security agency, Elanus Risk Control Services. In doing so, she requested to be assigned to a research department where she could be out in the field, and ultimately was assigned to an exoarchaeology team that was based out of the Citadel. It was a win-win, given how much jarheads would rather be in the center of the action or somewhere within a certain radius of a club or bar, and C-Sec personnel didn't ordinarily leave the station to be escorts. The exoarchaeology team specializing in studying Prothean relics, and possibly digging them up, was much more exciting to her - and the expedition team requested precautionary security after the Akuze incident. The team, consisting of two asari and a salarian, probably never expected their security to be a 20-year old human as excitable and enthusiastic for exploration and discovery as they were.

The team became more than willing to pay the regular fees, as they and Reyna had become virtually inseparable. The two asari, T'lee and Vesalia, were like two intelligent older sisters that found just as much enjoyment in teasing the human girl as they did in showing her what they knew about their craft. The salarian, Jarros, was like the tired and annoyed dad-figure trying to shepherd her along in a way. Despite each individual's passion, there was never any massive, ground-breaking discoveries beyond the odd artifact or knick-knack. An expedition on Therum that had ultimately turned up nothing of note did, however, end in a confrontation that resulted in Reyna standing off with a rogue scavenger in a shootout that had her utilize all of the skills she's gained. She popped a small biotic barrier put down suppressive fire when the ambush began to give the team time to find cover, tossed a trip mine in the scavenger's direction to create a massive plume of dust and smoke, then closed the distance with a tactical cloak and finished the job with her omni-blade.

The team was thankful of course, and honestly a little surprised that Reyna was kinda good at her job. T'lee and Vesalia was intrigued most of all that Reyna was a biotic all this time and never said anything about it. "It wasn't important." Still, despite her disappointment of an answer, the two asari were actually rather competent biotics themselves, just not... combat trained. If for whatever reason Reyna was with them and they weren't on a job together, they'd teach her all the tips and tricks they knew about biotics whenever Reyna wasn't working with biofeedback therapists until this accelerated learning got her reasonably caught up with other biotics around her age. She never realized how shabby she really was at it until T'lee and Vesalia started showing her the ropes. Aside from that? Countless more adventures. They learned from that last encounter to practice proper precautions, and let Reyna scout around the area first before establishing a dig.

Reyna has deep-seated regrets over not being present for the Battle of the Citadel when the geth attacked in 2183 at age 22, as she and her team were in the Attican Beta cluster at the time, studying the Prothean aqueducts on Feros in addition to providing relief efforts following the Thorian incident that had occurred there. Most of the geth that were in the system moved to attack the Citadel. Her team talked her down into trying to return, because after all, they weren't a combat team.. and what was one more security officer to that battle than another dead body? The Citadel and the Alliance went on to win that battle even without her, but ever since, Reyna felt dirty for not having been there when they needed every person they could get their hands on. Her mother was on the station when they attacked. Her father was on one of the Alliance ships. She never heard from either of them again after that battle. The following 2 years weren't the same after that. She still found her escape in exploring and discovering, it was her way of running away. She still had family in T'lee, Vesalia, and Jarros, and yet... she felt gross saying that. Disgusting. Almost like she was betraying her real family's memory by rubbing salt into a wound. When she heard of the Andromeda Initiative and what it stood for, it sounded like a dream and a second chance both wrapped up in a neat little package. She still said her goodbyes to her team though, she didn't want to look back on the Milky Way with any more regrets. She didn't want to betray them too.

There was a system as to how the Initiative prioritized the order in which the cryo-pods opened. Aside from key administrative personnel and Pathfinder teams, generalists typically came first, followed by specialists. As young as Reyna was, what did she have to offer? Well, she was pretty much a textbook case of generalist, but most importantly she has always felt she was an explorer first and foremost. What the Initiative needed were scouts and pioneers to help find the way, and God be damned if she was gonna let the so called "Pathfinders" take all the glory in that. She had the years of research on photonic engineering and cloaking tech that her mother left behind, as tech savvy as her mother could make her, six years of security experience, and she was a registered biotic. She had her dad to thank for that.

So finally, she got onto the Nexus for a long six hundred plus year one-way trip. She hatched only fairly recently, only a month before the Hyperion arrived amidst concern that none of the Pathfinders will make it to Andromeda, in preparation for attempting new colonies. But now that the Pathfinder is here, there is rumor going around that she was nominated as a candidate for APEX. Apparently it's quite an honor, especially considering that would make her one of their youngest operatives - unless you count the salarians.

Personality: She expresses herself freely and unabashedly. While unrelentingly cheerful, excitable, and playful on the surface, she is like an unmoving brick wall in any sort of conflict. If you disagree with her to any extent, she’ll tell you you’re wrong and will hold her ground. She was born with a quick temper that takes some time and attrition to coax down and is rarely the type to say sorry first, and this temperament was disciplined a fair bit after she signed up with the Alliance, so she has a little more restraint, but that doesn't mean there still isn't a fire raging behind those blast doors. She’s also quite prideful of herself, and she takes challenges and contests very seriously to the extent that she might be an obnoxious winner or bummed out loser, as either result can have a grand impact on her esteem. Her lack of presence during the Battle of the Citadel is a prime example in this regard, as she has a tendency to carry all of her failures with her.

Much of her tough competitive side stems from growing up in densely populated Earth cities where being tough meant respect and the fact that her father was never around, allowing her to easily plow over her hard-working mother. When appealed to her interests however, she reacts in what many would consider exaggerated excitement. For example, she is an explorer at heart. She loves discovery and – surprisingly enough for a city girl – enjoys nature, especially at sites of caves or cliff faces or rivers and streams, or a remote location untouched by mankind. There also exists a fascination for bugs, fossils, artifacts, ancient relics and architecture, and bones. When these interests are appealed to, she shows a complete change in character: her eyes light up, a toothy grin from ear to ear, and her stern voice is replaced with what turns out to really be a talkative, excitable girl. This child-like giddiness often offsets anyone who is not wholly familiar with her and has only met with her abrasive side.

There are unique distinctions in the form of her interactions with others which are dependent upon the other’s gender. Even as someone who identifies as bisexual, she approaches men with more caution, and is usually dismissive of their advances after being spurned and harassed one too many times. Even if acknowledging that a man might be attractive, she is still quick to judge. She doesn't judge those who are or would engage in inter-species relationships, though she wouldn't think she'd do so herself - with exceptions. She still finds herself with a predilection for asari despite the fact.

She came to Andromeda dreaming of a new life of exploration and discovery, to find and experience things no one else has before, and to find a second chance at a life without regrets. Her experiences in the Milky Way has definitely made her less impulsive and more prone to careful thought in approaching a dire situation. She has every intention of giving the Initiative everything she has for the betterment of all of the colonists. If Reyna has learned anything, it's that there is one question she should ask herself before deciding anything: "Will I regret this?"

She's mostly a scout out in the field and can lay trip mines in key choke points or routes to either cripple or alert the squad of the enemy's location, but sometimes your back is against the wall. When it comes down to the nitty gritty in combat, she channels all of the pent up frustration, angst, and anger that has been welling up over the past two years (well, 635 years). Her style is reckless, which can be seen in how she uses her biotics to charge right into the fray and trust in her biotic barrier and her armor's shields to keep her alive and well long enough to quickly dispatch the hostile with her omni-blade or souped up pistol - assuming her biotics didn't knock them out right away. If she's in there for too long, she relies on her mother's cloaking technology to get her out of the fray quickly and recharge, before hitting them hard and fast again. Her biotics allow her to blink around the battlefield quickly and over a fair distance, meaning she is able to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

Despite her shortcomings, Reyna is an exuberant and faithful companion once you can look past her attitude. She exudes great positive energy when she’s in a good mood and is very confident and flirty in social interactions, even if just to a playful or platonic extent. Once she considers you family, there’s virtually nothing that she’ll let stand in her way to protect you - not after the last two families she had to leave behind.

Reason for being awoken from Cryo: Fear of the possibility of no Pathfinder making it across dark space, Reyna was awoken in a second wave of explorers and pioneers to help the Milky Way colonists find a viable home somewhere in Andromeda. Now that the human Pathfinder is here, she's fighting for her right to be out in the field so that she can be right in the face of discovery.

Equipment:

Reyna dons the Initiative Spearpoint armor with a washed-out red paint job with a black secondary color. The armor is as equally useful for exploration as it is for combat, but with one major difference: she replaced the chest piece with Hyperguardian armor, allowing immense protection to her vitals in addition to amplifying her physical strength. The only weapon she carries with her a Talon model pistol that was modded to give it a little extra kick. It's small and easy to draw, but in actuality, it feels like you're firing a shotgun. This little hand cannon has enough power to punch a hole straight through someone's shields. Too bad it has a small clip.

She is also highly reliant on her omni-tool for scanning new and undiscovered specimens, and the omni-blade that comes with it.


Powers:

• Adrenaline Rush
• Trip Mine
• Backlash
• Charge
• Sabotage
• Tactical Cloak

Font Colour: LightCoral

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Appearance:



Nadia stands at 5 feet 7 inches and weighs in at 134 pounds. The first facial feature you’ll recognise of her is the single distinctive hazel brown eyes that she possess. The other is hidden under an eye patch, damaged from an injury sustained in combat. A thin long scar reaches the top of her damaged left eye to the middle of her left cheek. Her face is heart-shaped, her nose slender, and her lips a light shade of pink.

In times of happiness, darling little dents of delight appear on her youthful visage, the dimples ever present whenever any form of smile or grin makes itself known. Her locks reach slightly down her chest and is a rich shade of platinum blonde that may appear to be a lighter or darker hue, depending on the lighting conditions. She usually wears her hair down unless an activity requires otherwise, then those blonde locks would be tied up in a simple ponytail or tied up in a bun for ease of movement. Her skin is fair and boasts a hint of golden undertones. Whenever she feels embarrassed or angry, her skin tends to flushes easily, becoming rosy pink and hot.

Focused and expressive, her single eye feels like a window to her soul, carrying a message even when her lips fail to. Her figure is slim with a good amount of curves, a fair share of muscles gained from her highly physical lifestyle. She tends to favour the shades of both black and white and when not dressed in her combat armour, she is often seen in form-fitting attire.

Background:

Nadia was born into a world with relatively poor parents by her side. Her parents, Jana and Desmond Blackwell were faced with the duties and responsibilities of being new parents and they were woefully unprepared when it came to raising a child, and so desperation left them taking whatever jobs they could to keep the family of three afloat. Even from a young age of seven, Nadia had already begun running errands for her parents, forced by the circumstances and family situation helping and chipping into the family income in any possible way she could. It was during one of these such errands that she was initially discovered to possess biotics. Her father was a technician and a retired soldier, so at a tender age of eleven, she began to juggle her time between learning how to protect herself with some basic combat techniques imparted reluctantly from her father while learning key technical skills to aid in her efforts of adding to the family income wherever possible, be it fixing up old tech or juicing up current ones. They couldn't afford to be picky, so she did whatever she could find.

One fateful day, Nadia was minding her own business, busy with a salvaging errand when a group of bullies a couple of years older than her began picking on her like they usually did. She normally stayed well clear of them, but this time they were in her way, and there was to be no avoiding them. They were on her immediately, harassing her incessantly. Not in the mood to entertain such harassment, the young girl unknowingly released a biotic wave that toppled a few bullies as well as breaking several windows in the vicinity, alarming just about anyone in the area. The bullies scattered but word soon spread, and C-Sec soon showed up at their home, surprising both Jana and Desmond about the incident in which they were here to have a word about. While the officers were around, they gave their daughter a stern lecture, informing the officers not worry and that they would discipline their child, but when the officers left, they did no such thing. Once again, her parents didn't know how to react. They were equal parts frightened and shocked, not exactly sure of what to do. Nadia gave them a look of disappointment as she waited for a scolding that never really came. Months later, men in suits from Conatix Industries came and after several meetings managed to convince them that their daughter - with her new-found biotic abilities was dangerous to them and society. The large sum of money they could only dream of that was given to them only helped them to make up their mind to send her to them.

Their intent was to recruit her into the Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training programme that was supported by the Alliance. No one knows exactly how or when she got exposed to element zero, but it was surmised that she must have encountered it unknowingly when going about in her salvaging hunts. At the young age of fourteen, Nadia was sent to Jump Zero and entered 'Brain Camp'. Isolated in a space station in the middle of nowhere, the children bonded well with each other there, with only each other for company. She befriended a guy around her age who went by the name of Rod. They became fast friends and grew close to each other but also knew that lives were fickle things out here. The training in Brain Camp wasn't a holiday camp and it wasn't surprising to hear of serious injuries and deaths that the recruits faced daily in the station. There was once she fractured her arm, and another when she accidentally broke Rod's leg. These were just some of the more minor injuries the teenagers had to deal with regularly. Faced with obstacles and more obstacles, Conatix became frustrated with the lack of development and increased the intensity and frequency of the training programme. When the death and injury toll rose, they finally relented and brought it back to what it was before. If things were bad before, hell came along with Commander Vyrnnus.

The Turian mercenary hired on as an instructor was as merciless as he was cruel. He never failed to express his dislike of humans and revelled in seeing them in agony. His regime often began and ended in water and hunger torture, tantalising and baiting the weaker-willed recruits into falling for his schemes. Nadia did well in the training and her ability and prowess in her biotic abilities bloomed well. Several of the friends she knew, including Rod, snapped under the harsh training, their souls either withering or falling prey to training accidents. It was then that she felt truly alone. Not long after her sixteen birthday in 2169 (yes, she counted-it was the only thing that kept her sane), the BAaT programme was shut down after one of the recruits fought back and killed Vyrnnus. The records were classified and hidden away in the recesses of the Alliance's secret database, and Gagarin Station and BAaT officially no longer existed. When it ended, Nadia didn't choose to go home to her parents. They had abandoned her after all, she had no reason to go back to them. She wandered around, doing whatever odd jobs she could, feeling a sense of deja vu, as she was reminded of her childhood. It was like she was back to square one, only older this time and alone.

Nadia happened to came across an Alliance Navy recruitment drive one day and decided to sign up right there and then. She sought a greater purpose in life and was also tired of living hand-to-mouth and the navy not only provided a stable means to an end as well as a means to travel and exploration, giving her life new meaning. She wanted to explore, to see the world for herself and satiate her curiosity about the universe out there. Coupled with her fierce determination and a never-say-die attitude, she excelled in her service, eventually rising to the ranks as a second lieutenant. During the Skyllian Blitz, the ship she was stationed one the SSV Agincourt was in charge of protecting Elysium from Terminus Systems ships, while she led a platoon of marines to the surface to aid the ground defenders in a costly battle. Although outnumbered, the alliance defenders fought valiantly, and just as reinforcements were on their way to relive the defenders, a sudden grenade explosion knocked her unconscious while trying to protect a fellow comrade under her command, the visor of her combat helmet shattered from the impact of the explosion. The Alliance may have won it easily in orbit, but the battle for the ground had been a costly one.

Nadia eventually recovered from her injuries, but her left eye was left permanently damaged along with a battle scar to tell the tale. She was discharged from the navy with an honourable discharge and lauded a hero, but despite her injuries, her passion for exploration and combat had not waned. When the Andromeda Initiative began its recruitment, she volunteered to join the project, eager to fulfil her desire to travel to the unknown. Nadia was eventually picked for her past achievements in the Alliance Navy, and her pivotal role in the ground defence of Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz showed that she not only knew how to handle herself in combat but was also an individual who demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities with a fighting spirit that never wanes. The fact that she also had decent biotic abilities played a major part in the decision making. These qualities would prove to be highly useful when travelling to the unknown in the unmapped frontiers of space.

Nadia was one of those awoken from Cryosleep when Ark Hyperion encountered the Scourge, crippling many of the vessel's electrical systems powering the cryo chambers. It was utter chaos as those newly awoken struggled to cope with the situation at hand, while the scattered leadership did what they could to restore control. In a bid to set things right, they woke potential individuals with leadership qualities after the loss of many of the Ark's senior leadership. Spots needed to be filled, and so many others remained vacant. Once that was settled, the next pressing issue that came along was the uprising. She chose wisely to aid the Initiative in fighting against the mutineers and cheered alongside them when they were victorious. Based on a combination of loyalty, hard work, passionate self-sacrifice and ruthless determination, she eventually earned the honour of being an APEX member. Just like she'd done in the past, there would be no hesitation on her part when the time comes for her to use her abilities for the good of the Initiative and her APEX comrades.

Personality:

Stubbornness has always been a big part of her life, and Nadia had always been frequently lectured on being mule-headed and not being receptive to changes. Despite most strangers having the impression of her as a cold stoic and a pushover, she is far from it. The lass is actually a real firecracker and incredibly feisty lass that has definitely has no hesitation to make your life incredibly miserable if she wants to. Just because she is usually accommodating to those that she finds herself agreeable with, certainly does not mean that she is any kind of delicate shrinking flower. Nadia can be fierce and loud when she needs to, and quiet and unassuming when she needs to, whenever a situation calls for it. Not one to hide in a corner and hope things go her way, she is assertive and isn’t afraid to make her opinions be known.

What most would be surprised about is that the lass is actually rather crude. Be it letting loose a string of insults and vulgarities to terms and actions of affection, she is equally unfazed. Most would find that she is generally not the sort to break the ice or initiate conversations but warm her up and you’ll find that she’s more like an old engine that needs quite a bit of time to warm up. Once she has, you’ll find that she can be quite the warm and friendly person she may not seem to be so long as you don’t find yourself on the wrong side of her, as when it comes to business, she puts on a professional business-like demeanour that doesn’t mess around, and does whatever it takes to get the job done.

Incredibly strong-willed and intelligent, she is very meticulous in whatever she does, always planning her operations and missions beforehand, including backup and escape plans, not wanting to leave anything to chance. As someone with an intense personality, she can be often emotionally charged, passionate about the set of beliefs and morals that she believes in does not hesitate to stand up for her rights.

Reason for being awoken from Cryo (Specific jobs, skills, and Initiative Application):
Nadia was awakened from Cryosleep after Ark Hyperion lost most of its senior leadership following the entry into the Scourge which affected the vessel's power systems. With many of the leadership spots needing filling, potential leadership candidates were awakened to fill the lower positions so that the more senior ones can be filled up as well. She was ear-marked and categorised as a combat-ready biotic with great leadership qualities. Her technical skills and expertise along with her past achievements and accolades certainly did sweeten the deal. She is proficient and prefers the use of submachine guns and assault rifles for longer distance encounters.

Equipment:

- Initiative Spearpoint Armor Set
- M96 Mattock Assault Rifle
- M25 Hornet Submachine Gun
- L2 Biotic Amplifier

Powers:

• Charge
• Pull
• Nova
• Barrier
• Turbocharge
• Omni Grenade

Font Colour:
F3A348

Appearance:



Background:

The Coetzee family were a traditional white Afrikaans family, hailing from Zimbabwe, at least prior to the 'Wind of Change' and following land reforms under the nascent Zimbabwean government. Like many white families at the time, both Afrikaans and the English speaking 'Rhodesians' they fled to South Africa in the 1980s, fearing violent persecution following the loss of their exaggerated political platform under the colonial regimes.

Gazali's recent ancestors lived through the infamous height of the Apartheid regime. While the Coetzee family had not been particularly wealthy in Zimbabwe, the loss of their homestead and the fear they had experienced in the collapse of White rule in the North left them initially indifferent to the suffering of Black South Africans, for fear that any destabilization of the current system would lead to another Wind of Change situation. While this mentality was never truly lost in regards to the older generation, those of the Coetzee family who remembered little of the Rhodesian land reforms soon turned against the principles of the state and they, along with many South Africans, celebrated the fall of Apartheid in the early 90s, expecting the vibrant rebirth of the Rainbow nation.

While South Africa enjoyed a brief span of genuinely positive, if turbulent leadership, the new mission and zeal of the state was eventually subverted by the rise of the Zuma political dynasty. Jacob Zuma's time in officer was characterized by the introduction of State Capture, where the powers of the state were used to convert political capital into very real land and funds, both for South African politicians, and companies doing business in the region. Throughout the next century, right up to the birth of Gazali, the political power in South Africa would swing back and forth between those who attempted to lead through genuine care for the nation, and those willing to increase the power of a growing political class and their beneficiaries. While the political pendulum would swing, systematic corruption would never be fully rooted out from Southern Africa's most prominent nation.

Despite this drain on the nation's growth and international power and prestige never being fully dealt with, South Africa was still one of the 18 nations to sign the Systems' Alliance charter a year before Gazali's birth, and so he grew up in a nation very much looking towards the stars. As with many middling families in South Africa, the Coetzees had defined themselves through generations of succesful public service and this was no different for Gazali. He was educated in the public school system, but in a district where this was no great hindrance. Despite major headway on racial tensions within the nation, other divides still gripped the population of the Rainbow nation and civil unrest was common enough to factor into the young man's adolescence. Arson attacks became increasingly common, a reprisal of previous violent sprees and on several occasions his family were forced to move due to fire damage to their neighborhood. While never hard off in the economic sense, this certainly helped to develop Gazali's survival instincts, and his desire to triumph over the challenges thrown at him.

Rather than continue to university, Gazali joined the SANDF (South African National Defence Force) at the age of 18, at the time the most direct way to work ones way into the Systems Alliances' variety of program for undisguised South Africans. An affinity for science and technology pushed him towards the Engineering cor, where he flourished for several years, enough so that, along with several classes of foreign officers, he was sent to the Royal Academy of Sandhurst to receive officer training, to receive yet further specific training in the field of humanity's ever developing technology. When he returned to South Africa following the completion of his training, he was expected to immediately take an Officer role in the SANDF. Instead he was contacted by the South African Revenue Service. SARS was one of the few authorities within the South African government which had generally remained free from corruptive elements. While it had often had its powers hobbled by aggressive individuals outside of the Authority, it had always looked to bring down those who had benefited too egregiously from State Capture. The Commissioner of SARS at the time had devised a drastic approach to finally bring about the fall of the corrupt political class in South Africa, bringing an end to both the Zuma 'dynasty' and the process of State Capture.

SARS wished to use the new-tech capabilities of individuals like Gazali to effectively cripple the assets of those under investigation for State Capture, a long list of individuals who could relatively easily expect to ignore such accusations. Those working for SARS would act beyond the remit of the law, working to trace the specific transactions linked to political bribes and payments, while also discover the locations of those acting on the ground to ensure that the State's powers were effectively used to bolster those who had paid the right pockets. Both could be achieved simultaneously with access to the Alliance's technological boom, and the right minds to use it. Thus Gazali became a part of a multi-year shadow war within the South African government, a shadow war that quite often turned hot between the intermediaries of the Zuma regime and SARS. Throughout this hidden conflict, Gazali proved exponentially capable in his role, going above and beyond his peers both on the cyber and real front of the 'war' acts that he felt would never earn him much in the way of real recognition.

While publicly this may have been the case, when the last of the old order was turned out of the South African government on charges of corruption and blackmail, no longer having access to the vast illegal sums of funding that had protected them in the past, South Africa volunteered several individuals for the Interplanetary Combatives Training program. While several were well established members of SANDF and more were members of the Systems Alliance with South African backgrounds, one was a man named Gazali Coetzee, who had only ever held non-commissioned ranks, and seemed to hold no formal references of any great skill. Any doubters as to his experience were quickly proven wrong, as he established himself as one of the forerunners in his class of recruits.

Through all seven stages of the training, Gazali proved himself capable. With little prior experience of off-world combat, he found the earlier courses harder, despite the escalating nature of the ICT. As with all candidates, he found himself sent throughout Alliance space and beyond, even doing several stints in covert operations well into the Terminus Systems. In the alien species and governments he encountered, Gazali found much that reminded him of the corrupt government back home he had fought long to topple, and so was somewhat hesitant in his interactions. Despite this, he found the aliens themselves as easy to work with as his human peers, even if he, initially, would never fail to put human interests first.

The final stage of his training comprised of a long deployment on the edges of Alliance Space, principally for recon purposes, but in reality a counter to reports of Batarian Slavers attacking colonies in the region. As with all N7 level assessments, the deployment tested their ability to function as an elite unit, cut off from support and with limited supplies and equipment. Despite this, Gazali's tech expertise enabled them to make the most of what they had, able to boost the detection capabilities of the alliance colonies and set up a far more effective response network pooling their resources. The only major hitch for Gazali, who had grown used to the fierce fighting which they experienced when required to drive off the slavers, was the order to deny support to those nearby colonies who had left the fold of the Systems Alliance. One particularly aggressive outburst on the matter almost earned the man his first course failure, but was instead written up as a minor disciplinary. Once the tour was complete, Gazali was inducted as a full graduate, colloquially known as N7.

His storied career as a special operative of the Systems Alliance continued into his early thirties, to the point that when the secret collective project that would spawn the Normandy began between the Council races, Gazali's name was considered for a post within the project, and later, aboard the ship. Naturally curious, Gazali turned his comprehensive computing ability towards uncovering the reasons behind this suggestion. What he discovered eventually lead to him leaving the Systems Alliance Military. Well accustom to tracing secretive bribes and favours, Gazali followed an increasingly difficult web of transactions and communication back to the source. A trace linked to his disciplinary on the N7 course had brought him to the attention of the secretive organisation, Cerberus. With its talons deep into the hierarchy and structure of the Alliance, Cerberus was attempting to pull strings to have what they felt was a strongly pro-human voice on the combined projects team, yet one who would still be passable for the rest of the crew.

Gazali 'burned' his files and destroyed his personal equipment upon this discovery, doing his best to prevent the possibility that his actions had been detected, although knowing that this could likely be impossible. He resigned from his position within the Alliance, and for all intents and purposes, disappeared from observable society. During this time he attempted as best he could to keep track of Cerberus' activities, although the secretive monolith had turns its eyes on him, and the web was descending by the time the Andromeda Initiative extended an invitation to him. While he may have been difficult to find for a civilian, Gazali's file, as with all N7 operatives, past and present, were prominently on the desk of Alec Ryder when considering recruits for the Initiative. It was an easy decision for Gazali, despite feats that the program itself would have been infiltrated by Cerberus, he much preferred his chances against the relatively few operatives that could be hidden among the crew of the Arks and Nexus, then a galaxy wide network.

Personality:

Gazali is something of a complex character, openly care-free, if serious when the moment arises, the exterior of a bold and brash South African is as much a ruse to hide a man that has become increasingly paranoid in recent years, having deliberately avoided creating meaningful relationships over 'recent' (centuries ago) years due to his fears of reprisal from Cerberus. Having long dealt in the backstabbing realm of politics and crime, this is a streak that has been building for some time. No amount of wit and bluster can prevent the mind from naturally drifting in that direction.

For the longest time, Gazali has lived and breathed in a world of technology, and the code which underpins it. He can tinker and tap away for hours, whether directly on machinery, or tracing through complex net and computer coding. While he has been on the frontline of combat for almost as many years, his true joy, and where he really excels, is in this theoretical world of technological thinking.

Reason for being awoken from Cryo (Specific jobs, skills, and Initiative Application):

As a previous member of the N7 program, Gazali is in the elite of his field, both in terms of martial ability, and his engineering (both soft and hardware) expertise. While there may have been greater minds to unlock first, in the macro sense, with the first colonies springing up, he is a natural early choice for boots-on-the-ground. He craves setting his mind to challenges, and its is only secretly that his eyes are forever checking back over his shoulder for the oncoming knife.

Equipment:



Powers:

Assault Turret
Energy Drain
Flamethrower
Invasion
Incinerate
Overload

Font Colour: