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[color=dadada][sub][color=BABABA] N I K O L A I  'K O L Y A'  T S O I 
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[color=BABABA]⟁[/color] 29 [color=BABABA]⟁[/color] ♂  [color=BABABA]⟁[/color] Human (Koryo-saram) [color=BABABA]⟁[/color] Vanguard  [/sub][/color][/center]

[color=BABABA][sub]A P P E A R A N C E[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]Nicknamed 'Adonis' by his squad mates back in his Alliance days; Koyla whether he likes it or not cuts a striking composition. Hovering around 183 centimeters and 75 kilograms in height and weight respectively, Koyla is built on a frame of tightly packed muscle, partiality thanks to good genetics and more predominantly through a daily exercise routine primarily focusing on high-intensity bodyweight exercises to accommodate his nomadic lifestyle. The end result is a balanced aesthetic contrast between the sharp, pronounced angles of musculature running throughout the semi-soft paleness of his complexion.

A patchwork collection of scars run across Koyla's body predominantly along both of his forearms. Beyond the scaring, the only other noticeable change to his body is "the list". The list runs from the back of Koyla's collarbone and down to roughly the small of his back.  A long list of names and serial numbers. Each one of those names was one of Koyla's squadmates that he lost in the Blitz.

Koyla lives in his armor uncomfortable whenever he is in non-combat attire. But, during those times that it's not appropriate to look like your about to wrestle a Varren, Koyla favors casual attire. For most occasions, this will mean throwing on a pair of athletic shorts and a sweatshirt. The closest thing Koyla has resembling formal wear being his old dress blues.
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[color=BABABA][sub]B A C K G R O U N D[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]Nikolai Tsoi was born in 2150 C.E in the Earth city of Moscow. Kolya never knew his father and his mother Katya died when he only five years old after a drunk driver hit her. With no father or mother, the duty to take care of Kolya ended up falling to his grandparents Nellie and Vitaly. The pair were both academics: Nellie a mathematician and Vitaly a professor of literature. The three of them lived together in a small apartment. As a young child, Kolya was always fascinated with puzzles and electronics. His grandparents were able to take this natural curiosity and fine-tune it towards academic rigor. 

Kolya excelled in his formal education. He was an excllent student in both mathematics and the sciences, but surprisingly also showed interest in art. He particulary loved holographic art spending hours tinkering to creating his own crude 3-D figures. 

Kolya's life would change in 2160 at the age of 10 when the Alliance reached out to his grandparents. Kolya had tested positive during a random biotic potency screening at school. Katya before her death was a chemical engineer working with Roscosmos. Leading up to Kolya's birth she was studying Element Zero and her minimal exposure was enough to effect the unborn Kolya.  Whatever the case was the tests came back positive. Soon enough Kolya was shipped off to Jump Zero.

Kolya threw himself at the challenge that BAaT presented him. Much to his dismay though tapping into his latent biotic potential was not exactly an easy task. It was a delicate balancing act of sorts, you don't push yourself hard enough and you get stuck. On the flip-side, if you pushed yourself [i]too[/i] hard, you end up ripping your own arm off from the biotic feedback. Failure continued to assault him and it wasn't like could  drop the task and try something new. The taskmasters at BAaT  made it clear that nothing except for progress was to be tolerated. Conatix was feeling the pressure of an Alliance boot on their back expecting results and expecting them soon. This strict and high-intensity environment was essential in developing Kolya into the person that he is today. The BAaT program becoming a sort of extended lesson on the merits of persistence.  

Life on Jump Zero was an isolated experience. This loneliness forced the children of BAaT to rely on one another. In this environment, Kolya would end up forging some of his strongest and longest lasting friendships. The shared struggle that the children experienced unifying them together. It was during this time that Kolya also met Kris. 

Kris was born in London into a politically influential family and military service wasn't something that was on the menu for them. But unfortunately, Kris' family bought into the growing anti-biotic fear that was building on Earth. So when the Alliance came to take their child away, Kris' parents didn't think twice of the notion effectively disowning them. Kolya and Kris ended up becoming fast friends. The pair shared a passion for holo-art, and the two worked on art projects together in their limited free time. In times feelings began to develop between the two and the pair became romantically involved after Kolya's 16th birthday in 2166 C.E.

It was around this time that life on Jump Zero began to change. Conatix feeling the pressure of the Alliance needed results. So the company reached out to a group of Turian mercenaries lead by the strict Commander Vyrnnus. This of course was kept a secret to the Alliance public because of  anti-turian sentiments. Vyrnnus and his team pushed the children at BAaT hard. He was especially hard on Kris finding their biotic capabilities lacking.

It was Vyrnnus' constant hounding that drove Kris a year later in 2167, to voluntee for one of the new L2 implants. Kolya unwilling to let Kris do this alone also signed up but with more hesitation. Kolya ended up responding well to the implants, his biotic skill increasing drastically. Kris' body rejected the implants, and the resultant fallout lead to neurological damage. To even be able to function , Kris had to consume a cocktail of medication provided by the medical staff. A fact which would have been fine if not for the complete shutdown of the BAaT program two years later. Vyrnnus being killed by another initiate in the program, after a particularly harsh day of training. The resulting fallout with the Hierarchy leading to the collapse of the program.

The children that made up the program, now young adults, were dropped into the void without a safety net. The hardest affected were the likes of Kris, who was unable to afford the medication that kept them alive. With no other options at his disposal, Kolya leaped into the welcoming arms of the Alliance, who in the fallout of the BAaT program were quickly swept up as many biotics as they could to join the military. The enlistment incentives alone would be enough to pay for Kris' medication for a year. And so in 2170 at the age of twenty, Kolya became an Alliance marine.

Early into his military career, the L-3 biotic implant was developed. It seemed almost like a miracle for Kolya and Kris. In a similar manner to when the L-2's were developed, Kris eagerly signed up for the replacement treatment. The doctors warned them that the procedure was dangerous and potentially fatal. Kris was initially hesitant, but Kolya encouraged them to take the risk. Kolya would regret their decision for the rest of his life. Kris died on the operating table after experiencing severe neurological failure. The last contact Kolya had with them was on an extranet video call right before the surgery. Kris was still nervous and Kolya promised that everything was going to be fine. 

After that Kolya threw himself completely into his work. A predominant amount of it was spent hunting down pirates, the Alliance's primary concern after the attacks on Mindoir. Kolya didn't like to admit it but Vyrnnus' methods were effective as the Young biotic took to military life extremely easy. Over the next six years, Kolya ended up working his way slowly up through the ranks as an NCO eventually settling into the rank of gunnery sergeant by the time of 2176 CE. During this time, Kolya developed a reputation as a kind but stern CO, carefully balancing the line between prioritizing what was best for those working under him and keeping the top brass happy. This coordinated tightrope act prompted him to be offered on more than one condition, positions further up the food change and out of the "grunt work". He turned them down finding the "grunt work" a more challenging and interesting job then pencil pushing and cuddling up with politicians to get more military funding.

Shortly after his promotion to Gunnery Sergeant, the Blitz occurred. Kolya's team wasn't even supposed to be on  Elysium when it happened. They were forced to make a detour there when their ship's communication array got damaged. Nevertheless, Kolya jumped into action leading one of the many ground teams that fought on the planet that day. The soldiers under Kolya saw heavy fighting that day and the majority of them died in the resulting onslaught. Despite this, Kolya's position held along with many of the other ground teams present on the planet and the Blitz ended in an Alliance victory. 

That victory felt hollow for Kolya. Medals felt awfully empty after he just finished up watching his buddies get gunned down. He requested to be discharged soon after and the request was granted due to his "years  earnestly spent protecting the citizens of the Systems Alliance." 

It wasn't long after that he found himself of a freighter heading for Omega. There he quickly fell in with Quirina, a turian gun runner. Quirian grew up on Omega but she always had a dream of opening up a shop in the Wards on the Citadel, and the gun runner was a way to get the credits needed to fund such a dream. The pair started out romantically involved but it didn't take long that they worked out better as friends and business partners. And for most of 2177 CE, Kolya found himself working as Quirian's bodyguard and enforcer. The pair worked quite well together and within a year's time, they managed to rack up a hefty sum of credits. Kolya buying the retrofitted patrol-craft that she ran her operation out of, a ship that would later be rechristened the [i]Achilles[/i], off of Quirian was finally enough for her to be able to buy her merchants license and go legitimate. They parted on friendly terms with Kolya personally flying her out to the Citadel.

A year later in 2178, the raids on Torfan and Theshaca occurred scattering[ pirates and wanted criminals across the Terminus system running from the Alliance's retribution. Kolya was one of many that took this opportunity to start again chasing after these bounties. In the year since Kolya has made a name for himself as an efficient and reputable bounty hunter. Nevertheless, the [i]Achilles[/i] is still a small name in a big pound without much name-brand recognition beyond Omega. A recent string of bad luck potentially even ruining that for Kolya. 

Everything is on the line with this next mission. To even get it off the ground he needed to put nearly every asset he owned on the line including the [i]Achilles[/i]. And even that wasn't enough to cover all the expenses. The loan sharks would devour him in a feeding frenzy if it all went to shit. Yet despite all Kolya somehow manages to remain cautiously optimistic at the whole endeavor. After all, he's been through worse and came out swinging.
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[COLOR=BABABA][sub]S K I L L S[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]Kolya is a trained and experienced Alliance marine having all the skills that such a position demands. He has been certified to at least passable levels of marksmanship with about every kind of gun there is, though he has a soft spot in particular for shotguns and pistols preferring to be up close where you can make sure your targets are down. While never formally trained in battlefield tactics beyond the basics at BAaT, years of "boots on the ground" work has given him a general understanding. Don't expect him to pass a pop quiz on military history or anything, but he can spot a good place for an ambush and knows the benefits of having more guns than the other guy. Beyond combat skills, he's competent enough in field medicine through his knowledge beyond human and turian biology is hazy at best. And he has some repair skills underneath his belt mostly developed through having to patch up the [i]Achilles[/i] on the fly. His patch jobs typically ain't pretty and will probably need to be touched up in a few weeks afterward, but they get the job done.

The captain is also a skilled vanguard. The BAaT program had a reputation of either breaking you or building you into something better, luckily for Kolya, he fell into the latter category. He has a high capacity of control over his biotic abilities far beyond a vast majority of human biotic. This power though comes with a heavy cost via the L-2 implant that allows him to channel his abilities. Like all "successful" L-2s, the implant is slowly killing Kolya, the implant slowly eating away at his neurological capabilities. Refusing to be retrofitted with an L-3 after what happened to Kris, Kolya tries his best to combat the symptoms with medication but that's all he can do. 

Lastly, the one thing Kolya has is connections and the willingness to use them. He has friends in a lot of places across the galaxy and sometimes that gets him through doors. Though a lot of those connections are pretty isolated to two major spheres of activity: the military and by extension the wonderful world of private security that most end up in after they retire and smuggling connections that he can still pull on through his time with Quirian. Don't expect him to be able to talk his way into a private ball of the galaxy's rich and famous, but don't be surprised if he's able to get that lonely soldier at the bar talking about information that might just be classified. 
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[color=BABABA][sub]E Q U I P M E N T[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]Hahne-Kedar Storm Shotgun[indent][indent][sub]The same make and model that he used in his military days because old habits die hard apparently. Shotguns always fit Kolya's "rushing down the enemy" type combat style more than anything else. That and he appreciated the mind-games that came with carrying around such heavy equipment. A shotgun even in the hands of a complete idiot is a very intimidating piece of equipment that can punch a baseball-sized hole in your chest. All you had to do was lean into that intimidation factor sometimes.[/sub][/indent][/indent]

Hahne-Kedar Kessler Pistol
[indent][indent][sub]When more subtly is required then the Storm can handle, Kolya relies on his Kessler. The Kessler like most H-K models isn't the flashiest of guns, but it's sturdy, reliable, and can be used as a practically effective bludgeon in particularly frantic scenarios. While Kolya leaves the Storm aboard the [i]Achilles[/i] when he is not on a mission, he brings the Kessler with him practically everywhere even when he goes shopping for groceries, it never hurts to be prepared after all.[/sub][/indent][/indent]

Elanus Risk Control Services Duelist Armor 
[indent][indent][sub]ERCS markets reliable armor and weapons at an affordable cost. Some humans still refuse to use ERCS armor because it is made by the "enemy" turians even though the First Contact War was nearly two decades ago, but Kolya has no such problems. He bought the armor because it was the highest quality kit that he could afford on his relatively meager budget. These days its seen its own share of wear and abuse, some scorch marks here, and a dent over there, but it still works and that's all that matters. [/sub][/indent][/indent]
 
Aldrin Labs Bluewire Omni-Tool
[indent][indent][sub]Kolya really isn't as much as a tech-head anymore as he was when he was growing up. As a result, he didn't shell out a massive amount of credits on a high-grade Omni-tool. The Bluewire suits his needs just fine using it primarily to run ship diagnostics and simple repairs. The most high-intensity activity he performs with the omni-tool being his occasional misadventures back into holographic art and even those don't really push his simple model to its fullest capacity.[/sub][/indent][/indent]

Serrice Council Savant Bio-Amplifier
[indent][indent][sub]Probably the most expensive thing Kolya owns beyond the [i]Achilles[/i]. One of his first missions after his time with Quirian was working with a representative from the Serrice Council. Kolya was to track down the leader of a raid on one of their shipments. The whole thing ended up becoming a lot messier once it became apparent that what was originally a pirate raid was actually a nasty case of industrial espionage. At the end of day and for a job while done, Serrice Council offered him the choice between a hefty paycheck and one of their amplifier's, Kolya took the later and has never regretted it since.[/sub][/indent][/indent]

A Vast Collection of Succulents
[indent][indent][sub]The small plants dot the [i]Achilles[/i] in a series of increasingly bizarre and strange places. An aesthetic choice from the Ship's former owner, Quirian was in love with the strange earth fauna and whenever she could find them, she would buy them and find them a place on the Achilles. Kolya doesn't have the heart to remove them so they remain dotted across the ship. And part of his daily ritual is to make sure each of them is doing okay and giving them water just as Quirian had done before him.  [/sub][/indent][/indent]
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[color=BABABA][sub]A B I L I T I E S [/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]
[list]
[*]Charge
[*]Pull
[*]Lift
[*]Barrier
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[color=BABABA][sub][h3]PSYCH PROFILE[/h3][/sub][/color]

[color=BABABA][sub]T R A I T S [/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada][i]Positive Traits[/i][list][*]Disciplined 
[*]Confident
[*]Steadfast[/list]
[i]Negative Traits[/i]
[list]
[*]Boisterous
[*]Dissolute
[*]Pugnacious
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[color=BABABA][sub]V I C E S[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]Dice Games: 
[indent][indent][sub]Marines often find themselves in search of "productive" ways to spend their time. And when boredom calls it seems that nature's response is for wagers to be called. The squad that Kolya was originally placed in following his signing up were very big into dice games with everything from Liar's dice and Backgammon to Balut being played. Kolya still keeps the tradition going all these years later, always dropping in on a game when he has the time. A successful night usually ending with somebody accusing him of cheating, the two getting into a fight which also has the productive effect of allowing him to blow off some steam as well.[/sub][/indent][/indent]
Museums and Galleries:
[indent][indent][sub]On the opposite side of the spectrum, Kolya has a thing for galleries and museums. Any place where he can admire artwork in the Terminus System and beyond and he's probably been there or it's on his list. The first thing that he and Kris did when BAaT collapsed was to take a trip to a museum as it was their mutual love of art that had pulled them together in the first place. And whenever Kolya was around or visiting, the pair would make it their mission to at least visit one such place together. If Kolya gambles to feel the rush, to feel good about himself, then Kolya goes to look at art whenever he wants to beat himself up a bit. Letting that gut-wrenching mixture of nostalgia and guilt wash over him until he can't feel anything else. It's therapeutic in a sort of masochistic kind of way.     [/sub][/indent][/indent]
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[color=BABABA][sub]H A U N T[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]The "War" Room
[indent][indent][sub]The [i]Achilles[/i] is too small of a ship to have its own captain's quarters. Instead, Kolya chooses to camp out in the section of the ship that he lovingly refers to as the war room. Whenever Kolya is on board, if he is to be found anywhere, it's here going over plans for the next mission, checking the ship's status, just answering emails, or tinkering with his holograms again. It takes up the majority of what was once the dining area portion of the ship's kitchen. He ripped up the table and jury-rigged his own holographic display. This can be used to display images and other important tidbits of data during briefings, and when not in use displays a slowly rotating image of the Milky Way with a little red-dot highlighting the current location of the [i]Achilles[/i]. Beyond the holographic display, the space also has one other special "Kolya" feature and that is it serves as the central nervous system of the ship's stereo system. A definite fire hazard, wires run like a canopy of vines running across the ceiling of the Achilles connecting a vast array of speakers built into the Achilles. While each room has its own individual control panel that can change their room audio, lower or raise the volume, etc, the War Room has the master control. 
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[color=BABABA][sub]D R I V E[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]To quote the ending of the best New Vegas DLC (Don't @ me), [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWu-32hR4GY]It's letting go[/url]. Kolya is very much a man trapped by his past. He isn't as finically motived as most that enter his line of work. He does it because he has it in his head that if he's able to bring these people to justice, then somehow this will absolve him of his unforgivable "sin" of staying alive when all his comrades did not. And deeper than that there is also guilt about Kris still to this day. Kris was always the one that was trying to become the best biotic they could be, but they couldn't and the universe punished them for that. If Kolya did anything that didn't use his biotic abilities as intensely as his current line of work, he would feel a kind of guilt there. Like he was misusing the "gifts" that had been granted to him, even if the harder he pushes those gifts the quicker they, in turn, continue to destroy him. The simple truth of the matter is that Kolya can't let go of the past, because if he does it's gonna eat him alive.   [/color][/indent]
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