Name: Astrid Weiss

Callsign: Cataract

Age: 29

Gender: Female

Species: Human


Born: 13/01/CE 2054 - 29, Norden, Midgard

Personality: A cocky fighter pilot embittered by Midgard’s defeat in the eponymous war and the subsequent loss of her nation’s independence, Astrid nevertheless remains a stout - and loud - patriot. Shaped by the fighter pilot culture, she sees her fellow pilots as a caste above others in the spirit of the usual interservice rivalry, something that usually shines through when she runs out of patience with someone. That being said, she is aware that ground forces are and always will be the be-all end-all of armed conflict, though she’d rather chew off her other arm than admit this within a grunt’s earshot.

As with many of the ex Midgard Aerospace Corps pilots who joined the Resistance, she is more motivated by hitting the Empire rather than fighting for the Resistance itself, seeing it as a convenient means to their liberation. With some experience as a wing leader fighting an enemy that outnumbers her, she’d grown used to the necessity to fight smart and conserve resources, leading to her being protective of inexperienced pilots.

Bio: Born to an Aerospace Corps officer and a historian, there was little doubt of where Astrid’s path would lead. Names of superheroes and fairy tale characters meant nothing to her. Her childhood heroes were the likes of Yi Sun-sin and Franz Stigler. It was a parable based on the latter’s tale (and her father’s stylish uniform) that first paved the way to museums and airshows since 4, a nearby general aviation field for ultralight pilot’s license at 15, a private pilot’s license at 17 and finally enlisting and making the cut to the Aerospace Corps Academy at 18.

By any metric, she was an average student in the classroom, but she led the class whenever she was in the flight seat. The number of times she’s been shouted up for running her mouth and other small transgressions was likewise impressive. Her scores were enough to keep that from being a significant problem, and in CE 2073, she graduated into active service. But peacetime was boring to the newly-minted Leutnant, so she took every extra course she could. Fighter Weapons School? Why not? Transorbital flight? Of course. Advanced weapons qualification? Hell yes! And then the big chance came. With the appearance of not-quite aliens making laughable demands and being serious about them, the Aerospace Corps increased the production of their newest multirole fighter and thus opened up more positions for pilots. Rather than putting new pilots into these cutting-edge fighters, experienced pilots could apply for a transfer. Astrid was an experienced pilot, and most definitely interested. Not only did she upgrade to a better fighter, but with her recent promotion to Hauptmann, she was assigned to the position of a flight leader. A month after the ‘Second Contact’, her transition was complete with a few months of peace time left to gain experience on this particular type and synergize with her new wingmates.

And that experience would come in handy, as in CE 2082, her wing was chosen to be among those taking part in the initial strike against Imperial targets in the Yggdrasil system. The target of Astrid’s flight was Alan Shepard, a carrier serving as the flagship of Imperial forces in the system. Flying Gungnir-class multirole fighters, the pride of Midgard fighter corps, Astrid was among the pilots responsible for the fighter doctrine used in what would become known as the Midgard War - approach fast and fight at close range where the Empire’s superior sensors and long-range weapons were of little use. Due to her less-than-stellar aim, she took this to the extreme, earning the callsign “Katarakt” as well as several early returns due to damage from debris falling off of her prey.

But all good things must come to an end, and in early CE 2083 she, too, found herself on the receiving end of no small amount of explosive ordnance. It wasn’t even a hostile fighter that brought her down, much to her chagrin. Instead, she got her wings clipped by some trench monkey with a tube on his shoulder. The gall. Injured by shrapnel, down one engine and losing systems left and right, Astrid realized she wouldn’t make it back to base. In its death throes, her fighter stayed aloft long enough to reach a city big enough to have a decent hospital and get her down safely. The landing was rough, more of a controlled crash, and earned Astrid some extra scars on both flesh and pride. Coming down on a beach next to a city proved prudent, as it got her medical care quickly, but that same city fell to Imperial troops mere hours later. The war outlasted her involvement by only four days.

Following the war’s end, the Midgard military had been disbanded and its former members forbidden from serving in the Empire’s armed forces. Discharged and thoroughly mad, she sought out ways to keep her in a flight seat, turning to the Resistance along with many others.

Fighter: Mithria Arsenal AS-96 Wildcat

Fighter Customization:

• Her name, callsign and a cloudy green eye painted on the left side of the canopy.
• Emblems of the Midgard Aerospace Corps 11th Fighter Squadron next to Resistance roundels.
• Matte black low-vis paint.
• Often writes insults on her missiles.

Name: Aeorin Rothsleigh
Nickname: 'Monarch', Onyx 3
Age: 27
Sex/Gender: Male
Species: Human

Appearance:

Physically, Aeorin is a fairly typical human. His physique is well-built without excessive bulk as a result of his training, enough to contend decently well with other humans and near-humans in physical confrontation. He has a small number of scars, including a prominent laceration just below his hairline on the left side of his head that he typically keeps hidden with his hair. He also has a few tattoos, including a Squadron tattoo from his old unit before his defection from the Empire.

Off-duty, he typically wears casual but practical clothes like jeans or cargos, normally with a thermal undershirt and a red-brown leather jacket. He also wears the typical gear for active-duty combatants, but with the addition of an Imperial-style Vibro-Sabre, more as a symbol than for practical reasons.
Height: 5'11"/180cm

Personal Qualities: Diligent and Affable, but somewhat reserved. Aeorin is a typically likeable person, but he finds it difficult to form close bonds with others and tends to keep them at a distance.
Biography: Aeorin was born into a life of wealth and privilege as the second son of a prominent political dynasty in the Hegara System, but the action and excitement of being a pilot had called to him for as long as he could remember. He was still young when the Imperial Coup and subsequent rise of the Empire occurred, his own family having a non-negligible role to play in those event, and he was soon groomed for loyalty to the new regime.

Unable to shake his fascination with space-flight and the military, he became a career pilot as early as he could; private piloting lessons, then enrollment in the fledgling Imperial Cadet Corps before enlisting formally with the Imperial Military. He took easily to his duties, earning himself many small accolades and making himself as a name to remember while serving with honour and pride until the illusion was broken and he was the true face of the Empire; A small local dispute has spiraled from protests to rioting, and then into an localized uprising. His squadron was called in to clean up, but when he was ordered to level the civilian settlements, he began to doubt his orders. His commanding officer assured him that they were insurgent-held targets, but he later found out that his CO had lied and his squadron had been called in to slaughter innocent people just because there might have been Insurgents hiding there.

He tried to convince himself that it had been a mistake, but he began to notice behind the propaganda and lost faith in the Empire he had been raised to champion. He tried to convince his squadron, but he was threatened with Insubordination charges. Given his family's influence in the Empire he likely would avoid any serious punishments, but he didn't care about that... His mind was made up and he knew what the Empire was doing was wrong, so he planned to defect to the resistance. He found his chance during a combat patrol near Resistance territory, damaging his squadmates' ships before making a series of blind FTL Jumps into known Resistance systems and broadcasting a coded signal declaring his intent to defect. He was picked up by Resistance Fighters, interrogated and detained for a while, until the ones in command decided that they could give him a chance to prove he could be trusted. He was rotated between fighter squadrons before eventually ending up in Onyx.

Fighter: Archenar Systems AS-88 Rapier
Fighter Customisations: Low-vis Slate Grey/Carbon Black Paintjob, ID and Callsign printed just below the Canopy, Personal Emblem resembling shattered glass in the shape of a butterfly painted just behind the canopy.

Name: Silvester Way

Nickname: Hatchet

Age: 36

Sex/Gender: Male

Species: Human

Appearance:

Silvester is fit and physically strong, with a muscular build gained from years of military duty, physical labor and training. When not on duty, he wears simple and sturdy clothing, much of which he took with him when he left his homeworld.

Height: 6’2”

Personal Qualities: In a few words, Silvester is level-headed, loyal and diligent. He is driven by his love for his family and his desire to see a galaxy without the Empire. Silvester does his job diligently, without complaining (except if he morally disagrees with something), and is almost completely focused on doing his job while on duty. Because of this, however, Silvester might come off as cold and distant, though this is not because he actively dislikes others.

Biography: Silvester spent the majority of his life on the world of Ienov, a sparsely populated frontier world on the fringes of Commonwealth, and later Imperial space. Far away from the major centers of civilization, Ienov had a lot of autonomy, but was also responsible for organizing its own defence. After finishing his education, Silvester enrolled for military service in the local planetary militia, showing remarkable aptitude for piloting the various starfighters that made up the militia’s anti-piracy forces. It was also during these years of service where he would meet his future wife, whom he married after his service was complete.

After he left the planetary militia, Silvester became a carpenter, something necessary on Ienov due to a lack of access to many high-end materials and products. He and his wife settled in and tried their best to live normal lives and be good Imperial citizens, even when the world around them changed. As Imperial influence grew on Ienov, it became clear how autocratic and xenophobic the Hegaran Empire truly was, but Silvester looked away, pretending not to notice. That all changed when he became a father. After his son was born, Silvester’s worldview changed dramatically, and he decided that a world with the Empire was not one he wanted his child to grow up in. His wife agreed, and together they managed to gain passage to one of the Free Systems, beyond the Empire’s control. There, Silvester decided to join the Resistance, using his skills as a pilot to protect his family. After fighting for the Resistance for a few years, Silvester was tranferred to Onyx Squadron.

Fighter: Archenar Systems AS-91 Thunderbolt

Fighter Customisations: Countershaded disruptive camouflage patterns in different shades of gray: lighter at the bottom and darker at the top. No other markings.

Name: Hazel Tamirnyev
Nickname: Tusk
Age: 34
Sex/Gender: Female
Species: Human (Full-body Prosthetic)
Height: 5’6/167 cm
Appearance:
Industrial and without frills, Hazel's chassis stands at 5'6, and is painted a utilitarian orange-yellow.

Her usual outfits consist of a neutral-toned jumpsuit, heavy gloves, and a jacket, with a Pramanik Orbital patch on one shoulder, and a rebellion patch on the other. A third patch, depicting the elephant-headed Ganesha, stretches from one shoulder to the other across the jacket’s back. Hazel is rarely seen without her engagement ring strung on a chain around her neck, although usually tucked into her jumpsuit to avoid snags.


Personal Qualities:
Spacers, particularly those raised on the frontier or in deep space, often come off as strange to the average planet-born person, and Hazel is no exception. Energetic, and rather impish, she gained a new lease on life that she plans to make the most of. She often emotes with her hands, or signs along in pidgin while speaking, and is prone to taking risks due to her time in simulators, as well as a deep-seated desire to prove herself.

Despite being physically accustomed to it, she feels self-conscious in her robotic body, and is prone to lashing out at those who mistake her for a common model workerbot. In the cockpit of her ship, all of her insecurity and anxiety melts away. She is solely focused on the task at hand, and her ship becomes an extension of herself. She is knowledgeable about the weak points of common ships due to her time as a shipbreaker. Moving in zero-g and EVA is second nature to her, and—like many a spacer—she feels strong (and a bit outlandish) affection towards her craft.

Biography:
Born on Pramanik Orbital to an FTL drive engineer and a linguist, the first few years of Hazel’s life were uneventful. The majority of her adolescence was spent wandering the station’s industrial tunnels and shipyards with her peers, stirring trouble wherever they went. Upon finishing her primary education, she went to work as a shipbreaker on the station. There she worked for several years, meeting her fiancee in the process. It wasn't until she was in her early-twenties when disaster struck; after several years of fatigue and strange symptoms, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that was slowly destroying her nervous system, and would ultimately leave her paralyzed. There was no cure, only prolonging the indefinite.

Devastated, Hazel decided to keep working until it was no longer possible, in hopes some sort of treatment would emerge before she was fully paralyzed. The cure never came, and she was forced to quit her job a few years later once she was no longer able to move swiftly enough to continue. Spiraling into a depression, and relying on her fiancee now, she began shutting herself in more and more often, retreating into older flight sims, and strategy games that she used to enjoy as a teenager. Tensions were growing between the pair, and when Hazel was offered an experimental treatment as a last ditch effort to save her brain, she accepted it.

The treatment, offered by medical corporation Biolink Dynamics, was unusual; her brain was to be transplanted into a robotic chassis, reliant on an integrated life support system and electricity. It was successful, and Hazel found herself in a new body. A new chance of life.

Becoming acquainted with the new body was a long process, she had to relearn simple tasks, as well as navigate a life where those whom she interacted with assumed she was a synthetic lifeform. Her relationship with her fiance became even further strained as well. She ultimately decided to pursue pilotry as a new career, inspired by the flight simulators and strategy games she played while ill, and coming to a mutual agreement with her fiancee to spend some time apart while they both adjusted to the new body. Initially, she served hauling cargo, but her eye was always set on grander goals. As the resistance movement became more desperate, she was able to join a ragtag crew of fighter pilots, and quickly gained experience, rising through the ranks. She was offered a position on the Onyx Squadron after several years, a position she eagerly accepted. Hazel eagerly fights for her own rights, as well as for the freedom of Pramanik Orbital.


Fighter: AS-91 Thunderbolt
Fighter Customisations:
Hazel’s Thunderbolt—affectionately nicknamed ‘Grozit’ <грозить>—is a venerable elder, even among its own kind. Used in some of Free System Alliance's first skirmishes, the ship has been passed from hand to hand countless times, and has been retrofitted as a true heavy hitter along the way:

• Retrofitted Reactor: Grozit has been retrofitted with a more modern reactor in order to sustain energy needed to fire her railgun. The higher power comes at the cost of a larger heat signature on radar, but who was missing her anyway?
• Retrofitted Railgun: Grozit’s high-intensity laser cannon has been replaced with a formidable, heavy 40mm railgun, similar to that of the more modern Excalibur.
• Reduced Life Support: To reduce the powerload, Grozit usually runs with her life support systems reduced to absolute minimum. Hazel uses an external oxygen tank to sustain herself while flying, and the lack of atmosphere within the ship reduces the likelihood of injury in the case of explosive decompression.
• Livery: Grozit is painted in her original, grey-blue low-vis camouflage, with an older version of the Free System Alliance’s emblem on its back fins. A newer addition, the Wandering Star’s distinctive emblem, is painted under the cockpit, alongside Hazel’s callsign.

Misc:
Theme Music - Hardspace Shipbreaker