Name: Scarlet Ewing || "Sunrise"
Age: 26 Standard Earth Years of age; 19 Dorcas-2 rotations.
Appearance: A lock of strongly curled crimson hair runs down the side of a roughly hewn face, chiseled from stone and baked in the sun to a deep tan. Atop her head rests a well worn gambler-style cowboy hat which covers wild hair messily contained in a hasty bun. Its wide brim covers up hazel eyes that have laughter wrinkles nested around them. Thin lips are drawn in an easy-going smile, but it doesn't reach her eyes. Faded scars cross over her lips, giving her visage a bend to the maniacal. Her stature is average for a resident of Dorcas-2, but short for humanity standard height; she rises to the height of 5'1", but is built sturdy. Broad shoulders and somewhat thicker limbs exemplify the strength granted to her by the hard conditions of her homeworld. Her typical attire is rustic, but comfortable; thick trousers, leather boots, homespun fabric shirts, and long duster coats- and she's rarely seen without her hat, which bears the patches of repair that mimic her own bodily scars. If the locale is of the higher scale sort, she will trade the duster coat for more appropriate formal jackets and vests. If given a thorough scrub, a day in the salon, and a bottomless budget at the latest trendy fashion scene, she might fit in with the higher class corporate elites if they needed glasses.
Background: The colony of Dorcas-2 lies in the far reaches of frontier space. It was founded by
Cthonic Industries, officially speaking, via a seed ship launch from Old Earth before it was lost. The vessel, carrying knowledge of Old Earth as well as the frozen genetics of peoples and creatures, was shot from a space catapult and into its long voyage. Untold time passed as its speed carried it dizzyingly through the stars, until at last its automated systems detected the planet designated Dorcas-2, second in orbit around its blazing red sun, and triggered a safe descent.
The world of Dorcas-2 was denser, smaller, but slower rotating and with a larger orbit than Old Earth. Its gravity is approximately 1.3 earth-standard, and the automated
Cthonic Industries vessel succeeded in its landing and initial colonization attempts. The first generation of settlers was reinvigorated, constituted, and educated by the machine intelligence of the ship; from there, humanity was back in its own hands. Believing themselves to be the only survivors of the fall of Old Earth, the original denizens of Dorcas-2 banded together in solidarity- but as populations grew, so too did dissent and conflict. Generations of diaspora and scattering families lead to the planet being inhabited by its own microcosm of frontier towns, limited infrastructure, and disparate peoples. While abundant in raw resources such as precious metals, the planet lacked in abundant water and was primarily considered arid by ecologists. This meant that the most important settlement on its surface was that of the original landing site, where the Cthonic Library was still in tact and the great Seed Ship's material constructors were kept in varying states of operation.
But Sunrise's tale does not begin there. Her tale begins in a far off plain, near to a snowy topped mountain, where a rare river snaked its way and brought grassy rolls to the otherwise dusty plains of the planet. A place where the horses, strong and squat compared to their earth counterparts, ran in herds, and the peoples hunted the mighty predators for their needs. A place where her father was preacher, and she was free. Her upbringing was that of the ranch-girl and farm-hand; she tended to critters, learned to shoot, read the Good Book, and got into a little good trouble where time and circumstance permitted. Her life was, despite the lack of a mother, a good one. She and her father got along well enough, they quarreled through thick and thin but always shared a bond stronger than anything else. There was a boy in town she fancied well enough, and it appeared that the Ewing name would have died with her father when she was wed if it weren't for the rediscovery of the colony by the Cthonic Industries corporation.
She was fifteen, and like many of the denizens of Dorcas-2 she was already strong, stubborn, and instilled with an unshakable pride in her personal liberties. Unlike many of the others, she had a schooled upbringing, a level head, and her father's indomitable spirit guiding her. She stayed out of the conflict directly, only offering what aid the church was able to publicly, as the peoples of Dorcas-2 resisted the claim of 'ownership' by these offworld nightmares. It wasn't until she made a mistake of passion, hiding her lover-boy-turned-rebel in the Church, that her small town suffered from the resistance movement.
The corporate planes brought fire down onto the town. In the blaze that followed, only the Church remained standing. When the corporate soldiery followed the blaze, she witnessed her father's execution as well as her lover's death in a final blaze of glory. She was seventeen when her world changed twice with as many pulls of a trigger. For the next three years, she was a long and sharp thorn in the foot of the Cthonic Industries corporation. Hit and run raids, stampedes of the immense wild predators of Dorcas-2, shootouts in the wilderness, and a saboteur operation against the imposing citadel now erected around the old Seed Ship Library, all highlighted her career and birth as Sunrise, outlaw rebel. On her twenty first birthday she was captured in an ambush. The next day she was shipped offworld, the flag of Cthonic Industries finally quashing the last vestiges of Dorcas-2's wild and free spirit.
The fact she wasn't executed is in itself a miracle. No, she was to join the rest of the Dorcas-2 prisoners as manual labor in the tight-fisted territories of the inner-Cthonic-Systems. She spent a year slaving away in deep mine pits before a fateful dawn brought before her another miraculous chance at life, and she grabbed it with both hands and never let go. The rebel spirit within her resurged with her faith as a catastrophic re-entry by a cargo vessel brought hellfire raining down onto their prison camp, and in the chaos she and several others were capable of overpowering their guards, arming themselves, and securing an escape ship. Thus Sunrise was reborn, and her escape came with a squad of scrappy, hungry, strong men and women to back her up. Their raids started as those of necessity for food, clothes, supplies, but swiftly escalated into full on anti-corporate terrorism.
Over the next four years, Sunrise survived where the original rebel crew did not. Whether through death, disinterest, retirement, or good old fashioned settling down the escapades of Sunrise became calmer, more methodical, considerate, and deliberate as she eventually became a solo operative of her outlaw existence. She began to fight for others rather than herself, a gun for hire who had a reputation laden with both violent successes and shining moments of kindness and selflessness. For every rumor of her itchy trigger fingers, there's another highlighting her willingness to simply do the right thing-- and damn the paycheck in the process. She became picky with her work, striving to fulfill her father's teachings and to make the universe a better place.
When a contact reached out to her about a solid gold paycheck signed by a bigwig CEO's own hand, she nearly turned it down out of principle. Then the details hit her and she couldn't refuse. She'd never had a chance to say goodbye to her father, and Gerald Meyer's circumstances struck a chord with her. She swallowed the bile, and took the job.
She took the job for the girl's sake.
At A Glance: Sunrise is a principled rebel, a ruffian with a heart of gold and a quick trigger finger. She maintains an old fashioned and outdated sense of spirituality in the face of the depressing modern galactic situation for humanity, and wields it as armor for her soul and purpose in her dealings that keeps her light and upbeat in dreary situations and dire straits. She operates by a code of give and take, never owing a debt, and never shooting an unarmed man. Her belief in a higher power, and a place beyond death awaiting her, permits her a bravado and panache that many can ill afford. She strives to do more good than harm, and believes that anyone can be redeemed-- they just have to choose it before she pulls the trigger. The ultimate reward and goal is personal freedom, and the freedoms of others; she is therefor heavily anti-corporate in her disposition and does not tolerate other forms of bullying or despots.
Skills: Ambidexterity, gunslinging, horse breaking, animal handling, wilderness survival, tailoring, feats of strength, liquor-drinking, brawlin', theological debate, advanced agricultural studies, cast-iron stomach.
Sunrise's unique homeworld circumstances on Dorcas-2 make her a physically powerful person despite her reduced stature; the higher gravity of the planet instilling all its inhabitants with impressive strength. She wields this to brawl and batter those too thick headed to listen to reason, but there are many uses for such a physical prowess beyond the mere fisticuffs. She's quick on the draw, and quick with both hands, making her a daring figure when armed with a pair of revolvers. The natural world is an open book to the surprisingly learned woman, and when it comes to the foraging of foodstuffs, the hunting of game, the sussing of clean water, and the navigation of unfamiliar and unbroken wilderness she is a proven trailblazer. When the time comes for settling down, she's just as like to till the earth as she is to establish a church.
Equipment: Sunrise bears many common survival tools such as knives, rope, canteens, flint and tinder, rucksacks, all-weather-gear, hats, dusters, compasses, iodine tablets, etc. While not an exhaustive list, it should be noted that she does carry extensive survival gear for prolonged expeditions in the wilderness.
Her iconic Duster Jacket is actually a rather unique piece of survival kit from Dorcas-2 as well; it is heavily wind resistant, heat retaining, waterproof, and lightweight. Truly an all-terrain functional outerwear.
Of note, she carries a brace of pistols; two heavy revolvers, of the 'big iron' variety, modeled after the ancient Earth variant known as the Colt Single Action Army revolver of the old west; officially they are
D2 Judgement revolvers, designed on her homeworld to defend homesteads and hunt the hardy predators of the planet. Her pistols, called '
Gabriel' and '
Azrael', are capable of operating in truly ludicrous conditions of wet, muck, disgust, and other exotic circumstances due to their remarkably rugged manufacture and ease of maintenance. She can fire them individually with remarkable speed, but her ambidexterity permits her to wield them in each hand where she can still manage a respectable rate of fire despite the single-action style of the guns. Their firepower is potent, but limited by the restrictive ammunition capacity and prohibitive reload times. the
Gabriel and
Azrael are old and worn, their wooden handles notched for her survived operations and the heavy barrels engraved with religious iconography.
Sunrise carries a rifle slung upon her back, but rarely unwraps it from its leather bindings unless anticipating heavy conflict. The gun is of the same style and model as the one that used to be carried by her father. It is a lever action rifle, but surprisingly advanced for Dorcas-2 technological feats despite its archaic mechanisms and appearance. Chiefly, the weapon is rifled for larger rounds than one would anticipate of its design, thusly reducing its capacity and capabilities as a skirmishing firearm but rendering it an armor penetrating nightmare of a long rifle. The weapon is sufficiently heavy and built sufficiently sturdy that it makes a remarkable steel club in addition to the traditional uses of a firearm. Sunrise calls it
The Morningstar.