Name: Boston Dyer
Callsign/Nickname: Queen
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Appearance:

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Nationality: American
Personality:History:

Name: Jane Dyer née Wojtkiewicz
Callsign/Nickname: Woj
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Appearance:

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Nationality: American
Personality:History:

Personal Gear:Personal Aircraft: General Dynamics F-111 “Freight Train”
Aircraft Modifications:

Theo Wiseman
Callsign/Nickname: Guru
Age: 55
Appearance:
Slim and athletic. Theo is 5'7" in height. He has calm, blue eyes that sparkle with his intelligence and humour. His face shows age with crow's feet and laughter lines, and he mostly has a calm, approachable smile on his face... but when that disappears is when you know things are serious. He is always very well-dressed and presented, even managing to make a flight suit look smart.


Summary:
Theo is the Wing Commander for the Tactical Air Wing of Shattered Steel. This makes him Scott's immediate commanding officer. Very experienced and highly skilled, he has a somewhat fatherly, encouraging, warm demeanour at most times and has a wily, clever, sharp mind.
He is English, and formerly flew with the British Royal Navy. He lost his wife during the Heavenfall, and has a son and daughter still in England, working in the civilian world.
He still keeps his flying current and his skills sharp, often surprising other pilots in training exercises by appearing as an adversary pilot, flying his heavily modified and upgraded Sea Vixen.

Lars Nielssen
Callsign/Nickname: Snowman
Age: 34
Appearance:
6'00" tall, rugged and barrel-chested with lanky limbs. He always has a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes, only seeming to dim or droop at the corners when he is stressed.



Summary:
Lars serves as the pilot of the C-130J Hercules multi-role transport plane that supports the Cobalt Haze squadron. Working closely with Lilah, the pair are an inseprable double-act and bounce off of one another in good humour and their personalities in general. He rarely talks about his home in Norway or his family life, but has mentioned a sister from time-to-time and a childhood growing up on a farm.

Lilah Nkosi
Callsign/Nickname: Lily
Age: 27
Appearance:
5'5" and with a fairly athletic build. Lilah moves with an easy, cocky confidence. Her flight suit and uniform are always accentuated by colourful jewelery or bands to keep her full head of hair in check.



Summary:
Lilah was born in South Africa, but her family emigrated to England when she was young. She was lucky to have grown up without Apartheid and after it ended, but inner city London and the East End was still a place of hard lesson and urban realities.
As such, she grew up knowing how to look after herself, and with a lot of first-hand knowledge and experience of often dangerous and grim realities living on the edges of poverty.
She joined the RAF after graduating from college as a way out of a life of gangs, violence and crime, prompted by the death of her brother in a petty argument between gangs.
Always fascinated by machines, aircraft even more enthralled her and the clean break and new life energised her. She eventually managed to get a role as a transport pilot as she meshed and melded with her new role and life more than she could have imagined.
After the Heavenfall, the RAF had worked with the various PMCs as part of their obligations to their role in the N/UN. She met Lars during this time and the two fell into an easy friendship. After several escapades not long after their first meeting, he coaxed and tempted her into joining the Shattered Steel PMC, serving as his co-pilot for the C-130J.

Miles Saint Claire
Callsign/Nickname: Traveller
Age: 28
Appearance:
Miles is 5'6", and has a runner's or swimmer's build. He has a disarming, charming smile and moves with a fluid grace. He is quite easy-going, and tends to take people as they come, but is very professional when working. He has a strong belief in the justice and rights of other people, and will stand up for them whenever he feels they are challenged or threatened.



Summary:
Miles grew up in France, and served with the Gendarmerie as a helicopter pilot in their air support wing. He became infamous for his daring and confident flying. However, he was forced to leave after an incident where he struck a commanding officer, after finding out about their abuse of someone under their command.
Still wanting to fly, he joined Shattered Steel and resumed his duties as a helicopter pilot, expanding more into military roles, flying a Eurocopter Panther with Brigitte as his co-pilot.

Brigitte Billet
Callsign/Nickname: Showgirl
Age: 28
Appearance:
Brigitte is a transwoman; though only with a keen eye would one be able to tell. She often has a smile on her face, albeit a somewhat nervous one, though get her to open up, and she'll be the life of a party and light up a room with her laughter.
She dresses in fairly androgynous clothes, often things that hide her figure or soften it somewhat - well, when not in her uniform. Nonetheless, she has a lot of colour to her, and wears a lot of jewelry and accessories with her outfits.



Summary:
Brigitte's life was originally set to be very different. She - then he - originally had an on-stage career as an actor, working in theatre, and then later small roles in TV and film. After their transition, Brigitte still had a good career, with several roles, becoming something of a small-time icon and celebrity.
However, when the Heavenfall happened, Brigitte left the showbiz industry and enlisted in the Belgian Navy, becoming a helicopter pilot. Later, she joined Shattered Steel, after receiving a better offer from them.

Gunther Wolfman
Callsign/Nickname: Wolf
Age: 57
Appearance:
Gunther has a sturdy, muscular build that matches his relatively compact height of 5'5". He has a greying full beard and hair, though he often wears a worn, stained baseball cap covering his head. His mechanics' overalls likewise show their use and experience.
He often looks gruff and miserable... and often comes across that way, but has been known to smile.



Summary:
Gunther was a mechanic with the German Luftwaffe for many years, and worked on a variety of aircraft and vehicles there. He cross-trained with numerous air arms around the world, as well as spells in the civilian world.
He was head-hunted for Shattered Steel due to his reputation and experience, and became the maintenance crew chief for Cobalt Haze squadron. While he comes across as gruff and grumpy, especially when it comes to the pilots causing damage to 'his' planes, in reality he drives himself and his crew to give nothing but the best performance and work for the aviators he supports, so that they can do the best jobs they possibly can.

???
Callsign/Nickname: Skywatch
Age: ??
Appearance:
~Unknown~

Summary:
"Skywatch" is the female operator that provides and feeds information to the Cobalt Haze squadron pilots from the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye AWACS plane that often accompanies them or is in the same area for their missions and operations.

Valerie 'Val' Glass
Callsign/Nickname: N/A
Age: 35
Appearance:
A fit, trim woman of 5'5" in height, Val looks as professional as she is... most of the time. Due to her role mostly being an official liason, she usually is dressed in a well-tailored N/UN air forces uniform.



Summary:
Val enlisted in the US Navy out of college, intending on becoming a career officer, following in the footsteps of her father before her, and his before him. She was never interested in aviation, and instead pursued a career commanding vessels. She met Scott during both of their academy days, and they formed a strong friendship, that later bloomed into a tempestuous, on-again, off-again relationship.
Eventually, Val got her wish and became captain of a Frigate, carving herself out an admirable career, before later being promoted into a 'shoreside' role with the N/UN, where she was part of the N/UN military department responsible for managing and liaising with PMCs, and specifically with Shattered Steel.

Sergeant Fletcher
Callsign/Nickname: Sarge, Fletch, TDC (That Damn Cat), others
Age: Unknown
Appearance:
A very large, brown tabby and white tomcat. Blessed or cursed with a serious case of 'resting cat face'. Despite this, he is actually surprisingly friendly. And surprisingly agile, despite his fatness.



Summary:
No one is entirely sure where this cat came from, who he belongs to, or who looks after him. But somehow, he seems to have 'adopted' Shattered Steel, and has a knack to just... appear in places, as cats do.
Friendly, for the most part, he is often found sleeping in various places around the base, inside and outside. He even sometimes turns up on deployments, presumably having stowed away, unnoticed, in a transport plane.
He has become something of a good-luck charm for the PMC as a whole, and an unofficial mascot. Remarkably unflappable for a cat, he seems to enjoy attending briefings, reviews, and generally being 'part of the team'.
He does have some uses, frequently catching mice, rats, and other vermin around the base, as well as scaring away birds and thus avoiding birdstrikes, earning his official title of 'animal control specialist'.
His name came from the fact he is a rather rotund cat, not unlike the 'Sergeant Fletcher' droptanks and in-flight refuelling pods used by several aircraft.

Name: Fuka Astor-Nakano (typically shortened to Fuka Nakano)

Callsign/Nickname: Peacenik

Age: 34
Gender: Female

Appearance:

The first thing people usually notice about Fuka is her height. Standing at six feet and two inches she'd be of impressive stature had she been a man, and for a woman it's even more so. She attributes her height to her father's genes, as by all accounts her grandfather towered above his peers. Instead of a giant's bulk, she has a professional soldier's lean muscles and powerful core, a build suited to long treks carrying heavy gear. Fuka's youthful appearance belies her veteran status, her years of combat experience concealed by a fresh-faced complexion lacking imperfections. Closer inspection reveals trace marks of reconstructive surgery, with jagged marks scattered across her cheek and brow. These tiny details are leftovers from the blast that put an end to her infantry career, the damage to her face minor enough that it left no lasting complications. The same cannot be said for her left arm. While not entirely blown off, it was mangled to uselessness, requiring amputation and replacement from just above her elbow.

Nationality: Dual American-Japanese citizenship

Personality: Outwardly Fuka is laid-back and cheerful, sometimes overly so depending on the circumstances. This is something of a facade. While she is genuinely a believer in the power of a positive outlook, she's far more measured and deep-thinking than she lets on. While she did her best to buck family tradition, her upbringing in a clan of political blue bloods and officers rubbed off on her. She sees herself as a warrior-scholar, well-educated and capable of intelligently discussing politics and history but is really supposed to be on the battlefield. Combat is where she's happiest, as it's the only place where she feels she's living up to her potential.

Despite her family background and service to the N/UN and its various constituents, Fuka is not really a believer in its goals or legitimacy. That isn't to say that she's a saboteur or a rabble-rouser; she simply does not trust it to last. She remembers enough of the world pre-Heavenfall to be wary of taking sides; having watched once unshakable powers collapse in the face of unexpected calamity, she assumes the same will happen again. Part of her reasoning is that much of its power projection relies on people like her: mercenaries. If the so-called United Nations are busy battling cartels in the ruins of Central America or trying to rebuild in the remains of Los Angeles, how can they compete with the largely intact Chinese or a megacorporation that gets too confident? That said, she is highly patriotic, bordering nationalistic, regarding her home countries. Japan and the United States are part of the N/UN, and more importantly, they and the N/UN have the same enemies, so she'll fight for it.

History: Fuka Nakano-Astor was not just a military brat; she was the military brat. Her father was Major-General Thomas Astor of the United States Army, stationed in Kanagawa Prefecture as the head of Major Command Japan. Her mother was Kaede Nakano, pharmaceutical executive turned Kanagawa governor who fostered a close relationship with General Astor. They were married within a year of meeting, and Fuka was born not long after, one of five children in total: two older half-brothers from her father's previous marriage and a half-sister from her mother's, with a full-blooded sister following three years later.

Her lineage was star-studded. The Nakanos were old money, some of the first commoners to make their fortune trading with the outside world, while the Astors had a legacy of military excellence going back to the Civil War. (Indeed, Thomas was somewhat legendary for having achieved the rank of major-general at the impressively young age of forty-five). Every child in the Astor-Nakano clan was expected to achieve greatness in some way, and regardless of whatever career they chose they would all do at least one tour of armed service. The pack accompanied Thomas on his rounds and sat in on some of his less sensitive meetings to get acclimated to the bureaucracy, picking up the idiosyncracies of Army life.

This path had been laid out for Fuka before she was born, and in truth she didn't want to walk it. But growing up immersed in the military meant she saw no other outcome for herself. Her older siblings were rarely seen figures due to their burgeoning careers (ROTC and eventual officers' commissions for her brothers while her sister followed the elder Nakano into politics) but they were measuring sticks against which Fuka was often compared. By her early teens she had more or less come to terms with the fact that she would be joining up as soon as she was allowed, unless of course the Soviets set off nuclear war.

This was a reasonable concern at the time, but as it turned out, everyone had been preparing for the wrong armageddon. The Cold War became an afterthought in the wake of the Heavenstrike, and suddenly General Astor was no longer preparing to defend Japan against Communist aggression but struggling to restore peace and provide relief in the wake of swallowed coastlines and wrecked infrastructure. The United States, reeling and near collapse, recalled its military personnel piecemeal, members of all branches gathering at what bases remained to hitch the first ride home. In this crush of refugees, Fuka, bored and unsure of what would happen next, turned her eyes to the sky and watched the escort fighters assigned to protect the airlifts.

When the family made it to the now fractured United States Fuka was enrolled in the best schools remaining to finish her education, and at seventeen she joined the Army just like her old man wanted. But instead of ROTC she walked into the first recruiting office she could find and signed up as an MOS 11X: Undetermined Infantry, a groundpounder. This was partly practical, as in the aftermath of the Heavenstrike, the Army was significantly reduced, lowering the opportunities for an officer, but it was also Fuka's first display of independence. She didn't want to push pencils and deal with office politics like her father did, she wanted to actually do something! She craved excitement, and she went looking for it in the Rangers.

She fought through the selection process and earned the coveted scroll, assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment and thrown into conflicts south of the border. With Mexico's government essentially collapsed the cartels were getting bolder and the U.S., desperate to maintain some degree of stability, responded in kind. For the next four years Fuka was deployed to the border region and beyond, raiding suspected stash houses and clearing known sicario hangouts.

She served with distinction but without much enthusiasm. The rush she got from combat was nice, but Fuka still felt unfilled. She was missing something which she could not identify, and while she was proud of her achievements she didn't mind getting released from her contract early. That said, she would have preferred her honorable discharge to have been from a reduction in force instead of an injury. On a routine patrol her team was ambushed by cartel gunmen with anti-tank weapons stolen from a government depot, their MRAP destroyed by a direct hit. Fuka had left the vehicle just seconds before the attack and managed to escape alive, but shrapnel from the blast peppered her face and shredded her arm.

She got a Purple Heart and a ticket out, and soon after her family's money got her a prosthetic arm. The replacement limb was as near a match in function to her old one as she could hope but there was no fixing the phantom sensations from her missing limb. Fuka chalked it up as the price of survival, and now that she was out of the Army she could focus on her next move. Her sisters, now properly embroiled in politics and knowing her sympathies lay with them, suggested she run for office on the strength of her service and family history but Fuka had no interest in gladhanding. Instead she turned her eyes back to the interceptors that captured her imagination as a girl.

Naval flight school required a bachelor's degree so she enrolled on a whim, majoring in Geopolitics and minoring in Political Science. She chose this just in case she did feel the call of public office but by the end of her schooling she was only more convinced she belonged in the sky. After college came officer school, and from there the flight school. By 25 Fuka was fighting again, having traded her boots for wings.

Again she was deployed southward, first facing off against Columbian and Venezuelan forces as they struggled against the U.S. for control over resources. She was later deployed to her native Japan to assist the JSDF in defending against harrying attacks from Chinese-allied Cambodia and Laos. It was there that she found her calling. Dogfighting was what she was good and it was what she wanted to do, the high-speed high-stakes game of tag her ultimate goal. She wanted to do nothing but that.

After her eight-year contract was up Fuka did not reenlist, instead jumping ship to Shattered Steel. She'd get to do the same work but for better pay, and she'd feel like she made her own choice instead of just following along with her parent's plan for her.

Personal Gear: M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System in 7.62mm.
Springfield XD-M in 10mm.
Survival Knife

Personal Aircraft: F/A-18F Super Hornet

Aircraft modifications:

• The 18F was originally a two-seat variant of the Hornet, but the Navy converted some of its stock to single-seaters due to a lack of personnel post-Heavenstrike. Fuka's more comfortable serving as her own Weapons Officer.
• Upgraded avionics
• Upgraded Radar: AN/APG-81
• Iron ball paint to absorb radar waves
• Glossy black paint scheme and stylized rabbit head on tail

Anything Else:

• The handle "Peacenik" dates back to her days in the Rangers. She would regularly volunteer (and in some cases actively badger) for patrols likely to come into contact with the enemy, and Peacenik was bestowed on her as an ironic trophy.
• Her "black bunny" style livery is in honor of the lieutenant commander who trained her to fly, a veteran of the VX-4 evaluation squadron.
• Fuka semi-jokingly calls herself the family's black sheep due to her sibling's achievements and her comparative lack. Her half-brothers, Thomas Jr. and Evan, are career officers in the U.S. Army while her sisters went into politics. Her full-blooded sister, Ayaka, is a Congresswoman out of Arizona, while Chieko is a member of the Japanese Diet. Yōko, the highest climber, is Deputy Prime Minister. All three are known for their hawkish and nationalistic tendencies, with Ayaka calling for the United States to rebuild and start projecting power while Chieko and Yōko push for Japan to increase its military and take a harder stance against pro-Chinese nations in Southeast Asia to solidify control of disputed territories (namely the Senkaku Islands). Fuka is sometimes approached by lobbyists looking to get an in with her family, which she finds amusing and annoying.
• She used to smoke heavily but has recently begun to wean herself off the habit using sweets.

Name: Illya Sokolov
Callsign/Nickname: Rook - A twofold nickname, taken from both the Corvidae bird and the chess piece.
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Appearance:
Standing at a decent 5'10 (1.78m), Illya is no bodybuilder but he has a decently built physique typical of a military officer. He has a few scars, including an inch-long cut along his hairline that is usually hidden by his hair, but no tattoos.

Nationality: Russo-Ukrainian
Personality: Reserved and quiet but still largely affable when approached, Illya typically keeps to himself and occupies himself with activities he can enjoy alone or with only a few people, such as reading or playing Chess. Extended conversation often reveals his more awkward and shy side, which often leads to him excusing himself to 'recharge' alone for a while.
History: Born into Pre-Heavensfall Soviet Ukraine with a Ukrainian mother and Russian father, Illya's family were comparatively well-off owing to his father's career in the military, specifically in the field of aircraft research and development. This afforded Illya a high quality of education that shaped his future prosects toward following his father's footsteps, but he had few friends because of it. The one true friend he had growing up was a girl at his school named Nadiya, whom taught him Chess and compared his straight-forward approach to problem-solving to the movement of the Rook piece in said game.

As his studies progressed however, he found himself growing bored and longed for more excitement; Instead of sitting at a desk designing aircraft, he would rather in the cockpit himself, flying them. As a result, his career path pivoted away from academics and he instead aimed to join the military as a test pilot; He got his wish, enrolling in the flight training program at 17... Only for Heavensfall to devastate the entire Soviet Union, claiming his hometown in the devastation and along with it the lives of Nadiya and his family.

In the aftermath, what was left of the Ukrainian government scrambled to reform any semblance of military strength and called on anyone with any experience; Illya was among those that answered the call, and was folded into a makeshift unit after being rushed through training. It was here that his callsign of 'Rook' was solidified as he was taken under the wing of two more experienced aces, siblings with the callsigns of 'Raven' and 'Crow', and the newly formed trio remained together in the years that followed. With many larger airfields rendered unsuitable, the remnant forces needed a solution to the lack of runway space and began to revisit older designs to mitigate the problem, including the experimental VTOL fighter Yak-141.

The unit continued to run sorties for the same faction of the remnant government, until bad intel lead to the squadron being cut off from the rest of their forces and subsequently. Illya's plane was shot down but he was fortunate enough to survive the crash; Raven and Crow were not so lucky. He managed to drag himself back to base but with his found family dead and his withering national pride running out, he gave up and turned to mercenary work. Unbeholden to a cause anymore, he simply continued to fly missions as a means to an end until crossing paths with some Shattered Steel pilots stationed on the same airbase at the time. They extended an invitation and, for lack of better options, Illya accepted. He was recently folded into Cobalt Haze Squadron, and has yet to form any strong bonds with his wingmates.

Personal Gear:

• Standard Issue Flight Gear
• Vepr 5.45x39mm Assault Rifle, updated with modernized furniture
• MP-443 Grach 9x19mm Sidearm
• Combat Knife
• Silver Pendant in the shape of a Knight chess piece

Personal Aircraft: Yak-141, nicknamed 'Vyzhyv' or 'Survivor'


Aircraft modifications:

• Updated Avionics, Control Systems etc.
• Updated Engine, Powerplant, Thrust Nozzles etc.
• Updated Weapon Systems, removing outdated cannon and external hardpoints in favour of mounting more modern munitions
• Cosmetic Update (Removal of Soviet Identifiers in favour of Shattered Steel company markings, application of grey camouflage paint)