Name: Staten, Amanda Kathryn (“Kat”)
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Origin: New York City, United States
Appearance: At five feet and ten inches in height, Amanda Kathryn Staten is pretty difficult to miss. If her height doesn’t do it, the blond hair and bright green eyes probably will. If neither of those factors clues you in, look for the boisterous woman in the athletic wear. She usually wears her uniform or something she can move in, without a whole lot in between the two extremes. Anyone she’s stationed with gets used to seeing her in training clothes on her way to or from the gym very quickly.
Kat doesn’t look a whole lot like a pilot at first glance, enough so that more than one unfortunate soul has mistaken her for support personnel. She certainly wouldn’t look out of place as a civilian secretary, though her hair is kept short enough to fit inside her helmet and meet regulatory requirements. It’s a little easier, up close, to see the fit physique required of her career. Despite her youth, she isn’t easily mistaken for a rookie; though largely faded, the scars on her left side and just above her left eye are proof of her history.
Callsign/Codename: Centerfold, gifted by peers during training. Explanation given on request.
Kills: 7. 4/7 in one skirmish, 2005.
Veritech Specs:
Preferred Loadout:
-UUM-7 x2 (One left, one right)
-AMM-1 x1 (Left)
-RMS-1 (Right)
-Strike FAST Pack
Kat was trained as the pilot of an air superiority fighter and that preference bleeds through to her Veritech. She largely eschews air-to-ground capabilities in exchange for a varied and potent air-to-air loadout, maintaining a degree of air-to-ground capabilities solely in the form of her UUMs and FAST Pack cannon. Though she chafes a little at the mandated red and white paintjob, she has taken the liberty of painting kill tallies on her craft’s wings and a rabid-looking rabbit on the nose.
Psychological Analysis: Incredibly energetic. Kat Staten is, in a word, boisterous. She’ll laugh the hardest, yell the loudest, and fight the happiest. She takes a fierce pride in her country and her original branch of service, and will contest anyone claiming to be better. She makes friends easily, brushes off adversity with complete irreverence, and never takes things particularly seriously. ‘Irrepressible’ would be a good adjective, as would ‘stubborn’. It doesn’t matter how silly the contest, Staten never gives in.
A deeper familiarity shows that, while the demeanor she projects isn’t false, there is more to it. The American possesses a keen tactical mind, and an almost ruthless determination in the face of opposition. Anyone that threatens her squadmates or her home is to be eliminated, if they fail to take their chance to back down. Her tactics have been called reckless many times, and tend to demonstrate a distinct lack of fear for her own safety. As much as it tends to get her in trouble, it has also been (grudgingly) admitted to be what makes her an excellent pilot. It doesn’t seem to be unintentional; Kat’s brushes with mortality seem only to have reinforced her convictions. Her all-or-nothing attitude is born of determination rather than ignorance.
No matter what, the people Kat serves with are her family. Anything they need she will go to hell and back to provide, whether on or off the battlefield.
Military Record: Amanda Kathryn Staten was born on December 29th 1984, destined to grow up in a world wracked by the Global War. Anthony Staten, her father, served as a fighter pilot before and after she was born. He was an immense influence on her life, and a significant part of her choice to serve in the military came from following in his footsteps. She was raised to be proud, resolute, and unwavering. Kat excelled in high school, took part in extracurriculars, and did everything she could to ensure that she would be able to follow the path she wanted.
Her enlistment and subsequent training, naturally, was a little hectic. Her enthusiasm tended to net her almost as many lectures as it did commendations, if she got a little too heated, thought a little too far outside the box, or otherwise questioned what she was being taught. Still she avoided any real disciplinary action (if only by knowing which lines to toe), and was able to face her role model with the utmost pride when she was accepted as a pilot candidate. The Global War had died down following the crash on Macross Island, something that had only strengthened her resolve, but she still went into active service as a pilot in a chaotic time. Not everyone was on board with unification in the face of extraterrestrial adversity, and though relatively small in number, these forces were enough to cause problems when they put their mind to it.
Kat was the pilot of an F-16, an air superiority fighter tasked with just that; achieving and maintaining air supremacy for the USAF. Much of her early service was without incident, though she displayed excellent ability in the line of duty. That changed when she was twenty one, near the end of the Anti-Unification forces’ decline.
Acting on orders, Kat and her squadmates were dispatched to neutralize a hostile enemy air force discovered in Indonesia. Their superior’s underestimated the size and capability of the force present, and in the ensuing skirmish with the entrenched AU forces the entire squadron was shot down. Not without inflicting losses on the enemy, but the entrenched resistance was made up in large part of Global War veterans. Staten was the last of her squadron to be shot down, only after shooting down five of the AU aircraft during the course of the battle. After-action reports from her surviving squadmates described her maneuvers both as innovating and “[CENSORED] insane”.
It took four days for US forces to subdue the hostile parties, hidden in Indonesia’s rainforests, as well as recover the surviving pilots from her squadron. Kat herself employed what they had been taught in USAF SERE Training to survive and evade capture.
Her high performance marked her for recruitment as a Veritech pilot, and later for assignment to Fox Squadron.
