Appearance Rahul is a tanned skin human male, currently without any cybernetic enhancements or augmentations to his body. Standing at 5'11", his average size and minimalist build doesn't give the impression that he's the most capable of crewmen to board the Monolith. Surprisingly, records have shown that his mass plays nicely into what he may lack in muscle, as well as an adept agility and stamina to accompany areas he may falter in. With hazel irises, Rahul is easily recognisable from his brothers and sisters back home, where he stood out as if it were fate for his arrival to Andromeda. Curled nicely into a neatly kept hairstyle, chipped in a dark spruce colouring, the pride of his face is somehow maintained even before and after removing headgear. According to Rahul, it's a natural haircut.
Beneath the general aesthetics of his native Albion face, Rahul boasts a rather sporting clothing line up for the field. Off duty, the common belief of less is more applies directly to his fashion style. Keeping minimalist casual styles in his wardrobe allows him to not become overly dressed nor under-clothed, the perfect match for any occasion. Mixing with long, short and several colours adds to its flavour. Headwear isn't essential, considering he at least likes to let his scalp breathe every once in a while. On the other end of the spectrum, his on-duty and in-the-field armour vary differently. Whilst aboard the Monolith, it isn't uncommon to see Rahul dressed in the standard technical operative attire. As soon as combat is initiated or any out-of-craft deployment is necessary, which for a technical operative can be often, then Rahul is equipped in his specialised Tech-Operative U.A.F. Suit. As with all armour equipping stations in U.G.C shuttles, colour schemes are easy to render depending on the environment necessary, hence its stock-white fixation. Personality Rahul was always an outgoing individual. With a fascination and fixation purely on technological marvel, it isn't any surprise that going out and seeing what the cosmos had to offer was part of his code. Whilst Rahul loves to spread confidence amongst the team, he doesn't always hold it himself at any given moment. Throw him in front of technology and he'll talk for hours without taking a breath, but when combat situations start looking dicey there's always the chance that he'll doubt even the best of crewmen. Those who don't do that though, to him, are just overly optimistic, not that it's inherently a bad thing. After all, Rahul, or for brevity Hal, loves technology to the point where he will hold it to the highest regard. A passion is one's dream, as they say. Hal simply can't get enough of it. He'll make sure people are up to date on their own gear, give regular checks to vitalise and maximise their ability and will try to protect those who may be in shitty positions. Outside of his technological standpoint, Rahul is a capable operative in the field, though far from the best. He'll look up to those better than him and praise them if they need it.
Keeping smiles on people's faces can also be a massive implication to his life. Loving people and seeking out that intimacy is always an additional achievement to life, but takes only what may come. Flirty by a small manner and up for inviting people out off duty for gigs, club visits, walks around planets or even for a lecture on why technology is so important, he'll keep that smile on his face if he can. On duty though, he has the ability to lower in mood and to seriously buckle down into a realistic standpoint. He isn't a leader, but he'd damn well try to be if he was supposed to. Determined to at least fixate everyone on a path of logic and best consequence, his agenda is more settled on binding the team together rather than distancing them with aggressive infliction of violent orders. Though in reality, on the inside Rahul can be just as frightened of the unknown vast threats that surround Andromeda's corners.
Role Technological Operations Manager - Special Technical Operative
Previous Branch
Albion Security and Peacekeeping - United Armed Forces Technical Operations Group (UAFTAG)
Biography
Born on the far-fetched planet of Albion, located in the Nastroth Star System, Rahul was brought up as the youngest of a large, great family. The Barrette namesake derived from the first settlers of Albion, most notably known for their Indian and Persian heritage from yonders ago, and held true to their ways of tradition. Rahul, however, was never really the one to adhere to them. Sure, he respected the culture he was brought up in, but something always caught his eye. His sisters and brothers weren't too kind to his sudden intrigue into technology, despite how much they all depended on it. To Rahul, he saw it as a gateway into greatness, a future without any end and only the ability to keep pushing forward on the boundaries of technical advancement. Perceiving them more as tools, and more as a form of art, he eventually took the unexpected path into Albion's Technology Institution, where he began to advance in his own personal studies.
Now, Rahul was not a prodigal son. There was never a day where he went further than the greatest classmate he had, but what he did have was the charm and wit to hold his own. Adopting the nickname 'Hal' for mingling better, he soon found himself growing in knowledge and capabilities on what technological production, identification and studying was truly about. When other classmates saw the subject as a mean to riches or business success, Rahul always had more admirable goals that benefited everyone. And so, much to the distaste of his family once more, he finished his studies and ended up enlisting into the Albion Security force at the age of 16. Of course, they let him in because he wasn't going to be on the frontlines of any riots, not that many happened. Instead, he took a job behind the scenes, looking at artifacts of technology and studying what links they had to potential investigations that were ongoing. It wasn't the best job, nor did it pay well, but he liked what he was doing, and that was all that mattered.
Two years of serving didn't get him far. Hal grew tired and weary of not getting enough to study, nor really making an impact on people's lives. It was admirable to think as big as he did, but it was also rather stupid. During his second year in the security force he'd let slip a technological investigation he was ordered to drop, guiding leads to a conspiracy that had been covered up in Albion. Pressed into a rivalry and manhunt from his own people, he was quickly apprehended and served an additional year in prison, where he started to develop a less-than-bright outlook on life. The go-lucky innocence of Hal was decimated by his peers, who he'd once trusted. Now, left to sit in a cell and get frequent visits from disappointed family members, he eventually was given the option to plea for immunity via military service in the U.A.F.
What started out as a routine training squadron of misfits, hardened civilians and desperate workmen, Rahul was quickly picked up on his technological knowledge during training. Instead of putting him through further training, to which he only averaging out the requirements and nothing more, he was offered a transition into the UAFTAG Division for further training. Here, Rahul's life became enthralled with what drove him today. Surfacing under the UAFTAG's newest command, he was sent to explore countless planets, studying precursor technology and gathering as much knowledge as he could. Frequently associating with a Lorin named N'tall, he soon found his place of comfort. And of course, being a military establishment, there were occasions were criminals, third-party armies and rebels rose up in defiance and forced him into situations of combat. As much as he hated them, he knew they were necessary to pursue the technological advancement.
His Sergeant was a Utarah, easier said than done. Here, was Rahul's first relationship as well. Initially interested in the Utarah constructs and implementations of biological-synthetic combinations, the two ended up going on a few dates before eventually Rahul was crushed via the worst way to break up with a partner: in front of the whole platoon. It was embarrassing, yes, but funny to look back upon. After that, Hal continued his service for a few years, becoming a more distinguished combatant and an expert in his field. Eventually he rose to the rank of a Technical Operative, a vital component to scouting teams, expeditionary parties and combating unknown lifeforms.
But where things grow, and as much of a happy story Hal's life had seemed like, there was a dark turn as many lives were taken around. During his final year of service, the UAFTAG were deployed alongside COVSPEC squad 'Hotel Victor - 4 - 2' in a light Covert Operations scenario. Dealing with a recent uprising from criminal Rateian partisans still against reforming social constructs in the U.G.C. Eventually, the mission went south quickly, and members of Rahul's company were stranded on a luscious forest dwarf planet named 'Horato'. Horato was the bane of Hal's memories. Being sent down to retrieve his comrades ended in more death, more casualties and the devastation of a forest through guerrilla warfare. After what he saw, unspeakable to even profiles granted to the Andromeda Project, Hal stays in vigil over its past, unwanting to open up about the sights and sounds there.
After that day, he felt rather empty and dreamt only of a new start. The Andromeda Project's announcement was the only thing he needed, and a kickstart into the future he didn't understand was underway. Not even informing his family about where he was going, he formally left the U.A.F. and volunteered as a technical officer and operative for the upcoming expedition. And as all people were, he was shipped into cryogenics and slept for the 700 years it took to travel there, forgetting to realise that everyone he knew and loved before were dead before he'd wake up. And by surprise, the command in the Atlas woke him up prematurely, telling him that he was to become...a Traveller?