[CHAR] In Too Deep - A futuristic Lovecraftian experience

[Graviloquence]

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[Leidenschaft]

Fritzi/Frankie

Basic Information

Name: Francis Morgan, real name Fritzi Armbruster
Nicknames: Frankie, Grease, on account of the occasional dirty hands and face she has from working on the suits or helping the maintenance personnel
Gender: Female
Age: 30
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Nationality: US
Occupation: CARAPACE Information Analyst/Maintenance Tech, Science Team | CIA SAD/SOG Specialized Skills Officer

Appearance

Physique: Fritzi, or Francis as she is known to the Science Team and the crew of the Howard, has a lithely muscled frame reminiscent of a gymnast or swimmer

Height: She stands at 5'6”, but holds an air to her that overtops 6

Weight: 156lbs

Hair: Brown, usually pulled into a messy bun or simple ponytail

Eyes: Blue

Skin: Caucasian, tanned from multiple smoke breaks on the topdeck

Scars / Markings / Etc: None

Clothing Description: Clad usually in tight-fitting jeans, sneakers, a plain t-shirt or band tee, as well as her laminated badge for ID purposes on the ship and to scan through her office door.

Inventory

• Laminated ID Badge
• Wood ring worn on chain, keepsake from her mother
• A picture of her late husband holding her daughter
• Her insulated coffee mug, always filled with the magic elixir needed for long nights of work
• Pack of cigarettes, she has a carton in her locker with multiple packs inside
• Smartphone and Personal Laptop, both with secret encryptions to the NSA/CIA network
• Thumb-drives and an external harddrive for copying important information from CARAPACE suits and forwarding it to CIA analysts
• A small diving knife
• A a fixed-blade combat knife
• Toolbag for working on the CARAPACE suits.

Identity

Personality: Fritzi grew up rough, with an alcoholic father and a mother too scared of him to leave. This environment can either harden a child and develop a thick shell of spite and anger, or it can break them down into a mushy mess of trauma and low self-esteem. Fritzi vowed that she would make something of herself and not end up like her Afghanistan-vet father. That thick shell of spite and anger propelled her like a bullet through a life of high-risk careers.

Because of her upbringing, she has trouble trusting others she hasn't shared some sort of hardship with, whether that be combat or just the simple workload her career entails. She speaks little unless she feels what will pass her lips is important. She is not a constant curmudgeon though, able to have a much-needed sense of humor when the going gets rough, learned from years of having the going get rough. To those outside of her immediate circle- which is most people she knows- she is a strong woman, capable of walking off all the things life throws at her with the ease of a tightrope walker.

Much like the same tightrope walker though, that appearance wasn't gained without many trips, stumbles and falls. She views life as a challenge, a mountain to be climbed, a beast to be conquered, a roiling sea to cross. She'd be damned if she was caught in the tides and drowns.

Along with all of this, she isn't as bad as she seems and does grow on people. To those she deems close enough to become friends, she lets her humorous side show and opens up, albeit very slowly. She recognizes the value of trust and bonding when it comes to working in a team environment and, because of this, will go to great lengths to help those she sees as friends through rough spots. She doesn't have much family left and most people don't understand the life of someone in her line of work, so friends and confidants are hard to come by.

She also has a soft-spot for mothers and children, being a mother herself. She will show a side of weakness when it comes to children, almost doting on them even if they're not her own. Like her willingness to take to people quicker if they've shared the hardships of military service and combat, she has the same outlook towards parents in general. Raising a child might not be the stress levels of a tightly-wound spring ready to explode at any moment, but it is an endeavor that deserves commendation when done well.

Strengths: An almost single-minded obstinance when it comes to her work.
She views the connections she makes with people, however few, are deep as her bones. She views the betrayal of these bonds as grounds for physical altercation. She is very goal-oriented, always wanting to trim the fat from her life to streamline her ability to achieve success. Whether that fat might be people or the time it takes to walk from her laptop to her garbage can, she can and will change something about it.

Weaknesses: She has a habit of smoking, and she does have an urge to go to the bottle when things get exceptionally rough. She has a well-hidden deep mistrust of those outside the circle of people she deems as trustworthy, in her line of work it pays to be cautious. In times of great stress, she can tend to focus too much on her work and enter into unhealthy headspaces and habits, such as chain-smoking and under-eating. She can also be a little hot-headed and irritable in these sorts of mindstates, but takes precautions to avoid going to that place. Life sometimes has a way of bypassing those though.

Likes: Cigarettes, because work is stressful sometimes
Whiskey, because being sober is stressful sometimes
Quiet nights of alone time, she likes to focus on quieting her mind sometimes after a long day of hard work
Quiet nights of team bonding, Sitting around and bullshitting with the team is a good way to get your mind off things. Not to mention a good way of collecting intelligence to forward to your agency.
Reading, because sometimes she'd rather be a large barbarian warrior in a snowy hellscape
80's Hard rock and heavy metal, a leftover love from her childhood
Achieving goals in any aspect of her life, goal oriented

Dislikes: Cigarettes, they cause cancer, she doesn't want cancer
Quiet nights when she doesn't want alone time, being alone can be the opposite of tranquil for her
Being bothered while she's working, it's either a minor annoyance or risking being jailed for espionage against UN interests
Plans gone awry, she doesn't like to be disappointed knowing she could've done better
Liars, they are an affront to every ideal she holds
Abusers, being the survivor of abuse, she has a special hatred for these people

Fears: Rejection, both romantic and social
The prospect of never being the mother her child needs, because what mother wants that
Failure such as that she is burned by her organization, or stuck behind a desk. She was made for field-work and has worked hard to let her superiors know that.

Biography

Fritzi was born in West Virginia in a small town named Flatstone to Peter and Helge Armbruster. Peter was a German immigrant who joined the Army to gain his citizenship and was forever changed after his experiences in Afghanistan. When he came home, he was a changed man, friendlier to the bottle than he was to his wife or daughter. Fritzi spent as much time away from home because of this, a fact she would later regret when her father had hospitalized her mother and family friend, Joseph, on the Fourth of July during a particularly extreme episode of PTSD. She knew if she was there, she could've done something to stop it, or at least she told herself that. After the events of that night, she vowed to be more than her father, and bless her heart, stronger and more independent than her mother. To not make the same choices as her.

Her high school years were turbulent, in which she was involved in numerous cases of fighting, drug use, and attendance issues, which landed her in counseling for her emotions and drug use. She resented it, and resented her mother for it, and blamed her father at every point for making this happen. The counseling did not help, and she kept going up until she graduated from high school with nothing much changed other than a child and her boyfriend. She applied to many colleges and was given an acceptance letter by none. Out of options, she walked past the threshold of an Army recruiting center, something she was initially uncomfortable with because of her father's background in the military.

Even so, she signed on for an initial four years as a 37F, or Psychological Operations Specialist. She seemed to be shaping up into a fine soldier as the days, weeks and months went on. The Army fostered her spite into a can-do attitude and her career took off from there. Being shipped off to sensitive areas where the US had interests, she was put on the ground to help everything from humanitarian missions to sensitive assignments she may still not be able to talk about the particulars of, at which point she'd spent six years in the military. It was around this time that she received word from home that her high school sweetheart husband was struck and killed by a drunk driver with their daughter in the car. Thankfully, her daughter had survived with minor cuts and scrapes. With no one to take care of her while she was gone, Fritzi reluctantly gave the girl over to her Aunt Maddie and Uncle Charles.

Not long after, her career took a turn for the worse on a relief effort assignment in the mountains of Afghanistan. Tasked with accompanying a contingent of UN aid workers to an isolated village recently attacked by the Taliban, her convoy came under fire and her food truck in pieces from an IED. She managed to crawl to safety and rally some of the survivors before they were chased further up the valley.

It was a five hour firefight hunkered down by dilapidated mud-brick housing, some trees and a rock or two. This event is still something she sees in her dreams to this day. She came under fire for losing three of her soldiers and she knew she had no hope of any more promotions. She now had somewhat of an understanding of what her father went through, but even that would not allow her to let go of the past. She spent the remainder of her career in a limbo and just before her contract was up, she was approached by a man named George Gracy. He urged her to accept his offer. There was nothing for her back in her hometown, re-enlisting would prove fruitless with her past fuck-up and she would be unfulfilled working any desk-job she could get after the military.

So she took him up on his offer.

A few months later, she was attending classes and receiving training in everything from marksmanship, martial arts, tradecraft and languages at the fabled training camp, The Farm. It was not long before the CIA could mold her into something they needed, taking her can-do attitude and ability to mold almost seamlessly into different cultures and stripping away the Army uniform from it all. Her first assignment for this mission was somewhat underwhelming to her, and only a desk-job of a different sort- she was to be implanted into the IRV Howard's Science Team as the CARAPACE tech, responsible for maintenance and data analysis. Her reasons for the mission were need to know, and she did not need to know, it seems.

Skills and Stats

Gifted(+5): Stealth | Disguise
Adept(+3): Computer Science | Marksmanship, handguns | Awareness
Average(+2): SERE | Engineering | Hand-to-Hand
Novice(+1): First Aid | Interrogation | Psychology | Persuasion

Fluent in: German, Pashto, Farsi, Tagalog

Relationships

Relationship Status: Widowed
Family: Peter Armbruster, Father, Deceased
Helge Armbruster, Mother, Deceased
Hayden Tremane, Husband, Deceased
Alayne Armbruster, Daughter, Living
Opinions of Other Researchers/Crewmembers:

• None, as of yet

Miscellaneous

Other:

[MegaOscarPwn]

Face claim: Slightly young Keanu Reeves.

Basic Information

Name: Óscar Guijarro.
Nicknames: Beardy, Poleo.
Gender: Male.
Age: 34.
Ethnicity: Caucasian/Latino.
Nationality: Born in Sweden, spent most of his life in Spain.
Occupation: Retired bounty hunter, now security officer.

Appearance

Physique:

Óscar is simple at first sight, his body being that of an average male of his age, but it seems that he takes care of his health and body, shown by is slightly muscular body: Nothing too crazy, but he's fit. He seems to be a fan of numerous video games and comics, which is shown, once again, by his shirts. Guijarro also dons a full beard, complete with black, slightly long hair that he takes care of, sometimes putting it softly under the hood of his...well, hoody. His eyes are brown, which aren't really special or anything, but he, at certain times, seems to have some sort of twitch on the left one, the causes are unknown, more than likely accumulated stress of some sort. He has baggy eyes, possibly related to his unscheduled sleeping time and/or insomnia.

Height: 1,89 Metres.

Weight: 62 kgs.

Hair: Black pompadour.

Eyes: Brown.

Skin: Slightly tanned.

Scars / Markings / Etc: Tattoo on the lower arm, representing a snake engulfing the planet Earth.

Clothing Description:

He tends to wear dark, baggy clothing, tending to choose black amongst all other colors. He usually prefers to wear hoodies, sneakers and baggy jeans, but if on-duty, he'd wear the generic attire a security officer would wear on the IRV Howard. Apart from that, Guijarro, when off duty, usually likes to cover his hair with a tuque when he hasn't brushed his hair: He takes it really, really seriously. The tuque would read "I WOKE UP LIKE THIS", with golden letters on the front.

Inventory

• He carries around the basic security guard equipment of the IRV Howard: A retractable baton, a taser and some pepper-spray.
• He'd also carry around a walkie-talkie, again, normal officer stuff for when he's on-duty.
• A basic swiss army knife, which is an old present of a family member, given to him around the age of 20 or so.

Identity

Personality:

He isn't the smartest guy in the world, that's for sure. He also isn't the most kind-hearted person either, seemingly taking care of his own before others and more than once running away from a situation, but once you get to know him, you can see that there is more that catches the eye. If you take care of him, he will take care of you. He's a believer of the status-quo and the karma, meaning that if you do something to him, he will do exactly the same to you, good or bad. Since stuff happened while he was a child, Óscar feels the need of love: Not just sexual love, but friendship and overall care. Most of the time you can find him listening to music, trying to zone himself out of the world, so he doesn't think about anything and just...be there. If he finds someone that needs him, he'll be there for them, but most of the time they don't return the favor, sending him into a spiral of sadness and drinking, thinking that nothing in the world would change if he wasn't here. He tends to hide under humor, most of the time being unfunny and/or offensive, but getting the job done and making him look like a normal unemotional idiot. Also, his movements are sudden and really... "special", often making use of his hands while talking to give them more emphasis.

Aside from that, he has different points of view about the world depending on his mood. Usually, he is a happy-go lucky individual that trusts people easily and is happy to help whoever needs it. But, when Óscar is going through a rough time or is just sad/angry, his manner of viewing the world around him turns really, really objectical. In that state, he views everything by facts and not emotions. Save a friend or someone that can give him something? Leave people to their death just so he can run away, or risk his own life for strangers? Although these are really extreme examples, Óscar can really, really go into them if his psyche gets turned around by things that happen.
Strengths:

- Tends to stay focused in dangerous situations.
- Very calm, down to Earth kind of person.
- Rarely will argue with other people, preferring to take the most diplomatic approach possible.

Weaknesses:

- When angered, he tends to insult/argue/fight with everyone else, later being filled with regret for a long time.
- Not the bravest guy around, staying behind and rarely risking himself for something that someone else can do.
- Gets really, really emotionally attached to people really fast.

Likes:

- He's a nerd, that's obvious. He may appear hipster at some degree, but the old cultures and history of the world really appasionates him. Guijarro hasn't studied none of that, of course, but he does know some interesting things here and there.
- Even though he may look rough on the outside, inside he's just a guy that likes normal (even cute) stuff. A cold night, watching TV near the fireplace with someone you love by his side: It's those kinds of things that make Óscar wish he had tried to go back with that girl on his younger years, it's those kinds of things that make him regret some decisions in life.

Dislikes:

- Overall, Óscar hates agressive people. He gets that sometimes you have to be pushy, or even threaten people to make them do better choices in life, but when you can talk things out and just calmly see the facts, why even bother with physical or psychological violence?

Fears:

- He is scared of not being loved. We live only to experience things, and love is one of the most important things in our lives, so, if no one cares about him: Why continue on living? If someone really, really appreciates you, they will at least think about how you're doing at times, remember you. He doesn't want to be forgotten in time, he wants to be remembered.

- Besides that, Óscar is also invaded by the fear of failing at something or letting down someone. As I've said before, people that care about you will remember you, and if you have let them down and are seen as a fraud or an useless piece of garbage: What good is it then?

- And, as all humans should have, he also fears losing someone. He has already lost many people during his earlier years, so, he should have adapted...right? No, humans are social animals by default, and if someone you have created a bond with goes away, then it hurts. And not only that, but the matter is only worse if the reason that they are gone is caused by your actions, or, yourself as a person.

Biography

He was born in Sweden, 2023. His mother was Swedish and his father Spanish, so the cultural exchange between the two helped him to start talking two languages at an early age. In 2029, when he was only 6 years old, his family moved back to Madrid (Spain), so his father could show him what was Spain like. On his 7th birthday, he got his first handheld video game console, and he became an addict to it, playing it nonstop and usually replaying the same games over and over, feeling that this was an unlimited source of fun. They didn't live in the best neighborhood of the city, numerous cases of vandalism and overall violence ran through the city, but he didn't experience anything.

When he was 8 years old, his mother experienced a very painful headache while having a family dinner: 3 days later she was dead, a very tiny vein on her brain had exploded and left her in a catatonic state, so the doctors had no reason to not unplug her. When his father told him, he felt a hammer on his heart, thinking how could this happen to him. On the next months, his father contracted larynx cancer, which was literally eating him from the inside: Even with his vocal cords removed, it wouldn't stop. Óscar had to see his father getting weaker and weaker each day, the hole in his throat getting bloodier and bigger, not stopping, until it happened: At 3 am, on his summer break, he woke up to find the dead corpse of his father on the bed, entirely covered in blood as he could only associate it to another vein being broken, this time the one on the neck, connecting to the brain. He was only 15 at that time.

After that, his father's mother and brother started to take care of him. He had to change home and meet new people, but, this was a refreshing change. His social life became better, opening up to more and more people and even meeting some interesting gals along the way, one which we'll call "Sarla" left a special place in young Óscar's heart after they broke up. He was far too young to truly understand the real meaning of love, but, could that be his other half? Could Sarla be the one to spend his whole life with? He'd never know, as they lost contact of each other shortly after.

With his legal age coming soon, he experienced what in Spain call an "Epifanía", which is realizing what was his purpose in life. He knew he wanted to be an actor. Óscar finished his obligatory studies and slowly started to make his way up in theaters and small cafés, in which he sang and played the guitar, to entertain the public and earn some extra money. He only starred in classical Spanish plays, such as "Don Quijote de la Mancha", "Don Juan Tenorio" and so on. But life wasn't going to put it easy for him: In 2043, when he was 20 years old, his fame started to decrease as another actor, jealous of his fame, started to spread false rumors. He didn't get called by any more companies to play in theaters, his friends left him alone thinking that he was some kind of pervert after hearing the rumors. One night, while exiting one of the bars in Vallekas (His neighborhood), the failed actor saw the man who ruined his career, his life. Drunk and mad with anger, Óscar started to follow the man to his own home, in which he confronted him. They started to argue, reaching the point of physical violence, starting to swing his fists at the man before realizing that he committed fatal mistake: Letting his nerves get the best of him. He quickly retracted his acussations and traveled far away from the rumours and his non-existant family.

Fast forward 7 years, the Óscar from before was dead, there was just a broken man, which was caused by the grief and anger of all the problems life had thrown at him for all of time. After the incident with Manuel Sardana, Óscar left Spain, flying to Texas, the place he thought that was the safest for a man that had lost everything. There, he tried to make a living by becoming a bounty hunter: Receiving training in small firearms and already improving his Karate and Judo skills from when he was young. He gained some fame, starting to even accept jobs for dangerous criminals, slowly making himself a respected man that went by the alias of Beardy.

Fast forward yet another 7 years, now a 34-year-old Óscar that has been going around countries for the length of his career as a bounty hunter. He retires, after some time, due to the travels slowly making him less and less sociable, not really being able to make any attachments because of his now old job. To take advantage of the situation, make use of his experience and participate in what he saw as an adventure, he signed in to try to join the expedition into the Mariana Trench. With his years of experience, training, and capabilities, he was accepted to maintain the security in the IRV.

This is not going to go as he planned since the beginning.

Skills and Stats

Gifted(+5):, Handguns, Hand-to-Hand.
Adept(+3):, Persuasion, SERE, Computer Science.
Average(+2):, Awareness, First Aid, Surgery.
Novice(+1):, Marksmanship, long guns, Stealth, Crafting, History.

Languages
Spanish: Native speaker.
Swedish: Advanced.
English: Advanced.
French: Basic.

Relationships

Relationship Status: Single.

Family:

-Father: Juan Carlos Guijarro, dead.
-Mother: María Victoria González, dead.

Opinions of Other Researchers/Crewmembers:

(I'll edit the relationships once we get to know each other.)

[TrippyNightmare]

so sad. . . .

[Elgappa]

Samuel von Altberg-Ehrenstein

Basic Information

Name: Samuel von Altberg-Ehrenstein
Nicknames: Sammy "Sam"
Gender: Male
Age: 34
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Nationality: German
Occupation: Chief-Navigator/Auxiliary Geologist

Appearance

Physique: Samuel holds an almost arrogant pride in his Physical Shape, and a such, tries his best, to keep himself in a good condition, even far below the sea.

Height: Standing at 6´2 (188 cm), his stern stance often makes him look a bit taller then he actually is

Weight: Broad Chested and with an matching Physic, Samuel weights 220 lbs, still holding much to his old "Boxer" looks,

Hair: Blond and mostly cut quite short, during trips underwater he mostly starts growing a beard

Eyes: Blue

Skin: Caucasian, rather pale, yet with a slight sunburn in the neck

Scars / Markings / Etc: "Schmiss", a pale white Mensur-Scar on his left cheek, from his time in a Student-Connection in Berlin

Clothing Description: Trying to match an old "Sea-Wolf" look, Samuel prefers long white Turtlenecks, shirts in navy-blue as well as matching Trench-coats. All his cloths are of high quality and tailor-made for him, some even with the Altberg-Ehrenstein coat-of-arms, or rather the redesign made in 2010, engraved in them

Inventory

• The Iron Cross First Class, awarded for Karl Heinrich, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein, MIA 1917 , Personal Good Luck charm
• Smoking pipe made out of Ebony Wood
• Personal Laptop
• Commander Hat of the "JGSV Salamander"
• Hip Flask, filled with Vodka
• Personal Notebook
• Family picture in front of the Family Estate
• Picture of his old Crew and himself in front of the "JGSV Salamander"
• Picture of his three Dogs. Balu, Nana and Churchill
• Dagger of his Student Connection, with the Inscription "Immer Voran, nie zurück!" [Always forwards, never backwards]

Identity

Personality:

Samuel is a competitive Person, who either actively or Passively always will try to compare himself and his achievements with others. As such, he can either be seen as a Foolhardy Glory-dog, with an matching Ambition, or as an annoying, arrogant Snob, depending on the person holding said view. Few can deny his Spirit through, as he will attack each task he has, with a grim devotion.
His competitive spirit aside, he holds respect for all, who he either sees as his equal, or his superiors, be it in skill or rank. These people will find a good and loyal ally and friend in Samuel, be it with an constant tone of friendly rivalry and at times even envy.

There is something cold about him at times, a strong spirit, that makes him an excellent Officer to serve on board on a Submarine, and allows him to both to withstand the effects of the isolation and the pressure of the service in an Iron Coffin below the waves. He lacks the calculating nature, that many of his ancestors have been infamous for, and even when he wont admit it, many of his decision making may be influenced by emotions and personal desires.

His competitive spirit has also tainted his view on relationships, especially with the other sex, which lead him to develop a slight Sexist personality, which wasnt helped by his upbringing in both an all-boys Boarding School and an all-male Student connection. A shameless flirt and content Bachelor, he does have an inability to deal with serious relationships and personal feelings towards women, and his normal response to such things are to leave the scene, rather then solve these "problems", as he likes to call them. Strong Women, are an enigma for him, and a fear that he still has a hard time to admit.

A quirk, that runs through the Family of Altberg-Ehrenstein is an obsession with the depths of the sea, an Obsession that seems to take on every Firstborn son of the Male line. Down this line, is not a single member who hasnt at least served in some way on board of a Submarine. A more guarded secret are the dreams of the "Man in front of the Temple" which they all share, a figure in an old World-War one diving suite, standing underwater in front of an old Hellenistic Temple, filled with light, about to step into it.

Strengths:
Samuels Bravery is surprisingly solid, even through born out of personal Arrogance and Competitive spirit. In situations of great stress, he will keep a cool head, be it just to be able to later tell the tale about his heroics. Being a Seasoned Navigator and Officer on board on a Submarine, he is used to the running of such an vessel, and short of a full breaking of a hull, has almost seen everything, and lived to tell the tale.


Weaknesses:
Samuel is overly confident in his ability, so far that he could be called out as Arrogant. Critic and Advise are neither wanted, nor well received, as he takes it as personal attacks against himself and his fragile Ego. In such situations, he will most likely flee, or if this is not an option, lash out, attacking the person verbally with any means possible. He is a man, looking for prestige and glory, and will go to great length to achieve them, readily risking the lives of others in the way, if the end would justify the means. This thirst for glory, can turn into an addiction, clouding his judgment, and pushing him beyond a reasonable man´s fears.

Likes:
- Recognition and Respect for personal achievements
- Efficiency! A skilled Crew and a well oiled machinery are enough to make Samuel Enthusiastic.
- The Deep Sea! Samuel holds, since his young childhood a deep obesssion with the deep blue sea, and longed to explore it
- History! A dilettante of personal making in most aspects of World History, Samuel is quite content with Reading for hours about dusty old Cultures and People.
- Personal Cooking and fine Food, the bitter-sweet sin of growing up in an Country-Estate with a personal, french Chef
- Affairs with no strings attached, and no lasting bounds
- Dogs, for he owns three, and still thinks that he should get a fourth one when he gets back home!
Dislikes:
- Cowardice! Samuel can easily lose his temper, as soon as he notice a small hint of disobedience due to personal fear. For him, Cowards have no place in this world, let alone in a Submarine.
- Food Rations and Preserved Food, for a life without good food is possible but senseless
- Confident and Strong Women, more so if they surpass him in Rank. Few in this world can easier crush his confidence.
- The French, because life is more fun with enemies
Fears:
- The Temple the man in the Diving Suite Stands in front of
- Mockery from his Peers and Friends
- Being seen as a "Loser" in terms of Performance, be it financially or Socially
- Being seen as a Coward himself, by people he respects and wants to be respected by

Biography

Samuel´s story begins in 1944, when his Great-Grandfather, Oberleutnante zur See Julius-Paulus, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein, would surrender himself, his U-boat and his remaning crew, to the American Navy, near the coast of Florida. Starving, and wounded, the Julius-Paulus explained, that a madness had overcome half his man, and that in a gruesome fight, most machinery were damaged beyond repair. Expect Julius-Paulus, most of the rest of the surivors would succomb either to their wounds, or to madness, screaming to be brought to the sea, so that they could swim towards the temple they longed for.
Julius would remain in the United States, marry an American, and find his fortune as an adviser to multiple american fishing companies and later investor in different, hightly profitable stocks, yet never would again in his lifetime would go near the sea, plagued by nightmares about a sunken city, and a man standing in front of a glowing temple.

---

Samuel von Altberg-Ehrenstein, was born in the Estate of his family in 2024. His family had returned, after the fall of the GDR, reclaming its estate from the newly Reunited Government, and even going so far, as to once more taking on the title of Nobility, rather then the simple Smith, their Grandfather, John-Heinrich, insisted on.
Born into Wealth, both new and old, Samuel had a cared, if not spoiled childhood. With his father, and well-connected Executive, after a short military career in the German Navy, and his mother a successful Lawyer, Samuel was mostly raised by a Nanny, seldomly seeing his parents, who tried to overshadow their lack of time, with gifts and a blind eye to what ever young Samuel would do.
A wild and willful child, he grew to a cruel and abusive Bully by the age of ten, and was thrown from his Private School with 13, after breaking a fellow students arm in a fight.

Send off to a Boarding School in the Bavarian Alps, the "Schwarzberg Internat", his childhood took a turn for the worse, as he suddenly himself learned what it meant to be bullied, after his arrogant and snobbish behavior earned him the spite of his fellow students. Growing depressed, his life took a turn, when he joined the local Boxing Club, in hopes to be better able to defend himself against the attacks of the other students, he was met with the strict tutoring of Hassan Cemcan. A former National Heavy Weight champion, and long-time bouncer, it was he, who was able to bring Samuel back on track, while also discovering his Talent for Boxing. Earning the respect of his Boarding School, by winning multiple local and National Youth-Championships, he soon found himself as a rising star in the National Boxing League.
While he before would spend every chance he got home, he would from now on remain even over the Holidays, living in a rented flat, while following a strict rhythm of Training, given to him by his new father figure, Hassan. His family had mixed feelings about his new passion, and while his grandfather, the patriarch of the family supported him, both his parents were shocked over such "Brutish Conduct" as they liked to call it.
It was shortly after his graduation, when once more, his hot headed nature, mixed with his arrogance would burn another bridge, as a simple dispute between him, and a fellow trainee at Hassan´s Gym after a night of drinking and clubing in Munich, lead to a fight, which would see the trainee in hospital, and Samuel almost in court, if it weren't for his parents influence. Yet, it was this time, that he went to far, and Hassan, without even hearing to his arguments, threw him out of his gym.
Disgruntled, Samuel´s Boxing career wouldnt recover, and after two more lost Championships, he threw the towel, and gave up on Professional Boxing.

Once more abusing his parents influence and money, he moved to Berlin, to study Engineering, rather unintrested in ever really picking up on it, prefering to remain a student as long as he could, greatly enjoying the Nightlife of Berlin. Joining a Connection, he made fast and good friends, while enjoying the good life, mixed with the thrill of Fencing, which after a drunken night, saw him with a scar over his left cheek. All in all, at this time in his life, there couldnt be enough following semesters for him.
This view would change rather quickly, after an Internship at the Growing Energy Giant "Jötunn Global", organized by his mother, who had went to University with its CEO, Ronald Korngold. Leading in Geo-thermal Energy research, its growing fleet of Submarines for Exploration and Prospecting, fascinated Samuel, in a way, that not even his still-passion, boxing, never did.

With a new fire, he rushed through his education, an constant intern at "Jötunn Global" and soon, he would even be able to join on a Research mission himself. Proofing himself capable, to handle his assigned tasks, a next one would follow. He may not like to hear it, yet in the end, it was his mothers connection to the CEO himself, who acquired him the offer to join the Jötunn Research Fleet, combined with a Full Sub-Naval Training, to turn him into a proper Misson leader. He accepted in an heartbeat, and broke of his half-done Master Thesis in Engineering. His passion would also show in his finale evaluation, as he was among the best five to ever pass the final Tests of his Subnautical Education, and in the year 2049, he was given command of the JGSV Salamander and its 20 men crew. It was on the evening of their first mission, that his grandfather would give him the Iron Cross of his ancestor, and give him the cryptic advise, not to look for the man in front of the Temple. Till this very Day, Samuel didnt understand.

What followed was a remarkable career in the Research-Fleet of Jötunn, a company, which after the energy-market Crash of 2052 became one of the leading Companies in the world, outlasting most of its competition. It was in the year 2055, when his ship was decommissioned, and Jötunn would turn to Drones, rather then manned submarines for exploration and Research. Offered a leading position behind a desk, Samuel reluctantly agreed, yet find little joy in his new challenges presented to him, longing for the tension of Deep-Sea exploration. It was during a Conference in Bern, that he was approached by representatives of an NGO, telling him about the Expedition. Rather enthusiastic about the prospect, he tried to win support in the company for the project, only to be turned down. Disgruntled with this, he resigned his position to join, what he saw as a higher cause!

Or maybe he just once more wanted to venture into the deep sea...

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Skills and Stats

Gifted(+5): Hand-to-Hand | Geology
Adept(+3): Engineering | Persuasion | History
Average(+2): SERE | Awareness | Marksmanship, long guns
Novice(+1): Military Science | First Aid | Computer Science | Anthropology

Languages
- German (Bilingual Upbringing)
- Russian (Bilingual Upbringing)
- English
- Classical Latin

Relationships

Relationship Status: Single
Family:
Harald-Regan, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein, Father, Alive
Tanjia, Grafin von Altberg-Ehrenstein (Born Skorzinski), Mother, Alive
Florian von Altberg-Ehrenstein, Brother, Alive
Karolina von Altberg-Ehrenstein, Sister, Alive
John-Heinrich Smith, Great-Father, Alive
Julius-Paulus, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein (later Smith), Great-Grandfather, Dead
Karl Heinrich, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein, Great-Great-Grandfather, MIA
Opinions of Other Researchers/Crewmembers:

Miscellaneous

Other: