[CHAR] Falling Skies: Reboot (Mecha, Space Opera)

[vietmyke]

Dossier: Ingram

Shaw, Ingram

Name: Shaw, Ingram
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Callsign: Boss
Kills: 23

Psychological Analysis:
Cool and level headed, yet confident and daring, Ingram is a the personification of a career pilot. A generally good natured man with strong feelings of camaraderie towards teammates, Ingram is fairly friendly, though not the most outspoken. He pushes and competes with his team with a combination of boasting and jabs, but is all business with a splash of sarcasm when on a mission. Prideful and loyal, Ingram cares little for politics and regulations and puts the survivablity of his team above all else. While not short tempered, Ingram can be explosive when properly riled up, and often encourages squadron members to take out frustrations with one another in a fighting ring. Casually boastful of his abilities, Ingram has a can-do attitude towards most tasks, but occasionally bites off more than he can chew- often when trying to shield his team from harm, and has a tendency to be overconfident.


Personal Record:
A UEE Squadron Leader, Ingram Shaw is the youngest of three, and an heir to Shaw Industries, a rather prominent name as the designer and producer of a variety of ship based weapon systems, as well as a small dabbling in MAS technology. Though the youngest, Ingram, much like his older siblings had a fairly rigid childhood, their parents seeing their lives fit to control however they well pleased. The Shaw children were taught at the most prestigious private schools, and given extensive private tutoring. Though the quietest of his siblings, Ingram's relatively warm demeanor and youth always served to bring people to his side. From birth it was known that Ingram wouldn't be the one to inherit the family business, not with two older siblings. Instead, he was to choose between a career in politics, or in the military. Being a young impressionable child born during wartime and raised with stories of heroic pilots, Ingram chose the later.

Ingram earned excellent grades in school, and quite easily received a scholarship to the Mars Military Institute, one of the most, if not the most decorated military academies in the Sol System. The Mars Military Institute was an extremely competitive area, success in this academy meant you were destined for greatness in military service as a true commander of the military. Failure, or even mediocrity meant you would find yourself in vitally important, but utterly boring staff and support positions. Ingram proved that he had what it took and more time and time again. Scoring high on aptitude tests, Ingram was given his choice between pursuing service as a Naval officer aboard combat vessels, or undergoing Mobile Armor Suit training. He chose the latter.

Put through rigorous physical and mental training, Ingram showed he was able of tactical thinking, leading his class-unit to the top during competitive field training exercises. Pitted against instructors and other teams of students, Ingram and his unit competed in simulated wargames, training them in both ground and space combat tactics. Graduating near the top of his class, Ingram was inducted into the 101st MAS Legion and assigned to the 8th Team at the age of 21.

A capable and talented MAS pilot, Ingram started his career with moderate success, but wouldn't receive any particular noteriety until 2720 during the Siege of Cerol. A massive surprise attack caught the UEE Fleets in orbit around Cerol with their pants down, and a vicious fight ensued. During the battle, Ingram's squadron leader was shot down as they were swarmed by large numbers of MAS. Managing to rally the remains of his squadron, Ingram would regroup with another depleted UEE MAS squadron and lead them on a counter offensive, their force managing to take down 6 Coalition ships and a dozen enemy MAS before the signal for a general retreat was given. Though the battle itself was a loss, Ingram and his surviving squadron members were awarded commendations for valor. The remains of Ingram's squadron and a few other depleted squadrons in the aftermath of that battle would be redesignated as the 7th Team, with Ingram as its Squadron leader. Since then, Ingram has commanded the 7th Team through several campaigns.

FTX-103 Sparrowhawk B

Designation: FTX-103 Sparrowhawk MkIb Custom
Role: Rapid Assault
Chassis: Medium
Description:
An advancement of the UEE Sparrow, the Sparrowhawk was built in response to complaints regarding the Sparrow's staying power. The resulting Sparrowhawk is a MAS combining the maneuverability of the Sparrow with heavier weapons and armor for more survivability. Though it trades the max speeds the Sparrow affords, the Sparrowhawk features armor comparable to the newer UEE Sentinel while still maintaining high speeds.

Ingram flies a heavily customized Sparrowhawk-B Unit. Fine tuned to reach top speeds well over that of a standard Sparrowhawk, as well as slightly improving its maneuvering capabilities, the versatile Sparrowhark-B Custom performs well at medium to close engagement ranges, with an emphasis on mobility.
Systems:

• Firestorm Missile System (Heavy) - Across the body of the Sparrowhawk- primarily the shoulders and back are a series of varied missile launchers to provide it with additional teeth. Loaded onto the shoulder mounted missile pods are 16 Micro Missiles. While each micro missile warhead is rather weak, the launcher makes up for it by overwhelming point defenses and protection with mass amounts of explosive projectiles. The Firestorm System also carries 8 more potent Claymore missiles, rated for general combat against most MAS. Finally, the Firestorm also carries 4 Longsword missiles- low tracking, but fast moving and high impact missiles meant to take on Heavy MAS and warships.
• Twin XBR-20 20mm Rotary Autocannon (Primary) - Built into the armor of each of the Sparrowhawk's forearms is a 6-barrelled rotary autocannon that fires 20mm Armor Piercing Incendiary shells at an adjustable fire rate of 2,000 or 4,000 rounds per minute. Each autocannon fires from a 500 round cylinder inserted into the rear of the forearm. 4 Additional cylinders are stored in containers in the Sparrowhawk's legs.
• E-21 Plasma Beam Saber (Primary) - A plasma beam saber used by the Sparrowhawk in close combat. The blade length can be adjusted, and its high energy output allows it to be a deadly close ranged weapon.
• Arm Mounted Scattershot Cannon (Secondary) - Mounted underneath each forearm of the Sparrowhawk are a pair of 80mm canister launchers. Each cannister fires a spread of superheated iridium pellets to melt through MAS armor at close range. Each forearm carries 8 cannisters.
• Head Mounted .50 Caliber Machinegun (Secondary) - A .50 caliber machine gun mounted on the Sparrowhawk's head, this light weapon provides the Sparrowhawk with anti personnel and small missile defense. It has a 500 round magazine.
• Countermeasure System (Utility) - The Sparrowhawk relies on a combination of speed, maneuverability, and countermeasures to avoid missiles.
• 'All Seeing Eye' Mk II Smart-Target AI (Utility) - Attached to the head unit and protected by a sheath of ballistic glass is a Smart Targeting AI system, allowing the Sparrowhawk to rapidly acquire enemies in close quarters, and attack and defend itself almost reflexively.
• Sparrowhawk Flight Booster (Utility) - A large set of boosters and wings mounted on the Sparrowhawk's back, allowing it to sustain flight in-atmosphere. It provides fairly high mobility and forward thrust, and the Sparrowhawk like its smaller cousin can fold into a flight mode for more efficiency.

[Yam I Am]

---

Hider

___________________________________ Lucina Anișoara Ionescu ________________________________________________________________________________________ 24 | Bucharest, Romania, United Earth Empire ___________________________________ [+] ▼ E X T R A I N F O R M A T I O N ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ► DOB - March 9 ► Height - 5'7" / 170cm ► Weight - 152 lbs / 69 kg ► Hair Color - Red ► Eye Color - Emerald ► Callsign - "DJ" ► Confirmed Kills - 21 -

D E T A I L E D A P P E A R A N C E If you were to stumble upon Lucina on the street - or more likely, at the bar or the nightclub - the immediate impressions she gives is that she has remained 16 for the past 8 years. With once-jet black hair now a perma-dyed crimson red, an active physique, and a full sleeve of tattoos with another in the works, it's clear that she went to college to party and hasn't abandoned that ideal since. So, all that considered...Lucina's a fairly typical army girl.

---_{P S Y C H E V A L}

Prone to impulsive behaviors, Lucina is the type of girl to get paid on the 1st and go broke by the 3rd. She lives fast and hard, and doesn't bother asking a lot of questions along the way, unless it's a snarky snide about why somebody seems so lame or boring in her eyes. All of the answers to life's many (annoying) mysteries are located at the bottom of a bottle, Lucina's very vocal about the fact that the booze along the outer worlds are as cheap as they are. And as soon as she gets approved for time on leave, she's rounding up the posse, hitting the town, and more than likely won't come back for a few weeks. Typically, that's how members of her regiment tend to meet her, for she's always the first one to ask who's down for drinks after a mission.

When asked about her personal life, Lucina tends to refract the question, either by giving all-too-honest of an answer, or by presenting a sardonic response. Lucina is an open book; That book just happens to be written while the author was on their two-week bender after a messy divorce. She's all too happy to recite it. She just doesn't see an overwhelming reason put on a show about it whenever she isn't asked.

---_{B I O G R A P H Y}

The wondrous love-child of an Imperial lieutenant on his vacation and the fated desperate woman he picked up at the bar, Lucina spent most of her childhood bouncing between the less-than-glamorous Bucharest metropolis and wherever it was her dad happened to be stationed during the few weeks a year he got custody over her. Having to adapt to new faces and circumstances all the time, Lucina was constantly dragged between worlds. Whether upon the mountains of Carpathia or among the stellar colonies a long ways from home, Lucina had little time to develop lasting friendships, often having to leave them behind as soon as they were made.

Once finished with primary school, Lucina was strongly encouraged to off to university, to which the University of Targovista Mars would be her institution of attendance, opting to pursue a degree in communication. At UTM, her academic performance was...notably torpid, seeing as she had channeled her newfound freedoms to entrench herself into UTM's vibrant social life instead of towards life as an intrepid scholar. Unsurprisingly, within her first semester she was placed on academic probation, and by the end of her freshman year, UTM had suspended her due to her frequent absences and poor marks. Faced into the prospect, Lucina withdrew before her sophomore year could begin, and began looking for other opportunities.

At that time, the UEE was recruiting around Mars for new candidates for its recently revamped Mobile Armor Suit program, and faced with options which seemed only barely less desirable than whatever could come from a life of being shot at, Lucina threw caution to the wind and signed on with a recruiter. While looking through her academic records, many of her superiors - her recruiter included - cast serious doubts over her capabilities for MAS training, citing her history of poor reliability and lack of discipline as the foremost concerns. They had attempted to dissuade her on many occasions, instead offering up positions in Military Police or Chemical Warfare, yet every time she turned down their offers and told them to, "Let (her) join the damn MAS." What her superiors did not know, much to their amazement, was that when Lucina took to something, she took off. Beyond exceeding their (admittedly very low) expectations, the instructors within her unit were thoroughly impressed by the aptitude scores, and after some "initial suspicions" were ruled out, Lucina was cleared for training and induced into the 101st Legion at the age of 20.

Her performance so far has certainly been commendable, and Lucina has so far gained a reputation for being a dependable and capable pilot. During her first few years alone, she has managed to score (some of her accomplices prefer the term "stole") a good number of confirmed kills, for her ambush-driven style of combat has led her to shine in the attritional conflicts of the current era. She eagerly pushes herself towards attaining ACE status as a MAS pilot, and with her performance and experience only honing with time, Lucina just may attain the coveted status sooner rather than later, if only for lack of any other perceivable goals...

---_{E Q U I P M E N T}

Standard MAS pilot equipment for Imperial service.

---_{R E L A T I O N S}

None at the moment.

-

---

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___________________________________ Umblător Blindat de Luptă 053 - Modelul C ________________________________________________________________________________________ Medium Mech | ROMARM ___________________________________ [+] ▼ E X T R A I N F O R M A T I O N ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ► Height - 36ft / 11m ► Manufacturer - Brasov ROMARM ► Role - Infiltration Assault ► Chassis - Medium -

R O L E A N D P U R P O S E Internally designated (and widely recognized) as an offshoot of the venerable PTX-051, the UBL-053 was designed as a stopgap between a heavier assault MAS and more lightly-armed reconnaissance vehicles. Intended first and foremost as an ambusher, the "Ileane" was created as a thorough breakthrough unit, where it would infiltrate enemy lines with the support of infantry and wreck havoc upon an unsuspecting enemy while still possessing respectable firepower. Notably, the Ileane is designed to be incredibly survivable, with the idea that even a disabled Ileane might be abandoned and its pilot resume the infiltration assault with the support of its accompanying infantry.

---_{W E A P O N S S Y S T E M S}

- M57 Light Support Weapon (Heavy): Developed as an LSW variant of the reliable M90 30mm Autocannon, the M57 most notably includes the replacement of its standard barrel with a fluted, chrome-lined barrel to improve cooling and long-burst accuracy, and the replacement of the fire control group with a fully-automatic firing selection. Feeding from either standard 100 round magazines or from 400 round drums, the M57 is able to provide accurate suppressive fire, pinning down threats at great ranges while the operator's unit maneuvers.

- MR553 DMR (Primary): An electrolaser designated marksman rifle intended for a counter-sniper role. While its energy retention doesn't quite come close to that of a "true" laser-based sniper platform, the MR553 is capable of disrupting many of the electronic systems many sniper MAS units rely upon.

- Pm.64 Multiple Launch Rocket System (Primary): The Pm.64 MLRS is a laser-guided micro rocket system with multiple payload options, ranging from antipersonnel to anti-armor to anti-aircraft. Capable of firing multiple rocket salvos in rapid succession, the Pm.64 is intended to provide ample explosive power, although the older-fashioned laser-guided system leaves a bit to be desired when accuracy is concerned.

- S11 PEMS (Secondary): The S11 Personal Electromagnetic Shield is a combat shield intended for use on a medium-chassis MAS. While its composition offers a fantastic weight-to-protection ratio, it is not optimized for intense firefights, and sequential barrages will break its defense.

- M15 Combat Knife (Secondary): The standard combat knife of Imperial MAS units.

---_{A U X S Y S T E M S}

- DS-3 Linear Frequency Deliminator (Auxiliary): By using the concepts of Linear Frequency Modulation, the waveform detection capability of radio detection (RADAR) systems can be substantially improved by increasing the duration of a transmitted pulse. Conversely, reducing the duration of a pulse improves the range resolution of the radar. Thus, Linear Frequency Deliminator is a versatile, wide-range jamming system, meant to scramble enemy detection systems via "bouncing" signals and returning back erroneous wavelength and pulse frequencies. The result is a capable Electronic Warfare system which can effectively disrupt enemy communications. However, a Linear Frequency Deliminator requires both good timing and coordination to use effectively, and requires frequent readjustment as not to be countered by enemy signalers who catch on to the interference.

- P3 Active Camouflage System(Auxiliary): A camouflage generator attached to the back of a MAS, it projects a field of particles over the MAS, effectively making it invisible to the human eye, as well as optical scanners, and tracking modules. The generator does not however shield the user from all scanners, and the generator unit itself dumps large amounts of heat upon deactivating. Camouflage generators are also notorious for consuming large amounts of energy, and the standard Active Camouflage generator can only continuously produce particles for a single hour before beginning to massively drain the power reserves of the MAS.

- P13M3 Active Defense System (Auxiliary): Created by Industria Imperială din Cluj, the P13 Active Defense System series is a proven and effective production copy of more common MAS countermeasure systems. The M3 variant boasts an improved starter agent and more refined aerosol composition to aid against heat and laser-guided tracking systems. Countermeasures do not take up a utility system slot.

-A Template by Load Wraith

[Whoami]

Pilot Profile

Redmond, Dearil

Age
32

Nicknames
The Ferryman

Kills
--DATA REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE IMPERIAL SECRET SERVICE--
--ANY ATTEMPT TO ACCESS SUCH DATA WILL BE CONSIDERED TREASON OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE--

Psychological Analysis
Dearil has become very aware of his own mortality after what he saw during his time in the Imperial Secret Service. Doing the dark and dirty handiwork of the Emperor has jaded Dearil over time, which negatively affected his relationship with his wife and daughter. Dearil has never looked back since leaving the ISS, and has found himself to be quite comfortable working a mundane job such as piloting a cargo transport. Dearil is a very lax kind of guy, preferring to throw formality out the window to live it up like every moment could be his last. He shows heightened levels of excitement and anxiety as he intends on leaving behind his military career in order to finally give his family the father it needs. With his MAS days behind him, Dearil often will often look back reverently at the good times as his chapter of duty draws to an end.

Personal Record
Dearil really doesn't talk much about his past, mainly because everyone knows he can't exactly say much about his history. It is no secret to his peers that Dearil once served in the Imperial Secret Service as a covert agent of the Emperor. Many people has simply resigned to the reality that finding out about the deeds he has committed during his mysterious tenure are best left unspoken. Being that his time in the ISS took up a large portion of his military career, Dearil found himself unable to relate to many of the rank and file soldiers of the regular military. Still, he tried his best. Once he was managed to transfer out of the ISS and become a transport pilot, Dearil took to his new job gleefully. No longer did he have to soak his hands with guilt.

Dearil has since flown for the 5th fleet in his trusty bucket of a transport, The River Styx. He has been running routine flights between all of the ships of the 5th fleet on the daily, transporting all the goods to allow for the fleet to operate at its best from weapons and ammunition to food and cigarettes. Being the guy who hands out the cigarettes to the stressed out marines and MAS pilots, Dearil has quickly been accepted among the fleet personnel as their favorite friend. Dearil's constant buzzing between all of the ships, taking small group of people and precious cargo to where they needed to go earned him the nickname 'The Ferryman'.

But the long times away from home and the constant threat of death at the hands of the Coalition has put a strain on Dearil's family life. After a while, Dearil struggled with that reality and eventually put in for his formal release from the UEE military. The process was slow and painstaking, but he had finally gotten the stamped forms back authorizing his release after the return of the 5th fleet.

Equipment
Personal Sidearm
Magboots
Picture of his wife and daughter
An old good luck charm that he has kept with him since his early days in the ISS

Transport Profile

The River Styx

Role
Heavy Cargo and Personnel Transport

Chassis
SHT-8 Carry-All

Description
The Carry-All is a multi-purpose heavy transport utilized by the UEE Spacy as a logistical craft. It is capable of a variety of cargo such as ship components, heavy weaponry, ground vehicles, MAS units, as well as up to a platoon of personnel. The Carry-All is capable of both spaceflight and atmospheric flight, and can also withstand the dangers of atmospheric reentry. Additionally, the Carry-All is equipped with a small warp drive to enable it to jump small distances independently. This warp drive practically allows a Carry-All to circumnavigate planets to run vital supplies to distant ships of the same battlegroup.

While Carry-Alls are traditionally used for logistics, they are large enough and armored enough to be used as combat dropships for heavy equipment into a hotzone. They feature only a very limited amount of firepower however, and thus they are required to be escorted by MAS units or fighters to avoid interception when being used in this role. Carry-Alls are large supply ships, and thus they require a rather sizeable landing zone on planet surfaces. They are not the best option for mountainous terrain or heavily forested regions. The Carry-All can hover however, which allows it to come to a stop over rough terrain in order to safely deploy MAS units from above.

Systems
Twin MG-88 Nose Turret

Mounted on the nose of the Carry-All is a twin-barreled ballistic repeater that fires fifty caliber rounds. It is adequate enough to provide suppressing fire to soft bodied targets such as infantry, ultra-light MAS units, and light vehicles. The weapon cannot however hold its own against harder targets like full on MAS units, tanks, fortifications. Additionally, the tracking on the turret is notoriously slow, which makes it ineffective for dogfighting or dealing with fast moving targets.

[Rapid Reader]

Pilot Profile: Alcántara, Clara

"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti

Appearance:
Clara measures in at a modest 5 ft 5 in when standing on the very tips of her toes. However, her short stature has noticeable advantages in terms of her comfort in even the most cramped cockpits and regarding her ability to tolerate higher g-loads. Pragmatic to the core and deeply dedicated to maximum efficiency in her private life, Clara keeps her chestnut colored hair cut short and rarely does much to maintain it. Her calm eyes are cast in a shade of gunmetal grey and mirror the mostly collected expressions that travel across her features. Hailing from Colony 725-T, she possess a pallor that is the composite of her parents and her skin is a light shade of olive.
Name: Alcántara, Clara
Age: 23
Rank:O-2 2nd Lieutenant
Callsign: Zoom
Kills: 1

Psychological Analysis:

Steeped in more books and technical manuals than any one person should be, Clara Alcántara is a test pilot locked in an endless battle with gravity and the limits of human physiology. Pairing a natural technical aptitude with an intuitive ability to pilot Mobile Armor Suits, Alcántara possesses many of the traits required to excel as a test pilot. Calm and steady even under fire, Alcántara is able to think clearly and problem solve complex issues even when these issues occur in the middle of combat and at g's high enough to induce unconsciousness.

With deft movements of her controls, Clara flies through the midnight of space effortlessly, an interstellar feather gently drifting in the star strewn winds, and stoically accepts her place as a test pilot constantly fighting for more speed in a universe ensnared by gravity.

The bane of any sane mechanic, Alcántara has made it her habit to push her MAS far past the bleeding edge of what could be considered safe or usually survivable. She rarely bring her MAS back in pristine condition and she's known for managing to buckle armor plating with high sustained g-forces more frequently than any manual says should be possible. Embracing the risk of being a test pilot, Alcántara lives her life on the cusp of G-force induced loss of consciousness (g-loc), Alcántara has a knack for making incredible high speed shots and performing maneuvers that threaten her own safety. While she can best be described as an aggressive pilot, Alcántara is not reckless, and she claims to risk only enough to accomplish the objectives of the current mission.

Seemingly unburdened by her professional career, Clara has managed to separate her persona as a test and combat pilot from her persona as Ana the person. She is friendly, if a bit reserved, and is amicable in most social situations. Far from a loner, she nonetheless takes care to spend time by herself and if left unattended she is likely to bury her face in one of the many books or convoluted technical manuals she keeps on her personal data pad.

Personal Record:

An Interview with a Test Pilot

"Steiner and Thompson?"

Clara shook her head, "Dead."

"You're sure?"

Another pointless question, another wasted breath. The briefing room felt wrong. The air felt hot. Her skin was on fire and she felt the adrenaline coursing through her veins, "I'm sure."

"How can you be sure, Lieutenant Alcántara?"

Alcántara tried to stare a hole through the scientist's skull. Five minutes, five minutes in, and she already wanted to vent him out of an airlock, "Thompson's reactor went critical. He didn't have time to punch out and even if he had, he would have been caught in the blast wave."

"And Steiner?" the Commander added, nodding respectfully. Clara trusted her. She was the real deal. A careerist through and through, but she wasn't bad, not as far as high ranking officers went.

"We had to split up. I broke left, away from the colony, he broke right towards the colony. A squad of Gramrs took him out. Souped up models. Veteran pilots. A new variant. I haven't seen a Gramr move like that before, not that fast, not that well. He bought me enough of a head start. I got one of them in a derelict field. The rest couldn't track me with all the radiation."

"Unfortunate, very unfortunate, the data those suits carried was invaluable," Zamorano began. Clara listened to the Chief Engineer, burying her anger beneath tired eyes. He didn't know. He didn't understand. He hadn't watched her friends die. He didn't care. All he cared about was telemetry. Steiner had warned her. She'd tried to tell her.

"What my esteemed colleague is trying to say," the Commander interrupted, cutting off the scientist with a sharp wave of her hand in his direction. "What we would like to say is that we are sorry, very sorry to hear about the tragic deaths of Lieutenant Commander Thompson and Lieutenant Steiner. They were good pilots. They were good people. They were our friends and they will be missed."

"They knew the risks, they knew what they signed up for, Commander Wright," Clara replied half-heartedly, feeling a sob tugging at back of her throat. Thompson deserved better. Steiner deserved much better. The UEE owed them more than some weak condolences in a briefing room.

"What happened out there, Lieutenant?" Wright continued, her voice laced with carefully chosen sympathy. "This was supposed to be the final flight test. Rules of engagements precluded-"

"The Coalition happened," Clara replied bitterly. "We were following the projected ingress route when-

"You were supposed to avoid engaging enemy forces! You were only supposed to watch them! You were supposed to evade them if they spotted you!" the engineer shouted, his red turning a unflattering shade of red.

"We tried. They ran us down. We didn't have any other options and so we fought."

"That's not good enough, Alcántara! Not good enough by a long shot. You're supposed to be the best. You're a test pilot, you're supposed to be the very best the UEE has to offer!" Zamorano roared, jabbing his data pad with his finger as if he was stabbing a knife into her heart with each jab.

"Chief Engineer Zamorano," the commander attempted. "Please keep your voice down-"

The engineer brought his data pad down on the table so hard that Clara was surprised that the screen didn't crack. "Mars Military Institute. Top of your class. 52nd Research and Development Squadron. Three years. Thompson and Steiner were supposed to be just as good! Better even! You were supposed to bring back my prototypes in one piece!"

"ZAMORANO! ENOUGH!" Wright ordered, her clinched fist hammering down on the table. "I've heard enough about your precious prototypes to last me a lifetime. If you can't control yourself, then I will have you escorted to your quarters. Is that understood?"

"Yes," Zamorano said with disinterested shrug. Clara could see the sweat pooling at edges of his forehead. He knew better than to play games with the Commander. She didn't make idle threats, and she outranked him. She outranked him by a couple of decades.

"What about my MAS?" Clara interjected, hoping to catch the Chief Engineer before he recovered.

"My prototype?" Zamorano hissed. "Scrap."

Reeling, Alcántara gripped onto armrest of her chair. She knew the mission. She had worked on the project for two years. She knew everything there was to know about the prototype MAS. Everything that mattered and then some. She had loved her MAS. She had loved her MAS like an old friend. And now it was gone. They were gone. All of them.

"There wasn't much left of it after you crashed it into the hanger bay," the engineer lectured, with a disgusted frown. Clara could feel the scorn emanating off of him. He was annoyed. He was more than annoyed. He was furious. And it almost made her glad that she had sent the prototype careening into the wall of the hanger at close to 350 kilometers per hour. If only it hadn't been the only one. Clara winced. They'd only ever had three working prototypes. Two years and all they had to show for it was seven wrecked Mobile Armor Suits and twice as many bodies.

"And the data? Did we manage to-"

"We managed to recover it! No thanks to you. It took us five hours to dig the black box out of the wreckage and ten more to salvage the data."

Clara took a deep breath, loosening her grip on the edge of the chair, a smile tugged at the edge of her mouth. She could die happy. They could take her wings, they could bury the data, but she knew, and they knew. She hadn't let them down. She'd landed a burning prototype MAS at 500 kilometers per hour without so much as a single functioning guidance system and they couldn't take that from her. No matter how hard they tried. No matter what old friends the Chief Engineer called on.

"Do you have anything else that you would like to add, Alcántara?" Commander Wright said.

"Ma'am, just a question," Clara replied, straightening up in her chair. "Is the project canceled?"

"Canceled? No, no by the Heavens no," Wright said with a chuckle and as she turned to Zamorano, it seemed to Clara that even the Chief Engineer was on the verge of smiling. "The data you brought back to us was lovely. The Brass were pleased, real pleased in fact. A twenty-five percent increase in performance is no small thing and for three suits to take out most of a Coalition task force is no small feat."

"I'm sorry, what?" Clara managed, feeling her heart pounding against her ribs. Her bruises screamed with the effort and she felt suddenly light headed.

Commander Wright smiled gently, offering a knowing look, "Congratulations, Lieutenant, flight testing of Project [-Redacted-] has been deemed a complete success. Combat testing is set to begin within two weeks and effective immediately you are transferred to the 7th MAS Squadron, 101st Legion."

Equipment:
Like any sane military personnel operating in an active war zone, Clara carries a standard issue UEE sidearm on her person and a well-stocked MAS pilot survival kit in her MAS. Minimalistic in terms of her possessions, Clara does keep an encrypted data pad stuffed to the brim with old books and highly classified technical manuals.

MAS Profile: SRS-717 Peregrine Prototype

Appearance: Painted a dashing shade of blue with gold trim, the Peregrine is a sleek MAS that screams speed, speed and lots of speed.

Flight Mode

Mobile Armor Suit Mode

Designation: SRS-717 Peregrine Prototype
Role: Rapid Response / High Speed Scout
Chassis: Light
Description: Featuring a high-powered generator developed in a joint project between Dassault Aviation and the UEE, the Peregrine is a sate-of-the-art prototype MAS designed to provide unparalleled speed and maneuverability. Boasting a surprisingly powerful armament for a light MAS, the Peregrine is a notoriously difficult MAS to operate and requires a skilled pilot comfortable operating at the very limits of human physiology to reach its full potential. Stripped of any armor that might limit maximum performance, the Peregrine sacrifices direct pilot and MAS survivability, and instead relies on almost completely on the pilot avoiding any incoming enemy fire.
Systems:

• Rheinmetall MK 508 - 120mm Autocannon (Primary) - A prototype weapon developed as a private venture by Rheinmetall and submitted to the UEE in response to a requirement for a heavy MAS weapon intended to be used against newly developed Coalition MAS appearing on battlefields across UEE controlled space in growing numbers. Relatively light for a high caliber autocannon, the MK 508 has proven to be well suited to this role and is capable of brining down even heavy MAS with only a few hits. To allow the MK 508 to be mounted in smaller mobile armored suits, the cannon is quite compact and has been optimized for a high rate of fire at the expense of long range ballistic performance.
• Saab Bofors Dynamics Advanced Missile System / SBD AMS 85 / "Rapier" (Primary) - The latest and greatest from the Swedes at Saab Bofors Dynamics, the SBD AMS 85 represents the latest and greatest in terms of modular advanced missile systems. Holding a respectable payload of 6 Claymore, 6 Micro, and 2 Longsword missiles in a standard configuration, the AMS 85 can also be be modified with minimal preparation to carry different mission appropriate payloads as needed.
• IPG Photonics Micro Laser Defense System / IPGP MLDS 2035 (Secondary) - Rather than relying on cumbersome ballistic system, prone to running out of ammo or exploding when damaged, the Peregrine utilizes four short range micro lasers to deal with softer targets such armored vehicles, missiles, and infantry.
  a lightweight, low-cost and modular laser-based infrared protection
• Compact Beam Saber/ EB-21C / "Stiletto" (Secondary) - A compact plasma beam saber, with limited power capacity, the EB-21C is intended to be utilized for quick strikes targeting critical components of enemy MAS or vehicles.
• Dassault Aviation Flight Booster System / DA-597 FBS / (Utility) - The result of thirty years of research conducted by Dassault Aviation, the DA-597 flight consists of two massive flight boosters that take up much of the body of the Peregrine. Powered by an equally ambitious and advanced generator, the DA-597 puts out an unprecedented level of vertical and horizontal thrust that at maximum throttle input borders on completely uncontrollable. The end result is that the Peregrine is blisteringly fast and provided the pilot can remain conscience, few things in space can outmaneuver or outrun the Peregrine.
• Westinghouse Electric Corporation Upgraded Targeting Suite / WX-357 UTS (Utility) - To facilitate high speed and high angle deflection shots that border on the impossible, the Peregrine has been equipped with a cutting-edge and custom built target suite developed by the researchers at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Utilizing a smart AI trained on data collected from some of the best aces that the UEE could find, the WX-357 upgraded targeting suite rapidly analyzes target range, speed, environmental factors, and pilot MAS movement to provide the Peregrine pilot with projections that allow for accurate fire even at maximum speeds.
• Honeywell Advanced Threat Countermeasures System / HON-95 ATCS (Utility) - A lightweight, modular protection system that utilizes flares, chaff, and modulating laser pulses to confuse missiles' guidance systems causing them to miss their target.

[Dog]

Andrew Moore

Appearance: Image of Moore
Name: Moore, Andrew
Age: 40
Callsign: Apple - Andrew often likes to bake, given if he has time for it at all, and will bake all forms of apple-based products that range from apple-pies to apple-tarts. He really just like apples is all.
Kills: 20 (5 MAS, 5 Warships, 10 Fortresses)

Psychological Analysis: Andrew Moore is very gentle in his mannerisms. He takes things very calmly and slowly. He is not one to rush. There is something very methodical and deliberate about the ways that he does things. We can also see this in his speaking as well. He takes time to think about what he will say next. We never saw him talk out of order. On the topic of his speech, he has a very soft voice. A calm and smooth tone, if you will. If anything, Moore appears to be a very friendly man. He is not harsh or mean to anyone nor he is hiding anything below the surface. There is a very delicate touch to him. Our team can not exactly explain it. But do note that Moore does not like to speak about his military experience all too much, especially to strangers. He normally just gives very vague or very detailed reports on it, mainly the vague part. We can only guess that he has some memories that he does not like to remember, and we will leave at that for now. On another note, Moore is very honest. He will speak his mind on many topics that range from food to politics, but he is very mindful when and where he speaks.

Personal Record: ”Report on Andrew Moore: Details on the man’s past is quite scarce since Moore does not like to speak about his past nor does he really remember a lot of it, but we have managed to pick out some key details to form some-kind of biography on his early life. Andrew Moore was born extremely poor with his parents unable to meet expenses. Luckily for the Moore family, government welfare programs managed to offset some of those costs of living. Public schooling was Andrew’s primary method of education. The only details that he gave during his whole sixteen years of public education was, as to quote him, “good and swell”. Upon interviewing his teachers, they noted that Andrew Moore was a very lovely student and generally kept up with his grades and studies. Outside of the classroom, we managed to find out that he only had a few friends that he kept as very close friends throughout his whole public schooling. Surprisingly, he still keeps in contact with them.

Upon further investigation, our team has nothing else to note down that would be of significant value, except for the financial struggles that still plagued Andrew’s life. Moore graduated with a high school diploma but did not have the grade-records to get into any of the higher colleges within his local area. Moore did not opt to join a community college and instead joined the army. The main driver behind his decision was mainly financial as the military offered a very generous benefit for enlistment. As noted by Andrew himself, he wanted to pay off the debts for his family. Moore was fortunate enough to give us a detailed recount of his experiences at boot-camp and later infantry combat training. These details can be found on the next page. For now, we will generalize. Andrew noted that he did not particularly like the military atmosphere of his superiors, often overbearing as said by Moore. While that may be, Andrew continued to march on with basic training. Over time, he got used to it. Moore had great respect for his fellow soldiers while harboring quite the dislike for his officers.

After basic training, Andrew was moved into the 204th Legion - a garrison for one of the colonies. A few months later, the war started. Moore did not share a lot about his time in the war itself. Quoting him, he told us to “look up the records and you’ll find everything that you need to know about my military experiences.” We did as told and found that the 204th Legion was reassigned to more active duty than being a simple garrison. We noted a total of two major campaigns that Moore was involved in. The first one was the Basil Campaign. That involved a spearhead into Coalition frontier planets, resulting in brutal sieges. The other was the Samuil Campaign. This time, the 204th Legion had to retake captured planets from Coalition hands. We asked Andrew about the campaigns, and all he said was “it was bloody brutal.”

After those two campaigns, Andrew Moore took a short “break” from combat to train as a technician. It was around this time that the Empire has offered new opportunities for veterans. This was about the mobile armor suit program, a response to the Coalition Mobile Armor Division. Andrew was given the opportunity and joined. Moore said that he was a-part of the 6th Mobile Suit Force and that does line up with the records.

From now on, we can only rely on Andrew Moore himself to give us the rest of his history. Our team does not have access to any of the flies that concern the last campaign of the 6th Mobile Suit Force. Moore gave us a very brief overview of what occurred. He said that the Coalition had cut their way deep into the outer-planets, getting dangerously close to a core-world. His division was sent over to stabilize the situation at hand. Once the front was held, Moore was then involved in the ensuing counter-attack. For his duty, Moore was given the chance to join the 101st Mobile Armor Force. He took it, of course.” - Personnel File of Andrew Moore.

Equipment: Nothing out of the ordinary for his job.

T-120

Appearance: Image of T-120 in Battle
Designation:T-120 (Mass Produced)
Role: Heavy Assault Walker
Description: The T-120 is the product of Chelyabinsk Heavy Industries (CHI), located in the Neutral States. The mobile suit itself is a highly reliable, durable, mod-ability, and easy to repair heavy model. This makes it very common among mercenaries and other nations that are unable to provide their own heavy-duty mobile suits. In exchange for such endurance, the T-120 is not well suited for speed or elegance. Most often, the T-120 is used as a heavy infantry support platform or a heavy-breakthrough vehicle: stuffed with the heaviest guns, armor, and shields. Unlike the mobile suits of the United Earth Empire and the Coalition, the T-120 was made with a very different design philosophy. Its rough and industrial appearance is a result of the need, or want, for a mobile suit to be able to take heavy punishment and dish out punishment.

As for how Andrew got his T-120, it was not all that complex. He needed it for a mission but kept his suit since he liked it a lot.

Systems: Kirov Superheavy Lascannon (Superheavy) - This direct-fire laser cannon isn’t all that threatening in appearance, but it can easily punch through shields and armor alike without much effort. The fast maturity of laser technology has allowed the Kirov Superheavy Lascannon to be a deadly weapon on the battlefield - sporting better and cheaper focusing chambers, cooling systems, and other mechanisms vital to its operations. The lascannon is mounted on the right lower-chest, and its inner-workings located in the back of the T-120. The rate of fire for the cannon is 32 shots per minute with the range being as far as the sensors of the T-120 can go.

MRL-20 (Primary) - The MRL-20, or multiple rocket launcher-20, is a single pod missile delivery system that contains 8 missiles. The T-120 has a twin-linked system of two pods on its upper-chest. Each missile has the ability to track its target with the goal of hoping to overwhelm counter-systems. One or two missiles can easily disable a med-mobile suit. Add more missiles to the equation and you will get a ruined enemy mobile suit.

M-10 Melter (Primary) - The M-10 Melter is a direct result of the Basil Campaign, in where Coalition planets were heavily fortified with a series of fortresses and bunker complexes. The M-10 Melter was a solution to that problem. The weapon in question is essentially a close-range plasma flamethrower that was meant to melt walls of metal and concrete. Now, the melter was not meant for MAS combat, but it can be used as such in a pitch. The melter is mounted on the right under-arm.

Missile Defense System-6 (Secondary) - The MDS-6, or the Missile Defense System-6, is a hard-kill defense system mounted all over the T-120’s body. Sensors will detect any incoming object and send forth penetrators to intercept it.

M60 20mm Autocannon (Secondary) - self-explanatory to what it is - has a fire rate of 320 rounds per minute. The weapon is mounted under the left underarm. An ammo backpack supplies the rounds needed, located at the back, and has 4,000 rounds.

Countermeasure System (Utility) - Chaff and flares. Very self-explanatory.

‘Rhino’ Defense Package (Utility) - In exchange for mobility, the T-120 has undertaken an extensive overhaul of its armor and bulkheads. Not only does it add more armor to the upper chassis, but it also adds armor to the arms, legs, and everywhere else. In addition, more bulkheads and internal support-structures have been installed to further enchant protection for the overall chassis. Combined with the alright high-durable nature of the T-120, Andrew’s mobile suit is considerably tankier, albeit at the cost of some mobility.

Class 2 Fortress Shield (Utility) - Class 2 fortress shield operates in a similar fashion to reflex shields. The basic designs and method of shielding are all the same, but there are some key differences. First among them is the higher-capacity of damage that these shields can take; a result of increasing the size and scale of the shield gens. The second is the slower recharge rates because of said shield generators and their different inner-workings. Lastly is the weight of the generators, reducing mobility by a decent margin. Combined together with Rhino, the T-120 has very exemplary staying power.

[Hawthorne]

Dossier: Etienne

Appearance: A lean, muscular man, slightly on the taller end of the spectrum. Long, red-brown hair typically tied up when doing fieldwork, or when in combat. Short beard, but no mustache. Freckled, white skin and brown eyes. Jolly expression and grin. Calloused hands used to hardship with the scars to prove it. His heart and lungs replaced with bionic substitutes, which have improved his health significantly. Left arm has been replaced with a mechanical prosthetic, which has a dock that allows him to attach any of his power tools into, if necessary. Looks younger than he actually is.

Dieuseul Robert "Bob" Etienne

Name: Etienne, Dieuseul Robert
Age: 33, chronologically older.
Callsign: "Bob", as a shortening of his second name. Supposedly a reference to an ancient vintage children's cartoon several centuries ago, though he's never seen it himself.
Kills: Nine (Two MAS kills, four bunker kills, two fortress kills, and a warship kill)

Psychological Analysis: A simple man of simple pleasures. Dieuseul loves his work, is confident in his skills, and when the working day is done, he would love nothing more than a cold beer and good company. He has a friendly demeanor, and a live and let live attitude to most things. Surprisingly well-educated when it comes to mathematics, engineering, and architecture. When on the job, he doesn't complain, and he when the going gets rough, he hunkers down and does his work with a grin.

Duty being a part of his work, he follows orders as best he can, though he doesn't enjoy the act of killing, instead choosing to see combat as an unfortunate incident that must be done. Dieuseul would love nothing more than to leave the war and settle down, but in his own words, he "has to make sure there's a home to go back to, first." He's not a religious man, instead choosing to hedge his bets on the potential of humanity. In his off-time, he likes relaxing in the breakroom, watching intergalactic television, and occasionally working with his tools to make something.

Personal Record: Born on the fringes of galactic society, Dieuseul Robert Etienne was one of several children in a family of spacefaring construction workers and miners. The Etienne family lived in Liberty Point, a colony in the Free-Enterprise Zone, working underneath the local mining company. They lived modest lives within the system's asteroid belts, harvesting ice and minerals from the asteroids to turn them into water and materials respectively.

With a lack of career options, Robert naturally also joined the family business. As a blue-collar worker, he made enough money for himself to live a modest lifestyle. His life was largely uneventful barring the occasional skirmish on the frontier, but that much was to be expected in a place like this. With no particular desire to emigrate towards the coreworlds, or to press his luck with a deep-space expedition, the man continued as-is for years on end. During his stint as a worker, he picked up certifications on how to drive small ships, operate heavy machinery, and even how to pilot a MAS.

As conflicts arose, however, things went from relatively peaceful, to uncomfortably tense. Pirate and criminal activity within Liberty Point began to swell as the UEE began to press in on the place. They had lived on a barren rock, but the pirates felt that it was their barren rock, and that they'd fight tooth-and-nail for it-- the pirates escalated matters, organizing a violent takeover of the colony. The colony militia, caught by surprise, fought and died, or had to surrender. Some of the militiamen had even turned over to the side of the pirates, marking the first point in Liberty Point's descent into lawlessness.

The civilians of the town were soon forced into what was essentially slavery, the pirates taking a heavy tithe of their resources. As was the case with criminals, if you give them a cent, they'd take a pound. The Etienne family, Dieseul included, toiled away in the mines, while the pirates plucked the fruit of their labor for themselves. With unrest growing, the people of Liberty Point had a plan... but they'd need the Empire's help for it.

At great risk to themselves, a skiff from Liberty Point was dispatched to alert the Imperials of their plan. All seemed to go well, but soon, the pirates had moved to round the people of the colony up-- it had seemed that there was a rat. Instead of surrendering quietly, the colonists sprang into action, their plan now triggered far too early. As the people armed themselves with whatever they could get their hands on, they could only hope that the Imperials would hear of their plan soon enough.

A bloody battle lit up the void black sky as they began their impromptu revolution. Some were driving weaponized ore haulers, while others were within armored exo-frames meant to assist in construction. A rare few were within proper Mobile Armor Suits-- Robert included, piloting the Hephaestus. The battle was long and hard, and it was not in the colonist's favor. Having received critical wounds in the midst of battle, and no possible medical treatment in sight, Dieseul decided to put his faith in the people and head into cryosleep. It wouldn't heal him, but it would keep his body in a state of not-dying. If they unfroze him and tended to him quickly, perhaps there was a chance.

The rest was up to them, now.

---

The next time Robert had awoken, he was in an advanced medical facility receiving treatment for the wounds he had received... seventeen years ago. As it turned out, Imperial forces arrived at Liberty Point just in the nick of time, driving the pirates away. Although some of the colonists were not pleased to have had to hand over sovereignty of their beloved rock, most simply wanted stability-- which the Empire could thankfully provide.

As for the reason as to why he was only being treated now, it had seemed that the Empire had scanned his injuries within the caskets, and had to shuttle him around until they could find a hospital good enough to house him. As a critically injured individual in cryostasis, conditions not only had to be good but perfect. Such treatments were exceedingly expensive, more than what a family of blue-collar workers could provide.

And thus, the Etienne family worked themselves to the bone to accumulate the money needed for his treatments. If it was any consolation, they had all the time in the world. By the end of it, though, they had managed it, and the operation had gone off without a hitch. For a moment, Robert wondered if it would have been easier for him to have died, but instead, he focused on the fact that he was alive. With happiness in his heart, he returned to his family.

But a young man frozen in time had little to do once he returned home. Liberty Point had been an Empire town for seventeen years, and it showed. Things weren't the same anymore. The majority of the Etienne family had died in the uprising, died in mining accidents, or had long since left for greener pastures. All that remained was his younger sister, now older than he was, and terminally ill from years of dust inhalation.

Dieseul remained by her side until her death several years later.

As a simple man with simple desires, complicated things made him think about his next move. Robert was not a particularly ambitious man, and while he could emigrate towards the coreworlds, he had no skills aside from what he already knew. He could remain in Liberty Point, but then what? He pondered this long and hard, but then decided upon something he had never even considered before this: he would join the military.

The man took the ancient, run-down Hephaestus his family had owned and signed on for the Imperial Navy. He was in good physical health, had known how to pilot a MAS, and had even seen actual combat before. His mech was retrofitted and repaired, and soon, he was transferred to one of the many Mobile Armor Forces. He whet his teeth there, gaining additional training and combat experience. This campaign continued for a while before he was transferred once more towards the 101st Mobile Armor Force.

Equipment:

Engineer's Flight Suit	A vacuum-sealed full-body suit for use in the pilot's seat, as well as for exterior repair jobs.
Plasmacutter	A handheld power tool with a miniature reactor. Can cut through rocks and steel alike, and can also be used to weld something into place.
Multi-tool	A battery-operated power tool that can be used for anything the plasmacutter can't handle.
Toolbox	Contains an assortment of tools and supplies that can be used to maintain his weapons, equipment, and prosthetics.
Unfinished Exoskeleton	A personal project. When he needs to do any real heavy-lifting, he just borrows one of the suits from the hangar, but it's nice to have something to work on.
Colonial Arms Coilgun Revolver	Robert's personal sidearm. A six shot slugthrower that can deliver frontier justice at 5,000 mph.
Personal Effects	Civilian clothes. Mementos of home. Pictures of family.

MAS Profile: ICR-309

Appearance: A far cry from the sleeker, military-grade MAS that typically take the forefront, the Hephaestus lives up to its name as an ugly, asymmetrical mech that towers over many of its peers. Its hull is patched up with varying qualities and shades of metal and is painted in a drab construction worker yellow, a matte black, and a reflective grey. This Mobile Armor Suit certainly won't win any awards for style.

Still, its rugged, brutalist appearance aside, it's clear that it was made with function over form in mind. Its simple, bipedal design makes it easy to repair, and the lifter frame exoskeleton provides a 'backpack' and second set of arms for general use. The reinforced cockpit gives the pilot a full view of what's ahead of them, and cameras in the back show side and rear views. This cockpit can be opened up to let the air out, sealed shut in a combat situation (switching all views to rely on external cameras), or even ejected entirely, if push comes to shove.

ICR-309 Hephaestus C

((As I couldn't find a singular proper image that fit the design I was going for, I've selected five of the most relevant pictures. You are free to combine themes of each one together, taking artistic liberties as you see fit.))

Designation: ICR-309 Hephaestus C (Custom)
Role: Industrial Work Unit (Retrofitted for Field Construction, Entrenchment, Repairs, and Demolitions)
Chassis: Heavy
Description: The Hephaestus is an all-purpose heavy-duty construction, mining, and repair MAS for use in various environments. Although not as popular in the coreworlds due to its steep price tag, high maintenance cost, and large stature, it found great success within the Free-Enterprise Zone and other fringe colonies, where its rugged build and capability for self-sufficiency allows it to thrive. A highly-valued workhorse in any colonial industrial line, many of its kind were integral in the starting phases of any spacefaring organization, whether it be an asteroid mining company, a burgeoning company, or simply a well-equipped salvager.

Thus, when the Great War began, many Hephaestus units beat their plowshares into swords and went into combat. Although mostly valued for their ability to build, mine, repair, and manufacture for its associated faction, the MAS in question was found to hold up decently well in battle, provided it served an auxiliary support role. With a few modifications to its equipment, the Hephaestus' size and tonnage allows it to keep up with smaller-sized mechs, though like most civilian craft, it easily folds under the weight of any dedicated military strike force. As such, these industrial work units are mostly relegated to their original roles, only really showing themselves in the thick of battle if the situation calls for it.
Systems:

VF-2 Modular Forgeblade	Superheavy	The pinnacle of new-age heavy-duty tools, the Modular Forgeblade is an innovative design that uses technology similar to a Hybrid Plasma-Kinetic system. With ample materials at hand, the integrated fabricator within the device can flash-forge disposable silicon-carbide power tools to fit the situation. The transparent, nearly diamond-hard blade is created and suspended in an energy field safely away from the wielder's hull. Warning lights illuminate the field so the searing-hot blade only burns and cuts what it is intended to; whether that's dirt, concrete, rock, metal, or an enemy MAS. It is, however, unwieldy, and best used as intended: as a general, all-purpose construction or mining tool, rather than an impromptu melee weapon.
D-10 Bolt Thrower	Primary	A glorified nail gun, the Bolt Thrower was intended to be used as a construction tool, using powerful electromagnets to drive rivets and stakes into the hull of various constructions projects. With some modifications, however, it can be a serviceable weapon, though only truly usable at short to medium range. Ammunition includes 30mm heated rivets, 30mm armor-piercing sabots, or 40mm explosive saber darts.
G-24 80mm Smoothbore Launcher	Primary	The closest thing resembling a true weapon on the Hephaestus. Mounted on the backpack over the right shoulder, this launcher is typically used to fire specialized coring charges. These spiked mining explosives embed themselves deep within space-rock, before detonating to reveal the core within. In combat, these coring charges can be used as-is or swapped out for 80mm autocannon shells, or even autonomous missiles and rockets. However, as the Hephaestus was never intended for a direct combat role, it lacks a properly integrated targeting computer-- as such, it is typically relegated to the destruction of enemy entrenchments, or as a long-range fire support role to provide indirect mortar fire.
"Atlas" Lifter Frame	Secondary	Although most Mobile Armor Suits already sport an impressive carrying capacity, this exoskeleton frame increases the mass the attached mech can lift by a factor of ten. An extra set of auxiliary power arms is added to help carry multiple loads at once (or a singular, heavier load), and the retractable 'backpack' provides ample storage for all of the MAS' equipment, weapons, and materials when not in use. In combat, this allows the Hephaestus to perform incredible feats of strength, which even extends to its use of close-combat maneuvers, though it cannot leverage all of its power to its advantage, making melee a last-ditch effort. This module also comes with bunker bolts, allowing the Hephaestus to plant its feet into the ground for steady footing in areas where its magnetic boots cannot take hold of things.
"Foreman" Drone Control Tower	Secondary	Mounted on the backpack, behind the left shoulder. This large pylon serves as the control network that allows the Hephaestus' pilot to control swarms of construction, mining, and repair drones. These drones lack an AI controller, and instead follow the pilot's commands to the best of their abilities, though they may fall back on internal subroutines if forced to act independently. In combat situations, these drones can be outfitted with light anti-personnel weaponry to deal with ground infantry, with point-defense weapons to deal with missiles and enemy aircraft, or with explosives, to be used as minelayers or as suicide bombers. The combat effectiveness of these drones is limited, however, and can be easily dispatched even with concentrated small-arms fire.
"Atelier" Mobile Factory	Utility	Housed within the Hephaestus' backpack is a fully functional fabricator, 3D printer, autoforge, assembly line, and requisite databanks to make use of these facilities. This factory can be deployed away from the front lines within base camp for a platoon of soldiers, or used within the Hephaestus itself while out in the field. The facilities can process scavenged materials found in the field into usable supplies, allowing the MAS to repair and resupply allied forces, even in areas without proper supply lines. However, the use of this module is both time-consuming and extremely power-hungry, making its use in combat scenarios limited unless the pilot is willing to power down all non-essential systems-- weapons and movement included.
"Casket" Hazard Protection Suite	Utility	This module was made to allow the Hephaestus to perform construction, mining, or repair jobs even in extreme conditions. This module only shows marginal improvements in MAS-to-MAS combat but has been shown to improve survival rates of pilots by up to 80% in situations containing environmental hazards. This protects the mech and its pilot from extreme heat and cold, intense gravity and pressure (or lack thereof), highly toxic, acidic, and basic environments, and even provides some form of EM shielding, allowing the Hephaestus to operate in conditions that would cripple other Mobile Armor Suits. As a last resort, the pilot can also choose to divert all power and hermetically seal the cockpit to go into cryosleep, the inbuilt reactor capable of keeping someone under the ice virtually indefinitely, provided that the reactor remains intact.

[Bazmund]

Pilot Profile

Appearance:

Name: Danielsson, Aleksanderin Gabrys
Age: 39
Callsign: Deadeye
Kills: 92

Psychological Analysis:

Psych Report - Dr. Olaf Melitta

Ssg. Danielsson was referred to me for a routine psychological evaluation, shortly after the events of the occupation of Savonia, and his participation in its liberation. I had not at this point met with the Ssg. before, and took to reviewing his existing records eagerly once his case arrived in my inbox. From this point onwards I will address the Sgt. by his name, Aleks.

Aleks has had three previous psychological evaluations with the service - one at his time of recruitment, two as routine affairs - and at each point our findings have been more or less the same, with no more than the expected variance due to individual development and personality evolution. Aleks is an intelligent and perceptive man, with a slightly blunted affect - meaning outwards display of emotion - and an apparently cold, professional demeanour. When he speaks he has a tendency to be quite direct with his words, which has come off as confrontational more than once, and he does not enjoy small talk; these characteristics initially prompted an assessment for neurodivergent developmental disorders, however the concerns were dismissed after he returned normal results, and his demeanour was explained as a cultural quirk from his homeplanet of Savonia - which I note he refers to as Savolax. Other than this his psychiatric history is nil, barring one bizarre conversation he had during his second review, regarding his feelings about his work with the Special Reconnaissance Group. Attached is an audio transcript from one of his appointments regarding the matter.

Transcript: E-3-AGD SRG - Dr. Jennings

JENNINGS: Begin recording. The date is (redacted), time is 1842 hours. Good evening, Mr. Danielsson, thank you for agreeing to such a late appointment.

DANIELSSON: No problem. Good evening.

J: This is just a follow up on one of the routine appointments we offer to troops in high stress roles, so I want you to know that we’re not putting your fitness to serve or your mental state under consideration today, we’re mostly just checking in.

D: Yes, I understand.

J: Grand. Everything went well the last time we spoke, as you know, and I was very glad to hear that you’ve not been having any problems with your mood or your sleep, or anything like that. Has any of that changed in the time between then and now?

D: No.

J: Also good, thank you. There was really only one thing I really wanted to clarify - last time we talked about your feelings about your job, and how you’ve sometimes been required to use your weapon at extreme distance, which has involved fatally injuring enemy troops from a range at which they could not feasibly detect you, or indeed fight back.

D: Yes.

J: I wondered at the time if that might be causing you some stress, or an upset - many marksmen and snipers often find that there is a moral difference, when the enemy cannot effectively fight back; in short, even despite long periods of specialised training they find themselves considering their actions to be murder rather than combat, and this has led to a lot of problems for them.

D: I am familiar.

J: With the feeling?

D: Well, no. The problems.

J: Could you tell me more about what you mean?

D: Yes. I have known soldiers who have experienced these problems, not only with our work from long range, but with any act of serious violence. Training can do a lot for your readiness, but it is often still hard for them, and many struggle a great deal with the work.

J: Have you ever had these problems yourself?

D: No. If I were much younger, or less familiar with the concept, I would struggle - but I grew up hunting.

J: I see.

(There are faint sounds of scribbling - pen on paper, note taking, records being made even beyond the tape itself)

J: How do you view your comrades who have these problems?

D: I feel for them. It is very obvious to anyone who knows them that they are in a great deal of pain, that they are angry at something - often themselves. Sometimes they will lash out over nothing, or spend a lot of time by themselves when they never used to.

J: Would you say they are good people?

D: Yes. Of course.

J: Is it because of their reaction?

D: Not always.

J: I know some people who would consider this sort of reaction to be a mark of personal weakness - or that they are unfit to fight. What do you think about it?

D: It’s complicated, but I would never say that this is a weakness. Maybe some of them are not in the right job, but that’s not to say they are bad at it, and I would not call PTSD weakness.

J: Of course. Thank you. Do you consider yourself a good person?

D: I… yes? I think so. Not really for me to say. Why do you ask?

J: Well, the last time we spoke, you expressed that fighting as part of the SRG did not bother you.

D: It’s a job.

J: Exactly. I also asked about the killing, and the emotional difficulties we’ve just discussed, and you told me that this also wasn’t a problem for you. I’m just trying to ascertain why.

D: Is it a concern for you?
J: Not necessarily, not for me personally I wouldn’t say, no - though some people might find it strange, disturbing even, that you seem to be able to kill people like this without emotional impact.

D: Right.

J: Alright, let’s just approach it more directly - why do you think it doesn’t bother you?

(another pause, lasting eleven seconds, without additional sounds in the background)

D: That’s a good question. It’s probably because of how I was brought up.

J: How do you mean?

D: It’s nothing worrying, doctor. My family were very loving and supportive of me, I had a few close friends but no trouble with anyone else that you wouldn’t expect, I was a good kid and I grew into an ok man. Where I come from there is just a lot of dangerous wildlife, and we made a living out of hunting it.

J: I… see. Do you look at your targets as animals?

D: No. They are people, and I treat them differently in my mind - but I am also used to shooting at things that are incredibly dangerous and will kill you very quickly if they get close or see you before you see them. I treat the people I fight with respect, and of course there is nothing to admire about hurting them, but this way of thinking still applies. If they knew where we were, or got close, things would be different.

J: Ok. That does explain it, I think. Thank you. And how is it you cope with stress?

D: I spend time on my own or with a few friends to relax. Sometimes I go out with others to a bar or a club, I drink, maybe smoke. I like to listen to music, sometimes I- huh, heh, I uh, I draw things, like flowers I’ve seen on duty while in a hide.

J: Alright, that’s- that’s fine. I’m glad to hear that you’re doing well, Aleks, I don’t think I have any further questions for you just now. Thank you very much for talking with me today, I hope I haven’t kept you from anything important.

D: No, I was free.

(a chair scrapes briefly against the floor, and there is a sound like skin meeting skin - identifiably a handshake)

J: Great. I’ll see you again next time, Aleks, have a nice evening.

D: You also.

(footsteps, receding, then the opening and closing of a door)

J: Well, that’s all good then. End audio recording, the time is-

Aside from the obvious concerns the service originally had about Aleks’ ability to empathise, there was one further concern addressed later on by a senior NCO who had been partially responsible for Aleks’ command - specifically that Aleks’ seemed to believe in ghosts, and had at one point attempted to communicate with them by means of what I understand to be a local variation on the classical Oujia board. This caused some alarm for the officers supervising Aleks, who were - I believe - overvigilant of any signs of mental instability in their charge. I attach a transcript of their interview with him.

E-3-AGD SRG - Cpt. Randall, Lt. Oyewatusin, Ssg. Keynes

RANDALL: Begin audio recording. Present are Lieutenant Richard Oyewatusin, Staff Sergeant Harriet Keynes, and myself, Captain Peter Randall. Being interviewed is Sergeant Aleksanderin Danielsson. Sergeant, are you aware of the reason for your being here today?

DANIELSSON: Yes sir.

RANDALL: Could you explain your understanding of it?

DANIELSSON: Lieutenant Oyewatusin and Staff Sergeant Keynes are disturbed by my recreational use of a spirit board.

OYEWATUSIN: It is a little more than that, sergeant.

KEYNES: Messing about with a ouija board with some pals is one thing, popping off alone into the woods on your night off to do it is really quite another.

R: It does raise some questions, sergeant. For one thing, why leave the base? Why go somewhere so rural? You were gone for forty two hours.

D: The signal is better.

K: Of course it is.

R: And there’s also the question of just what you tend to receive as replies to your… broadcasts.

D: Respectfully, sir, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

R: Enlighten me.

(There is a short period of silence, before some quiet movement as Sgt. Danielsson sits forward in his chair)

D: My family and I spent a lot of time alone on mountainsides and ice floes, in the wilderness, when I was young. Long hunts across all types of terrain. Not much talking. Our whole culture is like this. I am not particularly religious or spiritual, but many of our people seek the company of the dead when they find themselves alone - especially if they have lost relatives, or need advice.

O: Right.

K: Right.

D: I can see you are concerned. But this is my business.

R: You’re in the army. That makes this army business, Sergeant.

(Another pause in the conversation, tension bristling almost enough for the mic to actually pick it up)

R: Sergeant, is there any history of schizophrenia or other similar psychotic disorders that runs in your family?

D: No sir.

R: Have you been assessed for any such disorders yourself?

D: No sir. I attend routine evaluations, as I am instructed to.

R: Alright, well we’ll get a shrink’s opinion on you after this. What about drugs?

D: I take what I’m prescribed, when it is prescribed, for as long as it is prescribed, in the manner it is prescribed. I also enjoy beer and vodka socially. Sometimes I smoke.

R: Hm.

O: Sergeant, do you believe in ghosts, spirits, or the paranormal?

D: I must ask why this is your business, sir.

O: Answer the question.

D: With respect, I cannot understand the relevance of the question.

O: I am concerned that you have difficulty establishing boundaries between mythology and reality. This line of questioning aims to establish the risk, and assess it. Answer the question.

D: Ok. I don’t know.

O: You don’t know?

D: I don’t know.

O: Elaborate, please.

D: I don’t know if I believe in ghosts or if I do not.

O: Have you ever seen one?

D: No.

O: How come you don’t know?

D: I find ghost stories interesting. I read them online, see which ones I think are the most authentic. I listen to some podcasts.

K: Sergeant, sorry for interrupting, but I thought you said this was a cultural practice you were engaging in? Is it normal cultural practice to consume paranormal themed media?

D: No. I came back to the cultural practice because of things I read online. I had not tried this for many years before now.

O: You did this out of curiosity?

D: Because I was bored. So yes.

R: Sergeant, are you telling me that you took a bus to the middle of nowhere and hiked almost a full day into the middle of the woods, in rough terrain, in order to go ghost hunting using elements of an ancestor-worship religion you haven’t engaged in for years… because you were bored?

D: Yes.

(an awkward silence ensues)

O: But you’ve never seen a ghost? No… hallucinations, or anything?

D: None, sir.

K: Why not just, I don’t know, watch one of those ghost hunting shows?

D: I do sometimes, but they get old quickly.

R: Alright, I think most of the worries here were that you had… I don’t know, some sort of serious problem. I think we may have jumped the gun a little here, don’t you think, Lieutenant? Staff Sergeant?

O: I- uh, yes. Yes sir.

K: We were still given cause for concern, sir, by the sergeant’s sudden and unexplained disappearance.

D: I was on short leave. Not on duty.

K: How were we supposed to get ahold of you if we needed you, Danielsson?

D: I had my phone.

K: And failed to answer it. Nobody knew where you were, on top of that.

R: Right. Thank you both, Lieutenant, Staff, that’s all we need from you today, I’ll handle things from here.

(there is some general noise and mumbled dismissals, as the Lt and the Ssg are dismissed)

R: Staff had some points there. Far be it from me to interfere with the personal beliefs and practices of the troops, but the next time you do something like this I want you to consider doing it on-base, or at least let someone know where you’re going and clear it with us in advance. I’m also going to arrange a psychiatric assessment for you, just to be absolutely sure, and to finish ticking boxes. And you’ll keep an eye on that bloody phone of yours.

D: I understand, sir. Thank you, sir.

(another brief pause)

R: Did you get anything back?

D: From… the board?

R: Yes.

D: I… don’t think so.

R: Huh. (a long pause, without the tension from before) You don’t sound sure.

D: It was probably my imagination.

R: I see. You gonna try again?

D: (a sniff, a pause) Maybe. I don’t know.

R: Indeed. Alright, Danielsson. Dismissed. End audio recording, time is-

Aleks was given an assessment shortly thereafter, scored low or nil in all relevant risk categories, and was dismissed from psychiatric assessment thereafter.

My own impressions of Aleks are that he is a reasonable and pleasant individual, who tends towards more reserved personal behaviours and often keeps to himself, but who has no trouble being friendly and engaging with others when he has a desire to. His directness can be jarring, and I expect that it will be misinterpreted as rudeness or irritation by those entirely unfamiliar with his culture, but he remains a good and effective communicator who notices when his demeanour is ill-received and addresses it accordingly. He is completely loyal to his friends, describing a close relationship to two others in the 101st from his homeplanet, one of whom saved the other’s life during the retaking of Savonia from coalition forces - which he feels he owes them a debt for. Emotionally speaking, Aleks is a normal - if highly self-regulated - person, who keeps a good and clear professional distance from the moral aspects of his work, without ignoring or denying them entirely. He has a general preference for getting on with work when he’s working, and leaving it for later when he isn’t - which I don’t think I have to say is not abnormal.

In conclusion, Ssg Danielsson is a well adjusted and highly mentally capable soldier, about whom I have no particular concerns, and for whom I wish a long and storied career. I closed our appointment by congratulating him on his recent promotion to Staff Sergeant, and wished him a pleasant day.

Personal Record: Aleksanderin Gabrys Danielsson was born on the planet Savonia - known to his own people as Savolax - within the territory of the Kingdom of Kalmar, an area of space settled many hundreds of years ago by an exodus of settlers from Scandinavia and Central Europe, along with a few others who merely thought they had heritage there. Aleksanderin himself is a descendant of the former, and grew up in a small, rural, semi-nomadic community of hunter foragers, whose business was primarily in mega-pest control and supplying the permanent communities on Savonia with the resulting hunted goods, as well as any valuable forage found in the process.

Aleksanderin was the fourth born child in a family of seven sons and four daughters, between a communal relationship of about six parents - the seventh of which was often coming and going, having more business than the others in the city. They were close knit, not just between each other but also with the other large families of their wider community, and it was fertile ground for the development of a unique cultural identity - hence their own name for the homeworld, Savolax, and hence their own unique language distinct even from Savonian.

His first time using the exosuits necessary for carrying and wielding the 50mm ‘rifles’ required for this line of work was when he was 14, and he took to it more or less like a natural - which is to be expected when it’s been the family business for long enough that it could have been an heirloom. For the next three years he went out regularly with his fathers and mothers, tracking, trailing, hunting, and killing beasts that were sometimes as much as a hundred times his own weight and size.

The work took them around the planet fairly extensively, and the general terrain of the northern hemisphere of Savonia quickly became well known to Aleksanderin and his family - but while he took to the work with great ability and aptitude, he ultimately found it to be poorly rewarding, and although he got on well with his family he couldn’t deny that the life was socially isolating. At the age of 17 he decided, after consulting with his council of parents, to apply for military service with the Krone Kalmar - the central government, or ‘Crown of Kalmar’ as they preferred to be known. In truth the Crown itself carried very little responsibility, being seen mostly as eccentric figureheads whose power was actually wielded by devolved and local authorities - but they nonetheless maintained a small standing army of their own, which held a pioneering force of Mekajageren, light, highly mobile, ranger infantry, known for utilising the very same exosuits the Savolax people used to hunt megafauna with.

Although at this point, the Kalmar state was nominally independent from either the UEE or the burgeoning Coalition - indeed, it did extensive business with both of them, trading resources for liquid finances and specialised hardware it could not manufacture alone - they did lean very slightly one way, and that meant that when the Krone Kalmar decided to set up a military exchange programme, it was with the UEE and not the Coalition. This would later prove to be the first factor that determined the Coalition’s eventual decision to invade, but far from the only one.

Aleksanderin was young and enthusiastic, at this point in his life, and was already very familiar with the tactics and equipment of the Mekajageren, so he was naturally among the first volunteers to travel away from Savonia and to the heartland of the UEE for ‘practical knowledge exchange’ and ‘adivsory liaison’ with their own infantry corps. While there, he was essentially poached from the Krone Kalmar along with several of his other promising classmates, and subsequently put through the selection process for the UEE Special Recon Group - a highly trained and extremely dangerous special forces section of the Infantry Corps. Although it was certainly a change of pace from his normal life, the pay was a little better and it would entail more interesting travel, so Aleks leapt at the opportunity and - just barely - made it through selection at the age of 19. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done, and the first time in his life that his physical fitness had been truly below standards - but the Savolax experience with camouflage and concealment coupled with the culture of marksmanship and prey stalking he’d come from made him a promising and easily recognised choice for recruitment, alongside the other boys and girls from Savonia.
During his time with the SRG, Aleksanderin was eventually selected to pilot an Ultralight MAS based on his prior experience with weaponised exosuits, and during this time continued to prove himself as a capable and level headed soldier - even despite the sudden change from a peacetime footing to a wartime one, and his engagement in active operations against Coalition forces - which, coincidentally, was another factor in the Coalition’s decision to consider Kalmar a hostile entity and launch an invasion, though again not the final straw.

For a few years, things went well with the SRG - apart from his friends dying, being constantly on the lookout for countersnipers, and having to consider the fact that in a straight fight with a full sized class of MAS he’d quite likely be literally bisected if he took even a single hit, of course.

Which is what almost happened, and how he lost his arms.

They’d been tracking the enemy for two weeks, following them through the dense woods and wide pastures of Petos-9’s temperate band, waiting to see if they were going to lead the SRG platoon to their MAS camp - since a vital component of destroying it would be knowing where it was, and the orbital cameras hadn’t been able to suss out where this particular pack of mechs was keeping nest. To cut a potentially long and painful story short, the hunters became the hunted, and against the full weight of a regular Coalition MAS patrol, the recon section was more or less totally crumbled without issue. During the fighting, Aleks ended up going one on one with a Draugar-MK1 light patrol mech, and although his own FTX-Yeoman Ultralight was a significantly more manoeuvrable piece of kit, he ended up taking a serious blow from the enemy, and when he then tried to reach for and level his sidearm at the enemy, he realised that the arm he’d reached with was no longer a part of his body. Instead, it was lying a fair distance away on the ground, still bleeding from within the mangled cage of armour that had been meant to protect it.

It was a hell of a shock. Aleks took it well, seeing it mostly as a particularly severe and unique inconvenience, and worrying mostly that his newfound manual deprivation would see him done in by the Draugar - but in truth, arm or no arm, it was not a fight he could have won, and with the SRG having been scattered by the enemy ambush he also had nobody to depend on for support either.

What the Coalition had failed to account for in their little turn of the tables was that in a forest as dense as those that they were operating in, even a light-class MAS would be left with scant room to move fast - but an Ultralight would face no such issue. In a straight fight of any sort, like Aleks had mistakenly tried to engage in, there was only one outcome - and it was fatal - but there was no way that the enemy could follow him at speed through the trees.

So as the Draugar spooled up its autocannon for a final salvo, Aleks switched on the emergency chemical fuel boosters, slammed the throttle of his main thruster array up past their safety limits, and shot off into the foliage just as the Coalition MAS let off the first round. He darted between trees, breaking line of sight wherever he could, taking cover from hostile pursuit whenever there was a tree big enough to reliably hide behind - and even though he still ended up losing the lowest third of his right leg to a lucky shot from the enemy’s autocannon, his act of reasonable cowardice ended up paying off and he managed to lose the Draugar in his tracks.

He passed out halfway through trying to apply the second tourniquet, and woke up a couple days later in a field hospital, with even less limb left than he remembered, and a spooky looking official in a charcoal suit standing at the end of his bed, giving him that government-agent smile and wishing him well.

The G-man in the ill fitting suit was there to offer him the opportunity of a lifetime. Give up his remaining arm and consent to a new set of shiny metal ones at the expense of the state, and get to pilot an experimental new tactile-interface light-chassis MAS using them, and be transferred to the 101st Legion to use it. The rest of the story from there is just 18 or so years of history, until he ended up striking a friendship with the very man he’d been surreptitiously asked to keep an eye on - a soldier named Jakunta - and then fought in the liberation of his own homeworld.

The final straw for the Coalition, regarding their diplomatic stance towards the technically-neutral Kingdom of Kalmar, was actually nothing more than rumour - the rumour being that the King of Kalmar, Karolus Valdemar, was planning to declare a trade embargo towards the Coalition on vital supplies such as Savonite. That rumour, made more credible by existing military liaisons between the Krone Kalmar and the UEE, then doubly so by the UEE’s recruitment of Kalmarian volunteers, was the blow that struck the primer, and fired the first shot in what would eventually become known as the Savonite Flashpoint.

Aleksanderin and Jakunta, being both friends and citizens of Savonia in particular, were chosen to go in with other select elements of the 101st Legion in order to assist with the liberation of the planet after it fell into Coalition hands. The campaign would not last long, but would exact a devastating toll on both his homeplanet and on the Coalition, as conventional MAS warfare began to flag in the face of homegrown resistance movements, emboldened by the arrival of the 101st and the unconventional tactics they employed.

A defining moment of the war for Aleksanderin was his chance finding of a Coalition MAS camp, located on a little peak on the tundra, isolated from reinforcements and clearly meant as some sort of rapid reaction force. He could count eight MAS units visible, stood up and ready for action, plus a few tents for support staff and logistics, all protected by two deflector screen generators.

In a brief episode of what a psychiatrist would later ask him about with great concern, Aleksander calmly identified a good piece of cover, from which he could clearly see and fire upon the shield generators, the MAS units and their cockpits, and the logistics tents. Then he set about preparing his ammunition. Three magazines total, each containing six rounds; the first magazine was loaded to fire two shots of FAEMST - Fin-Actuated Electro Magnetic Savonite Tip - which were to bypass the shield array and destroy each generator in turn. The rest of the first magazine contained high explosive rounds, which were going to be aimed at the logistics tents. Both of the remaining magazines contained Armour Piercing High Explosive Capped rounds, for use against MAS - whether they got up and running, or were going to be put down in their beds.

Aleksanderin fired accurately and without delay, and by the time the enemy’s base shields had collapsed, the next four rounds were almost on target, killing half the pilots and most of their technical support in one fell swoop as they sat down to dinner. The other pilots scrambled to their craft, but for the most part were caught by fire as they entered the cockpits, often destroying the MAS completely as it was essentially shot through the open door when they were getting in. Two enemy suits were able to reach combat ready status, but Aleksanderin had anticipated his firing hide being traced, and used his Tesla drive, in concordance with his Stealth Drive, to reposition. When the Coalition MAS made it to his hiding spot, he was ready and waiting with his sights set on them from a secondary hide, and they were dispatched in fairly short order. After that it was just a matter of affixing his bayonet, and commencing the search for survivors to take as prisoners.

The rest of the fight for Savonia was a great and bloody slog, with very little to demarcate one fight from the next, apart from the eventual discovery that Jakunta’s mech had been commandeered by approximately half a pint of precocious child. Sensing that this was unusual, Aleksander made contact with Jakunta to confirm the situation, and ended up feeding the girl targeting information in order to make sure that both her and his best mate survived the battle. The rest of the 101st elements present were chiefly responsible for carrying the weight of the fight at that point, but it would be unjust to downplay the importance of the role that Abigail Harlow had played - and once the planet was liberated, she was accordingly awarded a place in the academy for it, on both Jakunta and Aleksanderin’s recommendations.

A few years have passed since then, and now the trio are an integral part of the 101st Legion’s thoroughly bizarre, literally cosmopolitan culture.

Equipment: Apart from the standard SERE kit provided to all MAS pilots - which typically contains limited rations, a knife, a firestarter, an IFF-SOS transponder, and a sidearm - Aleks keeps a number of quality coffee teabags, a miniaturised jetboil for heating water, an extra tin of camouflage paint, and about 30m of thin paracord. Aleks has also replaced the standard issue carbon fiber knife with one made of a Boron Steel-Savonite alloy, containing a small flashlight in the hilt which is recharged through general movement and use of the knife via an internal spherical dynamo interacting with the natural magnetism of the savonite content of the knife blade.

MAS Profile

Appearance:

Your MAS's appearance. In this case, an image would be more appealing than text, and a combination of image and text can be used.

Designation: P-TSCSA ‘Yeoman-2’

Role: Scout-Sniper/Precision Artillery

Chassis: Light

Description: The Yeoman-2 is a Prototype TSCC-SA System - meaning Tactical-Sensory-Complex Control Sniper Artillery weapons system and platform. It has been designed with the intention that, if successful, it will become the blueprint for future generations of high combat-liability ultraflexible mechs; the mech is controlled through a direct interface with an extensive suit of cybernetics installed directly into the pilot’s body, allowing for intuitive control by intention and taking advantage of extrapyramidal nervous pathways and reflex arcs within the pilot’s own body in order to boost response times and physical flexibility well beyond what most MAS units are capable of through traditional control mechanisms. A full series of TSCC type units has been produced and are now undergoing combat tests, piloted by hand selected operatives whose personal abilities fell into the top fifth percentile of all active duty combat operators, and who had either sustained injuries or otherwise had cybernetics suites installed that marked them as good candidates for surgery, with regards to immune response and good somatointegration.

This particular model of the TSCC line, the Sniper Artillery MAS - also designated as Yeoman-2, after the model of ultralight MAS its first pilot lost his arm using - has been designed to act as a long range, highly mobile, high lethality scout-sniper; the MAS unit is equipped with a full suite of standard thrusters in order to affect rapid repositioning after delivery of payload, plus a Starbruck-Oselementa Repraglaz-18 molecular stealth drive in order to maintain concealment during and after the process.

Systems:

• L8A6 ‘Longbow’ .312M Rifled Gun (PRIMARY)
  
  • Essentially the illogical conclusion of applying infantry anti-materiel rifles to the scale and operational remit of a Light MAS weapons platform, the Longbow is a 312mm artillery piece designed to be wielded like a rifle, and includes a 6 round detachable box magazine that can be topped up from the breech, as well as a highly reinforced frame and bayonet mount to afford the user some ability in close quarters combat should the need arise. The Longbow is a gas operated semi-automatic weapon with a relatively long cycle, but can have its piston restricted in order to seal the barrel and prevent the function of this mechanism, which then requires the manual operation of the bolt to cycle the weapon, ejecting the expended shell and introducing a new round to the firing chamber of the Longbow’s receiver assembly - effectively meaning that the Longbow can be toggled between bolt action and gas-operated semi-auto. The Longbow is also capable of firing a broad variety of different types of munition, from high explosive and/or airburst anti-infantry rounds, to armour piercing high explosive rounds, to sub-caliber armour piercing fin stabilised rounds. Indeed, if fed sensory data from a scout craft, the Longbow could also theoretically be used as a true artillery piece to provide indirect fire, rather than in its traditional role as an oversized sniper rifle-MAS killer.
• Carpathia-Ruthenia 101 Phase Linked Energy Burst System (PLEBS) twin shoulder mounted lasers (PRIMARY)
  
  • A pair of highly mobile beam laser weapons, mounted on short mechanical arms attached to the main body of the mech just behind the shoulder joints, which are based closely on common point defence designs and have some shared purpose with such systems. These weapons have been up-sized from the standard point defence designs however, and can also be used as a direct fire anti-armour weapon, albeit at fairly limited range in-atmosphere due to the dispersal effects of high intensity short wavelength laser systems in a gaseous environment. The arms upon which the weapon bodies are mounted are usually kept closely tucked in against the mech body, and a gimbal system at the end of each arm is used for forwards-facing aim, enabling them to be used as a point defence system in a pinch.
• Kalmar Arms Titanium-Savonite alloy Bayonet (SECONDARY)
  
  • A 1.6m long sharpened piece of Titanosavonite typically kept in a holster on the mech’s chest, but which can also be fitted to a mount on the end of the Longbow rifle for use as a true bayonet. The handle of the dagger, not unlike the miniature version wielded by the pilot on foot, contains a spherical dynamo system which is powered by movement of the weapon itself - especially large swings or thrusts when attached to the Longbow - however this mechanism is not capable of maintaining a charge and has no battery attached to it. Instead, it feeds current directly into a pure savonite circuit within the blade of the weapon itself, generating a small but incredibly powerful electromagnetic field when thrust or slashed with. Most MAS unit components are well protected from EMP effects, of course, but the true purpose of this addition to the bayonet is to disrupt and neutralise energy shields so that the knife can strike home true and penetrate the armour of the target.
• Starbruck-Oselementa Repraglaz-18 Molecular Stealth Drive (AUXILIARY)
  
  • A spectacularly complicated piece of equipment that is best described as a plentitude of different systems installed throughout the body of the Yeoman-2, the Repraglaz can completely neutralise almost every signature and emission produced by the Yeoman-2 other than its visual appearance, rendering it more or less totally undetectable outside of visual range, until its weapons systems engage and it opens fire. The Repraglaz drive can also be activated during flight, but when at full throttle can only dampen flight signatures.
• Jageropta Advanced Ballistics Tracking Package (AUXILIARY)
  
  • Unlike most targeting software suites, the Jageropta Package is more or less useless to a pilot that hasn’t trained extensively with it - not only because it is complicated and requires extensive training, but because it is equipped with several deep learning processes that directly complement the markman’s skill profile, weapon and munition of choice, intended target, and in some cases even overall intention. There is no projected shot path, in favour of supplying the organic user with more raw information to inform their decisions - indeed, the user is king with the Jageropta, and while this harshens the learning curve, it raises the performance ceiling by that much more.
• Redherring Countermeasure Suite (AUXILIARY - COUNTERMEASURES)
  
  • A more or less standard suite of flares, chaff, thermal masking aerosols designed to operate in conjunction with the stealth suite, and heavy metal dispersal systems to confuse radar. While standard automatic activation protocols are in place, each element of the system can also be activated manually at varying response levels - for example, a single flare for signalling purposes.

[Stitches]

Pilot Profile

Without EVA suit

Appearance: Lanky, short and oddly proportioned, with large bony hands and knobbly knees. Abigail isn’t what you’d call a pretty blonde, blue-eyed girl. She looks a bit ratty. She looks younger than she is, trapped in some weird pubescent mid-development phase that her parents probably promised she’d grow out of. She’s got a gap between her two front teeth that you can fit a card into. She has scars all over, notably a burn scar on her left forearm, a ragged cut on the side of her neck, all sorts of abrasion marks all over and a sealed bullet hole near her right kidney.
Name: Harlow, Abigail
Age: 21
Callsign: Pipsqueak
Kills: 2

Psychological Analysis: Rambunctious. Abigail has this habit of using humour to cope, chatting incessantly - in both languages - cracking jokes and trying to keep morale up. As one of the youngest in the 101st she can come off as naïve from time to time but carries a weight and presence of character that seeps through her goofy exterior and hints at why she's in the team in the first place. She's naive and not always the brightest but makes up for it by second guessing herself, correcting and learning from mistakes.

Most prominent is her tenacity. Abigail isn't as patriotic as she is stubborn to keep going, even if it endangers her. Hard working, loyal and willing to do jobs most deem disgusting, she's a valuable asset in that sense. That said, she's wet behind the ears. She's seen a lot for her age but hasn't been put in morally straining situations and there's still speculation as to whether she'll be able to stomach the most ruthless parts of the job. She oozes potential, though, with an almost innate ability to predict and react to situations without thinking and has worked well under the physical and metaphorical pressure she's been put into so far.

Abigail doesn't have a lot going for her back home so she's bonding pretty quickly with the rest of the team and holds a lot of admiration towards the UEE. Her connection to Jakunta and Aleks in particular is no doubt being manipulated to maintain her steadfast loyalty and push her to her limits. She's still got a lot of the galaxy to see and an eagerness to see it all before the inevitable crash and burn that awaits all MAS pilots worth their salt.

Personal Record:
Abigail was a born and bred Savonian in the northernmost ice flats of Jaatikar; a denizen out of a few thousand living in one of the remote but highly profitable Savonite mines that follow a seam through a glacier. The output is low compared to some of the high production mines in the mainland but the purity, due to being interspersed in the ice, is incredibly high. The community is tight knit but deeply impoverished with a high mortality rate. To survive in the ice flats, you needed steady footing and quick reaction times. The shale burrowers that lurked underneath the surface would often be a nuisance to the settlement and the sea was a black expanse of megafauna so incomprehensibly large and dangerous that you were better off taking an aircraft to the mainland - and these didn't arrive often, and when they did, they were full of supply payloads for the settlers.

As a result Abigail grew up with regular shortages and a devil-may-care approach to making friends, knowing full well they could one day fall off the scaffolding or freeze outdoors or get eaten by a monumental burrowing worm. But northerners were known for their camaraderie and high spirits - a survival instinct developed against the overwhelming dreariness of their home. They helped each other and learnt very quickly. They had an honour code to uphold. They were hard working, proud people. They had their own customs and rituals, perhaps not to the extent of a Krellian but minor superstitions that helped them cope with the nigh-intolerable conditions.

By all accounts, it's uncharacteristic of the northerners to take to the Coalition's takeover so naturally. But the records do not lie - the Coalition took over the ice flats first and worked their way into the mainland, cutting off the most inhospitable regions first to prevent the locals from using these areas as pockets of resistance. In truth, Abigail is always quick to remind people that the Coalition were shooting down their supply deliveries and forcing the locals to capitulate in exchange for food and medicine. Because of how infrequently they were monitored by the mainland government, Abigail’s mining colony was the first to fall and one of the more prominent losses.

Life under the Coalition was confusing. On the one hand, they were treated to more luxuries but worked harder than ever before. Drugs and crime began to spike. A red light district began to form. People turned to alcohol and narcotics to cope with the chill because the usual parties and celebrations were cut due to longer working hours. The ice flats were broken under the Coalition and changed in a matter of months. There were still sceptics lurking amongst the ice-encrusted railings, people who noticed the change early on and banded together to try and prevent what was happening - then, to disrupt production in any way they can - then, to simply survive in the new rule.

Abigail lost her father to a work accident when she was little and her mother had a severe limp due to a childhood injury which prevented her from working the mines. In order to provide for her mother, Abigail gave up on schooling early to work in one of the refinement factories in the ice flats. She became accustomed to working with older people, mainly blue collar adults and tried her best to fit in whilst monopolising on her youthful innocence. She was The Kid. And if it made these grizzled bastards feel a little better about themselves when they snuck her a pepparkakor or a cigarette, or when they’d infantilize her and go to irrational lengths to keep her safe from the other grizzled bastards, then where’s the harm in playing along?

Abigail’s position in the Ice Flats became even more tenuous and difficult to maintain when the Coalition moved in. She’d been promoted from ‘plucky young labourer’ to ‘symbol of Jaatikar’s community spirit’, as it took a village to raise Abigail and all eyes of the village were on her. She kept going to the factory because she needed the money and even less people were able to provide handouts. She looked the other way when meetings were carried out in the boiler room, and feigned obliviousness when it came to unmarked packages near the factory’s generator. When the sabotages occurred and the fights broke out, Abigail made her decision - and in the simmering aftermath of one of many failed attempts by the locals to retake the colony from the Coalition, she started to join the insurgents. She delivered correspondence and hid ammunition in crates of Savonite. She was hardly privy to the plans of the movement in general but took odd jobs from those that were In The Know and didn’t ask questions. The less Abigail knew, the better it was for everyone. By this point she was still very young (though not young enough to be turned away as a labourer by the Coalition) and didn’t fully grasp the scope of what was being attempted, nor the consequences of being involved. Her mother was kept in the dark about her participation in the movement.

When the UEE finally launched a co-ordinated assault to recapture Savonia from the Coalition, the 101st were sent north as they were best equipped for a guerilla attack in very unfavourable conditions. They initially took the port town of Luminsky and worked their way towards Jaatikar with the help of the fishermen there. But the Coalition were forewarned of their approach and came prepared, mingling soldiers of their own in civilian clothing and muddling the lines between insurgent, bystander and coalition soldier. It was a confusing, bloody affair that ultimately worked itself out as the northerners who sided with the Coalition were just as unwelcome as the Coalition itself. Jaatikar’s population had been almost halved by the assault and there were a lot of families with dead relatives, strangers with dead friends and parents with dead children.

One of the noteworthy reports from the assault on Jaatikar was the attack on the refinement factory. In order to stall production and exportation of Savonite to the Coalition, the UEE took the blow of demolishing the factory’s machinery to lure out Coalition soldiers and MAS reinforcements under the assumption that when Savonia was rid of the Coalition, the locals would have enough time and resources to rebuild. As always, it was Aleksanderin and Jakunta who helped organise the rebels and lead them in for the assault. Tangentially, Abigail was one of the insurgents who placed the charges under the generator and distillery. The explosion caused the soldiers to retaliate faster than the 101st had anticipated and fired upon the evacuating workers. During this time Jakunta was shot in the back of the leg and shattered his kneecap. Abigail, who had kept out of the gunfire and closer to the wings of the factory, rushed out to help Jakunta to safety. They retreated to Jakunta’ MAS. The sustained blood loss and urgency of the wound left Jakunta in an unsavoury position; without covering fire the Coalition would continue to gun down the civilians but there was a very real chance of irreparable damage or severe blood loss if he tried to pilot his MAS to aid the retreat. Whilst tending to his injury, Jakunta instructed the girl on how to activate the MAS’ defences and aim above the battle to fire upon the factory. The chaos of the artillery fire, rubble and noise gave the locals plenty of time to retreat and the 101st regrouped to rout the Coalition forces.

Marked by the local UEE division as an act of Exceptional Service, Abigail’s actions that day were used as something of a propaganda stunt to inspire the locals down in the Mainlands. When Savonia fell under UEE control she was rewarded with fully subsidised academic training to become a MAS pilot of her own. She accepted after encouragement from her mother and her peers, only to find out that her remaining parent died of complications from injuries sustained in the assault. Abigail’s education was shaken by this event and it held her back from graduation. In the wake of her mother’s funeral she reached out to Jakunta and Aleksanderin via electronic mail, using the address that Jakunta provided after the assault. They became penpals and Abigail found sources of comfort with a way to process her grief.

Abigail was inducted into the 101st upon recommendation from the two Savonians. Whilst her merit spoke for itself, the added bonus of her strong bonds with two of the crew and the lack of relatives back home were strong incentives that could be used to make a very loyal soldier. Her training was altered as a result of this decision as they used her experiences to produce a more fitting MAS and role in the division; a mixture of reconnaissance and evasive tactics designed to harass, flummox and disorient the 101st’s targets enough for the professionals to come in and finish the job. She responded well to the test runs of the Kolibri and even enjoyed certain parts of the ordeal, such as the High-G training and simulations. Since joining the division she has two confirmed kills, though both are marked down as finishing blows after heavy fire from her comrades.

Equipment: Standard military affair aside, Abigail has two particular pieces of equipment she keeps on her person at all times: a EVA suit and an encrypted data pad. The suit is a custom build that accompanies her MAS; it plugs in to charge in the cockpit (but has standardised UEE sockets for ease of access) and wraps around Abigail's jumpsuit when she sits down and powers the helmet. This provides assistance to tolerate the centrifugal forces she experiences, has its own O2 mask and Comms unit built in and is designed to withstand the vacuum of space for up to three hours with limited movement via weak thrusters in the back. The data pad is more of a tablet than anything else but it functions like a modern smartphone device and is primarily used to access Full Echo data and for her own personal leisure. She carries a wireless portable speaker to blast the tunes she's downloaded on it as well.

Personally assigned into Abigail's kit list are a set of combat stimulants , typically derivatives of amphetamines, that are administered through a device similar to an epi-pen. They help her intracerebral blood pressure remain stable and keep her alert enough to handle long endurance combat scenarios but make her aggressive with powerful mood swings, teeth grinding and bouts of paranoia. They are to be administered on the pilot's discretion and only when she feels it's necessary to do so. Since her induction into the 101st, she's only used combat stimulants twice in the dozens of missions she's been on - both times she recorded the date and time of dosage as well as alerting her crew of its use.

MAS Profile

Appearance: Designed to look identical to a UEE Sparrow MAS, the only notable exception that identifies this machine in appearance is the MAS designation and serial number are printed.
Designation: Kolibri C-90
Role: Scout
Chassis: Light
Description: Officially recognised as an altered version of the popular Sparrow MAS fitted with state of the art surveillance systems for scouting unfamiliar territory, the Kolibri's true purpose is a gutted, repurposed MAS made to counter, harass and frighten most Light and medium MAS away from the bulk of the 101st forces and into their line of fire. The use of high end targeting systems, radar and sophisticated boosters comes at the cost of its armour, relying upon the skill of the pilot to keep it out of trouble. It still functions as a data gathering unit out of combat to provide the 101st with detailed information ranging from the composition of a planet's atmosphere, a topographic map and infrared imaging software - to name a few.
Systems: Countermeasure System: - Countermeasure systems are often used by lighter MAS's to avoid missiles instead of using body mounted machine guns to intercept them. Using chaff and flares, countermeasure systems have limited number of uses before needing to rearm. Countermeasures do not take up a utility system slot. The countermeasure system on the Kolibri can be manually activated in a pinch to provide distractions and disorient enemies.

Smart-Target AI (Utility): - By improving or replacing the standard MAS computer with a Smart Targeting AI, MAS's can now rapidly acquire multiple targets simultaneously, making 'blind firing' more accurate and providing an edge in close ranged combat.

Full Echo Surveillance Suite (Utility): - State of the art technology has created a sophisticated system of radars and scanners installed deep behind the chassis of the Kolibri. Slow and cumbersome to activate in combat, this utility system can be interfaced with to update the 101st's data on a location and its inhabitants. The energy it uses disables the thrusters entirely, leaving the Kolibri grounded during its surveillance. The longer Full Echo is left on and the more ground covered during the scans, the more comprehensive the results. Sustained use of the system can result in overheating of the MAS.

Faedvir Omnidirectional B67 Thrusters (Utility): - FO-B67 thrusters emphasize manoeuvrability over sheer speed. Interfacing with the Smart-Target AI system and manual controls from the pilot, these thrusters require a light touch and quick reaction times. Whilst only marginally faster than a standard light MAS in vertical or horizontal flight, the FO-B67 allows the Kolibri to perform aerial manoeuvres around its targets and avoid incoming projectiles.

M90C 30mm Autocannon Carbine (Primary): - A cut down version of the standard M90 autocannon. the M90C fires 30mm armor piercing incendiary shells from a 100 round box magazine. The M90C has semi-automatic, 5-round burst, and fully automatic firing modes, and has a fire rate of 900 RPM. Up to 4 additional box magazines are stored within compartments in the Kolibri's thighs, but it has been fitted with 2 extra hollow point magazines under the wings to compensate for the removed claymore missiles and underslug micro-missiles.

M15 Heat Knife (Secondary): - A smaller, lightweight version of the M16 without as much oomph as its descendent, the M15 is a smaller blade with dual-edged heating elements. Best used in sharp stabbing motions against other MAS in weak spots for messy damage, but otherwise incapable of piercing a chassis without multiple blows. Far more effective against lighter targets.

[DinoNuts]

Pilot Profile

Pilot Appearance

Name: Jakunta
Age: 41
Callsign: Yak
Kills: Not that many, probably only a bit over 10 over the length of his career.

Psychological Analysis: Jakunta is direct. His age and experience have granted him the wisdom of being able to cut straight through to the point he’s trying to make. A warrior since his youth, his development was marred by a lack of consistent relationships or a stable environment to grow into. He fights not because it is the right thing for him to do, but rather the only thing he knows and understands. He respects and admires his comrades but he's quick to get over their deaths and largely unfazed by their behaviour towards him. Once his communication skills had improved and obedience to the collective army had been drilled into him, he’s been reported to be trustworthy and loyal. There have been some interesting developments to the norm; Aleksanderin quickly became a kindred spirit who Jakunta frequently spends time with and the recent introduction of Abigail to the team has brought out some uncharacteristically sentimental behaviours from the brute that have yet to be fully established and documented.

Personal Record:
Planet: Zalava, ruled by two feuding factions - the Tyrnapoldov Liberation Front (TLF) and the Pozchy Republic (PR). The two factions have been locked in a civil war for several generations. Due to their constant fighting, they were always technologically behind other space-faring empires. There were hardly any resources worth taking over and Zalava was left largely to its own devices for a few decades.

Jakunta was born on the Tyrnapoldov territories of the planet and raised in poverty. Witnessing his older siblings fight and die in the war whilst absorbing vehement propaganda, coupled with a cultural slant towards honour and glory in battle, Jakunta veered away from education and into a uniform whilst he was still largely a boy. The camaraderie and violence of a battlefield soaked into his formative years as he became disgusted, outraged then desensitized to the atrocities of war.

It was ultimately a want of manpower and space to grow that pushed the Coalition into backing the Pozchy Republic and since then, Jakunta and other Tyrnapoldov combattants have harboured the sort of festering hatred that you could only really garner from a long, pointless war. Unlike the grand scale assaults and skirmishes the Coalition was used to in space, Zalava introduced the capitalists to a civil war unchecked; Jakunta and his posse were quick to demoralise and terrorise the opposition by targeting medics and hospitals then injuring POWs. Under Coalition law, this branded the Tyrnapoldov soldiers as war criminals with substantial bounties on the heads of any platoon leaders; relative, of course, to the abysmal economy of the planet and worth very little off-world.

Jakunta saw the winds changing. With the financial backing of the coalition, the Pozchy Republic was beginning to spread and his resolve started to waver. The thought of a Coalition-controlled Zalava and how difficult it would be to keep his life in that future spurred on a prompt escape from the planet on a freighter ship to the nearby Savonia. With very little funds, no grasp of the language and no connections on the planet Jakunta took any work he could find - then when he had enough to get by, any legitimate work he could find. He ultimately went from working under the table to a shipyard labourer and got to see MAS construction up close, admiring the behemoths of machinery whilst performing fairly low paying, menial labour in the production line. He moved into the mainland and started processing huge slabs of fish from the port of Veslem. Through osmosis, Jakunta learnt the language piece by piece and garnered the help of a sympathetic priest to become literate. From there, Jakunta applied for Savonian citizenship - and heard of the UEE backing his Tyrnapoldov brethren back home through the radio.

As soon as he was eligible by Savonian standards to join the UEE infantry corps, Jakunta signed up. He half hoped to return home and fight off the Coalition once and for all but found himself instead jettisoned into unknown frontlines, bloody wars held on numerous other planets like his and expected to fight just as hard as he did before. Jakunta exceeded expectations. His aggression had him placed into the Vanguard and from there new opportunities to learn such as MAS piloting courses and supplementary training became available. At this point in time Jakunta had to start considering his future - he'd been in enough battlefields to realise he wasn't dying as quickly as he had originally anticipated - and took on the supplemental training to better himself. It was ultimately that decision that flagged him for the 101st; he had more than proven himself through experience alone and if he managed to achieve similar results in a MAS then he was a promising candidate.

When Jakunta passed the necessary examinations to join the 101st, the group dynamic almost immediately threw him off. He wasn't standoffish per se; he just didn't know how to operate smoothly with such a close knit group. Alienated and alone, it fell to Aleksanderin to try and connect with the brute and better integrate him into the team. At the very least they shared a language he could speak better than English and a common understanding of the job description. What came from it was a tepid friendship that slowly warmed up until they were quite close. Jakunta never truly got along with the rest of the crew as much as he did with Aleks and the pair of them began training together to perfect their combat style.

From there Jakunta was a silent, steady foundation to the team. He didn't partake in the niceties of bonding and getting along with the others because he didn't need to - regardless of his personal opinions on the others (and their opinions of him), he would continue to protect and support the team with unwavering loyalty. Whether this stemmed from a sense of duty or the looming threat of his fate at the hands of the Coalition should the UEE end up dissatisfied with his performance remained to be seen. He didn't open up a lot. He didn't bother to learn much about the others - Aleksanderin was an exception but even then they weren't prone to long, heartfelt discussions about their experiences.

Then the assault on Savonia happened and something shifted in Jakunta for the better.

The familiarity of the territory brought out some latent leadership skills in Jakunta that spurred him, alongside Aleksanderin, to handle the responsibilities of rallying and organising the locals in a counter assault against the Coalition. All those engrained tendencies from Zalava came out as he became a powerhouse, a moral booster and an infantryman once more. He lead the charge more often than not with the vanguard then retreated to his MAS for devastating cover fire; he had to handle a gun and a knife on the field instead of in his MAS since the UEE wanted as little structural damage as possible. To the 101st, the change in demeanor was significant as they finally put Jakunta into a situation he was acutely familiar with.

When a young girl risked her life to drag Jakunta out of the line of fire after a bullet to the knee he made a split second decision and took an incredible risk by instructing her how to operate his MAS and perform his duties. Coupled with his exceptional performance on the field, the UEE put Jakunta under investigation and ultimately gave him several months' recovery leave to mend his injuries. They ultimately decided to keep Jakunta in the team but on a short leash to see how his change in behaviour would play out.

What they found was regular correspondence with Aleksanderin and a more demure approach to his job. Jakunta found a smidge of empathy and began warming up to others. No longer spurred by violence and patriotism, he started to slow down and carefully consider his actions. There isn't a lot of documentation on what he did aside from recovering in hospital and spending some time renting a cabin practically off grid, which he labelled as 'R&R'. He attended his physiotherapy sessions and made a decent recovery by carefully following advice from medical professionals. When he returned to work he was under a month's probationary period where UEE officials and his direct superiors tested his physical and psychological fitness to work and found no underlying issues.

When the young girl that saved Jakunta eventually reached out to him about a personal loss during her academic training, the UEE monitored the correspondence channels. What they found was an uncharacteristically gentle approach to the young girl and signs of Jakunta appreciating, then enjoying the regular messages. The same effect was noted in Aleksanderin and their strong dynamic plus Abigail's promising predicted scores marked her as a potential candidate for the 101st. Since her induction into the team Jakunta's behaviour has improved and he has finally started to come out of his shell. This promising new potential and his well-established record outweigh his age and lessened physical capabilities, retaining his position in the 101st for the foreseeable future.



Equipment: Aside from standard military affair, Jakunta has with him: A photo of a dog, a pack of tobacco and an iguana keychain.

MAS Profile

MAS Appearance

Designation: KRAKONO-M3
Role: Artillery / Supportive Fire
Chassis: Heavy
Description: A large, slow and heavily armored MAS utilising it’s large weapons systems to target enemy fortifications, buildings, slow moving ground troops and vehicles as well as opposing stationary targets with devastating results. Alongside an impressive medium to long range arsenal, the MAS has an additional thick layer of armor bolted onto its chassis.
The KRAKONO-M3 is intended to be used as a mobile, medium-to-long range artillery and anti-heavy MAS unit. The MAS is best suited for a supportive role, providing firepower to the more mobile and close-range MAS’s.
The KRAKONO-M3 has several weaknesses that prevent it from operating efficiently without friendly support:
Fast moving MAS’s and vehicles.
Elevated terrain forces the already slow MAS to either hunker down or commence at an even slower pace if forced to move forward.
Laser Weapons. This MAS has armor based defences that intend to protect it against ballistic and plasma based armaments which leaves it vulnerable to laser weaponry.
Systems:
Superheavy Mount: 80 centimetre caliber artillery cannon. A weighty, large and slow canon mounted onto the KRAKONO-M3 to act as a siege artillery piece.
Primary Mount: Anti-MAS ballistic canon. Used in combat against opposing MAS’s that have low armor but high shield defences.
Primary Mount: Anti-MAS laser canon. Used in combat against opposing MAS’s that have high armor but low shield defences.
Secondary Mount: Light machine gun. Used against encroaching ground infantry near the MAS.
Secondary Mount: Flame vents. Used against lightly armored enemies beneath the MAS.
Utility system 1: Smoke discharges. A defensive system to deploy a vast cloud of smoke to hide the MAS and allow for retreat.
Utility system 2: Uparmor. Additional armor plating bolted on top of the MAS. Raising it’s armor by half a weight class and reducing it’s mobility.

[DinoNuts]

Pilot Profile

Pilot Appearance

Name: Jakunta
Age: 41
Callsign: Yak
Kills: Not that many, probably only a bit over 10 over the length of his career.

Psychological Analysis: Jakunta is direct. His age and experience have granted him the wisdom of being able to cut straight through to the point he’s trying to make. A warrior since his youth, his development was marred by a lack of consistent relationships or a stable environment to grow into. He fights not because it is the right thing for him to do, but rather the only thing he knows and understands. He respects and admires his comrades but he's quick to get over their deaths and largely unfazed by their behaviour towards him. Once his communication skills had improved and obedience to the collective army had been drilled into him, he’s been reported to be trustworthy and loyal. There have been some interesting developments to the norm; Aleksanderin quickly became a kindred spirit who Jakunta frequently spends time with and the recent introduction of Abigail to the team has brought out some uncharacteristically sentimental behaviours from the brute that have yet to be fully established and documented.

Personal Record: Planet: Zalava, ruled by two feuding factions - the Tyrnapoldov Liberation Front (TLF) and the Pozchy Republic (PR). The two factions have been locked in a civil war for several generations. Due to their constant fighting, they were always technologically behind other space-faring empires. There were hardly any resources worth taking over and Zalava was left largely to its own devices for a few decades.

Jakunta was born on the Tyrnapoldov territories of the planet and raised in poverty. Witnessing his older siblings fight and die in the war whilst absorbing vehement propaganda, coupled with a cultural slant towards honour and glory in battle, Jakunta veered away from education and into a uniform whilst he was still largely a boy. The camaraderie and violence of a battlefield soaked into his formative years as he became disgusted, outraged then desensitized to the atrocities of war.

It was ultimately a want of manpower and space to grow that pushed the Coalition into backing the Pozchy Republic and since then, Jakunta and other Tyrnapoldov combattants have harboured the sort of festering hatred that you could only really garner from a long, pointless war. Unlike the grand scale assaults and skirmishes the Coalition was used to in space, Zalava introduced the capitalists to a civil war unchecked; Jakunta and his posse were quick to demoralise and terrorise the opposition by targeting medics and hospitals then injuring POWs. Under Coalition law, this branded the Tyrnapoldov soldiers as war criminals with substantial bounties on the heads of any platoon leaders; relative, of course, to the abysmal economy of the planet and worth very little off-world.

Jakunta saw the winds changing. With the financial backing of the coalition, the Pozchy Republic was beginning to spread and his resolve started to waver. The thought of a Coalition-controlled Zalava and how difficult it would be to keep his life in that future spurred on a prompt escape from the planet on a freighter ship to the nearby Savonia. With very little funds, no grasp of the language and no connections on the planet Jakunta took any work he could find - then when he had enough to get by, any legitimate work he could find. He ultimately went from working under the table to a shipyard labourer and got to see MAS construction up close, admiring the behemoths of machinery whilst performing fairly low paying, menial labour in the production line. He moved into the mainland and started processing huge slabs of fish from the port of Veslem. Through osmosis, Jakunta learnt the language piece by piece and garnered the help of a sympathetic priest to become literate. From there, Jakunta applied for Savonian citizenship - and heard of the UEE backing his Tyrnapoldov brethren back home through the radio.

As soon as he was eligible by Savonian standards to join the UEE infantry corps, Jakunta signed up. He half hoped to return home and fight off the Coalition once and for all but found himself instead jettisoned into unknown frontlines, bloody wars held on numerous other planets like his and expected to fight just as hard as he did before. Jakunta exceeded expectations. His aggression had him placed into the Vanguard and from there new opportunities to learn such as MAS piloting courses and supplementary training became available. At this point in time Jakunta had to start considering his future - he'd been in enough battlefields to realise he wasn't dying as quickly as he had originally anticipated - and took on the supplemental training to better himself. It was ultimately that decision that flagged him for the 101st; he had more than proven himself through experience alone and if he managed to achieve similar results in a MAS then he was a promising candidate.

When Jakunta passed the necessary examinations to join the 101st, the group dynamic almost immediately threw him off. He wasn't standoffish per se; he just didn't know how to operate smoothly with such a close knit group. Alienated and alone, it fell to Aleksanderin to try and connect with the brute and better integrate him into the team. At the very least they shared a language he could speak better than English and a common understanding of the job description. What came from it was a tepid friendship that slowly warmed up until they were quite close. Jakunta never truly got along with the rest of the crew as much as he did with Aleks and the pair of them began training together to perfect their combat style.

From there Jakunta was a silent, steady foundation to the team. He didn't partake in the niceties of bonding and getting along with the others because he didn't need to - regardless of his personal opinions on the others (and their opinions of him), he would continue to protect and support the team with unwavering loyalty. Whether this stemmed from a sense of duty or the looming threat of his fate at the hands of the Coalition should the UEE end up dissatisfied with his performance remained to be seen. He didn't open up a lot. He didn't bother to learn much about the others - Aleksanderin was an exception but even then they weren't prone to long, heartfelt discussions about their experiences.

Then the assault on Savonia happened and something shifted in Jakunta for the better.

The familiarity of the territory brought out some latent leadership skills in Jakunta that spurred him, alongside Aleksanderin, to handle the responsibilities of rallying and organising the locals in a counter assault against the Coalition. All those engrained tendencies from Zalava came out as he became a powerhouse, a moral booster and an infantryman once more. He lead the charge more often than not with the vanguard then retreated to his MAS for devastating cover fire; he had to handle a gun and a knife on the field instead of in his MAS since the UEE wanted as little structural damage as possible. To the 101st, the change in demeanor was significant as they finally put Jakunta into a situation he was acutely familiar with.

When a young girl risked her life to drag Jakunta out of the line of fire after a bullet to the knee he made a split second decision and took an incredible risk by instructing her how to operate his MAS and perform his duties. Coupled with his exceptional performance on the field, the UEE put Jakunta under investigation and ultimately gave him several months' recovery leave to mend his injuries. They ultimately decided to keep Jakunta in the team but on a short leash to see how his change in behaviour would play out.

What they found was regular correspondence with Aleksanderin and a more demure approach to his job. Jakunta found a smidge of empathy and began warming up to others. No longer spurred by violence and patriotism, he started to slow down and carefully consider his actions. There isn't a lot of documentation on what he did aside from recovering in hospital and spending some time renting a cabin practically off grid, which he labelled as 'R&R'. He attended his physiotherapy sessions and made a decent recovery by carefully following advice from medical professionals. When he returned to work he was under a month's probationary period where UEE officials and his direct superiors tested his physical and psychological fitness to work and found no underlying issues.

When the young girl that saved Jakunta eventually reached out to him about a personal loss during her academic training, the UEE monitored the correspondence channels. What they found was an uncharacteristically gentle approach to the young girl and signs of Jakunta appreciating, then enjoying the regular messages. The same effect was noted in Aleksanderin and their strong dynamic plus Abigail's promising predicted scores marked her as a potential candidate for the 101st. Since her induction into the team Jakunta's behaviour has improved and he has finally started to come out of his shell. This promising new potential and his well-established record outweigh his age and lessened physical capabilities, retaining his position in the 101st for the foreseeable future.

Equipment: Aside from standard military affair, Jakunta has with him: A photo of a dog, a pack of tobacco and an iguana keychain.

MAS Profile

MAS Appearance

Designation: KRAKONO-M3
Role: Artillery / Supportive Fire
Chassis: Heavy
Description: A large, slow and heavily armored MAS utilising it’s large weapons systems to target enemy fortifications, buildings, slow moving ground troops and vehicles as well as opposing stationary targets with devastating results. Alongside an impressive medium to long range arsenal, the MAS has an additional thick layer of armor bolted onto its chassis.
The KRAKONO-M3 is intended to be used as a mobile, medium-to-long range artillery and anti-heavy MAS unit. The MAS is best suited for a supportive role, providing firepower to the more mobile and close-range MAS’s.
The KRAKONO-M3 has several weaknesses that prevent it from operating efficiently without friendly support:
Fast moving MAS’s and vehicles.
Elevated terrain forces the already slow MAS to either hunker down or commence at an even slower pace if forced to move forward.
Laser Weapons. This MAS has armor based defences that intend to protect it against ballistic and plasma based armaments which leaves it vulnerable to laser weaponry.
Systems: Superheavy Mount: 80 centimetre caliber artillery cannon. A weighty, large and slow canon mounted onto the KRAKONO-M3 to act as a siege artillery piece.
Primary Mount: Anti-MAS ballistic canon. Used in combat against opposing MAS’s that have low armor but high shield defences.
Primary Mount: Anti-MAS laser canon. Used in combat against opposing MAS’s that have high armor but low shield defences.
Secondary Mount: Light machine gun. Used against encroaching ground infantry near the MAS.
Secondary Mount: Flame vents. Used against lightly armored enemies beneath the MAS.
Utility system 1: Smoke discharges. A defensive system to deploy a vast cloud of smoke to hide the MAS and allow for retreat.
Utility system 2: Uparmor. Additional armor plating bolted on top of the MAS. Raising it’s armor by half a weight class and reducing it’s mobility.