[CHAR] Empire of the Clouds

[Expendable]

Chrstina Ferrari

Character Description

Name: Christina (Visconti) Ferarri
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Nationality: Calarian
Appearance:

appearance

This girl makes you think of a dangerous bird of prey. She has round green eyes that are like two chunks of jade. Her fine, straight, brown hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a turtle's shell. She is very tall and has an amazonian build. Her skin is tanned. She has a large mouth.

Her wardrobe is practical. Cotton batiste camisole and drawers, wool socks, good brown leather work boots, Khaki drill shirt, tan khaki overall suit, brown cassimere cap (golf style), horsehide work gauntlets, black sweater with leather patches on shoulders & elbows; Turkey red bandanas (x2), sheepskin coat, sheepskin hunter's cap, goggles.

Personal Effects:

On her person

Ladies' Nickel watch (4H12282)
Pathfinder Brass Compass (6H5230)
Police Call Whistle (6H4471)
Steamboat Playing Cards (49H160)
Vest pocket Memorandum Book (3H955?)
Pencils x3 (3H13450)
Three-Blade Electricians' or Mechanics' knife (6H17154)
Brass Knuckles

Brown cowhide traveling bag (33H1271)

Tin of hard candy (local)
14-piece Handy Tools in a canvas roll(9H55045)
Hunting Knife (6H4513)
38-Caliber Automatic Pistol (8 shot) with extra magazine (6H1503)
38-Caliber Automatic Smokeless Cartridges with metal patched bullets (box/50 x2) (6H2580)
Book, True Detective Stories (3H1856)
Gold coins inside leather poker chip tubes.

---

Background:

What is your job Mechanic

Backstory: Born to the Visconti Merchant family, she had been playing with Fosca, the daughter of Nicola Ferrari, local blacksmith and family friend, he had spent time with the merchant fleet. As Nicola was bringing her home, they found her father and mother were being dragged out of the house by the communists, then shot in the street.

Nicola picked her up and whispered in her ear, "Remember, you are now Christina Ferrari, niece."

She began spending time in his workshop, helping him alongside his sons, Vittore and Martino. Then the communists came for the teens, to induct them into the people's infantry.

Christina, like the other men and women, learned to march, to polish her boots, to shoot a rifle, to fight unarmed and with a knife. Then when that was done, their basic training unit was broken up to join other units. Some of the women in their group were sent to become nurses. Fosca and Christina, however, were taught how to drive and repair the people's trucks, built in their factories. Once they were graded as satisfactory, they were granted permission to go home before their next assignment.

Nicola told them they'd missed Vittore and Martino, who had been there the previous week. He, too, was worried about the build-up of soldiers and was convinced the communists intended to invade their neighbor. Christina decided to escape. There was a secret escape tunnel her parents never had a chance to use. She used it to get into the house, inside its hollow walls, and retrieve her father's secret stash. Christina provided half of it to Nicola and Fosca, carefully hiding the rest on her person.

Back at their camp, Christina began driving the relief truck along the line. However, the people's truck would frequently break down. One night after it again had broken down, she sent the men up ahead to continue relieving the border guards, telling them she'd pick them up eventually when the truck was fixed. When they were out of sight, she then snuck across the boarder and surrendered herself to the Inburian soldiers, who were surprised she could speak their language, one of several her father had taught her.

It turned out that she was not the first Calarian to cross those lines to warn them. They took her rifle and sent her to the capital. As it happened, Generoso Rubino, one of the few friends of her father to escape the purge was living there and vouched for her. However, it seemed to her that nobody was taking the threat seriously. Nor could she sit around making idle talk with other ex-pats, that was no longer her life. So she got a job with the company building and maintaining the Inburian Zeppelins and began to prepare to escape should the Communists invade.

[PrinceAlexus]

Post Captain Hamelin Le Marinier

Name: Post Captain Hamelin Le Marinier
Gender: Male
Age: 42
Nationality: Favis
Appearance: A taller man and bearded to hide the Scars from his injuries that caused his active retirement. Right eye is glass or an eyepatch depending on comfort and part of his right hand is a mechanical prostatic from a blast injury.

Has a number of miscellaneous scars from said explosion on his right side.

My Hider

Personal Effects:
.455 Favis Heavy pattern Navy Revolver
Favis Diplomatic papers
Old Riggers Knife and spike.
Silver plated hip flask with Whiskey.
Navy wool overcoat.
1 glass right eye, 1 eye patch, 1 Right partial hand prosthetic
A folded bundle of small maps and a simple small metal compass.

History:

What is your job:
Former active Naval gunnery Officer and Diplomatic mission staffer from Favis..

Born into a long family of sailors from pirates to merchants and even the odd privateer down the family history it was almost expected that he would serve, sail in some way related to the sea. Hamelin did not disappoint and joined the Favis Navy as a junior midshipman when the chance was first available.

Though minor nobility their Title meant little more than a long family history, a coat of arms and a large home that cost too much to heat but they also refused to sell, a sense of pride and also the old stone building had withstood the centuries as their protector from storms, conflict and more unnumbered. It was this family that shaped the officer who rose in the Royal Flavis Navy, showing promise and being assigned first as a navigation officer until his real talent as a gunnery commander was revealed.

Success began to follow success until he was aboard the heavy dreadnought class, Hammer of Vich', a large ship clad in iron and steel, mounting the heaviest and most powerful armaments Flavis Forges and war smiths could craft. It lead the fleet forward befitting its name, fire, fury and wrath where exchanged without mercy or pause.

It was In B main turret an anti armour shell slammed into a plate already weakened by several hits from a heavy cruiser that lingered close exchanging close fire but losing it was when his world went black and his memory only returned aboard a land based hospital after the battle taken away by the the hospital ship Mercy of the Angel then to the main Naval hospital.

Victory came at a price for all, for our noble office it came high. His hand was a mass of bandages, Half his face was too. Shrapnel from the hit that buckled the turret's side sending a wave of steel into space and leaving grievous wounds and death to many. 1 man in 20 got out walking.

Decorated, promoted, His active career was over, honourable service meant he had a choice, a quiet retirement or to take what job was available and serve behind the desk instead of gunplot. Hamerlin chose to stay and soon his command was a desk in a comfortable enough office building trying to learn how to use his new hand and adapt to a single eye after a long stay in hospital.

…

Years passed.

…

Years passed and Hamerlin now held a role in the Embassy to a semi allied nation, their Naval attache, his job was not what he wanted, to have commanded warships, maybe even fleets but he had found at least a life that kept him from getting bored. He still was an expert at reading maps, able to calculate terrain, elevations, and transform the 2D into a 3D puzzle to crack complex tables and calculations easily. Those skills he kept, advising on situations and attending various events on behalf of the nation he served.

He rose to Post Captain on both seniority and merit, he was unlikely to make a flag but he had risen as far as a land based officer likely could. His rank also came with responsibilities and pressures that he had not shouldered before but privilege was never freely given.

…

Fire came.

…

Forts, defence lines and established defensive plans expected to hold the enemy for weeks, months if not drive them to utter stalemate buckled and broke far faster than anyone could have believed and soon the Capital rang with guns before even people could move to escape. The armies of the Red tide could not be held back as they began to pound the city, their batteries and heavy siege armies now able to dig, bombard and break the final defences before all was consumed.

Expecting no such army to obey the Diplomatic niceties, he grabbed what he could, his pistol and so from his drawer, stuffing ammo where he could, his knife and a few other things before he left. He would find his own way out and he believed he saw one last do or die plan in his eye. He was likely dead anyway so a small chance of success was more than none.

He had carefully studied the city and its plan, its maps, layout and what he helped would save his life. He made for his desperate plan, avoiding those places he knew would likely be main targets, and navigated his way to the last escape route he could devise.

[InfamousGuy101]

James E. Carter

Name: James E. Carter
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Nationality: Commonwealth of Ardell
Appearance:

My Hider

Personal Effects:
- Silver pocket watch
- Personal journal booklet
- Clothing he has on
- Model II shotgun (basically an M1898 shotgun)
- Harlan Arms Model 45. Pistol (ye old 1911)
- Pack of Loro Cigarettes he's never opened

Background:

What is your job: Merchant Airship Captain/Pilot
Backstory: James hails from the Commonwealth of Ardell, a nation across the Evig of sprawling plains, winding rivers, large forests and industrious cities. Raised on his family’s sprawling farm in the dust-laden plains of the West Fork he grew up knowing only hard work, clear skies, and endless fields. His life changed forever the day he saw the glide of airships over his small town of West Fork, the airships were ornate back then but the sight of them were a promise of a future far from the soil. From that moment, he knew his fate lay not in the dirt but in the boundless sky.

Upon coming of age, he eagerly joined the Ardellian Defense Corps, seizing the chance for adventure and the possible opportunity to some day pilot an airship of his own. When the Commonwealth sent a force across the river to establish a beachhead on Iktani soil, they were spotted by an Iktani observation balloons. It wasn’t long before the Iktani encircled them, launching a brutal assault to drive the Commonwealth forces back. Despite heavy losses on both sides, the Commonwealth troops managed to hold their position, though without advancing. To bolster the assault the Commonwealth finished building it's first bombing airship, the CBS-11, which came to be nicked "The Screaming Eagle" by the crew, and Carter was part of that crew which was dispatched to bomb a key Iktani city believed to be a staging ground for reinforcements.

The bombing mission was chaotic. From the altitude required to evade anti-air defenses, it was impossible to gauge where the bombs would land, but Carter knew they weren’t hitting the intended rail yard. The mission left him feeling conflicted and disillusioned, as he sensed that innocent lives had been lost without clear military gain. The Iktani's reaction was immediate and fierce, swelling their ranks with reservists who had lost homes and families in the bombardment.

The Commonwealth troops fought to preserve the beachhead but were soon overwhelmed by the wave of Iktani reinforcements. Forced to retreat, the Commonwealth began negotiations, ultimately withdrawing their forces and suing for peace. As The Screaming Eagle headed home, it was caught in a storm it wasn’t built to withstand. Fire spread through the vessel, sending it crashing into the Gulf. Carter was one of the few survivors, rescued days later by a Nordisle patrol. Returning to a hero’s welcome in Ardell, he felt only grief and guilt. Requesting discharge, he left the military to join The Evig Traders' Guild, a merchant company offering steady work far from Ardell.

Carter spent years with the Traders' Guild, shipping goods across the continents. His journeys took him from the rugged (rumored to be haunted) mountains of Bayn Alain to the icy reaches of the northern seas of Brendahl, where the airships had to navigate treacherous winds and frigid salt spray. He has traversed jungles, deserts, and even the mysterious islands of the Southern Archipelagos where he witnessed skybeasts and all kind of otherwise fantastical creatures most couldn't even fathom. Yet, despite the thrill and freedom that the open skies brought him, he found little peace. The memories of the war, the fallen friends, the burning wreck of the Screaming Eagle, and the lives lost from his own actions followed him wherever he went, a weight on his conscience that no distance could lift.

Through it all, he led his small crew with a steady hand, navigating his ship through occasional ambushes, violent storms, and encounters with beasts that haunted the southern seas. Despite the money and respect he had earned the sense of unease gnawed at him, a reminder of the past he couldn’t fully leave behind.

Carter and his ship now find themselves in Inbur, a city under siege. Originally, he’d come here on a rare but necessary assignment for The Evig Traders' Guild: transporting high-value artifacts and essential supplies from the embattled Inburian forces as they braced against the Calarian advance, the only reason why he accepted this task was the company offering to pay him double the bonus, triple if he brought everything unscathed. Inbur’s Imperial Palace held a trove of relics and important documents, treasures deemed too valuable to risk falling into enemy hands. The mission was simple enough; arrive, load the goods, and leave before the Calarian forces could fully encircle the city.

But the situation has spiraled faster than anticipated. Enemy forces have pushed through the defenses faster than anyone had expected, cutting off traditional supply routes. The Inburian command is in disarray and scrambling to evacuate its highest officials and essential personnel. As the city’s defenses crumbled, the military base near the palace was abandoned in the rush to withdraw. In the chaos, Carter's airship was targeted by Calarian artillery, now with his airship burning and his crew missing Carter must make his way back to the homeland he's avoided for years, how he will do that only fate may tell, for now though the large unattended airship in the imperial palace seems to be his only hope for escape.