Sorry this took longer than I thought, couldn't find a picture that worked for me and I woke up feeling like crap today. Anyway. When everyone is a very unique character such as genetically engineered soldiers, dimension shifters, super geniuses, lizard people and so on, many of them not even old enough to drink yet, having an older, down to earth dude what pilots good is nice and different. I realize picking a Macross unit for a transforming airplane unit isn’t exactly the most original choice and that you've shot down others for using canon units, but it’s kind of hard to top Macross in that area, especially when it comes to original artwork.
Designing a properly transforming machine is hard, and where else am I going to find one that looks this dumpy and not at all like a standard modern jet or typical humanoid mech, thus complimenting its whole "it's an old ass unit modified to be combat-worthy" thing in the story? Besides, I think I picked a fairly non-standard machine, AFAIK it’s never been animated, though a variant did turn up for like a single episode of Dynamite 7, and I changed its arsenal around somewhat by adding a pair of very Gundamlike weapons and making its machineguns into what amounts to Mass Effect guns on account of beams not being good weapons underwater. Everyone knows as much.
Credit where credit is due, though, in order: The pilot armor is the Browsuperior (I swear that's the name) Riding Suit from Genesis Climber Mospeada. The plasma pistol is apparently the Battlestar Galactica Matsuo pistol, whatever that is. The mech is the VA3-M Invader from Macross, I think it's from a PS1 game, hastily modified with MSPaint tier work by me to remove a stupid looking anglerfish-like antenna and UN Spacy symbols.
Pilot/Custodian Staff MemberName: Raymond “Ray” Lowe
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Appearance:An athletic, tanned man of 6 feet 2 with hazel eyes, messy blonde hair and a perpetual stubble that takes more work to maintain that Ray cares to admit, it tends to surprise people that this jovial-looking man is 30 or that he’s spent the last decade as a Custodian. When not wearing his piloting armor colored navy blue and white (his personal colors, shared with his craft), he usually wears black boots, jeans, a white shirt and a beaten up blue flight jacket. Hidden by the jacket, though worn openly with the piloting armor, is a shoulder holster carrying a military grade plasma pistol.
Personality:Upbeat, carefree, irreverent and, most of all, friendly, Ray doesn’t act like the uptight veteran most people would expect someone with a decade of Custodian experience to be like at all, remaining laid back and good humored through pretty much any situation. Despite this, he’s also rather opinionated and very straightforward, never afraid to voice his thoughts as they are. A dedicated pilot and something of a thrill seeker who very obviously enjoys high speed combat, dogfights and shooting duels in particular, he takes a good amount of pride in his skills and rarely ever hesitates when it comes to performing some manner of dangerous stunt or getting into close call situations. Over time, he’s formed a strange emotional attachment to his machine, often talking to it or referring to it as if it were a living being, his partner in battle.
Brief Backstory:Ray’s grandfather was a plain old jet pilot, back when those were the cutting edge of technology, having served with the US Air Force in several engagements. He would tell the young Raymond stories about old wars and the history of human flight, and thus Ray developed a lifelong dream, some would say obsession, with becoming a pilot just like his grandfather, much to the displeasure of his straight-laced, paper salesman father. This soon developed into a full blown thrill-seeking personality, where Ray would engage in all manner of dangerous pursuits such as bike riding or boxing as a sort of replacement for his lifelong dream of being a pilot.
At 24, Ray finally managed to achieve his dream by joining the private fleet of the Apex Paradigm corporation, a small but relatively successful company that specialized in producing and fielding their own planes for non-military purposes. Ray was assigned as a test pilot for the then latest product the company had to offer, a craft created to serve not only in the sky but also in space and even underwater codenamed the Peregrine. Though expensive to produce, the machine was a workhorse ahead of its time, and with Ray as the pilot it displayed tremendous performance. So much so that, when the Custodian efforts became more pressing, Apex was asked to come on board as a mecha developer.
While the Paradigm execs refused on grounds of not wanting to become military developers, they did graciously offer the Peregrine test model and all of its data and blueprints to the Custodians. The plane was quickly modified, further enhancing its performance and implementing weapons and better armor materials for increased survivability in combat. Furthermore, the frame's solid performance and all-terrain nature proved ideal to introduce experimental transformation technologies, and soon the Peregrine was no longer just a plane but a transforming machine, capable of assuming a humanoid battle mode in the blink of an eye.
Ray, meanwhile, had jumped at the offer to join the war effort, seeking to follow his grandfather’s footsteps. Fighting to remain at the Peregrine's helm, since it was the first plane he'd gotten to pilot and he'd grown rather attached to it, he proved to have a natural aptitude for combat and was assigned as the machine's official pilot. Ray became a Custodian at age 25, and a decade of engagements followed. Despite his chosen craft soon becoming rather outdated technology, he refused to change into one of the newer machines derived from the research that went into the Peregrine, instead having it constantly updated and rebuilt with better internal systems, materials and even weaponry to keep up with the times.
Character theme: The Jester’s Dance by In Flames, looped until your brain meshes it all into an incomprehensible mess, just like in Super Robot Wars.
Skills: Motorcycle riding, sharpshooting, boxing, piloting anything that flies, years of experience as a Custodian give him a certain knack for battle less experienced people just don’t have.
Abilities: -Heightened reflexes: Ray reacts fast, even for mech pilots. Not a supernatural or engineered ability, he was simply born with good reflexes and has developed them further as a result of his thrill seeking ways.
-Superior spatial perception: While having good reflexes is nice, you actually need to see, hear or feel things coming to react, right? Thankfully, Ray is also pretty good at that. He has terrific hand-eye coordination and the perception to match his reflexes. Again, not a supernatural ability or anything weird, it’s not a newtype flash, he’s just naturally better at these things than most in the same way other people have a better sense of smell or can build muscle faster than others.
Gear:-
Pilot armor: An all-around effective survival suit that not only shields the pilot’s body from the strain of high speed combat but also serves as body armor, a piloting aid via helmet-mounted HUD and an effective space suit. The thick plate pieces are colored white, while the suit is navy blue.
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Plasma pistol: A military sidearm powered by a detachable battery good for some 30 shots and easily rechargeable in any military facility, it can fire both relatively harmless stun shots designed to incapacitate targets much like a tazer or deadly bolts of plasma. The pistol also has a supercharge setting where it expends the entirety of its battery in a single blast, capable of piercing battlesuits and even cause some damage to mechs, especially if used against particularly vulnerable areas such as visors. Though not quite standard issue, it’s not a rarity either. Ray carries the weapon and a spare battery in a shoulder holster.
MechaName: AP-LSAS-001C “Peregrine”
Type: Real robot
Appearance: What happens when you a take a Sea-Air-Space single pilot ship and modify it intro a transforming combat unit?
This is what. The unit is primarily painted navy blue, with white highlights.
Specifications:Around 18 meters tall in mech mode and only slightly shorter in plane mode, this dumpy-looking machine is designed to operate well in any environment, capable of functioning in the sky, space or even underwater unimpeded, while its bipedal mode gives it adequate ground combat capabilities as well. The entire thing isn’t particularly tough but it’s very fast and very agile as befit a transforming plane, using its capabilities to outspeed and outmaneuver threats. If there’s a particular failing with the machine is its relative lack of firepower compounded by its inability to use mass produced handheld weapons.
Equipment System:-Crush pincers x2: in exchange for not having more humanoid hands, the Peregrine’s three-fingered claws are capable of exerting vise-like pressure and can be used to crush enemies in close range if need be.
-Rail machineguns x2: Built into the Peregrine’s arms/pontoons are a pair of machineguns which fire small slugs sheared from a solid block of material used as a cartridge. The slugs, though small when compared to bullets, are launched at tremendous speeds by a railgun-like mechanism altered to allow for rapid fire functions and impact with just as much power as a regular bullet, since they’re designed to squash on collision and transfer as much force to the target as possible. While regular railguns tend to be slow-firing, devastating single shot weapons, these rely on rapidly scoring multiple impacts to deal their damage. Ammunition is not much of a concern unless it’s an overly prolonged engagement with no chance to restock, but the pilot needs to watch for the weapon’s heat levels, as constant use will rapidly build up heat which needs to be dispersed before the weapon can continue to function.
-Beam sabers x2: The machineguns’ barrels aren’t just that. By switching to an alternate mode, they can be used to produce short plasma blades which don’t work very well underwater but supplement the unit’s defective close combat capabilities. A relatively recent addition. they’re perhaps the most damaging single-hit weapons in the Peregrine’s entire arsenal.
-Micro missile pods x2: Mounted on top of the mech’s shoulders, which become the section of the wings closest to the plane’s body (fuck me if I’m learning all of the proper plane terminology for all this), are a pair of micro missile pods. Much like the machineguns, the missiles themselves are not that powerful individually but many can be carried in the small-ish pods and can be used to rapidly saturate a target with detonations.
