AdvancedJ3lly — Roleplayer Guild

Corporal Laen burst awake with a choking gasp of cold air that stung her throat. She spent a few moments fighting to regain her bearings, her head swimming and her senses overwhelmed with aching pain and freezing cold. She was surrounded by only darkness and silence, completely disoriented. For those first few moments, she felt as if trapped in a nightmare, alone, utterly helpless, as if the Emperor himself had abandoned her. 

Then her senses started to return to her through the disorienting fog. Every part of her hurt. She felt nauseous, but managed to fight back the urge to vomit. The small amount of clothing she still wore was soaked through, sticking to her skin like ice, chilling her to the bone. At least it numbed the pain slightly. Throne, her limbs felt so heavy. 

Think...think... Even that hurt. Where am I? A ship? Yes, a ship. How did I get here? The throbbing pain in her head made it so hard to focus. She was shivering uncontrollably, her hands and feet felt lifeless. She tried to move them, nothing but stinging pain. Then she realized why. Panic flashed through her for a moment and she pulled at her bonds again frantically, serving only to dig the bindings into harder her flesh. Even at her full strength she would have had little hope of freeing herself. She steeled herself. She was a Cadian, a soldier in the Imperial Guard, a survivor of unimaginable horrors. She could get out of this, she just needed to think.

“Tell me. Who are you, where were you going, and what are you doing aboard this ship?”

She lifted her head to face the source of the voice, straining to focus on his words. “I-Ines...Corporal Inessa Laen.” She managed despite everything, forcing herself to keep the pain out of her voice. 

She focused, hard, slowly realizing she did not know the answers to the rest of his questions. It started to come back to her after a few moments, being separated from her unit on special assignment, staying aboard a naval voidship, this voidship apparently, with her own quarters. Everything had been going well until...until it hadn't. Now she was here.

Name: Inessa Laen

Gender: Female

Age: 23

Rank: Corporal

Former Regiment: 510th Cadian Shock Troops (Mechanized)

Specialty/Role: Vox-Operator and Reconnaissance Trooper

Personal Demeanor:
Once a zealous and hot-headed recruit eager to see the field of battle, Laen's demeanor has since been tempered by the Iron discipline of the Cadian Shock Troops and the dreadful realities of combat in the 42nd Millenia. She has a much more reserved outward personality, seeming quiet and distant to those around her, though a fire still burns within her. She's a loyal, faithful soldier of the Emperor that has excelled in her areas of expertise, but her reserved and disciplined attitude has kept her from advancing to a leadership role in the 510th. She keeps her mouth shut, her eyes and ears open, and does what needs to be done when it needs to be done, but rarely takes the initiative herself to make decisions, an unfortunate drawback of the disciple drilled into her all her life. While she will not hesitate to share her expertise and advise superiors when called upon, she does not question a decision or order handed down to her, regardless of her own opinion on the matter. She makes a loyal follower and dedicated comrade, but a wanting leader.

Her experiences have left her paranoid and restless as any loyal guardsman should be, constantly vigilant. She has a deep hatred of the forces of chaos and all those that serve the Daemonic, ingrained in her through her upbringing and reinforced in her military career. Conversely, she trusts her fellow guardsmen (especially other Cadians) with her life and will not hesitate to put herself at risk for her comrades. 

Description:
Corporal Laen is far from an extraordinary looking individual. Standing only 5’3” tall with an athletic, although not particularly muscular build, she is towered over by most others and appears rather slight by comparison. Her light complexion and violet eyes easily mark her out as a Cadian, as does her standard battle dress, patterned in the muted green camouflage used by guardsmen on Stiri II. Her flak armor shows the wear of battle, with worn paint and scarred in places by shrapnel. Her helmet is mounted with a bulky headset for the vox-caster she wears on her back which itself looks almost comically large on her. The words “Call for a Good Time” are stenciled in white on her helmet, something allowed only due to her position as a reconnaissance trooper, far from commanders and commissars that might frown at such a thing.

Service Record:
The fall of Cadia marked a tremendous loss to the Imperium. However, its martial tradition remains alive and well, carried on by the scattered sons and daughters of Cadia, fighting countless wars against those who would threaten Mankind. Entire regiments continue to be raised from the descendents of those that survived Cadia's fall, born in gargantuan voidships and distant colonies instead of the fortress cities of Cadia, taught to hate the Archenemy that tore their world from them. 

Corporal Laen is among those thousands of Cadians born without a home, trained to fight and die among her fellow Cadians and told countless stories of the homeworld she would never see and its near-mythic defenders that died by the millions to hold it from the most accursed enemy. She called the vault-like holds of naval voidships her home and those guardsmen around her family. Like so many Cadians before her, she has known little else than war, born among soldiers of Cadia and raised to battle in the 510th Shock Regiment alongside her brothers and sisters, her childhood merely preparation for martydom.

Laen's first combat experience was on Thesh, an industrial world caught in the path of an Ork Waagh. The 510th arrived several weeks after the ork vanguard, intending to relieve the beleaguered defenders and reinforce their fortifications. Laen, still a whiteshield, participated in nearly a year of brutal attrition warfare. She fought in day after day of brutal combat on the front, with little time to recover or even bury the dead between xenos assaults. The experience was sobering for the young woman who had yet to know the realities of war. After months spent grinding the xenos advance to a halt, the Imperials went on the offensive and drove the greenskins from the world. By the end of the Battle of Thesh, Laen had been transferred out of her whiteshield platoon and into a reconnaissance company, where she served as a vox-operator. 

After a short respite from the campaign on Thesh, the regiment participated in the counter-invasion of Stiri II, an Imperial Agri-world invaded and subjugated by a Chaos warband spat out into the Imperium by the Circatrix Maledictum. It was here that Laen came face to face with the servants of the Archenemy and the horrific powers they commanded. Her reconnaissance unit formed the vanguard for the Imperial offensive, traveling ahead of the lines to test the enemy's defenses. She became an adept scout and navigator, for anything less meant a quick death on the overgrown fields of Stiri II. The campaign left the 510th a tattered shadow of its former self and Laen, now a corporal, was among the hardened survivors, having faced certain, horrific death for two long years and survived by luck and the Emperor's mercy. 

Equipment:
Lascarbine - A shortened lasgun with a folding stock intended for specialist personnel. Laen prefers it due to her smaller physique, reconnaissance role, and bulky comms equipment.
Vox-Caster - A bulky manpack radio with helmet-mounted link. It provides infantry with the capability for long-distance communication with friendly elements.
Magnoculars - A handheld vision device that magnifies distant objects for observation.
Flak Armor - Protective body armor in the standard Cadian-pattern. Comes in two sizes: Too Big and Too Small. Laen's is the former.
Cadian Battle Dress Uniform - A simple and rugged uniform in woodland camouflage intended to serve guardsmen in a variety of environments. 
Standard Regimental Kit - An assortment of equipment to sustain a guardsman in the field, including ammunition, rations, tools for maintaining military equipment, and basic medical supplies.

AdvancedJ3lly Member

Status

Bio

Most Recent Posts