Name: Russell Collazo
Age: 27
Gender: Male
???: Let's go with N
Skills: Russ is a competent HPV pilot, capable of handling some more difficult maneuvers and operating any equipment in Recon-Class vehicles. Outside of his machine he is very physically fit, and has extensive training as a rescue worker, knowing various field first-aid techniques and disaster relief.
Appearance: Russell is a physically imposing man, standing tall at 6'2 with a wide, muscular frame. His skin is mocha-colored, with plenty of hair coating his arms, legs, and chest. His hair is shaved down to little more than stubble, sitting above his big bushy eyebrows. His eyes are dark brown, and his face is covered in numerous healed nicks and scars. Off-duty, he prefers less-than-flashy clothes, like tank-tops and cargo pants.
Personality: Russell is a fairly relaxed individual, coming off to people as carefree and friendly. He shows a great deal of camaraderie towards people he serves with, having no qualms with teasing and joking with them, and getting as good as he gets. In general, he has a great deal of compassion, holding himself to a high standard concerning other people's lives and violence. While he doesn't demonize fighting, he dislikes it a great deal, which is why he prefers to play a supportive role in combat. Under pressure, he shows nerves of steel and intense focus, and while he follows orders he's been noted to take liberties with his actions when directed against his morals, skirting dangerously close to insubordination.
History: Russell was raised in the Northwestern USA, the second oldest in a very large family. His parents both worked in the medical field, and were busy often. Russ had a lot of siblings, most younger, though him and his older brother Felix were close for most of their early lives. Sometimes things got tense between them, as they both spent a great deal of time helping raise their siblings due to their parents stressful jobs, but in the end they were as close as siblings could be.
A few years later, when Russell was in Highschool, trying the best he could to follow in his parents footsteps towards becoming a doctor. The first few years he maintained a high grade average, and took plenty of classes related to medicine and the like. Meanwhile, Felix had since graduated and joined the military. While Russell didn't support this choice, his love for his brother meant that he didn't try to talk him out of it, and he let him go. Unfortunately, as his studies continued, Russell began to see how stressful it all was, and soon found that he had trouble keeping up. Like his brother, he had a more direct mindset, and while Felix may have chosen to fight enemies of his country, Russ just wanted to help people directly.
Once he finished High School he started on the path of Disaster Relief. He went through the college required, learning paramedical skills and the like, before quickly getting himself out in the field with a non-profit organization. He was very passionate about his work, and really had purpose working to help people in the world. He was often on the scene of things like Earthquakes and other natural disasters, assisting the wounded, clearing rubble, ect. Then, after several years on the job, he grew disillusioned with the fact that it didn't seem like he was making a difference, especially as the introduction of HFVs to the war machine of the world caused more suffering. He left the job.
After some soul searching, he discovered CAPEI. While he himself had always been a bit of a skeptic, he decided that the group probably could do a great deal of good for humanity, and admittedly the idea of aliens with even more advanced weaponry arriving horrified him, knowing how violent humanity was with this technology they were barely understanding. He applied for a career, netting a job as a reconnaissance HFV pilot. While his attitude about extraterrestrials wasn't in line with the group's purpose, he does believe that CAPEI can bring humanity together again like it once was, if brought back to its old status.
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Model: LST-0500 'Flash'
Specialty: Recon/Scouting
History: The LST-0400 Model of HFV was an early rendition of the vehicle, designed by the US government as a lightweight combat machine. Its early models saw a great deal of use in training pilots, due to its fast movement even within Earth's gravity. However, as combat vehicles, they were quickly outclassed by Mass Produced HFVs, which, while larger and bearing more armor, costed less due to less maintenance being needed.
Some years after they were put in the storage shed, CAPEI (in its prime) recovered the designs and began producing updated models designed for reconnaissance and scouting - The LST-500. They were outfitted with long-range sensors and various jammers, falling into the class of support roles intended to respond to alien threats before they even knew where the humans were.
As CAPEI became more and more pointless, LSTs began to gather dust. With no alien threat coming, their parts were far more useful in other HFVs more suited towards dealing with combat. All but a handful were decommissioned or sold off to other groups who needed sensors on a regular basis.
Russ's LST, which he calls 'Flash', is a somewhat modified variant, some of its weapons having been swapped out long ago before he acquired it.
Vague Inspo, I guess. Kinda drifted far from it.Appearance: The LST-0500 is smaller than most combat mecha, standing at roughly 20 meters height. It has a high-powered FA-3 Compact Fusion Reactor MK.2. It lacks the thick armor of most other HFVs of the generation, utilizing thing plating across the body instead. It is painted grey with streaks of black in an attempt to provide suitable camouflage at long range. Its head has two yellow eyes facing forward. Its body is thin in the waist, with a large chest cavity where the reactor is stored, with large legs and thin arms.
It has thrusters placed on its back, on its shoulders, and some on its legs as well. All pivot and can adjust direction rapidly. As well, it has a large antenna connected to a hump on its back that can be retracted or extended. It has heat vents placed all over its torso and legs, small slits that open periodically.
On its right shoulder is a large grenade launcher, attached so it can move horizontally. On its left arm there is a pilebunker attached on top of the forearm, a large metal spike ready to launch forward at a moment's notice. Its light weight weight and low armor give it unparalleled control over horizontal and vertical movement, even in higher gravity situations.
Features:-Long Range Sensors
-Communications Interceptor
-Radar Countermeasures.
-Multi-Directional Thrusters
Armaments:-50mm Light Machine Gun, clip fed
-Shoulder-Mounted Belt-Fed Grenade Launcher (LST carries both high-explosive grenades as well as signal-jamming electrical smoke grenades)
-Explosively Launched Pile-Bunker
Weaknesses:-Poor in direct combat, especially against multiple opponents
-High thruster use and small reactor mean frequent overheating, must vent heat frequently
-Low armor means both pilot and reactor and visible
Russ's LST doesn't do particularly well in direct combat. Its machine gun isn't very useful against armor unless it can sustain fire. The lack of armor makes fighting quite dangerous, as the HFVs armor is sparse so most defense relies on Russell's ability to dodge and weave, which, in turn, can cause issue with the core's heating. That said, if combat has to happen, he does have the ability to outpace most combat mechs in speed, and if he uses his countermeasure against visuals well, him and the massive stake strapped to his mech's arm can be quite an opponent - but generally only against single targets, due to his melee weapons slow reload and the finesse it takes to get into a position to use it.
