Deadnaut

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Ooh yay! For whatever reason this RP really has me excited! I'll work on getting a post up for Cpt. Teller right away!

The Crucible - Winner Take All

@Lugubrious

Ah, I think I could probably answer that (Though please correct me if I'm wrong @Lmpkio)

Assuming she knew the College reps weren't from her planet, which they aren't if I am correct, then they would be classed as "aliens", regardless of appearances. Of course, thats just me speculating.

The Crucible - Winner Take All

"Gods above, I'm not drunk enough for this."

The thought soared through Captain Teller's thoughts as SSGT. Enrico Salvini blared what he called the team's theme song through the SQUADCOM as the team dropped rebels with the practiced ease of veteran elites. UASD had been sent on this mission, cleaning out mercenaries and rebels from a hideout in the temperate portion of Hell. Supposedly they were too quick to be caught by a normal strike force of infantry, so they'd sent a UASD team with CAS from a CR-11 "Crow" gunship. Sadly, however, it seemed intel had overestimated the enemy, they were green-as-grass rookies, hardly worthy of a UASD team's attentions, leaving them nothing to do but drop rebels in time with the music.

Bang bang, they shot them down

"Look at em fall Cap! These suckers can't take the heat baby!"

Whooped Salvador Silva, the squad's heavy gunner as he held his LGFMG by the bipod, pouring bursts into anyone who brought their weapon in target.

Bang bang, they hit the ground

An enemy sergeant, trying to rally his men, fell with a gaping hole in his chest where his heart should be, ice spreading over the dead man's body to the horror of the men around him.

"Target down. Re-positioning." Came the call of the squad's resident non-human, a Yuki-Onna from an island in Japan whose name James had never been able to pronounce. She went by Yukiko, and her mastery of both ice and her Precision Engagement Rifle was fearsome.

Bang bang, they torched the rest

"Move it Rangers, we need to drop em fast not in style!"

Captain Teller shouted as he lead the squad forward, gunning down any enemies in their way. The squad methodically cleared the camp, the enemy being found to have almost no weapons worth writing home about. Pipe guns, makeshift ARs, nothing that could even scratch the high-quality suits of Ranger Battle Armor the squad wore. So, the team spread out, and Teller found himself clearing the last structure of the compound on his own. Just as he resigned himself to an easy sweep and clear, breaching the entry way with a door breach charge, he found a pair of hands grabbing his chest plate from within and hurling him into the interior wall.

His helmet gave him a rapid update, the armor had held as it was meant to, but what bothered him was the flashing warning light in the top right of his helmet, telling him what he already knew. There was a devil, a blasted delta, here, and intel had neglected to mention it. Said devil stood over the Captain, seeming cocky as he drew a sword, obviously glowing with some foul magic, and pointed it at the prone Captain's neck. "You Rangers sure are easy to bait. All it took was the offering of some basic human cattle, easily replaceable, and I have a team of UASD here! Marvelous! I shall enjoy picking each of you apart, starting with you Captain! Any final words?"

This devil was insufferably cocky and he was about to pay the price for that. Teller could see by his squad's helmet cams, displayed prominently in his lower left vision, that Yukiko had drawn a bead on Teller's would be killer. Not to mention the others of his team had obviously stacked up outside, not that Teller intended to deprive himself of this. This would be good, killing a delta always was, for that brief moment of pure outrage as they realized they'd been outplayed. Not to mention that killing a delta always made Teller feel a little better, like maybe the world still needed his washed up ass, so he intended to enjoy this.

Lifting his visor so the delta could see his face, but leaving his SQUADCOM transmitting, he said with an insufferable grin "Bang bang."

In time with his words, a pair of gunshots rang out as Yukiko took out the man's knees. Getting to his feet as the devil screamed out in pain as ice formed around his wounds, locking him to the ground, Teller said with a smile "Go ahead and cry. Let me tell you a secret about you, and your rebel friends." Drawing his LE-21 pistol, and now to the sound of Enrico's song emanating from his suit's external speakers from outside, Teller uttered with two pulls of the trigger "You're all about to die."

Teller thought that was it, mission over, time to exfil, when the weather turned against them. A storm rolled in from seemingly nowhere, rain lashing down and lighting striking. The team made sure their suits were sealed, to make sure to stay dry, as Teller reported over his long range COM "Torchwood this is Spartan One, OBJ Freebird is cleared out. Inclement weather rolled in, will advise when EZ Primary is green for a bird."

Not even listening for the acknowledgment, Teller opened his mouth to bark orders when, from the storm, a pair of civilians emerged holding a lantern. Teller couldn't help the twinge of pride as his men spread out, training their weapons on the newcomers. Wisely, the apparently civilians came to a halt, their hands calmly raised in surrender.

"Captain Teller! Would you please relax your men? I assure you we mean no harm!" One of them called, a young woman with more than her fair share of charm called out. Teller chuckled, unworried by her knowledge of his name and rank since both were displayed on his armor, and called in reply, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the storm "Afraid not, as there aren't supposed to be civilians in this sector. What're your names and what is your business here?"

The very same woman replied "Ah yes, I suppose that is a good opener isn't it? I am Amelia Rosenvalt, and my partner here is Déaglán Ó Foghladha, and we've come for you Captain."

As if to punctuate this statement she briefly jiggled the lantern she held, briefly catching the Captain's eye before it came to rest on her again, eyeing her and her compatriot for weapons as she continued "Tell me, Captain, have you any interest in partaking in a..fighting tournament of a sort?"

"Nope, now get out of here." came the simple reply from the Captain, sighing inwardly. It seemed these Deltas had resorted to sending recruiters out to get people to participate in those blasted tournaments of theirs. It was odd to try and recruit humans, especially Rangers, but he supposed it was a logical step. After all, if you wanted to fight deltas, why not try to recruit the very people trained to do it?

"Sir, you should reconsider! After all, this tournament has a reward unlike any you could imagine." Teller sighed at this proclamation but motioned for her to continue. He wasn't sure why, but he felt curious about this, though his training warned him something was amiss. They'd been trained to resist magic practiced upon the mind and, while James felt nothing trying to interfere with his thoughts, something still didn't seem quite right. Regardless, the woman continued

"Captain, this tournament comes with a prize that has no value, for it is priceless. This tournament can grant you one wish, any wish." Now, that got the captain's attention and he took a step towards the group.

"I don't like this boss, something isn't right with these guys." Teller heard Salvador say as he took another step. Looking the woman dead in the eye, or at least near as he could with the triangular face plate again covering his face, he uttered "Nothing can grant my wish, kid. Now get out of here."

As he turned to leave however, she whispered to him "You could go home again Captain. This wish could finally end your war. Don't you want that, Captain? A home to go back to?"

Teller was brought up short by the seemingly casual utterance of his heart's deepest desire, to go home. Slowly turning to her, he watched her grin with what Teller believed to be a hint of smugness. She must've known that would draw him in and, without another word, she turned and began striding back into the storm with her partner, beckoning the Captain to follow. After a moment, Teller did so, barking over the protests of his men "Hold here. Salvini, deliver the formal notice of my resignation to the Captain, you're team lead now. When this storm clears, take the bird home." Without another word, Teller shut off the COM as he followed the pair through the storm. Soon it began to clear up, and James expected to see the grassy plains of Hell, perhaps a vehicle or teleportation circle in the distance. Instead, however, he found himself in an entirely new environment, a massive structure looming in the distance and the sound of water lapping at a shore not too far to his left. A quick inspection told him he was now on an unknown island, and most assuredly not within the AO of the raid he'd just conducted. Nearly speechless, James uttered a pre-war movie quote he found most appropriate

"Holy shit...I'm not in Kansas anymore."

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Man, looking at all the characters and character concepts has kept me oddly excited for this! Not gonna lie, usually I don't stay on hype trains for very long but I'm still really looking forward to this! I've been running through matchups in my head for like the last three days, and some of them are downright hilarious.

Speaking of hype-trains and obvious segues, anyone else excited for Shadow of War?

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Captain James Teller

Name: Captain James D. Teller
Alias: Blackjack
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Class: Commando

Equipment: 1xR41A2 Assault Rifle, 1x LE21 Sidearm, 1x Ranger-standard combat knife, 1x Field Survival Kit(Contents below), 5x C7 Foaming Explosive Charge, 1x M67 Detonator, 3x Fragmentation Grenade, 4x Smoke Grenade, 3x Door Breaching Shaped Charge, 10x 7.62x54 30 round magazine, 10x 10 round .45 ACP magazine, first aid kit, military ruck sack, standard-issued Ranger Battle Armor, Elvish unending booze flask

Ranger Issued Field Survival Kit

Survival Knife, Matches, Compass, All-Weather Clothing, Multi-tool, Sanitation and personal hygiene items(Shaving Kit, bar soap), Emergency Blanket, First-Aid Kit, Sleeping Bag, Work Gloves, Heavy-Duty tape, Machete, Tent, Ranger issued Entrencging Tool, foldable survival hatchet, Binoculars, Gas mask

Abilities: James is a trained commando, trained in close quarters, short and medium range combat, as well as demolitions, combat life saving and raid tactics. On the supernatural side, he has boosted reflexes and speed, along with hand eye coordination.

Fighting Style: James doesn't believe in a fair fight, and so he'll engage in whatever he thinks he needs to do in order to win. This means he naturally keeps his foe at the medium range his rifle excels at when he can. He'll also do you one better however and, if he can kill you before you ever see him, he'll do it. Traps, trickery, low blows and precision fire are all part of James's arsenal to win every battle he has to fight.

Personality

James is a man, a soldier, searching either for a new war to fight, or a way to finally go home. As a result of his time at war, he is careful but aggressive when committed, as you can't fight a devil slowly nor stupidly. James takes duty and his word as a soldier with the utmost seriousness, and so will abide by his promises even to his own detriment, with one exception however. James has been a soldier fighting for the survival of humanity for so long, that his greatest commitment is to the task at hand. As such, he will suspend his entire moral code if it means finishing his mission. However, as a result of this, James also nurses a crippling alcohol addiction, and while he can operate without his addiction hampering his effectiveness to a severe level, he becomes irritable, violent and easy to provoke when in a state of withdrawal.

Bio

It was the year 2032 on planet Earth when the forces of Hell launched a full scale invasion. Not only did the demons strike with the 'expected' command of magic and legions of underlings, but also with tanks, planes, rifles, all the stuff of a mortal war. At the time a Sergeant in the United States Marines, James was in combat against the enemy from the beginning. As nations across the world fell, a desperate strategy was chosen in order to save the human race. Most of the globe was surrendered, with a full evacuation of civilians and soldiers to North America. There, as the civilian populace attempted to cope with cramming itself into the US and Canada, the military reorganized. Now, they called themselves The Rangers, and the Rangers aimed to win this war. At first, it was going well, and Underworld Assault Search and Destroy teams, a new breed of special forces for a new war, were extracting any demon willing to fight their fellows. It was on one of these teams that James found himself leading.

However, in the end the war seemed doomed, and high command made a decision. The Rangers sealed themselves in fortified bunkers and entered cryo while the Earth was devastated by a massive nuclear attack, driving the devils from the Earth. Hundreds of years later, the Rangers, and James among them, went back to war, taking Earth and hell in a storm attack. Two decades of war took their toll on James, on every human left alive, but when the war was finally won, James had little else to do. He and his team of the UASD were honored veterans, retained by the Rangers to ensure peacetime cooperation of the humbled Devil houses, but this hardly comforted Captain Teller. The war had become why he lived, why he got out of bed, and with it over he now realized he had nothing to go home to. His family were long dead as they weren't Rangers, they hadn't been taken into cryo. He had no place in the new world and so sank deep into the bottle to compensate, his commanders worried for the officer but with operations being so infrequent they had no official grounds on which to attempt to 'fix' the damaged veteran. It was in this state that he found himself whisked away to a new dimension, to fight a new war.

Wish: To find a new home, and in doing so finally end his personal war.

Echo

Captain Teller has spent most of his adult years stationed at Fort Bragg, both before the nuclear war and after. It is a place teeming with life, and always has. Before the war, on base housing was huge and constituted a reasonably large percentage of the base. Of course, around the base were also helipads, armories, barracks and other such military necessities. Its perimeter was a chainlink fence manned by sentries, and helicopters seemed to be overhead constantly, dropping in men on air assault training. After the war however, the base changed. On base housing was gone, replaced by an underground complex which sprawled for miles underground, housing thousands of soldiers and civilians. Its helipads had been fortified with anti-air guns, its armories were expanded to hold facilities for priests to bless the thousands of rounds of ammo and grenades the Rangers used, and the base constantly seemed to have men moving out at the height of its activities.

Appearance:

Unarmored

Armored

Frenzy: When Jack is frenzied, he quickly seems to become the very thing he has spent his career killing. Physically his appearance doesn't change heavily, though the spade tail, wings and suddenly ash-gray skin are all stark indicators that something isn't wrong with the operator. In this state, he is stronger, faster and able to react with blinding speed. However, his more important change is his switch from depending on his rifle to rushing his opponent, aiming to get them on the ground and beat them to death with as much brutal efficiency as possible.

Inventory: Phylactery, Visor

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Far from my best work, but here is the first draft of my character, commando, saboteur and soldier extraordinaire!

Captain James Teller

Name: Captain James D. Teller
Alias: Blackjack
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Class: Commando

Equipment: 1xR41A2 Assault Rifle, 1x LE21 Sidearm, 1x Ranger-standard combat knife, 1x Field Survival Kit(Contents below), 5x C7 Foaming Explosive Charge, 1x M67 Detonator, 4x Fragmentation Grenade, 4x Smoke Grenade, 3x Door Breaching Shaped Charge, 10x 7.62x54 30 round magazine, 10x 10 round .45 ACP magazine, first aid kit, military ruck sack, standard-issued Ranger Battle Armor

Abilities: James is a trained commando, trained in close quarters, short and medium range combat, as well as demolitions, combat life saving and raid tactics. On the supernatural side, he has boosted reflexes and speed, along with hand eye coordination.

Fighting Style: James doesn't believe in a fair fight, and so he'll engage in whatever he thinks he needs to do in order to win. This means he naturally keeps his foe at the medium range his rifle excels at when he can. He'll also do you one better however and, if he can kill you before you ever see him, he'll do it. Traps, trickery, low blows and precision fire are all part of James's arsenal to win every battle he has to fight.

Personality

James is a man, a soldier, searching either for a new war to fight, or a way to finally go home. As a result of his time at war, he is careful but aggressive when committed, as you can't fight a devil slowly nor stupidly. James takes duty and his word as a soldier with the utmost seriousness, and so will abide by his promises even to his own detriment, with one exception however. James has been a soldier fighting for the survival of humanity for so long, that his greatest commitment is to the task at hand. As such, he will suspend his entire moral code if it means finishing his mission. However, as a result of this, James also nurses a crippling alcohol addiction, and while he can operate without his addiction hampering his effectiveness to a severe level, he becomes irritable, violent and easy to provoke when in a state of withdrawal.

Bio

It was the year 2032 on planet Earth when the forces of Hell launched a full scale invasion. Not only did the demons strike with the 'expected' command of magic and legions of underlings, but also with tanks, planes, rifles, all the stuff of a mortal war. At the time a Sergeant in the United States Marines, James was in combat against the enemy from the beginning. As nations across the world fell, a desperate strategy was chosen in order to save the human race. Most of the globe was surrendered, with a full evacuation of civilians and soldiers to North America. There, as the civilian populace attempted to cope with cramming itself into the US and Canada, the military reorganized. Now, they called themselves The Rangers, and the Rangers aimed to win this war. At first, it was going well, and Underworld Assault Search and Destroy teams, a new breed of special forces for a new war, were extracting any demon willing to fight their fellows. It was on one of these teams that James found himself leading.

However, in the end the war seemed doomed, and high command made a decision. The Rangers sealed themselves in fortified bunkers and entered cryo while the Earth was devastated by a massive nuclear attack, driving the devils from the Earth. Hundreds of years later, the Rangers, and James among them, went back to war, taking Earth and hell in a storm attack. Two decades of war took their toll on James, on every human left alive, but when the war was finally won, James had little else to do. He and his team of the UASD were honored veterans, retained by the Rangers to ensure peacetime cooperation of the humbled Devil houses, but this hardly comforted Captain Teller. The war had become why he lived, why he got out of bed, and with it over he now realized he had nothing to go home to. His family were long dead as they weren't Rangers, they hadn't been taken into cryo. He had no place in the new world and so sank deep into the bottle to compensate, his commanders worried for the officer but with operations being so infrequent they had no official grounds on which to attempt to 'fix' the damaged veteran. It was in this state that he found himself whisked away to a new dimension, to fight a new war.

Wish: To find a new home, and in doing so finally end his personal war.

Echo

Captain Teller has spent most of his adult years stationed at Fort Bragg, both before the nuclear war and after. It is a place teeming with life, and always has. Before the war, on base housing was huge and constituted a reasonably large percentage of the base. Of course, around the base were also helipads, armories, barracks and other such military necessities. Its perimeter was a chainlink fence manned by sentries, and helicopters seemed to be overhead constantly, dropping in men on air assault training. After the war however, the base changed. On base housing was gone, replaced by an underground complex which sprawled for miles underground, housing thousands of soldiers and civilians. Its helipads had been fortified with anti-air guns, its armories were expanded to hold facilities for priests to bless the thousands of rounds of ammo and grenades the Rangers used, and the base constantly seemed to have men moving out at the height of its activities.

Appearance:

Unarmored

Armored

Frenzy: When Jack is frenzied, he quickly seems to become the very thing he has spent his career killing. Physically his appearance doesn't change heavily, though the spade tail, wings and suddenly ash-gray skin are all stark indicators that something isn't wrong with the operator. In this state, he is stronger, faster and able to react with blinding speed. However, his more important change is his switch from depending on his rifle to rushing his opponent, aiming to get them on the ground and beat them to death with as much brutal efficiency as possible.
Inventory: Phylactery

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Just noticed this notification! I'ma start working on my character right now!

The Crucible - a 'multiversal' tournament with your soul on the line

Hm, this seems interesting. I'll carefully place my hat in the ring.

Infinity: Intervention [A stat based sci-fi action adventure!]

I'll throw my hat in the ring!

Falling Skies: 7th Mobile Armor Suit Team

<Snipped quote by Deadnaut>

I believe there's a lovable, murderous robot wanting to speak with Ari. :P

@Whoami

Indeed there is, and as such I have slowly begun work on a reply