Name: Vespin Longshank
Gender: Male
Age: 43
Faction/Race/Species: : Imperial Guard, Ratling
Sub-Faction: Cadian 534th
Rank/Position: Corporal/ "Fixer"
Mental and Physical Traits:
-Fixer: Vespin has spent years easing the tension between his fellow ratlings and the guard soldiers, and has developed strong diplomatic skills from it. Having had to deal with everyone from low-ranking buerocrats to commanders of entire companies, he's learned better than most that a light touch is sometimes best, and some times only a punch like a rifle shot will settle things.
-Longshooter: Considered one of the best marksman in his company, Vespin is an expert sniper. As a ratling, he's naturally adept at sniping, but even among his own kind he's considered gifted.
-Thief/Gambler/Black Marketeer (criminal): Thanks to connections made through his (very) extended family, Vespin has access to black market goods and services that he can access throughout most of Imperium-controlled space. In addition to making a profit by selling to soldiers, and running the books on a gambling ring, he also acts as an informant working to keep his family's criminal organization flowing smoothly. In exchange for goods and services they couldn't normally get on the battle field, many high ranking military officers are happy to use their connections to nobility to help Vespin's family sneak under the law books.
-Cook: Vespin is a masterful chef, with skills fit to prepare some of the finest ingredients in the galaxy. There's an actual waiting list among the upper ranking officers for who gets him as cook. It's even been known for his team to transfer among deployment stations, solely because a high ranking official wanted to try one of his famous meals.
-Bionic leg: standard issue robot leg, meant to replace the original one he lost during a botched mission. Only notable features are small compartments added to hide knives, various thieves tools, and similarly small items.
Appearance: Vespin is a short, hairy man with pointed ears and beady eyes. Standing at right under three feet, he's average height for a ratling. However, an active effort has seen that he keeps up a muscular build uncommon among his kind. Other vises, however, have not treated him so kindly. His skin is tough as leather, his hair stiff and brittle, and his voice is like sand on gravel. With his missing left leg and unkempt mutton chops, he looks every bit the grizzled veteran he is.
Wargear:
-Accatran pattern MkXI shotgun: Unlike most, Vespin prefers to keep the removable stock attached. Keeping mid-range slugs in the barrel most of the time, he also always carries a number of scatter shot rounds in the event he has to get in close
-Standard-sized camo cloak: Although too big for him, Vespin prefers to keep using the cloak he had on when he made his first mid-combat head shot. He believes it to be a lucky token, and rarely takes to the field without it.
-Rosarius: Taken off the body of a dead battle priest, Vespin keeps this very important 'luck charm' hidden in his bionic leg. Although it came into his possession on the same mission that cost him his leg, Vespin firmly believes it's what kept him from loosing more than just the leg. In truth, it did keep him alive, but its power cell was completely drained by it and it is now only a trinket with a great deal of potential.
-Flakk Armor: Needing the greater mobility, Vespin prefers to use his standard issue flak armor over heavier gear, such as carapace armor.
-Night Reaper: Pawned off to him by a catachan soldier, Vespin decided to keep it for himself. Though closer to the size of a short sword than a normal combat knife, its well-crafted design means it's light enough for him to use.
-Stun grenades: Preferring to confuse an unsuspecting foe instead of risking getting his own limb blown off (yes, it's connected to the leg) Vespin makes use of stun grenades made from gutted frag grenades. Given they don't look different from normal frags, anyone who knows the marker tends to react appropriately, and anyone who doesn't gets hit by the suddenly burst of light and sound.
-Contraband: He's got it. A lot of it. And he can get more. What he doesn't have, give him time, and he can probably get that, too. For the most part, this includes leisure items, such as alcohol and recreational drugs. Rarely, he'll sell customized versions of standard-issue weaponry. This also includes a number of tools he can use to pick locks, crack safes, and a number of other things.
-Sniper rifle: Affectionately refereed to as 'Longshank Junior' (only the ladies get to meet Longshank Senior), Vespin's sniper rifle is a heavily modified and personally customized Type XIV 'Heavy' lasgun. Modifications and custom additions include:
1.)Modified power backpack; the actual reason Vespin is likely the most muscular ratling in the Imperium, the power source for his weapon has been modified for use with a single-shot weapon, as opposed to its usual burst fire mode. The main differences include a less radical cooling system that takes advantage of time between shots to reduce stress caused by rapid heating and cooling. Added capacitors help share the work load, discharging to allow the weapon to always fire at full efficiency, given a couple seconds between shots. All this helps make the weapon far easier to maintain than a normal variant of the same gun. This also means its charge setting slider has been removed.
2.)Sniper variant stock/barrel/grip: With an extended barrel, padded stock, and smaller grip, the body of the gun is a shadow of its former self, to allow for use at exceptional range. In addition, the gun bares a number of personalized style choices, such as bunny stamps to mark head shots made, and a custom paint scheme meant to make the body appear made of the same apple wood often used on his home world (that it happens to also replicate the smell is a bonus).
3.)30x infra-scope: Possibly the most heretical aspect of the weapon, the scope it sports is a fusion of the weapon's original infra-scope, combined with an astartes grade 30x scope taken from an Ultra patern MkIX. The combination of the two has proven to be the death of many enemy snipers, who can match neither its range nor camouflage defying capability.
4.)Suppressor: The weapons suppressor masks the usual rapport of a lasgun, as well as most of the muzzle flash. Made by examining and modifying the design of the suppressor from the same MkIX its scope came from, while it doesn't completely mask the gun's presence when fired, no guardsman saved by its sudden intervention on the battlefield has reported hearing anything even close to the strange, chirping noise Vespin hears it make.
History: Vespin Longshank was born on a simple agri world, and spent his youth playing in the woods and stealing fruit from his neighbor's apple orchard. His mother was a kind woman, if not overly fond of the local tavern. Though, truth be told, he was raised as much by his older siblings as he was his mother. They taught him all the ins and out of running a scam, picking a pocket, and of course how to knock an apple off a tree from across an orchard.
However, things weren't always so cut and dry. Generally, when his mother was asked about her children's fathers, she'd answer right away and even point out the bar where she met them. Usually, you could find them drinking there if you just asked around. When Vespin asked, though, she would just a far away look in her eye, then tell him not to worry about it. On some nights, though, when she'd had too much to drink, she'd tell a story of when she was young, and traveling around the world. She found a city, in the middle of nowhere, that wasn't on any map. According to her, there had been men there, with strange weapons. Some of them were twice the height of a normal man, and all wore matching uniforms. When she'd asked for help, the one in charge agreed, if she shared a bottle of booze with him. Normally, that's where the story would end. One night, though, she kept going. That was the night Vespin learned his father was born on another planet.
He had struck out for the place his mom had talked about the next morning. Wanting answers, he got far more when he found it. It turned out to be a guard recruitment station, where young ratlings with the right qualities were sent by retired veterans to be the next crop of Imperial snipers.
From there, he joined the guard, all in the name of meeting his father. He received training, was taught all the basics of life in the Imperium, and always went above and beyond what any other ratling cared to do. So determined was he to not get sent home before meeting his old man. In the end, he wasn't sure if what he found was a relief, or a disappointment.
His father turned out to be a con man, by the name of Wilfur Thomson. After making a name for himself as a recruiter and climbing the ranks to as high as a subhuman could go, he used his position to cement his family's criminal network. While it didn't carry the power or respect associated with most, it was the largest in the Imperium, and the only one to have firm roots in both the Gaurd and the Navy. While that kind of organization required they bring regular humans into the fold, there was always a ratling in charge. Of course, when his unknown son showed up, with rank and prestige built up from years of being one of the few ratlings actually trying to make officer, that made Wilfur all too eager to welcome into the family.
Over the next decade, Wilfur brought Vespin into the family business, teaching him what little he didn't already know about working the angles from both sides. Sharing information, resources, and personnel, Vespin helped his father to become one of the heads of their family's criminal organization. However, for all he's done for Wilfur, Vespin still has no idea just how elaborate his network truly is, or what all his father is hiding from him. All in all, Vespin always wanted to take over his father's throne, but he never had the resources or allies to do it.
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