Name: [ERR.084 // FIELD CORRUPTED.] // "Gypsy Alexandros"
Gender: Female
Age: 26
Appearance: Given that her choice of eyewear obscures up to half of her face, down to the tip of her nose, it can be difficult to determine the true features of Gypsy Alexandros. Her skin is the golden tan of a girl who spends her free time in the booth, and though her hair is naturally blonde it looks like it's been bleached lighter and lighter with regularity over the years; sandier, almost-brown roots can occasionally be caught in the light. She looks like she should be a surfer or a swimsuit model, not a first contact specialist. Her teal eyes, tending closer to green, only add another oceanic flair to the beach babe appeal. Most of her clothing has been cobbled together over the years, stolen by flings, so much of what she wears outside her pilot suit is often leather, faded denim, and a little too big for her. She has her navel pierced with a pair of studs.
Personality: A charismatic, thoroughly spaced-out, go with the flow kind of girl. Gypsy's cultivated air of mystery seems to be the most careful thing about her, and her reassured manner can be a source of comfort or disquiet. She seems a bit detached from most conversations she's involved in - not that she's not paying attention to what's being said, but more as though her responses can be a little vague or dreamy, with strange, small anachronisms being a personal staple. She is, however, a keen judge of character, and adroit at both lying and detecting liars, as well as a hit-and-miss source of advice in general; in fact, she occasionally seems to deliberately offer misleading opinions or advice if only to bait out potential counterpoints, or make someone question the merits of their own decision more thoroughly. This can be done in conversations both personal and professional.
She values her leisure time highly, often kicking back with books, music, and some form of simulated sunlight to make her feel like she's tanning. She's had a colorful record with relationships, mostly do to her own nature, and so likes to keep her interactions with all people at varying flavors of casual, whether friendly, romantic, or adversarial in nature.
Backstory: To hear Gypsy tell of her own life, you would hear...well, not much. She spent her college years on the beaches of Europe, burning through men, an occasional woman, pizza and alcohol on a fast track to a United Nations career she was thoroughly unsuited for and even more thoroughly uninterested in. Once she had well and truly washed up in college, she returned to her native Mars, settling into a job as a corporate test pilot for one of the myriad conglomerates that had seized control of Mars after the failed Mars Sphere Revolution of a century prior. to hear Gypsy tell of her own life, she basically just hung around Mars doing much of the same, but now with a company tab to put her vices on, and lucked into a berth on
Pandora.Obviously, there is more to her life than what Gypsy tells.
For one thing, although she
had indeed wound up withdrawing from college on Earth, her grades were impeccable up until the very semester before she was schedule to advance further in her career track - although school officials, under duress, might eventually be coaxed to admit that her enrollment in the first place came with a generous donation in favor of a transcript. Her withdrawal seemed motivated with the job she took immediately upon returning to Mars, a test piloting gig with the Martian Orbital developer Chiron Works similar to those snatched up by ex-military or mercenary types. In addition to what the occupation that went on her taxes, however, she was also a corporate attache for a variety of expeditions related to the possibility of alien life from Venus to the habitats of the Jovian Sphere. With those qualifications in mind, it's no surprise that she, and the mysterious, exotic-looking Orbital she pilots, found themselves onboard
Pandora.Skills and Flaws: Though charismatic and capable of coaxing people to achieve their best, she also seems unable to connect with them on any deeper level. She doesn't open up well about herself or the things she desires, and aloof curiosity seems to have completely taken the place of the natural, primal fear of the unknown innate in humans. This makes her a formidable Orbital pilot, but also a reckless one, constantly removing safety limiters on her machine without proper oversight. In her free time, she likes to bake homemade pizzas, play the guitar, and is toying with the idea of writing her first novel - she has a talent for narrative and prose, but her spaced out nature can lead to procrastination, and she has a hard time realizing what makes her characters tick.
Equipment: A stylish, completely unique and original mask and two pairs of sunglasses for every day of the week. Portable music device.
Model Number: CW-023 Atrox Fortuna // Anemoi-001
"Gypsy Soul"Role: Close-Combat Precision Assault Unit
Appearance: 16.8 meters, designed as a pastiche of the original extraterrestrial war machines, given a complete crimson paint job per pilot specification. Pretty sick lookin'.
Systems: Haidos Stealth System - The crown jewel of the Atrox Fortuna, the Haidos stealth system is designed to block infrared emission and limit visual identification through the dispersion of colloidal nanoparticles, modified by certain polymers, to create a stronger, more durable material that light can also pass through. In theory, on an unpainted suit, this would be a breakthrough in materials science that allows for almost-total "invisibility" while retaining the more durable frame. Gypsy, however, has had her test unit painted bright red, so some of the effect is lost. It turns a little pinkish in the right light though.
Ablative Armor - A second layer of protection atop the Atrox Fortuna's armor, the Orbital's ablative armor covering provides an extra level of defense against beam or directed energy weapons, flaking off at the time of the absorption of impact. The armor does little to protect against kinetic strikes, a weakness of the Atrox Fortuna suit in general.
High-Performance Package ver. Praxis Clock - The wing binders and tail stabilizer of the Atrox Fortuna were originally designed for long-term in-atmosphere usage, one of many such modifications made with the Orbital's original purpose in mind. Upon the suit's modification into a stealth attack unit, many of the limiters on the mobility systems
and the Oberth Reactor were stripped away at the test pilot's request - and what limits were imposed on her by the company were quietly tinkered with, stealthily enough to make the suit itself blush. Moving three times faster than a normal G-Hawk comes with its downsides, however - namely an intense strain on the pilot and the constant risk of Oberth Reactor strain or outright power failure.
Weapons: Argive Industrial CFL-M Marksman Rifle x1- Further running the risk of stunted power generation is the large-scale
Char's Fucking Combat-Functional long-range marksmanship rifle rifle. Although it fires snazzy, incredibly stylized crimson rounds, for conservation reasons and in keeping with the pilot's preferred fighting style, this rifle usually goes unequipped unless the Atrox Fortuna is directly connected to the
Pandora.Argive Industrial CFL-LL Beam Vulcans x4 - More often used in engagements are several small-scale beam Vulcans, two mounted on the forearms and two in the cranial unit. Though not capable of doing much damage to many Orbitals, or even the Heavies of old, they are more than capable of fending off point-blank assaults, munitions fire, or the odd bit, funnel, or drone assault.
Jawaid & Jawaid Industries Samadhi Laser Sabre x1- Whatever. You know what this is. You've watched anime, I've watched anime. This one is red because of very complicated power conservation reasons. It is the Atrox Fortuna's primary weapon in most engagements, paired with the Looking Glass.
Quess-Paraya Defenses Looking Glass Protective Shield x1 - An ornate shield that also serves as the only non-crimson spot of color on the Atrox Fortuna, the Looking Glass is more than capable of withstanding large-scale kinetic hits that the Orbital itself would shy away from. It also has the same ablative coating that the Orbital sports, to disperse most directed energy weapon fire.
Manufacturing History: The Atrox Fortuna bears, to use a descriptive trope often whipped out in the days of the old HFV design, quite the "striking appearance." Its exotic, borderline-inhuman design was the first aspect of the suit to come together. A team of Chiron Works' finest mechanical designers painstakingly analyzed the awe-inspiring machines discovered buried in Siberia centuries prior, and through a little well-meaning, innocent corporate espionage even managed to obtain up close pictures of a couple of the original alien suits from whatever government warehouse they had been mothballed in. The design cues wound up comprising the first drafts of the CW-023 Atrox Fortuna.
The alien appearance of Chiron's latest Orbital was no accident. It had been designed with the expectation of future alien incursion into the solar system from the nascent beginnings of its development, and the Atrox Fortuna's purpose was to provide a bit of a familiar "face" to the species that (presumably) had abandoned a ship full of war machines in the first place. The suit, hypothetically, would provide a measure of comfort and open dialogue between our species and our extraterrestrial visitors - or, at the very least, convince them that we had adopted enough of their technology in order to pose a viable threat to an invasion force.
Strangely, the test pilot itself seemed to have more and more input on the suit's specifications and intended role as time went on, moreso than one would expect for a corporate employee with no past qualifications as a mechanical designer. Many of her improvements seemed to make for a more finely tuned machine, however, and the suit fit both its old and new niches with a surprising panache, so it was only natural that the Atrox Fortuna and its pilot would receive Chiron Works' berth onboard the expedition to Proxima Centauri.
Weaknesses: The Atrox Fortuna is designed to slip in, hit fast, then retreat. It's a highly-specced hit and run unit that was even further specialized by its pilot, and relies greatly on her own speed and instinct to avoid overclocking the suit or sustaining critical damage. Delivering that damage, should she slip up, is not hard.