GENESIS 2089 [Post-Cyberpunk PMT | OPEN] [OOC]

[Lunas Legion]

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++ CHARACTER PROFILE; Roxanne Belran
++ Corporate Agent

++ Name: Roxanne Belran
++ Appearance:

++ Role: Corporate Agent
++ Age: N/A - Synthetic
++ Gender: N/A- Synthetic - Female appearance
++ Nationality: N/A - Synthetic - Possesses false passports and ID documents for multiple nationalities.
++ Residence: Roxanne does not own her own residence, but normally uses Valken Corporation property when not on a mission.
++ Affiliation: Roxanne is legally owned and employed by the Valken Corporation.

++ Build: 5' 1"/107 lbs
++ Cybernetics / Genetic Enhancements: Roxanne's 'body' is a heavily modified off-the-shelf synth chassis, modified from its original purpose as a office drone with software and hardware upgrades. These upgrades and modifications consist of the ability to change her eye colour at will, the replacement of locomotive systems with more advanced and more compact systems to make space for concealed compartments within her chassis in which weapons can be concealed and to improve her physical reflexes and strength, various alternate vision modes including thermal, infrared and ultraviolet, in addition to enviromental sensors giving feedback on windspeed, direction, ambient temperature,
++ Equipment: Roxanne's typical arsenal is as follows, although not all weapons are carried at once:

• A59 AIWS Anti-Materiel Rifle, modified for ease of disassembly and transportation. Used as a sniper rifle and anti-material rifle, due to the typical security measures employed by her targets.
• APS-7 Non-Terrestrial Environment Rifle. A Russian model of rifle originally designed for underwater operations, easily adapted for use in zero-G environments. Used when combat in underwater or zero-gravity areas is expected.
• Valken G92 Semi-Automatic Pistol. Roxanne's standard, general-purpose sidearm, unremarkable but reliable.
• Valken N2 Needle Pistol. A tiny, single-shot weapon, used primarily in social infiltration operations where silence is important.
• Combat Knife. In case everything else fails and the old-fashioned way is the only way.
• Fast-acting hair dye. For when you need to look like someone else.

++ Skills: Roxanne's skillset is that of an assassin. She is a highly-capable shot with her weapons of choice, in addition to hand-to-hand combat and knife combat. She knows how to best plant explosives, for use as a car bomb, as a roadside bomb or, far more rarely, demolition, and is capable of assembling improvised explosives. She is a capable infiltrator, often using her nature as a synth to impersonate other synths to be simply fly under the radar when dealing with large, often bureaucratic corporations. Her synthetic nature also means she can remain in place as a sniper for far longer without losing focus than even an augmented human, not needing to sleep, eat or drink.
++ Weaknesses: Roxanne's main weaknesses owe to her synthetic nature. Her creativity and adaptability is limited to a degree by her programming, so she is simply incapable of 'out of the box' thinking. Her nature as a synth also means that some people will, despite whatever charm she may attempt, distrust her simply for that. Her nature as a modified rather than custom built synth means that in combat she is simply not as sturdy as bulky, armoured security synths, or as fast or accurate as a purpose-built synth assassin, and if caught in a fair fight she will likely lose to both or human security personnel.

++ Personality: Roxanne does not really have a 'personality' per se; her personality is dictated by circumstance and programming. She is a social chameleon, acting like however she needs to to best achieve whatever orders she has been given, ranging from a ditzy foreign tourist to overworked exasperated office worker to an unsophisticated synthetic labourer, normally connected to whatever cover she is operating under at the time. Outside of such 'mask personalities', she acts according to her programmed personality; quiet, collected, observant and diligent in fulfilling her orders.
++ Biography: Roxanne was originally a mass-produced office synthetic, one of hundreds purchased in bulk by the Valken Corporation in the 2080s for the purpose of administering their Martian colonies. She still, officially, remains on their records as just another synthetic employee, working in the bureaucracy of the Martian colonies.

Unofficially, Roxanne was randomly selected from the batch for extensive modifications into a field agent. Far cheaper than custom-building a synthetic chassis for the same purpose, and still having the unique ID tags of a commercial model meant that she was far better suited to infiltration operations than a dedicated synth would be. Since then she has fulfilled her orders unquestioningly as an assassin and a data thief for the Valken Corporation, her jobs ranging from the assassination of whistle-blowers, scientists and corporate figures of rival corporations or rarer ventures into internal corporate infighting. All the while her programming limiting any thoughts more complex than fulfilling her orders to the best of her abilities, not stopping to question why her targets had been chosen, only that they had been.

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#G89 - Tracking Tag

[Skaldia]

Color me interested

[Forest State]

As always, Forest manages to make interesting RPs with nice, professional-looking presentation.

I try my best, had to mix-max a bit towards the end with this one but I managed to fit all the stuff in the character limit.

snip

Accepted.

Expect the player character list to be added tonight now that we have a decent amount of characters. Not sure if the format should be listing them by player or by role.

[Skaldia]

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++ CHARACTER PROFILE; <Luan Kruger>
++ <Corporate>

++ Name: Luan Kruger
++ Appearance:

++ Role: Corporate

++ Age: 54
++ Gender: Male
++ Nationality: Haitian/South African
++ Residence: Vector City
++ Affiliation: CEO of Vector Industries

++ Build: 1.7m (5'7) and 55.8kg (123lbs)
++ Cybernetics / Genetic Enhancements:

(Synthetic Skin and Muscle):Most of Luan’s skin and muscle groups have been replaced with biomer and myomer respectively. While the skin offers no stat increases, the myomer creates a greater stat increase in strength and agility output. Both are grown from mycellium and human DNA in vats much in the same manner as micoprotein.

Amniotic Treatments: Due to the vast wealth available to VecIN, Amnion treatments have allowed Luan to extend his life to the point that, despite being in his fifties, he still appears in his twenties. Amnion is a material collected in of two ways:
Most people assume that amnion is made in a refinery, or something similar. Given that most things in 2089 are heavily recycled, or made on an as needed basis by polyforges, this is a rather forgivable misunderstanding. The corporations that manufacture the stuff do everything they can to make sure that the fewest possible people know how amnion is made, and where it actually comes from. The primary source of amnion is extraction from placental simulacra. Farms of simulacra are held in highly secure areas where the entities are kept in a state of incubation, while being tapped for their birthing fluid. The potential chimera they are gestating are typically destroyed well before birth to protect the simulacra from being torn apart and eaten by it's monstrous progeny, the biomass is either rendered down and fed back to the simulacra or is separated for synthesis into other pharmaceutical products.

Actual amniotic fluid can be synthesized into Amnion but it is expensive, both in terms of collecting amniotic fluid from pregnant women, and in the process of enriching it to Amnion standards. There is generally a 95% loss rate associated with this form of production, requiring twenty units of human amniotic fluid to make one unit of Amnion. This is not a popular method of gathering the material.

++ Equipment: Has in effect an army in the form of VI-TAC-SEC to call upon to carry out his dirty work.

++ Skills:

Machiavellian: In a word, this many is absolutely, delusionally, homicidally mad. However, his madness is a refined scalpel that he wields against his enemies ruthlessly and mercilessly to carry out his goals. His mission is long term and will only come out in the ensuing decades provided he plays it just right. He acts as a spider in the center of a vast web of mercenaries, backdoor shadow ops, assassins, contractors, militaries, and governments and they all dance to the tune he plays on the web.

++ Weaknesses:

Forced to Work from Shadows:Luan is incredibly paranoid and suffers from delusional breaks with reality. On top of this, due to the juvenat treatments he has been subjected to and a need to keep such technology as a need to know among only the most powerful elite, he has been forced to give more and more power from his hands to a Board of Directors of VecIN.

++ Personality:

To the random passer-by, good or evil, a clean and friendly tone is met. Exceptionally charismatic and emanating a powerful aura of confidence and strength, he rarely has much trouble with charming most people he crosses paths with. But still, something about him is not quite right. It's nothing you can put your finger on, and the average denizen will never notice much of it. But to those of insight and/or experience, he will not manage to retain the slippery and silver-covered appearance he tries so hard to uphold. Deep down, they will know something is off, without having anything clear to point at. It's a hunch and a gut feeling.

But underneath the relatively smooth surface, darkness broods. The deception employed to reach the ultimate goal is beyond imagination, both in creativity and ruthlessness. He will stop at nothing - no magic, no uttered word, no lie, no incompassionate and cold-blooded murder - nothing is taboo. Whatever it takes to preserve the chances he believes himself to have at an even greater existence, he will do. Without so much as flinching, he will lie your skin full, while witnessing the slaughter of your own children right behind your back. Cold of heart and ruthless in method, to say that the hunger for power drives him to become a fatally dangerous person to come across is a vast understatement.

Always is he thinking ahead and towards the greater goal. A sly and cunning sense of choosing his battles has evolved, which to win, which to lose, and which to not engage in at all. It has become his speciality and his most sacred weapon, to trick people into underestimating himself, always keeping all his cards as close to his chest as possible.

Loyalty, as we define it, does not exist in his mind. Loyalty is only something that can exist so long there is a mutual need for each other's help or services. Once that condition goes away, so does any alliance. No matter who, no matter what, no matter where - the word of Luan cannot be taken for truth. In a nutshell, he will feed you the words he believes necessary for you to come around, abuse your skills/person/items to and for his own benefit, and leave you to the wolves afterwards. He's not one to commit an outright stab in the back, but he holds no allegiance to anyone, unless he sees an opportunity to gain something from these.

++ Biography:

Born in 2035 to German immigrants in Cape Town, Luan's parents were quite renowned in their respective scientific fields and had met while working for the nascent European Federation. Klaus Kruger had been a reluctant member of the scientific collective he found himself in and had been able to avoid the grip of the from solidifying by fleeing Berlin as soon as possible with his pregnant wife, Marina. They arrived in Cape Town just in time for her to give birth to her son. In honor of the country that was adopting them, they decided to name their child Luan.

From birth he was a strange child. At first, his parents were worried that Luan was somehow mentally incapacitated; he did not speak a word until he was three. However, once he began speaking it was with a nuance and clarity unheard of in children thrice his age. Nor did he play with other children, sneering at any attempt and wandering off to seek solitude. His parents knew he was precocious and honestly, their lives demanded their full attention and had no time to give Luan the time he deserved or needed. He was left to wander on his own, discovering the potentials of what he was capable of.

Klaus Kruger established Vector Industries in 2039, originally based in Cape Town. Vector Industries had its inception as a shipbuilding company and was known to cut competitors at the knees with lower contracts. By 2041, Vector Industries was one of the largest shipbuilding companies in Africa with plans to expand operations into the Caribbean. It helped that Luan was beginning to show his genius even by this point, racing through primary school to graduate at the tender age of eight.

While his parents knew only a quiet, intense, highly intelligent child, Luan had known he was different by five. It was five when he first discovered his love for manipulation. At first, it began as playing tricks on the house maids. Being able to manipulate people was more intoxicating than anything he had experienced. It whispered possibilities. Experimenting, he discovered it had many uses. Tricking adults into giving him what he wanted was more pleasurable than anything he had ever known.

In 2042, Hurricane Izali devastated most of Haiti. Using the devastation caused by the hurricane, Klaus Kruger took a chance and moved his family and Vector Industries' base of operations to Haiti. The move is a brilliant one. With contracts now flooding in from rebuilding Haiti's shipping as well as from other countries in the Caribbean and the American monolith to the North, Vector Industries expanded by over four hundred percent. Using the capital, Klaus Kruger sent his son to America to continue his education. At nine years old, Luan is one of the youngest people to be accepted at MIT.

By 16 years old, Luan had acquired a PhD in physics, exhibiting a ravenous and remarkable intelligence. He came home to Haiti to great fanfare. His mother and father were incredibly proud of their child, but Luan wasn't yet finished. At seventeen, he was advising his father to expand the family business and, much to the surprise of Luan, his father agreed with his young son's advice. In 2048, Vector Industries began operating in weapons manufacturing. Their biggest contractor is, of course, the United States, and VecIN specialized in naval weaponry for the US.

From 2048 to 2053, Luan helped guide his father's business, as his father's health had begun to decline, while continuing his education in the US. By 2051, he had acquired dual PhD's and had several academic papers written up on astrophysics, genetics, and biochemical engineering. As the world was swept up by the fact of the Occidental Accords and war in South America, Luan had already determined that he would do anything in his power to keep his power continuously on the rise while beginning to develop radical ideas about transcendentalism, resolving to study it further

Despite what Luan would believe, his special activities outside of his studies had not gone unnoticed by his mother, and it had given her nightmares on the idea that something like her son could come about seemingly naturally. With cancer beginning to eat away at Klaus, Marina confronted her son about his unique nature in 2054. At that point in Luan's personal career, he was nineteen years old and already running his own company, Volos Biosciences. Ostensibly, the purpose of Volos was studying bioengineering and learning to apply it and keep it from the general public. Volos was contracted heavily by the US, particularly the OSS but Luan's connections to Vector Industries meant that VecIN had a windfall of massive military contracts fall in their lap.

In the expansive penthouse owned by Luan in New York City, Marina urged her son to turn himself in to the authorities, to step away from running Vector and Volos, and to stop his twisted experiments. Luan reacted violently, and shot his mother several times. Afterwards, he passed out from the shock. He awoke to his mother a cold corpse beside him. His mother's death is called a sudden aneurysm and quickly covered up. The death of his wife, coupled with the cancer ravaging him, is enough to catapult Klaus into a downward spiral. Within a month of the death of his wife, Klaus Kruger is dead.

The death of his parents cleared the way for the worst excesses of Luan to emerge. Having always considered himself the superior of everyone else, the unethical and twisted experiments convinced him that he was on the right track. He decides to begin attempting to share his scientific breakthroughs with a select group. To aid in his quest, he buys Gonâve Island off the coast of Haiti in 2058 from the government and establishes Vector City as a base of operations for the quickly growing business. In 2059, Volos Biosciences was formally absorbed by VecIn. He also began to plot just how best to bring about his success.

The plan came absurdly simple. Humanity had begun to warm to the idea of biomechanics and cybernetics. He would have to learn how to turn that trust against them. He had his chance in 2075. His studies had brought his business into contact with several of the synthetic humans. One of them was a deluded individual that would eventually go on to assassinate the Russian president. It had been easy to set the dominos up and watch them fall where they may.

He was there lobbying hard around the world, paying exorbitant funds to push for restrictions and regulations on synths. While he was not entirely successful everywhere, it was just enough for him to be satisfied with the millions of dollars poured into the goal.

He spent a majority of the eighties focused on expanding his business while building Vector City and diversifying VecIn's strengths. The ongoing conflicts around the world more than allowed for an absurd profit margin. However, it was in second and third world countries where VecIn truly did well, their business ethics flexible at the best of times, nonexistent in the worst. He did his best, through lobbying and other incredibly nefarious means to weaken relations further between regional supranationals, but his refusal to be more hands on and remain in the shadows delayed many of his plans and dashed others completely. Also, he still appeared as a very young man.

In 2080, he saw need for the creation of VI-TAC-SEC after corporate sabotage led to the destruction of one of his research labs. From there, he has quietly continued making strides towards his overall efforts, coordinating a vast web of contacts, mercenaries, hitmen, etc with only a very small handful knowing just how deeply involved he is.

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#G89 - Tracking Tag

[Forest State]

snip

Looks mostly fine, I had originally imagined the Russian President incident being more of a case of a synth gaining a bit too much sentience naturally and doing something unpredictable but I suppose it could be a more engineered thing. The one thing I'd say to change though is the exact timescale of his rise, mainly the early part. He was originally used in a hero thread yeah, but this setting is a little more grounded so the PhD at 12 should probably be pushed out to his high school years. The timeline itself isn't what needs a change, just how rapidly he started making adult accomplishments.

[Skaldia]

snip

Looks mostly fine, I had originally imagined the Russian President incident being more of a case of a synth gaining a bit too much sentience naturally and doing something unpredictable but I suppose it could be a more engineered thing. The one thing I'd say to change though is the exact timescale of his rise, mainly the early part. He was originally used in a hero thread yeah, but this setting is a little more grounded so the PhD at 12 should probably be pushed out to his high school years. The timeline itself isn't what needs a change, just how rapidly he started making adult accomplishments.

Done

[Theyra]

Question, would it be possible to play as a char that is a part or leading a Chinese rebel group that is being secretly backed by the East Asian Union?

It's acceptable on paper. Keep in mind however that China in this timeline is more stable than it is in real life. Many threats to the government's rule have already been dealt with by now, so any rebel movement that's around right now is probably very grassroots and low level and would have to contend with heavy handed state security services backed up by AI and cameras being present in most places. China has sort of taken a turn further in the direction of authoritarianism in this timeline, as seen a little bit through their aggressive tactics with subduing Afghanistan (staging a coup) and their outright invasion of Taiwan rather than finding a peaceful resolution to the situation.

Okay well, nevermind then, back to the drawing board.

[Madrinpoor]

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++ CHARACTER PROFILE; Oriél Caudillo
++ Soldier

++ Name: Oriél Caudillo
++ Appearance:

++ Role: Soldier

++ Age: 37
++ Gender: Male
++ Nationality: Peruvian
++ Residence: Peru, various guerilla camps
++ Affiliation: Peruvian Marxist Revolutionaries

++ Build: 5'10, athletic, and strong but very banged up with broken and rapidly healed bones.
++ Cybernetics / Genetic Enhancements: None
++ Equipment: A backpack with rations and other military gear, what he can get his hands on, as well as a long rifle with a scope, able to be used for long distance but also semi-automatic. He also has a sidearm pistol (think Baretta 96 equivalent in this world) and a butterfly knife. Most of his technology is dated because he doesn't have access to good technology, as a rebel guerilla.

++ Skills: Good fighter, obviously, as he is a corporal in the marxist guerilla forces. He is experienced at guerilla warfare and unarmed/melee combat, and he is relatively sneaky and tactically adept, though not to an expert level. He is also good at sniping, but doesn't get to do a lot of it. Basic medical skills.
++ Weaknesses: Bad leader, often brash and difficult to work with, can't command respect well and has to earn it, not charismatic, unscrupulous, and will sell out friends/allies if he can save himself. He is basically not anything you want in a rebel leader besides being good at fighting, and it is unlikely he will advance farther than a high general. He is also not ideological at all, and if he needs to he will betray his beliefs. He also has minor PTSD from fighting so long, and pessimistic. His biggest weakness, however, is how mentally traumatized he is. He hates the side of himself that kills without second thought and he hates the PTSD that stems as a result of that, and he often feels his impulses are not really him, but him being forced along with these terrible things. He feels like there is a monster inside of him, a monster that he is trying to control, a monster that makes him deadly to his enemies but cold to his allies. He really doesn't like other people around him, because he is worried he will be rude to them, or even hurt them. Occasionally he gets random visions from undiagnosed malevolent OCD, where he sees himself killing someone or hurting someone over and over, and when he actually kills someone then he feels this kind of satisfaction inside of him, like he completed his quest, which he hates and fears. He is scared of himself.

++ Personality: Like I said, brash and hard to work with. Also paranoid because of fighting and pessimistic that things will work out, though to his credit he keeps fighting even if he doesn't think it'll work and he is persevering. He is cold and aloof too, and likes to be alone.
Not very nice/likeable, but occasionally can make people laugh and raise morale with his sarcastic humor. His persona doesn't make him friends, but his skills earn him respect. ++ Biography: Born in Venezuela the year that the war with Colombia broke out, he and his family fled their hometown of Maracaibo when it was bombed by Colombian forces. Oriél's family went to a refugee camp in Guyana, but by the time Oriél was two the Guyanans kicked out the Venezuelan refugees. Oriél's family moved back to Venezuela, but found it entirely different than the one he had left—American weaponry devastated the cities and land mines dotted the countryside. Everyone lived in poverty, and Oriél grew up into it; hating the Colombians that ruined his country and the Americans that helped them do that.

When Oriél became an adult he found it hard to find jobs in a country where nobody had jobs to give, and he moved across Northern South America, eventually winding up in Peru in the late 70s. There, he found a job ferrying Cocaine through checkpoints into Ecuador and Colombia. However, in 2084, when the economic crisis broke out in Peru, Oriél lost his job and fell back into destitution. He and many others suffering the same fate took to the streets to protest—but the military responded brutally.

During a protest in December of 2084, a police sergeant was hit by a protestor wielding a metal pole, which knocked the sergeant back and gave him a concussion. Reeling from the shock, he shot the protestor five times in the chest, point blank, right in front of Oriél. Most of the protesters near him scattered, but Oriél ran at the police sergeant and tried to tackle him. He was met with an electrobaton, which winged his right shoulder and rendered it temporarily useless, and sent him staggering back. He was then pepper sprayed and hit again, sending him back into the wall of a shop he was standing next to. Then came another hit—Oriél clutched his stomach and dropped down to his knees on the floor, straining to breathe, straining to see...

Oriél joined a marxist rebel cell in early 2085, and was sent to a training camp in the jungle. He had basic experience with a pistol from his days ferrying Cocaine, but he proved to be a natural shot.

During one assignment, where he was to take out a convoy in the Andes, Oriél and his squadron were supposed to be attacking from a cave on the side of a mountain down on the convoy on a mountain trail, to launch a surprise attack from where the enemy couldn't detect their heat signatures and fire first. However, his platoon was discovered, and portable artillery was launched at the caves, collapsing them and exposing his position. His platoon split up in the rubble, with Oriél's corporal leading most of the men out of the collapse and into the open mountainside. They were met with heavy fire, and killed instantly. But Oriél got twelve of his platoon mates to hide in the rubble instead of following the corporal, and when the rest of their platoon died, Oriél had them grab the bodies and cover themselves, to mask their heat signatures. The enemy convoy was convinced that they had killed Oriél's whole squadron in the blast, rubble, or heavy fire, and moved on. But Oriél led his twelve men through the mountain trails above the convoy, following them for fourteen miles until they stopped to rest at a camp. Then, Oriél's men snuck up from above, hid explosives in the rock, and triggered an avalanche that swallowed the convoy. Oriél was made a corporal, and those other twelve men received Medals of Valor.

Now, Oriél has been fighting with the guerillas for five years, and now that the Americans, his old enemy, were in play, Oriél had to fight twice as hard and be twice as strong. There was no time for weakness now...

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#G89 - Tracking Tag

[Doughertania]

Color me interested, albeit indecisive. I've got a couple characters floating around, even if I'm not sure how well any of them fit into the existing flashpoints. Are any of the following concepts acceptable?

1) A captain of a self-sustaining submarine, leading a crusade against a corporation as revenge for place them and their sibling through a highly unethical super soldier program?

2) A superhero-esque merc group tasked with collecting "lost assets," such as stolen power armor or scientists who defected to other corporations?

3) A man turned into a brain in a mech by a corp a la Robocop, only allowed back into his body when he's paid off his debt. However, the augmentations always seem to cause collateral damage, digging him farther and farther in servitude

[Forest State]

Color me interested, albeit indecisive. I've got a couple characters floating around, even if I'm not sure how well any of them fit into the existing flashpoints. Are any of the following concepts acceptable?

1) A captain of a self-sustaining submarine, leading a crusade against a corporation as revenge for place them and their sibling through a highly unethical super soldier program?

2) A superhero-esque merc group tasked with collecting "lost assets," such as stolen power armor or scientists who defected to other corporations?

3) A man turned into a brain in a mech by a corp a la Robocop, only allowed back into his body when he's paid off his debt. However, the augmentations always seem to cause collateral damage, digging him farther and farther in servitude

Any of these could actually work since it's a fairly open kind of setting, and the flashpoints are more of a "these are active situations that you can get involved in" thing rather than a "here's the list of paths that you have to choose" thing. You can act outside of them and if your actions make a stir it could even become a flashpoint in and of itself that other people can get involved in.

snip

The Army is deploying their most dangerous experimental units to Peru right now in addition to there being support through thinks like air strikes etc from the Air Force and Navy so you've got a real tough challenge on your hands picking the rebels. But accepted, if you want to take that challenge up.

snip

Accepted.

[The Empire of Tau]

Who is running Red Hammer?

I got plans to create a Peruvian rebel leader and cause pain to the U.S.

[Forest State]

Who is running Red Hammer?

I got plans to create a Peruvian rebel leader and cause pain to the U.S.

I'm running the American deployment, and probably handling the biggest part of it. Madrinpoor was just accepted as a member of the Peruvian rebels.

Keep in mind though I have a couple other people set to play American ACU pilots other than myself, who haven't apped yet, and on top of ACUs there's air support from the Air Force and Navy. It's not just going to be an easy campaign of ambushing Americans that are blind due to bad intel like what's happened sometimes in the Middle East or 'Nam.

[The Empire of Tau]

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++ CHARACTER PROFILE; Hipólito Lira Saavedra
++ Politico (Military)

++ Name: Hipólito Lira Saavedra
++ Appearance:

++ Role: Chief of Logistical Operations, Chair-member of the General Staff for the Liberation of Peru.

++ Age: 54
++ Gender: Male
++ Nationality: Peruvian
++ Residence: Peru
++ Affiliation: Peruvian Marxist Revolutionaries - Peruvian People’s Army.

++ Build: 5'5 - 110 lbs.
++ Cybernetics / Genetic Enhancements:N/A
++ Equipment: Nothing out of the ordinary for the job.

++ Skills: Saavedra is a very competent man and excels in his own field of work. Hipólito is capable of managing highly complex networks of supply chains and does well in remembering big and small details that would otherwise be missed by amateurs. Saavedra also does well in organizing, keeping things structured and orderly (even in the chaos of warfare), and finds himself coordinating with others efficiently. Lastly, Hipólito is quite adaptive and combined with his organizational skills, can quickly mold new strategies to rising problems on the field.

++ Weaknesses: Saavedra is very cautious, afraid to make a mistake. He fears not for shame, but the lives of others. One mistake and the lives of whole divisions of men and material is wasted. There is also the issue of overthinking, where Hipólito has to shift through libraries' worth of info to make decisions. What happens if he did not think of that one detail from before? That could have some unforeseen consequences. What if we move the ammo from over there to there? Etc, etc.

++ Personality: Saavedra is a jolly man. He is not afraid to talk with others and socialize with others. Hipólito has deep care and worries for his close friends and family, plus the larger community at hand. He always thinks ahead and deeply cares for others, ensuring that their needs are met before his. Altruism is a good way to describe a lot of things that Hipólito does. Other than that, he also likes to read a lot. What kind of books? All kinds - horror, fantasy, science, and much more. The man also has a taste for art, even if his art is shit, he just likes paint as it calms down his nerves and allows the man to have fun with his imagination.

++ Biography: (This doesn't have to be super long for the sake of being super long, but it should be a couple of paragraphs at least. And give us an idea of who the character is, not just a list of the events they've participated in throughout their life.)

Born on the first of May, 2033, in Peru, Hipólito Lira Saavedra, or just commonly known by either his last or first name, found himself in a decently-well off family. Jose Saavedra, Hipólito’s father, was a role model for the young boy. Jose was a well-known and respected man in the local community, acting as the lead union member for factory workers. Almost everywhere, Hipólito saw his father do all kinds of speeches, and Saavedra slowly adopted his father's rhetoric as he grew up around him. Starting around his teens, Hipólito became more interested in the work of his dad. Jose accepted Hipólito’s interest and taught his son about the nature of his duties and work. Truly fascinated about the topic, Hipólito became more educated about his father’s beliefs. Young-teenage Saavedra started to read recommended books as suggested by his father. Soon enough, Hipólito found his political identity slowly expanding and growing into what it is today.

After his school graduation, Hipólito quickly enrolled himself into his father’s union. Juggling his schedule carefully, Hipólito found room to manage certain aspects of the worker’s union - mainly the supply-side of things. Not only that, but Hipólito also gained many new insights into the lives of the factory workers. He would sit down with plenty of workers and ask about their lives, family, interests, and more. Questions started to pop up into the young adult’s mind. Why were those people so poor? Why are they paid so little? What of retirement since a lot of these workers barely have any money in their bank. Things piled up, and Hipólito slowly became radicalized as he heard more and more of the issues of daily living for these people.

Aging, Hipólito grew more involved in his father’s work. The supplement of goods, mainly food, water, medical supplies, and more, to planned protests came under the management of Hipólito. Those protests often became violent as police came to crack down on union and worker movements. Hipólito, from the safety of the window, watched. He reflected on these events. He watched as workers got gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and more. This did not sit well with Hipólito. He did not like to see people, simply asking for better rights and living conditions, be brutally beaten down. On the news, he sees the government doing nothing for the lowly worker. Even when there was a victory, in the form of greater pay or likewise, Hipólito felt as if it was too little for the effort given. What? A few more dollars per hour after sixteen major strikes and protests? How many people died in the process? More needed to be done.

By the Peruvian economic crisis, Hipólito was in connection with more direct-revolutionary elements. He saw the painting on the wall. He saw that Peru was going to be in a shitstorm. What kind of storm? He did not know, but Hipólito knew that something was coming. This was it. This was the time to fight for greater rights and greater conditions. What started as massive protests across Peru, calling for the government to give more benefits and rights to working-class people, became extremely violent as a harsh crackdown hit the people hard. In the last year before the civil war, Hipólito’s father, Jose, was killed during a march on the capital. For a time, Hipólito cried and mourned the loss of a good man. In the aftermath, Hipólito became more revolutionary and understanding of what was to be done.

Revolution was the only way.

------------------

#G89 - Tracking Tag

[Forest State]

snip

Accepted.

[Madrinpoor]

snip

Yeah, that's the goal. I doubt that I will win this war, but I want to see where I can go with this story. So excited for this RP!

[Madrinpoor]

snip

Yay! A friend!

[Rodez]

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++ CHARACTER PROFILE; Bashir Semayel
++ Soldier

++ Name: Maj. Bashir Semayel
++ Appearance:

++ Role: Soldier
++ Age: 46
++ Gender: Male
++ Nationality: Jordanian
++ Residence: Amman
++ Affiliation: Neo-Ba'athist Party
++ Build: 5'10," approx. 80 kilograms
++ Cybernetics / Genetic Enhancements: The Jordanian Army has outfitted him with a thermal imaging implant, which aids in nightime or indoor combat and reconnaissance.
++ Equipment:

-CZ Skorpion EVO Mk. 12 submachine gun - An effective close-quarters weapon packing 40-round caseless magazines in 9x19 Parabellum. It has middling accuracy, but the guerrillas and military commandos who favor the weapon prize it for its furious rate of fire and ease of use anyways.

-Beretta Model '77 Laspistol - A trusty, reliable sidearm, especially handy against synths and other robotic foes.

-3x FG Mk. 4 offensive hand grenades
-3x tactical smoke grenades
-3x EG-2 electromagnetic pulse grenades

-Combat knife, for when things get too close
-1 PX Tactical Vest

++ Skills: Bashir's longtime service in the Jordanian Royal Commandos, and later on the General Intelligence Directorate or Mukhabarat has provided him with great adeptness in tactical situations and military planning. He has years of experience in both in both counterinsurgency and intelligence operations. Bashir could lie to his grandmother without blinking, and is well-versed in what he calls 'extracurricular' interrogation techniques.

++ Weaknesses: The Major has very limited experience with cyberwarfare, and has a poorly developed set of skills where it is concerned. The ruthless nature of his profession has left him a suspicious and mistrustful man; someone who always suspects the worst of others and thus struggles to forge new alliances or friendships.

++ Personality: One might imagine a Mukhabarat officer as someone who is cold and aloof, but Bashir does his job with a certain amount of joyful relish that is either impressive or frightening, depending on who you ask. Bashir seems to have moved beyond the cynicism of his younger days and has applied himself wholeheartedly to the Ba'athist cause, finding new life in Jordan's recent political upheavals, which have gradually turned him against the monarchy. He is friendly and mild-mannered with nearly everyone, but also suspects nearly everyone of something, which sometimes creates stumbling blocks for his friendships.

++ Biography: Although born a Jordanian national in Amman, Bashir's parents were both Syrian Christians hailing from Aleppo. The Semayel clan had been displaced by Turkey's 2023 invasion of Syria, and had fled to Christian-friendly Jordan rather than suffer Turkish rule. As the Assad regime collapsed shortly thereafter, the Semayels were soon joined by tens of thousands of other refugees.

Bashir's father had been a captain in the Syrian Arab Army, and simply switched his allegiance to Jordan when he fled the country. Bashir followed him into the military when he came of age. After graduating from Officer Training School, Bashir was posted to a regular army unit, but showed enough promise there to be transferred to the Royal Jordanian Commandos, the Hashemite monarchy's elite special forces. The RJC saw action in Iraq in support of the Saudi-backed government, and later deployed to southern Turkey in a less successful attempt to stir up the Kurdish minority.

During the ten years he served with the RJC, Bashir displayed a particular knack for intelligence gathering, drawing the attention of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate. The Mukhabarat offered him a position and Bashir happily transferred over, receiving new training in political infiltration and spycraft.

Bashir had been a decent soldier, but his talents as a spy were remarkable. His ability to infiltrate foreign rebel and terrorist groups was renowned within the Mukhabarat and his exploits in Lebanon, Syria, Kurdistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan provided veritable treasure-troves of intelligence to the GID, allowing the Jordanian spy agency to remain one of the most effective and well-informed in the Middle East. During his earlier years with the GID, Bashir married Mona Elaraby, a young physics professor at the University of Petra. The marriage was never stable, though, and it fell apart after six years, destroyed by Mona's desire to have him settle down, which was the one thing Bashir could never do. He was far too committed to his dangerous profession - addicted to spying, some said.

While Bashir had been border-hopping across the region in support of the monarchy's interests, a storm was brewing in the Middle East. That storm was an old ghost, now remerged: Arab nationalism. In 2081, during a mission in Damascus, Bashir made contact with the growing Neo-Ba'athist movement. Formed by middle-class Arabs fed up with the dysfunctional and corrupt democracies in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, the Neo-Ba'athists drew on an old vision of a pan-Arab republic that would eschew religious differences in the interest of uniting their people against foreign powers - the Turks, the Israelis, the Europeans, the Russians, the Chinese - everyone. As a Christian who had spent most of his Army and GID career fighting Islamists, Bashir was entranced by the movement. He returned to Jordan to find the monarchy mired in scandal: the Crown Prince, Hussein, had financed lavish vacations to Europe and America with the military budget, and the aging king was infatuated with an American divorcee. Naturally, there was no punishment for Hussein's misdeeds. The scandal was pinned on a couple of mid-ranking officers and the monarchy attempted to move on.

Bashir was disgusted. So were many Jordanians. At one time considered the jewel of the Middle East, Jordan's living standards had stagnated and even fallen off since Bashir's childhood, and the once-excellent governance of the Hashemite monarchy had begun to waver. Bashir reached out to his friends and contacts in the military and Mukhabarat, finding many of them amenable to Ba'athist ideology. Many who weren't necessarily enthusiastic were won over by the threat of the Islamist opposition, which also began to grow in strength. In secret, Bashir and his allies formed the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of Jordan (Ḥizb al-Ba‘th al-‘Arabī al-Ishtirākī al-’Urdunniyyah) in 2085. Although he had been one of the Ba'athist pioneers in Jordan, Bashir was content to let Army Colonel Saleh Fayed assume the political leadership of the party, while he remained on the central committee.

In 2087, Hussein ascended to Jordan's throne as Hussein IV. The impetuous and unpopular king was greeted immediately with popular protests over rising living costs, which he responded to with lethal force. The country held its breath, and while the Ba'athists did not move yet, they knew their time was drawing close. The Jordanians soon established regular contact with their Ba'athist comrades in Syria, who had begun an insurgency against the democratic government, and with the party branches in Lebanon and Iraq. Bashir even used his GID networks to establish smaller cells in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

2089 presented Bashir with yet another opportunity. The Ba'athist party committee learned that the CCP was putting out a bounty on Jahaan Bhuta, an infamous anti-Chinese terrorist. Seeing a chance at seizing international prestige and plenty of Chinese funding along with it, the committee dispatched one of their own, the Major himself, to assist the hunt for Bhuta amidst the radioactive wastes of what had once been New Delhi . . .

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#G89 - Tracking Tag

[Forest State]

snip

Accepted.

[Da Liang]

------------------

++ CHARACTER PROFILE; Dylan "Marshall Law" Harvey
++ Soldier

++ Name: Dylan Marshall "Marshall Law" Harvey
++ Appearance:

++ Role: Soldier

++ Age: 21
++ Gender: Male
++ Nationality: American
++ Residence: Fort Hood, Texas. Formerly Apollo Base.
++ Affiliation: Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army - 539th Mobile Armor Regiment.

++ Build: 188 cm/75 kg (6 ft. 2 inches./165 lbs)
++ Cybernetics / Genetic Enhancements:

• Reflex Enhancer and Neurological Synchronization: Acts as a supercharge for the human nervous system by activating the "attention" button in the parasympathetic nervous system. While activating the vagus nerve, burst of norepinephrine and acetylcholine flood the motor cortex and enabled rapid learning and re-learning, along with increased bursts of mental focus.
• ACU Pilot Enhancements: Refer to Amanda Justina Sosa

++ Equipment:

• Grumman AC-9 Invader: Personally nicknamed as "Robosaurus Rex." Refer to Amanda for full description.
  
  • BAE MX-39 Rifle: The massive rifle used as the standard for Invader units, a high caliber weapon with rounds meant to fragment and deal damage to personnel and vehicle crews after penetrating through walls or armor.
  • Composite Combat Knife: Dylan switched his Invader's auxiliary weapon from a katana-esque blade to a much simpler combat knife which can be attachable to the BAE MX-39 Rifle as a bayonet.
• SIG 620 Carbine: The SIG 620 is a standard intermediate round carbine used by American ACU pilots.
• Beretta 101 Pistol: A sidearm for outside the cockpit activities. Best not to have to use it.
• Sapper Gloves: Don't break your knuckles in worst case scenarios.
• Advanced ACU Suit: The new standard issue American ACU bodysuit, designed to protect the pilot from the G-forces of moving around in a jet propelled ACU.
• Precision Combat Helmet: A very advanced helmet - it interfaces with the pilot's implants and allows for a direct linking of information, letting the pilot feel feedback from their piloting through their mind. The helmet acts as a conduit of sorts between the systems and the pilot's mind. The visor also displays various HUD information.

++ Skills:

• Loop-de-loop: Having learned how to (dangerously) fly in low-gravity environments, Dylan developed a much higher tolerance to maneuvering at high speeds and this translated well when he moved towards ACU piloting.
• Built Different: Dylan is an experienced melee fighter and has a background in the local MMA pro-scene back in Mars.
• Firearms Training: Shoot guns? Bang.
• Cool-headed: Dylan has the ability to maintain a cool head during operations and avoid making rash decisions which could put the mission and his team at risk, choosing to stick with "what works" and rationally adapting to each threat.
• Jack of all Trades: Dylan is a well rounded individual who is eager to learn new skills, oftentimes cycling through various things that catches his interest.

++ Weaknesses:

• Gravitational Adjustment: Having spent most of his lifetime in Mars, Dylan has yet to adjust with Earth's heavier gravity and he will have the tendency to mess up by attempting maneuvers or shots that were meant for Martian gravity.
• Emotionally Inept: Despite having a cool and collected exterior and being able to maintain cold focus during missions, Dylan is inept when it comes to handling his emotions when dealing with other people.
• Indecisive: Despite being able to make quick decisions on the fly in combat situations, Dylan tends to be indecisive when it comes to making major decisions in planning and instead prefers to parrot what the majority has to say even if they're wrong.
• Master of None: Despite being a designated marksman in the team, Dylan is unable to commit to a certain specialization and may cycle through learning various skills not pertinent to his role.

++ Personality: Dylan is characterized by his chill and easy going nature, choosing to just go along to wherever life takes him rather than making grand and ambitious career paths nor try to follow through any sort of ideals and agenda. He is subject to his whims and interests, doing and learning things for the sake of learning them. Despite having some sort of talent in certain aspects, he doesn't choose to specialize or work on them, instead choosing to half-hardheartedly work on something else that he may or may not abandon halfway without any hint of responsibility.

++ Biography: Dylan is a newly commissioned Second Lieutenant in the US Army's 539th Mobile Armor Regiment as a pilot of an ACU battlesuit. Born in the Apollo Martian base to an upper class family, Dylan had an easy going upbringing due to being the youngest child who was not expected to do hold much responsibilities for the family, giving him the freedom to explore his hobbies and fixations more than his siblings could ever hope for. Ranging from firearms, mechanical skills, the local Mixed Martial Arts scene, or learning how to fly, Dylan had his way around Mars without any cares and worries until his accidental win in an aeronautic aerobatics competition which caught him under the radar of an observer from Northrop-Grumman who were looking for potential prospects in Mars for ACU battlesuit pilots. With only a single recruitment attempt, Dylan went along without any sort of skepticism whatsoever after being interested in the premise of going to Earth. After going through training under a special system which is exclusive for ACU pilots, he later on emerged as a new member of the 539th Mobile Armor Regiment - a recently created unit on the forefront of the new program. After living a carefree life for two decades, his future deployment for a real mission will finally introduce something that was missing in his entire life — responsibility.

------------------

#G89 - Tracking Tag

[Forest State]

snip

Accepted.

[Forest State]

Announcement: We have enough applications that the IC thread has been posted so those of you who are already making plans can jump in when you feel like it. This doesn't mean that it's too late for anyone else however, just that the IC is around for anyone that wants to use it now without waiting a while.

[Lunas Legion]

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++ CHARACTER PROFILE; Georgia Pine
++ ACU Pilot

++ Name: Georgia Pine
++ Appearance:

++ Role: Soldier

++ Age: 25
++ Gender: Female
++ Nationality: American
++ Residence: Fort Hood, Texas. Previously, Albia, Iowa.
++ Affiliation: U.S Army, Captain - 539th Mobile Armor Regiment

++ Build: 5’ 7”, 119 lbs - Athletic and toned
++ Cybernetics / Genetic Enhancements: As a pilot of an ACU, Georgia has been given the standard loadout of implants of direct mind-machine links, an altered and enhanced cardiovascular system and modified muscle fibres to enable her to operate her ACU as effectively as possible.
++ Equipment: Georgia’s equipment is the same standard-issue set as that of other ACU pilots, a SIG 620 Carbine and Beretta 101 Pistol, along with the helmet and suit required to control her ACU in the first place.

Her ACU, likewise, is armed with the standard BAE MX-39 Rifle and Composite Blade.

++ Skills: Georgia is skilled in the operation of her ACU; although perhaps not the absolute best individual pilot in maneuvering it or the best with her sword, she’s certainly at least above average. Her strongest skill is her marksmanship, as she finds nothing more satisfying as turning someone into red paste.
++ Weaknesses: Georgia is a hothead; she often commits to something without properly thinking it through, operating more on gut instinct than reason.

++ Personality: Georgia is something of a hothead; brash, aggressive and not one to take anything lying down if caught at the wrong time, lashing out almost aimlessly. Equally she can be extremely relaxed, laid back and nonchalant at other times when her blood isn’t up. She has some issues with authority, but mostly confined to what she calls 'authority being un-fuckin'-reasonable' and has a chip on her shoulder regarding others expectations of her and what she's supposed to do.
++ Biography: Born in what Georgia calls ‘the middle of absolutely fucking nowhere’, otherwise known as Albia, Iowa, to a military family; her father had served in the Second Korean War and later as a military advisor to Colombia in the Colombian-Venezuelan War before retiring to a relatively peaceful life owning and running a shooting range and gun store in Albia, Iowa. Georgia’s life was relatively ordinary; she went to school, shot at the family’s range on weekends, a relatively normal life for the area. Even as the world changed, the middle of nowhere remained much the same, only with slightly fancier gadgets around.

She spent high school restless, uneasy; she was never particularly academically inclined, simply not having the patience for it rather than being stupid. Neither university or West Point particularly appealed to her but she knew her family expected her to go to one or the other regardless of if she fit it or not, a feeling that only redoubled after her elder brother went off to West Point. Never performing as well as he had, her parents kept her to a strict schedule of study when she inevitably failed to do well enough, causing a vicious circle of resentment and pent-up anger that made it hard for her to focus, sometimes failing tests simply to spite them as an outlet for her anger. But her unwilling hard work paid off and her grades recovered, yet the resentment of being made to study solely so she didn't disappoint her parents rather than any desire of her own remained afterwards.

As expected, Georgia followed in her family’s footsteps, but rather than going off to West Point as her elder sibling had, she instead entered the then-new pipeline to train ACU pilots as a middle finger to her family, a petty act of spite and rebellion against having to spend even longer doing as they expected and not as she wanted. She eventually emerged as a Captain in the newly-formed 539th Mobile Armor Regiment, eager to show off to her family and herself what she could do and to prove her family and their 'old-fashioned' according to her views about the military wrong.

------------------

#G89 - Tracking Tag

[Forest State]

snip

Accepted.

[Forest State]

------------------

++ CHARACTER PROFILE; Masha Devyatkinovna "Red Prince" Fedotova
++ Soldier

++ Name: Masha Devyatkinova Fedotova
++ Appearance: Pic related. But she also has a red crown tattoo on the back of her left hand, reflecting her callsign.

++ Role: Soldier

++ Age: 38
++ Gender: Female
++ Nationality: Russian
++ Residence: Volgograd, Russia - the Black Knight Group owns a sizable compound outside of the city with residencies as well as storage for vehicle assets. The compound also contains a military sized airstrip.
++ Affiliation: Black Knight Group PMC - Owner.

++ Build: 5'6", 122 lbs
++ Cybernetics / Genetic Enhancements:

• Grinev Design Bureau GN-34 Neural Link: A military grade neural link which is implanted and allows for direct connection and feedback from link-capable weapons and other military equipment. The link is also capable of overlaying information from cameras and recon devices directly over the user's vision.
• Subdermal Reinforcements: On the fists. Strengthens the bones using carbon composites and makes for harder hand to hand striking.
• IR / UV Vision: Masha can see from a larger spectrum through using her neural link and feedback from a small sensor implemented next to her right eye.

++ Equipment:

• AK-203 Assault Rifle: One of the modern weapons in the iconic AK brand. Average enough and taking 7.62 Russian magazines instead of more modern options that some other weapons have moved to. According to her, the feel and weight of it is just better.
• GSh-25 Semi-Automatic Pistol: Masha's preferred sidearm and one of the weapons used by the Russian Army.
• NR-33 Semi-Powered Armor: A high end battle armor system used by Masha when there's a need to get involved on the front more directly - while Masha behaves like a typical commander and avoids combat herself, he does have a history of getting close to the front and being rather close in with the forces she's commanding. While the NR-33 system does have other variations such as one for airborne forces and a heavy version, Masha uses the baseline one which is still light enough to move around in but provides a good degree of protection against regular rifle rifle. That's not to say that the armor is immune to larger calibers, and there are gaps in the plating, but it affords more protection than the non-plated options on the market. The plating is Asterium composites, with the "Asterium" metal mined from asteroids giving it the bulk of its toughness. This is a similar method to what is used in ACU armor and the most advanced tank armor.

++ Skills:

• Danger Close: Masha is a commander that prefers to be close to the action and due to this, she often has a better assessment of the battlefield and the going-ons there compared to someone sitting back further away and only receiving information from long distance. This stems from her experience being a soldier herself and has given her a good feel for evaluating things as they happen.
• Smooth Talker: You could call Masha a natural leader. She's smooth talking, often winning the devotion of those below her and motivating them to fight in her name, even in mercenary conflicts that otherwise would have little personal stakes involved. When it comes to running a business, this skill has been invaluable to Masha and has helped her make the deals she needed to get her PMC running.
• Sure-shot: Masha hasn't forgotten the skills she picked up while being a soldier herself, and is still good with rifles in particular.
• Not So Conventional: Her tactics are sometimes unorthodox... But she has a history of coming up with working plans that might not be the first option to come to mind.

++ Weaknesses:

• People Person: Masha cares about making the people around her happy. While this may sound like a good thing, it means it's entirely possible for her to be led off course trying to please someone that she cares about. She's very much unprofessional, running her company more like a circle of friends than a pro operation. This might, of course, rub some people the wrong way when it comes to working with her. Other times, it may result in less productive outcomes.
• Live Lit: Whether it's seeking thrills, partying hard, or heading close to the frontline with her forces, Masha isn't afraid to take risks and live hard in pursuit of making memories and uncovering the next adventure. But this is perhaps not the best trait for the CEO of a PMC, as she often comes in the next day tired and finds herself running on coffee and energy drinks or stimulants while handling her duties.
• Speak My Mind: In the authoritarian landscape of modern Russia, which has moved back towards the direction of the Soviet Union, speaking one's opinions is not always the wisest option if those opinions contradict those of the state. However, Masha typically says what she believes and is open about her hardline capitalist and liberal leaning views, going as far as to have a portrait of Boris Yeltsin in her mansion. She describes this as "semi-ironic" but claims to agree with the idea behind the man rather than, necessarily, the results seen during Yeltsin's tenure.

++ Personality: Masha is the kind of person that lives hard - she throws her effort into things fully and she often seeks out thrills and spends time late into the night partying and indulging in her wants. One could even say that if removed from the context of being a soldier, she's not much different from an average metropolitan city dweller living in the trendy part of town. She does, however, possess a certain toughness underneath it - a drive to see her goals completed, and a skill at motivating others to work with her and fight for her to make it all happen.

++ Biography: The political landscape of Russia in the recent decades was less than stable, and produced an environment where many disputes were handled through actions in the streets and in the shadows behind the scenes. While the National Eurasian Party was able to create a dominant role for itself within Russian politics, anchored by the ideals of neo-Bolshevism, state power would in reality decline as the government simply became less effective at enforcing its ever increasing demands. The government would attempt to seize more control of the economy and social spheres in the past couple of decades, but would find this progress halted by the power of megacorporations and diverging spheres of power such as the Chechens, elements of the military who exert influence over their local regions, and a growing Central Asian population. Furthermore, stamping out dissent even within mainline Russian politics would prove to be a tough task. The country, after all, remained a democracy despite an increasingly authoritarian ruling party.

This would be the landscape that Masha was raised within - one where the law only meant so much and where it wasn't uncommon to hear stories about corporate mercenaries or government hitmen delivering their own version of justice on snow covered streets, rather than in any official courts. Born and raised in Rostov-on-Don, Masha witnessed some of this with her own eyes early on. Her city was nearby North Caucasia, and she'd witness the effects of low level conflict in the region as the Russian government fought to prevent the kind of dissent in the area that had led to the Chechen Wars so long ago. A third Chechen War was perhaps on the cards based on what had been seen from the region in the 2060s, but the state security apparatus won out it seemed, as such a conflict would never materialize outside of the usual skirmishes and assassinations that didn't turn into something bigger.

She'd realize that there was profit to be made from conflict, however. Not just in the financial sense, but as a way of making it in life. After all, Russia wasn't the country with the best prospects for most people. The economy wasn't in any particular recession, but it had been on a general trend downwards for a while by the time Masha was a teenager. Its position as an international power was precarious, as it had never recovered the threat that it posed to its rivals during the Soviet years. Despite victory in the Russo-Ukrainian War, the country still had to deal with a declining population, international isolation, and internal instability that saw many of the relevant political factions falling on more extreme ends of the spectrum. Masha saw bigger things in her future than staying in Rostov-on-Don and fighting to get a middle class job like her parents had.

The way for her to do that, of course, was serving a six year term in the Russian Army as an engineer before moving into the growing private military contractor industry which would send her outside of the country itself for the first time, beyond deployments to Tajikistan and Belarus during her time in the Army. As a private contractor, she'd end up working security primarily. Sometimes, it was boring. Other times, it was a demanding job that presented quite a bit of danger. Her first assignment involved guarding Chinese industrial assets in Afghanistan, where some conflict still occurred despite the heavy PLA efforts to pacify the region. It was a learning experience, preparing her for more intense assignments in the Middle East where she was thrown into the Iraq conflict, protecting government officials, foreign businessmen, and others in the hotly contested southern part of the country where Shia rebellion was propped up by Iran. She would sometimes be called for work within Russia itself, keeping VIPs safe in an area that she was already familiar with, the Caucauses.

But this was, of course, grunt work. High paying grunt work, but still grunt work. Further down the line, Masha would decide that it was better to own a company than to work for one. She split off, creating her own operation, the Black Knight Group. This PMC would have a peculiar twist to it. One of the figures she had become associated with while working security was Mitya Aseyev, a billionaire in charge of the Russian robotics company known as the Intellekt Group. Aseyev was the largest proponent in Russia for the use of synths in a military context, and one of the stronger voices against the government's far reaching attempts to restrict the development of more advanced synths. Due to these efforts, the Intellekt Group would also establish offices in South Korea and Belarus as a means of continuing developments that could raise government intervention. It was through this personal relationship with Aseyev that Masha would get the suggestion of separating her own company from other similar PMCs by offering something that most didn't - synth soldiers, tougher than humans due to their construction and also capable of faster reaction, processing more information, and overall performing better in a number of areas.

This was, of course, seen with suspicion by some - not everyone would be fine with trusting their security to synths, but enough would that the business model was viable and Masha went ahead with it, ordering a number of synth soldiers at a reduced rate from the Intellekt Group and taking up a job with the Indian government in 2087 to provide special operations support against the Naxalite rebellion in the eastern part of the country. Masha's forces would see a good amount of success, and furthermore, Masha found out that she's possibly better off as a CEO than an actual soldier, having found her style of on the ground commanding to very much strike a chord with the forces under her command. The name of the Black Knight Group was now rising in the world of PMCs, especially in Russia where an experimental idea like this was seen as less likely to take off, and by 2089, the PMC is presented with many options about how to move forward.

------------------

#G89 - Tracking Tag

[Madrinpoor]

I named the Marxist Peruvian Army the Peruvian Liberation Front (FLP) in the post I'm writing, the most basic Marxist-sounding name I could think of, is that fine or does it already have a name?