Post by Xavier Burnside on Oct 5, 2008 4:39:51 GMT -6
Name: Rees, Xan V.
Alias: Argus, Crimson.
Age: 30.
Species: Human.
Location: Colony II Orbital Space Platform, Middle City Market district.
Appearance: Xan is six feet, one half-inch tall, and weighs a hundred and sixty-nine pounds, hardly an ounce of which is fat. His figure is slim and corded, borderline-wiry- but in an event where he must exert himself, Xan's extensively-honed musculature seems nearly to burst from his perpetually-pale skin. His hair falls to his shoulders and is raven black in color; unless in the field, he rarely ties it back. His eyes are a steely grey, and convey the all-too-accurate impression that he is a man who has seen more hardship and grief than most war veterans, and who barely conceals his hatred for "the system" which inflicted that pain upon him... though it can often be difficult to see both his eyes, as he wears his single-display H.U.C.D. at virtually all times. His nose is a little larger than average, with a narrow, unbroken bridge. On most occasions, he allows a few days' growth of facial hair to form on his jaw; indeed, he is rarely seen clean-shaven, though rarer still with a beard any fuller. A ragged scar stretches from the center of his chin to a point just under his left temple, and is a dull red in color- as though the injury sustained was not given a chance to properly heal. His arms, legs, and torso all bear a number of scars as well, but none are quite so large or prominent as the one on his face. His right leg is prosthetic from the knee down.
In the field, Xan wears a black pilot's jumpsuit, with no rank or insignia, under a full suit of Einherjar theta-titanium flex armor. His shoulders are protected by pauldrons formed from treated Yrrh'im chitin; his feet and ankles, by his Colonial Drop Troopers' standard-issue combat boots. On his hands are a pair of marksman's fingerless gloves; on both his forearms, his gauntlet-style Enforcer blades. Around his waist is a standard light combat harness containing a variety of grenades and photon cores, and on each thigh is a large magnetic holster for his dual U-255 macine pistols. It is not uncommon for his U-236 sniper rifle to be slung across his back... nor is it uncommon for that sniper rifle to be replaced with a U-220A shotgun.
In most civilian settings, it is not uncommon to find Xan wearing clothing reminiscent of the twenty-first century's "cyberpunk" subculture, ranging from the semi-upscale to the informal.
Occupation: Hunters' Guild, Blademaster, rank twelve (of fifteen)
Personality: Xan is a man of many faces- some which may seem conflicting with one another. With his few non-Guild friends, or his Hunting squad, he diplays a dry sense of humor, and seems to intuitively know what people want to hear; around his rival Hunters, or civilians who voice any sort of disdain toward him, his sense of humor takes on a ruthless, dark brand of sarcasm that often comes at the expense of his perceived opponent. He is intensely xenophobic toward the Yrrh'im, describing them as "thieves, butchers of planets, and murderers of every kind" and point-blank refusing to have anything to do with any of them- with the sole exception of Viishna, the renegade Warrior-caste who saved his life at Dakham. Even their "relationship" is minimal and professional- but this is leaps and bounds beyond the treatment most Yrrh'im war-refugees receive at the Blademaster's hands.
As a war veteran, Xan has seen horrors that left him scarred: comrades gunned down or ripped limb-from-limb, innocent civilians- including his own family- caught in the crossfire, the wounded, struggling for breath and life despite savage injuries. He holds the Colonial Magistrate largely responsible for the ten years of war that humanity has seen, and has very little faith in the government's ability to protect its people. He takes a surprising amount of pity on the poor and hungry of the Lower City, and it is not uncommon for Xan to slip beggars fifty- or even hundred-credit chips shortly after a successful contract.
Equipment: Heads-Up Combat Display, single-eye variant.
Armaments: U-223A Photon Shotgun, U-236B Rifle, 2x U-255 Personal Defense Weapons, 2x Colonial Arms "Enforcer" gauntlets.
Ship: AU-7 Headhunter, Space/Atmospheric Superiority Fighter. On "live-only" contracts, Xan sometimes rents an LX-5 civilian cargo shuttle.
Family: As follows.
-Father: V'din Rees. Deceased.
-Mother: Trina Rees. Deceased.
History: Xan, like many Terrans of his generation, was born aboard a refugee platform- in his case, the North American Coalition platform Free Spirit. His childhood was in most regards less than wonderful; his father worked long hours as an EMT while his mother scraped together a few more credits by offering tech support for a communications company. As the result, Xan was all too often left to fend for himself, and developed a fierce independent streak that often led to feuds with authority figures of nearly every conceivable variety.
When the Free Spirit reached Reoun, Xan was nearly overwhelmed with the prospect of setting foot on a "real" world at long last. At the age of thirteen, he applied for a job working with a Merchants' Guild shuttle crew, but was denied due to his age. This rejection would prove, later in life, to be a blessing in disguise, as three years later, the Colonial Civil War broke out. By this point desperate to contribute to his family's financial situation, Xan enlisted in the Colonial Regulars, initially as a CK-2 Arbiter pilot. It was during his training that Xan first met Fel "Killer Eights" Cere; the two became firm friends, and- by some stroke of fortune- assigned to the same squadron. Two years into the fighting, Xan was re-assigned- not as a pilot, this time around, but as a Colonial Marine. Fortune, it seemed, had started to smile upon Xan; within his platoon, he made two more key friends, Lance Corporal Avery Glimm and Private Ryu Illumina. Within the last year of the Colonial Civil War, tragedy struck Xan; in the second Battle for Bay Three, Xan's own family was used by a squad of Free Trade Alliance soldiers as human shields. One trigger-happy Marine blew away the insurgents, Xan's family members, and the other civilians taken hostage in a single prolonged burst before anyone could tell him otherwise- though his U-271 S.A.W.'s photon core exploded from the extended fire, killing the Marine as well.
There was little time for grieving, however, as the Colonial Civil War swept almost immediately into the First Interplanetary War. After another year of service as a Colonial Marine- in which Xan managed to claw his way up to Sergeant- Xan was re-assigned yet again- and promoted in the process. Now as a Second Lieutenant at the head of a platoon of Colonial Drop Troopers, Xan was often at the very tip of the Regulars' spear. He quickly discovered that war against the Yrrh'im was intensely different from war against the Free Trade Alliance- and, indeed, that these differences were often fatal. His new adversaries seemed to know nothing of compassion- for their opponents or even their own wounded- and would utilize absolutely anything at their disposal to bring death to the Colonial Regulars. In response to their opponents' resourcefulness, the Regulars became brutal and ruthless- and Xan was no exception. It was after the first Battle of Jagar that Xan requisitioned his pair of Enforcer blades.
During the second Battle of Jagar- the Yrrh'im counteroffensive- Xan was rendered wounded in action- a wounded Yrrh'im combatant managed to crawl to his position and hacked at him. Xan was able to dispatch his attacker- but not before the damage was done, and his right leg was all-but cut off at the knee. He was evacuated from the combat zone by his platoon's medic- Evanna Ziihal. Half-delirious from the pain and blood loss, he managed to compare her rescuing him to being carried off to Valhalla by one of the Valkyries. It would seem that circumstance, not fortune, was the universal force most sympathetic with Xan- for as time passed, rescuer became lover, and the two managed to endure seemingly everything... that is, until the attack on Widowmakers' Peak, on the Terran fortress world of New Gettysburg. The Yrrh'im battle fleet had all been a protective mask to divert the Terrans from another, far more lethal weapon in their arsenal- the "Scarab's Jaw," a vessel with the destructive power to crack a planet apart- and it was the planet of New Gettysburg that this weapon was revealed to the Terrans. Though a fleet of battle cruisers under Admiral Pallo, sent to relieve the besieged planet, managed to destroy the Scarab's Jaw, the Yrrh'im weapon's firing sequence had finalized before the vessel came under attack. It did not have time enough to obliterate the planet- but it did have time to inflict plenty of damage. Only a small squad out of Xan's platoon were far enough within the Widowmakers' Peak compound to escape the blast- and Evanna was on the opposite side of the blast door from Xan when the Scarab's Jaw impacted. It was at this point that Xan knew there could be no peace in his life as long as the Yrrh'im remained free to make war throughout the galaxy.
Years later, the third Battle of Dakham seemed intent on claiming the Drop Trooper's life- and succeeded in claiming the lives of all the rest of his platoon. Their Hellcat drop shuttle came under anti-air fire, and what should have been a glancing blow managed to shear off one of the shuttle's wings. The vessel went spinning through the atmosphere and crashing mere kilometers from a battallion of Yrrh'im Warriors. Here would have been Xan's final resting place, if not for the deserter Viishna, who found him- gravely wounded but alive. For nearly a month, Viishna tended to Xan's wounds with the most primitive of supplies, the most basic stop-gap care that the planet Dakham had to offer in its arid wastelands. When at long last the Colonial Marines found Xan, alive and conscious despite it all, he was immediately transferred to the medical vessel Hippocrates; Viishna was taken into protective custody voluntarily. The two were returned to Colony II, where Xan was hailed as a hero of the Terran war effort, and congratulated personally by the three Heads of Council. When asked what the Magistrate could do for him in recognition of his efforts, Xan responded with his now-characteristic quip: "Just give me a gun and a chance to kill the rest of 'em." At this point, Xan was introduced to the fourth figure of importance in the Council's meeting chamber- Ryu Illumina, his former comrade, now a representative of the Hunters' Guild. Ryu offered him a position within the Guild, as well as free training in quantum manipulation.
During the following four years, Xan's lifestyle fluctuated considerably- some months, he was living on the lap of luxury, practically throwing credits into the breeze and watching them boomerang back in the form of a fine apartment in the Middle City Market, expensive wines- and, in time, his android partner V15-7A, who he took to calling "Vista." Vista was everything Xan could hope for in an android assistant- considerate, efficient, and- even in the early days- more than adept in combat. It was only a matter of time before Xan began to spend nearly every credit he earned in upgrading Vista- from combat programs to social ettiquetes from every era since the Victorian, photon-resistant armor plating, and a full chassis that gave the android what Xan envisioned as the ideal female body type. Indeed, so devoted was Xan to upgrading Vista, that he began to take more and more high-risk bounties- and when those failed to rake in enough credits, to organized crime syndicates like the Undying Sun- all the while maintaining his friendship with Avery Glimm, now a Lieutenant in the Vigilance Body, and a well-liked and respected officer of the law. Though Avery had no idea, Argus would often lead conversations with his friend on enough of a dance to gather information he would later use to better smuggle arms and armor for the Undying Sun.
Four years of contracts- legal and otherwise- later, Xan is now the head of an elite group of Hunters- some of whom he had served with in the military- has largely severed his ties with the Undying Sun (without finding himself on their hit list, even) and has all-but completed his upgrades for Vista. In his opinion, all the android needs is a synth-skin chassis before he can regard her as "fully alive."
Alias: Argus, Crimson.
Age: 30.
Species: Human.
Location: Colony II Orbital Space Platform, Middle City Market district.
Appearance: Xan is six feet, one half-inch tall, and weighs a hundred and sixty-nine pounds, hardly an ounce of which is fat. His figure is slim and corded, borderline-wiry- but in an event where he must exert himself, Xan's extensively-honed musculature seems nearly to burst from his perpetually-pale skin. His hair falls to his shoulders and is raven black in color; unless in the field, he rarely ties it back. His eyes are a steely grey, and convey the all-too-accurate impression that he is a man who has seen more hardship and grief than most war veterans, and who barely conceals his hatred for "the system" which inflicted that pain upon him... though it can often be difficult to see both his eyes, as he wears his single-display H.U.C.D. at virtually all times. His nose is a little larger than average, with a narrow, unbroken bridge. On most occasions, he allows a few days' growth of facial hair to form on his jaw; indeed, he is rarely seen clean-shaven, though rarer still with a beard any fuller. A ragged scar stretches from the center of his chin to a point just under his left temple, and is a dull red in color- as though the injury sustained was not given a chance to properly heal. His arms, legs, and torso all bear a number of scars as well, but none are quite so large or prominent as the one on his face. His right leg is prosthetic from the knee down.
In the field, Xan wears a black pilot's jumpsuit, with no rank or insignia, under a full suit of Einherjar theta-titanium flex armor. His shoulders are protected by pauldrons formed from treated Yrrh'im chitin; his feet and ankles, by his Colonial Drop Troopers' standard-issue combat boots. On his hands are a pair of marksman's fingerless gloves; on both his forearms, his gauntlet-style Enforcer blades. Around his waist is a standard light combat harness containing a variety of grenades and photon cores, and on each thigh is a large magnetic holster for his dual U-255 macine pistols. It is not uncommon for his U-236 sniper rifle to be slung across his back... nor is it uncommon for that sniper rifle to be replaced with a U-220A shotgun.
In most civilian settings, it is not uncommon to find Xan wearing clothing reminiscent of the twenty-first century's "cyberpunk" subculture, ranging from the semi-upscale to the informal.
Occupation: Hunters' Guild, Blademaster, rank twelve (of fifteen)
Personality: Xan is a man of many faces- some which may seem conflicting with one another. With his few non-Guild friends, or his Hunting squad, he diplays a dry sense of humor, and seems to intuitively know what people want to hear; around his rival Hunters, or civilians who voice any sort of disdain toward him, his sense of humor takes on a ruthless, dark brand of sarcasm that often comes at the expense of his perceived opponent. He is intensely xenophobic toward the Yrrh'im, describing them as "thieves, butchers of planets, and murderers of every kind" and point-blank refusing to have anything to do with any of them- with the sole exception of Viishna, the renegade Warrior-caste who saved his life at Dakham. Even their "relationship" is minimal and professional- but this is leaps and bounds beyond the treatment most Yrrh'im war-refugees receive at the Blademaster's hands.
As a war veteran, Xan has seen horrors that left him scarred: comrades gunned down or ripped limb-from-limb, innocent civilians- including his own family- caught in the crossfire, the wounded, struggling for breath and life despite savage injuries. He holds the Colonial Magistrate largely responsible for the ten years of war that humanity has seen, and has very little faith in the government's ability to protect its people. He takes a surprising amount of pity on the poor and hungry of the Lower City, and it is not uncommon for Xan to slip beggars fifty- or even hundred-credit chips shortly after a successful contract.
Equipment: Heads-Up Combat Display, single-eye variant.
Armaments: U-223A Photon Shotgun, U-236B Rifle, 2x U-255 Personal Defense Weapons, 2x Colonial Arms "Enforcer" gauntlets.
Ship: AU-7 Headhunter, Space/Atmospheric Superiority Fighter. On "live-only" contracts, Xan sometimes rents an LX-5 civilian cargo shuttle.
Family: As follows.
-Father: V'din Rees. Deceased.
-Mother: Trina Rees. Deceased.
History: Xan, like many Terrans of his generation, was born aboard a refugee platform- in his case, the North American Coalition platform Free Spirit. His childhood was in most regards less than wonderful; his father worked long hours as an EMT while his mother scraped together a few more credits by offering tech support for a communications company. As the result, Xan was all too often left to fend for himself, and developed a fierce independent streak that often led to feuds with authority figures of nearly every conceivable variety.
When the Free Spirit reached Reoun, Xan was nearly overwhelmed with the prospect of setting foot on a "real" world at long last. At the age of thirteen, he applied for a job working with a Merchants' Guild shuttle crew, but was denied due to his age. This rejection would prove, later in life, to be a blessing in disguise, as three years later, the Colonial Civil War broke out. By this point desperate to contribute to his family's financial situation, Xan enlisted in the Colonial Regulars, initially as a CK-2 Arbiter pilot. It was during his training that Xan first met Fel "Killer Eights" Cere; the two became firm friends, and- by some stroke of fortune- assigned to the same squadron. Two years into the fighting, Xan was re-assigned- not as a pilot, this time around, but as a Colonial Marine. Fortune, it seemed, had started to smile upon Xan; within his platoon, he made two more key friends, Lance Corporal Avery Glimm and Private Ryu Illumina. Within the last year of the Colonial Civil War, tragedy struck Xan; in the second Battle for Bay Three, Xan's own family was used by a squad of Free Trade Alliance soldiers as human shields. One trigger-happy Marine blew away the insurgents, Xan's family members, and the other civilians taken hostage in a single prolonged burst before anyone could tell him otherwise- though his U-271 S.A.W.'s photon core exploded from the extended fire, killing the Marine as well.
There was little time for grieving, however, as the Colonial Civil War swept almost immediately into the First Interplanetary War. After another year of service as a Colonial Marine- in which Xan managed to claw his way up to Sergeant- Xan was re-assigned yet again- and promoted in the process. Now as a Second Lieutenant at the head of a platoon of Colonial Drop Troopers, Xan was often at the very tip of the Regulars' spear. He quickly discovered that war against the Yrrh'im was intensely different from war against the Free Trade Alliance- and, indeed, that these differences were often fatal. His new adversaries seemed to know nothing of compassion- for their opponents or even their own wounded- and would utilize absolutely anything at their disposal to bring death to the Colonial Regulars. In response to their opponents' resourcefulness, the Regulars became brutal and ruthless- and Xan was no exception. It was after the first Battle of Jagar that Xan requisitioned his pair of Enforcer blades.
During the second Battle of Jagar- the Yrrh'im counteroffensive- Xan was rendered wounded in action- a wounded Yrrh'im combatant managed to crawl to his position and hacked at him. Xan was able to dispatch his attacker- but not before the damage was done, and his right leg was all-but cut off at the knee. He was evacuated from the combat zone by his platoon's medic- Evanna Ziihal. Half-delirious from the pain and blood loss, he managed to compare her rescuing him to being carried off to Valhalla by one of the Valkyries. It would seem that circumstance, not fortune, was the universal force most sympathetic with Xan- for as time passed, rescuer became lover, and the two managed to endure seemingly everything... that is, until the attack on Widowmakers' Peak, on the Terran fortress world of New Gettysburg. The Yrrh'im battle fleet had all been a protective mask to divert the Terrans from another, far more lethal weapon in their arsenal- the "Scarab's Jaw," a vessel with the destructive power to crack a planet apart- and it was the planet of New Gettysburg that this weapon was revealed to the Terrans. Though a fleet of battle cruisers under Admiral Pallo, sent to relieve the besieged planet, managed to destroy the Scarab's Jaw, the Yrrh'im weapon's firing sequence had finalized before the vessel came under attack. It did not have time enough to obliterate the planet- but it did have time to inflict plenty of damage. Only a small squad out of Xan's platoon were far enough within the Widowmakers' Peak compound to escape the blast- and Evanna was on the opposite side of the blast door from Xan when the Scarab's Jaw impacted. It was at this point that Xan knew there could be no peace in his life as long as the Yrrh'im remained free to make war throughout the galaxy.
Years later, the third Battle of Dakham seemed intent on claiming the Drop Trooper's life- and succeeded in claiming the lives of all the rest of his platoon. Their Hellcat drop shuttle came under anti-air fire, and what should have been a glancing blow managed to shear off one of the shuttle's wings. The vessel went spinning through the atmosphere and crashing mere kilometers from a battallion of Yrrh'im Warriors. Here would have been Xan's final resting place, if not for the deserter Viishna, who found him- gravely wounded but alive. For nearly a month, Viishna tended to Xan's wounds with the most primitive of supplies, the most basic stop-gap care that the planet Dakham had to offer in its arid wastelands. When at long last the Colonial Marines found Xan, alive and conscious despite it all, he was immediately transferred to the medical vessel Hippocrates; Viishna was taken into protective custody voluntarily. The two were returned to Colony II, where Xan was hailed as a hero of the Terran war effort, and congratulated personally by the three Heads of Council. When asked what the Magistrate could do for him in recognition of his efforts, Xan responded with his now-characteristic quip: "Just give me a gun and a chance to kill the rest of 'em." At this point, Xan was introduced to the fourth figure of importance in the Council's meeting chamber- Ryu Illumina, his former comrade, now a representative of the Hunters' Guild. Ryu offered him a position within the Guild, as well as free training in quantum manipulation.
During the following four years, Xan's lifestyle fluctuated considerably- some months, he was living on the lap of luxury, practically throwing credits into the breeze and watching them boomerang back in the form of a fine apartment in the Middle City Market, expensive wines- and, in time, his android partner V15-7A, who he took to calling "Vista." Vista was everything Xan could hope for in an android assistant- considerate, efficient, and- even in the early days- more than adept in combat. It was only a matter of time before Xan began to spend nearly every credit he earned in upgrading Vista- from combat programs to social ettiquetes from every era since the Victorian, photon-resistant armor plating, and a full chassis that gave the android what Xan envisioned as the ideal female body type. Indeed, so devoted was Xan to upgrading Vista, that he began to take more and more high-risk bounties- and when those failed to rake in enough credits, to organized crime syndicates like the Undying Sun- all the while maintaining his friendship with Avery Glimm, now a Lieutenant in the Vigilance Body, and a well-liked and respected officer of the law. Though Avery had no idea, Argus would often lead conversations with his friend on enough of a dance to gather information he would later use to better smuggle arms and armor for the Undying Sun.
Four years of contracts- legal and otherwise- later, Xan is now the head of an elite group of Hunters- some of whom he had served with in the military- has largely severed his ties with the Undying Sun (without finding himself on their hit list, even) and has all-but completed his upgrades for Vista. In his opinion, all the android needs is a synth-skin chassis before he can regard her as "fully alive."