Here is my first character. Founder and leader of the World Patriots. More are definitely coming after him, once the thread is up.

[hider=Eric Longford][b]NAME:[/b] Eric Daniel Longford
[b]AGE:[/b] 56
[b]GENDER:[/b] Male

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[b]APPEARANCE:[/b] Eric is Caucasian. He stands at 5’10 and weighs around two-hundred pounds. His body isn’t at its best, and while he does own some muscle, he’s still got a bit of a gut. He’s a rough-looking man with defined facial features, accentuated by wrinkles caused by age and stress. His black hair and beard are both rather unkempt, with a good number of gray strands spread about. His eyes are a dull, pale blue and look rather sunken. He dresses himself in a combination of Martian colony worker’s gear and combat padding, all colored in a combination of black, gray, and lots of maroon. He wears the symbol of the World Patriots on a maroon band strung across his left shoulder, a simple white globe with the letters WP in the center.

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[b]PERSONALITY:[/b] At most times, Eric is a stoic man who simply exudes leadership and authority, commanding his forces with a gentle but stern voice. At other times, he is a loud, rallying force, unafraid of downplaying the enemy in his speeches. A good many of the World Patriots serving under him know the man as if he were a long-time friend, and the rest simply look up to him as the one ready to lead the effort to reclaim Earth, brave and unwavering in the face of the powers nonhumans possess.

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[b]POWER(S)/CUSTOM(S):[/b] Eric owns the first and one of the largest Customs ever designed, let alone built, among the World Patriots’ combined forces. The Gradivus, named after the birthplace of the World Patriots, was designed by Eric himself and built from scratch during the early days of the faction’s formation.

Designed to act as both an unstoppable force and an immovable object, the Gradivus stands stationary at around ten meters tall, and is comprised of four main components; the left and right treads, the lower body, and the upper body. The treads are both large, extendable, all-terrain focused mobility systems able to navigate through rough terrain and push through debris easily with their dual battering shields. It should be no surprise that the Gradivus is far from the fastest Custom around, but stopping it when it [i]is[/i] moving is no easy feat. Two auto-targeting, heavy caliber turrets rest on each tread. The lower body contains a large afterburner system able to propel the Gradivus forward at decent speed. Now, the upper body, which is where the weaponry really starts to show. The Gradivus’ upper body is a large, heavily armored platform outfitted with four swarming missile pods, two mortars, and two heavy shot-firing main guns. One last item is stored within the upper body; a heavy nuclear explosive package, meant for detonation upon the Gradivus’ defeat, in the hopes of taking its adversaries down with it.

The Gradivus has been crammed with all sorts of defensive tech. The outer layer is comprised of a combination plastic-hardened metal shell, able to resist metal manipulation powers effectively. PsychoFiber, as is common in the World Patriots’ forces, covers the interior systems to defend against technopaths and, to a lesser extent, electrokinetics. The army can withstand very high temperatures and heavy impact, puncture, or slash-based attacks. A bulwark if ever one did exist.

Now, the downside. Unlike most other Customs, Eric [i]poured[/i] resources into the Gradivus and, as a result, only ever built one. Once it’s gone, it’s not coming back. That’s why Eric has made it doubly clear that the Gradivus will not be sent out save for major assaults on heavily populated areas. He says, in truth, that he expects it to be destroyed at some point in the conflict. But he’s confident, in that case, that it will be responsible for the deaths of many nonhumans and will be remembered as a major contender in the battle for Earth.

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[b]HISTORY:[/b] Eric Longford is the founder and continuing leader of the World Patriots. Before Exodus, he was one of the lead unit designers for a robotics company known as Carlyle APS, Automated Pacification Services. His was one of the many companies hired across the globe to help construct suitable service drones to handle nonhumans, and in many situations, he succeeded. Every time he spearheaded a project that proved effective however, eventually someone would come around and trash the model like it was nothing. Always striving to improve the many models that were in play, Eric often overworked himself to a point where he could do nothing but sit and watch the world around him fall apart. As time went on and the problems grew worse, Carlyle APS was eventually brought to ruin when their headquarters was destroyed and their board members were killed, all by a single nonhuman, just months before Exodus was launched.

Upon humanity’s departure from their ruined cradle, Eric took up work as one of the construction heads for the newly formed System Government’s colonization effort on Mars. With the technology available, setting up was over and done with quickly, and life soon returned to a feeling of routine normality. But for Eric, there was always a lingering grudge, a feeling of being wronged by the entirety of the nonhuman species. It didn’t take long for his feelings and attitude to sound themselves out to his coworkers, who all rallied behind him. Eventually, construction efforts ceased entirely, and they were replaced with calls to arms. Upon the formation of the World Patriots and the birth of the plan for Operation Homecoming, SysGov lost a substantial number of its work force to the World Patriots. One or two cases of civil unrest may have broken out, but they all ended soon when the fleet was launched, with pools of resources in tow.

Eric and the World Patriots were, and still are, very determined to take back Earth. Every nonhuman is a target to them, histories aside, and they have the forces necessary to reclaim the birthplace of mankind.

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[b]OTHER:[/b] Eric smokes. Often.[/hider]