Name: Daniel Albert
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/Nationality: United States
Physical Description:
Despite his extensive augmentation, Daniel passes for human and humanoid, albeit at a greater height and significantly greater weight than he would have had if he'd been able to grow up with all his limbs. Currently, he stands at about six feet tall, weighing in at something around three hundred and sixty pounds, mostly from the extensive cybernetic implants he's had put in; that includes both arms, both legs, reinforcement of his skeleton with nano-woven muscle and subdermal armoring. His arms and legs are both obvious mods and he is forced to wear long sleeved shirts and full pants when moving around in public. His eyes, however, are the most disturbing element of the man; up close, they show the platinum and electrum microcircuitry woven into the iris that reveal them as something not natural, womb-born human. He tends to wear contact lenses, which tend to actually help with the situation, as well as, ironically, nonprescription glasses that help draw the attention of others away from his eyes.
Skillset:
Intense concentration to any task at hand – having survived maiming to the degree that he was rendered deaf-mute-blind and then came back from a traumatic experience, he has impressive willpower. He has gone through all sorts of training within the Vigil, starting with academic study of law enforcement and military techniques, the practices of private security, information on vampires and their capabilities, with a particular emphasis on their psychology and societal structure. Once he was given his implants and was able to use them, he then turned his impressive adaptability to learning a variety of combat techniques, and turned out to be a particularly excellent sniper. He has no formal background or certification, but that's the point – he is a blank file. Because his grandfather is the famous neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Kelly, Daniel has a pretty good working knowledge of the fundamentals of cybersurgery, albeit as a subject.
One of his instructors was a man by the name of Alexi Kozlov, a veteran of the Russian GRU Spetsnaz. Daniel's training in things related to combat, intelligence gathering and infiltration/sabotage, come from this man.
His role in the Vigil is as something of a generalist -- his augmentations favor heavy combat, but not at the expense of mobility and other methods. Because Daniel was physically destroyed, his reconstruction was, by necessity, extensive and the opportunities to enhance were accordingly widespread.
History
Daniel is the son of FBI agent Mark and Diane Albert; growing up in suburban Virginia, he had a pretty good and normal life, along with his older sister, Rebecca. In her junior year of high school, Rebecca, who'd been popular and attractive, became embroiled in a relationship with an intense young man named Richard who seemed to have more money than any seventeen year old should, and was extremely sophisticated-- they met at a house party one night. Bored with high school boys and marking time until she went to Columbia, Rebecca was at first very interested, though her father, Mark, started to intervene when she seemed distraught. In the end, taking her father's advice, because it was good advice, she broke it off with Richard.
Richard didn't take the rejection well. The stalking started.
Mark was, at first, pissed, that some punkass would fuck with an FBI agent's daughter, and used contacts and resources to put feelers out on one Richard Mullen, only to find that the boy's parents were very wealthy and very lawyered up. Then, one day, the Mullens, en masse, moved out of the area, and the Albert family breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, that same night, Richard broke in the house, tearing through Mark like he wasn't there, despite being a veteran of the Hostage Rescue Team and the Counterterror Division; Diane was butchered. Daniel, being a boy of imagination and wit, had a suspicion of what Richard was, perhaps having watched the Lost Boys one too many times...he tried to stake Richard with a chair leg. He missed the heart by inches, but enraged the vampire.
For that, Richard explained to him, he would be left alive as a warning to those who could understand the message; do not, ever, fuck with the Eternal. Others that would attack them merely needed to see Daniel's mangled body and understand the price of such chutzpah. Daniel was ripped limb from limb, but tourniquets were applied, as was a gag, and left there to watch helplessly, in and out of consciousness, while Richard went on a tirade about rejection and his rights and the primacy of the Eternal over their cattle, how he would have made Rebecca his queen but that she preferred 'ogres' and 'trash,' scorning his gifts. And then he drained her dry, otherwise intact.
Daniel wasn't even really all there at that point, gagged as he was, as Richard went to work – he ripped out the eyes, destroyed the ears and left Daniel alive, but only just. He even called 911.
The murder of an FBI agent's family was shocking and made news coverage all over America, as did the unbelievable state of the survivor – a myriad of theories flew around network TV until the next outrage, about two days later, and then Daniel Albert was forgotten by all...except for Dr. Michael Kelly, noted neurosurgeon and father to the late Diane Albert.
The Vigil didn't approach Daniel, they approached Michael Kelly, his grandfather. They gave the doctor the evidence, and made an incredible offer – they had an ambitious project, but they wanted one of the best neurosurgeons in the world, a brilliant medical researcher that could finally take their project over the finish line and deliver what they'd been after for centuries. The evidence was interesting, but Michael Kelly was more sold on the restoration of his grandson and the chance to take retribution against those that destroyed his family.
The doctor signed on with the Vigil, engineering the quiet disappearance of himself and his maimed grandson.
Through Dr. Kelly's contacts, also high flying, absolutely brilliant researchers and doctors, the Vigil recruited from the best biosciences people in the world in a way they never had before. The time of retribution had finally come. Daniel was one of the first subjects, and often had priority on the useful and interesting implants through the offices of his grandfather. Others would receive similar implants to what Daniel had, or implants based on data that came out of Daniel's use of these implants. The Project exceeded the mandate -- the idea was to put individual humans into the same weight class of the vampires. The team that Dr. Kelly assembled was pushing well beyond that envelope in ways that the older Vigil types, the ones who financed it, assembled it and organized it, weren't quite able to envision - Dr. Kelly essentially ran the Manhattan Project of cybernetic enhancements, crash-developing the technologies that would make it possible to fight vampires. None of this was cheap, but the Vigil had marshaled its resources for such a very long time in anticipation of this project. Money alone, however, could not secure the fervor of the project's researchers.
Richard Mullen made it all possible. And that's why he would be the first kill. It was part of the deal.
Psychological Profile:
Daniel has undergone constant PTSD treatment – he was a wreck when they finally installed some form of communication implants in him and restored his hearing and sight first. While there has been immense progress and a focus on regaining what was lost and then exceeding those parameters, there is always the trauma of what he endured at the hands of a vampire. He has seen what those things can do, and while the therapy and implants have given him back a degree of self confidence, he still does not truly believe that he has been brought up to a level where he can engage these things and win. He fights against himself on this.
Daniel is a bit off socially – his company has been medical doctors, nurses, researchers and other assorted old (usually white) guys from the Vigil. He has had limited contact with groups from other socio-economic strata as a result, and certainly hasn't had a normal childhood. On the other hand, he can drive a car, use the subway, book a hotel room, order breakfast and otherwise function in society, so the rest will have to come later – he's functional.
Modifications:- Communications suite, HUD and neural-computer, all standard issue – Vigil agents are able to text by thinking it among each other on a heavily encrypted wireless network. In fact, the computer works off brain impulses and is easily one of the most sophisticated and useful implants they have; what's more, its capabilities have yet to be fully exploited. The downside of this implant is that it includes a cortex bomb with an anti-tampering device. A captured agent can set it off, destroying the hardware inside, or a signal from control can do the same. This is to prevent the enemy from learning the capabilities of implanted agents.
- Internal air supply and aerial toxin filter -- this also has the added advantage of making the agent immune to vampire pheromones, as some types of vampires are known to use this to seduce their prey.
- Blood/liquid toxin filter -- the obvious is at work here -- vampires use their blood as a means of controlling mortals, and this system (and everyone, even non field agents, in the Vigil organization have this implant) screens out one of most subtle weapons a vampire has, rendering them functionally immune to being controlled through ingested blood the way mortal thralls of a vampire might be.
- Eye augmentation; a HUD showing all sorts of system data, such as the status of implants, as well as allowing for low-light and ultra-sound modes of vision, the latter being thought to be more effective than thermographics when dealing with vampires, who tend to run cold if they haven't fed lately.
- Hearing Amplification, including low and high frequency sound ranges, along with balance augmentation.
- Wired Reflexes - One of the more controversial but effective systems is the wired reflexes, which tend to make the user 'twitchy' but also give them a blinding reaction speed that allows them to react to a vampire with a degree of parity.
- Muscle replacement; human muscle is augmented with vat-grown, nano-enhanced muscle that increases strength and agility on the part of the user.
- Bone lacing; reinforcement for the skeletal structure, particularly around the rib-cage, allowing the implanted agent to take more abuse, as well as strengthening the frame for other implants related to strength and speed.
- Replacement right arm with implanted shotgun, essentially similar to a sawed-off weapon; the barrel is very short and the magazine only allows for three rounds. The weapon has exquisite recoil compensation, being mounted very firmly on a cybernetic arm, and is linked to Daniel's arm. It is retractable and concealable -- anything larger would essentially not be easily concealed in a cybernetic implant. Other, more extreme implants exist that allow for the mounting/dismounting of large weapons on the arm, though Daniel did not elect to take a hardpoint.
- The other replacement arm, his left, has a variety of sockets and jacks, from USB to ethernet and beyond, to facilitate physical access of an enemy's electronic equipment, including a multitool set. Also, incidentally, the middle finger comes off to reveal a spool of self-rewinding mono-wire, highly useful in garroting/beheading actions. He suggested this modification to the team, and they loved it. “Giving the vampers the finger” has a whole new meaning with the Vigil as a result. The third fingers on each hand have fully articulated fiberoptic cameras that can be deployed covertly to show the agent what is behind them or to get a camera/microphone into small places. Fingernails have retractable blades.
- Replacement legs, fully functional and stronger than the originals. One interesting feature is the rather sharp blades that are housed in the lower legs of each, and extend from the heel. He's practiced his round-house with that advantage in mind.
- Hands and knees and feet can be magnetized, but draw on an internal power supply that is replenished by kinetic means, which is to say, with movement.
- The limbs are socketed and can be, theoretically, replaced with other limbs that do different things. Daniel, however, likes the current mix of limbs.
- A medical monitoring system that flushes his system with drugs as needed to counteract pain or other medical situations as they arise -- that includes the injection of agents that are used in the event of the use of nerve gas.
- Subdermal impact and ballistic armor, though not the most extreme sort -- this stuff is again, concealable.
Equipment:
- Silenced pistol, caseless hydro-shok-style ammo, entirely made of polymer. It is about the size of the Russian 6P28, which is metal and designed for assassination, and mimics the design of it. It is designed to interface with his implanted systems.
- Mimetic Camouflage (Predator) coat, though this is designed to look more like a trenchcoat -- no doubt some project engineer with a penchant for the dramatic, or an interest in fashion design. The coat is actually stylish, which serves a dual purpose as vampires tend to dress stylishly and surround themselves with the stylishly dressed. This allows Vigil agents one more edge. Of course, they call it the Predator Coat. Because the engineers are geeks. (This is a standard issue Vigil item)
- Modular, caseless assault rifle/carbine. Bullpup, caseless ammunition, synched with existing implants and capable of mounting a variety of accessories including a 25mm grenade launcher whose munitions range from conventional high explosive to nano-guided scattered mines. It also syncs with HUD implants for improved accuracy in a mechanism similar to a bluetooth link. The trigger is electric and the weapon includes a biometric security system; anyone but someone authorized to handle it and it will blow; that is a standard feature on most any weapon the Vigil has in service with its teams. (This is a standard issue Vigil item)
- Custom sniper rifle, .338 semi-automatic rifle, detachable magazine fed, with a heavy barrel and pseudo-musculature recoil dampening systems akin to those used for cybernetics. It is enhanced with a variety of electronics to ensure high hit probability, including range-finding and elevation/windage adjustment with the same linkage as other the Vigil weapons. The hardware/software package is good enough to achieve consistent hits on a moving vampire, so long as they are unaware of the sniper. It can be broken down into components and transported covertly.
- Ballistic combat knife, which is to say that the blade is magnetically propelled at extremely high speed when activated. Also contains a monofilament wire (capable of strangulation/decapitation) and is designed so that the handle is heavy enough to break bone when swung. It is a weapon made in the style of the NRS-2 ballistic knife of the Spetsnaz.
- A number of electronic accessories, including a PDA tablet and other items to assist in making physical connection with computer equipment. (This is a standard issue Vigil item)
- Grenades, mostly white phosphorus. The organization has designed a 'grenade' that involves a strobing UV light that damages vampires -- it is known as 'the disco ball'.
- Heavier weaponry can be acquired through the Vigil
- Civilian clothing, though everything he wears involves full pant legs and long sleeves. He also wears nonprescription clear glasses indoors, or sunglasses at all times outdoors to help camouflage his eyes.
Post-op, cybernetic implant surgery...
