[CHAR] FRAMEs: Chapter II [Reboot] (Mech combat, politics & corporate intrigue)

[Slamurai]

Cecilia Lang

Cecilia Lang

Age: 32
Gender: Female
Disposition: Cecilia comes off as a harsh, no-nonsense enforcer, keeping the other pilots of the Preying Panthers in line and commanding them in the field. She radiates authority, carrying herself with a haughty demeanor and steely confidence. In public, she molds her image into the Panthers' stone-cold adjutant, although on the inside she is actually very reserved and apprehensive about herself. Of course, she makes no effort to reveal her softer side to her associates. When it comes to operations, results come first. Cecilia keeps a close eye on the rest of the team in the field, to better orchestrate the most successful outcome.

Background: Prior to joining the Preying Panthers, Cecilia was a security officer of the WhiteTower private security corporation. WhiteTower had a strong presence in the XCD, providing surveillance and protection to client businesses; most of which were arms manufacturers or FRAME companies. WhiteTower provided FRAME training to applicants in its FRAME Security division, where Cecilia learned the ins and outs of piloting. Once she was fully registered, Cecilia was assigned to a post at Ceres Aeronautics. Originally a designer and manufacturer of aircraft, Ceres had just taken the leap into the FRAME market as well.

Ceres's entering the FRAME industry unnerved other local corporations, wary of the growing competition within the market. KellCorp was especially anxious when Ceres unveiled the XGM-24A Handou and lost a number of prospective clients to the upstart FRAME manufacturer. In response, KellCorp decided to put matters in its own hands and go on the offensive. It sent a mercenary unit to assault Ceres's FRAME manufacturing plant and send the message to stay out of the industry.

Cecilia was among the WhiteTower personnel assigned to the facility, who were caught off-guard by KellCorp's attack. The mercenaries mounted a sudden, powerful offense and hammered Cecilia's partners into submission before totaling the plant. Although she held out with a grim determination and downed a few FRAMEs, there were too many mercenaries for her to deal with, and she was forced to surrender after her machine had been disabled.

The incident prompted Ceres Industries to respond by hiring the same mercenaries that KellCorp had sent after them, enticing them with an extremely lucrative contract. Not only did this get KellCorp out of their hair momentarily, but it gave them a means to retaliate and replace the FRAMEs WhiteTower had lost. The mercenaries happened to be none other than the Preying Panthers, and after ruining KellCorp's chances of competing with Ceres, Richard Bentz convinced Cecilia to quit her job at WhiteTower and join his unit.

Inventory:

• Heavy calibre revolver w/ optional laser module/flashlight unit.
• Carbine-length adaptive battle rifle with standard electronic sight and under-barrel flashlight.
• Combat/survival knife
• Pilots' suit with ballistic armour and equipment harness
• Pilots' helmet
• Military-spec datapad strapped to right forearm

Other: TBD

LBG-22 Kirin

Name: LBG-22 Kirin
Manufacturer: Canton
Height: 4.1 meters
Weight: 5100 kg
Armor: 40 mm armorplast alloy
Speed (Walk): 52 kph
Speed (Skate): 84.2 kph
Sensor range: 4 km
Communication range: 30 km
Operating range: 700 km
Weight: 2
Power: 3

Armaments:

• MG27 Light Machinegun
  -An anti-personnel 7.62 caliber machine gun built by Radley Arms. Effective range is 400 meters. Rate of fire is 650 rds/min. 800 rounds are carried in an internal drum. Weapon is mounted into the torso.
• GPR-21 Autocannon
  -A 30 mm autocannon manufactured by Canton Arms. Effective range exceeds 1200 m. Penetration listed at 105 mm of vertical steel alloy. Rate of fire on automatic is 400 rds/min. Magazines house 60 rounds each. Capable of firing APDS-T and HEI-T rounds.
• MGR-2A Anti-tank Missile Launcher
  -An anti-tank missile launcher designed by Cradle Dynamics. Range exceeds 1200 m. Penetration rated at 625 mm of vertical steel alloy. Uses a tandem HEAT warhead to penetrate armor. Mounted to the left shoulder.

Subsystems:

• C3 Imaging Suite
• ECM Suite - Missile countermeasure device (MCD) designed to emit a concentrated infrared signal, confusing the homing seekers of anti-tank missiles. Warheads intercepted by the MCD are redirected away from the FRAME, but will still impact and detonate wherever they are scrambled to.
• EVF “Chameleon” Active Camouflage

[DarkStar]

Sarah Duncan

Name: Sarah Duncan
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Disposition: Sunny...Really sunny. Teetering on insanity this woman is a grade A lunatic. Her joy in damn near everything is annoyingly infectious. Joy in battle, joy in victory, joy in defeat. She is the kind of person who seems to have luck tattooed to her ass. Something she was told so often she actually got it tattooed there. Along with the rear end of her frame. Rarely taking things seriously she is a bit of a loose cannon. However an effective one at that. Almost always willing to go on a suicide mission. It means little to her the risks involved she'll do it. Money isn't what she seeks, it's the thrill, Thanatos. Born from years of cybernetic testing. She is a hardcore smoker. One of the few luxuries her social position grants her, it is also one of the only times a non factitious reply will leave her lips
Background: Born in the OSU to the great-great-grandson of one of the most respected engineers in the country Valantino Duncan. His company had for the last couple hundred years produced the best engineers for the motherland making everything from weapons to toys. This didn't last long once the Socialists rose to power and his company was absorbed into the party machinery, a corporation in name only. She should have lived a comfortable life. However hostile takeovers are a little more than minor nuisances when compared to the regular cleansing in the party. Especially with the heat against the Sodroyan League, her father's father having lost his position, his son only rose so far in the incredibly plutocratic nepotist government. Her mother having died in a raid in their country house by the league. Daddy began to get more and more consumed in his work especially within the fields of Cybernetics. His mind having been torn by the loss of his wife he began testing on her at an early age hoping to use her to get revenge for his wife. Using prototypes and brutal means of testing, she's not sure how much of herself is even left. Her mind was tortured every day of her memorable childhood as the OSU sought to catch up in the arms race. The poor girls ears were ripped out at the age of 10 to be replaced with a new model of acoustic drums. It was painful bloody and hard to get used to but she managed. Human guinea pigs were not off the table, she has many scars from the surgeries she was subjected too. The worst being the fractal scars going along the sides of her eyes when her eyes were gouged out by a rather sadistic test of loyalty. Just another ruse to be used against her to test the latest in OSU optics. Her eyes look real, but are as far from real as they can get. Her mind was addled with constant doublethink to the point where her mind finally accepted it. By means of being happy, extraordinarily happy with whatever the situation was, it was truly irrelevant to her what the situation was. Having finally seen through the cloud of rubbish propaganda she finally snaps, snaps, and snaps her way through neck after neck trying to get out the facility. Getting out and being penniless she makes her way through the underworld before finding a contact who can put her name out their to mercenary groups who might be able to pay her way out the OSU. Working for rather piss all money before proving skill with a FRAME, that she already had. Just not the funds to acquire one. Eventually a friend she made during her work put her in contact with the panthers leader, which is where you find her today.
Appearance: bar fractal scarring around the eyes, red pupils and a rather garish protrusion from the back of her neck, used for uploading information from her eyes and ears.

Waking up from her long, long sleep. She found herself quite crippled, it must have been quite the amusing sight to her coworkers. At least the ones who knew her. Sarah having managed to burst her wounds on the information she was given by Marlene. Mr. Bubbles was totalled. His power system had fused to the shell rendering any meaningful repair redundant. However, that didn't stop her from using every means necessary to save Mr.B's OS. He would live on! The following year was hard for her. Being that the panthers had lost nearly all credibility. Mind you she didn't hesitate to use her more seedy contacts to try and find out more about the disaster that had killed her mech. She was livid, if she could, she'd tear their teeth out through their arse. It would be quite the impressive sight. One which would probably leave lasting scars on Cecilia. Mind you, not like she hasn't done that before.

It had been rather strange having to deal with the stigma the panthers had been facing since that attack. She mostly just refused to acknowledge it and had been in many the fist fight over the dignity of the Panthers. Many ending in hospital trips for herself and whomever was stuck on the otherside of her indignation. Sarah had been out of combat for the first few months, trying to load Mr.B into a brand spanking new LGB-21 Kirikin. As usual however with her botch jobs. She'd disabled and tweaked to the point where their wasn't anything recognizable about the Kirkins kernal. But Mr. B was resurrected and a totally 'voluntary' party was thrown for the celebration. Having finally healed she was ready, fully, to get back in the action. However, it might just be a good idea to keep her as uninformed as possible if the case may be to return to a little place called Osbania...
Inventory: Very little. She has a small pendant her mother gave her before she died and little else. She lives a fairly spartan lifestyle bar her cigarettes.
Funds: Non applicable? Soviet xD
Other: She is not stupid. No matter how frivolous or pointless her tasks may be.

Handou-”Mr.Bubbles”

Name: Mr. Bubbles Jr
Manufacturer: Canton
Height: 4.1 meters
Weight: 5100 kg
Armor: 40 mm armorplast alloy
Speed (Walk): 52 kph
Speed (Skate): 84.2 kph
Sensor range: 4 km
Communication range: 30 km
Operating range: 700 km
Weight: 2
Power: 3

Armaments:
1x BZ-35 Autocannon- 20mm light cannon with barrel magazine used by OSU special forces. Sacrifices range and power for capacity and firing rate. Range 400m, firing rate 900rds/min, rated to penetrate 50mm of armour, Magazine holds 100 rounds.
3x MG-27 Anti personnel machine guns. Mounted in trigonal pattern on machines head.
1x Bazooka- It's a bazooka... It kills things.

Equipment:
EVF optical camouflage
'Kill the noise': A module of her own design in the months that the panthers have been struggling. It is a unidirectional speaker that can reach up to 200db. Used for ground forces, lethal range is any level past 220dB so it is technically less than lethal. Though eyeballs certainly wouldn't like the pressure waves created by it.

[Foster]

Marlene Abdelkadar

Name: Marlene Abdelkadar | Age: 19 | Gender: Female

Disposition: Sly, intolerably persistent, very emotionally invested and motivated.

Background: Hailing from war-torn USK/PU borderlands, unlike Leclerc, her unit was issued with second-hand FRAMES after the PU was already well-equipped to deal with the threat. Constant supply-problems and frequent breakdowns from skating across sand-dunes meant her squad operated under-strength in guerilla-warfare, often the pilots functioned as light infantry while the few remaining FRAMES provided much-needed fire-support to their guerrilla campaign.

On more than one occasion, civilian-FRAMES were pressed into service either just to keep a few more frames running, or retained simply because their smaller size was better suited to the sort of operations they conducted.

When the war ended, their independence secured, there was a massive draw-down and disarmament of their forces as USK focused its resources on rebuilding and caring for their people, an act that quickly highlighted the difference between the PU and USK. Marlene's unit was one of the first to be scrapped, handing in many of their converted FRAMES for economic development, while nearly all their best FRAMES ended up being conglomerated into a single centralized unit.

Angered by her new vestigial purpose in the military, sitting behind a desk, she quit and purchased a surplus FRAME and hit the mercenary-market.

Appearance

>Inventory:
-AKSN-75U "Tanker's Krinkov" with infra-red scope and IR laser-sight/illuminator plus a 75 round drum because if she gets into a firefight out of her FRAME, it won't last long enough for her to get a chance to reload.

Other

MP21-AC YASSIR

Name: MP21-AC Handou "Yassir"
Manufacturer: Kelhei Manufacturing
Height: 4.3 meters
Weight: 6627 kg
Armor: 45 mm durasteel alloy
Speed (Walk): 42 kph
Speed (Skate): 72 kph
Sensor range: 2 km
Communication range: 10 km
Operating range: 500 km
Power: 2
Weight: 3

>Armaments:
4x LBU-3 HMG head-mounted:
-Long-range .50 caliber anti-personel machine-gun produced by Radley Arms, designed to saturate soft-targets from afar (effective range of 400 meters, volley-range of 1.5 km) in support of offensive operations at a rate of 1,100 rounds per minute. Against vehicles, it can penetrate up to 20mm of vertical steel plate at 200 meters. May be used to engage light air targets although limited in this role by only having 800 rounds allotted to each gun.

GPR-21 large autocannon
-A 30 mm autocannon manufactured by Canton Arms. Effective range exceeds 1200 m. Penetration listed at 105 mm of vertical steel alloy. Rate of fire on automatic is 400 rds/min. Magazines house 60 rounds each. Capable of firing APDS-T and HEI-T rounds.

Heavy Automated Mortar
Manufacturer: Canton Arms
Diameter: 82 mm
Effective range: 2400 m
Minimum range: 80 meters
Maximum range: 4,100 meters (requires bracing for any accuracy)
Penetration: 225 mm of steel alloy in optimal conditions (top angle-of-attack, 0 degree obliquity, etc.)
Rate of fire: 4-10 rounds/min
Ammunition capacity: 12 shells/launcher
Ammunition types: HEAT, HE, WP, recon-packages, cluster-munitions (4x bomblets; skeet-type)
Mount: Right shin

RPT-007L Bolo launcher
Diameter: 152mm
Maximum range: 8 km
Penetration: ~300 mm
Warhead: Gated laser proximity-fuzed blast-frag precursor with HEAT main-charge.
Guidance: Laser beam riding with inertial backup.
Mount: Shoulder (stows on back)
Capacity: 2 missiles

>Extras:
EVF “Chameleon” Active Camouflage
The “Chameleon” active camouflage system was first developed by Canton as a means to hide the visual signature of its FRAMEs. It has now been copied in some form or another by most major defense companies. It consists both of an internal suite and external coating applied to the machine. When active, the coating blends with the FRAME's surroundings, much like the system's namesake animal. This makes it more difficult to spot at range, although the heat and radar signatures of the machine are otherwise unaffected.

ECM Suite
Radar warning and jamming to make it hard to detect YASSIR or anyone traveling alongside with motion-detectors, with passive and active IR countermeasures to make achieving and maintaining a lock outside the visible spectrum difficult (active IR spoofs the missile guidance to think the FRAME is the missile, so if the seeker says the missile [actually YASSIR] is moving right, the missile will be told to jink left. When all else fails, the reactor heat-sink can have a compound flushed through it that creates a thick smoke and briefly quenches its thermal signature.

>FRAME notes:
Paint-scheme: 2-tone Motled Desert with white/black piping
Cabin Comforts: "Tropical" refit (cabin tailored for warm-weather operations).

[Shorticus]

Maxwell Silver

Maxwell Silver

AKA Preacher

6'2", athletic

Age: 45
Sex: Male
Disposition: Maxwell is a bit of a Luddite. Though he's a man with a long history of combat experience, he's always been against the rapid technological development that has swept across the world and has long claimed that it is certain to bring down the downfall of humanity. He looks to the ever-increasing power of the megacorporations and the ever-decreasing privacy the average individual has and cites these as examples of the degradation of people's freedoms. Nevertheless, he's piloting a FRAME today, working for a private security organization, and doing the dirty work of megacorps.

Because of his firm beliefs, Maxwell has no augmentations and depends on his natural abilities outside of his suit. This has put him at a disadvantage before, but he nevertheless remains staunchly anti-augmentation.

When not on the battlefield, Maxwell can best be described as "quiet." He isn't a loner: he just prefers to save his words for when they matter and let his actions do the talking for him. When he's incited, however, he can become quite the speaker, taking on a manner of speaking like that of a demagogue. It's for this reason that he's earned the moniker "Preacher," which he uses on the battlefield.

The battlefield turns Maxwell into a disciplined and obedient man. He speaks in brief, simple terms in a fight: "Aff," "Neg," "Cannot do," "Target down." The most he's done while with the Panthers that's broken this rule is when he laughed after a particularly harrowing near-death experience and thanked God for fifth chances. Otherwise, he's proven to be the model of a soldier, at least in personality.

Unfortunately, Maxwell isn't the best FRAME pilot. While he certainly has some experience with FRAME units, his age is starting to catch up with him. Nevertheless, he's been practicing piloting his FRAME a lot since coming out of retirement, and he's got got the advantage of understanding what it's like fighting FRAMEs as one of the guys with their boots on the ground.

Background: Maxwell hails from the North Sotraecan Union and was born a member of the impoverished part of society. He became a beat cop at twenty years old, then moved on to become a riot police officer at twenty-three. Max then was transferred to a special unit of anti-terrorist police (the ATSI) at the age of thirty-one, and it was in this job he first got to pilot a FRAME.

ATSI

ATSI stands for "Anti-Terrorism Specialist Initiative." It's a rapid-response NSU organization dedicated to fighting organized crime and terrorism. At least, that's what it is on paper. In reality, it ends up working for corporations who pay the right amount more often than not.

ATSI is a mixed unit of both infantry and FRAMEs, and even the infantry are trained to pilot FRAMEs in the event that one of the pilots dies in combat. Often, an ATSI Operative will have experience fighting both on foot and in a FRAME.

Maxwell was good at his job. He started out as one of the ATSI's infantrymen, but his tactical know-how quickly earned him the seat of a FRAME. He took to that quickly enough, too. Still, he often found his unit outmatched. Time and time again, Officer Silver saw his fellow officers taken out by better-equipped enemies hired by private security institutions. The private militaries simply developed better weapons more quickly than the police outfitted themselves, and ATSI's leaders didn't adapt to new tactics quickly enough. Fed up with this state of affairs, Maxwell confronted one of his superiors about this. This earned him some enemies in ATSI.

During a particularly brutal mission against some mercenaries, Maxwell's squad leader accidentally took out an apartment complex housing a considerable number of civilians. This tragedy was pinned on Maxwell; all his squadmates blamed him for the event, having been bribed to speak against him in court. Maxwell was forced to resign from service and barred from serving in any sort of NSU armed service.

Disgusted by the whole process, Maxwell left modern society to live with his wife and daughter in a rural region of the NSU. Tragedy soon struck, however: Max's wife died of severe illness five years ago. His daughter then went missing, and Maxwell did his damnedest to find her for the better part of two years. None of his leads revealed anything, and he spiraled into a deep depression. He became a total recluse.

But two years ago Maxwell came out of his seclusion and signed up with the Preying Panthers. He never stated why he did so, nor is he inclined to tell anyone, but he's eager to do his work and do it right.

Inventory:

• Electric police baton, a close-combat weapon capable of shutting down augmentations
• ATSI Operative combat armor
• Pilot's suit
• Pilot's helmet
• High caliber heavy pistol w/scope and flashlight
• Two flashbangs
• PADD

Other:

BGN-80 Dreq

Manufacturer: Krylov Corp
Height: 4.6 meters
Weight: 6230 kg
Armor: 56 mm armorplast alloy
Speed (Walk): 55.4 kph
Speed (Skate): 84 kph
Sensor range: 3 km
Communication range: 30 km
Operating range: 500 km
Weight: 4
Power: 1

Armaments:

• NNU-10 Autocannon
  -This 22 mm autocannon is manufactured by Mordane Metallurgy, a corporation based in North and South Sotraeca. It doesn't pack a huge punch, and its rate of fire is nothing to boast of. However, it is very lightweight, easy to manipulate with a single hand, and boasts a surprisingly long range (well over 1200 meters). Its low weight allows the user to bring additional ammo, making it perfect for extended operations. Most FRAMEs carrying the NNU-10 use it as a sidearm rather a primary weapon.
• MG27 Light Machinegun
  -An anti-personnel 7.62 caliber machine gun built by Radley Arms. Effective range is 400 meters. Rate of fire is 650 rds/min. 800 rounds are carried in an internal drum. Weapon is mounted into the torso.
• SPR-0S Flamethrower (right arm)
  -A specialized close combat weapon, the "Super" Flamethrower is essentially a scaled-up, superheated version of infantry flamethrowers. It deals considerable damage and can disrupt a FRAME's sensors, but thus far hasn't seen much use thanks to its short range (50 meters). It is more effective the closer the FRAME is to its opponent. It mounts along the arm of a FRAME and fires from the wrist, leaving that hand free to use other weapons.
• EAG-03 Riot Shield w/ERA
  -Used primarily by police FRAMEs in the NSU and SSU, this shield takes up the use of a FRAME's hand. It can be hooked onto a FRAME's back and will provide protection against attacks from behind while there. It protects against a variety of weapons, but is limited by only covering a single angle of attack. This variant has been modified to be better suited for real combat and given a single layer of Explosive Reactive Armor.
• ADR-9Z Anti-Air Missile System (left shoulder)
  -This missile system by Mordane Metallurgy (also called the Adder Missile System) is mounted on one shoulder of the FRAME and is capable of taking down hostile aircraft. It has an effective range of 3000 meters. Adders are high-velocity missiles, making them fast-acting and well-protected against anti-missile systems, but they don't pack quite as much punch as other anti-air missile systems.

Subsystems:

• Explosive Reactive Armor

[Massasauga]

Sabrina Rosenthal

Name: Sabrina Rosenthal
Age: 26
Sex: Female
Disposition: Proud, reserved, caring. She isn't one to leave things to others when she can do it herself. Still a realistic optimist despite her situation.
Background: Sabrina is the eldest daughter in a long line of war veterans from the Emarran Council. As per her lineage, she too entered the military. Aiming to support her history, she enlisted as a FRAME pilot at a rather young age before being transferred over to a joint task force. The international task force saw mild action until it's untimely demise thrust the history of the unit into the darkness. During a mission in support of the North Sotraecan Union, they were tasked to infiltrate SSU lines in a raid on a munitions factory. The SSU either got wind of what was going on, or just got lucky, as the JTF walked right into an ambush. Sabrina did her best to rally her soldiers after their commander's FRAME was demolished by an enemy AT missile launcher, but it was a futile attempt.

The SSU came out in droves when the JTF was discovered, and aimed at killing them all right then and there. Amidst the battle, Sabrina was forced to disembark from her FRAME and hid in the carnage and wreckage of her late team's ranks until the SSU gave up and went home for the day. Taking advantage of Kommando training she volunteered for before becoming a pilot, she waged an assault on the compound by first cutting the power and then taking advantage of the confusion to set off a chain reaction that put the factory out of business for the time being. They would have to build a whole new building atop the old ruins after she got through with it. Before the SSU soldiers knew what was going on, she was already gone and on the run back to friendly lines. She made it several days later and was quickly sent back home to begin an investigation about the nature of the mission.

Sabrina was the sole survivor, and as such she was held accountable for the deaths of the others. Rather than making a big political mess of it, the nations of the JTF decided to bury the truth and gave Sabrina two choices: Let her resign from the military, or be incarcerated for treason. The next day, sh packed her things and left to find work elsewhere. Shortly after, she joined with Preying Panthers with a hope of being able to step back into the cockpit and not get too public.
Appearance:

Inventory: Her old service pistol chambered in .45 caliber, combat knife, reinforced military-grade watch, a black paracord bracelet, and her old dog tags.
Other

MP21-AC Handou

Manufacturer: Kelhei Manufacturing
Height: 4.3 meters
Weight: 6627 kg
Armor: 45 mm durasteel alloy
Speed (Walk): 42 kph
Speed (Skate): 72 kph
Sensor range: 2 km
Communication range: 10 km
Operating range: 500 km
Weight: 3
Power: 2

Armaments:
LCAR 35mm Autocannon
GPHMG Mk. 2 .50 caliber Heavy Machine Gun
Subsystems:
Explosive Reactive Armor
Specialized .50 caliber ammunition
Additional ammunition carrier

[Nevix]

Oliver King

Name: Oliver M. King

Age: 21

Sex: Male

Disposition: King easily sees the best in people. He makes friends fast and deeply, finds that he hates very few people. He has a great sense of humor and is quite intelligent, if naive. He trusts easily, to a definite fault. He also tends to be shocked when things don’t go as planned. Despite this, he is undyingly hopeful.

Background: Oliver grew up in the capital of the OSU. His father was a general infantryman and his mother was a teacher. They moved around constantly, and due to his father’s line of work, idealized the world’s soldiers. His mother was constantly teaching him everything she could, which led to him having stellar grades and a sizeable IQ. When Oliver was 12, his father was killed in a border skirmish with the SL. He and his mother went to live with his uncle, a civilian FRAME mechanic. His uncle took him on as a sort of apprentice, and he excelled at the work. When he was 18, his mother died of some incurable Illness. King’s uncle encouraged him to do something with his life beyond being a simple mechanic. He decided to become a fighter FRAME pilot, but due to the distrust of the OSU’s military that his mother had drilled into him since his father’s death, he chose the life of a mercenary. After three years of searching for a suitable organization, he found the Panthers.

Appearance: Oliver is of fairly average height (5’ 11”) and is quite light (136 lbs). He has a soft, almost childish face and pale green eyes. He’s caucasian and has pale skin from a lifetime of working on FRAMES in dark garages. His hair is dark brown, short, and quite messy. Due to an accident in his first year of soldiering, he has a prosthetic leg up to just above his knee. He can typically be seen wearing simple, neutral colored trousers and shirts. Though when he isn’t working on his FRAME or in combat, he wears a dark grey ankle length peacoat.

Inventory: A simple emergency first-aid kit, a combat knife, a fairly standard pistol, a silver pocket watch with his initials engraved into it, his standard issue PADD.

Other: King is terrified of insects

FRAME

Name: ACS-3G “Zaruga”

Manufacturer: Cradle Dynamics

Height: 4.1 Meters

Weight: 5230 kg

Armor: 20 mm Durasteel Alloy

Speed (Walk): 65 KPH

Speed (Skate): 91.6 KPH

Sensor range: 5 KM

Communication range: 25 KM

Operating range: 600 KM

Weight: 2

Power: 3

Armaments: Several Machine Guns, 1 30mm Autorifle, 1 shoulder mounted rocket launcher

Subsystems: EVF Active Camo, Reactive Armor, C3 Imaging Suite

[Dark Light]

Kat Frost

Name: Katherine (Radley) Frost
Age: 26
Gender: F
Disposition: The rebel.
Frost by name frost by nature. She acts cold and uncaring having built many barriers to keep people at bay. Finds it hard to trust people because they always hurt you in the end. Deep down she is a friendly bubbly girl.
Also a natural engineer by nature.

Background: Kat was practically born into royalty, or near enough anyway. Spoilt rotten by her father she became an arrogant brat but could usually back up that arrogance with knowledge and skill.

Her father fell ill and she began to play up and got herself in a lot of trouble, the panthers were sent in for her retrieval. Before getting back home her past caught up to her and she was sent to jail.

Jail changed her and while she was locked up her father passed away. Having no ties or cares for her mother Kat did what she had to and tracked down the panthers.

Before joining the team a chance arose to aid them, her fist unofficial mission ended with her charging, open cockpit, towards an ally in an enemy FRAME. Kat knew it was about to explode...

She still bares the shrapnel scar's caused by the explosion of that FRAME and the memory haunts many dreams.

In depth

As part of the Radley family, and an only child, Katherine Radley grew up the envy of every other kid, having every luxury money could afford at her beaconed call and whim.
While not the male protege and predecessor to the business her father had hoped for she was still the golden apple in his eye. Much to her young mothers disapproval, he taught her all the things unbecoming of a lady, that he would have taught to a son.

Katherine's father had many years more worth of knowledge then her mother and gladly passed on every bit he could. While Katherine had inherited her fathers brains she owed her stunning looks to that strict unpleasant conniving woman who she called her mother.

There was a common misconception that Katherins father was a work-aholic. True he worked hard and long hours at the Radley headquarters or in his home workshop, but that was only so he may spend more time with his cherished and spoilt daughter.
On many occasions he combined the activities not being able to wait.

It was common place knowledge that Radley's made their own rules. With all the money and connections they had there was little they couldn't get away with.
Katherine, in her fathers influence, develop a strong love for fast things, cars, boats and planes. Naturally this soon stretched to mechanics and engineering later followed.
Throw in a forced appreciation for some self defence and pistol shooting for her own saftey, (more so to calm some fears of her fathers.) and Katherine had a very busy fast-paced childhood.

A fast paced lifestyle her old father should have never expected to keep up with. As Kat reached her early teens her father fell ill with age. Slowly their relationship dwindled as she could not stand not getting what she wanted. Worst of all, while bed ridden, this also left her mother in charge.

The two never saw eye to eye, her mother always wanted her to be more lady like. More of a 'leach' like her, or so Katherine thought. But besides her good looks and form Katherine also shared her mothers affliction to alcohol.
As her fathers health descended, the family tension increased and so did her drinking. For Kat there were no boundaries, there never had been. She went to the wildest parties in all parts of the world, mingling with all the wrong people and disappearing for weeks on end.
DUI after DUI came up, crashed car after crashed car, illegal possession of drugs and firearms. Eventually her name couldn't protect her from her wrap sheet or the bad people of the world.

One of her most unpleasant ordeals was a kidnapping, the strain it put on her father shortened his life by years.
She was treated unpleasantly, cruelly even yet the worse and most painful aspect is it was by someone she thought she loved, that hurt the most.

The ransom was paid, paying top dollar for her retrieval she was picked up by the Panther squad. Only to return home and be taken in by the police before she could even step foot in her own home. As the cops took her away and she screamed and fought in the heavy rain of that dark night, she still recalls the look on her frail sick fathers face as he stood shakily in the open doorframe moments before collapsing.

Kat was in prison for a few years, when she came out she never went home. Her father died while she was in gaol. The difficulty she was having finding employment only proved how much her mother still despised her, Kat knew it had to be her doing, after all she now possessed her fathers reach, money and influence. Every where Kat went she could smell the residue of her mothers distasteful methods of persuasion.

Some days she wondered if her mother was truly that spiteful, or if what she saw wasn't clues of her presence and subtle hints of her influence, maybe Kat was just going insane. Finally she found a company that would take her on, the role was far below her skill and knowledge but having been battling with homelessness Kat gladly took it.

She worked hard and quickly rose in rank, eventually doing work which occasionally included repairs for the Panther squad or fitting of new equipment and running diagnostics.

She could finally have an alright living as an engineering assistant, instead she used what she had to legally access some of the money that her father had left her.
After her mothers dirty tricks and legal fees there was barely enough for her to put together her current FRAME, but there was, so she did.
After that she sought out the famous mercs she had herd so many stories of. Katherine Frost hunted down the Panthers.

Appearance:
Inventory: multi tool, small welding torch, pocket knife, light pistol, taser.

Other: None

The Snow Leopard

Snow leopard.
Manufacturer: Cradle Dynamics
Height: 4.1 meters
Weight: 5230 kg
Armor: 20 mm durasteel alloy
Speed (Walk): 65 kph
Speed (Skate): 91.6 kph
Sensor range: 5 km
Communication range: 25 km
Operating range: 600 km
Power: 3
Weight: 2

Equipped Armaments & Systems:
ECM suite, communication infiltration and jammer
ECM suite, lock prevention
EVF “Chameleon” Active Camouflage

2 x MG27(rs) Light Machinegun

Stats

Manufacturer: Radley Arms
Caliber: 7.62 mm
Effective Range: 500 m
Penetration: 15 mm of vertical steel alloy
Rate of fire: 700 rds/min
Ammunition capacity: 800 rounds
Mount: torso & back (mobile swivel mount.)

1 x AFC-40/L Autocannon

Stats

Manufacturer: Halabrad-Phell
Caliber: 25 mm
Effective range: 800 m
Penetration: 65 mm of vertical steel alloy
Rate of fire: 600 rds/min
Ammunition capacity: 60 rounds/magazine
Ammunition types: APDS-T, HEI-T
Mount: carried, one or two hands

1 x FSU 'Rainmaker' Bazooka (aka Buster)

Stats

Manufacturer: A Radley industries prototype design that never made it into production for being too 'excessive'
Caliber: 106mm
Penetration:
Rate of fire: 100 rds/m
Ammunition capacity:
Ammunition types: HEAT warheads, various auxiliary rounds.
Mount: right shoulder.

Storage: None

Appearance still coming.

[Silverwind Blade]

Alyssa Montraves

Name: Alyssa Montraves

Age: 28

Sex: Female

Disposition:
Refined, elegant and graceful... most of the time. She has a great deal of bearing and poise, though is far from being a 'snob', treating everyone she meets with respect and kindness... as long as they do her the same courtesy, of course.
She has a great deal of patience, but when her temper does snap, it's quite... spectacular.
Despite her grace and poise, she has a surprisingly filthy sense of humour that tends to come out when she has had a chance to get to know people and is comfortable with them... or when she's drunk.

Background:
Alyssa was born in the UKE to a family with a long history. Not overly famous outside of certain circles - mainly business ones - they are 'old money', and have a strong industrial and property portfolio across several countries. With such a 'pedigree' (as Alyssa herself would derisively put it), she lived a life of prestigious education in exclusive schools, her life heavily organized for her and watched over with a critcial - and somewhat cold - eye.
Her parents saw her as more of an 'asset' than a child, to be used as another bargaining chip in the development of their business empire.
Subjected to the constant critical eye and with her future depressingly mapped out by her parents, Alyssa rebelled. At first, in small ways, such as dying her hair, piercing her nose and taking up 'unsuitable' hobbies (such as joining the military cadets, and her enjoyment of rock music), but eventually ending with her rejecting much of their cloying approach to her life.
As soon as she was old enough to graduate from college - and thus, to claim the substantial fund held for her until her 18th birthday - she left home, and travelled the world.

She spent time in some of the more seedy areas of the world, coming into contact with mercenaries, refugees, aid workers and more. After watching from the sidelines for months and patching wounds, helping on radios, sensor screens and radars, she found herself frustrated and wrung out from being unable to help her friends where it counted on the battlefield.
Spending more of her fortune, she trained and studed to become a FRAME pilot, learning under several different teachers and instructors. While she was no expert, she was certainly adept, and hard-working and pushed herself through, driven both by her desire to help her friends, and also to defy her old life.
While her piloting and combat skills were only average, she showed a natural aptitude and skill for the intricacies of reconnaissance, signal inteception and intelligence gathering, having a great deal of talent for manipulating data, signals, and other such information into the greater picture of a battlefield and it's many secrets.

After some years of running with a small company, they eventually fell apart, both due to casualties and internal fighting. As the company disbanded, she moved on to new opportunities. She lived well on her share of the money she'd earned and her reputation alongside it, enabling her to enjoy the luxury, upper-level goods and services she enjoyed, and to keep her aires and graces, before coming to hear of the Preying Panthers, an up-and-coming unit. Deciding it was high time she put her skills to use again, she signed up with the new unit and see what fortune brings.

Appearance:

Alyssa

Long-limbed and willowy, Alyssa stands at just shy of 6'00" tall. She is very slim and has little body fat, adding to her elegant and graceful appearance. Most of her civilian clothing is in contrasting light and dark colours, with crisp white being a common theme. Her voice is rich, cultured and well-spoken, with a musical laugh, and a powerful singing voice.

Inventory:

• High-end PADD, with personalised case and software loaded for signal encryption/decryption, mapping and associated recon-related tasks.
• Multi-channel radio headset with noise-cancelling headphones and mic
• Folding lock-knife
• Compact semi-automatic pistol with engraved mother-of-pearl handgrips
• Compact PDW with attached laser aiming unit
• Magnifying digital binoculars
• Pilots' suit and associated load-carrying harnesses
• Pilots' helmet with personal design painted on
• Usually has a folding mirror, makeup kit, and hairbrush on her at all times too

Other:
"Don't confuse elegance for snobbery, darling..."

Zaruga 'Cyclops'

Name: ACS-3J Zaruga "Cyclops" Recon Variant
Manufacturer: Cradle Dynamics
Height: 4.1 meters
Weight: 5230 kg
Armor: 20 mm durasteel alloy
Speed (Walk): 65 kph
Speed (Skate): 91.6 kph
Sensor range: 5 km
Communication range: 25 km
Operating range: 600 km
Weight: 2
Power: 3

Armaments:

• 1 x Head-mounted 7.62mm Minigun in fixed-forward mount on left side of head. Ammo internally mounted in drum on right side of head
• 1 x 25mm 'carbine' autocannon rifle (short-barelled version)
• 1 x select-feed 40mm automatic grenade launcher (frag/smoke/armour-piercing) on right shoulder mount

Subsystems:

• Signal Intercept (SIGINT) systems tied into comms system
• Seismic Tap mounted on left forearm (for detection of other FRAMEs or other ground movement)
• Long-range, high-definition radar system on extendible mount on left shoulder (to peek above surrounding terrain from cover, can take a 'snapshot' of the area to get a good recon picture of battlefield movements).