[b]Character Name:[/b] Ross Nordegg

[b]Age:[/b] 26

[b]Species:[/b]  American Badger 

[b]Appearance: [/b]
[IMG]http://th04.deviantart.net/images2/PRE/i/2004/02/2/f/Pendryg_as_Badger.jpg[/IMG]
Art by xaotl on DeviantArt [URL]http://xaotl.deviantart.com/art/Pendryg-as-Badger-4633379[/URL]

Standing at 167 centimeters and weighing 69 kilograms, Bradley is a small, stocky and strong looking individual, conditioned from an upbringing on a ranch and working in the mines. He has mischievous brown eyes, dark hair pulled back into a decidedly non-regulation ponytail, and he has several scars over his body, each with its own story of how it got there. 

On duty, he wears the standard LDF uniform, although during war times, he has been known to tear the sleeves off of his tunics and simply suck up the replacement costs for fresh tunics after campaigns. He wears his favorite green bandana while piloting his gear, keeping his hair out of his way and keeping comfortable during operations that typical military covers don’t provide. Off duty, he tends to gravitate towards rustic garb, including jeans, cowboy boots and hats, duster coats, and whatever shirt he fancies at the time. 

[b]Personality:[/b] 

Somewhat abrasive and blunt, Ross is known to speak his mind and he carries an impressive sarcasm streak with him wherever he goes. Somewhat disdainful of “citiots”, his decidedly non-endearing term for urbanites, Ross loves all things country – except for the music. A fan of fishing, hunting, irresponsibly large and powerful vehicles, all manner of guns and explosives, drinking and a quiet life on the ranch, Ross is a colourful individual with an endless supply of stories and what he considers a pretty well-worn in life. 

As a soldier, he is surprisingly on board with working with a team and once people get by his often brash mannerisms off duty, they find a surprisingly loyal and unexpectedly sympathetic individual who cares about doing his job right and proving his worth. He is dependable, tough, and more than willing to show the rookies how a real GEAR pilot gets the job done.

[b]Personal History:[/b]
The middle child in a ranching family, Ross grew up working the field, raising cattle and game, and tending to the grub colonies that were largely his family’s primary food source. It was hard work, but rewarding, and from a young age Ross had developed a solid work-ethic of working hard during the day and developing the easygoing rural lifestyle of the region. Where some boys grew up with toys and colouring books, Ross grew up driving tractors, shooting pests, and using the ranch’s GEAR for the heavy duty lifting. 

Protective of his older sister Lucy and his younger brother Kyle, Ross was one to get into several fights during his school career that landed him in hot waters with the administration quite often, but his otherwise excellent academic record often stayed their hands short of expulsion. Ross’ father, Calvin, was adamant his children took their education seriously, desiring for them an opportunity to move away from the life on the ranch. While Ross didn’t quite understand what his father was so worried about for most of his childhood, child protective services arriving under police escort one afternoon after returning from school all but turned his life upside down; his parents had been growing and selling illegal drug crops (leaving the children and hired hands to tend to most of the rest of the ranch alone while they tended to it) to at first make some extra income, especially in times of recession or drought, before getting tangled up with debts to the wrong sort of people. Being sentenced to ten years in prison, Ross’ parents were taken away and him and his siblings were sent to live in foster care, where he became disenfranchised with school and upon immediately graduating, went to work in the mines to make his own way.

After four years in the mines, Ross had afforded himself a cheap affordable apartment, a steady income, and numerous new skills as a miner, becoming proficient in blasting and drilling. He was offered a foreman position, but the Landren military had begun to catch his attention, starting with a bar fight with a bunch of off duty soldiers who talked and spent big, eventually accumulating in a fight between some of the locals, to which Ross was impressed by the army’s devotion to one another. The message was clear; wear the uniform, you’ll never face adversity alone. After a few more drinks, Ross went home with one of the local’s girls who had decided her deadbeat boyfriend wasn’t worth sticking around for, and the itch stuck. Military life wasn’t one Ross had considered before, but it would get him out of doors, something resembling respect, and he wanted to amount to something more than being a miner. Three weeks after the bar fight, a smug Ross found himself in the LDF’s local recruitment office, thinking it would be a cakewalk.

After a thoroughly brutal and trying basic training where Ross graduated around the middle of the class, much to his disappointment, Ross set his sights on GEAR training, something he would prove to be adept at, largely thanks to the familiarity of the equipment given the machine he grew up with. Setting a few local base records on the simulator, Ross would become a proficient GEAR pilot with a few combat missions under his belt. Now a corporal and a 3-year veteran of the LDF, Ross has recently requested transfer to the 101st.  

[b]Weapons and Equipment:[/b]

[IMG]http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag38/EchoUnited/Sci%20Fi/Sci%20Fi%20Weapons/HampKAssaultRifle.jpg[/IMG] 
LDF standard LPMG57 light patrol machine gun. Features 1-3x magnification holo sight, folding bipod, and ammunition counter.
[IMG]http://www.sharpeningshack.net/images/RMJ-tomahawk.jpg[/IMG] 
Tactical tomahawk 

[IMG]http://thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Cylon.jpg[/IMG]
Captured -TG73 Avalanche 5.87mm pistol. Integrated silencer, reflex sight.

Personal Theme:
[url]www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbcrsOb9K64[/url] Abney Road - I am Stretched on Your Grave

[i][b]GEAR Sheet[/b][/i]

[b]GEAR Name & Serial Number:[/b] “Dust Devil” RXV-417 Light Reconnaissance GEAR, LDF codename "Brigand".
[b]Appearance:[/b]
[IMG]http://danshareza.com/images/sledgehammer_mech.jpg[/IMG]
Credit to Dan Shareza [URL]http://danshareza.com/2013/06/05/military-mech/[/URL]

[b]Role:[/b] Scouting, flanking, and ambush.

[b]Normal Loadout:[/b] 20mm autocannon with shaped charge rounds, designed to penetrate light armour and detonate internally. 
6.8mm caseless wrist-mounted point-defense machine-gun
Right shoulder:  16x TOW Missiles
Left Shoulder: 16x TOW Missiles
Back: 65mm satellite-guided mortar system. 

[b]Equipment: [/b]
-IR, Thermal, and Night Vision capable
-Onboard interactive GPS system that keeps updated locations of identified targets and GEARs and a scrollable map.
-Onboard smoke and chaff dispensers
-Head-mounted sensor suite, including high-resolution cameras.
-Onboard diagnostic and systems managing software. 
-3x Ultra-high density battery packs to manage electrical systems
-Full complement Electronic Software Suites.
-Adaptive photosensitive camouflage panels 
-Signal jammer, emissions sinks
-Laser Target Designator

[b]Other notes: [/b]
A newer design in the LDF arsenal, RXV-417 Light Reconnaissance GEARs are designed as rapid deployment GEARs, often amongst the first into a battlefield to provide early intelligence and rapid assault capabilities to the often still deploying main forces of the LDF. Capable of high speeds and mobility, the RXV series is lightweight and modestly armoured, preferring to stay out of heavy scraps and utilizing the terrain better than larger GEARs can. Heavily armed for a light mech, this GEAR is proficient at ambush tactics and raids where surprise and mobility are essential factors. A well-trained and disciplined squadron of RXV pilots have been known to decimate forces much greater in number in short order, largely thanks to the machine’s modest stealth capabilities and surprising firepower. The RXV also has a largely modular weapon setup, allowing weapon hard points to be swapped out even in the field with minimal technical support, and in extreme situations, allows malfunctioning or spent weapons to be jettisoned with relative ease.