[hider=Octavia Westerlund] [b]Name:[/b] Octavia Westerlund [b]Gender:[/b] Female [b]Age:[/b] 26 [b]Former Occupation:[/b] Guardswoman [b]Former Rank/Position:[/b] Trooper [b]Mental and Physical Traits:[/b] Octavia is by most accounts, a leal and steadfast servant of His Will- with some minor black spots. Considered to be a model Guardsman in her old regiment, she is proficient in most of the ways of war, although she is a master of none in particular. She is perfectly willing to die for the Emperor and for Humanity, although she is not the most creative or daring soldier of the Guard. She does however, possess an iron will and tenacity that few can match. Temperamentally, she is known to be gloomy and even fatalistic and that is before she lost the ability to speak. [b]Appearance:[/b] Octavia is of an average height, perhaps on the tall side, with an athletic build wrapped in sinewy muscles from years of soldiering. The left side of her face could be considered conventionally attractive, with high cheekbones, soft lips, and a small and slightly upturned nose. However, the right side is a mess of scars, some of which are red and fresh and others are old and (relatively) well-healed. Of particular note is the large scar that cuts its way from her forehead through her right eyebrow and down through her eye, which was partially damaged but has since been repaired by a medicae, giving the pupil a more artificial amber hue than the normal verdant of her left eye. Her neck also bears a few scars, most of which are from medical procedures relating to her damaged vocal cords. Her hair is a rather plain shade of brown that has a gentle curl when worn long (which is rare). Currently it is shaved, as is protocol for penal legions. [b]Wargear:[/b] Lascarbine Explosive Collar 2 Mono Knives 3 Frag Grenades 3 Krak Grenades 1 Flak Vest & Flak Helmet Imperial Guard Penal Legion Prisoner Uniform 1 Inhaler 1 Gas Mask Poor Weather Gear Rucksack Basic Tool Kit Mess Kit & Water Canteen 1 Weeks' Rations Blanket & Sleep Bag Rechargeable Lamp-Pack Micro-Bead Ident Tags Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer [b]History:[/b] Octavia Westerlund is a native of the infamous world of Armageddon. She is the youngest of eight children, where she gets her name from. Her family has a long history of military service to the Imperium; her father is a veteran of 20 or so years in Armageddon's own Steel Legion who retired as an Colonel to start a family, and her mother was a tanker in the Steel Legion as well. All of her older siblings have gone on to enlist in the Guard and so when Octavia was old enough, she too enlisted eagerly. Most of her early Guard years were spent on Armageddon, taking place in the still on-going fighting that pockmarks the planet's ruined surface. Among the ash wastelands and dense jungles of Armageddon she learned how to survive and even somewhat thrive in the Steel Legion, in addition she learned what many consider the trademark trait of someone from Armageddon: she learned to hate the Orks. All Emperor-fearing citizens hate the xenos but few hate the xenos as much as Armageddonites hate the Orks. Theirs is a special, deep-seated hatred of all Ork-kind and Octavia is no different. Years of seeing her comrades die and homeplanet ravaged at the hands of the filthy greenskins have given her a special taste for the death of Orks. Three of her older brothers and one sister had died on Armageddon and when it came time for her regiment to be shipped off to another world Octavia was not sad to leave it. She did hope her parents would stay safe but the planet itself could get consumed by the Warp for all she cared. The next year was characterised by frequent short campaigns on many different worlds. Many only lasted a few months as the overwhelming strength of the Steel Legion crushed the enemy beneath the treads of the Chimera and Leman Russ. Of particular note was the battle on Jjod II. A band of Dark Eldar corsairs had been harassing a nearby Forge World on Jjod Prime and it was discovered that they had been using the moon, Jjod II, as a staging area from which to launch raids against the Forge World. The fleet which Octavia's regiment was attached was sent to deal with them. The battle was short but the fighting was fierce. The piratical eldar had their webway gates destroyed, leaving them only one option: fight a doomed battle. During this savage engagement, the much-admired company commander of Octavia's company was killed, which was a heavy blow to the men and woman of the company, many of whom had been with him since they left Armageddon. The replacement commander was adequate but he had big boots to fill and the wound never quite healed. Another notable battle came on a hive world when half the regiment was lost after heretics tried to use a makeshift warp engine to bring the whole hive city into the Warp. They partially succeeded and a third of the city was riven from the ground and sucked into the foul recesses of the Warp. It took many months for the regiment to make it back up to full combat strength. The last fateful campaign came on another hive world by the name of Ashou. Ashou had been besieged by a sizeable Ork Waaaagh! for many months and the battle for the planet had ground to a bloody stalemate. Finally the fleet which Octavia was attached to was diverted to help. The landing went well, and the first month of fighting made good progress, that is until they hit the first hive city. The Orks had heavily fortified it and the streets were too narrow and cramped for the vehicles of the Steel Legion to pass through so they were forced to dismount and clear the city block by bloody block. Unbeknownst to the guardsman of Octavia's regiment the Orks had booby-trapped the thermo-generator at the heart of the city to explode. Which it did. The city was turned into a twisted, broken, apocalyptic mountain. The whole regiment was assumed lost. Through some miracle of the Emperor though, Octavia had survived. A smaller blast had thrown her into a relatively safe, unpowered hab-block where she avoided the worst of the detonation. The blast had also destroyed her rebreather, however, and the heated air scorched her throat and ruined her vocal cords. Worse yet, the Orks moved back in shortly after. For the next week Octavia survived in the wreckage of the hive city by wits and luck alone. Her lasgun had been destroyed and the Orks were physically bigger than her, so physical confrontation was not an option. By night she creeped her way through the ruined streets, sleeping in spaces too small for Orks to fit. She killed only one Ork during her ordeal. A member of an Ork patrol was poking around when he discovered Octavia's hiding place in a demolished hab-room. He broke down the door and thrust his head in and received a standard issue mono-knife straight into the eye as an answer. The greenskin howled in anger and pain and grasped at his newly opened eye cavity as Octavia made her escape through the hole the in opposite wall where she had entered. She could hear the Ork slowly dying over the course of next couple minutes as she made her way into an adjacent hab-block. At the end of the week another regiment entered the hive city to clear out the new Ork occupiers and Octavia surrendered to them peacefully. She was assumed to be a deserter and taken aboard the fleet for trial and punishment. Due to her formerly exemplary service to the Emperor she was spared summary execution and was given the chance for redemption in a penal legion. In addition, the medicae refused to replace her vocal chords as a result of her status as a deserter, instead electing to merely heal the damaged remains. Permitting her to make some limited noise but still unable to vocalise properly. The disgraced guardswoman spent the next few months in a cell as the campaign was finished up and the fleet departed. At the next stop Octavia was exiled to a penal world where she was inducted into the local penal legion. [/hider]