[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzTLNXfTquA][img]http://i.imgur.com/D8xQINV.png[/img][/url]
[color=9e0b0f][sup]"Fear is doubt. Doubt is failure. Failure is death."[/sup]
[b]EPITAPH LXIX[/b]
[color=FFFFFF]17[/color] | [color=FFFFFF]2 December[/color] | [color=FFFFFF]175 cm[/color] | [color=FFFFFF]First Class[/color][/color][/center][hr]
[indent][color=9e0b0f]appearance.[/color] 
[indent][color=FFFFFF]Epitaph is an unusual, almost pitiful creature to behold. His figure is sickly- almost skeletal -with pallid skin pulled taut over sinewy muscles and emaciated bones. Scars from lasers, bullets and blades stretch across his disfigured form like a grotesque, intricate design. Epitaph's features are thin and hollow, with dark, deep-set eyes and a seemingly permanent grimace. His hair, turned silver prematurely, is kept so short that it is barely a light dusting on his head.

In regards to dress sense, Epitaph is strictly utilitarian. Black physical training clothes and running shoes are worn when not in uniform, and when on sortie, Epitaph wears a form-fitting black sneaking suit with a matching tactical harness. A relic of his days as a SCION, the pure black of Epitaph's form is broken by the stark white of his skull-shaped armored mask, and the piercing red glow of the mask's optical sensors.[/color][/indent][/indent]
[indent][color=9e0b0f]personality.[/color] 
[indent][color=FFFFFF]Epitaph is an emotionally void, socially crippled shell of a human being. Since he could speak he has been conditioned to excise all emotions and empathy, and he has been deprived of any meaningful human relationships. He wanders through life as though traveling through a mist, and people are nothing more than shadows in the fog. While this was sufficient as a SCION, in Epitaph's new lifestyle his lack of social and emotional development leaves him upset and frustrated more often than not, as he grapples with feelings that he does not understand. While his training at Fort Lullin went a fair ways at providing him with the basic social skills that he lacked, he is still incredibly inept at human interaction. Bereft of understanding most gain in their developmental years, Epitaph meets complex concepts such as love and humor with a mix of curiosity and trepidation, and when sufficiently perplexed sometimes reverts to hostility.[/color][/indent][/indent]
[indent][color=9e0b0f]biography/background. [/color]
[indent][color=FFFFFF]Unknown but to few, SOLDIER was not the only program created by Dalmastice to produce elite soldiers, and strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. Concurrent with the first generation of the SOLDIER program was its rival, known as SCION. Rather than utilizing gene therapy, SCION focused on strict mental and physical conditioning on candidates less than five years old. The end goal of the SCION program was to produce elite operatives capable of infiltrating and dismantling enemy command structures and critical facilities.

SCION drew its candidates from orphans under government custody. Given the relative lack of candidates (most children had already aged out of the window of candidacy), SCION could not afford to be choosy about its selections. As a result of this, as well as the inhuman training regime the candidates were subjected to, the attrition rate for the SCION program was staggering. Out of the first hundred SCION candidates, only thirteen were deemed successes; the rest either died of fatigue or cardiovascular failure, or were crippled physically or mentally. However, these successful candidates were spies and assassins without compare. Utterly loyal to the government, they lived only to search and destroy its enemies, which they did with startling efficiency.

Despite its handful of successes, the lengthy training time and unsustainable rate of attrition deemed SCION a failure in comparison to its rival program, SOLDIER. Dalmastice shut down the SCION program, and with skilled politicking, the commanders of the SOLDIER program were able to acquire their former rival's assets and resources. This included every active SCION agent, one of which being Epitaph LXIX, a seventh-generation SCION with over a hundred sorties over his two years of active service. Brainwashed child-soldiers with no family but the government and no life but warfare, the children of SCION were quickly subjected to the trials of SOLDIER. Be it the benefit of having already survived even harsher training, or sheer luck, Epitaph survived the trials and became a SOLDIER. Whether he was  the only former SCION to survive is unknown to him, but he has larger concerns.

Bred for battle and nothing else, Epitaph had a solitary existence as a SCION. To keep them from forming attachments that could compromise mission effectiveness, each SCION lived in utter isolation. They trained, ate and slept alone, and only came into regular contact with other people when assigned orders, infiltrating enemy positions, or in the rare cases of operating with another SCION. In contrast, as a SOLDIER Epitaph is expected to live and work as a team with his fellow operatives; a concept utterly alien to him. Suffice to say, this transition has been difficult for him. Killing another human is a far simpler concept than learning to trust and understand one, and Epitaph is frequently pushed beyond what his meagre capacity for emotion will allow him to withstand. Even so, he solemnly continues to attempt to learn sociality, as he is under orders from his new command to integrate with his new team.[/color][/indent][/indent]
[indent][color=9e0b0f]weapon{s}.[/color]
[indent][color=FFFFFF]A close-quarters operative, Epitaph's arsenal makes him a nightmare to anyone within his reach. His primary weapon is a power-sabre, a metal blade cloaked in a matter-disrupting energy field. This is supplemented by his scattergun, a close-range, wrist-mounted weapon that fires short blasts of superheated, razor-sharp shrapnel. With this, Epitaph can tear apart enemies at short range, but its wide spread makes it ineffective at longer ranges. The scattergun's secondary attachment is a needle gun, which fires a medium-range dart coated in virulent neurotoxin. Epitaph's speciality weapon is a virus gauntlet; a glove with several long, thin blades extending from the fingers. Each of these blades is actually a syringe connected to a canister of neurotoxin so lethal that infection results in screaming, painful death within seconds. As backups, Epitaph carries a wide range of "shuriken" bladed projectiles, each with a different tactical explosive charge. These include high-explosive for penetrating armor, electromagnetic for disrupting shields and electronics, high-voltage for immobilizing enemy vehicles and armored personnel, and monofilament wire for disrupting infantry formations.[/color][/indent][/indent]
[indent][color=9e0b0f]skillset.[/color] 
[indent][color=FFFFFF]Epitaph is an assassin, first and foremost. His skills are focused on his ability to use [b]stealth[/b] and subversion to infiltrate enemy lines and defenses, and then take on multiple armed enemies in [b]close-quarters combat[/b]. Once his selected target(s) have been successfully [b]assassinated[/b], he will use his skills in evasion and misdirection to reach his designated extraction point. In less subtle operations, Epitaph can be dropped within the enemy ranks to raise hell and kill as many people as possible to disrupt enemy tactics and provide relief for suppressed personnel.[/color][/indent][/indent]
[indent][color=9e0b0f]ability. [/color]
[indent][color=FFFFFF]By tightening his focus, Epitaph can heighten his perception of time to the point where it seems like everything around him is moving in slow motion. His reflexes, senses and reaction time are all sharpened to superhuman levels, and he can process and evaluate his combat situation at lightning speeds. During his time as a SCION, a similar effect was achieved using combat drugs, and so Epitaph is well-adjusted to analyzing the battlefield and adjusting his tactics on the fly.[/color][/indent][/indent]
[indent][color=9e0b0f]aeon.[/color]
[indent][url=http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/2a/Solitaire_Mask.png/revision/latest?cb=20150302003313]Azagorod, She Who Laughs[/url]
[indent][indent][color=ed1c24]RED[/color]/[color=0054a6]BLUE[/color] ┊ Prophecy & Deception
[indent]An enigma, inside a riddle, wrapped in a death threat. Azagorod's corpse was among the most disturbing of the Aeon, partially because of the remarkably humanlike face carved upon her death mask, but mostly because of the propensity for her corpse to make hollow sounds resembling laughter whenever it was moved. A brilliant figure of vermilion and cerulean robes, crowned in golden feathers and adorned with shimmering gems, Azagorod could be considered one of the most beautiful Aeon as well. That is until one looks beneath the many layers of semi-organic decoration covering her body, and finds the withered, ivory body underneath her gilded adornments. [/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[indent][color=9e0b0f]limit/overdrive.[/color] 
[indent][color=FFFFFF]Epitaph's last-ditch power is as strange as the Aeon that granted it. When in lethal danger, Epitaph will gain sight of the threads of fate flowing through reality, and can see the myriad futures spread before him. This power grants him insight of up to five seconds into his future, allowing him to see every possible permutation of destiny following the actions he takes during that time. In addition, anyone in Epitaph's immediate vicinity loses all memory of events that transpire during this time; from their perspective, once his five seconds of precognition are up, time has jumped forward without their realization. The few to witness this power and survive describe it as though Epitaph briefly disappears from reality, only to return with lethal vengeance.[/color][/indent][/indent]