Alright, wanted to get this sorted out before I called it an evening, figured we could use someone in a support role.

[hider=Albert Hartwig]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/6V3eqpV.jpeg[/img]

[b]Name:[/b] Albert Hartwig
[b]Age:[/b] 32
[b]Archetype:[/b] Mechanic/Scoundrel
[b]Gender:[/b] Male
[b]Occupation:[/b] Armored Core Upkeep, Design, and Research liaison. Logistical Support, as required.
[b]Affiliations:[/b] New Alexandria Mechanical Academy (Graduate), Brose Arsenal (Design staff, field consultant, and engineer).
[b]Skills and Abilities:[/b]
[list]
[*] Armored Core Expertise - Having been sent to the New Alexandria Mechanical Academy as early as he could be, Albert was basically raised to live and breath Armored Cores, though unlike their pilots, his role would be far more technical. He studied theory and practical designs, how to not only maintain and formally design, but unofficially patch and maintain experimental designs during field tests. Having spent his entire adult life working for the largest Armored Core design, development, and manufacturer in his home system has given him a unique outlook on the venerable machines, and that was before he was part of Brose Arsenal's first field consulting team. 
[*] Mechanical Adaptation - Albert has been handling tools longer than he has been walking, and that is only mostly an exaggeration. Be it his normal focus in Armored Cores (which can vary from being waist deep in a malfunctioning cockpit troubleshooting faulty controls to moving, installing, and swapping spare parts and munitions with crane or powered exosuit if forced to support field bound units), supporting non Armored Core elements in their day to day operations and upkeep, or even the rare personal project, Albert knows just enough to figure out what he doesn't know in good order, especially if given freedom to act as he sees fit.
[*] Industrial Contacts - Albert spent his entire adult life making contacts and friends in his Academy years, and as a field consultant and engineer for Brose Arsenal and its field team expanded on these contacts. He is also willing and able to cut discreet deals, many of which can be....dubious in their legality, to make deadlines or get his hands on parts. Doubly so, when forced to work with equipment and Armored Core designs that are insistent on bleeding edge operations or hopelessly obsolete. He won't comment on where he gets his hands on his supplies and stock, but one can be assured it is functional and quality. Should parts just so happen to arrive unmarked? Albert will gladly relabel them to make them useful for official operations.
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[b]Faults and Limitations:[/b]
[list]
[*] Perpetual Exhaustion - Albert is already an undiagnosed (by his insistence) insomniac, getting the bare minimum of sleep and running on a constant intake of caffeine, coffee, and sheer bloody minded spite. Add in ruthless work schedules, back to back 12 hour shifts, and the constant rigors of support operations and Albert always looks one step away from collapsing from exhaustion. Technically speaking, he is at least three steps away, but it is an unavoidable condition of being in a near constant state of exhaustion that only gets worse during high stress situations.
[*] Mechanic's Mouth - Albert would not recognize decorum if he tripped over it, and has a nasty habit of not recognizing the need for a brain to mouth filter. The more exhausted he gets, the worse it can get, and while he might not be outright insubordinate, those expecting proper form over function will often be rudely informed by Albert that, no, their request for a complete overhaul and diagnostic sweep within the hour before deployment is not reasonable and they will hear about it. The entire time, even as he is moving heaven and earth to make it happen.
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[b]Biography:[/b] Albert Hartwig was born to a large, extended family of tinkerers, mechanics, scientists, and stark raving madmen. He was the second son of the family, though he knew more of his cousins than he ever did of his older sister, and while he had younger siblings as well, he was often too busy learning and burying himself in Armored Core designs to ever get to know them a great deal. Each member of the Hartwig extended family had some sort of obsession, being one of their most notorious qualities despite not being any sort of formal house or the like. For Albert, that was Armored Cores, for better or worse.

Growing up around a family neck deep in the military industrial complex gave him ample time to be babysat by engineers, scientists, and theoretical designers who owed favors to his parents, who would rather Albert not be around bothering them when he could be bothering people who owed them petty favors instead. Albert was not too concerned with that, engrossed with the talk and chatter of towering war machines and their mighty legions of supporting infantry and armor, while pouring over unclassified designs and historical anecdotes. His family secured him a place in the New Alexandria Mechanical Academy, which performed double duty as both a college and trade school, which he would excel at. 

Albert would routinely get himself into trouble, however, given his natural inclination and talent often times outpaced those who relied on learned technique. His near constant arrival at correct answers, using the wrong methods, could have led to a more dire post academic career if it was not for family connections and a certain company that would rather have results over anything else already eying him. By the time he graduated from the Academy, he had several letters of recommendation from various family members, all pointing him towards a single company. Brose Arsenal, which was one of the up and coming big names in his home system's military industrial complex.

Rather than explore his options, Albert took the most direct path to a career he wanted, at least he thought he wanted. Immediately assigned to a team that would tour other companies and facilities, Albert would rapidly learn not just about what Brose Arsenal specialized in, and offered in terms of expertise, but also engaged in no small amount of forming connections, establishing research and cooperation deals, as well as acting as a sponsored trouble shooter and consultant for smaller firms that had something to offer Brose Arsenal that they could not otherwise get their hands on. More importantly, Albert was constantly in contact with not just Armored Core pilots, but even Lancers. Highly experimental, heavily customized, and sometimes wildly dangerous to the pilot as well as the enemy, Albert expanded his capabilities as not just a mechanic, but as supplier and source of parts and supplies for Lancers and their Core's needs.

It was this ten year stretch that both gave him the know how and skillset to attract the attention of those putting together Prince Cassian's Lance that would operate out in the Procyon Sector. For them, he would be a flexible subject matter expert on Armored Cores of varying designs and needs, as well as bringing a network of contacts that could be convinced, cajoled, or otherwise strong armed into providing supplies in a pinch. For Albert? It got him out of Brose Arsenal's direction, which he had been slowly chaffing under as his expertise and knowledge grew, having to argue and fight to continue his field work instead of taking a posting back in the home lab. Brose Arsenal, meanwhile, just saw it as a chance to establish a foothold in the Procyon Sector, approving his leave of absence for his duration of employment in Lance that Prince Cassian was sponsoring. The question of what happened if the Lance was ever dissolved was never brought up, given Albert would sooner vanish into the frontier than ever return to Brose, but no one would admit that.
[/hider]