Name: Titus Ulpius Marcellus
Age: 41
Archetype: Soldier/Mechanic
Gender: Male
Appearance: Titus scowling countenance and heavy features bely a cheerful demeanor and gentle soul. Though the veteran soldier is tall and severe looking, his scars and flat, high cheekboned face transforms whenever he smiles.
Occupation: Lancer
Affiliations: The Immortals Regiment of the Tagamata, the Imperial Bodyguard and elite lancer units.
Skills and Abilities: Growing up an isolated dustball moon, on the fringes of Imperial space Titus grew up tough and grew fast. He learned from an age how to do basic repair work, tooling and welding on the gigantic farming and mining machines of his family's liege lord. In the Gynamsia, Titus often neglected his other classes in favor of wrestling, grappling, marksmanship and swordsmanship. Skills which carried over well when he enlisted into the Imperial Army.
Faults and Limitations: Though easygoing in general and certainly approachable, Titus isn't particularly imaginative and is hidebound by decades of service. His role is to serve his Emperor, to innovate and think outside the box or challenge the current state of things is something well above his station.

Biography:

Titus was born to a family of former Imperial Army, who'd been granted a small mining claim on the Terra-class moon of Clearchus. From an early age, the boy worked alongside his eight other siblings. They had little in the way of leisure time, for life on a dead moon, that was in the process of being terraformed, was no easy task. Still, when Titus attended school or stayed up late for remote courses, he dreamed of the great deeds of the lancer pilots before him. The men and women who had forged an empire.

But for most of his youth, his days were spent working alongside his father, driving ore trucks, repairing welds, harvesting shelf farms and all the many other tasks that life on a colony demands. Titus' friends found him a stolid and reliable sort, if seemingly slow and often distracted. But few knew that when his mind wandered, it was because he was imagining himself into the cockpit of a mech, out waging war against the Emperor's enemies. But for the meantime, he had to content himself with maneuvering the various mining rigs his liege lord owned.

While he was a competent, if unimpressive student, Titus found his favorite subjects where things like grappling, swordsmanship, jousting and the use of firearms. So, it came as no surprise to anyone that Titus joined the Imperial Army, like his father and mother before him. There, he continued to hone his skills and after many sleepless nights and tedious hours of forcing himself to study, the young soldier was able to pass the entrance exams and be awarded a slot for Armored Core training. Though, he came from humble origins and was never going to be officer material, Titus proved himself to be a very skilled pilot.

More so when he reached his first unit and found himself in a desperate battle against a massive alien raid. It was there that he made a name for himself, in that unnamed battle. His commander had fallen, his mech's leg shot out from under him. So Titus caught up the Imperial banner the left hand of his mech and maintained fire with his mech's right hand. He stood over his trapped commander's mech until a maintenance team could extract the man from his cockpit and carry him back to the nearest aid station. Still, Titus fought in the counter-attack, despite the injuries he'd suffered. After that, he was recommended by his commander attend selection for the Imperial Bodyguard.

And so for the last eight years, Titus has served his Emperor and the Imperial household, whether at home on Terra or abroad on the vast frontier in the void, he has never once flinched from his duty. Though he no doubt is well aware of the Prince and Imperial heir's many weaknesses, Titus is loyal and will not entertain any thoughts or comments on the subject. Not even from his own doubts and worries.

Mech: Heavy/Melee
Designation/Callsign: Hippo 7.
General Description: A towering, brutal hulk with boxy angles and a dark camouflage pattern. The mech stands a little over eleven meters in height and is almost as broad across its sloping "shoulders." Titus' mech is an unmistakable member of the Cataphract class. A mech that sacrifices firepower for its armor, surprising speed over short distances and its brutal melee weapons in place of ranged systems.

Role and Doctrine: Cataphracts were originally designed off a fire support mech's chassis. However, instead of trading between the usual traditional choices of speed, firepower or armor, the Cataphract was instead equipped with a giant, void-magicked shield. Where other mechs would scout, engage in long-range fire or provide artillery support, the Cataphract's role was to close with the enemy and deal out devastating melee attacks, until the rest of the mech force could arrive. In addition, it can also served as a sort of gigantic mech equivalent to the old Pioneer/Sapper role of infantrymen from days past.

As such, it was built to be well-armored, festooned with all manner of scaled up melee weapons. Besides its more mundane defenses, the enchantments on its shield would hopefully allow it to survive the enemy's firepower and get within fighting range.

Notable Armaments or Systems: Titus mech stands a little over 11 meters in height, with a boxy "head" covered in angled reactive armor panels. Across the "head" is the transverse crest of an NCO. It stands in a slightly hunched over looking fashion, lending it an air of brooding menace and gorilla-like strength. The arms terminate in gigantic, articulated fingers that can allow the mech to grab on to or crush things. The entire mech is covered in dark camouflage of a rippling, striped pattern.

It's equipped with a thirteen meter-long large axe/mattock, a six meter-long broad-bladed cleaver, a large maul and a prybar. These tools serve both as its primary melee weapons and its breaching/pioneer tools.

However, the most distinguishing thing about the Cataphract class mech is the 7 meter high shield it carries on its left arm. The shield itself is just armored alloy but what makes it stand out are the glowing blue runs across its surface.

Some of the newer Cataphract models have sacrificed armor on the right arm for a small flamethrower and a set of light machine guns.

Known Limitations or Vulnerabilities: While Cataphracts are relatively light on their feet and well protected, they're greatest strength is also their main weakness. They're too heavy to be air dropped and only the largest dropships can move them, and not in any great number. Their hydraulics and articulation systems are a mechanic's nightmare and prone to wear and constant leaks. The optics are only the most basic, making them poor choices for scouting or reconnaissance.

The engine is not a reactor but a small turbine, based off a miniaturized aircraft design. As such, these massive metal beasts guzzle massive amounts of fuel, even when they're idling. The fuel mixture itself is also highly caustic and must be handled with care and full layer protective suit. In addition, that means that the mech is limited to an operational range of a little over 600 kilometers before it has to be refueled.

Name: Mika Ganishka
Age: 33
Archetype: Voidtouched/Commander/Scoundrel
Gender: Female
Appearance:
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Of asian decent, Mika has the pale complexion of a spacer that doesn't see much sunlight with steely grey eyes and usually sports an annoying smirk that makes people suspicious of her. If she has to wear a military uniform it will usually be a mess but if she can get away with it she will have comfortable and colorful civilian clothes.

Occupation: Navigator/Captain
Affiliations: Cult of Lethos (Former), Pirate Kingdom of Robert (Former), Pirate Federation of Procyon (Former), Republican League of Jacinthas (Former), Bardas Smuggler's Cartel.

Skills and Abilities:
Voidtouched Navigator - Mika doesn't know how to manifest her connection to the Drift like others since she has no training, but she feels it like no others which allows her to do prodigious and otherwise insanely dangerous 'blind' navigation and short distance Drift jumps to surprise anyone she faces.

Piracy Expertise - Years of raving in the Procyon sector have allowed Mika to gain expert knowledge of how to operate in a very low supply and very high hostility situation, she thus always has a creative way to solve logistical problems and deal damage to the enemy, though this might not endear you to the locals.

Faults and Limitations:
Abysmal Reputation - One rarely climbs the ranks without making some enemies, but Mika took this to a whole other level with countless betrayals and backstabbing. There is a long list of people in the sector that are gunning for her and potentially anyone who associates with her.

Voidtouched Amateur - Most agree that Mika has massive untapped potential to control the Drift, but normally people learn to exploit this potential as they grow up along with their power, limiting the possibilities for disaster. She is interested in improving her mastery but the risk factor with her is judged as severe.

Biography:
Mika rose from extremely humble origins, her family being part of a cult centered around a self declared prophet with a taste for extreme sexual activities with very young people (we will skip the details). When she was still young, she attracted the eyes of the prophet and her parents were eager to gain favor by promising her to him. This is why when ships from King Robert, the local pirate overlord, came to extort their usual protection fees, she decided to sneak off world. She was quickly discovered of course but the pirates took her in as a sort of mascot at first, and good luck charm later when they discovered her ability to sense asteroids and other ships through the void.

Eventually she became a navigator and, when the ship was in a particular bad streak, overthrew her captain. Pirate King Robert himself took a liking into her and made her navigation abilities of several high stakes operations that made him one of the most powerful pirate of the sector and gave him confidence to resist joining the Pirate Federation. When she received the offer of taking the seat reserved for Robert if she betrayed him, Mika took her chance and turned some of his ships against him before deliberately misplanning a jump to damage and confuse his forces and wipe them out.

At this point Mika had her longest period of stability in her career and grew into a menace for civilized society in the sector, mostly doing her own things with the benediction of the Pirate Federation. One day however, one of the larger polities of the sector, the Republic of Jacinthas, refused to pay tribute to the Pirates who got in mind to humble them and show themselves as the primary force in the sector. Though the pirates had success in raiding the Republic and it's League allies, any large scale engagement ended poorly and their lairs were destroyed one by one. Seeing the writing on the wall, Mika offered to defect in exchange for a general amnesty for her crimes.

Jacinthas had initially offered her a military rank but after the Pirate War she was quickly demobilized and asked to turn in her remaining ships, the Republic making it clear that she would be allowed to retire with her ill gotten gain but not in a way that would allow her to remain a potential menace. Luckily this demand came with the renewed interest of the Empire toward the Procyon sector, to which she ran with her tail between her legs to negotiate joining Prince Cassian's retinue. In exchange for rank, titles and trade concessions once the sector was brought under heel, she promised her skills, her ships and perhaps most importantly, her very detailed star charts of the sector.

Name: Sharlin Vande Tanne
Age: "Do I look like a bottle of wine? Why would you need to know my vintage then?"
Archetype: Operative
Gender: Female
Appearance: Sharlin is a generally nondescript woman of middling age, height, and build, or at least she appears to be - she can adapt her appearance to a startling degree, from utter mousiness to stunning beauty. Her most distinctive features are her pale blue eyes (and she's perfectly capable of changing their colour).


Occupation: Lancer/Operative
Affiliations: Imperial Intelligence
Skills and Abilities:
Social chameleon - Sharlin can fit into any social environment, from an audience with the Emperor to drinking with slum dwellers. Regardless of the situation, she will figure out how to behave to keep those around her at ease and unsuspecting of her origins.

Wetworker - While most of her work revolves around infiltration, observation, and reporting, Sharlin is not above getting her hands wet, literally or figuratively. She's the proverbial person in the room with half a dozen plans to kill any individual in it, and the ability to execute those plans.

Faults and Limitations:
Haunted - One doesn't get one's hands wet without paying a price. Some people aren't affected by killing, but they're either psychopaths or terminally stupid, neither of which is actually very useful long-term in Sharlin's line of work. Raw or rare meat makes Sharlin queasy, and she plays it off by saying she's vegetarian. She keeps it under control when she's on the job, but her private life is ruled by nausea and nightmares.

Under orders - As an operative of Imperial Intelligence, Sharlin is beholden to certain personages. Her commission is under the Imperial seal, and she gets her (very occasional, very important) orders from extremely high up. She is expected not to balk or fail. The fate of billions may depend on her actions.

I'm a killer, not a fighter - While she is highly lethal, Sharlin isn't set up to duel or brawl. Her skills and build aren't the best fit for a straight-up fight, and the only time she gets in one is if several things have already gone wrong. She's not a liability in a scrap, but she'd much rather execute her opponent without their even being aware they're a target.

Biography:
Sharlin is the last surviving scion of House Vande Tanne, a member of the minor nobility so useful and so annoying to the great powers that govern the Empire. Unfortunately they became the latter to the much more powerful House Moritani that coveted their holdings, and thus they found themselves, over the course of a generation, harried and pressured and eventually diminished to the point of extinction. This was done gradually, subtly, and so insidiously that few realised what was going on other than the great Houses for which Vande Tanne was but a pawn in a far larger game.
The end was ignominous - Sharlin's father, Jacob Vande Tanne, was a dissipated fool addicted to pleasure-substances (his supplier the family physician, whose education had been sponsored by certain august personages as a charitable gesture to young persons of talent). The affairs of the House were in disarray and a motion was presented in court to strip them of their holdings as a disgrace to the Empire - a motion supported by the cabinet and eventually approved by the Emperor, who signed one more decree among the dozens he dealt with that day.
Jacob degenerated swiftly under the shame, his fall accelerated by withdrawal from the very expensive drugs that might have kept his spirit afloat. He was barely coherent when he acceded to his loyal doctor's request to foster Sharlin, and he did not live out the month after. No-one knows if he died by his own hand, that of someone else, or merely as a consequence of his physical and mental breakdown - truth be told, no-one cares.
Sharlin, then, was directed to a boarding school, and then an academy, under the self-same sponsorship that had supported the kind doctor. It would have been a crime against the Empire, of course, to let such a promising young talent go to waste. A spirited little thing, clearly intelligent, and curious, and driven. Such a one must have her destiny guided by those older and wiser than she.
Sharlin has served Imperial Intelligence faithfully for a good long while, and her skills and loyalty have earned her a new assignment, perhaps the most critical in her career.

Mech:
Designation/Callsign: Phantom
General Description:


Role and Doctrine: The Phantom is highly specialised for reconnaissance and covert action. This isn't a mech that will stand in the line of battle and trade shots or fists. It sneaks past enemy lines, scans everything until we know more about the enemy than they do themselves, and then returns to base - or, if the opportunity presents itself, performs a sudden strike that will decapitate the enemy leadership or cripple their logistics. If it doesn't tilt the battle decisively, it's not worth doing.

Notable Armaments or Systems:
Chameleon stealth system - a full-spectrum low-visibility system, when activated it suppresses the sensor signature of the Phantom to less than that of a small mammal, well below the threshold that most mech sensor suites are designed to filter out as clutter. It requires considerable pilot skill to use well, as the pilot must use the terrain and background noise of the environment to stay hidden, especially when moving, and draw out the full potential of the system.

Spectra EW module - Just as Chameleon is the passive side of the Phantom's capabilities, Spectra is the active side. Using some of the most sophisticated (and highly classified) electronic warfare equipment available in the Empire, it integrates these with the Phantom's best in class standard sensors to generate the fullest picture available to a mech pilot in the field, at a level rivaled only by corps-level intelligence departments. It's also highly effective at piercing enemy deception efforts, as well as actively spoofing their sensors.

V-MAX - When the time comes to throw the cloak off, you want to make it count. The V-MAX supercharging system vastly increases the output of the Phantom's engines, granting it a 200% increase in power for approximately three minutes: time enough to cause utter devastation and get a head start on exfiltration in the chaos. However, once the V-MAX winds down, all the Phantom's offensive systems go off-line - the only things that work for the next half hour are Chameleon, Spectra, motive, and life support. The Phantom requires a full overhaul after every use of the V-MAX (cue much heartbreak on the part of its maintenance team), so it is effectively a one-shot device.

Known Limitations or Vulnerabilities:
Glass Cannon - The highly optimised design of the Phantom means it's the best at what it does, but also that it really, really should not be used for tasks it's not good at. Stripped down for speed and agility, and filled with delicate electronics, the Phantom has barely enough armour to shrug off conventional weapons, and is seriously threatened by anything mech-scale.

Hangar Queen - Similarly, any machine as fine-tuned as the Phantom will require a lot of work to keep it tuned to those superfine tolerances. The Phantom spends three times as long under maintenance, with the concomitant costs in manpower and parts, as standard line mechs.

Bio Questionnaire:
Why was your character chosen to be a member of the Lance?
If Prince Cassian truly believed his assignment would mean being free of the machinations of the Imperial court, he was terribly naive and sadly wrong. Sharlin's assignment was proposed at the very highest levels, and the Emperor himself signed off on it. However, who exactly came up with the plan, and the choice of operative, remains a mystery. Cassian himself may or may not be best pleased at this, but he's also a prince and a chevalier, and outwardly he's been nothing but gracious. It might not hurt that Sharlin cleans up very well, and received a very detailed briefing on Cassian's psych profile....
Why did your character accept the Prince’s offer to join the Lance?
It's all part of Sharlin's job - which is also her purpose. To Sharlin, there is no higher call than to serve the best interests of the Empire at large. If safeguarding Prince Cassian is the best way for her to further that goal, then safeguard him she will.

Name: Major Baron Wilhelm von Zollern-Krauthammer II of New Brabant
Age: 103
Archetype: Soldier/Commander
Gender: Male
Appearance:
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Willy is old, really old. Most of the time his age makes him look respectable as he wears his pristine uniform with a veritable shelf of medals, with some of the highest honors of the empire repeating multiple times, giving more weight to the piecing gaze of his one good eye. Some times however he carries the weight of time on his shoulder. For example he usually goes around with a cane and easily goes out of breath from even a short walk and can sometimes fall asleep in briefings.

Occupation: Lancer
Affiliations: Imperial Order of Heroes (Commander), Imperial Military Academy (Dean)

Skills and Abilities:
Illustrious Veteran - Old Willy would have made it to Imperial Field Marshall if he hadn't refused dozens of promotions to remain in the field, he has been part of every war the empire fought for the last century and is the definition of leading by example and never ordering his soldiers to do anything he himself wouldn't do. This 'first in, last out' attitude has earned him the loyalty and admiration of the entire Imperial army and no one would dare to flee the field while this old man still fights.

Century of Favors - Willy never left the battlefield, but most of those who served with him at some point went on to greater things. There is thus several generations of veterans in every walk of life of imperial society that owe this man their lives and whom he can call on for favors.

Faults and Limitations:
Past his Prime - Wilhelm is old, very old. Although he says the years haven't affected him in the slightest, it's an obvious lie. He isn't as quick as he once was and sometimes his mind plays tricks on him. He's been hiding it well, but its showing more and more.

Death Wish - This will be Wilhelm's last campaign and he knows it. That he managed to convince the Prince to take him on is already miracle enough and it won't happen again. This is why, gods help him, he intends to go out like a soldier and not in his own urine in a retirement home.

Biography:
Wilhelm is the model imperial soldier, he came from nothing in the slums of old Earth and fought for his empire and his emperor(s) with tooth and nail for almost a century. He went everywhere and did everything, fighting in civil wars and anti-pirate actions every time with distinction and honor. Just like him however, this story is getting old.

Even in the time of Cassian's grand-father, Wilhelm was old news. At the time he had been the youngest person to make it from enlisted to Major and had a career so decorated it put his name in the history books. When he continued his career and refused promotion after promotion it was seen as exceptional gallantry... for a while. When Cassian's father took the throne however, the narrative had changed. People were starting to get tired of this old man who refused to quit the limelight and who frankly placed unreasonable expectations on the other imperial officers. At first they tried to nudge him into retirement more subtly by giving him the title of Baron and an entire planet for him and his heirs to inherit, then more directly by promoting him to Dean of the Imperial Military Academy, a honorary role that didn't actually require anything out of him.

Wilhelm hung around the imperial palace, watching political events and desperately trying to convince people to give him another assignment only for people to smile at him and politely tell him that he was 'too important to risk' and that he should enjoy a well deserved retirement in the empire he helped building. They were polite but the message was clear: Fuck off, you old decrepit fossil. Finally however he saw his chance with Prince Cassian, going to him to offer his expertise and something that might be of more use than an old soldier: All the favors he had accumulated through the years that would be at the Prince's disposition.

Truth is, Wilhelm doesn't care if he was chosen out of pragmatism, genuine respect or just pity, he needs this. His wife has been dead for years, he has survived most of his children and the rest he doesn't really have a relation with after spending his life on the front line. War is all that he has and he wishes to have one last great adventure so he can die a worthy death like hundreds of friends and fellow soldiers did beside him through all these years.

Mech:
Designation/Callsign: (Old) Ironside
General Description:
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People usually expect the oldest soldier of the empire to show up with an hyper customized antiquity, but are surprise to see him with a run-of-the-mill mass produced BL-6-KNT 'Black Knight' command mech. But the truth is, this is a mech that was heavily customized at his specification; who do you think was the 'average field commander' the mech was designed around?

Role and Doctrine:
As the empire and its military budget grew, so did the ambition to make models after models of small batch hyper specialized mechs for every possible occasion that rely on an army of technicians and logisticians to keep it running. Wilhelm in contrast helped design a work horse, a mech that was modular enough to have an answer to most situations it would encounter and simple enough to always be operable. It is thus said that while the KNT series of mech is never a pilot's top choice, it will be by far the favorite of any technician in a motor pool that will be able to fix it quickly and easily with plentiful parts.

Notable Armaments or Systems:
Roundtable Comm. suite - As a command mech, special emphasis was placed on this mech's information sharing module, allowing it to merge the data links of not just other members of the Lance, but of ground, air and space operatives to give the pilot a bigger picture of what's happening.

Uppercut Missile - A big, dumb, stupid rocket with a needlessly huge payload. Because you might jam this mech's aiming, you may be faster and you may have whatever other trick up your sleeve, but I don't need to hit you if I just delete an entire city block.

Blizzard Canisters - The one 'eccentricity' Wilhelm allowed himself, he loaded most of his smoke launchers with Blizzard Canisters, basically grenades that shower an area with fragments. It won't destroy a mech, but it can severely damage sensors and cameras. It will also turn infantry into pink mist.

Known Limitations or Vulnerabilities:
Mass Produced - The Black Knight is a good mech, compared to other generic mechs. It however lacks the punch, armor, speed and special systems to compete with some of the more exotic mechs out there.

Known Quantity - The Black Knight is one of the longest running Mass Production unit of the last century, chances are if a war had mechs participating in it, it had Black Knights fighting in it. This means that this mech, its strength and limitations, are well known by just about everyone. The pilot might surprise an enemy, but the mech and it's stats certainly won't.

Name: Stader Volger
Age: 36
Archetype: Soldier/Operative
Gender: Male
Appearance: A man of pale complexion and a short buzz cut favored by those who spend their days in vacuum suits. He stands an unremarkable 6 foot even with a lean frame that favors that of a swimmers build. His only distinctive features is the Imperial Army regulation mustache that offset his Arctic blue eyes. A careful eye however would notice the faint scar and slightly different coloring that signified his left arm is a replacement; regrown.
Occupation: Commander of the 89th Lancer Support Company (Callsign Onyx-9)
Affiliations: The 89th LSC currently falls under the Field Operations and Support Command of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau.


Skills and Abilities:
Snake Eater: A scalpel to the Lancer’s hammer; Volger and the troopers of Onyx-9 are experts of asymmetric warfare. Their job is to help the path of the Lancer’s be made easier whether that be the sudden disappearance of anti armor teams, powered defenses or even an unsecured hatch. Volger’s job is to gain the advantage for his side however the cost.

Every Clime: Every Lancer Support Company is competent in the same missions and qualifications. But certain subsections specialize more towards niches. The troopers of Onyx-9 are trained more towards orbital and near orbital assault. Zero gee seizures of stations and ships being their more prominent feature.


Faults and Limitations:

Red Tape: The world of Imperial Intelligence is a nonsensical over bloated mass of departments and acronyms from this unaccustomed. To those accustomed, it is a mass of checks, balances and overlapping responsibilities that leave several departments stymied at best and ineffective at worst. Volger is no exception. With his boundaries and limitations changing on the whims of whatever jurisdiction his command will have fallen under at the time.

Been There, Done That: Volger’s attitude of the empire has decayed with each drop and mission. While still professionally and publicly the upstanding IIB commander; he is personally a cynical professional who has resorted to grouping encounters into generalizations.

Biography:

Originally from a deep water mining colony on Europa; Volger saw the life awaiting him. Exploring dark underwater caves from mineral deposits; fighting hostile sea life, high pressure and cheap equipment for a shot at the next day to repeat the cycle. It was in this environment that he lost an elder brother and two younger sisters before he signed up with the Imperial Army in a bid to escape what he thought was a death sentence.

Instead he had signed up for a different kind of sentence. The Imperium had suffered an outbreak of rebellion in the Zeta Dorado system. So the mighty hammer of the Imperium assembled; ships, Lancers, tanks and legions of troopers. Amongst that assembly was Private Stader Volger. Initially a rifleman; Volger was part of the first wave of planetary shuttles a staggering six times. An unheard of feat especially given that campaign’s higher then usual casualty rate.

It was on his sixth landing of the campaign, assaulting a mining complex turned command bunker in a moon, that he distinguished himself. His unit overrun and their stragglers being picked off; Volger had triggered the rebels own scuttling charges. Taking out the majority of the rebel high command on the planet. Volger, pinned by rocks, was reported to have cut off his own pinned arm cauterized the stump with a burning hot piece of rebar and clawed his way out of a ventilation shaft with his remaining limb.

Here he caught the attention of Imperial Intelligence, and while recovering and getting his replacement limb readied, was recruited into their ranks. Months of testing and assessments found him suitable for the Lancer Support Companies. Upon his full recovery he began touring with the 722nd Lancer Support Company (Cobalt-18). An amphibious specialized unit; Volger found himself once again in the dark underwater caves of Europa. Supporting the local Lancers; the Vanguards of the Imperial Tide. Two years on Europa ended with the Vanguard liquidated as an entity; its leader executed for treason.

Volger was transferred as XO to the 41st LSC (Indigo-2). Specializing in hazardous materials; he would spend three years helping the Void Ship Unrepentant and its compliment of Imperial sponsored Lancers track down and destroy a terrorist group planning a chemical weapons attack. Success there brought glory and rewards for all involved.

With Volger’s award being his own Lancer Support Company. The 89th, a space assault unit, was in need of a commander as it was slated for attachment to the Imperial Prince’s void ship. Necessary; since the void ship’s last attachment had been transferred due to a sudden urgency for their jungle warfare skills. Volger is looking forward to his first full time command; but is hesitant given the situation.

Nothing is ever straightforward in the Empire. Even less so when the royal family is involved.

Age: 23
Archetype: Soldier/Commander
Gender: Female
Appearance: 5’8”, lithe build, typically wearing either a flightsuit or formal officer dress.
Occupation: Lancer, Imperial Army Lieutenant
Affiliations: Imperial Court (former), House Dvalin, Imperial Army
Skills and Abilities:

• Ruthless Aggression: Disgraced, hungry for accolades, and willing to do anything in the name of victory, Aria bears a fire in her that serves her well on the battlefield. She bears no aversion towards wetwork and dishonorable tactics, not batting an eye if that’s what it takes to succeed in a mission.
• Noble Contacts: Even with House Svalin in a state of humiliation and near-ruin, debts must be paid. Any noble house with enough decades and centuries to its pedigree bears a long line of alliances and favors owed, all informally categorized but still remembered. Aria can leverage what remains of her family’s reputation to at least receive audiences with the house’s old allies, though whether or not she receives aid at a bearable cost, or any aid at all, is up in the air.
• Budding Ace: While still young, Aria’s begun to build a reputation for herself as an up-and-comer in the military, irrespective of her family’s reputation. She impressed in simulations at pilot academy and performed well enough in her first deployment that her name is likely on a shortlist somewhere in terms of military careers to watch out for.

Faults and Limitations:

• Recklessly Aggressive: The same will and fire that fuels Aria is also a double-edged sword. She’s all too willing to discard good sense and caution if she thinks she can leverage an advantage, and is easily goaded in the face of perceived timidity or cowardice.
• Disgraced Name: Hans Dvalin, Aria’s father, was accused of and convicted in seventeen cases of illegal market manipulation, deception of Imperial authorities, and murder of a rival noble competitor. For this, House Svalin’s assets were seized and its name muddied, the pieces left for Aria to pick up. Those with any knowledge of the Imperial Court will recognize her family name and the disgrace associated with it.

Biography:
Born as the first daughter and eldest child to the venerable and noble House Dvalin, Aria spent her childhood raised on Old Earth itself, her family a prominent player in the Imperial Court. She was at least acquainted with several of Emperor Aurelius’s imperial scions, though the only one that could be called a friend was one Prince Cassian. They were playmates and schoolmates in their youth, with Aria trying her best to rein in his budding excesses in their pre-adolescent years, lest he drag her down when he was inevitably caught.

The silver lining there was that she didn’t have to personally witness Cassian’s descent into scandal and debauchery during their teenage years, as House Dvalin was implicated in graft, treachery, and murder. All common failings of the high nobility, but to be caught was to be punished severely. Aria’s parents were executed, their assets seized, and both she and her younger siblings were split up and rendered wards of the state. House Dvalin still existed, as the children weren’t technically punished for the sins of their parents, and she was now its head, but that was to be a matriarch of nothing. Her extended family saw which way the wind was blowing and scattered both physically and socially, leaving her alone.

And all of that just wouldn’t do. Having been raised in the highest halls of power itself, Aria swore to return one day and bring her family name back to prominence. Of course, a teenage girl with no resources and a tarred name had no way of doing that alone. Thus, the moment she came of age, she applied to and was accepted into an imperial military academy. Aria spent her academy years pouring blood, sweat, and tears into ensuring she was to be the best she could be, and was rewarded by passing with flying colors, earning the privilege of being named a Lancer and sent along to her first deployment immediately. She performed with distinction against pirates, raiders, and rebels, but still knew that this wasn’t catapulting the Svalin name up to the halls of power anywhere quickly enough. Something had to change.

It was around this time that word of Prince Cassian’s Lance being formed reached her. While it burned to remember such an old childhood friend, and it was outright bizarre to hear of this after hearing of his debaucheries during her time in the academy, Aria nonetheless didn’t hesitate. Her current deployment was ending anyways, and she would be reassigned soon. Thus, she was the one who reached out first, hoping to leverage her old association and childhood friendship with the Prince to secure a spot in his Lance. Nepotistic? Perhaps. Did she care? Not at all. Whatever it took. One way or another, she would find her way back to Earth. This was just the most expedient way to do so that Aria could see.



Role and Doctrine: While still largely resembling the chassis of a generalist Leonard stock unit, the Armatus is modified under the hood to specialize in aerial mobility and interception. Some armor was stripped to improve speed and aerodynamic performance, turning the unit into a high-speed, low-drag interceptor capable of anti-air and ground capabilities alike. Typically armed with a generalist suite of weapons, aiming to whittle down enemies at range before moving in for a decisive kill stroke up close.

Notable Armaments or Systems:

• Aerial High-Mobility Suite: A combination of a back-mounted jump pack, several jump jets installed into the leg module, and enhanced thrusters give the Armatus a greater amount of aerial movement compared to most mechs, capable of zipping around midair for some time.
• SPAMRAAM Missile Launcher: Smart-Propelled Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Armor Missiles. Designed for saturation fire to overwhelm enemy point defense, the SPAMRAAM fires a barrage of micro missiles per salvo. While the penetrative and explosive power of each are minimal on their own, their combined effect when enough missiles overwhelm enemy defenses are comparable to heavier payloads.
• Skyeye Targeting Suite: An upgraded FCS and sensors. Enables a wide-range multi-lock and enhances target lock capabilities to a medium degree.

Known Limitations or Vulnerabilities:

• Stripped Armor: While not near the extreme of a true glass cannon, the Armatus still had enough of its armor plating removed to accommodate its jump jets that its defensive capabilities are below that of a standard model of its make. In a prolonged or cramped fight, this will prove to be an issue.
• Off The Shelf: While customized to a degree, the Armatus’s profile is still obviously that of a moderately common Leonard unit. Thus, its general capabilities are still easily able to be estimated.
• Specs Restricted: Outside of its exceptional mobility, the Armatus bears no other distinguishing characteristics. The weight limit and energy load required to maintain its speed and boost capability limit it to using average weaponry besides the SPAMRAAMs. It would take excessive fine-tuning and likely an internal overhaul to accommodate a hypothetical engine refit that would solve these issues, as the Leonard’s stock engine is only barely keeping up with the demands the unit is placing on it.

Version 2.0

Name: Hierophant Tyche Comstar
Age: 35(?)
Archetype: Voidtouched
Gender: Female
Appearance:
Image
The first obvious thing about Tyche is that she is tall, impressively so. Impressive is in fact the best word to describe her, literally by design. Her body has been significantly augmented with cybernetics and doesn't have any visible organic parts and all her skin except for her face is instead raw carbon fiber ultra dense synthetic muscles. To complete her superhuman aura, she also usually moves around using antigravs with arcane devices flying around her.

Occupation: Lancer, Voidtouched wizard.
Affiliations: Comstar Corporation
Skills and Abilities:
Built to Perfection - More than just a display of Comstar power, Tyche's body has been built to resist the reality sundering power of the drift so she may one day cross into a higher dimension. As a side effect, this also makes her resistant to most mundane forms of damage one might encounter in this reality

Drift Archeotech - The Com-Star corporation was and is still known for one thing above all: The Gate Network. While Tyche has passable knowledge on most forms of hypertechnologies of the ancients, her specialty is anything that interfaces with the Drift as per Comstar history.

Ripples in Water - Tyche stares into the Drift for most of her time, she compares it to being neck deep in water (as she can't quite submerge herself yet) as she looks for... something. This familiarity with the Drift allows her to get a sense of when people around her (in an astronomic scale) dips its tows into the drift, AKA when another voidtouched uses its powers.

Faults and Limitations:
Builder, not Destroyer - Tyche is far from a pacifist, but she is of the belief that Voidcraft is a tool and only a primate uses a hammer to simply smack stuff. She fights with elegance, doing such things as transmuting matter into spears of golden light to hurl at her enemies with the pure and simple power of telekinesis. Extremely impressive and something very few people can do, but incredibly less efficient than just breaking your enemy with brute force like any other voidtouched would do.

The Comstar Cult - Some argue that Comstar and Tyche in particular have been getting high off their own supply lately as she fully embraced the cult aspect of the corporation. Every press of a button, every activation and deactivation, every little details around her life is ritualized and requires rigid ceremonies. When critiqued about this Tyche will ramble on about the power of the mind over the drift and that you don't start a starship engine without performing safety checks and half a dozen other things and this being the same, but to everyone else but her and her cult this seems like a huge waste of time.

Goosebumps - This eerie feeling people get when someone stares at them? Or this sense of wrongness when in the presence of a killer? Some say it's superstition, but the truth is that the human mind influences the drift and the drift influences reality and usually in these scenarios either one or both person involved has a dormant affinity with the Drift. Tyche being who she is has such a presence in the Drift that even the most normal of person feels like she is in the uncanny valley, that she is alien somehow. This doesn't help her make friends to say the least.

Biography:
After the cataclysmic end of Ancient Earth, the Com-Star corporation became a legacy, its owners staying relevant by greedily hoarding technologies and selling them. Eventually it transcended that and became the stuff of legend, with no one knowing what Comstar used to mean, only understanding they were the people who could at will shut off all technology, open all the gates of a space station to send people in the void or turn off the god-machines keeping the air of terraformed planets breathable, then Comstar became the stuff of religion and even the heirs of Comstar started to believe their own lies.

It is uncertain if this doctrine originates in a megalomaniac founder or if it is merely a perversion of a corporation's obsession with hoarding wealth and power, but Comstar's creed is the discovery and hoarding of technology and power. Not 'temporal power' as they call the power of emperors and nobles which they call trivial and fake, but real power over reality itself, Comstar history teaching that Ancient humans were on the verge of mastering the drift to a degree where they could control all of reality and reshape it into a paradise of their choice and that the fall was caused by ludites who feared this inevitable destiny.

It is in this context that Tyche was born, one of countless genetically modified embryos based on the current President of Comstar implanted in mothers specifically chosen for their desirable traits and then trained from a young age for mastery over the drift and understanding of Void-tech. After a grueling selection, she was chosen to be a potential successor to the President. In a way, her situation is similar to the Prince's, only unlike him, she plays the game of power and aims to win at all cost as losing means having her psyche absorbed by whichever of her 'sibling' is deemed to be the superior one, which in theory is not dying but in practice is at least something pretty damn close to it.

Procyon is thus for her the potential for advancement. Comstar always had an eye on the sector since back in the Ancient era, it had been on the edge of the known universe and a place where many corporations had blacksites, places to try their most advanced technologies, the kind that if something went wrong could ruin their reputation or destroy entire planets. Her studies hint at treasures of potentially immense power and technological importance. Comstar was never free to openly investigate this location however, either out of fear of other corporate entities taking their interest as a hint of what's hidden and outmaneuvering them or simply because the emperor and his ephemeral temporal power would forbid it simply for the sake of preventing an already powerful entity gaining more power.

The Prince was the perfect cover, Comstar's involvement with him looking like a play on imperial politics rather than an interest in the backwater he had exiled himself in. Tyche however is not a diplomat and simply presented with Prince with a carrot and a stick, either Comstar would back him with its money and tech, or it would use them to hamper him. Keep your friends close but enemies closer as they say.