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{"Hey... what are my orders? Are we going to fight? Tell me... Tell me what to do!"} -
Main Hexcode || #E46B63 ||| Secondary Hexcode || #875FC1 -
{
Sympathy || Hiroyuki Sawano}
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{"All checks have been completed, sir. I am prepared to begin the test."}▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
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{"Another test? N-no, of course not! I have no objections. I will do whatever you require of me, sir."}▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
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{"Please, not again...! No, no, I won't... I won't let you...! I WON'T LET A SINGLE ONE OF YOU LIVE!"}▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
• Combat Data •
Compared to the average pilot, Aster has much less formal training. While her reaction speed is certainly impressive, and her control sense is already fairly good, there's clear room for improvement when it comes to actual experience - especially considering that most of the time she's spent in the cockpit has been as a test pilot rather than an actual soldier. However, despite her inexperience, she has several advantages that the average pilot doesn't, which helps to not only even the playing field, but perhaps even give Aster the upper hand.
Most notably of all, surgical application of metallic augmentations to her existing bone structure, having most of her organs replaced by mechanical prosthesis, and partial replacement of some of her damaged muscles with carbon fiber cybernetics has significantly increased her physical durability. Due to this and her specially designed piloting suit and harness, she's capable of withstanding G-forces that might even kill a normal person, and which would at the very least render them unconscious. Due to this, she's capable of disabling safety limitations on rapid directional shifts without many serious consequences, allowing her to perform maneuvers that almost no other pilot can.
Secondly, compensating for her lack of experience is her Mobile Weapon's prototype adaptive learning computer, which records data on any enemy units it encounters and begins to calculate probable flight paths and vectors of attack, altering its predictions based on new data to slowly become more accurate the more she sees of a given unit type and its capabilities. While right now, this interface lacks sufficient data to be of much use, its ability to quickly help her to adapt in battle might be the difference between life and death.
And, finally, her unit's harness is equipped with a multitude of vital sensors which monitor her status, transmitting it back to a ground crew behind allied lines. In the event that she begins to show signs of heightened stress, a stabilizing agent can be injected directly into her body to keep her from experiencing feelings that might detract from her combat ability, such as fear. Other injections for different purposes are also prepared, such as painkillers in the event that she's wounded by an attack on her cockpit, or, for emergency occasions, an awareness booster that temporarily drastically increases the user's reaction time. Unfortunately, this last compound tends to also heighten existing states of stress or tension, and repeated doses can result in extreme irritability and emotional instability. It also causes a "crash" after it begins to wear off, which tends to result in a prolonged period of emotional turmoil, depression, anxiety, and fatigue, accompanied by painful headaches. Because of this, it's usually held back, as although the side-effects can be treated over-time, the immediate consequence of increasing Aster's stress is usually a violent panic attack in which she begins ignoring orders and attacking anything in sight.
As far as actual piloting is concerned, Aster generally favors close-quarters combat. Her aim, while decent, is nothing exceptional, but her incredible reaction speed and ability to perform dangerously fast maneuvers without difficulty give her a distinct advantage when it comes to chasing a target down, bypassing their defenses, and tearing them apart. This might also have something to do with her burgeoning psychotic streak, as the more she focuses on one enemy, the more recklessly determined she becomes to rip them to bits. This is probably her fear at work, as any enemy she can't immediately kill in turn presents the possibility that she herself might be killed. The more anxious she becomes, the closer she comes to having a panic attack, and in turn the more desperately she fights. Her obsession with revenge likely also plays a part, as she's shown rather sadistic tendencies before, taking great relish in crippling every opponent she can and toying with them before finishing them off. While this certainly does make her rather frightening to face, it also hampers her effectiveness, however, meaning the closer she happens to be to a berserk rage state, the easier it is for an enemy to counterattack.
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{"It hurts... It hurts so much...! The pounding in my head won't stop... I have to fight... I have to follow my orders..."}{"No... isn't this enough already? Please, let me out... Somebody, let me out of here! I'm scared... I'm scared!"}{"It's kill or be killed. Kill or be killed. Kill or be killed... Kill or be killed! Kill or be killed!"}▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
• Personal History •
Aster was born only one year into the Great Orio War, in a small rural community on the edge of the Therux State. During the early stages of the conflict, the Western Coalition was pressing the offensive in the wake of the Helen Tower incident, and as such, besides occasionally hearing about great battles in school or seeing the death tolls in the papers, it didn't really concern her while she was growing up.
Everything changed, however, when the Northern Frontier began its counterattack. As the Coalition's invasions failed, it by bit, the battles grew closer and closer to home. Suddenly, seeing mechanical units patrolling the streets of her hometown wasn't uncommon. At first, it was exciting, seeing what new machines were being deployed and hearing stories from the soldiers about the northern country, and how they'd one day return there triumphant to exact vengeance for all the comrades they'd lost. She respected the soldiers, marveling at their dedication and bravery in the fact of such a terrifying threat as the greedy foreigners who wanted their lands, their homes, and their very livelihood. Her idolization of her "heroes" was such that she swore one day that, when she was older, she'd become a soldier too, and defend her country from evil.
Even hearing news that things were going poorly on the front, Aster wasn't afraid. Her heroes would protect her, right? But one day, when she was 14 years old, close to the end of the war, the unthinkable happened. A northern reconnaissance unit, mistaking the town for a military base due to the darkness and the units garrisoned there, launched a surprise attack at what they thought was part of their enemy's supply line as part of one final campaign of decimation against the Therux State. Aster woke up to the sound of mortar shells raining down upon her home, and wasn't so much as able to run outside before the house collapsed around her.
She can't remember precisely how long she lay, pinned beneath the rubble, choking as the smoke filled her lungs. All she knows is that, by the time she fully came to her senses, everyone and everything she had ever known and loved was gone. Heavy rain was pouring down as the smoke turned to clouds, extinguishing the very fires that had given life to it. As the dirt beneath her gave way to mud, Aster managed to slip free, and wandered the desolate, crater-marked streets of the dead village. She called out for help, but nobody answered her. In the aftermath of the attack, it turned out that she was the only survivor, protected miraculously by the fact that the house had toppled over sideways, and the debris had caught at a point just above the floor rather than crushing her completely. In turn, the rubble protected her from the mortar bombardment, while the blanket she'd still had draped around her from sleep had kept her safe from the noxious fumes and smoke.
Just like that, she was alive. It was as if through some cosmic accident, the world had forgotten that she was supposed to have died that day. So, she continued wandering aimlessly, in a daze, calling for help that wouldn't and couldn't arrive. This part of her memories, too, is a blur. She's told she was picked up by a group of volunteers from the next town over who'd heard of the attack and came to look for survivors. From what she was told, they found her lying by the side of the road almost five miles from the destroyed village, face down shivering in the rain and still calling for her friends and family to answer her, even though she was coughing up blood.
A medical examination after the fact revealed that she had multiple broken ribs, a severe concussion, and a ruptured lung, as well as several other broken bones, and three dislocated discs in her spine that had only been aggravated by how much she'd moved after her injuries during the collapse. In addition, large chunks of her flesh had been burned away by fire, and the doctors feared that she might never walk again, and might even have sustained brain damage. Simply putting her under and then finishing her off was seriously considered as the merciful option. But, due to the timely intervention of a certain "aid group" which arrived on the scene, this proved to be unnecessary.
The Pygmalion Institute was, at the time, the forefront of medical science. However, when the war took a turn for the worse and Therux began to have its lands and people decimated, its researchers turned their focus to a new project: the creation of "super-soldiers," who might be able to protect the country. Bribing government officials to turn a blind eye to the legality of their doings, they began experimenting on any test subjects they could get. A girl with no living relatives and no home to return to, who they could take in under the guise of medical aid work and then declare dead without anyone being suspicious in the least was the perfect specimen for their research.
At the very least, they did what they promised to do: they saved her life. Her burned flesh was cut away and rapidly regrown through cloning technology, then transplanted back onto her body. Her broken bones were healed, and even the damage to her nervous system was undone by replacing most of her spinal cord with cybernetics, followed by the rest of her skeleton and then some of her muscle tissue. Those of her organs which had failed were similarly removed, discarded, and replaced, either by cloned tissue or mechanical substitutes. When she finally awoke from the repeated surgeries, almost a year had passed, and due to the brain damage she'd sustained, she couldn't even clearly remember who she was or what had happened to her at first, although her memories slowly began to return, albeit unclearly.
However, there was one thing she held onto, even on her darkest days when she couldn't remember her own name. She wanted to keep people safe, wanted to be useful, wanted to be a hero... wanted to be anything that would validate her survival when everyone she had known and loved had died. The Pygmalion Institute immediately set upon this as the most obvious weakness they could exploit in her, and soon convinced her to "work" for them, offering her a chance to "better Humanity" through testing. She complied, and by then was too dependent on them to even think of trying to quit later when the effects of the many drugs they tested on her began to take their toll.
She became wildly inconsistent, her mood switching seemingly at random. The slightest, most inconsequential things would set her off into furious anger, or sometimes, she'd just begin crying and wouldn't know why. At almost any sudden sound, she'd feel like the walls and ceiling were closing in on her, like she couldn't breathe. Images of fire and the shock of distant blasts repeated themselves in her mind, unbidden. Even compared to what had come before it, this part of her life above all was a living hell. And yet, she persevered. For the sake of telling herself that there had been a reason after all, for two years she persevered, doing whatever was asked of her, be it fighting, testing new serums - some of which turned out to be addictive, causing even more problems for her already disjointed mental state - or seeing how many Gs of force she could endure without suffering from complications.
With the war's conclusion, however, peace was the first thing on everyone's minds. The bribes paid by the institute could only go so far, and soon, the government began to grow curious as to what exactly the Pygmalion Institute was up to behind closed doors. When their attempts to cover up their supersoldier project backfired, and a disgruntled employee leaked data on their experiments, they were forced to flee to the Freelands, where they went to ground and hid for a while.
What they needed most of all was a new backer - someone with the money and power to fund their continued experiments, and a buyer for whatever "products" they might create. They found one in a certain Sir Andreas Thorne, of the Hylo Empire. A "knight" of the Empire - in practice an elite mecha pilot sanctioned by the royal family - he'd formerly held territory on the northern boundary of Hylo. However, with his holdings decimated and most of his followers killed in the war, he was rapidly on the decline in the royal court, losing both the Queen's favor and his political power. Desperate to make some great play to win back his standing, he thus managed to talk the Queen into letting him pursue research into not only newer, better soldiers, but also superior machines with which to close the technological gap with the Frontier's MK3 mecha. Thus, with his remaining estate, he managed to buy up the work of the Pygmalion Institute, along with several freelance machinists from other sources, in the process effectively paying their way into the country.
Under the direction of Sir Thorne, their research was to be combined with the creation of a superior mobile weapon, pairing what was to be the ultimate pilot with the ultimate machine. Designated the FURY Project, it focused on circumventing the limits of MK2 machines not by creating a more efficient but equally safe means of operation, but rather by adapting pilots to the usage of increasingly high-spec, unsafe machines that would be tailored to their usage.
Unfortunately, between the knight's limited resources and the Pygmalion Institute's destitute condition, they only had three surviving subjects from the original project, designated "Tisiphone," "Megaera," and "Alecto." Of them, Aster was the third. Although she was the most extensively modified physically, her mental state left much to be desired, and it was only with great reluctance that they began using her as a test pilot for the third of their new machines. But, with the possibility of a new war looming on the horizon, they needed to produce something that the royal family would be interested in, and so redoubled their work with renewed diligence and desperation, using every single resource at their disposal. Aster, surprisingly, complied with their orders to become a pilot without any fuss, as, in her emotional turmoil, only one thing held constant.
She wanted to be a soldier, yes. Or at least, she thought she did. But she wasn't really sure why, anymore. Was it really for the sake of others that she'd chosen this hell? And who had benefited from it? Even if someone had benefited from it, what did she care? She couldn't make the world a better place, anyway. But there was one thing she could do. If she could find the ones who had shelled her home, who had killed everyone she knew and forced her into this agony, then, at long last...
She could finally make each and every one of them suffer like she had.
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{"This is real combat? This is what it feels like to kill someone? It's so... easy..."}▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
1x Thank
