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Guardian of the Universe

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Opinionated nerd for hire.

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In Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED] → 2 yrs ago Forum: Advanced Roleplay
Given the FF's long history with wacky space stuff, assuming they get accepted, I'll want some info on what's going on out there as well.
In Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay [CLOSED] → 2 yrs ago Forum: Advanced Roleplay
In Age of Marvels - A Marvel Comics Roleplay → 2 yrs ago Forum: Advanced Interest Checks
I think I've got a pretty fantastic idea for a character concept. Stay tuned.
In Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes → 2 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
"My, aren't we all direct and to the point?" Cassandra remarked as she eyed the Green Knights with an eager curiosity. "I can respect that; no need to mince words and play games when matters are grave, yes?"

The heiress knew to be careful; while the research she had done on the Green Knights suggested that they operated above-board and had a relatively clean reputation, she was still very much in a dangerous situation. These people were in a desperate situation, and likely slow to trust. While she assumed she would have to commit a particularly massive faux pas to get herself killed, giving them the wrong impression could still very well cause the situation to spiral out of hand. In all likelihood, she would never get another chance at convincing Colonel Wayne and his Mechwarriors to assist her, and given how much firepower they had, it was far better for everyone to bring them into the fold than to have them running rogue on Espia.

Despite the graveness of the situation and the high stakes at play, Cassandra's game-face betrayed nothing. As far as her expression and body language gave away, she might as well have been greeting guests at a dinner party.

"I suppose we should begin with the question of what I can do for you," she began. "Starting with the obvious, you are mercenaries and I am quite wealthy. And tragically, it seems your previous employer has exploded, meaning at the moment there is nobody to foot the bill. I may not have the entire planet's economy to offer, but I think you'll be quite pleasantly surprised by what working for the private sector can offer."

"I'm sure for many of you, money doesn't matter much at this moment, so I'll add that I also happen to own several facilities and tracts of land where Federov and his friends won't be snooping around, giving you considerably better accommodations. Access to proper equipment, supplies without the need to go raiding for them, a roof over your head and a clean change of clothes. I can't guarantee a five-star resort experience-- at least, not until business here is concluded-- but I can at least guarantee a better time than sitting at the bottom of an old mine."

Cassandra was pleased to see the eyebrows of some of the Knights and their crew raise. A pocket full of C-Bills was a wonderful thing in most situations, but for a band that was sitting in squalor and one bad mission away from starvation, a few creature comforts and the chance to feel human again was a far more attractive prospect.

"More importantly," she continued, "I have influence, and I have connections. Federov doesn't think much of me, but a pretty little handful of people who work for him used to work for me. I can make sure the NPDRE's eyes are turned towards wherever you want them to look, and away from wherever you don't want them looking. I'm hardly experienced in military matters, but a lifetime of business and politics has taught me the value of misdirection. To say nothing of the value of networking- I do loathe ever so much to brag, but I'm rather good at making friends. You want to link up with the Free People's Army? I can have my people talk to their people and arrange it. You want to get your people out of Fort Tie Shan? Give me a little time, and I can put together a lovely little lunch meeting with the head warden."

"That's a very nice pitch, Ma'am," Colonel Wayne responded, his own game-face etched in stone, "but I'm waiting to hear the other end of it. What exactly are you planning that you need the use of a lance of Battlemechs?"

Cassandra turned to the Colonel, the grin on her face unchanged. "I'm sure you've noticed, dearie, but there's a war going on, and right now, whoever wins, the people of Espia lose. The NPDRE are jackboot thugs who will grind everyone into the dirt, as long as it feeds Federov and Malenkov's egos. Meanwhile the Free People's Army mean well enough, but they have just as many hardline radicals in their ranks as they have high-minded idealists, and you know what they say about today's revolutionaries becoming tomorrow's dictators. I intend to make sure the people of this world come out on top, whether that means shaping one of the current options into something more palatable, or creating a third option. I'd like to consider myself quite a few interesting things, and one of them happens to be a patriot."

Her game face slipped a tad, and her expression grew dark.

"There's also the little matter," she said, "of revenge. Governor Xiu was a pompous fool, but Benjamin Kahale was a dear friend of mine. We rarely saw eye-to-eye on politics, but I always had the utmost respect for him. The Heavenly Sword killed a good man, and they intend to kill a good many more. I think anyone looking can see that Espia will be much better off without them. And I'd very much like to put money in the hands of whoever wipes them out."

The Colonel and the heiress circled each other slowly, exchanging appraising gazes as they got the measure of each other. In other circumstances, one might assume they were about to begin a dance. Or a fight.

"So your plan is that I put the lives of the men and women under my command," Gaius said, "in the hands of an industrial tycoon who fancies herself a king-maker. That we fight the Espian Guards and the Crimson Fists to overthrow the NPDRE on your word that the regime you choose will be better than the current one. And that when we're not engaging the planetary army or slugging it out with their own Mechwarriors, we're hunting down cells of psychotic Liao-loyal terrorists, to carry out your personal vendetta."

"If you want to see it like that," Jeong replied with a condescending smirk. "I see it as paying you to get what you already want-- payback against the government who did you wrong, the military who have imprisoned your people, and the people who killed your previous employer. You want your people out of that fort? You want your Dropships back? You'll be in a far better position to get them if you take my offer than if you stay here and wait for Malenkov and the Crimson Fists to close in on you."

"And what's to say you're good to your word?"

Cassandra scoffed. "I should be insulted that my reputation on this planet isn't enough to convince you, but I'll spare you the indignation. You're a practical man, Colonel; I didn't expect to come here with nothing but my charm and dazzling conversation to win you over. You want a gesture of good faith? If you'll let me put my hands down for a moment, I've got a few documents that might pique your curiosity."

Colonel Wayne nodded to Sergeant Dalton, who in turn nodded to the other infantrymen, who lowered their guns.

"Thank you, sweetheart," Cassandra smiled at Sergeant Dalton, before rummaging through her hiking backpack and producing a binder. "A few old surveying maps of the area, and a handful of photos taken this morning at the spaceport. I think you'll find them quite interesting."

The Colonel took the binder, and began flipping through them. His brow furrowed in a frown.

"Lieutenant Lyons?" he called out.

"Here, sir!" the enthusiastic young officer from the Mobile HQ crew called out from further back in the crowd.

"I want you to run these through a Verigraph, make sure they're legitimate," he said, handing the folder to Lyons. "If these are what she says they are, then the situation is potentially getting much better and much worse. If they're fake, well...that's an issue we'll deal with if we have to."

"Yes, sir!" she answered, striding off to the Mobile HQ with a purpose.

"Green Knights," Colonel Wayne addressed the troops, "Ms. Jeong and I are going to have a little chat concerning local politics and potential business arrangements while we verify her documents. In the meantime, keep her assistant entertained."
In Godzilla: YATAGARASU → 2 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay

Music for effect


Name: Major-General Raiko Akibahara

Age: 68

Gender: Male

Appearance: Major-General Akibahara is in tremendous physical condition for someone with both his age and experiences, the wrinkles on his face belying a frame of a true fighting man. His dark brown eyes are sometimes vacant, sometimes gleaming with a fire that would cower the devil himself. A deep scar runs down the left side of his face, and his right leg ends at the knee, replaced with a simple polished peg-leg made of bone.

Personality: Akibahara is grim and taciturn, wasting few words on those he does not consider useful. On the occasions when he does speak at length, "the Old Soldier" reveals himself to be intensely single-minded, compelled by a fanatical hatred of kaiju, particularly towards Godzilla himself. He rejects the notion that mankind can or should coexist with these monsters, and has no interest in learning about them beyond how such knowledge can help him destroy them. He finds himself frequently at odds with the other members of YATAGARASU, but he maintains a loyal corps of followers who share his beliefs.

Despite having driven away several monsters and even killing a few along the way, he has yet to score a victory against Godzilla, a fact that eats at him.

Skills: The Major-General has decades of military experience, and quite literally wrote the book on anti-kaiju warfare. Having seen his fair share of high-tech "wonder weapons" come and go over the years, he is slow to embrace new technology, preferring to rely on the mailed hammer-fist of armored columns and aerial bombardment. While he rarely wastes his time talking with his opponents, he goes out of his way to instill an esprit de corps with his troops, many of whom will gladly march to certain doom for "the Old Soldier." His methods, while brutal and heavy-handed, and often coming at the cost of heavy casualties, are nonetheless effective against most kaiju.

Equipment: Akibahara typically carries an H&K SPF9-M pistol at his side, the standard issue sidearm for JSDF soldiers. In his prime, he commanded a Type 70 "Beast Killer" Maser Tank and later a MBT-MB92, and he still keeps himself updated and trained on how to operate the newer Type 90s.

Brief Backstory:

  • 1954: In the aftermath of Godzilla's first rampage through Tokyo, rescue teams discover a baby boy amid the bodies of his family in the ruins of Akibahara Train Station. Nearly dead from starvation, the baby is nursed back to health and taken in as a ward of the state. With no identification and no surviving next of kin, the boy is named after the volunteer that rescued him, and the place where he was found.
  • 1959-1969: Raiko Akibahara is raised in the Futaba Orphanage in Akishima. The conditions are squalid, the headmasters severe, instilling a grim, joyless disposition in the young boy. Despite his poor upbringing, Raiko applies himself to his studies, excelling in school and sports, with the goal of joining the military. Thanks to the orphanage's shoddy record-keeping, Raiko is able to lie about his age, enlisting into the Japanese Self Defense Force at age 16.
  • 1970: Akibahara graduates from basic training, and is assigned the position of gunner in a Type 70 "Beast Killer" Maser Tank. Shortly after his assignment, his unit is deployed to defend Tokyo from the toad-like kaiju Gabara. Despite his unit taking heavy losses, the tank column successfully exterminates the creature, with Raiko's tank delivering the killing blow to the monster's throat.
  • 1971-1990: Akibahara rises through the ranks of the JSDF, first commanding his own Maser tank as a Second Lieutenant in action against Gezora and Manda, then as a Captain commanding a company in the defense of Sendai against a swarm of Kamacuras. By the 1980s, Akibahara had achieved the rank of Colonel, and is in command of the 122nd Armored Regiment. The 122nd, also known as "Raiko's Thunder," becomes notorious for its brutally effective anti-kaiju tactics.
  • 1991: After several years of being believed dead, Godzilla returns and rampages across Japan once more. Colonel Akibahara and the 122nd are deployed as part of the defense of Tokyo. Finally having the chance to fight the monster that killed his family, Raiko leads his regiment from the front. The battle is a disaster, and the 122nd is annihilated along with most of the defending forces of the city. Raiko himself is grievously wounded when his tank is crushed by Godzilla's foot, leaving the Colonel scarred, disfigured, and nearly dead from radiation poisoning.
  • 1995-1999: Raiko resumes his command after five painful years of rehabilitation, and resumes service in the JSDF, now a Major-General in command of an entire division. After another battle with Godzilla, Raiko is once again left disfigured in the aftermath, losing his right leg to the monster. After the battle, the Major-General is forced into retirement from the JSDF, but is quickly recruited by the special anti-kaiju force YATAGARASU, initially as a civilian 'advisor.'
  • 2001: Godzilla returns again, and Raiko is consulted by YATAGARASU on how to deal with the creature. His advice is initially not heeded, and the ensuing battle results in disastrous casualties. Wresting control of the command console away from the ranking YATAGARASU officer, Akibahara assumes control of the defense forces long enough to organize a proper withdrawal. While defeated by Godzilla once again, Raiko ensures that thousands manage to live to tell the tale.
  • 2002: Major-General Akibahara is reinstated, and joint operations between YATAGARASU and the JSDF allow him near fully autonomous command of his own conventional division. Raiko uses this to astonishing effect by smashing an outbreak of the insect-like Meganula. This reinvigorates the conventional forces, and Akibahara's division names themselves after his old command, "Raiko's Thunder."
  • 2003-Present: Raiko commands the YATAGARASU conventional forces in several victories against various kaiju, successfully driving away larger beasts and killing several smaller ones. Just as spectacular as Raiko's victories, however, are his defeats, suffering cataclysmic losses against Godzilla. As some members of YATAGARASU call for a different approach to dealing with the monsters, studying how they can coexist peacefully, Raiko Akibahara remains a staunch war-hawk, his rallying cry as direct as a Maser blast: "Destroy All Monsters."

    Position Within YATAGARASU:
Major-General Akibahara commands "Raiko's Thunder," the armored assets of YATAGARASU's conventional military division. At his disposal are hundreds of conventional tanks and combat vehicles, including advanced anti-kaiju weaponry such as Maser tanks and their ULT 'Freezing Laser' variants, and D-03 Missiles that can drill into a kaiju's flesh before exploding.
In Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes → 2 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay


A hundred meters or so down one of the unused tunnels away from the main chamber, Colonel Wayne stared up into the darkness of what had once been an elevator shaft. Flitting about in the shadows, Gaius would occasionally catch a glimpse of leathery wings, hear a short high chirp. A family of bats had taken up residence in the mine before the Knights had moved in.

Typically, planetary explorers had a tendency to classify life forms as a loose approximation of Terran animals, relying on physical features rather than any actual genetics. If it had wings, it went down in the book as a "bird." If it had fins and lived in water, it was a "fish." If it had scales, it was a "lizard," and so forth. He'd seen a few different alien "bat" creatures on various worlds, but these appeared to be actual Terran bats, brought over during Espia's colonization no doubt. Their sudden appearance had struck him with an oddly hopeful sensation.

Gaius was never one for superstition, but a bat was part of his family's old coat of arms, going all the way back to the pre-spaceflight days on ancient Terra. While Colonel Wayne's lineage was never officially noble, his ancestors had been wealthy industrialists and aristocrats, dedicated to the greater good of the people around them. His parents had told him stories of an old folk hero, a distant ancestor of his apparently, who took the family crusade for a better world even further, becoming a crime-fighter and adventurer. He never took the stories all that seriously, but ever since hearing them, Gaius had been fascinated by bats, and considered them a good omen.

And a bit of good luck was what the Green Knights needed.

While the raid on the Espian Guards' supply depot was successful and would allow them to hold out for a while, it was ultimately a half-measure. The Guards still had them outnumbered and outgunned, and sooner or later the Crimson Fists would zero in on their location. In a stand-up fight, the Knights could only delay the inevitable, unless they found a way to tip the scales in their favor.

Worse, Lt. Lyons had been monitoring comms chatter, and had picked up several messages from the Espian Guard regarding the actions in Yuzhny Portveyn. While the details were sketchy, it sounded like Governor Xiu was dead. That meant two things: that their original employer for their contract was no longer alive to pay them, and that the full brunt of the Guards would be coming back up North before long.

The Green Knights were going to need to make a big move, and make it soon.

"Sir?" Sergeant Dalton's voice crackled over the Colonel's personal comm.

"Reading you, Sergeant," he responded.

"Sir, we've picked up a couple more visitors, sir," the deep, gruff voice of the Sergeant rumbled, always beginning and ending each sentence when addressing Colonel Wayne with the age-old "Sir Sandwich" formality common to Taurian ground-pounders. "Sir, they surrendered without a fight, and said they came looking for us, sir. Sir, one of them's a fighting man, the other looks, talks, and smells like money."

"I'll be up there in a minute," the Colonel answered. "Til then, don't let them out of your sight."

The Colonel glanced back up at the bats, and wondered how good of an omen they really were. This was the second time someone had managed to track them back to the mine since the supply raid; if this place was compromised, the Green Knights would need to pack up and move to another location before the Guards and the Fists came knocking. Traveling over land was going to be a huge risk with NPDRE fighters still patrolling the skies, but staying in one place until the enemy walked up to their doorstep was suicide.

Gaius walked back up the tunnel with a purpose, and called out when he entered the chamber.

"Green Knights, high alert!" he bellowed. "We've got another visitor. Could be nothing, could mean more are on the way. Chief Aadil, I want as many supplies as possible loaded up and ready to relocate. And I want the 'Mechs spun up and ready for--"

"Oh, I don't think that's going to be necessary, Colonel Wayne," a woman's voice cut in, not yelling, but with an authority that carried throughout the cavern nonetheless. "It is Colonel Gaius Wayne, isn't it?"

Entering the mine's main chamber, flanked by Sergeant Dalton and two of his best men, was a white-haired woman who was dressed as if she'd heard of the idea of the outdoors but had never experienced it. With her was a gruff-looking man who didn't appear to be too much younger than the Colonel, and who carried himself as a seasoned soldier. A woman of means, and a man of action. Apart from the fact that they had their hands in the air and no fewer than three shotguns aimed at them, their body language suggested a casualness as if they were out shopping.

"Depends on who's asking," Gaius said, approaching the pair. He glanced over at Hugh, the newcomer they had picked up in the wake of the raid, to see if these were friends of his. If they were, then Hugh was a hell of an actor, as the look of surprise and suspicion on his own face didn't suggest any familiarity. "Care to explain who you are and why you thought it was a good idea to walk into an active military operation like you own the place?"

"That's because I do own the place, my dear Colonel," the woman said with a gracious smile. "Forgive me, I suppose a proper introduction would do. Cassandra Jeong, Executive Vice President and board member of the Aqua Vitae Corporation, as well as owner of a quarter of the neodymium mines on this continent. I'd hoped for a chance to make an introduction through more proper channels, but recent events have forced me to take more direct action."

As all eyes fell on Ms. Jeong and her cohort, Colonel Wayne's poker-face was set in stone. "And how'd you manage to find us?"

"A combination of things," she answered casually. "Namely the data from the seismic sensors my surveyors have across the area, and my dear Jonathan's exceptional skills as a tracker. I highly doubt Premier Federov or his lackeys have the resources and the know-how to repeat our success, so you needn't worry about them following suit."

"So we know who and how," the Colonel said, eyeing the woman whose poker-face was far more expressive but just as inscrutable as his own, "but not the why. What's the point of seeking us out? Is this a threat? A shakedown? An extortion?"

Cassandra laughed dryly. "Isn't it obvious, Colonel?"

She risked moving one of her hands to lower her sunglasses, amber eyes looking over each of the Green Knights with a mix of curiosity and hunger like a cat.

"This, Green Knights," she said, addressing all of the mercenaries in the chamber, "is a job interview."
In Godzilla: YATAGARASU → 2 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Coolness. Removed the specific references to the Heisei movies, and made it vague so that he's fought Godzilla an unspecified number of times at unspecified dates.
In Godzilla: YATAGARASU → 2 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Gotcha. Any chance we can get a timeline so I'm not stepping on any toes?
In Godzilla: YATAGARASU → 2 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
@AndyC: Once that's done I'll be ready to accept!


To clarify, has Godzilla not been seen since 1954, or is it just that the events between now and then happened differently?
In Godzilla: YATAGARASU → 2 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
@AndyC: Okay for the most part I really like this, I just want to quickly clarify that this doesn't include any of the films aside from the original in its continuity, so it's best to cut out the direct references to Heisei era films, especially since I'm definitely planning on making my own versions of some of the kaiju featured there.

But otherwise hey, I like this a lot!


Gotcha; I'll tweak it a bit to keep things vague.
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