Name: Therak oz Gerad nil Mizol (Gerad son of Mizol of the Therak tribe)
Race: Garundin
Garundin’s are a fairly new player on the galactic stage, but even so they have already made their presence known as premier engineers, technicians and heavy assault troopers.
The Garundin home world of Eshan sits at the extreme outer edge of the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ created by their home star. Eshan itself is a high gravity world, with a surface gravity being just over three times Earth-standard, which produces very high atmospheric pressures as well as being largely made of carbon dioxide. This has led to an ecosystem that produces flora and fauna that are short, dense and in the case of the fauna, powerfully muscled.
Garundin culture, even know, it still tribal based; though now each tribal council sends a representative to the planetary Grand Council who then appoints representatives for Garundin affairs off-world. Within each tribe, life has always about working for the good of the tribe; work delegated, resources shared, the elderly and infirm tended to by all. While internal conflicts were rare, inter-tribal conflicts were almost constant. Tribes fighting over land, water, minerals, and stronger tribes conquering weaker ones; the centuries passed, the technology changed and improved, but the fighting went on.
One major difference between Garundin’s and other sentient species was their near total lack of development of ballistic weaponry or attempts at heavier than air flight; the dense atmosphere and high gravity made the energy expenditure for such things too great to be overly practical, so such ideas were of little use. All that changed during what became known as ‘The Fall’; 200 years ago, on the plains between three great tribes a starship crash landed, coming to rest near where all three territories met.
Garundin’s were never a people that looked ‘up’ much, but with this arrival they started to, and wonder what else may be out there. Once they thought they were many tribes on one world, but now they realized, they may be one tribe amongst many worlds; this realization rippled across Eshan and within only a few years many old tribal conflicts where cast aside for the good of the ‘Greater Tribe’.
All across Eshan, great thinkers and tinkerer flocked towards the newly founded, and rapidly growing, City of the Great Fall (Great Fall in common usage). Sadly the crew of the vessel didn’t survive the crash, something caused an inertial dampener failure and they most likely died before the ship even hit the atmosphere, but the automated systems did their best to bring it down relatively intact. With methodical care, the Garundin’s began to investigate, first the small parts they could safely remove, then as their knowledge grew, and they began to translate more of the off-world language, they began to dig into the ship proper.
By their nature, Garundin’s are a patient and practical people, so there was no rush to discover all there was to know in one lifetime; but they also took to the new technology and in a remarkable short amount of time, they went from an early industrial tech base, to launching their first heavier than air craft, which was also their first trans-atmospheric vessel in less than two generations. From there they expanded exponentially, moving into their home system, and exploring the celestial bodies they found there. By the time the Garundin’s made first contact with S-GAF, ten years after Gerad’s birth, they had already successfully industrialized much of the system.
Physically, Garundin’s are a four armed, quadrupedal, mammalian species. They average in height from between 125 to 135 cm and generally weight in at between 160 and 200 kilograms. Though the high gravity of Eshan has led to a very thick atmosphere, the planets extreme range from the rather weak star means that even at the best of times, Eshan is a rather cool world. As a result Garundin’s still maintain a thick insulating layer of hair that covers everything but their faces, the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet.
They share a very similar facial appearance to Terran ‘gorillas’, with a heavy brow, flat nasal openings and a protruding jaw, though they lack the same elongated skull; as a result it’s not uncommon for humans to refer to them as ‘Spider-Gorillas’. Males and females are indistinguishable from each other unless one can actually see their reproductive organs; Garundin’s tell by pheromone traces that an individual produces.
Age: 52 [Average lifespan 200 years. 1 Eshan Year = 2 Standard Terran Years]
Appearance: Gerad is pretty average for a Garundin; 130 cm tall and weighing in at 180 kilos, he’s covered in light brown air, with dark brown eyes. On Eshan, he’s the type of man you’d forget you saw almost while you were still looking at him.
Personality: Like all Garundin’s, he’s a pragmatist which serves him well on Trylin. ‘Deal with the reality that is’, was something he was taught at an early age, and something that he has carried with him into adulthood; because sometimes the reality of a place like Trylin means you have to do some unpleasant things. Inside this pragmatic soul though is still a curious child, one who is fascinated by the machines people create, and wanting to know all there is to know about them.
Weapons:
TXZ-11/A Variable Laser Armament - To most species the TXZ series of weapons would most likely be classified as medium lascannons, suitable for vehicle or fixed emplacement use, to the Garundin’s it’s the standard issue primary infantry weapon for their ‘Militia of the Grater Tribe’.
A single handed weapon, which uses the Militia’s issue power armour to stabilize aiming, it has ‘beam’ and ‘pulse’ modes to swap between for its firing modes. ‘Beam’ mode fires a continuous 4 terawatt beam at long range, with a maximum sustained rate of 10 seconds, with a 15 second cool down between each firing. ‘Pulse’ mode fires 2 terawatt pulses at short to medium range, with a maximum sustained rate of 30 seconds with the same cool down time.
VVD 45-30/R Plasma Rail Projector (flexible mount on left shoulder) - Standard Militia issue anti-bunker/vehicle weapon. Can fire 3 10 terawatt pulses in 6 seconds before a 30 second is required, and can fire a total of 9 times before the canister of ionizing medium is expended.
Type 9/BS Collapsible Breaching Hammer - A 45 kilogram head, with a hammer face on one side and a spike on the other. Collapsed, it is compact enough to be used single-handedly, while extended the handle doubles in length allowing for two handed use and greater striking power.
Abilities:
Combat Engineer – He knows the best ways to disable and destroy hardened positions, infrastructure and pretty much anything else you can name, quickly, efficiently and while being shot at.
Soldier – He’s no stranger to combat, though compared to most species, Garundin tactics are a bit on the basic side; relying on their physical durability and their incredibly tough armour, they simply bully through their objectives.
Mechanic – If Gerad can’t fix it, then it truly can’t be fixed.
Bio: The fifth of twelve children, Gerad was lucky enough to be left to make his own choices in life; being part of an old and influential family inside Clan Therak, many of his older sibling were expected to become great leaders or warriors or other such things, and as a result were groomed and pushed and prodded to those ends.
Showing an aptitude for technology, even beyond Garundin norms, his schooling was tailored to those ends. Once he reached adulthood, like all Garundin he did his mandatory service in the Militia, helping to protect his people, and the Grand Clan in general; while only 2 years of service is mandatory, he found the Militia life appealing and being sent off world let him more easily interact with the technology of other species.
He would have probably spent the rest of his life in the Militia, after three consecutive volunteer contracts on top of the mandatory one, his superiors had been grooming him for greater things; but then, just as his fourth contract was coming to a close, the news of the incident on Trylin rippled across the news nets. Eshan was about as far away from Trylin as one could be while still in explored space, but when Gerad heard that news, he knew what he needed to do.
At the end of his contract, instead of reupping, he retired from the Militia, bought out his armour, sold off much of his possessions and caught the first transport he could that was heading in the right direction. The trip between Eshan and Trylin was long and at times frustrating and more than a little dangerous; but eventually he made it. His goal now was to find these ancient ruins and the tech there in, discover their secrets, and then return to his people with what he’d found. It might take a while, but Garundin are long lived.
Personal equipment:
G-11 Type 4 Mk.3 Militia Power Armour – Each armour is custom fitted to the user. If a citizen fulfills a 10 year (Eshan Year) term and retires in good standing with the Militia, they have the option to purchase their arms and armour if they intend to go off world; should they ever return to Eshan with the intent of staying they must surrender the arm and armour to the Militia.
The armour is a sealed and self-sustaining unit, allowing the user to operate in a variety of hostile environments, including hard vacuum for extended periods of time. The armour’s utility pack houses the power supply, atmosphere generator, nutrient processor and a whole host of other critical tools. So long as the armour has power it can maintain its user indefinitely.
Nano-assembler – Built into the back mounted utility pack of the armour, the assembler allows the user to manufacture small to medium sized components for repairs and constructions while in the field.
Combo welder/cutter – Mounted on a folding, multi directional arm that comes up over the right shoulder.
Multi-tool manipulator units – Both of the power armour’s secondary arm gauntlets are equipped with precision tools for working on smaller objects.
Defensive Barrier – An extremely durable kinetic and energy resistant shield that unfurls from a mounting on the armour’s left primary arm gauntlet.
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