Name: Known under the alias ‘Kane’; real name abandoned.
Age: More than 600 years old.
Gender: Male.
Race: Astartes.
Appearance: Like all Astartes, the warrior known as Kane towers over the rest of the human species (Ogryns aside), measuring over seven feet from toe to tip at his full height. His skin is pale and riddled with scars, plasma burns and imperfections, owing to a life of war and a few slightly malfunctioning secondary organs, contrasting with the darkness in what remains of his raven, close-cropped hair and emphasizing the color in his bright blue eye -- singular, for his left eye is missing, the socket filled with a red-gazed and skeletal bionic replacement. In fact, the left side of his body is a wreck in general, riddled with bullet holes and burns. Even worse, Kane is missing two limbs: both his left arm and left leg were destroyed by bolter rounds, since amputated and replaced by crude prosthetics far inferior in quality to what one might expect from a Space Marine. He walks with a limp, owing to the poor alignment of his leg prosthesis with his hip, and the replacement for his missing arm is little more than a massive Astartes chainsword fixed onto a single-jointed steel stump; a weapon as unwieldy as it is deadly.
Even his Mark VII Aquila-pattern power armor, the signature piece of equipment of the Space Marines, is in dubious and visibly dilapidated condition. The ceramic and adamantine plates have been scoured black and grey by intense heat, are riddled with dents from bolter rounds and las-shots, and all heraldry has been removed. To accommodate Kane’s chainsword-arm, the left gauntlet of the armor has been removed, and the shin plates of the left leg have been amateurishly replaced with inferior steel. It rattles and clanks when it moves, the rebreather apparatus hisses and sighs with every breath, and the whole suit has a tendency to jam at inopportune moments. That said, its grim and deathly appearance gives it a foreboding quality that does quite well at intimidating lesser mortals.
Given that he only has one functional hand to operate a firearm with, Kane’s bolter has been relegated to a keepsake and a memento of better days. Instead, he has a las-pistol strapped to his thigh for emergencies and, more importantly, a custom-made, belt-fed auto-shotgun bolted to his armor. The weapon itself is mounted on the gauntlet of the remaining right arm of his power armor; all Kane has to do is ball his fist and point the open-choked and triple-barreled business end of the shotgun towards his enemies. The belt that feeds it loops around his side to his back, where a pack of shells is welded to the lower back of his armor, just beneath the exhaust pack. It is designed for point-blank engagements and each shot is capable of reducing an unarmored opponent into chunks of meat, but quickly loses killing power at range. The belt-fed mechanism allows Kane to keep firing until he runs out of ammo, though a dependable ally could refill the pack with shells while using the lumbering Space Marine as cover. The auto-shotgun’s lack of dexterity and precision requirements make it perfect for the one-handed warrior and Kane has learned to appreciate the terrifying effect its booming rapport and ricocheting pellets tends to have on enemy morale. Between the shotgun, his chainsword and his power armor, Kane remains a dangerous enemy in close-quarters… even though it is remarkably easy to run away from the ponderous, hobbling giant.
Personality: Kane has been shaped by the betrayal he has suffered at the hands of his Chapter and his Master. All of his brothers were killed during the fall of his Chapter, either by the traitors, his own hand, or by those that stood with him against the forces of Chaos. The brotherhood of the Astartes was all he knew and when it was brutally torn away from him forever, Kane fell into a deep darkness that he has only recently started trying to emerge from. He is slow to trust and quick to judge, fearing treason and heresy wherever he goes, while simultaneously unsure if he is still worthy of walking in the light of the Emperor and the Imperium himself. This inner conflict and the deep wounds of his trauma have made him cynical and jaded. Even his faith in the Emperor is wavering. But deep down, buried beneath all that, remain two hearts of gold and a man that wants to find a new place where he belongs: a new brotherhood to watch his back.
He never speaks of his past or his former Chapter and has relinquished all traditions and rituals that once defined the parameters of his life. Kane remains dedicated to fighting the enemies of the Imperium and of mankind in general, but he does not rightly know how to do that on his own and seeks allies to work with, as few and far between as they might be. Chaos has become his greatest foe, however, and he becomes quite irrational and inexorable when it comes to its extermination, willing to put himself at great risk to hunt down the servants of the Warp. However, with the rest of the Imperium believing the entirety of his Chapter to be heretics, he is forced to live a life of secrecy and shadows that has even attracted the malign attention of an Inquisitor. Kane despises this and desperately wishes he could cleanse himself of his Chapter’s sins. More immediately, perhaps, Kane seeks to upgrade his crude prosthetics and return to proper fighting shape -- if that is still possible.
In person, Kane is reserved and melancholic, full of dark humor and grim determination, though he rarely lashes out in anger against those he considers allies. He makes an effort to try to be as amicable as he can manage, especially with regards to the (to him) strange and whimsical norms of regular, human, Imperial society. Astartes maintain a different code and a radically different definition of politeness, etiquette and respect, and Kane has been forced to try and adjust to his new life -- though he still considers it a mere shadow of what once was.
History: Born to a feral world used as a recruitment ground for a Space Marine Chapter whose name has been condemned to the dark annals of oblivion, Kane was a different man with a different name for most of his life. He only has dim memories of his time on the harsh, cold world that was his home until adolescence, having long since forgotten the faces of his parents or even the name of his tribe. Kane was brought into the fold of the Astartes, sky-warriors, living half-gods, surviving the brutal trials and the dangerous genetic augmentations that define the Space Marines. Kane learned about the God-Emperor and the Imperium at large, about his role as defender of humanity, and both his mind and body were fortified through faith. Kane’s love for the God-Emperor that, in his opinion, raised him from a gruesome life on the tundra to a glorious existence as a warrior-deity, was immeasurable. The rest of his Chapter was as devout as he was and Kane never once doubted that their crusade would be never-ending.
The less said about the Chapter itself the better, but let it be known that Kane rose through the ranks over the centuries and became a close confidant of the Chapter Master himself. They waged wars on countless world and across countless systems, striking hard against all manner of humanity’s foes: Kane dueled Orks, slaughtered Tyranids, resisted Necrons, hunted Eldar and crushed T’au. Little did he know, however, that the greatest enemy he would ever face would not be the enemy without… but the enemy within.
In their quest to quell an uprising on a remote Forge World, Kane’s Chapter became trapped in the insidious vices of a daemon of Tzeentch. The tendrils of Chaos probed and prodded against the fortifications of faith that Kane had once thought invulnerable, and they found weaknesses. His Chapter Master, his friend and closest brother, fell to the Ruinous Powers, and many fell with him. The Chapter turned on itself like a ravenous beast and tore itself apart in the span of a single day, the factories and conveyor belts of the Forge World running red with Astartes blood. Kane himself killed no less than four of his former brethren, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the other aghast loyalists that did not fall to Chaos, until he was face to face with his Chapter Master, already made unrecognizable by the powers of Tzeentch. Kane fought and lost, his power armor damaged almost beyond repair and his left eye, arm and leg horribly wounded beyond saving. His remaining brothers dragged him to a shuttle and they attempted to leave the system post-haste on a single ship, pursued by the frigates of the traitor Chapter.
One ship managed to catch up with them and they were boarded. Kane, one-legged and one-armed but furious beyond measure, supported by a terrified Neophyte, stood with his brothers and repelled the invaders in a white-knuckle cage match, Astartes versus Astartes in the winding corridors of the vessel, until all had fallen, the evenly-matched loyalists and traitos having killed each other to the man… all except one. Kane, bloody and broken, survived, adrift in space, having dragged himself into a life-support pod. Frozen in stasis, decades went by.
Until the Astartes that would become known as Kane was discovered by a remote mining operation. The confused and awestruck miners discovered the still-living Space Marine amidst the dozens of corpses of his fellows and brought him to the med bay aboard their spaceborne mining station. Unable to properly heal his strange and alien Astartes physique, Kane’s life was instead saved with rigorous amputation and crude augmentation, the same kind that the voidborn miners were given after industrial accidents. Once Kane regained his senses, he fell into a deep depression and remained on the station for more than a year, withdrawn and sullen, barely eating and barely sleeping. Slowly he emerged once more from his shell, however, and eventually requested transport back to civilized space. He abandoned his old name and Chapter, scoured his armor clean of heraldry through cleansing fire from a mining melta, and assumed a new identity: Kane.
Back in Imperial space, Kane was forced to move in the shadows of society as he tried to discover what had happened to the rest of his Chapter on the accursed Forge World. He settled in the dark underbelly of the hive world of Aphrodian Primaris, a hub of industry, trade and crime. After a few repulsive and shameful jobs for underground crime-lords, more than willing to use an Astartes (even a heavily-damaged one) as an enforcer, fixing his chainsword to his arm and an auto-shotgun to his armor, Kane’s efforts were rewarded with access to the cogitator systems of a hive world’s planetary governor. He learned that his Chapter had been destroyed entirely by a strike force of three other Chapters, their records expunged and their name banished forever. The story of the loyalists that had fought for their life and their honor had been lost and Kane knew that he could never return to his old life, or restore the good name of his lost Chapter. It dawned on him that it was time to find other ways to serve the Imperium.
Using the weapons and tools the crime-lords had given him, Kane hunted as many of them down as he could find and left the hive world’s underworld in disarray before departing forever, retreating to the edges of Imperial space, for an Inquisitor had noticed his activities and started an investigation…
Skills:- Astartes Battle-Brother: While severely battered and a mere shadow of the warrior he was in his physical prime, Kane remains a Space Marine with hundreds of years of experience on the battlefield. He is trained in both melee and ranged combat and is knowledgeable on the use of a myriad different weapons. His current state, with only one functional hand and one elbow-mounted chainsword, has forced Kane to adapt a different and far less technical combat style. Still, should he manage to upgrade his prosthetics to something more advanced, his latent skills and training will be there to propel him back to excellence.
- Close-Combat Juggernaut: Between the auto-shotgun, the power armor and the chainsword, Kane is a force to be reckoned with in close quarters. His power armor can absorb hits that would be mortal injuries to lesser men and his weapons are powerful enough to rend or blast open most enemies the galaxy can throw at him. Alas, the universe does have to throw them at him, as Kane is slow and unwieldy and cannot pursue swift enemies with any kind of efficiency, nor can he strike at them from range -- precision is rather difficult to manage with only one hand.
- Fortified Mind: Kane has already faced Chaos and emerged untainted once before; he can do it again. The Space Marine is almost impervious to fear, doubt or heresy and can weather the horrors of war without flinching.
- Mechanical Ghoul: Everything about Kane’s appearance -- his gruesome weapons, his scorched and blackened armor, and even the whirring and gasping noise of his rebreather -- makes him look and sound like an iron-clad monster come back from the dead. He is terrifying, inexorable and ghastly to behold. Most lesser mortals would think twice before engaging him in combat.
Equipment:
- Mark VII Aquila-pattern power armor, heavily damaged and in poor condition.
- Astartes chainsword, fixed to the stump of his prosthetic left arm; draws power from his suit.
- Belt-fed, triple-barreled auto-shotgun, mounted on the gauntlet of the right arm of his power armor.
- Shotgun shell pack, soldered to the back of his power armor; capacity is 30 shells.
- Standard issue las-pistol, holstered on his right hip.
- Two las-clips.
- Two krak grenades.
Miscellaneous: Kane still owns his Astartes-pattern bolter, but is incapable of wielding it effectively with one hand. It is therefore stowed away in his trunk with the rest of his private possessions.
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