Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Closing in towards the settlement prompted Janius and Sabine to ready themselves to fight. Janius drew his axe and shield and formed up, ready to deflect incoming arrows or spells, while Sabine stayed behind. There was no telling from this distance whether the mercenaries carried silver weapons, so Janius stayed close to everyone. Hal-Neesa demonstrated her incredible power in being the spearhead of their advance. With her in front it seemed as if their force was unstoppable.

Sabine's eyes darted around, staying aware of her surroundings behind the shields of Kaleeth and Janius. She had other plans, as opposed to the simple words Hal-Neesa gave. Some rebellious excitement ran through her head, but in her head she was certain that hers would be the more appropriate actions. Sabine simply bid her time for now.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It's all good. I really need to be studying, so I'll write up only one more post for the day.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With a breath in, Janius looked forward and nodded back. "Okay, just stay close and transform when I say so, and we won't have to hurt any innocents."

Janius still believed that it was a bad idea to have Kaleeth anywhere near a settlement in the state she was in, but she had made up her mind. The urgency of the situation coupled with the fatigue they were both suffering from made them quiet on the rest of the march.

ParaCom: Adversary Inside

*clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp*

[New soldiers have arrived at ParaCOM HQ]

I present to you, team DysFam (Dysfunctional Family):

Anya

Name: Anya Arbogast
Country of origin: Belgium
Speciality: Support
Appearance:


Bio: Anya and her brother, Luc, are Belgian-born soldiers brought up by strict parents and a British secondary boarding school. Only being a year of age apart added to slip-ups with impartiality between their parents resulted in the two being at each others' necks for most all of their lives. Anya is the younger, and while she grew up, she was more often the less successful of the two siblings. This meant that their parents often favoured Luc over her, and she would have to make her own progress.

When they hit career age, Luc joining the military meant that he was elevated even further in their parent's books. Rather than disappearing into disappointing obscurity, Anya followed in his brother's footsteps with the intention of surpassing him. So the race continued through all of two NATO deployments. In the military, the treatment of recruits made something of a refreshing equaliser, but Luc was still the one who did slightly better. He was always the badass compared to her.

By the time the aliens came down and the ParaCOM project came forward, Anya had seen what these otherworldy creatures were capable of. She saw it as an opportunity to set herself apart from her brother and make her own success. Her volunteering quickly boiled up a seething anger when she found out that Luc had volunteered as well.

Personality: Under normal circumstances, Anya is sociable enough, seemingly intelligent, if rather opinionated. However, she has a low threshold before her feelings start to affect her decision making, causing her to take occasionally unconsidered risks and become stubborn to a fault. Raised voices are not uncommon if a situation isn't turning out in her favour. "Friendly" reminders from commanding officers quickly put her back into line, though.

Living in the shadow of her brother has built a resentment towards him and partially to her mother and father, but more than anything she wants to be put into a position where she is no longer compared to Luc. Unfortunately, this revelation hasn't dawned on her yet and, in her eyes, the only way to get recognition that she seeks is to become better than Luc.

Luc

Name: Luc Arbogast
Country of origin: Belgium
Speciality: Heavy
Appearance:

Under his mask, Luc has brown hair cut short, blue eyes and a clean-shaven face with thin features that gives off a sort of sly intelligence. He often wears a cocky half-smile without even noticing it.

Bio: Anya's older brother and highly regarded soldier, Luc grew up always having opportunities to better himself opened up right in front of him. Before joining the military, he was something of an egotistical brat, expecting things to go his way and having the social skills and the physical prowess to make it happen. He was even guilty of bullying other boys in his secondary school years in the UK, but that behaviour tapered off before he graduated. Still, it took boot camp and no-nonsense drill officers to beat common respect into him.

Once deployed into the Belgian army as a fully fledged infantryman, Luc discovered that even though he no longer had a penchant for treating people like dirt, he had kept an air of confidence which gave him steady enough hands to be trusted with explosives. Soon enough, Luc was trained to handle heavy ordnance. He'd defused so many IDEs by the time he completed his second deployment that he joked he should be re-purposing them for the Belgian army. He made use of enough official ordnance to make him think he had better ideas for saving military cash.

Throughout his career, Luc was separated from his sister and didn't really talk to her much. He didn't know just how little he knew about Anya until she had a session of shouting at his face for signing up for this multinational ParaCOM thing. He feels like he would make an effort to console her, but his ego is currently blocking sight of what's causing the issue in the first place.

Personality: On and off the field, Luc has this cool confidence about him that some find impressive, but most find rather irritating. His razor sharp wit is only rivalled by his complete ineptitude at reading other's thoughts and feelings. If he makes people upset, he's often genuinely dumbfounded as to why. Far from being a sociopath, he doesn't like the fact that he's hurting people in that way. This flaw, as he sees it, often has him shut his trap completely when addressing higher-ranking personnel, even on casual grounds. In contrast to his sister, Luc seldom loses his temper at anything and is reasonable about most things. His relationship with Anya is cordial at best, mostly because he feels that just being around her makes her angry. Not far from the truth.

Angus

Name: Angus McConnachie
Country of origin: New Zealand
Speciality: Support
Appearance:


Bio: Angus is originally an English expat of the UK, having moved to New-Zealand after marrying the love of his life in her home country. Though a year and two years older than Luc and Anya respectively, Angus' family happened to be a family friends with Anya and Luc's family, even over the channel. They went to the same school, often saw each other in family events and generally grew up together.

Unlike the strictly military-focussed Arbogast family, Angus actually took a few years to train as a chemist before moving to New Zealand. His military vocation came from necessity, as New Zealand happened to not recognise Angus' qualifications when he moved there due to a quirky technicality in medical academia. The New Zealand navy still made use of him as a combat medic after some redundant training. However, in his combat training, Angus displayed an as yet undiscovered talent with weapons and tactics. He was quickly highly regarded and recommended for the ParaCOM project when the monsters invaded. Angus thought it a wonderful twist of fate that he should find Anya and Luc there, having hardly changed at all since he last spoke to them.

Personality: Compared to Anya and Luc, Angus is probably the easiest to befriend. In fact, he could probably befriend a Paranormal creature if he could talk to them, he's just got that kind of warm personality and knack for nice conversation. This means that he is something of a bridge to understanding Anya and Luc as individuals, rather than the back and forth they think of each other. He knows that they want an understanding from one another that seems impossible to negotiate between themselves, but he prefers not to stick his fingers in such issues. On the battlefield, Angus is prompt, somewhat tense and utterly professional. He is in ParaCOM because he wants both himself and his wife to live long enough to raise a family, and the best way he sees to do that is to make use of his talents.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Yeah, I don't think it'll be a quick recovery. G'night!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

In his tone of voice, Janius wasn't sure whether to be frustrated or completely worried. "Kaleeth, that is no way to think. You might see yourself as the monster, but what was you before all this," Janius reached and placed one hand on Kaleeth's shoulder and the other over her heart, "she's still here, talking to me right now. Never use previous actions as an excuse to give up and do what you believe to be wrong. If you do, then you become just as bad as these cultists, and that's not you. I can't know the Hist as well as you, but I would be willing to believe that they would forgive one who only acted against their own behaviour because they were forced. Now think, are you sure? I need you to give me considered reasons."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius exhaled through his nose at the futility of it all. He was frankly amazed at how living for so long had disconnected the cult leaders from human empathy. "I don't like this at all," Janius commented, stating the obvious for them all.

Looking over to Kaleeth, Janius saw that she was still struggling to suppress her beast spirit. She was distant, and perhaps trying to downplay it, but Janius knew that something had to be done. He walked up to her, trying to ignore the horrid smell of the walking corpses. "Kaleeth, I'm worried about you, Meesei's worried about you." Janius spoke with a non-negotiable firmness, knowing how adverse Kaleeth would be to what he was about to recommend. "If you walk into the attack with us, you will transform, that is the reality. None of us like this situation, but you were close to your limits earlier today, and your tired now, we can all see that. Listen closely, because this is what I need you to do: Either you stay back from the attack and stay away from the smell, or you stay close to me, and make absolutely sure that you hold back your transformation until I say so. Even if these cultists are bloodthirsty, we can't have innocent lives on your conscience. Distracting your beast spirit with the fresh bodies of the mercenaries will sate it. Remember, you are not your beast spirit, but you are still responsible for it. Now, I need you to make a decision."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Given that they needed to comply with the cultists in order to get the missing portion of their pack back, not to mention guaranteeing Rhazii's safety, Sabine and Janius couldn't really do much more than give uneasy looks in response to Hal-Neesa's apparent plan of attack.

Once they began moving, Janius walked beside Meesei while they were out of Hal-Neesa's immediate earshot. "Meesei, killing hunters and mercenaries is one thing, but there were innocents in that settlement. Does Hal-Neesa really intend to raze it all?" He knew he probably wouldn't sway Neesa herself, but Janius hoped that Meesei might have a better choice of words to convince her otherwise.

ParaCom: Adversary Inside

Cool beans.

ParaCom: Adversary Inside

Alright, time to start brewing characters.

Given the new soldiers are rookies, does that mean they start off with the standard issue assault rifle as their primary, or do we get specialised digs ala our classes right away?