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View Full Version : [Mass Effect/Fluff] Help me populate a Systems Alliance Marine company



Kiero
2012-04-26, 01:23 PM
This is sort of spun off this thread (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?619761-Mass-Effect-Let-s-talk-Alliance-frigates), where I first started trying to work this stuff out. We've now started playing Transcendence (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?622888-nWoD-Mass-Effect-Mass-The-Effecting-Transcendence), a Mass Effect game using an nWoD hack (we jokingly call Mass: the Effecting (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Mass:_the_Effecting)).

I'm playing Russell Ortiz (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Mass_Effect_Transcendence/The_Principals#Russell_Ortiz), a former Systems Alliance officer who made his name during the anti-piracy operation on Torfan (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Torfan). He lost half his company there, including their CO who had messed up, and he now wears a tribute to the fallen on his armour (a star representing each one who died there on his shoulder pad).

There was a big cover-up about what really happened because their CO was well-connected and his family didn't want the truth coming out. All those who survived are wrapped up in this conspiracy of silence (one facilitated by carrots - everyone got money or mysterious gifts, many commendations and a few promotions - and sticks - one who got close to talking out had an inexplicable accident, they are all constantly kept under surveillance). Specifically, he was part of the family running Hahne-Kedar, who have a long association with the Alliance military.

So it becomes relevant for the purposes of having names and potential NPCs to draw upon, just who the members of Ortiz' company were. He was with the 4th Frontier Division, one of the many colonial units drawn from the people of the colonies in the Attican Traverse (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Attican_Traverse).

I hazarded a guess that a marine company would be structured thus:

A company comprises about 40 bodies, commanded by a 1st Lieutentant or Staff Lieutentant, broken into:
Two platoons of 20, each commanded by an Operations Chief or 2nd Lieutenant, broken into:
Two sections of 10, each commanded by a Service Chief or Gunnery Chief, broken into:
Two squads of 5, each commanded by a Corporal and featuring at least one tech-specialist


The total number of slots to be filled up are thus:

3rd Company
Company Commander: 1st Lieutenant Jonathan Kessler (KIA)

Alpha Platoon
Platoon Leader and Executive Officer: Ops Chief Ilyana Shevchenko

1st Squad
Gunnery Chief Paul Roby
Corporal Anna Hammery
Private Angelo Fontanella
Private Shen Huang-Chi
Tech Specialist Renard Delacroix

2nd Squad
Corporal Misha Khabarovsk
Private Zuberi Bamgboshe
Private Soraya Tehrani
Private Carson Lillow
Tech Specialist Jill Warren-Mayfield

3rd Squad
Service Chief Russell Ortiz
Corporal Melissa Stanfield
Private Johann Vegard
Private Miko Tatsuya
Tech Specialist Peter Nguye

4th Squad
Corporal Hideo Masayuri
Private Sebastián Vázquez
Private Annette Reed
Private Chris Dawson
Tech Specialist Sati Chatula


Bravo Platoon
Platoon Leader: Ops Chief Harald Mads

5th Squad
Service Chief Levi Grandison
Corporal Lillith McCullough
Private Jorge Bergeron
Private Vishti Pashara
Tech Specialist Erik Karolf

6th Squad
Corporal Enzo Gognitti
Private Eli Camden
Private Kari Deshini
Private Arn Kjellen
Tech Specialist Gabriel Formanek

7th Squad ("The Devil's 7th")
Service Chief Pavel "Lucifer" Ivanov
Tech Corporal Rupert Irving
Private Benjamin Cross
Private Sally Robbin
Private Albin Gaum

8th Squad ("The Bloody 8th")
Corporal Hui Hong
Private Aaron Prentice
Private Rosemary Makutsi
Private Rafael Ozuna
Tech Specialist Arja "Teardown" Vanjita


What I'd like is a range of names suggesting a variety of ethnicities (these are/were colony kids) and a male/female split of about 65/35. If you want to come up with a little more (like a paragraph-long bio on where this person was from and what they were like) be my guest.

If you want to take a whole squad and juggle them a little bit (for example a tech specialist might be a Corporal or Chief, meaning another Private would take their place), be my guest.

Everything generated here I'll include on our campaign wiki (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Mass_Effect_Transcendence).

As for their fates, I'm considering going random roll for everyone who hasn't already been determined (which is everyone barring Kessler, Ortiz and Nguye). On a d10, 1-5 means KIA, 6-10 means they survived. Then to work out what happened to them after Torfan, a table something like this:

D10..Result
1.....Court-martialled and imprisoned in the stockade
2.....Demoted/Dishonourable discharge
3.....Medical discharge
4.....Still in service
5.....Honourable discharge
6.....Honourable discharge
7.....Commended, still in service
8.....Commended, honourably discharged
9.....Promoted, still in service
0.....Promoted, honorably discharged

This was 6 years ago, which is why so many of the results involve them leaving the military (since for most their 5-year tour would have been up at some point). If you've got any better ideas for this table, please suggest them.

Thanks in advance for anyone who plays. :)

Shadowknight12
2012-04-26, 02:51 PM
Some ideas:

Soraya Tehrani, Private.

Bio: Not one to make jokes or take things lightly, Soraya conducted herself with stern professionalism, something that surprised people given her young age. Not a prodigy by any means, she was nevertheless raised to see the world as a battlefield, honing her keen intellect and souring her nature. The only time her ice-cold demeanour was broken was when it came to civilian protection, which she was uncharacteristically passionate about. There was a story there, but nobody ever got to hear it.

Sebastián Vázquez, Private.

Bio: Sebastián was the popular private in his squad, all good looks and easy smiles, always the life of the party. He'd brag about his conquests and get reprimands over fraternisation, but he took it all in style. Unremarkable in most areas, his only true talent was keeping his head cool and crack a smile in moments of crisis. Confident but not too cocky, Sebastián was never one to lie or engage in shady behaviour. If he survived the events at Torfan, he was dishonourably discharged.

Renard Delacroix, Technician.

Bio: A quiet, easygoing, middle-aged man, he was never one to let a problem go unsolved. His determination to fix everything often led him to neglect his physical well-being. A knowledgeable man who felt uncomfortable around others, Renard would often hum old French songs to himself while he worked.

Melissa Stanfield, Corporal.

Bio: A ruthless, cutthroat woman who took no prisoners, Melissa earned both the respect and the fear of most people who met her. She was driven to see the Alliance succeed against the "alien scum," as she put it, and her driven will to push herself to the limit made her a fearsome combatant. Single-mindedly dedicated to her career, she seemed to have no hobbies or personal interests outside military life.

Angelo Fontanella, Private.

Bio: Angelo was a man of emotion, always throwing himself heedless into danger and coming out unscathed by the skin of his teeth. He was passed for promotion many times over due to unfavourable reports over his hotheadedness. Prone to drastic mood swings at the drop of a hat, Angelo was a handful to deal between missions, but he could be relied to follow orders at any cost.

Misha Khabarovsk, Corporal.

Bio: Teased for having a girly name, Misha was a giant of a man, fondly dubbed "Viking" by his peers despite having never set foot on Earth in his life. Fiercely protective of his squadmates, he was a sight to behold on the battlefield, having specialised in heavy weaponry and demolitions. He was good-natured and responsible, his youthful looks concealing the decade he had over most of his peers.

Jill Warren-Mayfield, Technician.

Bio: Jill caused quite the commotion in her wealthy family when she decided to join the military. A slip of a thing, afforded the best genetic modifications money could buy, she was both intimidatingly smart and fairly good-looking. Her naiveté and general ignorance, product of a sheltered childhood, often made her strike the point between annoying and endearing. An expert technician, Jill's ability to work under fire left everyone quite impressed. She would become an expert in surprising those who underestimated her.

Shen Huang-Chi, Private.

Bio: Always eager to please, Shen was a relentless optimist. He would always look on the bright side of everything and remain polite to the point of excess. Driven to be the best from birth, his academic scores were almost as impressive as his marksmanship and exemplary behaviour. His inexperience played against him, however, and he was passed for promotion a few times. Shen, of course, took it all in stride.

Zuberi Bamgboshe, Private.

Bio: His parents named him "Zuberi", for their desire for their child to be strong. He made them proud, even after they were captured by Batarian slavers and killed when they tried to escape. Despite joining the Alliance military out of grief and hatred, he found a home and some direly-needed stability there. Before the events at Torfan, he had been slowly learning to move past his grief and laugh again. But that, of course, changed after that fateful mission.

Ilyana Shevchenko, Ops Chief.

Bio: A woman in her late-thirties, renowned for her astounding insight and keen strategical mind, Ilyana was a very balanced, very down to earth soldier. She would rarely lose her patience or fall apart during a crisis, indicating a very strong inner personality. She would merely think in silence for a few moments, and she'd come up with a solution for whatever problem needed to be addressed. A woman of very few words but calm, purposeful actions, Ilyana was considered an exemplary soldier and promoted swiftly in her career.

Ops Chief: 1.
Technician: 2.
Corporal: 2.
Private: 5.
Total: 10.

I could do more if you want, I figured I'd let others take a few shots too. :smallbiggrin:

Kiero
2012-04-26, 05:27 PM
Awesome, though I'd make Shevchenko late-30s rather than late-40s/early-50s (which is implied by middle-aged), and one of the Platoon Leaders.

Noedig
2012-04-26, 06:22 PM
Names and Ranks:

Paul Roby - Male, Service Chief

Anette Reed - Female, Private

Hideo Masayuri - Male, Corporal

Sati Chatula - Female, Technician

Johann Vegard - Male, Private

Carson Lillow - Male, Private

Chris Dawson - Male Corporal

Anna Hammery - Female, Private

Eirik Karolf - Male, Technician

Miko Tatsuya - Female Private

Shadowknight12
2012-04-26, 07:58 PM
Awesome, though I'd make Shevchenko late-30s rather than late-40s/early-50s (which is implied by middle-aged), and one of the Platoon Leaders.

Aye, aye, Chief. :smallbiggrin:

My biggest problem are actually names, so if you want me to write bios for someone else's name list, I'd be happy to.

EDIT: Also, I'm leaving the specific squad assignment to you, but I could offer some suggestions (for example, grouping the most experienced personnel in the Alpha Platoon, for high-risk tasks, and all the newbies at Bravo Platoon, for support; or having a good mix of experience and inexperience in all squads), if you find yourself idea-starved.

I haven't actually posted in your threads, since I'm actually very new to the ME universe, but I'm following your game with great interest.

Kiero
2012-04-27, 05:44 AM
Names and Ranks:

Paul Roby - Male, Service Chief

Anette Reed - Female, Private

Hideo Masayuri - Male, Corporal

Sati Chatula - Female, Technician

Johann Vegard - Male, Private

Carson Lillow - Male, Private

Chris Dawson - Male Corporal

Anna Hammery - Female, Private

Eirik Karolf - Male, Technician

Miko Tatsuya - Female Private

Excellent, I'll have some updating to do later. I might change some of the rank assignments, but otherwise happy to use these. :smallsmile:


Aye, aye, Chief. :smallbiggrin:

My biggest problem are actually names, so if you want me to write bios for someone else's name list, I'd be happy to.

EDIT: Also, I'm leaving the specific squad assignment to you, but I could offer some suggestions (for example, grouping the most experienced personnel in the Alpha Platoon, for high-risk tasks, and all the newbies at Bravo Platoon, for support; or having a good mix of experience and inexperience in all squads), if you find yourself idea-starved.

I haven't actually posted in your threads, since I'm actually very new to the ME universe, but I'm following your game with great interest.

If you want to write them, I'll use them, simply put.

No worries about assignment, I can manage that. The main thing was to have something less stale than me coming up with the lot.

Glad you're enjoying the game, we should have another lot of podcasts going up (resolving the Cloture mission) after the weekend.

Noedig
2012-04-27, 11:30 AM
I wish there was some other way I could contribute. I'm a sucker for all things Mass Effect and add the fact that you're using it as an RPG setting...

Well, let's just say 'nerdgasm.'

Kiero
2012-04-27, 12:47 PM
I wish there was some other way I could contribute. I'm a sucker for all things Mass Effect and add the fact that you're using it as an RPG setting...

Well, let's just say 'nerdgasm.'

Do you want to give any of those names short bios, like Shadowknight12 did? That would flesh them out nicely.

Noedig
2012-04-27, 01:33 PM
Not sure if I would survive. I have enough trouble with 1, let alone 10.

Shadowknight12
2012-04-28, 09:27 PM
If you want to write them, I'll use them, simply put.

No worries about assignment, I can manage that. The main thing was to have something less stale than me coming up with the lot.

Glad you're enjoying the game, we should have another lot of podcasts going up (resolving the Cloture mission) after the weekend.

Awesome.

All right, let's give it a shot:

Paul Roby, Service Chief.

Bio: Paul was a true leader despite his relatively young age, and that was the main reason he was chosen to lead the first squad. A Terminus child through and through, Paul was born and raised in one of the most dangerous fringe colonies humans still clung to. Besieged by slavers, pirates and human-haters, Paul swiftly grew tired of the Alliance's meagre support and rallied a civilian militia when he was only a teenager. Armed with makeshift weapons and, later, weaponry salvaged from defeated foes, Paul's militia kept his colony safe for several years. When the Alliance finally reinforced his region of space and the militia was disbanded, he was contacted and persuaded by a recruiter to join the military.

Anna Hammery, Corporal.

Bio: The elder sister of five rowdy boys, she was raised to pull her weight at her family's farm and simultaneously look after her troublemaking brothers. After her father was killed in a raider assault and her mother's health steadily deteriorated from taking too many jobs, she realised that the only way to spare her family a backbreaking life of hard labour was either to marry someone rich or to join the military and send her pay-checks home. And like she said herself whenever she told her story, "she ain't never been a lady," so marriage was out of the question.

Carson Lillow, Private.

Bio: Carson was "that guy." The guy whose father, mother, all four grandparents and practically his entire family had been military, going back generations ago to some distant ancestor who fought in one of the World Wars. Afforded distinction, old money and privilege, his parents had heavily invested in in-utero genetic modifications to ensure that their child would be born with all the right genes for military life. Far superior to practically everyone else (even Jill Warren-Mayfield couldn't quite match him), he was often ostracised for being arrogant and frankly insufferable. Some pitied his constant lonesomeness and tried to reach out to him, but his out of combat personality was extremely difficult to deal with.

Johann Vegard, Private.

Bio: Johann was the kid who grew up idealising military life in a safe, highly protected colony and joined as soon as he could. He became swiftly disappointed once he saw that reality didn't quite match his expectations, but the friends he made at the 3rd Company helped him pull through. He was a dreamer and an idealist, and his relentless optimism was a constant source of disappointments for him.

Miko Tatsuya, Private.

Bio: Miko was a very formal, very stiff woman raised to value propriety and decorum above all else. She was an average soldier in most aspects, but conducted herself with the seriousness and stature of an Admiral. She could be relied upon for absolutely anything: if she gave her word, she would keep it, come hell or high water. Her sense of honour was unbreakable, and others admired the way she always volunteered for the most difficult tasks, pushing through adversity with sheer willpower. It was believed that her home colony, constantly in the eye of the media due to their shady businesses (mainly revolving around law-skirting genetic research), forced a highly ethical behaviour on its inhabitants and left them with a keen knowledge of how others perceived their actions.

Hideo Masayuri, Corporal.

Bio: Hideo came from the same colony as Miko, which was a rather surprising coincidence. They didn't know each other before Miko was transferred to the 3rd Company, but the two of them often exchanged news and reminisced about colony life. Hideo was far more relaxed and flexible than Miko, but he retained the same sense of honour and propriety that characterised their colony. He was far more willing to laugh or crack jokes, but he and Miko often needed to exchange but one look to wordlessly agree on how to proceed. When asked about this, they would often shrug and reply that it was how they had been raised.

Annette Reed, Private.

Bio: Annette was the child of two scientists from a colony whose companies had committed patent violations against the dignity of their test subjects in their quest for knowledge and profit. Her parents, being very high in the company hierarchy, ended up in a cold prison in some forgotten planetoid. Annette was placed in foster care and eventually joined the military to atone for her parents' misdeeds. She'd often tell herself that she was going to "make it right," but when asked what "it" was, she'd only say "everything."

Chris Dawson, Private.

Bio: Chris was a very good-looking actor-wannabe. He had joined the military out of his parents' insistence to have something to fall back on if the acting thing didn't work out, but he was still desperately looking forward to being honourably discharged. Most of his shore leave and free time was spent networking for contacts for when his time in the military was up. A reasonably smart guy, he followed orders quietly and efficiently, though he was frankly a lousy shot. He and Sebastián became close and had a good-natured, friendly rivalry going on before the events at Torfan.

Sati Chatula, Technician.

Bio: Born in a very small, tightly-knit colony, Sati was the heart of the company. Always in a good mood, she'd spend time to get to know everyone and do little thoughtful things for each of them, like setting Sebastián up with someone whenever they were on shore leave, spending time with the more lonely members of the company (like Carson, Renard, Soraya or Melissa) or giving people small gifts for their birthdays (she gave Russell a silver pin with his home colony's banner, "so that he'd have something to remember home by, wherever he was"). Sati never talked about it, but Jill once did a background check on her and discovered her home colony had been wiped out in a nuclear accident while Sati had been off-planet. The news spread through the company like wildfire, but nobody ever brought it up in front of her. For all intents and purposes, the 3rd Company was Sati's new family.

Erik Karolf, Technician.

Bio: Erik, much like many other soldiers, joined the military to pay himself through college. He was a jittery, twitchy guy whose mind raced miles faster than everyone else's and who spoke faster than a salarian on speed. He lacked Jill's intelligence, Sati's intuitive grasp of technology and Renard's experience, but nobody worked faster than him. When something needed to get done on the double, Erik was their man. He was fond of Earth sports and could often be found simultaneously watching three or four matches of completely different sports on his free time.

Service Chief: 1.
Technician: 2.
Corporal: 2.
Private: 5.
Total: 10.

Also, question. Do you have bios/backgrounds for Peter Nguye and the Bloody 8th or would you like contributions on that front as well?

Personal note: Writing these is so much fun. :smallamused:

Noedig
2012-04-28, 10:21 PM
Lol writing is certainly fun, but ive got so much of it to do already I think I might have an aneurism if I take on another project.

Shadowknight12
2012-04-28, 10:24 PM
Lol writing is certainly fun, but ive got so much of it to do already I think I might have an aneurism if I take on another project.

Well, if you want to throw more names my way, I'd be happy to write the bios for them.

Noedig
2012-04-28, 11:21 PM
Sure I can crank out some more of those.
Think he needs 20 more.

Cassandr 'Candy' Lyn
'Fast' Eddy Irvis
Enzo 'Mafioso' Gognitti
'Rev' Eli Camden
Aki 'ASCII' Yasuko
Harald 'Hardass' Mads
Jorge 'Harrison' Bergeron
Vishti Pashara
Kari 'Kali' Deshini
Yuda 'Silat' Sha
Elise 'Rolls' Royce
Megan Lydin
Nick 'Pudge' Hunte
Alexander Rhys aka 'Wheels'
Gabriel Formanek aka 'Wings'
Lillith 'Machiavelli' McCullough
Levi 'Coltrane Grandison
'Maestro' Issac Malachai
Ken 'Hadouken' Yuudaichi
Arn 'Maelstrom' Kjellen

That's 20. Work your magic. I added nicknames because I couldn't help it.:smallredface:
Edit: Double post fail. Anyway the nicknames are by no means mandatory. The only ones that need explanation are Wheels/Wings (fastest runners) Coltrane/Maestro (Violinist/saxophonist) and Machiavelli (consumate tactician).

Kiero
2012-04-29, 05:01 AM
I only need nine more (check the OP, had two squads filled offsite). I'm going to arbitrarily pick:

Ops Chief Harald 'Hardass' Mads
Enzo 'Mafioso' Gognitti
'Rev' Eli Camden
Jorge 'Harrison' Bergeron
Vishti Pashara
Kari 'Kali' Deshini
Gabriel Formanek aka 'Wings'
Lillith 'Machiavelli' McCullough
Arn 'Maelstrom' Kjellen
Levi 'Coltrane' Grandison

Kiero
2012-04-29, 07:07 AM
Now we have a complete line-up (still open to nicknames for the other squads). I'll roll their initial fates, then condense down to the survivors.

3rd Company
Company Commander: 1st Lieutenant Jonathan Kessler (KIA)

Alpha Platoon
Platoon Leader and Executive Officer: Ops Chief Ilyana Shevchenko

1st Squad
Gunnery Chief Paul Roby (KIA)
Corporal Anna Hammery (KIA)
Private Angelo Fontanella (KIA)
Private Shen Huang-Chi (KIA)
Tech Specialist Renard Delacroix (KIA)

2nd Squad
Corporal Misha Khabarovsk
Private Zuberi Bamgboshe
Private Soraya Tehrani
Private Carson Lillow
Tech Specialist Jill Warren-Mayfield (KIA)

3rd Squad
Service Chief Russell Ortiz
Corporal Melissa Stanfield
Private Johann Vegard (KIA)
Private Miko Tatsuya
Tech Specialist Peter Nguye

4th Squad
Corporal Hideo Masayuri
Private Sebastián Vázquez (KIA)
Private Annette Reed (KIA)
Private Chris Dawson (KIA)
Tech Specialist Sati Chatula


Bravo Platoon
Platoon Leader: Ops Chief Harald Mads

5th Squad ("The 5-by-5s")
Service Chief Levi Grandison
Corporal Lillith McCullough (KIA)
Private Jorge Bergeron
Private Vishti Pashara (KIA)
Tech Specialist Erik Karolf

6th Squad
Corporal Enzo Gognitti (KIA)
Private Eli Camden
Private Kari Deshini
Private Arn Kjellen
Tech Specialist Gabriel Formanek (KIA)

7th Squad ("The Devil's 7th")
Service Chief Pavel "Lucifer" Ivanov (KIA)
Tech Corporal Rupert Irving (KIA)
Private Benjamin Cross (KIA)
Private Sally Robbin
Private Albin Gaum (KIA)

8th Squad ("The Bloody 8th")
Corporal Hui Hong
Private Aaron Prentice
Private Rosemary Makutsi
Private Rafael Ozuna (KIA)
Tech Specialist Arja "Teardown" Vanjita

Ouch, 19 were KIA on Torfan, plus the CO, Kessler. The dice are cruel indeed. I'm now really glad I demoted Ortiz and moved him out of the 1st Squad, given what happened to them. Sole survivor would have made for a different character than the one he is. As it is, they lost just one.

The picture building up in my mind of what Torfan was like is the Alliance having to send in marines to root out the pirates/mercs in a series of bunkers and fortified installations. The sort of thing that can't be done any way but painfully slowly, advancing into prepared siegeworks (or the scratch paramilitary version of that) facing mines, traps and snipers a-plenty.

Kessler wasn't a martinet or incompetent, he was actually a fairly decent CO. However, he was also a glory-hound, seeking a commendation that would speed his promotion to Staff Lieutenant and command of a half-batallion. They'd rolled over a number of bunkers with air support already without losing anyone. So when they came up to what appeared to be more of the same, he decided this was the place to make his name.

Air support had to refuel and resupply, and wouldn't be back for a couple of hours. Rather than waiting for confirmation of his request to proceed without air cover, Kessler pressed on regardless. They methodically planned out a covert approach at multiple entry points, with the tech specialists primed to find sensors and traps.

But this wasn't just another bunker, it was one of the pirate bands leader's holdout which they'd put a lot of effort into making impregnable. One of the approaches had a huge mine (in the siegeworks sense of the word) set up underneath it, which took out the whole of the 1st Squad.

As to onward fates:

Alpha Platoon
Platoon Leader and Executive Officer: Ops Chief Ilyana Shevchenko - Commended, still in service

2nd Squad
Corporal Misha Khabarovsk - still in service
Private Zuberi Bamgboshe - Honourable Discharge in 2180
Private Soraya Tehrani - Promoted, Honourably Discharged in 2183
Private Carson Lillow - Promoted, Honourably Discharged in 2179

3rd Squad
Service Chief Russell Ortiz - Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Commended, Honourable Discharge in 2181
Corporal Melissa Stanfield - Honourable Discharge in 2182
Private Miko Tatsuya - Promoted, Honourably Discharged in 2178
Tech Specialist Peter Nguye - Commended, Honourably discharged in 2180

4th Squad
Corporal Hideo Masayuri - Commended, still in service
Tech Specialist Sati Chatula - Medical Discharge in 2180


Bravo Platoon
Platoon Leader: Ops Chief Harald Mads - Medical Discharge in 2182

5th Squad ("The 5-by-5s")
Service Chief Levi Grandison - Promoted, Honourably Discharged in 2182
Private Jorge Bergeron - Dishonourable Discharge in 2178
Tech Specialist Erik Karolf - Dishonourable Discharge in 2180

6th Squad
Private Eli Camden - Promoted, still in service
Private Kari Deshini - Promoted, still in service
Private Arn Kjellen - Still in service

7th Squad ("The Devil's 7th")
Private Sally Robbin - Court martialled and imprisoned in the stockade

8th Squad ("The Bloody 8th")
Corporal Hui Hong - Medical Discharge in 2182
Private Aaron Prentice - Still in service
Private Rosemary Makutsi - Still in service
Tech Specialist Arja "Teardown" Vanjita - Still in service

Oh dear, what did Robbin do that resulted in her squad dead and her court martialled?

Perhaps a little morbid, but does anyone want to dream up how the KIAs died? Particularly interesting might be how the 1st died to a man/woman, that suggests something really brutal.

Company Commander: 1st Lieutenant Jonathan Kessler (KIA - wounded by a sniper, died some time later from his injuries)

Alpha Platoon

1st Squad
Gunnery Chief Paul Roby (KIA - killed by a mine)
Corporal Anna Hammery (KIA - killed by a mine)
Private Angelo Fontanella (KIA - killed by a mine)
Private Shen Huang-Chi (KIA - killed by a mine)
Tech Specialist Renard Delacroix (KIA - killed by a mine)

2nd Squad
Tech Specialist Jill Warren-Mayfield (KIA)

3rd Squad
Private Johann Vegard (KIA - jumped on a grenade that would have taken out the whole squad)

4th Squad
Private Sebastián Vázquez (KIA)
Private Annette Reed (KIA)
Private Chris Dawson (KIA)


Bravo Platoon

5th Squad ("The 5-by-5s")
Corporal Lillith McCullough (KIA)
Private Vishti Pashara (KIA)

6th Squad
Corporal Enzo Gognitti (KIA)
Tech Specialist Gabriel Formanek (KIA)

7th Squad ("The Devil's 7th")
Service Chief Pavel "Lucifer" Ivanov (KIA)
Tech Corporal Rupert Irving (KIA)
Private Benjamin Cross (KIA)
Private Albin Gaum (KIA)

8th Squad ("The Bloody 8th")
Private Rafael Ozuna (KIA)

Noedig
2012-04-29, 12:09 PM
Ouch, poor Robbin. Makes me think she went all 'Hunted' on them. Psychological trauma, couldn't distinguish between friend and foe, or maybe could but didn't care. Trophies, scalps, the whole 9 yards. Brass was none to pleased about that.

Good to see that at least some of the names I submitted made it past the crucible, though I had hoped for more. Fate is as cruel a mistress as always it seems.:smallsigh:

Kiero
2012-04-29, 03:14 PM
Ouch, poor Robbin. Makes me think she went all 'Hunted' on them. Psychological trauma, couldn't distinguish between friend and foe, or maybe could but didn't care. Trophies, scalps, the whole 9 yards. Brass was none to pleased about that.

Good to see that at least some of the names I submitted made it past the crucible, though I had hoped for more. Fate is as cruel a mistress as always it seems.:smallsigh:

Cruel indeed, but then I did set it at 50% chance of anyone dying. It wasn't described as a "brutal" operation with "high casualties" for nothing it seems!

For the time being, I've just listed the fallen on the wiki (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Mass_Effect_Transcendence/The_Principals/Russell_Misc).

Shadowknight12
2012-04-29, 09:43 PM
Oh hey, awesome. I'm almost done with the bios, then!

Kiero, I think you missed a question I made in a previous post:


Do you have bios/backgrounds for Peter Nguye and the Bloody 8th or would you like contributions on that front as well?

If you've got them figured out, would you mind telling me a bit about them? I wanted to write a short piece for each squad's final moments and how they lost the ones that were KIA.

Also, I think you missed rolling for Shevchenko? It doesn't say what happened to her (assuming she survived being KIA), but it does say what happened to the Bravo Platoon leader.

Last bios coming up in my next post!

EDIT: Are you particularly attached to the first squad dying of a mine? I don't mind writing a piece on that, but I was thinking something a bit more... well, "plotty." My current idea is that the mercs had a mole. Robbin, to be more precise. She tipped off the mercs about her CO's reckless plan, which hinged entirely on the element of surprise (that she removed) and purposefully led her own squad (and, indirectly, several other squads as well) into a death-trap. Her only problem was that the mission ended up succeeding, the mercs were taken down and she had to face repercussion for her treason. She was actually going to be executed, but her lawyer negotiated a deal where the information she had on the mercs helped the Alliance take down other bunkers in that region of space. At your discretion, she remains alive and safely behind bars or Kessler's family had her shanked in prison.

Kiero
2012-04-30, 04:35 AM
Oh hey, awesome. I'm almost done with the bios, then!

Kiero, I think you missed a question I made in a previous post:

If you've got them figured out, would you mind telling me a bit about them? I wanted to write a short piece for each squad's final moments and how they lost the ones that were KIA.

Nguye is detailed elsewhere, he's a shared background NPC for me and another player. He's a graduate of Grissom Academy and a tech-genius (Engineer) who became an Eclipse freelancer after leaving.

7th and 8th have bios:


The Bloody 8th

It is curious how squads can develop traditions. When a newcomer enters this tightly-knit brotherhood (to use the term in a gender-neutral way) they are immediately, or slowly, introduced to the quirks, eccentricities and unique styles of the squad they have ended up in. 8th Squad, Bravo Platoon, 3rd Company has developed a particularly interesting reputation for their traditions. The men and women of 8th squad are known as the "Sections", "Headcases" and "Gallowmen (or Gallow-women), for their black humor and claim that the 8th gets the dirtiest jobs in the company when it comes to storming buildings, disarming bombs and flushing out enemy combatants. Whether or not this is true is up for debate, but Corporal Hong, longest standing member of the squad, claims it has been this way even before he was a member of 8, and each new member is "inducted" in a short ceremony involving fisticuffs, drink (when they can get it) and a great deal of testosterone. While not every member of the squad plays along all the time, it is still enough to gain the 8th squad a rather interesting reputation.

Corporal Hui Hong
A giant of a soldier from a mining colony somewhere out on the bleeding edge of human colonization at the time, Corporal Hong spent much of his youth breaking rocks, or so he said, deep in the mines. The colony he's from mines using machines, but the rock-breaking part isn't wrong, as he spent a fair time as a younger man in and out of jail, the colony applying "public service" charges to any conviction. Never anything serious, but he had fallen in with a bad crowd when his brother came and bet him his inheritance that he couldn't beat Hong in a fight. If Hong lost, he had to enter the service. Hui has come to love his job though, and fully expects to die someday to a grenade or a bullet, but sees it as far preferable to the alternative of living on some backwater his whole life. This attitude lends itself well to his gallows sense of humor and his leadership style, which can be a combination of fierce and understanding. He won't hold your hand, but he'll kick your ass up that hill if he has to.

Private Aaron Prentice

A wiry man with an edge, Aaron likes to radiate an aura of danger and his copious service tattoos and fondness for short sleeves make sure that no one will ever not know that he's a marine. This was all originally an act. From a civilized early colony specializing in serving as a way point and transportation hub, Prentice joined the Alliance Marines because a girl told him too. She said she'd marry him if he was "much bolder" and "in the uniform of a soldier". So he joined the Alliance Marines, the most hardcore unit he could think of. Once there he realized what a terrible idea this was, and that he was afraid he wasn't going to cut it. He was quiet and didn't distinguish himself much throughout training, but once he ended up in the 8th their custom of initiation drew him out of his shell. He's adopted the attitude he has now as protective coloring, for fear that his new unit won't take him seriously as a soldier, and he is afraid that someone will see him as a "fraud" despite his cover and skill. So he stays quiet and puts on his swagger. He still sends letters to Mary Anne Maguire. Sometimes he gets one back.

Private Rosemary Makutsi

The squad's marksman, Makutsi carries a sniper rifle as often as her standard assault weapon. A fit, average-sized woman, she is known for her precision in all things. Why throw a dozen punches when you can throw just one? Tell a dozen dirty jokes when you can set the whole room to laughing with a single sarcastic remark? Rosemary fits in with the 8th more than many because of the major crack in her cool shell, her cutting sense of humor. While she means well with it, she is, perhaps overly fond of jokes at the expense of others, though she becomes quite popular when the unit is on base competing with another, as she can be a steady source of sharp remarks about the rivals' flaws and weaknesses. Her coolness under fire and her precise fighting are what keep her from getting into more trouble than sometimes she should, and she's learned well enough to leave officers and senior NCOs out of her jokes.

Private Rafael Ozuna

If Corporal Hong is the keeper of the 8th's traditions, Private Ozuna is their proselytizer. Rafael will be the first to complain that the 8th gets the worst jobs, and the last person out of a hot zone. Because he is always telling the stories of the 8th and pointing out the "traditions" being fulfilled, he fights with incredible drive and skill so as to not be labeled a "complainer" or a weak link. Ozuna is from a family of musicians and professional entertainment communicators, and so the role he has taken upon himself is an apt one. He has a wonderful singing voice and is a cobra in the sparring ring, and more than a few people think that if Hui gets promoted, shifted out or bites the bullet Ozuna will take over 8th squad.

Tech Specialist Arja "Teardown" Vanjita

There are other tech specialists with the platoon. Highly skilled professionals with a wide range of skills. Specialist Vanjita is among this exalted number, and she really, really likes tearing things up. The unit joke is that she joined up because she thought she'd have a better chance at destroying things. The truth is she was in a dead end architectural design job that looked like it would be the same drudgery for 30 years, and decided the Marines would pay better and she'd get to see that galaxy. Still, she does like tearing things down. She's got a particular gift for sussing out just what needs to be blasted, blown or smashed to bring an enemy fortification or strongpoint to heel. She can handle the other aspects of the job just fine, but the whole company knows that when they need something taken down, they go to her. It proves an unusual contrast then, when outside of her demolition duties Arja is one of the kinder and more understanding soldiers in her squad. Few would think that the helpful woman who told you what Gunnery Chief Ortiz hates before you did it would also be the one with a grim smile on her face as she did the math to bring down an abandoned office block.


The Devil's 7th

Service Chief Pavel "Lucifer" Ivanov

Chief Ivanov is the main reason that the 7th squad have their nickname. A tall, wiry man, he wears a goatee whenever he can get away with it and seems almost sinister to those that don't know him well. For those that do, such as his squad, they know he is a hard taskmaster that pushes them to train harder, practice longer and score higher than any of the rest of the company. Private Cross once said that he was "Lucifer, if he wore NCO stripes" and the name stuck. 7th squad knows that Ivanov simply wants them to be as skilled as possible, but it doesn't stop them from hating him, just a little. They all live in fear of the day that he might possibly be put in charge of a platoon. Outside of overseeing his squad, Chief Ivanov maintains strict personal discipline with himself as well, never asking his people to do something that he won't. He doesn't smoke, he doesn't over-eat and strangely of all for a man from his colony, doesn't drink. Rumor has it he even practices some sort of Tai Chi on his personal time, and he his personal reading is often spiritual or meditative. Some consider him a shoo-in for Bravo Platoon Ops Chief when the position became open.

(Tech) Corporal Rupert Irving

A good-natured, solid man from a farming colony, Irving grew up tinkering with everything. His family's tractors, their house electrical systems, the irrigation timers. Most of the time, it went really well, but Rupert joined the military to take advantage of the ancestor of the GI bill, hoping to train as an engineer after his service was up. The marines are a little bit stricter about what you can mess with, but 7th squad lets Irving at their equipment, and because of this it often performs at peak capacity due to his tweaks and modifications. Irving likes nothing more then to just sit back and shoot the breeze with his service buddies, and he is always swapping stories with other members of the company, about their families back home, about their plans for the future and whatever else they want to tell. He's on the verge of getting a reputation as a bit of a gossip if he wasn't so gosh-darned nice about it all the time. His personable nature meshes well with Ivanov's taskmaster spirit, and between them they keep the squad balanced out.

Private Benjamin Cross

A swarthy man with dark good looks, Private Cross is a joker and a charmer, more than once toeing the line while flirting with his fellow soldiers. He considers Vasquez, over in 4th squad, his arch-nemesis, since while Cross is mainly just a flirt, Vasquez sometimes puts things into action. Cross would be a middling soldier if he wasn't under Ivanov, but because he is his skills are pushed to higher than they would be otherwise. Not that Cross likes this. He's the one that nicknamed the fearsome Ivanov "Lucifer" and because of this there are few soldiers in the company who are better at dropping down and giving twenty, or one hundred. Cross takes this in stride, bragging that he'll be "a chiseled Adonis" because of all the push-ups. He can often be found with Corporal Irving, since Irving's easy-going attitude meshes well with Cross's larger-than-life persona.

Private Sally Robin

Private Robin is a compact death machine. It's the only way to describe her. Some incident or quirk early in life left her with a burning passion to be as skilled and dangerous as possible. She is Ivanov's greatest supporter and is almost always first over the wall and last out of the sparring ring or shooting range. Which is for the best, considering her small size (for the military) which leaves her at a disadvantage. Her intensity doesn't just stop after training however, and she brings an overwhelming passion to any challenge she faces. It was truly terrifying to watch her and Corporal Hong get into a drinking contest last shore leave, considering he out-weighed her by sixty or seventy pounds. And neither soldier is sure who won. If Robin brought as much drive to the more intellectual side of soldiering as she did to the physical and combative one, she'd probably already be a corporal. As it is, she is considered hands-down one of the best shots in Bravo Platoon.

Private Albin Gaum

Everyone is waiting for Gaum to do something. Anything. He's the newest man in the squad, quiet, keeps to himself and seems to be wound like a Swiss watch. Cross wants him to lighten up, Irving wants to hear his story and Ivanov just wants him to train. Gaum is a chiseled fellow who seems to be good, but not great, at most of his duties. But he gives off the air of hiding something. Some story or incident or personal quirk. Or at least that's what Cross thinks. He has started a small betting pool to see when the silent fellow will finally come out of his shell and "stop being a wind-up man". Hasn't happened yet.



Also, I think you missed rolling for Shevchenko? It doesn't say what happened to her (assuming she survived being KIA), but it does say what happened to the Bravo Platoon leader.

Damned copy-pasting, I missed her off, but on there now. :smallsmile:


Last bios coming up in my next post!

EDIT: Are you particularly attached to the first squad dying of a mine? I don't mind writing a piece on that, but I was thinking something a bit more... well, "plotty." My current idea is that the mercs had a mole. Robbin, to be more precise. She tipped off the mercs about her CO's reckless plan, which hinged entirely on the element of surprise (that she removed) and purposefully led her own squad (and, indirectly, several other squads as well) into a death-trap. Her only problem was that the mission ended up succeeding, the mercs were taken down and she had to face repercussion for her treason. She was actually going to be executed, but her lawyer negotiated a deal where the information she had on the mercs helped the Alliance take down other bunkers in that region of space. At your discretion, she remains alive and safely behind bars or Kessler's family had her shanked in prison.

I'd rather avoid outright treachery - I suspect the penalty for that is death anyway.

I've had a suggestion for the fate of the 7th that fits with their write-up:


I think Rafael Ozuna grappled with one of the slaves with the dead man's switch when he realized that they couldn't disarm a mine. It went up, but it bought the 8th time to clear out and grab some cover. He had a closed casket.

As for the 7th...Robin was really aggressive and driven to prove that she was the best. In lighter situations, this just meant she worked harder and was a good fit for Ivanov's training method, but what if she got too aggressive, too careless and while serving as point for 7th squad led them right past and into an ambush. Because she was in the front she was able to get clear, but the rest of the squad was cut to pieces. Someone else probably saw this and saw that she messed up and badly.

How's that?

In fact poor Robbin could have been turned into the scapegoat for the entire thing, taking most of the blame since she was the sole survivor of a squad nearly wiped out (as opposed to one completely wiped out, like the 1st).

So she did lead her squad into a death trap, but not by betrayal.

Kiero
2012-05-01, 09:29 AM
On a completely different, but related point, does anyone want to help out with minor investors to go in our Investor Profile (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Mass_Effect_Transcendence/Investor_Profile)? The major investors are all created by the players as the capital-sources that each PC has brought into the venture, but there will also be several smaller interests, too.

It's going to be a bulleted list with just a single sentence on each. Which would go something like:
Citadel Union Pension Holdings (C-Sec Fund) - A significant institutional investor representing the pension of C-Sec officers.
[Name of organisation or individual] - [brief explanation of their business/interests]
[Name of organisation or individual] - [brief explanation of their business/interests]
[Name of organisation or individual] - [brief explanation of their business/interests]
Etc

Noedig
2012-05-01, 12:29 PM
Yay! More things to do!

The Tyr Corporation - Earth-based weapons R&D company that has been around since the 2060s.

Sedairis Industries - Illium-based company that specializes in the production of omni-tools.

Axis Nano - Citadel-based nanotechnology R&D firm.

Vigil - Hanar law firm, bounty office on the side.

Aux-Ash
2012-05-01, 02:14 PM
Dalatrass Genmeia - Matriarch of a smaller Salarian clan seeking more influence in the galaxy in order to improve her position in the Union.

Shadowknight12
2012-05-02, 03:54 AM
Some nicknames for the other ones:

Ilyana "Majke" Shevchenko (Courtesy of Khabarovsk's mild grasp of Serbian, Shevchenko's native tongue, he dubbed her 'mother' as a sign of respect and also as a light teasing, and the nickname stuck).

Carson "Tank-Bred" Lillow (Not as good-natured as most nicknames, it was only used by those Carson has really pissed off. The fact that it was originally a krogan insult only rubbed salt in the wound).

"Princess" Jill Warren-Mayfield (Far more good-natured than Carson's, still made Jill narrow her eyes and smile in a "Oh you did not go there" way).

Melissa "All or Nothing" Stanfield (Originally a joke in the 4th squad, who often covered the 3rd's rear, Dawson and Vázquez dubbed her thus due to her uncompromising, black and white behaviour).

Onto the bios:

Harald Mads, Ops Chief.

Bio: Harald wasn't always a hardass. He said he grew up in the most boring colony in Alliance space and ran away to Illium when he was a teenager, dropping out of school and emptying his parents' accounts in the process. Took his folks a whole galactic year to find him, and by the time they did, Harald was knee-deep in designer drugs, high-class prostitution, booze and company espionage. His parents immediately shipped him off to military school and forced him to sign up to the Alliance military. Said that was the best decision they ever made, and was deeply grateful to them and the Alliance for shaping him up.

Levi Grandison, Service Chief.

Bio: Levi "Stonewall" Grandison was always a humourless, utterly serious person without even the slightest grasp of sarcasm, irony or wit. The fact that he took his time to do things properly and never rushed ahead helped him balance (and rein in) the rest of his squad. He was a strong man, which, combined with his naturally even temperament, led his squad to nickname him "Stonewall" practically as soon as they met him. A man who prioritised defence and "getting everyone out safe and sound first, mission objectives second," other squad leaders joked that he was much like a school teacher looking after a bunch of unruly kids. He had a wife and two sons back in his home colony, with which he spoke as often as he was allowed.

Lillith McCullough, Corporal.

Bio: Lillith was the redheaded girl with the thousand stories. Her home colony had been practically as dangerous as Paul Roby's, and she always had a tale to tell about how she had narrowly averted death by being quick and decisive. Some called her "daredevil," which she found quite rich, given her name and its mythological implications. She was never one to be idle for long, always tinkering with her weapons and armour or gathering intel for the upcoming mission. Her shore leave was spent picking fights and pulling dangerous stunts, sometimes interrupted just in time by a more sensible-minded company member. She was a pretty girl, but wore her scars proudly. How she made it to corporal was the subject of speculation in the company.

Jorge Bergeron, Private.

Bio: Jorge was the talker of the group. Always engaging in chitchat to the point of causing headaches, he nevertheless meant well. Some said that was the way he dealt with the nervousness and anxiety of being so new, and that he'd calm down once he gained some experience, while others said he was just an unstoppable chatterbox. He tried very hard to fit in and "be a good soldier," which led some of the older members of the company to said he had "puppy eagerness." He was a short, lanky fellow, and could outrun almost everyone in the company, though he lacked stamina. He, Rafael and Sebastián were fond of speaking to each other in Spanish, though over half the company could understand them anyway.

Vishti Pashara, Private.

Bio: Vishti was a clever soldier with lots of ideas. A creative, out-the-box thinker with a dangerous lack of self-restraint, Vishti was a tech specialist in all but name. She was fond of jury-rigging things in battle (and outside of it, too) to explode, electrocute, burst on fire, release steam or liquid nitrogen, fire shrapnel and sport other delightful effects. She was fond of booby-trapping areas to save bullets while the environment killed her enemies for her. Her best friend was an obscure bit of military protocol dating back to the First Contact War that allowed soldiers with sufficient knowledge to engage in such jury-rigging. The piece had been all but forgotten, but not officially revoked, so Vishti's only consequence for her slightly questionable behaviour was being constantly passed for promotion. And Levi's stern glares, of course.

Enzo Gognitti, Corporal.

Bio: Enzo was a good man. That was his main characteristic, what everyone remembered about him. He was good. He always pulled through, never spoke ill of anyone, always took orders without question, and he was never seen in a bad mood or behaved in untoward ways. His only fault was being perhaps too docile for his own good, lacking the decisiveness and strength of personality needed to ascend higher up the military ranks. It was debated whether he possessed the necessary qualities to lead his squad properly. It was a prevalent rumour that his squad followed him out of respect, not because the man irradiated a sense of authority or could command obedience through brute force. Still, most said that his squad followed, and at the end of the day that was all that mattered.

Eli Camden, Private.

Bio: Eli was a strange man. A lot of company members wondered how he had passed the psych eval, given his highly unusual quirks. Some were sure he had some form of OCD, given the way he performed certain actions always in the same way, taking great care not to do anything differently. A few theorised that he had joined the military precisely because of the highly regimented, highly predictable lifestyle, as a way to control or abate his inner demons. Still, Eli was a reasonably decent soldier, very reserved but trustworthy, and his quirks were easy to grow used to. Just because everything had to be a very specific way didn't mean that his perfectionism and obsessive attention to detail weren't a good thing every once in a while.

Kari Deshini, Private.

Bio: Kari was born in a colony on a treacherous planet. Initial scans had shown no remarkable problems and so settlements had sprung around the planet's most advantageous points. Some years later, the local flora's airborne spores had caused a bioaccumulation of toxins in the settlers, causing premature tissue ageing, cancer and other illnesses. Their children were born with signs of organ damage and cellular degradation. It was estimated that their lifespan would not exceed forty or fifty years, even with extensive medical aid and several cloned organs transplants. After her parents died, Kari became a deathseeker, throwing herself into dangerous situations. When a recruiter approached her, Kari figured she had nothing to lose, and that the military was a chance to do some good before she kicked the bucket. Probably the most fearless soldier in the company, Kari had dozens of scars and a daring deed for each of them.

Arn Kjellen, Private.

Bio: Arn was a man of few words who constantly struggled to catch up with the fast-paced world around him. Some said he was slow, but others said he was just too used to the peaceful farming life of his home colony and that he needed time to pick up the pace. He was considered dumb and naive by some, but kind and honest by others. He was reliable, even if some things were too high-minded for his understanding, and he was loyal to a fault. Somewhat prone to getting shot, he was nevertheless extremely laid-back about everything and was quick to pick up the slack in his squad.

Gabriel Formanek, Tech Specialist.

Bio: Gabriel earned the moniker of "Archangel" very much against his will, as he found it unbearably corny and trite. However, his squad (and most of the company) had taken to jokingly refer to his blinding strokes of luck as "miracles", much to Gabriel's chagrin. No matter how much he insisted that whatever beneficial action he had performed for a squad had been merely good fortune, a lot of soldiers soon took to asking for "a miracle" whenever they were on a mission. Whether it was hacking into the security cameras to spot an ambush, closing a blast door right on time or spotting an explosive before it was triggered, Gabriel thought of himself as the luckiest man alive, while others thought of him as the company's guardian angel.


Nguye is detailed elsewhere, he's a shared background NPC for me and another player. He's a graduate of Grissom Academy and a tech-genius (Engineer) who became an Eclipse freelancer after leaving.

7th and 8th have bios:

Awesome, that helps a great deal. Also, I feel quite silly for not finding the other thread at RPG.net sooner! I wouldn't have hogged all the spotlight if I had known you had people eager to write on the other website. :smallredface:

Having said that, my ideas for the deaths are as they follow:

Warren-Mayfield:

Discovered that the security protocols for this particular bunker were updated and needed to be disabled from an actual console, not hacked via omnitool as they had been doing thus far. She insisted on remaining behind in a console room, unprotected, so that her squad could board a VIP elevator and secure an area of vital strategic importance (perhaps one of the possible locations of the slaver leader?). Since the elevator would only remain functional for as long as Jill was physically at the console overriding the security, they couldn't do as they always did: guard the tech specialist while they do their thing. Once discovered, Jill took out a dozen mercs all on her own before finally taking a sniper's bullet to the chest. Khabarovsk was the only one in the squad who actually regretted what happened. The other three chalked it up to "expected casualties."

As an aside, can tech specialists carry shotguns, or are they limited (like medics) to only a sidearm?

Vázquez, Reed and Dawson:

The 4th squad was very often the 3rd's flank or rear guard. After they secured one of the entrances to the compound, Kessler ordered the 3rd to progress further while the 4th secured the area and held it down. They were beset by suicide bombers followed by several small merc teams, and Corporal Masayuri requested permission to fall back, but Kessler refused, aware that every time a squad had to fall back, the mission inched closer to failure. And he couldn't fail. After a gruesome, seemingly endless siege (Masayuri tells Sati to hide at the best position and provide cover fire, they all get wounded several times and eventually run out of medi-gel, Dawson takes a fatal shot to the neck, Vázquez goes into "focused rage" mode until he burns out and gets taken out by a hail of gunfire from a blind side, then JUST as they take out the last few bombers, one of them detonates near Reed and takes out her legs, she bleeds to death before Masayuri can stabilise her), only Masayuri and Satula remained standing. Masayuri carried a huge grudge against Kessler for thoughtlessly sacrificing his squad and could be a candidate for the survivor who gets offed when they come close to talking.

McCullough and Pashara:

Pashara was killed trying to jury-rig one of the compound's mines to use as a booby-trap, not realising it was triggered by a dead man's switch. When her squad took out a brainwashed slave, the mine she was tinkering with blew up, barely leaving behind enough of her body to fill an envelope. The explosion wounded Karolf, taking him out of commission for most of the mission. McCullough was killed, predictably, by taking a dumb risk. With Karolf down, Pashara gone and her squad wounded and trapped in a dead end, she charged at the oncoming mercs, guided them to one of the mines and killed the slave with the dead man's switch, taking them out and almost getting killed in the process. Bleeding and almost deaf, she lured the second merc squad away from her team and went down in a blaze of glory. Grandison, Karolf and Bergeron barely made it back to the rendezvous point, all of them in terrible shape.

Gognitti and Formanek:

The 6th squad had been tasked with getting the compound's innermost doors open so that 7th and 8th could go in and take out the slaver leader. The leader already knew that they'd try to do just that and stationed an ambush at the only console room such hacking could be done from. Formanek managed to spot the ambush in time, and Gognitti informed Kessler that they couldn't take them all out on their own. Kessler refused to send backup and ordered them to secure the console room and get the inner doors open at all costs. In serious trouble, the 6th squad did their best to come up with a plan with the least amount of casualties. The best they could come up with was to get in, get Formanek to hack the console as fast as possible while the rest of the squad provided cover fire and then get out again before anyone was killed. Unfortunately, the plan did not go as planned. Gognitti was killed as soon as the squad made it to the console, as the savvy mercs focused fire on Formanek and Gognitti placed himself as a human shield. After a truly gruelling firefight, Formanek managed to get the security overridden, even after taking six bullets to the back. The remaining members of the squad, all of them out of medi-gel and pretty torn up, managed to get him out, but it was too late.



If you give me the go ahead, I'll write a short piece on each of them. I imagine that a company's communication on a mission gets recorded (and if not, there's always the bunker's own surveillance videos), so an idea is for Russell or one of the surviving squad members to have acquired said files for themselves, if you think that'd be a nice touch for any of them.


I'd rather avoid outright treachery - I suspect the penalty for that is death anyway.

I've had a suggestion for the fate of the 7th that fits with their write-up:

In fact poor Robbin could have been turned into the scapegoat for the entire thing, taking most of the blame since she was the sole survivor of a squad nearly wiped out (as opposed to one completely wiped out, like the 1st).

So she did lead her squad into a death trap, but not by betrayal.

I really do dig that, but let's make their deaths count. She lead them straight to the worst ambush, the one where a great deal of the mercs and suicide slaves were at. That helps believability, as a decimated company wouldn't have succeeded on their mission unless they had managed to keep the enemy casualties high. Robin screwed up, yes, but thanks to her squad's training, they managed to take down a significant portion of the mercs' forces before they died.

Kiero
2012-05-02, 08:04 AM
Awesome stuff, I'm going to have to start updating the wiki with bios for the soldiers.

One thing, an idea I liked elsewhere was the 4th being taken out by batarian "hunters" who had packs of varren with them. Otherwise the story you've got with them being told to hold regardless fits just fine.

Indeed that fits with why Ortiz (my PC) was so mad at Kessler that he was willing to carry him back out of the place when they were finally ordered to withdraw for evacuation. After all the 4th squad were part of the section he commanded, they were his people.

I think it would be a nice touch that Russell and one or two others have a copy of the unaltered mission logs stashed away somewhere. The ones before the PR police got involved and made everyone change their stories to preserve Kessler's name.

Noedig
2012-05-02, 08:36 AM
Not sure how Oritz felt (bad probably) but I would've probably left Kessler on the field. Preferably with one of Ms. Pashara's little inventions tied to him.

Kiero
2012-05-02, 09:51 AM
Not sure how Oritz felt (bad probably) but I would've probably left Kessler on the field. Preferably with one of Ms. Pashara's little inventions tied to him.

He was enraged, and wanted Kessler court-martialled for the debacle. He didn't realise Kessler had died while they were getting out until it was too late. The PR after-edit changed his motivations entirely.

Noedig
2012-05-02, 10:47 AM
Well at least he paid for it. I take an exceedingly dim view of glory hounds, if you hadn't already guessed.

Shadowknight12
2012-05-02, 07:56 PM
Awesome stuff, I'm going to have to start updating the wiki with bios for the soldiers.

One thing, an idea I liked elsewhere was the 4th being taken out by batarian "hunters" who had packs of varren with them. Otherwise the story you've got with them being told to hold regardless fits just fine.

Well, it's quite easy to have them both mesh together. Kessler ordered them to hold and the mercs released the varren, which were deadly in enclosed spaces. A varren is best dealt with from a distance, which the squad could not afford due to their orders. I'll just replace the deaths by bullets with the deaths by varren mauling.

Also, could a tech specialist carry a shotgun? I'm a bit unfamiliar when it comes to military protocol, particularly in the ME universe.


Indeed that fits with why Ortiz (my PC) was so mad at Kessler that he was willing to carry him back out of the place when they were finally ordered to withdraw for evacuation. After all the 4th squad were part of the section he commanded, they were his people.

Yeah, precisely. I wanted to make the 4th squad's death as sympathetic as possible, since it had 4 of my favourite characters (pretty much all of them but Masayuri), and I was so disappointed that my top five (those four, plus Warren-Mayfield) got KIA by the Cruel Mistress. So yeah, I intend to give them a good death scene.


I think it would be a nice touch that Russell and one or two others have a copy of the unaltered mission logs stashed away somewhere. The ones before the PR police got involved and made everyone change their stories to preserve Kessler's name.

Yeah, that's what I thought. If you haven't figured out which survivor was killed in a mysterious accident (I'm frankly curious to see who you pick), then that can be a fairly good reason to off them. They had the unaltered logs and were going to go public with them.


Well at least he paid for it. I take an exceedingly dim view of glory hounds, if you hadn't already guessed.

As do I. I really hope the DM feels inspired enough with all this to include a sidequest or "loyalty mission" for Ortiz where the dark secret is exposed (or something related to that). Or just include some of the surviving NPCs. I really like the 3rd Company, as it ended up.

Kiero
2012-05-03, 04:46 PM
Well, it's quite easy to have them both mesh together. Kessler ordered them to hold and the mercs released the varren, which were deadly in enclosed spaces. A varren is best dealt with from a distance, which the squad could not afford due to their orders. I'll just replace the deaths by bullets with the deaths by varren mauling.

Also, could a tech specialist carry a shotgun? I'm a bit unfamiliar when it comes to military protocol, particularly in the ME universe.

Indeed, they're the biological equivalent of a bomb in close quarters. Could make for some nasty PTSD for the survivors, too.

I don't see why the tech specialist couldn't carry a shotgun. Shepard routinely carries a squad's worth of weapons, and in the ME3 multiplayer everyone can carry two weapons.


Yeah, precisely. I wanted to make the 4th squad's death as sympathetic as possible, since it had 4 of my favourite characters (pretty much all of them but Masayuri), and I was so disappointed that my top five (those four, plus Warren-Mayfield) got KIA by the Cruel Mistress. So yeah, I intend to give them a good death scene.

Absolutely, they're the people my PC was next closest to, after his own squad.


Yeah, that's what I thought. If you haven't figured out which survivor was killed in a mysterious accident (I'm frankly curious to see who you pick), then that can be a fairly good reason to off them. They had the unaltered logs and were going to go public with them.

Masayuri I think is a good fit for the person who thought they could reveal the truth, only to be silenced by an "accident".


As do I. I really hope the DM feels inspired enough with all this to include a sidequest or "loyalty mission" for Ortiz where the dark secret is exposed (or something related to that). Or just include some of the surviving NPCs. I really like the 3rd Company, as it ended up.

He's got a good track record for bringing things introduced by players into the game. I've just got to be careful not to hog the spotlight, there are four other players, after all! :smallsmile:

Shadowknight12
2012-05-04, 03:46 PM
Indeed, they're the biological equivalent of a bomb in close quarters. Could make for some nasty PTSD for the survivors, too.

I don't see why the tech specialist couldn't carry a shotgun. Shepard routinely carries a squad's worth of weapons, and in the ME3 multiplayer everyone can carry two weapons.

Yeah, that's what I thought, but I wanted to be sure.


Absolutely, they're the people my PC was next closest to, after his own squad.

Awesome, I'll get the pieces written over the weekend, time permitting.


Masayuri I think is a good fit for the person who thought they could reveal the truth, only to be silenced by an "accident".

Oh, my. The list of survivors gets smaller and smaller!


He's got a good track record for bringing things introduced by players into the game. I've just got to be careful not to hog the spotlight, there are four other players, after all! :smallsmile:

Well, yeah, true. But hey, if your fellow players want help with their backstories, they can also post here if they're so inclined. After all, if everyone gets rich backstories, nobody's hogging the spotlight. :smallsmile:

Kiero
2012-05-05, 06:02 AM
Just a bit more info in summary that I emailed to the GM:

The Kessler family are one of a cluster of prominent names who run Hahne-Kedar (a line of pistols is named after one of their forebears). There's about five clans who pass the leadership of the mega-corp between them, and are effectively contemporary aristocracy. Each name is a brand with a value and reputation attached to it. The Kesslers often send their young scions into military service as a way of demonstrating their commitment to public service. The handful who prove really good at it become Admirals, eventually, but most of the time it's a stepping stone into a high-level career in business or politics. Their family reputation is all, they will bring their considerable resources and connections to bear against anything that threatens that.

Jonathan Kessler was actually a fairly decent officer - no incompetent or martinet - but his failing was his ambition. He was a glory hound, desparate to enhance the family name by rising quickly through the ranks and attaching the mantle of "military man" to himself. His aim was command of one of the more prestigious regiments, but recognised that he'd get promotion quicker through actual field service with a regiment attached to a Frontier Division. He took big risks with his people, and before Torfan they had paid off and earned him a certain reputation for swashbuckling bravado. His company were dubbed "Kessler's Corsairs". His luck ran out at Torfan.

So to Torfan. Having cleared a number of bunkers and installations attached to a batarian slaver-lord (given the callsign Pariah) who styled himself as a prophet (complete with a cadre of fanatical slave-warriors as his bodyguard), they came upon his personal fortress. Up to this point they'd had an easy time of it, air cover softening the targets before they swept in by the book, disabling the defences and sectioning the area. However, the reality was that Pariah had pulled most of his mercs and followers back to his stronghold in advance of the Alliance assault. Each of the outlying installations had only token forces of fanatics willing to sacrifice themselves for the larger plan.

His stronghold was a different prospect altogether. Air support had returned to their carriers and ground bases to refuel and resupply, Kessler was supposed to wait several hours for them to return. However, he saw an opportunity to embellish his name still further by taking the fortress in a stealth raid. He came up with a bold plan involving insertion from several routes, led by the tech specialists to neutralise defenses. Great plan in theory, but intel wasn't up to the task here. Pariah had set up his defenses such that advanced technology was pretty much useless. Mines (in the siegework sense - big bombs buried underground to kill people on the surface) were set off by primitive narrow band radio rigged up to deadman's switches. Suicide bomb-vests worn by slaves were triggered by detonators they had in their hand. There were batarian hunters with big packs of varren. Traps using mechanical and steam-powered devices that simply couldn't be hacked. All in all, using low-tech to defeat the technological advantage the Alliance brought with them.

It was carnage. Half of the company were KIA, Kessler was wounded by a sniper and taken out of action. Enraged by the loss of half his section, Russell fought his way through to where Kessler had gone down and dragged him back out. He'd intended to bring him before a court martial, but Kessler died before they were evacuated (and no one knows what happened to Pariah - reports on whether or not he'd been killed were confused; he liked to use doubles). Ortiz and Kessler had never been friends; Kesslers wouldn't lower themselves to fraternizing with people from the lower orders, but they respected each other. To Ortiz, Kessler was an officer who listened to his subordinates, especially when they had risky but effective ideas. To Kessler, Ortiz was a promising NCO from a solid military family who got the job done. Ortiz' respect for Kessler was shattered by the way he sacrificed his people in the attempt to seize the objective regardless, once they were engaged.

When it was all over, the Kesslers went into damage control mode. They couldn't have Jonathan's actions blowing back on them, especially given he'd been a rising star and source of pride up to that point. Mission logs and AARs were seized before they were transmitted to the brass and the survivors were rounded up for debriefing by officers sympathetic to the Kesslers (because of course money and influence can be brought to bear even on the Alliance Marine Corps). They were made to change their accounts, logs were altered, and a different story was made of that final action. Culpability for the debacle was put on Private Robbin who'd made a mistake leading her squad into an ambush, and it was spun that the entire plan had failed because of her failure (she's still in a military prison now).

There was a dual offensive on the survivors, lots of carrots and inducements (commendations, promotions, outright bribes often in the form of debts being paid off or family members money troubles going away), but also sticks too (threats, blackmail and in the case of Corporal Masayuri an "accidental death" when he'd talked about going public with the evidence). Russell actually earned his commendation, and would have probably got the commission too (without the Kesslers influence), given what he did, but those achievements were all soiled by being pressured into silence about the truth. He didn't do this willingly, after Masayuri's death, the veiled threat was that if he talked, bad things could happen to the other survivors.

They were split up and reassigned to other units, and Russell got an invitation to the N7 school (again he might well have earned it for his actions, but he wasn't sure that it was another "gift" from the Kesslers) which he graduated from the initial N1 course. Reassigned to the 103rd Division, he served out his remaining career with special forces. Interesting and satisfying work, but his whole experience with the military had been soured.

The Kesslers weren't done with just managing the aftermath. They set up a venture captial firm, Hahne-Kedar Venture Captial, ostensibly to support "veterans enterprises" immediately after Torfan. In charge was Jonathan Kessler's older sister Angeline, already a senior VP at H-K now MD of this firm. It was a vehicle to maintain surveillance of the veterans and ensure no one talked. It also did genuine investment into companies and projects run by former Alliance veterans, and made good profits on those, but that was secondary. It's main goal was to keep the carrots and sticks applied whenever that was necessary.

As you may note, HKVC is a major investor in Penumbra. Not a coincidence, this enables them to monitor everything Russell does. I suspect the party have given up looking for bugs and the like, because they will always be there.

Shadowknight12
2012-05-07, 12:21 AM
Squad One

"Chief Roby, through the Main Hall," commanded Ops Chief Ilyana Shevchenko, her steely eyes scanning her surroundings. Something felt wrong. Like walking down an empty alley in Novi Kragujevac. You just know you stepped into some scumbag's trap.

"Aye, aye," Gunnery Chief Roby was quick to reply. He signalled his squad to follow him.

"Corporal Khabarovsk, cover their flank," Shevchenko continued, pointing at Roby's squad as they proceeded through the ample hall. The sound of filtered air washing over them felt loud in the oppressive silence.

"Aye, aye, Majke," Khabarovsk replied with a smile. Shevchenko's lips twitched upwards, but she couldn't shake the feeling of dread inside her.

"Chief Ortiz, through the Mess Hall," the woman continued, sending them in the opposite direction. "Corporal Masayuri, rear guard."

"Aye, aye, Chief," both men replied almost simultaneously. She watched the last two squads turn and march into the dark mess hall.

The woman waited, frowning. Something was not right. No alarms, no defences, no screaming, no shooting. Nothing but silence. They couldn't be unaware of their arrival. Intel said they had state of the art security protocols, and as good as the company's techies were, there was no way they could hack into their systems and infiltrate the premises without anyone noticing.

"Shevchenko," Lt. Kessler said from behind, having just finished overseeing the beginning of the operation. Ilyana was abruptly pulled from her misgivings and concerns by Kessler's firm, proud voice. "You're with me, we're taking a service tunnel and some catwalks to bypass any ambushes and give overhead intel to the squads. I'm having Mads doing the same on the other side."

Shevchenko nodded and followed, as she always did. Yet her misgivings had not abated.

"Sir, if I may," she uttered as they made their way through the red-lit, cramped service tunnel. Kessler, taking point, only nodded. "This is too easy. Too quiet. Smells like an ambush, sir," she stated grimly.

Kessler laughed. Honest to goodness laughed. He stopped and turned around to regard her with bright blue eyes and a dashing smile that did nothing for her. "Shevchenko! Don't spit on Fortune's face when she smiles upon you!" he uttered with a chuckle. "If all's going well, we take advantage of it! We don't stand around wondering what's wrong, we jump and seize the opportunity!" he exclaimed, fire burning in his eyes.

Shevchenko's jaw clenched. "Yes, sir," she replied evenly. Once the man turned her back on her, she glared her disapproval at his back and shook her head. She fervently hoped he wouldn't get them all killed.

A couple of minutes later, Shevchenko and Kessler emerged from a door and started crossing a catwalk over the main hall, where Squads 1 and 2 were securing the perimeter. Kessler got them on the comm system and started directing the operation.

"Squad One, head over to the Auditorium, there's a VIP elevator there that can take you to our target. Squad Two, head over to the Console Room labelled Charlie Romeo Niner on your map. Squad One, we will be your Eagle Eye Support."

"Roger that, sir," replied both leaders as they directed their squads in opposite directions.

Shevchenko followed Kessler closely, eyes open to any signs of an ambush, like snipers on opposite catwalks or shock troops on the ground hidden behind cover. They made it to the Auditorium without spotting any such thing. Kessler and her, weapons trained below, watched as Squad One swept the immense auditorium.

"Hammery, North. Fontanella, East. Huang-Chi, West. Delacroix, head over to the podium, there's a console there, see what you can find." Roby was already familiar with his squad's strengths, and used to them to his advantage. Both senior officers on the catwalk noticed it.

"Sir!" Delacroix called Roby over to the podium. "There's a mine underneath us. It's big," he said, growing somewhat pale.

Roby rushed at Delacroix's side and took a look at the information on the console. Schematics for a mine, and the word "ARMED" blinking in bright green. Delacroix was already kneeling down and using his omnitool to remove the screws on several floor panels.

"Can you disarm it?" asked Roby, teeth clenched.

"I... I don't know. Sir," replied Delacroix once he had a good look at the device below them. "Doesn't seem to be triggered by any external parameter, which is good or we'd all be in pieces by now. But I can't find the detonation trigger. I think we should clear the area before they realise we're here and decide to detonate it," the middle-aged man suggested, beads of sweat pouring down his forehead. By that time, the rest of the squad had congregated around them and looked at Roby, expectantly.

"Negative, soldier," interrupted Kessler from the comm line. "We need to secure that elevator. Disarm that mine immediately."

"Sir, yes, sir," replied Roby with a grim look. "Delacroix, you heard the Lieutenant."

Delacroix froze for a moment, before he nodded and started typing commands on his omnitool. As Roby was about to give new orders to his squad, a panel slid on a wall behind them and a human woman stumbled out, a demented smile on her face.

"Heretics!" she exclaimed, almost giddily. Six guns were immediately trained on her. "My life to take down the heretics!" she continued, elated. The woman raised her hand to show them a small rod-shaped device with a blinking light on the tip.

"FREEZE!" Roby yelled, his face blanching immediately.

"Begone, heretics!" she screamed with a shrieking laugh, and raised the detonator in the air. She never had time to press the button, as gunfire from six different people riddled her frail body with bullet holes.

"NO!" exclaimed Delacroix, who had been focused on the mine up until then. "It's a dead man's trigger!"

"Oh, sh--" Roby's curse was cut short by the massive explosion that erupted, blinding Kessler and Shevchenko and almost throwing them out of the catwalk. By the time the two regained their senses, the auditorium looked like a warzone, with fire devouring the ostentatious curtains, debris scattered all over, destroyed furniture and lights flickering everywhere.

"Roby! Roby, come in! Squad One! Squad One, come in!" Shevchenko immediately exclaimed, trying to raise her falling comrades on the comm. No answer.

"Squad Two, what's your position?" Kessler asked over the comm, earning an incredulous look from Shevchenko.

"Squad Two here, there was heavy resistance in the Console Room, but nothing we couldn't handle. We've secured the console and we're having our tech specialist cracking the security," replied Khabarovsk. There was a pause. "We felt something just now, sir." The question was left hanging in the air.

"Squad One was taken out by a mine," Kessler replied, blood dripping from a cut on his forehead. "Squad Two will proceed to the VIP elevator once security is overridden."

"Aye, aye, Lieutenant," replied Khabarovsk after some strained silence.

Shevchenko turned from surveying the disaster below her to her superior officer. The accusation in her gaze spoke volumes, but Kessler ignored it, wiping the blood from his wound with the back of his hand.


Squad Two

"Are you kidding me?" Tech Specialist Jill Warren-Mayfield asked incredulously to nobody in particular. "An Omega-Gamma 39 Protocol? That's ridiculous!"

"What's wrong, Mayfield?" Khabarovsk asked her, easily looking over her shoulder from his height.

"The security on this thing is way above anything I've seen in the other bunkers. I can't bypass it with any programme I have in my omnitool. I have to build a brute-force deleting programme from scratch here on the server to keep it busy, while I write another string of code in the elevator security," she explained with no small amount of exasperation. Khabarovsk's confused stare made her sigh. "I can't leave the console. I'm stuck in this place while you guys go play hero," she pouted. "The elevator will only remain operational so long as I keep feeding this programme garbage data to keep it busy. Once I'm gone, the programme will run a system scan and detect the foreign code in the elevator security. It will delete it and then we'll all be stuck in the elevator forever."

Khabarovsk frowned. "I'm leaving Bamgboshe with you, then."

"With all due respect, sir, Corporal, sir," Warren-Mayfield said with only a hint of teasing. "We have to keep our priorities straight. For what we've seen in the thermal scans, there's a lot of people in the lower levels, and who knows how many are armed." She paused, letting her words sink in. "I can take care of myself, sir."

Khabarovsk's frown deepened. He sighed. "Fine, but you turn off the lights and stay hidden until we come back."

"Aye, aye, sir," she replied with a smile.

Once the rest of her squad was gone, Jill cracked her fingers and started typing. The hacking was easy. Textbook, even. They hadn't bothered to tinker with the security programme, high tech as it was, so she knew exactly what its flaws were and how to exploit them to the maximum. Copy-pasting several thousand deleting programmes to keep the security protocol busy was easy, particularly since the console's processing power was through the roof. Hacking the elevator controls was even simpler.

"This is Tech Specialist Warren-Mayfield, elevator security under our control," she informed her squad and Kessler over the comm.

Everything went smoothly until her squad was safely in the lower levels. A quick look at the security system she had hacked into showed several armed forces converging in her position. Jill's smile widened. It was time to play.

A tech specialist is not too great on a straight-up fight, something Jill took to heart, so she prepared several "traps" and tricks to help her take out the opposition. Once the first three mercs made it to the console room, she was waiting for them behind the door. A shotgun blast to the face took out the first one, followed by a tap on the wall's touchpad to cut the lights and a quick dive out of the way to avoid retaliatory fire. She knew she couldn't blind them by turning the lights back on (the newest nightvision technology prevented sudden light from damaging the user's corneas), but the few moments it took them to adjust from nightvision to normal vision was all she needed to slip right under their noses and take out another one with a surprise shotgun blast at point-blank range. After that, it was only a matter of using one of the programmes in her omnitool to overload the last man's shields and take him out with her sidearm from behind cover.

Her tactics helped her prevail over and over, rigging some wiring to electrocute anyone who tried to open the door to the console room, hacking the fire extinguishing system to cause a dense CO2 mist to fill the room (which she navigated easily thanks to her suit's oxygen) and sneaking up on any unsuspecting enemies with her trusted shotgun.

Once the mist cleared and she stood victorious, surrounded by fallen foes, she couldn't help but smile. She had always taken care of herself, and getting underestimated for being a delicate girl had always been a great asset. Nobody suspected the tech girl with the shotgun. She turned around to the only glass wall in the room, the one that overlooked a lower floor, and thought she saw something shiny on a distant catwalk. She saw the glass wall shattering before the sound of it reached her ears, and her back hit the floor before she could realise what was going on.

Jill tried to take a deep breath to shake off the shock, but something felt wrong. There was a stabbing pain her chest, and no matter how much she tried to take a breath, she felt like she could only get half as much air, or less, than she could a mere moment ago. It took her several seconds to piece the word "sniper" together, but once she did, it all made perfect sense.

She touched the wound in her chest and felt the blood pouring from it, her protective suit torn up like tissue paper. Her head was swimming, whether from the lack of oxygen or the blood loss, she didn't know. All she could think about was her mother's face when she told her she was joining the Alliance Military.

"This is how you live, Mum," Jill muttered to herself. "You don't sip tea in the safety of your lounge... while the rest of the colonies get raided by slavers. This is how you live. You get shot... fighting for what you believe in," she spoke aloud, bright spots forming in her vision. One last lucid thought crossed her mind, and she weakly touched her ear. "Tech Specialist... Warren-Mayfield... down."

She heard Khabarovsk's voice in her ear, but she couldn't make out the words. She was drifting... drifting...

More coming over the week (curse you, exams!). Comments/criticism always welcome.

Kiero
2012-05-07, 04:45 AM
That is awesome. I'm going to have to add a page for the final account and profiles of the soldiers at this rate, there's loads of content.

I've updated the wiki (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Mass_Effect_Transcendence/The_Principals/Russell_Misc) with much of the content from the two threads. I may have to split it into several pages, given the volume of content.

I've taken a slightly alternate spin on Vegard, and will need to complete the entries for Kessler, Ortiz and Nguye.

Kiero
2012-05-07, 02:47 PM
Changed the layout of the roster at the start of the Torfan entry, and added the beginnings of profiles for Kessler and Nguye.

Kessler:

Company Commanding Officer (CO). A scion of a prominent and powerful family, Kessler started life with every advantage. He had the best genetic augmentation (coded for tall, athletic, blonde and attractive) and education (private schooling and attendance to a military boarding school, followed by a prestigious university) money could buy. A family tradition held that serving in the Alliance was a means of enhancing the family name with "public service" in youth, though most resigned their commission after a tour in order to pursue a career in the upper echelons of business or politics. Kessler enjoyed the military life, and had aspirations of being an Admiral one day, as several of his forebears had done. He was a good officer, capable of inspiring loyalty in his people and leading by example.

He had passed the N1 course shortly before being assigned to the 3rd Company as CO and brought many of those skills to bear in his command style. His swaggering, bold and sometimes rash style had earned his outfit the nickname "Kessler's Corsairs", a name in which he privately revelled. Ambition drove him, while he was concerned for the welfare of his subordinates (as any officer thinking of his reputation would), ultimately they were his route to Staff Commander and command of the regiment in the shortest possible time. He had incredible luck, repeatedly succeeding in spite of taking great risks.

Having brought all his family's considerable influence to bear to ensure his regiment was part of the operation on Torfan, he saw his opportunity to make his mark. Initial engagements went well, the combined arms approach of the Alliance forces minimising casualties. Kessler's luck held, and while there were casualties across other companies, the 3rd escaped unscathed. That was all to change with the final action to prosecute the slaver designated Pariah in his personal fortress.


Nguye:

Born in a slum on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria on Earth, Peter overcame the poverty of his beginnings with his prodigious technical talent. By the age of 7 he was able to support his family by repairing and refurbishing salvaged junk. By 10 he'd upgraded the rickety infrastructure in his local neighbourhood and at 13 he came to international fame when one of his inventions, an inexpensive means to [something], caught the eye of an Alliance News Network reporter visiting his neighbourhood. He earned a scholarship to the Grissom Academy, where his technological genius flourished in that hothouse environment.

When he graduated in late 2177, it was something of a surprise to everyone when he turned down the numerous offers from high-tech firms who'd been tracking his progress and instead enlisted in the Alliance Marine Corps. While only an average soldier (he did passably well in the paramilitary training at the Academy), Nguye rapidly gained a reputation as the possibly best technician in the 3rd company, in spite of his youth. He had an instinctive knack with tech at any level, from mechanical and electronic right through to VIs and the mass effect. His ferocious talent was tempered by his irrepressible sense of humour - Pete could find mirth in almost any situation and was happy to share that joy with anyone. He didn't take himself or anything else too seriously, making him one of the easier tech specialists to get along with.

Nguye earned a commendation for his actions at Torfan and a job offer from an intelligence agency he didn't have the option of refusing. He all but disappeared for two years on assignment before reappearing as an apparent freelance mercenary.

Shadowknight12
2012-05-13, 10:03 PM
Sorry for the lack of posting, I had (minor) surgery and two exams this week. The bits about Kessler and Nguye are really awesome and definitely help me with the pieces.

I'm going to do Squad Three and Four next, so I was wondering if you had made any significant changes to Vegard (can I take what's on the wiki plus the current mode of death?), so I can get to work on the following pieces.

Kiero
2012-05-14, 04:23 AM
Sorry for the lack of posting, I had (minor) surgery and two exams this week. The bits about Kessler and Nguye are really awesome and definitely help me with the pieces.

I'm going to do Squad Three and Four next, so I was wondering if you had made any significant changes to Vegard (can I take what's on the wiki plus the current mode of death?), so I can get to work on the following pieces.

Not to worry, you're helping me out and it sounds like you've got plenty on your plate!

No significant changes to Vegard bar what you've seen on the wiki. One thing to note about Squad Three, Ortiz and Nguye have been "cast" as actors as far as their visuals go. Ortiz is played by Jesse Williams (http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/yy139/TheHobOrgNews/Random/jesse-williams.jpg) and Nguye by Aldis Hodge (http://ll-media.essence.com/archive/aldis-hodge-425.jpg).