One x One Danu: Characters

[Lucyfer]

The Den Mercenaries
Lenora Ward aka Cali Waite, the Handler
Casimir Gilman, Callsign Argus
Alexandra Dyer, Callsign Aegis
Noah Morn, Callsign Aureus
"Zay"

Amergin Corporation

Leta Bowen, Callsign "Gentle Annie"

Tarpe Industries

Spoiler: L.l Shasta

Name: Grace Merow
Age: 5ft 5
Height: 39
Callsign: L.l Shasta
Affiliation: Last Lights, the in-house Dullahan squadron for Tarpe.
Planet of birth: Umbriel

Physical description: Grace is a woman of average height with a lithe and graceful (if you excuse the pun) body. Lacks any notable muscle mass, which might surprise a lot of people considering her position at the head of the Last Lights. It’s not really all that surprising though considering how Grace has always gotten by with her brains rather than brute force.

Has dark brown eyes that each have a pinpoint of artificial red light at the centre.

Likes to wear an assortment of shades to conceal her eyes most of the time. Usually wears a Tarpe uniform when on deployment, like most Tarpe employees. Her casual wear tends to be in line with the latest trends back on her home world of Umbriel.




Augmentations: Optic upgrade suite complete with neural storage unit. Allows her to record perfect memories, either screenshots or full on videos. Has limited storage so this unit can’t be run permanently, and will have it’s data uploaded and wiped clean regularly.

Bio: Being born in Sol has it’s benefits. Humanities home system is fully supported by the many planet spanning bodies that have set up there over these long centuries and this means the colonies here are amongst those that have been established for the longest. Umbriel may have been one of the last to get going but the seas hidden away beneath its icy crust now harbor extensive aquatic cities, with efforts to colonize the moon being led primarily by China.

Before winding up at the head of the Last Lights Grace had trained with FLTR, a government branch that specialized in using unmanned drones to undertake treacherous deep sea exploratory missions. She proved to not only be deft with her machines but also the politics of big business, swiftly climbing the ranks by making a series of excellent grabs for power. By the time FLTR was disbanded she’d caught the eye of some Tarpe bigwigs who were happy to have her aboard as a Dullahan handler for the current L.X. This wouldn’t last long however and her time with Tarpe mimicked her career path at FLTR. She rose up in record times, making many enemies as she did so. None of them lasted long. Once she was the top handler she became prone to messing around with the Dulls personally, and it soon became clear that her skills were being wasted sitting behind a headset.

Dullahan
Name: Vertigo
Appearance: Vertigo is a sleek bipedal Dullahan that strives to be an excellent jack-of-trades. As such it was constructed in order to strike a fine balance of power, speed and defence. In many ways it’s a very average Dull, but packed with some of the best tech Tarpe has to offer, and those that underestimate it always pay the price for such a slight against this machine and it’s pilot.

Painted midnight blue with copper trim. Its visor is a vibrant orange. Has L.1 painted on the right shoulder pauldron in clean white lettering and the Tarpe logo in the same place on the left pauldron.

Traits: Vertigo is, as it’s appearance suggests, a very balanced Dullahan designed to be able to take its place at the head of the Last Lights no matter the circumstances. Not the fastest, strongest or most durable but more than capable at competing in any of these categories. This leaves it without a notable weakness, and although it has no one overwhelming selling point to leverage against foes the pilot makes up for it with their own skills.

The internal UI of Vertigo are probably the most unconventional part of it, with special care having been taken to replicate the systems found within FLTR deep sea exploration vessels. Usually such a request might be seen as an unnecessary waste of resources to fulfil a pilot's personal tastes but Grace isn’t the type for useless sentiments. The modifications were made with the understanding that Tarpe were expecting a notable change in her performance once they were complete. She didn’t disappoint.

Emblem: A small shack precariously balanced on a mountaintop.

Equipment:

1x 871 L-type anti-personnel rifle (Anthem)- Produced by Tarpe themselves this rifle has long been considered the reliable workhorse of their Dullahan arsenal. Has a highly recognisable and incredibly loud firing sound, which is how it got its production name.

2x Medusa splitter missile systems- back mounted missile launchers that fire large rockets which split into a cloud of smaller explosives as they near their target. Excel at limiting the evasive options of targets.

1x Stinger dart- A plasma edged dart attached to Vertigo’s left arm by a gravity tether. Can be flicked around as a melee weapon with nearly unrivalled range in its weapon class or have the intensity of its plasma field reduced to stick it into objects as a makeshift grappling hook.

30x LPT ‘urchin’ mines- These mines work both in atmosphere and in zero-g environments. Leaving Vertigo as small unassuming discs they will do one of two things depending on where they have been deposited. In space they will stabilise and produce an array of sensitive sensor spikes, and will use small thrusters to actively drift into the path of potential targets. Planetside they will crawl along the ground in a similar manner, waiting on the floor for targets. If something flies over they are capable of jumping up in the air to enter the flightpath of their targets.

Spoiler: L.ll Everest

Name: Arek Krol
Call sign: L.ll Everest
Affiliation: Last Lights, in house Dullahan squadron for Tarpe
Dullahan: Deaf Choir
Bio: When the Last Lights are deployed it’s L.ll that targets pray they’re faced with. He may be a powerhouse when paired with his faithful Deaf Choir but Arek Krol operates with the greatest respect for his foes and is renown for being a true man of honour amongst the many at Tarpe that falsely claim to be cut from the same cloth. It’s up for debate why he’s with Tarpe in the first place. Maybe he really bought into their spiel, or maybe he’s just trying to do what he can from within to bring some sanity to the intergalactic powerhouse. He’s inspired many a naive soul to join up with Tarpe only for their hopes to be dashed when they realise that the vast majority of the higher ups don’t agree with his actions, mocking him behind closed doors.

Deaf Choir

Emblem: A harp player with their head replaced by a large gem.

Appearance: A centaur style quadruped, this Dull towers over many of its compatriots and stands as a pillar of raw firepower in any battle. Painted spartan red with gold trim, Deaf Choir may not be particularly manoeuvrable in the air but it’s easy to see this mech was created to make a fast but well armoured ground unit. Has heavy overlapping carbon laminate battle plate layered over all limbs.

Traits: Prioritising full auto dominance over everything else, Deaf Choir is a speedy mobile platform for a multitude of machine guns that allow it to provide excellent sustained firepower.

Equipment:

8x ‘Symphony’ mini guns. These mini guns are built directly into Deaf Choir’s arms, with one on each side of the somewhat blocky forearms for a total of four on each side. Internal feeding units draw from a massive well of ammunition located in a bulky storage unit attached to this Dulls back. As the big brother of Tarpe’s ‘Anthem’ series of anti-personnel rifles, these mini guns retain a lot of what makes them so popular, with incredibly rugged internals. With eight of these weapons Deaf Choir is capable of tearing most targets to shreds if they are forced to withstand direct fire for any extended length of time.

2x KQ-48 anti-material rifles. Two over the shoulder rifles that compensate for their lengthy firing cycle by packing bullets that many would consider overkill. Tarpe argues that nothing is overkill when defending free space.

1x MM-L01. A large back mounted unit designed specifically with centaur style quads in mind. Composed of a large flat unit that sits behind the torso of the Dull, the MM-L01 fires 10x vertical missiles with each firing cycle.

L.lll Devi
L.lV Hayes
L.V Eiger
L.Vl Rainer
L.Vll Forellen
L.Vlll Daisen
L.lX Lowe
L.X Nevis

The Deceased

Ancilia Members

Iliona, the Handler​

 

[Lucyfer]

Name: Alexandra Dyer (pronounced Dire)
Callsign/Aliases: Aegis; “The Great”, “Dire”, “Die-er”. Tends to dislike nicknames using “Alexandra”, but accepts just being called by her last name if people want a ‘shorter’ name.
Age: 33
Origin: Colony Planet Harmonia
Known Occupation: Mercenary, formerly of the “Ancilia”.

Appearance: Alexandra stands at 5’9”, and is rather well-toned/muscled, so that loose clothing almost doesn’t hide it. She has fair skin, marred by numerous scars from cuts and burns, most small and inconsequential. Her hair is dyed silver-white, naturally it’s black, and when lazy it becomes obvious. It falls straight to nearly waist-length. Her remaining real eye is an amber-hazel, and her augmented eye is gold– it’s not always immediately noticeable there’s a color difference, which leaves just a certain eerie or uncanny feeling. She has angular, aristocratic features. Has perfected the “fuck you” smile.

Her chest does have a notable scar high up on the right side, just under the shoulder, from a gunshot wound. Circular in nature, white and messy burn markings mostly.

Her face is also scarred with several white lines along the right side from metal debris that scraped by. Her right ear is clipped at the top, and her right eye is gone. She’s added an augmented eye to restore her sight, but she’s done nothing with the ear as there was no damage to function.

Augmentations:

+Right Eye: Colored gold, and it can light up to serve as a flashlight, just like the “eyes” of Clarent. She lost her right eye in the Battle of Hyperborea, and replaced it. The augmentation lets her see normally, adds a built-in flashlight, and also allows her to see heat signatures – although she jokes that instead it lets her see more colors so people don’t know there’s an actual use to it beyond sight and flashlight. It hasn’t glitched on her yet, so she doesn’t know what that’ll be like.

Dullahan Name: Clarent; Formerly, Excalibur.

Dullahan Appearance:

Clarent used to be white and gold under the moniker of Excalibur. It was a smaller and faster Dullahan as Excalibur; Clarent was upgraded defensively after the Battle of Hyperborea during Alexandra’s reckless spending spree.

The gold remains, especially as a sort of fractal design on the chest plating of the core where it was broken in the Battle of Hyperborea. At the center of the break, there is a black light, the brightest one on the Dullahan, like an eye, even if the Dullahan does have a proper head.

It is a bipedal Dullahan, of a dark silver and tarnished gold, though all its lights – thruster flames included – are now black, giving it a terribly eerie look. The silver does retain a pearl sheen to it, quite pretty in direct sunlight.

The Ancilia decal of a ‘Figure 8/Eternity’ shield remains on the two shields that Clarent uses. Clarent has not adopted the new symbol of the new group.

Clarent is a very large Dullahan, both in height and width, not at all built for speed, but built for defense and strength, as Clarent can wield its tower shields like bashing weapons, and as Excalibur was indeed known to break other Dullahan by crushing them between hard surfaces.

Doesn’t really prefer to fight at a distance, and uses the missiles to drive her foes where she wants them, or keep a foe out of a battle she’s having with someone else. Very aggressive Dullahan.

Dullahan Equipment:

+MNL-001: A powerful beam saber. Usually on the Dullahan’s belt, or wielded in the right hand.

+TARKUS: Tarpe Industry Shields. Has two, one on the back of the Dullahan, and one on the left arm of the Dullahan that cannot be removed, although the hand remains free. The one on her back has to be used in her right hand, and removes that hand from using a weapon.

+Two SCHAEFFERs: Very powerful shotguns up close, which is the Clarent’s usual method of fighting, either in-hand, or on the utility belt of the Dullahan. Has two for both hands.

+HNTK-12PC, x2: Tracking missiles that can launch up to 12 missiles at once, per kit. The Clarent has two kits on its back.

+Ammunition Packs: Kept in the legs of Clarent, and she can use internal functions to transport the ammunition up into the missile kits, or to her hands, depending on what she needs to reload.

Overview:

Alexandra Dyer was born to Calliope and Hadrian Dyer, on the recently colonized planet of Harmonia. Her mother was a famed archaeologist, and her father a journalist, who together did collaborative work to bring more funding and interest to Harmonia. Alexandra had two younger siblings, twin brothers, Nikolai and Dimas.

Alexandra quickly became known as “The Great” for her inability to turn down a challenge – and very often succeed, even if she didn’t get it the first time. She continued, be it something as frivolous as walk across a thin metal rod without falling, to the dangerous of climbing a tall and fragile tree without dying. She had something of a cult following among the children her age for it, and her good heart. People ran to her with problems.

So, she was sent home more than once for starting fights. And ending fights.

Her brothers never worried about following in her footsteps; they were too busy trying to figure out who they were, together or apart. It was a problem they would never solve.

Harmonia was never supported well enough defensively, and it was raided one day.

“Protect your brothers.”

Alexandra failed, and it was a failure she couldn’t ‘try again’ at. She was shot and left for dead before she found Nikolai and Dimas at the tender age of fourteen. She survived; none of her family did. She was moved from Harmonia to a world closer to the core worlds and put into an orphanage where she aged out.

Among orphans, her play took a more ruthless turn, gained teeth and sharpness, because many of them lashed out in their own anger at the injustice that brought them into the orphanage, whether it was abandonment, violence, or other. And she didn’t have the capability to empathize.

It was that ruthlessness that translated into her getting lessons to pilot a Dullahan, and then sell her skills out to the Ancilia Company as their twelfth, and final, member.

They were named after legendary shields, and each took a name from it. She was Aegis. There were to be only Twelve, of course, because the Ancilia of Rome were 12 – one real, eleven false. She found a new family in the other eleven, and their handler, Iliona, a rather maternal woman who seemed to dote on the twelve, and tended to give out missions that fell in line with what Alexandra wanted to do: protect worlds, either by stationing them there for a time, or taking jobs to go after raiding companies, or even other mercenary companies.

And so, Alexandra mellowed out a bit. Her edges dulled. She was still a jokester and in high spirits, but she didn’t cut her fellow pilots down. “The Great” nickname returned, both jokingly and endearingly. Her enemies knew her only as Aegis or Aegis the Great when the term of endearment was blasted on the comms, and they knew her as an impenetrable shield, despite her Dullahan being named after a famous sword. No one got by her. It was her challenge. It was her game – and she played it well. Her laughter was the last thing plenty of enemies heard, and her allies knew that particular trill when an enemy was about to see its last sights.

This paradise lasted from the age of 21, to 33.

Then, the Battle for Hyperborea occurred, only a few months ago.

Hyperborea was a colony world, turning into an official agricultural world. It was plentiful in its ability to produce crops, and so it was starting to gain some real protection and recognition. It shouldn’t be a world mercenaries were never needed on, and yet, Iliona sent them all to it.

Eleven Ancilia died.

There was no military defense, when a raiding party arrived, just the twelve mercenaries. Dullahan and air-based artillery were deployed against them, and the twelve fought. Alexandra fought, hanging in the back closest to the particular town she was to defend.

“I won’t move.”

Those should have been her famous last words.

Instead, they were her truth.

The town never fell, although Excalibur was all but destroyed in the event, and Alexandra was worse for wear, having watched her friends all fall ahead of her, and taking more than one serious blow in combat, reaching her even through the armor of Excalibur. A literal hole was blown through the core of Excalibur, and shards of metal debris did hit her before she had a shield in front.

The people were overjoyed, they saw to her health and repair of Excalibur, but Iliona never came. The eleven were buried in the fields, and Alexandra returned to Iliona to find out where she was. To find out the cost of the eleven lives

Iliona wasn’t happy to see her. She made it clear by shooting Alexandra through the chest; if she wasn’t still in her pilot’s armor, it would have been fatal.

But she was.

And Iliona didn’t try another shot, she just stood and yelled at Alexandra for ‘ruining everything’, raving about the payday she was going to have by using the raiders to hold the planet hostage. None of it really made sense to Alexandra – how was she getting a pay day? Why did she have to sacrifice the Ancilia for it? Did she run the raiders and the mercenaries or was she just working with them?

Iliona talked about Alexandra ‘making it up’ with more jobs, and that was when Alexandra snapped out of her dissociative daze.

Iliona wouldn’t be found again; Alexandra ejected her alive, into space, and blew up Iliona’s ship before returning to Hyperborea for Clarent. All of Iliona’s funds were cashed out and sent to her own account, of course.

She didn’t quite know what to do with herself after taking her own pay from Hyperborea. She had enough money to quit, but she preferred to spend it on killing herself slowly in bars, or gamble it away in actual casinos, or anywhere else some game came up. Even deadly games with absolute cheaters.

Death didn’t come for her.

An old ally did, one she’d worked alongside on a few missions – Casimir, codename Ulysses.

“So this is where Aegis the Great has gotten herself out to.”

Alexandra had never seen Casimir outside of his Dullahan, and vice-versa – but Casimir recognized her Dullahan in the garage, and recognized her voice in the bar. Everyone thought she was dead, but Casimir held out hope. Excalibur – now Clarent – wasn’t among the Dullahan standing guardian on Hyperborea like some god.

Alexandra didn’t tell him what happened, exactly, and Casimir didn’t need to ask. Casimir invited Alexandra to join his crew, and introduced Alexandra to the handler to get her in. Despite being bitten by a handler in the past, Alexandra had already run through most of her funds, and she liked Casimir.

Although her instinct was absolutely to metaphorically bite the new hand that intended to feed her, so she’s definitely been a bit “sharp” with the new handler, fully intent on seeing if she can break them into revealing their true colors, and showing their hand.

But, she needs to fed. She needs funds, so she supposed she could make her new job protecting Casimir’s group.

She wouldn’t fail this time.

Even if it hurt to be with them, and every smile was a special agony as she played at already having a familial connection to them, as she had with the Ancilia. She didn’t know how to give the crew its own place in her heart yet, when the Ancilia stabbed themselves into every new memory she tried to make. So, very often, she also ends up sharp with them, and has earned some resentment in the group, as some believe she thinks she’s “too good” for them.

But a new kind of mission may be just what she needs, as they headed to a previously shielded world of Danu.

 

[Lucyfer]

Name: Leta Bowen
Callsign/Aliases: Gentle Annie
Age: 29
Origin: Cosmopolitan Planet Leng
Known Occupation: Member of Amergin's "Wild Hunt" Dullahan forces.

Appearance: Leta Bowen stands at 5’4”, with lightly tanned skin, and dark gray eyes. She is athletically lithe and lean, with black hair that falls just a bit past her shoulders, slightly wavy, and usually a bit messy or unkempt. She has no notable scars or even notable markings at all, which is all fairly intentional.

Augmentations: None

Dullahan Name: Samhain

Dullahan Appearance:

Samhain is a silvery-blue Dullahan that is rather diminutive and has reverse-joint legs. It is a tetrapod model, made for speed and stealth, so its limbs aren’t built to take hits, and they are far thinner than most tetrapods. Even without the cloak, it seems to shimmer as if cloaked in moonlight, and the silver that is around the joints is made to look like fancy runes, though they serve no real purpose other than ornamentation, and to allow Samhain to be the “poster child” of the Amergin corporation, along with its pilot.

The Amergin Sigil of a White Dullahan Leg is depicted on the core of the model, just right of center, and on the upper part. As nothing of the Dullahan sticks out much from the core, it doesn’t really stand out much.

Samhain isn’t made for lengthy engagements, so all of its weapons are meant to be “one and done”, either to give Leta time to escape, or to completely incapacitate her foes. Samhain can’t really take a hit from even weak Dullahans, but it more than makes up for it in speed, stealth, and the heights it can reach and hover at.

Dullahan Equipment:

+1BOR-CA3R: A mobile cloaking unit. This is in a central back-kit which forces her other two back-kits to be small. It’s a powerful cloak that allows her to move and be all but invisible to foes, and undetectable on scanners.

+AE-5H3D: Right back-kit holds an energy shield that Leta can trigger on. It will deteriorate after time, or if it takes too much damage. It can be reactivated after a bit of time, though it draws energy from the Dullahan and it can end up causing the Dullahan to run out of charge if over-used.

+0TH-D1N: Left back-kit holds an “energy lance” that can be shot over her shoulder, single shot, and also energy based. It does damage to electronical and energy devices, tending to stun other Dullahan long enough for her to get away.

+MOONLIGHT: A powerful energy beam created by Amergin; akin to the electromagnetic spear, the pulsing of the light beam tends to knock out the power in a Dullahan it hits. Has one on each arm, and another weapon powered by the Dullahan’s energy, rather than ammunition, allowing Samhain not to be weighed down by ammunition.

Overview:

Leta grew up on the cosmopolitan planet of Leng, and as such, she was one of billions. Although her parents Diana and Orion did their best to make her feel special as an only child, she was constantly reminded there was someone better. Someone stronger. Someone prettier. Someone smarter.

Always someone.

She was lost in the sea of people, and thought her destiny might just be another paper pusher, until she got an idea: there may be hundreds, thousands, of Dullahan pilots, but she could be one of them.

Leta generally dislikes fighting, but that wasn’t all Dullahan did, and she saw her calling when she watched the film about a fictional Dullahan spy. No one had to know a spy! In fact, if they did, you did a bad job! Besides, there were lots of dangerous places that only a Dullahan could explore because the atmosphere wasn’t good for humans!
She didn’t end up a spy. Or unknown.

She ended up finding her calling with Amergin, who was willing to fund her licensing, and provide her with a Dullahan. Of course, she had to start at the bottom rung, but she did begin to stand out with her unconventional methods of engagement, using the environment, and deactivating other Dullahan so that the pilots could be captured and interrogated.

She rose in the ranks, and her Dullahan was soon changed out to her current model, Samhain, built not for direct combat engagement, but for “assassinations”, so to speak, and quiet explorations.

And now she’s known. She’s become the poster girl – or some say, pin-up girl – for the stealth lines of the Amergin Corporation, running commercials, posing, showing off Samhain for potential buyers, and then getting back to work going into dangerous places to learn what’s there, steal information from competitors, or assist Amergin’s security with a troublesome problem by letting the other Dullahan’s take the attention – and striking while they’re occupied.

Now she’s been sent to Danu to investigate the opportunities on the planet for Amergin, along with a few others of the Amergin Corporation, ranging from other security detail to scientists, and she’s quite excited, even though she knows some of her job is going to end up being sabotaging other corporations trying to dig into the planet.

Her parents have…concerns about her job, but overall support her.

And now Leta is known for something.

 

[Lucyfer]

Name: Casimir Gilman
Callsign/Aliases: Argus; Cass, Cassi, Wizard.
Age: 26
Origin: Space Station Theta
Known Occupation: Mercenary, a part of Cali’s group.

Appearance: Casimir stands at 5’9”, though he spikes his hair to give himself a bit more height – mostly as a joke. He has tanned skin, and a “lazy fit” build – he’s soft, but there’s strength beneath it. His hair is kept semi-short, shaggy, and he tends to spike it. Naturally, it’s brown, but he’s been dying it dark blue lately to match his eyes.

He has a few scars, but none are really notable. His nose is a bit wonky from being broken in a bar fight, though.

Augmentations:

+Permanent Sensory Implant: Casimir has an implant in his brain that functions akin to having a radio in his head. He can turn it off and on with an earpiece, but it lets him pick up various waves as ‘sounds’, even some otherwise visual ‘waves’ can be heard. It has glitched, and that’s usually with a high pitched shriek he can’t turn off, or struggles to turn off. Needs help getting to a medic as his balance is thrown off.

Dullahan Name: Ulysses
Dullahan Appearance:
Ulysses is a well-rounded Dullahan, another bipedal with front-facing legs, and a medium build, coming in hues of ghostly green and brown, that almost seem ephemeral with the way they blend into the Dullahan, and the way the Dullahan can blend into some scenery, even though it isn’t “camo” designed.

Ulysses was built for speed and precision most of all, although it sacrifices some speed for better armor. The Ulysses can fight at close range, but is better at a distance – unless it’s taunting, in which case, its masterful twerking tends to get a rise out of foes.

The “denmother” emblem rests on the head of the Dullahan proudly. A custom decal of a wire-snake eating its own sparking tail rests on the left hand of his Dullahan.

Dullahan Equipment:

+MNV-02: Can be used in either hand, it is a melee weapon in the purest sense, driving a sharp, strong metal spike into other Dullahan. It can be charged so that the thrusting potential of the pile bunker is stronger.

+L5R-GG: Can be used in either hand, a precise laser handgun that can be used well at medium to close-distance, and can fire several shots, though it is not an automatic weapon.

+1CU-H4H4: Usually kept on the back of the Dullahan, it is not a part of the back-kit, but a powerful sniper rifle that uses laser energy. It can be charged, and it can hit a target and cause significant damage from quite a good distance.

+2GLR-DB: He has these double-grenade launcers for both back-kits. Not tracking, but quite effective, with a range thanks to the explosive nature of the grenades.

Overview:

Casimir was born on a space station to Rhys and Gwyn Gilman, though they divorced. He still saw both of them frequently, as did his older sister, Junia, but it was a struggle dealing with the not-infrequent bad-mouthing their parents did of the other, and figuring out was truth, and what was bitterness.

Cass isn’t too close to his parents for some of that confusion, and a lot of the general emotional and mental abuse they put him through for always wanting him to take sides, spy on the other, and join in the badmouthing so they could “get full custody” and “don’t you want to be with me most?” issues. He’s still close to Junia and writes her almost daily.

As soon as he could, though, he hopped a ship off the space station and went to the first Academy that accepted. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, and started out studying ancient alien civilizations, thinking he’d go into archaeology. That thought ended the second he watched Amergin showing off their Dullahan models, and he was filled with childish glee at the thought of being a pilot.

He tried to join Amergin, but they wouldn’t have him.

He dropped out of the Academy and got a job to start paying for lessons to pilot a Dullahan, and ended up enlisting with the so-called Galactic Police. They paid him back for his lessons and gave him a license, and he was so thrilled to join them!

Until, he realized, he almost never got to use the Dullahan, and they were almost, always, too late to help.

His frustration led to him venting it all out to a mercenary, who ended up offering him a job with his crew. When Cass admitted he didn’t have his own Dullahan, that was apparently ‘not a problem’ as they had a spare, and he could start customizing it as he got paid.

So, Cass went to meet the Handler, and upon deciding he liked Cali well enough, he jumped ship from the police to the mercenaries.

Not all the jobs were good – but Cass never considered them bad. Fucking over corporations? Hell FUCKING yes, he knows what kind of nightmares those places can be to people and worlds, usually fucking over worlds for resources. Sure, he was usually helping another corporation for it, but it balanced.

Neutral.

Not to mention he was still bitter over Amergin not letting him in, and tends to resent working alongside them, but he does it. Their stealth models are something to behold!

He worked with the Ancilia from time to time, and even against them a few times, managing never to be killed. He interacted over the comms frequently with “Aegis the Great”; he was never sure if he liked her, or hated her guts, but he knew he was never going to square off against Excalibur in his Dullahan, unless he took her by surprise.

Outside of Dullahan’s, he has a tendency to be scrolling the Net, and occasionally, hacking it. The implant he got after the police lets him ‘hear’ the Net, and sometimes, it lets him hear security devices. So, he’s able to disarm security devices, unlock doors, and other sorts of things that have given him extra skills that tend to be useful in a variety of missions. It got him the nickname of ‘Wizard’ among some for the speed at which he can disarm and open things up.

Of course, when it glitches, it’s pretty bad. The shrieking in his head can put him out until he gets it fixed.

Some people also consider it odd he’d voluntarily get an augmentation, but he’s only considered getting more.

He hasn’t yet, he’s put his money to games and frivolous things that make him happy. Also the care of his dog.

Then, the Hyperborean incident shook the mercenary world. The Ancilia weren’t just some random mercenary group.

He went to pay his respects to them and saw eleven of the twelve Dullahan there.

Excalibur wasn’t.

It was sheer luck he saw the Dullahan and recognized it, given all its changes, when he went to take a rest at a space station. In the bar, he heard “Aegis the Great” ordering liquor that would probably put him flat on his ass, and he didn’t think it was her first, either. So, of course, he joined her.

Barely avoided getting punched in the face, too – but he extended an offer to her all the same, because she looked like she needed it. He could get her a job with his group. Probably.

She accepted, and so he quickly ran it by his Handler, and introduced them, the same way he’d been introduced before. Of course, he saw those shards of mistrust.

He hasn’t asked what happened.

He can tell she’d sooner tear his limbs off than tell him, which he doesn’t blame her for. He can surmise it was bad with all 11 being dead, and Iliona presumed dead. But the others don’t seem to notice there’s a difference in her banter now, though he doesn’t think as many of them ended up crossing her path directly.

Working alongside her is also different than before. He’s never worried for his safety – but he’s certainly worried for hers as he’s watched her get in the way of more than one strike intended for his Dullahan, and he knows the repair bills on her Dullahan have got to be looking pretty miserable for their Handler, not to mention the ammunition expenses.

But then again – he’s hardly expending any on repair. So maybe it evens out. Cass tries not to know. The financials make his head spin.

Hell, the financials to keep his dog fed and healthy make his head spin sometimes, but the black grim has never starved a day since he’s entered Casimir’s life, and everyone seems to love The Baron.