One x One March of the Roses: Characters

[Lucyfer]

March of the Roses Quick List

Mercenary Crew

Sarina Schaeffer
Ezra Solace aka Remington
Uriah

Corporations

Eireen of Bandersnatch

Deceased Characters

Marshall
Onida
Kadir
Evangeline
Trace
Cass
Rozanne​

 

[Lucyfer]

Name: Sarina Schaeffer
Nicknames: Rin, Rini, North, Polaris, Rabbit. Immensely dislikes ‘Sari’ and ‘Sara’ nicknames.
Call Sign: Rabbit
Age: 45
Occupation: Mercenary Leader of the Cardinals, so-called “Polaris/North”, with each Vorpal claiming a direction (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW), and the Handler considered the Compass Rose. Some take it as their call sign, some don’t.

Appearance: Sarina stands at 5’6”, with dark red-brown hair that falls just a bit past her shoulders – not quite to mid-back, mostly straight. She has relatively fair skin, and dark blue eyes. Her skin is speckled with freckles and scars, few remarkable, though there are some burn scars on her right arm and hand. She’s got a notable muscular tone to her body. Although she is 45, it’s not the 45 as we know it, although the scars and rough life certainly haven’t helped in de-aging, she seems more in her 30s than her 20s as most her age would appear.

Augmentations:

+Right Arm has been augmented with bioengineering to restore its feeling after receiving terrible burns and punctures. Some of the flesh holds onto the burn scars; the intent by the medical team was to fix that, but Sarina never went in to fix it fully. It also, technically, enhances the strength and speed of her right hand and arm.

+Left leg has been augmented with bioengineering to restore its capabilities after receiving a terrible slashing wound. There are still scar lines from the initial procedure to repair the leg and knit it to the bioengineering. As with the arm, Sarina hasn't repaired the cosmetic damage. The left leg is also stronger and quicker to react than her right leg.

Vorpal: Ananke

Vorpal Appearance: Ananke is a bipedal vorpal, heavily armored, with two back-kits that match in appearance but are quite different so far as what they do. Most would assume Ananke has two grenade launchers on its back, though. Ananke is a mostly blackened vorpal, intentionally designed to look as if it has been charred, with shimmers of a pearl-white where the blackened parts are faded, hinting at the original white-pearl hues of Ananke. Despite the charred appearance, it is an intentional paintjob and not damage. Ananke was built to tank hits and not budge an inch, so it isn’t the fastest vorpal out there, but it is by far one of the strongest in defense, and it has powerful weapons, meant to make quick work of foes so that speed doesn’t matter as much. There are ammunition packs that decorate the belt and back of Ananke.


Vorpal Features:

+Back-kit, left: Electromagnetic Charges, used to disrupt the functions of other vorpals as well as shields.

+Back-kit, right: Dual grenade launcher that does heavy explosive and concussive damage. This is what the electromagnetic back-kit also resembles so most don’t realize it is there.

+Twin Vorpal Swords: Standard energy swords, equipped on both arms as blades that the arms can become.

+Energy Tower Shields: Two of these rest over either back-kit.

+Shotguns: Two shotguns, this is the method she’s most known for using, but it isn’t her preferred method of engagement – she actually prefers the swords, but clean-up means crowd clearing power.


Brief History: Sarina Schaeffer was born in a space station to unremarkable parents, Lydia and Alexander – although Alexander liked to call himself ‘great’, harkening to some long dead human conqueror from Earth. Sarina’s never seen Earth, but her parents believed all the old gods of Earth left for other worlds. They followed the Greek pantheon and hoped to find their gods on a world dubbed Hesperides. Sarina was meant to, eventually, settle on that same colony world with her parents, but it simply took too long. By the time she reached Hesperides, settling anywhere wasn't in her blood.

Sarina grew up on the space station without seeing a speck of real nature until she was 17, and they reached Hesperides. She was taken by it immediately, and decided she was going to spend all the time she could with nature, which led her to a life as something of an archeologist, exploring other worlds, always seeking the ever-elusive Alice worlds, and worlds that had Roses upon them.

Sadly, Sarina was also very impatient, and very curious. She wanted to go down every rabbit hole she found, which ended up being how she got the nickname ‘Rabbit’. People would ask where she was, and the answer was always “down another rabbit hole”. It became a joke, until it led to serious consequences when she drew a gun on a notorious pirate and killed Captain Tricia in cold blood, seven years into the archeologist job.

The situation was simple in her eyes: they were on planet designated CX-34347. Captain Tricia had found their encampment and taken it over, and started taking her pickings of whatever she wanted. Everyone else bowed and allowed it for fear of their lives, but Sarina grew increasingly impatient with the bullshit theatrics, considering she was about to miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of the bioluminescent blossoms blooming under the single moon! Nor was she going to let all those datachips on an ancient human colony, wiped out, be lost forever to some private individual!

Sarina was full of ideals that turned to action.

Necessity.

There was something in the way Tricia’s head exploded in a spray of red mist and brain matter that caused the other pirates to attempt to flee.

Or maybe it was just the look in Sarina's eyes after her first kill.

Either way, there was something that caused the others to rise up and fight back, despite the fleeing – but not all. The leader of the archeology group tried to have Sarina arrested, and this was when the fates changed for her.

Marshall stood up alongside her, and rallied a few of the others.

They took the datachips.

They put the leaders under arrest.

They watched the bioluminescent blossoms, and then they stole a ship and left in the night, heavy with the realization of what they’d done.

Sarina read through and copied the datachips as best she could, before she did, indeed, sell them to support this group of…well, criminals. Criminals who went with her, and she felt an immediate need to support because they’d just fucked their futures. She didn’t want them to be criminals, but they continued to use their skills from archeology to, well, steal.

It wasn't the best line of work and it led them up against another criminal group. They managed to come out on top, and realized how much the criminal was worth…so they turned to bounty hunting.

It was fairly lucrative, and they gained a few people to their unnamed crew. They became known by the ship name, Primordial. And they were good.

Good enough to start getting corporate jobs, and even some government ones. Sabotage, capture, assassination – Sarina justified it. They were going after bad people. Somehow she even justified going after resistance groups. They were small minorities causing harm for the populace of their planets by resisting change and greater civilization.

There were some fallouts and new blood exchanged through the process. One who fell out that hurt was just before the mission on Adastra to quell a rebellion. That was with Uriah, who thought it was pointless since Bandersnatch was pulling out anyways. Sarina saw the easy money.

They were told just to target the ships and artillery, and they were dropped off with vehicles to get them to the rendezvous point in five hours, all unaware it would never come.

They wreaked havoc on the area, blissfully unaware of why the people were fighting as if their lives depended on it. Given, the earthquakes probably didn't help their anxiety paired with sudden combat. One resident even tried to get into a decrepit older generation vorpal to fight but Marshall put them down. He knew vorpals, he always planned to buy one, but he was never good at saving money.

They even joked on Adastra about taking that one as payment. These people didn't need a vorpal weapon.

With ships downed and people moaning about the end of the world, Sarina was prepared to leave for the rendezvous when several things happened all at once.

Sarina doesn't talk about what happened, but she remembers. The nightmares linger.

She was the only survivor, pulled from the junk vorpal, clinging to the corpse of Marshall.

She went back to Bandersnatch. They denied knowing her. They denied the job. They refused everything. They didn’t know the names she said: Marshall, Onida, Cass, Kadir, Evangeline, Trace, and Rozanne. The gun at her side which shot a pirate was useless. Even if she shot the CEO, it would amount to nothing.

She was left with nothing but that vorpal the medical terms thought was hers.

She named it Ananke. Necessity.

Sarina stumbled, stuck, and uncertain how to move forward. She sold everything that belonged to the others.

Necessity.

She used it to repair Ananke, but there was still something off, a kick she couldn't get rid of, done knocking about, and a core that liked to overheat. She'd call it penance if she believed in anything.

She bought vorpal lessons and training. She got back into mercenary work but refused a crew. She couldn't face killing everyone again. She only wanted to be responsible for herself. And she became reckless. The call sign Rabbit may have initially caused chuckles, but not for long. Rabbit didn't run and hide as one might suspect. Rabbit didn’t even use dirty tricks, most of the time – Rabbit was simply relentless.

Her path crossed with Uriah once again, on opposite sides of a mission. He had joined with another company as their security, learned to pilot a vorpal – and he got wrecked, though Sarina didn’t kill him, never targeting the core, even if she did rip the limbs off his vorpal. And then, she simply collected her dues, and went back to the planet, to wait at a nearby bar.

It didn’t take long for Uriah to walk through those doors and get a bloody nose for his efforts as they descended into a screaming match and had to be kicked outside. It ended in tears on both sides for lost friends, and Uriah trying to get his way back alongside her.

He was denied.

Sarina pretended the reunion never happened, but the pain of it lingered. The loneliness. She did still attempt to kick Uriah out when he found her in yet another bar, but he promised it was just business. He had someone he thought could repair Ananke fully. Despite her mistrust, Sarina let the stranger look Ananke over.

And they talked – just a little – just enough – about work.

Enough that Sarina offered him a job repairing Ananke, and decided to allow Uriah to stay.

The mechanic showed his skill not just in repair work, but also diplomacy – though Sarina should have figured that with how he turned her around on ‘working solo’ from the start. Even if she makes it obvious it’s begrudgingly, and she retains a certain distance that is all bluff. She’d die for all of them.

She deserves to die for the seven she failed before.

But the mechanic ended up in another role due to his ability to talk – he ended up being entrusted with the task of finding jobs that won’t kill them all, and making sure they got paid. He became the Handler of the Cardinals, seven people who ended up working with Sarina. It was a position that Sarina understood she wasn’t good at, and she wasn’t willing to let others die because of her choice again, especially as they drew others in.

That was a little over three years ago.

The incident on Andrasta was only seven years ago. Seven has become a terribly auspicious number for her, but in a way she’s trying to use it to cope. It means another reckoning is coming, and perhaps this time, it'll be in her favor.

Or at least the favor of those who work with her. The seven pilots and the one outlier.

 

[Kazanna]

//MILITARY POLICE FILE//

Subject Name: Former High Priest Ezra “The Mad Butcher” Solace

Alias: Remington Sol

Subject Age: Somewhere in his fourties

Subject Gender: Male

Subject Height: 6’3”

Subject Weight: 247lbs

Subject Eye Color: Pale Blue

Subject Hair Color: Brunette

Subjects Physical Appearance

Ezra is a titanic human being, his body is a perfect visage of a muscled monster. His face is typically a peaceful, gentle vision until his lips part into a grin that seems to be filled with far too many teeth. While he keeps his face clean of a beard, he has a long mane of hair that, were he to take it out of the braid it stays in, would fall down to his waist. Beneath his robes his arms, legs, and torso are covered in scars, chemical and heat burns, but most of this is hidden by his musculature.

Subject Personality

An almost comical relief persona, Ezra would never seem to be a holy-man, willing to self-deprecate to keep a mood light, and happy to be the butt of a joke if it means getting a laugh out of those around. He is an appreciative person and typically very kind, but behind his nearly gray eyes, there is a cursed scarring that seems to be held at bay by sheer force of will that only has the occasional breaks in the shell he’s masterfully created over the years. When he is in the task of running the Vorpal squadrons, Ezra is calm, and collected, even when the shit hits the fan, and seems to always be thinking four to five steps further along than his enemies. However beneath his collected exterior, the former holy man hides a deep amount of madness brought on by scars from his past.

Subject History

Ezra was born to be a High Priest within the Sect of Harvest. He and his twin sister were born on an outlier planet dubbed Halcyon, which was a Holy World to the religion they were born into. His youth and teens were filled with training and lessons, some harsh, others designed to build compassion in him towards those around him. The Sect of Harvest was one of peace, cultivating and harvesting the Red Rose to benefit those around them. In his late teens, Ezra was raised to his first level of priesthood, and in his early twenties, he ascended to the rank of High Priest within the Sect alongside a small council of others.

Just before reaching his thirties, Ezra was at the peak of his life, he had gained a coveted position within his religion, he was well respected by his peers, and he was well loved by the planet's locals. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything he had attained was stripped from him, his rank of High Priest became a laughable joke, as he was retitled, The Mad Butcher of Halcyon.

Few people know what happened on Halcyon, but the official report was that the local High Priest murdered the colonists after killing his own sect. The religion's zealous sect, The Sect of Crimson, arrived shortly before the authorities did, finding the planet's population butchered, they captured Ezra, confining him and punishing him in their own way, denying the local authorities access to the prisoner, claiming that he was under their protection, but that he would be excommunicated from their order, cast out to wander with punishing tattoos applied to his skin to brand him a heretic, that he might repent for his sins. While the local authority sought to punish him legally, they had no desire to go to war with The Sect of Crimson.

//END MILITARY POLICE PROFILE//

The reality of things however, was much darker. The Cult of Crimson had arrived upon Halcyon a month prior to the events of the Butchering, and had begun to collect the harvests of the Cult of Harvest. When their stores were not enough to satisfy the papacy within the Cult of Crimson, they began to coerce the Cult of Harvest into speeding up their harvesting schedule, even at the cost of the planet’s life-force. Ezra, being one of the leaders of the Cult of Harvest, had rejected the order, quoting the tenants of their order, begging those higher above him to see reason.

His words fell on deaf ears, and they began to forcibly harvest the Red Roses of Halcyon well past the point of The Depths of Blue occurring. Ezra rallied his fellow priests, and the locals of Halcyon, to fight off the Cult of Crimson, but to little avail. Within his own ranks, the one closest to him, his own flesh and blood, led astray by the words of the Cult of Crimson’s leadership, betrayed him during a crucial moment. His one blind-spot became his downfall, his sister had allowed the Zealots into a crucial zone in Ezra’s defenses, leading to his capture, and the slaughter of the locals, as well as the imprisonment of those still loyal to the Cult of Harvest.

After his capture, the Cult of Crimson held Ezra for several years, attempting to torture the methods of how to continue the harvest and the various methods used by his cult. Unwilling to comply, Ezra was eventually released, but not before he was branded by the cult as a heretic.

Cast out of the only thing he knew, Ezra was forced to abandon his life as a priest. He changed his name, became Remington Sol took up work to survive in a scrap yard, and quickly became adept at handling the toxic Red Rose cores and other materials created from the use of the flowers that his sect had cultivated for so long.

Perhaps it was all of the loss, or the betrayal of his sister, but Ezra was changed, no longer soft and gentle, the diligent priest had become something else. Perhaps it was the constant reminder of his failure on Halcyon, or perhaps it was the realization that his own blood had caused the destruction of everything he loved, but the longer he spent dwelling on what had happened, on what he could have done differently, the more his mind began to slip.

It wasn't long before his temperament became filled with flights of rage, only to shift into a hysteric, almost comedic personality. The shift was slow, over years, no one around him seemed to notice or care, so he slipped deeper and deeper into his own troubled mind. It was only his work, and the focus on it that kept him at all stable, and seemed to keep his mind steady enough to be called even remotely sane.

As a means of redemption, or perhaps just a devotion to his faith, or even maybe just a way to escape the growing mental illness that he did his best to hide, Ezra deepened his knowledge of the sciences around the technology that was forged using the Red Roses, and as a means of atonement or perhaps self punishment, he began to study battle tactics and military stratagem, as well as political rhetoric and business based strategies.

Years passed, and he gained knowledge of the Vorpal Mecha, massive war machines, designed with synthetic white roses at their core. Due to his aptitude with the Red Roses, he quickly learned the systems and worked his way into an assembly plant, then into a fabrication facility that specialized in Vorpal Mechs. He worked there for several years, all the while continuing his studies.

By the time Ezra was in his late thirties, he had become well versed in the Vorpal technology, even quietly refining parts of it in ways his fellow engineers couldn’t even begin to conceive of, due to his deeper connection with the Red Roses and his ability to handle them unprotected.

A few years later Ezra was called upon to repair the cores of a Mercenary groups mechs…