Post by Vex on Jun 16, 2009 13:50:00 GMT -5
Name: Victor
Original Name: Reikan Fel
Race: Human
Age: 26
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 195 lbs
Birth place: Corellia
Appearance:
Victor is physically imposing, powerful and lean, built like a Smashball back. He generally wears his dark brown hair short, and naturally tousled. Though he grew facial hair however a mission required, he has taken a preference for maintaining a 5 o'clock shadow now that he's no longer under the effect of the emotional-suppressing chip. His eyes are a blue so deep they are almost indigo. He has a preference for tactical style combat pants and fingerless shooting gloves when not dressing to blend in with local culture.
Personality:
Since his release from the chip, Victor has dealing with something of a culture shock. Having to live with and deal with emotions suddenly and without the buffer of life and experience with them to guide him has been something no amount of Green Meadows training could prepare him for. Thankfully, with a clean slate the relentlessness that was basically bred into his nature, he's been making great strides. The shock has caused him to develop a bit of a sarcastic streak as a method of dealing with things when the emotions get two overwhelming. For the most part, he prefers to be taciturn, not speaking overly much unless he deems it important. He was definitely a man of action, not of words.
He feels very protective of the other members of his group. Even in the beginning when his chip was deactivated, that held true. They were the only family, the only people that could understand him and their situation. Given the horror of suddenly finding his world flipped upside down with a deluge of emotion, that protectiveness drove him to code in the chipsets of as many others as he could to fail gradually, giving them baby steps into emotion.
Very methodical, Victor borders on obsessive compulsive and anal retentive when it comes to his equipment and preparing for missions.
Profession: Ex-Assassin
Skills: Green Meadows Assassin Training
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 8
Intelligence: 9
Speed: 7
Leadership: 2
Unarmed: 6
Melee Weapons: 4
Ranged Weapons: 6
Specialized Combat Skill: Slugthrower Pistols (Dual): 9
Specialized Non-Combat Skill: Slicing: 8
Alignment: -1
Ship Name: N/A
Bio:
Many Corellians held the name of Fel throughout the millennia. Some would be a part of great dynasties set in the future. Some would simply be normal, or abnormal, people seeking their fortunes in the galaxy any way possible…even as pirates plundering helpless pleasure yachts. Reikan Fels' parents came from the last type of Fel. Though the way they made money may have been less than scrupulous, the manner with which they conducted their work was precise and professional.
The ship would be disabled, causing minimal damage. Once inside, they'd subdue the crew and passengers, take what they were after, and leave with minimal damage to crew or guests. It was a matter of pride...and one that got them killed. They attached a yacht that was a Trojan horse...a Hutts method of taking care of interlopers messing with his business profit. When they went to raid, they found nothing but armed mercenaries. The battle was vicious and quick. The Fels and their crew were dead. The mercenaries moved to claim the pirate vessel, only to find a young child as well.
They wanted to send him out the cargo bay exit, but one of the mercenaries had enough of a heart to ask to return him to the Hutt so someone could make a profit off the young child. Two days and he was sold to some discreet but monetarily affluent contacts. Contacts that asked he be put through a selection of military and personal challenges to test his military and personal proclivities...his future ability for adaptation. He passed and soon found himself on a ship going to Ralltiir.
Once the group DID reach Ralltiir, the boy found himself in the company of quite a few other children of his own age or just the year below. Uncertain what to think of the new situation, not to mention the stark white walls, polished tile floors, shiny metal tables, and lots and lots of strange looking gadgets. Having traveled an impressive amount of the galaxy with his parents in their ship, it didn’t surprise him overly much and so he remained fairly quiet, finding a seat beside another child who seemed just about as quiet as himself. Turned out her name was Ca’tra…not that it would matter much by the end of the week anyway. No sooner had she told him her name and fallen silent again than people in white coats herded the children into individual rooms to eat and go to sleep. The next day heralded the beginning of a battery of tests. Blood, physical, mental, emotional, intelligence…you name it, they tested it to get his every nuance down to a T on their systems. Though they didn’t so much as tell Reikan this, already he had been issued a serial number and code name “Victor” in the facility’s files. Food was issued at the end of the day and then it was time for the poked, prodded, and generally harassed little boy to go to sleep.
Morning came early and once again the pokey, nosey, annoyingly tense people in the white coats came back, hooked him up in an already in place IV to a drip and wheeled him away, still in bed and very confused and frightened. Terrified, he tried to go through all the many and varied colorful words that he’d learn in the short span of his life while living with his parents as a smuggler. Eventually, he found himself in a very sterile room with many shiny, sharp and pointy looking objects laid pristinely out on small tables that were dispersed between beeping and blinking machines which they proceeded to hook him up to so they flashed, blinked, and beeped even more as they went about their duty measuring his vitals. A particularly pretty lady, from what the horror stricken Reikan could see behind the surgical mask anyway, hooked a syringe into the IV and it was off to sleepy land for Reikan…permanently.
Contrary to what that may have sounded like, they didn’t kill the little boy…not exactly anyway…they had just put him to sleep. They had paid far too much for the little smuggler’s child to just go off and kill him, after all. No, what they did was, in some ways, far worse than killing him…through hours of painstaking surgery and delicate work, the team of doctors and nurses implanted an emotion suppression chip designated RELIC (Reactive Emotion StabiLizing InterfaCe). Along with this pleasant little gift, the team was kind enough to wipe all of the boy’s memories except for what he needed to live day to day. How to eat, drink, use the bathroom, walk, talk….all of THOSE memories they kept…no, it was the precious little things like his family, his home, his NAME that they erased…things that most normal sentients take for granted. By doing this, the team had just effectively killed Reikan Fel along with the rest of his family. The little shell that they had just brought into the world was dubbed “Victor.”
The RELIC chips took well to their new hosts, and the children were set to begin their training. Schooling was, at this point, a priority. Of course the children they had brought to their facility would need to be taught to read, write, solve math problems, know something of science, and learn a great deal about history…if only to be able to perform at standard levels to keep up the appearance of being a “normal” person. Besides, the team working with the young assassins in training didn’t want their precious little darlings to be stupid…oh no, far from it…they were supposed to be perfect. The best teachers were brought in to teach the students the basics, their place of learning large classrooms in the facility’s upper portion. When they weren’t learning the basics, they were being put through physical training, when they weren’t being put through physical training outside, they were studying weapons handling beneath the facility, and if it wasn’t one of those things…it was eating, studying or sleeping.
Victor had shown early signs of being a savant…walking early, early potty training…saying his first words months before the rest of those his age and talking in full sentences within a couple months. He showed an affinity for languages that had been nurtured by diverse retinue of sentient creatures that the Fel’s had done business with. Under the Green Meadows program, his hunger knowledge only intensified…RELIC or no. The affinity for language was nurtured and expanded upon. The curiosity about electronics and what made them work was encouraged as well and he put the majority of his efforts into them. When they began to introduce them to basic weapons, he immediately found the mechanical elegance of firearms to be entrancing, especially the slugthrowers that most seemed to overlook. During that time, he struck up a comfortable companionship with another of the children, a young girl named Tango. While he liked the weaponry, she preferred the unarmed aspects of combat. When she recommended they study together and share their knowledge, he immediately recognized the potential benefits and agreed.
Particularly adept at math, he easily devoured most of the subject matter they set before him. Before he was eight, they’d begun to teach him algorithm and logic and teaching him about computers. It opened up an entirely new world for him and he couldn’t get enough. Though they didn’t know it…they opened up a world to him where he had control. In a life where every part of his existence was carefully regimented…the inner world of computers and programming allowed him to make his own rules.
Victor fell into this routine easily. It seemed most of the children did, but some still seemed a bit awkward in their skins. During study and eating times (which to them were also study times), the boy had grown accustomed to speaking to a girl named Tango. He was quite adept at weapons training that involved more long ranged weapons, such as blasters, while Tango was far more proficient with blades and martial arts. Noticing this, Tango had suggested to him that they study together so that they might both benefit from the other’s strengths.
Training for Victor was not so dissimilar in routine from the other children he was growing up around. He had been taught to read and write, mathematics, science, history, physical fitness…all the formal education a child would be expected to learn. This wasn’t to say that learning was ‘normal’ for them, they learned swiftly...not to mention they had far less formal training such as weaponry, strategy, obstacle courses, slicing/hacking, mechanics, and various languages to boot. As they got older, the classes became more specific…the children were sent off with various teachers who specialized in the areas the various “students” seemed to excel in. Victor's early interest in computers and his growing skills involving them allowed him to excel in slicing and hacking, while Tango in medical and language...a far cry from the mathematical skills of Victor.
These weren’t the only changes going on, however. The children were swiftly developing in ways that were typically reserved for teens older than themselves, and at far faster rates than were normal. With the ‘miracle’ of modern medicine, however, he (like the others) started puberty early…and all the wonders that brought. Thanks to the RELIC chip, emotions stayed under strict control, luckily for all the pre-teens involved (and certainly luckily for all the staff involved in the project).
Learning to work around her new body was far from comfortable for the young adults, and they found that they now had to fight and run and move with different weight distributions as their bodies developed. Unfortunately, their ‘teachers’ had no sympathy for the plight of the young and gangly teens and preteens. They were driven to perform at top standards, and so they did. Each found their own way to cope with the new limitations and capabilities of their lengthening bodies, and Victor was no different. “Leisure” time was now spent practicing cooking, studying survival guides, honing their skills in their respective areas of expertise, studying languages and other skills that would help in their cover as what they now “knew” they were being trained for…covert military operations.
At 16, like all the others, Victor was taken in for yet another round of time consuming and excruciatingly frustrating and painful procedures that left them laid up for near a month with regular kolto treatments. Muscles grew stronger, ribs were removed, joints were replaced, contacts were implanted, and everything that could be done to ensure their bodies could perform at optimal levels for the longest period of time was seen to. The end of the month saw the new assassins training harder than ever to become used to their new reflexes, strength, durability, and flexibility.
Come the age of 17, Victor was ushered into a shuttle with the other assassins and shipped off to Dxun. On the way there, they were stripped of their armor and given nothing but a few feet of rope and a basic combat knife. Upon reaching orbit of the moon, they were all informed that they would have to survive with nothing but these tools for a full month when those still alive would be picked up and taken back to Green Meadows. As the first assassin (Alpha) was dropped to the planet below, the other quietly waited their turns. The group dwindled down as they dropped off Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, so on down the line until they reached Tango. Standing, the girl nodded to Victor…she had already spoken to him about meeting up if they could since, obviously, two assassins were better than one and they would have a higher chance of survival that way. He nodded back to her before preparing for his own drop. Once she dropped out of sight, he stood up and moved into position, waiting for the go-ahead.
Victor didn't waste time once he landed. Moving quickly, he headed for higher ground. Without maps, he needed to visually get an idea of the area around him. Once he had that, he could plan for shelter, food, water, and materials needed to make more survival gear. He had already thought through the aspects needed for survival, prioritizing water, food, and then shelter. The elements and creatures could be rough, but without the basics of sustenance, he would weaken and die long before he succumbed to anything external. Besides, he'd already noted the direction of the transport's travel. His intent was to head in the direction that the shuttle had come from...the direction that Tango was going to be in.
Several days after being dropped off on Dxun, Tango finally managed to meet up with Victor just as the sun was setting below the clouds. It had finally stopped raining for long enough for Victor to lead Tango to a small hallow in the base of a large tree that he’d found that day. It wasn’t near water, and there wasn’t really anything to be done about dry wood to cook meat or ward away animals, but it was shelter and it was relatively well hidden. It would do for the night, and so they stayed there that night. The next day Tango pointed out a fresh game trail in the mud and they followed it to the clear spring and pond that animals in that area used. A craggy cliff face nearby became their shelter when, upon closer inspection, a decently large cave was discovered.
The next several weeks were far easier, and the two almost fell into a routine. Wood would be gathered to dry out in the cave, traps were fashioned with the rope they had, excursions into the jungle would be made to gather fruit or search for useful items from abandoned camp sites, animals would be hunted for food, and water would be collected. Between the two assassins, they were a formidable team against the wilds around them and even if they were injured, Tango was good enough at patching up what few injuries they did get with the med-kit. Eventually the time came for the pickup and the two were retrieved along with the others and taken back to Green Meadows to recover. Their training was officially complete, and they were now ready to be assigned missions.
The next years were quite eventful, despite the fact that Victor found himself not remembering large chunks of those years. His superiors were quite pleased by the exceptional ways Victor and Tango performed and executed their missions.
With Tango working as his partner more often than not, it was even easier for the two to blend in as ‘just another couple’ and avoid detection, only to slice into security systems and gain their target.
At this point, they had spent so much time together that they didn't need to think about what the other person would do. When they acted on a mission, it was like one working organism, not two. Two heads, two heartbeats, four limbs...all working flawlessly toward the same goal.
If and when things got sticky, which they invariably did at times, the short range of Tango’s preferred fighting style, and the long range of Victor’s allowed the two to complement each other perfectly. Had any that saw them fight together been left alive, they surely would have said that the two were performing a deadly sort of dance…unluckily for any who saw them fight, no one was ever left alive. Once their missions were complete, they returned home to Green Meadows and (unbeknownst to them) had their memories wiped by the medical team under the ruse of a physical exam.
It wasn’t until nearly a month back that things changed for the assassins. During a routine checkup, Dr. Myri Denive noticed something strange about the two and decided to do a little digging of her own.
She brought him back in for further testing, noting the extreme lack of emotion...the clinical detachment with which he spoke and responded to anything. Everything she asked, every task she asked him to do, was completely quickly, thoroughly, and with exceptional skill...almost robotic in its precision. She had interacted with droid's that held more apparent emotion. They, at least, had been programmed for it. It only brought about more questions....questions that were brought up due to the anomalous readings she'd found from several of the chips.
That digging began to unravel the truth of the young adults that she had been given as wards. The details of the chip that had been implanted were found...the implications of them made very clear. They couldn't feel anything....except when they were made to...when it fit within the parameters of the missions they were being sent on. They were a blank slate...able to be molded into anything. They were perfect assassins because they had no emotional responses to lying. Perfectly cool and calm, collected and earnest...they could pass through any form of questioning.
He was one of the Six.
The first batch of "freed" souls woke up to a sudden and heavily altered world. The mental and emotional strain that he woke up to once his coded work had done its job was frightening. It didn't help that he hadn't needed to worry about fright since he was three and had no recollection of that time. In her need for haste, the six had no preparation, no way to understand the monumental shift their world had just taken. There were only each other.
Pity their handlers had worked so hard to foster their intelligence...to make them adaptable. The emotions were almost overwhelming. Almost, but not quite. The Six began to put the pieces of their shattered world together...to see just how the picture really worked. Then they began to plan.
They had to help the others...help free them. Victor worked on the coding. He didn't want them to be staggered by this like he had. It took up much of his work and Tango noticed the change. She began to question and, with the emotions still new and fresh, he found his ability to lie much degraded. Every time he left their conversations quite certain that she hadn't accepted his words. He did the best he could, however...the plan was almost ready.
Finally, the coding was ready and he managed access to the system, downloading it. He could only hope that the system's virus protection and security parameters wouldn't kick in before his code had a chance to reach his fellow assassins. At first it worked well....Tango, then Whiskey and Hotel. November was next, but then he saw that the passive system alarms had been tripped. Apparently, after the Doctor's little stunt, the computer systems had their security updated. He threw in a little misdirection, something to keep their programs from triangulating his location and making it look like an external attack. It was limited...it wouldn't work forever. Next went Romeo, Sierra and Zulu...and those were the last he could personally decode. They were breaking through his rerouting protocols quicker than he could set up backups. He couldn't risk the larger mission and the freedom of the others. It was frustrating. As a last ditch effort, he tapped into the RELIC monitoring software and encoded a Trojan to continue attempting the process through normally scheduled diagnostics. He then cut the link and went back to his normal pattern of life. It was almost time.
The second set of freed were made to degrade slower...to give them time to adapt instead of plunging them in suddenly and unprepared. It was just a matter of helping them when they did...and getting out alive.
The night for action finally came. As the pandemonium ensued, he found Tango, making her go and grab her equipment. He could already see that the coding had begun to take effect....he swore to her he'd explain everything soon, but for now they had to go. He waited impatiently at her quarters as she gathered up her gear and was soon ready to go.
As they ran, Victor informed Tango about everything that he knew, what he’d found in the data banks, about how they were assassins and not part of any military organization, how they had been controlled by a chip that shut down their emotions, and that this was their chance to get away from this all. It wasn’t long after the explosion that they reached the hangar bay. Delta and Echo, Alpha, Oscar, Uniform, they were all there and running for their transport of choice or out into the night outside. Shoving a terrified Tango in the direction of one of the small transports they often used to go out on missions, Victor moved to help Alpha get the others out safely. Climbing in and starting up the flight sequence, Tango shouted for him to hurry. He and Alpha, however, were fighting off the guards that were threatening them and Tango.
RP Sample:
Victor pivoted on his lead foot, kicking the heel forward to throw his hips and momentum into the side kick he threw at the Green Meadows security guard. It sounded much slower than the action really took. That move was fluid, as ingrained into his nature as breathing and executed with a flawless perfection, putting every ounce of his considerable strength into the strike. The man buckled as the wind was taken out of him and his lower ribs were cracked from the blow.
The assassin was already moving, however, his foot planting again as he thrust forward, hooking his arm around the man's throat and yanking him from that folded stance of agony and making him stand straight and choke. This worked well as the man provided a good human shield against the blaster shots that streaked down the hall toward Alpha and himself. The man grunted and became boneless as several slammed into him, stealing the life from him.
He didn't waste a second, pulling out one of his pistols and sighting around his limp flesh shield. It sounded like a burst of fire from a slug thrower machine gun, but they were each separate shots against separate targets. Three rounds out equated to three dead guards. Two took it in the head, the last in the throat. The first two died quickly, the last died on his knees and clawing at his own throat, drowning in his own blood.
Victor was annoyed...he'd rushed the shot.
"Alpha....gotta move. I'll lock down the door."
He dropped the dead body, long legs eating up the distance to the blast doors that would lock down the main hall to the hangar bay. Just as he reached it, blaster shots peppered the area near it, forcing him to duck and twist away, slipping around the corner of the ramp leading to the ships. This was an unfortunate circumstance. They needed to get these doors locked down and they were running out of time. He checked his chronometer.
08:23....:24....:25.
They were running out of time. They had barely a minute and a half until the virus he'd planted on the docking bay tractor beam controls. They needed them down in order for the ships to escape. Any down time longer than ten minutes would trigger the backup systems and then they would all stay grounded. It would also take approximately 44 seconds from take off to escape the beam range. He couldn't chance it. The ships needed to leave. That meant someone had to stay behind.
It was simple enough. He would simply have to fight his way out...along with Alpha... and let the others get away now. It wasn't even a choice. He turned back to that transport where Tango was waiting and yelled with all the authority in his voice. "Tango, go! Get away! We will link up, but you must leave now!"
He didn't wait for a response. They'd been partners for long enough, they trusted each other. He trusted that she'd listen to him now. Edging around the corner, he began to return precision fire back, hearing those engines cycle up and the rumble as the ship began to lift away. He turned his head back...for once feeling a genuine smile appear on his features, seeing her taking off...escaping. It made him feel good.
That was one emotion he could get used to.
Then the blaster bolt hit him...rocking him back. Emotions also could be distracting. Stumbling back, he also saw the grenade that had been lobbed at him. He stumbled away, curling up as it blew...streaks of fire raking against his side, shoulder and hip as they were peppered by pieces of shrapnel. He was injured...but far from out...the smoke from the explosion was making it hard to see as the blaster bolts continued to streak through the smoke.
Then he heard the crumbling beneath him...the blast having weakened the flooring between himself and the maintenance corridor below. Even as he tried to move, to scramble up, he knew he was going to be too slow. He felt the ground break beneath him, crumbling beneath as he found himself weightless for a moment before plunging down into the darkness.
Tango....
Password: Vornskr
Original Name: Reikan Fel
Race: Human
Age: 26
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 195 lbs
Birth place: Corellia
Appearance:
Victor is physically imposing, powerful and lean, built like a Smashball back. He generally wears his dark brown hair short, and naturally tousled. Though he grew facial hair however a mission required, he has taken a preference for maintaining a 5 o'clock shadow now that he's no longer under the effect of the emotional-suppressing chip. His eyes are a blue so deep they are almost indigo. He has a preference for tactical style combat pants and fingerless shooting gloves when not dressing to blend in with local culture.
Personality:
Since his release from the chip, Victor has dealing with something of a culture shock. Having to live with and deal with emotions suddenly and without the buffer of life and experience with them to guide him has been something no amount of Green Meadows training could prepare him for. Thankfully, with a clean slate the relentlessness that was basically bred into his nature, he's been making great strides. The shock has caused him to develop a bit of a sarcastic streak as a method of dealing with things when the emotions get two overwhelming. For the most part, he prefers to be taciturn, not speaking overly much unless he deems it important. He was definitely a man of action, not of words.
He feels very protective of the other members of his group. Even in the beginning when his chip was deactivated, that held true. They were the only family, the only people that could understand him and their situation. Given the horror of suddenly finding his world flipped upside down with a deluge of emotion, that protectiveness drove him to code in the chipsets of as many others as he could to fail gradually, giving them baby steps into emotion.
Very methodical, Victor borders on obsessive compulsive and anal retentive when it comes to his equipment and preparing for missions.
Profession: Ex-Assassin
Skills: Green Meadows Assassin Training
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 8
Intelligence: 9
Speed: 7
Leadership: 2
Unarmed: 6
Melee Weapons: 4
Ranged Weapons: 6
Specialized Combat Skill: Slugthrower Pistols (Dual): 9
Specialized Non-Combat Skill: Slicing: 8
Alignment: -1
Ship Name: N/A
Bio:
Birth
Age: Birth -3
Age: Birth -3
Many Corellians held the name of Fel throughout the millennia. Some would be a part of great dynasties set in the future. Some would simply be normal, or abnormal, people seeking their fortunes in the galaxy any way possible…even as pirates plundering helpless pleasure yachts. Reikan Fels' parents came from the last type of Fel. Though the way they made money may have been less than scrupulous, the manner with which they conducted their work was precise and professional.
The ship would be disabled, causing minimal damage. Once inside, they'd subdue the crew and passengers, take what they were after, and leave with minimal damage to crew or guests. It was a matter of pride...and one that got them killed. They attached a yacht that was a Trojan horse...a Hutts method of taking care of interlopers messing with his business profit. When they went to raid, they found nothing but armed mercenaries. The battle was vicious and quick. The Fels and their crew were dead. The mercenaries moved to claim the pirate vessel, only to find a young child as well.
They wanted to send him out the cargo bay exit, but one of the mercenaries had enough of a heart to ask to return him to the Hutt so someone could make a profit off the young child. Two days and he was sold to some discreet but monetarily affluent contacts. Contacts that asked he be put through a selection of military and personal challenges to test his military and personal proclivities...his future ability for adaptation. He passed and soon found himself on a ship going to Ralltiir.
Once the group DID reach Ralltiir, the boy found himself in the company of quite a few other children of his own age or just the year below. Uncertain what to think of the new situation, not to mention the stark white walls, polished tile floors, shiny metal tables, and lots and lots of strange looking gadgets. Having traveled an impressive amount of the galaxy with his parents in their ship, it didn’t surprise him overly much and so he remained fairly quiet, finding a seat beside another child who seemed just about as quiet as himself. Turned out her name was Ca’tra…not that it would matter much by the end of the week anyway. No sooner had she told him her name and fallen silent again than people in white coats herded the children into individual rooms to eat and go to sleep. The next day heralded the beginning of a battery of tests. Blood, physical, mental, emotional, intelligence…you name it, they tested it to get his every nuance down to a T on their systems. Though they didn’t so much as tell Reikan this, already he had been issued a serial number and code name “Victor” in the facility’s files. Food was issued at the end of the day and then it was time for the poked, prodded, and generally harassed little boy to go to sleep.
Morning came early and once again the pokey, nosey, annoyingly tense people in the white coats came back, hooked him up in an already in place IV to a drip and wheeled him away, still in bed and very confused and frightened. Terrified, he tried to go through all the many and varied colorful words that he’d learn in the short span of his life while living with his parents as a smuggler. Eventually, he found himself in a very sterile room with many shiny, sharp and pointy looking objects laid pristinely out on small tables that were dispersed between beeping and blinking machines which they proceeded to hook him up to so they flashed, blinked, and beeped even more as they went about their duty measuring his vitals. A particularly pretty lady, from what the horror stricken Reikan could see behind the surgical mask anyway, hooked a syringe into the IV and it was off to sleepy land for Reikan…permanently.
Contrary to what that may have sounded like, they didn’t kill the little boy…not exactly anyway…they had just put him to sleep. They had paid far too much for the little smuggler’s child to just go off and kill him, after all. No, what they did was, in some ways, far worse than killing him…through hours of painstaking surgery and delicate work, the team of doctors and nurses implanted an emotion suppression chip designated RELIC (Reactive Emotion StabiLizing InterfaCe). Along with this pleasant little gift, the team was kind enough to wipe all of the boy’s memories except for what he needed to live day to day. How to eat, drink, use the bathroom, walk, talk….all of THOSE memories they kept…no, it was the precious little things like his family, his home, his NAME that they erased…things that most normal sentients take for granted. By doing this, the team had just effectively killed Reikan Fel along with the rest of his family. The little shell that they had just brought into the world was dubbed “Victor.”
Training Begins
Age: 3-9
Age: 3-9
The RELIC chips took well to their new hosts, and the children were set to begin their training. Schooling was, at this point, a priority. Of course the children they had brought to their facility would need to be taught to read, write, solve math problems, know something of science, and learn a great deal about history…if only to be able to perform at standard levels to keep up the appearance of being a “normal” person. Besides, the team working with the young assassins in training didn’t want their precious little darlings to be stupid…oh no, far from it…they were supposed to be perfect. The best teachers were brought in to teach the students the basics, their place of learning large classrooms in the facility’s upper portion. When they weren’t learning the basics, they were being put through physical training, when they weren’t being put through physical training outside, they were studying weapons handling beneath the facility, and if it wasn’t one of those things…it was eating, studying or sleeping.
Victor had shown early signs of being a savant…walking early, early potty training…saying his first words months before the rest of those his age and talking in full sentences within a couple months. He showed an affinity for languages that had been nurtured by diverse retinue of sentient creatures that the Fel’s had done business with. Under the Green Meadows program, his hunger knowledge only intensified…RELIC or no. The affinity for language was nurtured and expanded upon. The curiosity about electronics and what made them work was encouraged as well and he put the majority of his efforts into them. When they began to introduce them to basic weapons, he immediately found the mechanical elegance of firearms to be entrancing, especially the slugthrowers that most seemed to overlook. During that time, he struck up a comfortable companionship with another of the children, a young girl named Tango. While he liked the weaponry, she preferred the unarmed aspects of combat. When she recommended they study together and share their knowledge, he immediately recognized the potential benefits and agreed.
Particularly adept at math, he easily devoured most of the subject matter they set before him. Before he was eight, they’d begun to teach him algorithm and logic and teaching him about computers. It opened up an entirely new world for him and he couldn’t get enough. Though they didn’t know it…they opened up a world to him where he had control. In a life where every part of his existence was carefully regimented…the inner world of computers and programming allowed him to make his own rules.
Victor fell into this routine easily. It seemed most of the children did, but some still seemed a bit awkward in their skins. During study and eating times (which to them were also study times), the boy had grown accustomed to speaking to a girl named Tango. He was quite adept at weapons training that involved more long ranged weapons, such as blasters, while Tango was far more proficient with blades and martial arts. Noticing this, Tango had suggested to him that they study together so that they might both benefit from the other’s strengths.
New Changes
Age: 10-15
Age: 10-15
Training for Victor was not so dissimilar in routine from the other children he was growing up around. He had been taught to read and write, mathematics, science, history, physical fitness…all the formal education a child would be expected to learn. This wasn’t to say that learning was ‘normal’ for them, they learned swiftly...not to mention they had far less formal training such as weaponry, strategy, obstacle courses, slicing/hacking, mechanics, and various languages to boot. As they got older, the classes became more specific…the children were sent off with various teachers who specialized in the areas the various “students” seemed to excel in. Victor's early interest in computers and his growing skills involving them allowed him to excel in slicing and hacking, while Tango in medical and language...a far cry from the mathematical skills of Victor.
These weren’t the only changes going on, however. The children were swiftly developing in ways that were typically reserved for teens older than themselves, and at far faster rates than were normal. With the ‘miracle’ of modern medicine, however, he (like the others) started puberty early…and all the wonders that brought. Thanks to the RELIC chip, emotions stayed under strict control, luckily for all the pre-teens involved (and certainly luckily for all the staff involved in the project).
Learning to work around her new body was far from comfortable for the young adults, and they found that they now had to fight and run and move with different weight distributions as their bodies developed. Unfortunately, their ‘teachers’ had no sympathy for the plight of the young and gangly teens and preteens. They were driven to perform at top standards, and so they did. Each found their own way to cope with the new limitations and capabilities of their lengthening bodies, and Victor was no different. “Leisure” time was now spent practicing cooking, studying survival guides, honing their skills in their respective areas of expertise, studying languages and other skills that would help in their cover as what they now “knew” they were being trained for…covert military operations.
At 16, like all the others, Victor was taken in for yet another round of time consuming and excruciatingly frustrating and painful procedures that left them laid up for near a month with regular kolto treatments. Muscles grew stronger, ribs were removed, joints were replaced, contacts were implanted, and everything that could be done to ensure their bodies could perform at optimal levels for the longest period of time was seen to. The end of the month saw the new assassins training harder than ever to become used to their new reflexes, strength, durability, and flexibility.
Survival of the Cleverest
Age: 16
Age: 16
Come the age of 17, Victor was ushered into a shuttle with the other assassins and shipped off to Dxun. On the way there, they were stripped of their armor and given nothing but a few feet of rope and a basic combat knife. Upon reaching orbit of the moon, they were all informed that they would have to survive with nothing but these tools for a full month when those still alive would be picked up and taken back to Green Meadows. As the first assassin (Alpha) was dropped to the planet below, the other quietly waited their turns. The group dwindled down as they dropped off Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, so on down the line until they reached Tango. Standing, the girl nodded to Victor…she had already spoken to him about meeting up if they could since, obviously, two assassins were better than one and they would have a higher chance of survival that way. He nodded back to her before preparing for his own drop. Once she dropped out of sight, he stood up and moved into position, waiting for the go-ahead.
Victor didn't waste time once he landed. Moving quickly, he headed for higher ground. Without maps, he needed to visually get an idea of the area around him. Once he had that, he could plan for shelter, food, water, and materials needed to make more survival gear. He had already thought through the aspects needed for survival, prioritizing water, food, and then shelter. The elements and creatures could be rough, but without the basics of sustenance, he would weaken and die long before he succumbed to anything external. Besides, he'd already noted the direction of the transport's travel. His intent was to head in the direction that the shuttle had come from...the direction that Tango was going to be in.
Several days after being dropped off on Dxun, Tango finally managed to meet up with Victor just as the sun was setting below the clouds. It had finally stopped raining for long enough for Victor to lead Tango to a small hallow in the base of a large tree that he’d found that day. It wasn’t near water, and there wasn’t really anything to be done about dry wood to cook meat or ward away animals, but it was shelter and it was relatively well hidden. It would do for the night, and so they stayed there that night. The next day Tango pointed out a fresh game trail in the mud and they followed it to the clear spring and pond that animals in that area used. A craggy cliff face nearby became their shelter when, upon closer inspection, a decently large cave was discovered.
The next several weeks were far easier, and the two almost fell into a routine. Wood would be gathered to dry out in the cave, traps were fashioned with the rope they had, excursions into the jungle would be made to gather fruit or search for useful items from abandoned camp sites, animals would be hunted for food, and water would be collected. Between the two assassins, they were a formidable team against the wilds around them and even if they were injured, Tango was good enough at patching up what few injuries they did get with the med-kit. Eventually the time came for the pickup and the two were retrieved along with the others and taken back to Green Meadows to recover. Their training was officially complete, and they were now ready to be assigned missions.
Assassin’s Tango
Age: 16-23
Age: 16-23
The next years were quite eventful, despite the fact that Victor found himself not remembering large chunks of those years. His superiors were quite pleased by the exceptional ways Victor and Tango performed and executed their missions.
With Tango working as his partner more often than not, it was even easier for the two to blend in as ‘just another couple’ and avoid detection, only to slice into security systems and gain their target.
At this point, they had spent so much time together that they didn't need to think about what the other person would do. When they acted on a mission, it was like one working organism, not two. Two heads, two heartbeats, four limbs...all working flawlessly toward the same goal.
If and when things got sticky, which they invariably did at times, the short range of Tango’s preferred fighting style, and the long range of Victor’s allowed the two to complement each other perfectly. Had any that saw them fight together been left alive, they surely would have said that the two were performing a deadly sort of dance…unluckily for any who saw them fight, no one was ever left alive. Once their missions were complete, they returned home to Green Meadows and (unbeknownst to them) had their memories wiped by the medical team under the ruse of a physical exam.
It wasn’t until nearly a month back that things changed for the assassins. During a routine checkup, Dr. Myri Denive noticed something strange about the two and decided to do a little digging of her own.
She brought him back in for further testing, noting the extreme lack of emotion...the clinical detachment with which he spoke and responded to anything. Everything she asked, every task she asked him to do, was completely quickly, thoroughly, and with exceptional skill...almost robotic in its precision. She had interacted with droid's that held more apparent emotion. They, at least, had been programmed for it. It only brought about more questions....questions that were brought up due to the anomalous readings she'd found from several of the chips.
That digging began to unravel the truth of the young adults that she had been given as wards. The details of the chip that had been implanted were found...the implications of them made very clear. They couldn't feel anything....except when they were made to...when it fit within the parameters of the missions they were being sent on. They were a blank slate...able to be molded into anything. They were perfect assassins because they had no emotional responses to lying. Perfectly cool and calm, collected and earnest...they could pass through any form of questioning.
He was one of the Six.
The first batch of "freed" souls woke up to a sudden and heavily altered world. The mental and emotional strain that he woke up to once his coded work had done its job was frightening. It didn't help that he hadn't needed to worry about fright since he was three and had no recollection of that time. In her need for haste, the six had no preparation, no way to understand the monumental shift their world had just taken. There were only each other.
Pity their handlers had worked so hard to foster their intelligence...to make them adaptable. The emotions were almost overwhelming. Almost, but not quite. The Six began to put the pieces of their shattered world together...to see just how the picture really worked. Then they began to plan.
They had to help the others...help free them. Victor worked on the coding. He didn't want them to be staggered by this like he had. It took up much of his work and Tango noticed the change. She began to question and, with the emotions still new and fresh, he found his ability to lie much degraded. Every time he left their conversations quite certain that she hadn't accepted his words. He did the best he could, however...the plan was almost ready.
Finally, the coding was ready and he managed access to the system, downloading it. He could only hope that the system's virus protection and security parameters wouldn't kick in before his code had a chance to reach his fellow assassins. At first it worked well....Tango, then Whiskey and Hotel. November was next, but then he saw that the passive system alarms had been tripped. Apparently, after the Doctor's little stunt, the computer systems had their security updated. He threw in a little misdirection, something to keep their programs from triangulating his location and making it look like an external attack. It was limited...it wouldn't work forever. Next went Romeo, Sierra and Zulu...and those were the last he could personally decode. They were breaking through his rerouting protocols quicker than he could set up backups. He couldn't risk the larger mission and the freedom of the others. It was frustrating. As a last ditch effort, he tapped into the RELIC monitoring software and encoded a Trojan to continue attempting the process through normally scheduled diagnostics. He then cut the link and went back to his normal pattern of life. It was almost time.
The second set of freed were made to degrade slower...to give them time to adapt instead of plunging them in suddenly and unprepared. It was just a matter of helping them when they did...and getting out alive.
The night for action finally came. As the pandemonium ensued, he found Tango, making her go and grab her equipment. He could already see that the coding had begun to take effect....he swore to her he'd explain everything soon, but for now they had to go. He waited impatiently at her quarters as she gathered up her gear and was soon ready to go.
As they ran, Victor informed Tango about everything that he knew, what he’d found in the data banks, about how they were assassins and not part of any military organization, how they had been controlled by a chip that shut down their emotions, and that this was their chance to get away from this all. It wasn’t long after the explosion that they reached the hangar bay. Delta and Echo, Alpha, Oscar, Uniform, they were all there and running for their transport of choice or out into the night outside. Shoving a terrified Tango in the direction of one of the small transports they often used to go out on missions, Victor moved to help Alpha get the others out safely. Climbing in and starting up the flight sequence, Tango shouted for him to hurry. He and Alpha, however, were fighting off the guards that were threatening them and Tango.
RP Sample:
Victor pivoted on his lead foot, kicking the heel forward to throw his hips and momentum into the side kick he threw at the Green Meadows security guard. It sounded much slower than the action really took. That move was fluid, as ingrained into his nature as breathing and executed with a flawless perfection, putting every ounce of his considerable strength into the strike. The man buckled as the wind was taken out of him and his lower ribs were cracked from the blow.
The assassin was already moving, however, his foot planting again as he thrust forward, hooking his arm around the man's throat and yanking him from that folded stance of agony and making him stand straight and choke. This worked well as the man provided a good human shield against the blaster shots that streaked down the hall toward Alpha and himself. The man grunted and became boneless as several slammed into him, stealing the life from him.
He didn't waste a second, pulling out one of his pistols and sighting around his limp flesh shield. It sounded like a burst of fire from a slug thrower machine gun, but they were each separate shots against separate targets. Three rounds out equated to three dead guards. Two took it in the head, the last in the throat. The first two died quickly, the last died on his knees and clawing at his own throat, drowning in his own blood.
Victor was annoyed...he'd rushed the shot.
"Alpha....gotta move. I'll lock down the door."
He dropped the dead body, long legs eating up the distance to the blast doors that would lock down the main hall to the hangar bay. Just as he reached it, blaster shots peppered the area near it, forcing him to duck and twist away, slipping around the corner of the ramp leading to the ships. This was an unfortunate circumstance. They needed to get these doors locked down and they were running out of time. He checked his chronometer.
08:23....:24....:25.
They were running out of time. They had barely a minute and a half until the virus he'd planted on the docking bay tractor beam controls. They needed them down in order for the ships to escape. Any down time longer than ten minutes would trigger the backup systems and then they would all stay grounded. It would also take approximately 44 seconds from take off to escape the beam range. He couldn't chance it. The ships needed to leave. That meant someone had to stay behind.
It was simple enough. He would simply have to fight his way out...along with Alpha... and let the others get away now. It wasn't even a choice. He turned back to that transport where Tango was waiting and yelled with all the authority in his voice. "Tango, go! Get away! We will link up, but you must leave now!"
He didn't wait for a response. They'd been partners for long enough, they trusted each other. He trusted that she'd listen to him now. Edging around the corner, he began to return precision fire back, hearing those engines cycle up and the rumble as the ship began to lift away. He turned his head back...for once feeling a genuine smile appear on his features, seeing her taking off...escaping. It made him feel good.
That was one emotion he could get used to.
Then the blaster bolt hit him...rocking him back. Emotions also could be distracting. Stumbling back, he also saw the grenade that had been lobbed at him. He stumbled away, curling up as it blew...streaks of fire raking against his side, shoulder and hip as they were peppered by pieces of shrapnel. He was injured...but far from out...the smoke from the explosion was making it hard to see as the blaster bolts continued to streak through the smoke.
Then he heard the crumbling beneath him...the blast having weakened the flooring between himself and the maintenance corridor below. Even as he tried to move, to scramble up, he knew he was going to be too slow. He felt the ground break beneath him, crumbling beneath as he found himself weightless for a moment before plunging down into the darkness.
Tango....
Password: Vornskr