Post by Steinerman on Dec 27, 2010 4:56:57 GMT -5
Name: Nicole Riley
Alias: Goes by Nikki, or Riley.
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Nationality: Verivia (Northern Cher Plek)
Appearance: Standing at the average height of five feet, seven inches, Riley isn’t much to look at. ‘Least at first glance.
Tanned enough to pass for a native of Cher Plek, but with the facial and body structure of someone who’s heritage places them in one of the original Stamarian lands of Zailleon. Riley is the product of two very different nations, and looks the part.
Pitch-black hair tied in a ponytail that barely reaches her neck-line, tanned skin (though lighter than the majority of Cher Plek natives) and cold blue eyes that remind one of ice. Her one hundred thirty-three-pound body is lean and hard, though it still retains a feminine shape and form to it. And while not exactly beautiful, Nicole’s appearance does have a certain...regal, sharp attractive quality to it.
Several scars criss-cross her body, the worst and most notable of which is a vicious dark line that stretches down the right side of her neck, traveling from a little below her right ear to her shoulder.
The only other thing of note the fact that her entire right arm, shoulder and much of her right torso is not fleshy, but mechanical in nature. At some point in time, Riley lost most of her right arm and shoulder in a horrific blast. Hand, arm, and shoulder were replaced with an extremely complicated (and likely expensive) mechanical unit. Steel-grey in color, it has a solid surface and the same number of joints as the regular appendage. Whenever it moves or articulates in any way, it is accompanied by a soft “whirring” noise as the inner workings of the machine go to work.
As a soldier of the Blade, Riley’s uniform is simple and austere in nature. A combination of technology and simple metal armor.
A heavy combat helmet with a full face-visor (built-in electronic interface displaying relevant technical data on the visor-screen), the helmet is made of titanium and steel, it is considered bullet-proof and shock-proof to all but the most powerful weapons on the field.
A plain white bra and T-shirt provide cover for her torso, over which goes a solid-looking long-sleeve jacket. Pale-white in color, it is almost always buttoned up (barring the top button for the collar, which is generally left undone). Over the jacket goes a heavy flak-vest, of a matching white to the jacket in color.
The flak-vest is heavily reinforced to withstand blades and edged weapons, and has titanium shoulder-pads extending from it to cover the shoulder and a few inches beyond it down the arm (These are relatively loose-fitting, mobility considered a better asset than heavier and more restrictive armor). It also has a second layer of bullet-resistant material (Kevlar and mythril combination) to protect against most small-arms fire.
Her loose-fitting pants match the rest of the uniform in its pale-white color, they are heavily-made and extremely durable, ( in cold areas, a pair with a layer of wool is worn, for additional warmth). The pants are secured by a black utility belt which has a holster (with room for two extra clips besides) and several pockets for other items.
Her boots are solid combat-boots, black in color and reinforced with steel in the toes. Socks are plain white cotton, no distinguishing marks.
She wears a simple brown leather glove over her right hand to hide the mechanical nature of it, as some find it unsettling to gaze upon.
Personality: Nicole’s personality is hard and icy, a young woman who rarely smiles, a cold outer shell to protect herself from the world. Child of two nations, yet having just enough of both in her to be despised by the other. To those from Cher Plek, she reminds them too much of Stamarians in her looks and behavior, and thus is hated. To those from Stamaria, she has too much Verivian in her, and is feared as a result.
A hard thing to grow up with, the knowledge that she was a reject of both nations. Nicole despises Cher Plek and all of the nations within it, hurt by the hatred it showed her simply for her appearance. In her mind, the nation in which she was born abandoned her, about the Stamarian in her, and discounting the fact that she was born in Verivia. For that, she will most likely never forgive Verivia or Cher Plek as a whole.
And yet, her view of Stamaria is only marginally better. In Stamaria she is feared and mistrusted, most think she’s a Korin spy simply biding her time. The single reason she serves the Order is due to the fact that in the Order, most of her comrades don’t care what she looks like or where she was born.
So she built a shell, striving to achieve more and more to please those around her in an attempt to make them forget where she was born. She cares very little for her appearance, glad to hide it away under her heavy helmet, which she wears much of the time. Of friends she has few, not daring to let anyone close enough to learn about her. The less others know of her, the safer she is. Thus she appears to be stand-offish, nervous and shy, resorting to cold sarcasm born of a hard life when people try to get too close.
However, if one were able to somehow push past her high, sarcastic walls. One would find a shy, friendly girl with a tremendous drive to succeed. Amazingly good with mechanical and electronic devices, and with a secret penchant for art that she shares with no one.
Possessions: Nicole’s possessions are few, an orphan for most of her life, she has very little baggage. A small golden picture-frame, tarnished with age. The picture held within its grasp is that of a large, bulky man, brown haired and heavily tanned. He wears a uniform and is smiling proudly at the camera.
A standard Viper-7 sidearm, specifically made for the Order, this hefty pistol is pitch-black in color. It has a flip-up sight and carries a nine-round clip of .45 caliber bullets.
Special Abilities: Nicole is a mechanical genius, able to fix just about anything mechanical or electronic with the most basic of tools. Proficient in keeping vehicles and heavy equipment running, she obviously has a gift for tinkering and coming up with new modifications for her weapons and the weapons of her comrades.
She is also a capable soldier, her marksmanship scores are above-average, her hand-to-hand combat training is superb, and she has the added skill of being able to fully utilize heavy weapons, specializing in the .50 caliber heavy machine-guns that Order Humvee’s mount as standard load-out. And possibly a more important ability, Nicole is noted for keeping a cool head in combat, even at her young age.
Additionally, her mechanical arm and hand gives her several advantages. The arm is heavily modified for combat (most of the modifications done by Nicole herself). The neural connections between her arm and brain are heightened, giving her above-average reaction time with her right arm. When necessary, the arm can be used to lift weights far greater than most anyone her size has any right to lift. Putting considerable strain on the rest of her body (and risking damaging the arm) she can lift up to two hundred fifty pounds in weight.
Hardened for combat, the hand (and arm) can be used to block most swords (presuming they aren’t magically enhanced) and other weapons. In combat-training she was noted as occasionally grabbed an opponent’s blade and simply snapping it in half with the vise-like grip of her mechanical hand.
History: Nicole’s history isn’t so much horrible as it is tragic. Her parents were from two different worlds, brought together by what they thought was love.
Astrid Alper was a small-town girl from Zailleon, on a trip to Verivia with her merchant father. There she met and immediately fell in love with Jared Riley, a modest Verivian militia Lieutenant. Her parents’ story reads like some horribly cheesy romance flick. They met, they fell in love, Astrid became pregnant, and the two tried to live together.
Sadly, the story-book happy ending wasn’t going to come for Astrid and Jared. Astrid’s father didn’t much approve of his daughter falling in love, let alone with a Verivian Militia officer. If knowledge got out about the pregnancy back home, he was sure it would ruin his reputation. He demanded they abort the child, but neither Astrid or Jared could bare the thought of ending the life of their unborn daughter. Yet Astrid’s father was quite insistent, she could not bring the child home with her.
They stayed in Verivia until the child was born, and then with many promises of love and that she would send money to care for their child, Astrid tearfully left her daughter with Jared, promising to return as soon as she was able to.
Time went by, Jared tried to care for Nicole as best he could, but his job was demanding, tensions were high with Stamaria, and getting worse by the month. Still, he did the best he could, under the circumstances.
He shared his love for mechanical devices with Nicole, often sitting her in a high-chair in his workshop to watch while he worked in different machines. Though relatively poor (the militia didn’t exactly pay well), he made sure her schooling was sound, going out of his way to teach her everything he knew about machinery and electronics, which were his passions. All the while promising her that one day they would be reunited with her mother, whom he always spoke of with a wistful look in his eyes.
True to her word, Astrid sent letters at first, and a care package every year for Nicole’s birthday, but more and more time came between each letter, until finally, on Nicole’s fifth birthday, they stopped coming at all.
Inquiries were made, Jared attempted to find out what happened to the mother of his child, but nothing came of all his letters and calls. Finally, Jared sadly accepted the seeming truth that Astrid had abandoned he and Nicole, and he was forced to continue life without the woman he had fallen in love with.
When Nicole was nine, Jared became sick with Pneumonia, and died a little over six months later.
Her father, such a large, vital and healthy man, had succumbed to the one enemy he could not fight with his hands or mind. Nicole’s world was shattered the day she heard the news, sitting in her small class-room at the local school.
Until then, she had lived happily. Times had been hard, yes, but her father had always been there for her, taking time out of his busy schedule to care for her, to spend time with her. Fond memories of circuses and late nights spent in the machine shop plagued her mind as she sat through a somber funeral. As a man from the militia said they would care for her, that she would be sent to the best orphanage.
But somehow, like so many other children, Nicole simply...slipped through the cracks and was seemingly forgotten by the world. Placed in a dilapidated three-story orphanage run by a well-meaning but severely understaffed and underpaid group of well-meaning citizens, Nicole's life didn't so much get harder, as it simply lost much of the happiness it had once possessed.
She would go to school every day, come home and complete her homework, play with the other children in the yard, and every week a counselor would have a meeting with and attempt to help the child through the pain of losing her father. But slowly, Nicole became withdrawn, taking refuge in tinkering with machinery.
As she grew older, her features became more pronounced, and the other children soon realized that she wasn’t quite like them in appearance, her face was slightly different in shape than theirs, the differences continued until one enterprising child looked into the records and discovered that Nicole was half Stamarian.
By that time, the Korin had already formed and the Anti-Stamarian sentiments were powerful in Cher Plek, for almost two years she lived under constant ridicule by the other children, driving her to become distant and cold as a response. She took to staying out of the Orphanage most of the time, wearing scarves and other items to hide her Stamarian features from Verivian eyes.
It was with apprehension that she heard about the horrible atrocities committed by the Korin against Stamaria, and with fear that she learned of the Stamarian reprisals. Now most of the adults at the orphanage began acting hostile towards her as well, muttering under their breath about the “Stamarian child” they were forced to take care of since her father had served in their militia.
In response she withdrew yet more, becoming something of a hermit. Wandering the streets from dawn till dusk in search of something to occupy her mind, to keep her away from the Orphanage until the other children had gone to bed and wouldn’t bother her anymore. She began to tinker with various bits of machinery she found lying about, playing in junkyards where she wouldn’t normally be bothered by anyone.
It was in one of those junkyards that she found an abandoned ammo truck, bored and listless, she began to tinker with it, trying to figure out why the machine had been abandoned. After playing with the engine for several hours, she finally gave up with a sigh and decided it was high-time she got back to the orphanage, that they’d probably be wondering where she was.
As she got up to leave the vehicle, however, something happened that would change her life forever. An explosion rocked the junkyard, emanating from the ammo truck she was in, some loose wire attached to an old battery had started a small fire, which had crept un-noticed into the back of the vehicle and found several crates of explosives, abandoned with the vehicle.
Nicole was thrown from the truck with great force, her back scorched badly, and a deep gash stretching from her right ear to shoulder. It was as she dazedly tried to get up that she realized something was horribly wrong with her right arm, a moment later she realized that most of her arm was missing, and her entire right side was covered in blood.
The next thing Nicole remembered was being surrounded by Stamarian soldiers, being picked up and carried to a waiting vehicle and off to a nearby Stamarian base for medical treatment.
It wasn’t until later that she learned they had responded thinking it was some sort of Korin attack, and had actually debated leaving her there to die on the assumption that she was a failed Korin operative who deserved the fate she’d apparently brought upon herself. Fortunately, the commander of the response team had seen only a hurt child and shown compassion, ordering her
grievous wounds bandaged and treated at the base’s infirmary.
Through DNA matching they were able to identify her relatives, a powerful Stamarian Merchant family now run by Astrid Alper, Nicole’s own mother.
Much of this information was kept from Nicole, however. Due to her family connections she was afforded the best medical care possible, culminating in her entire right arm, shoulder and part of her torso being replaced with a mechanical counterpart.
As her mother wasn’t about to publically acknowledge that she had a half Verivian child, Nicole was largely left to Stamarian orphanages to care for, where she generally received the same treatment as in the Verivian ones, though this time because of the few Verivian characteristics and physical similarities she bore.
Being an adept technician, she quickly was able to find out who paid for her expensive surgeries and mechanical replacement, and was saddened to learn that it was her mother, whom for the last ten years of her life she’d assumed was dead, due to her lack of communication.
Part of Nicole wondered if she’d somehow done something wrong, something to keep her parents apart from each other. Though the rational part of her brain firmly denied those, the part of her that longed for a mother wondered continuously. Finally she decided that maybe, just maybe, if she could become something in Stamaria, something respected enough for her mother to claim as her own, she might again have some semblance of a family.
So Nicole locked away her feelings about Stamaria, frustrated as she was to be constantly denied opportunities due to her partial Verivian heritage, and began searching for a way to become a respected member of society.
Deciding that the regular Stamarian military forces wouldn’t be able to readily accept her, due to her looks, Nicole instead tried to join the Order of the Blade, though she had no combat experience at all, banking entirely on her mechanical and technical expertise to get her into the organization.
At the age of twenty, she presented herself to an Order outpost and requested a chance to join the Order.
In Order history, she is only the fourth member who failed their combat test, and all agree, she failed quite miserably. Fortunately, the man she took her combat test against was none other than Knight-Commander Michael Saint, who saw in her a hunger to achieve something, for what purpose, he wasn’t sure. But Saint was positive that with training, she could do well. So he gave her over to the not-so-tender instruction of Sergeant of the Blade Uban Adams.
After studying for a year under Uban’s harsh yet effective combat training, Nicole retook her combat test and handily defeated her opponent, earning her place as a Soldier of the Blade.
Miscellaneous: N/A
Alias: Goes by Nikki, or Riley.
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Nationality: Verivia (Northern Cher Plek)
Appearance: Standing at the average height of five feet, seven inches, Riley isn’t much to look at. ‘Least at first glance.
Tanned enough to pass for a native of Cher Plek, but with the facial and body structure of someone who’s heritage places them in one of the original Stamarian lands of Zailleon. Riley is the product of two very different nations, and looks the part.
Pitch-black hair tied in a ponytail that barely reaches her neck-line, tanned skin (though lighter than the majority of Cher Plek natives) and cold blue eyes that remind one of ice. Her one hundred thirty-three-pound body is lean and hard, though it still retains a feminine shape and form to it. And while not exactly beautiful, Nicole’s appearance does have a certain...regal, sharp attractive quality to it.
Several scars criss-cross her body, the worst and most notable of which is a vicious dark line that stretches down the right side of her neck, traveling from a little below her right ear to her shoulder.
The only other thing of note the fact that her entire right arm, shoulder and much of her right torso is not fleshy, but mechanical in nature. At some point in time, Riley lost most of her right arm and shoulder in a horrific blast. Hand, arm, and shoulder were replaced with an extremely complicated (and likely expensive) mechanical unit. Steel-grey in color, it has a solid surface and the same number of joints as the regular appendage. Whenever it moves or articulates in any way, it is accompanied by a soft “whirring” noise as the inner workings of the machine go to work.
As a soldier of the Blade, Riley’s uniform is simple and austere in nature. A combination of technology and simple metal armor.
A heavy combat helmet with a full face-visor (built-in electronic interface displaying relevant technical data on the visor-screen), the helmet is made of titanium and steel, it is considered bullet-proof and shock-proof to all but the most powerful weapons on the field.
A plain white bra and T-shirt provide cover for her torso, over which goes a solid-looking long-sleeve jacket. Pale-white in color, it is almost always buttoned up (barring the top button for the collar, which is generally left undone). Over the jacket goes a heavy flak-vest, of a matching white to the jacket in color.
The flak-vest is heavily reinforced to withstand blades and edged weapons, and has titanium shoulder-pads extending from it to cover the shoulder and a few inches beyond it down the arm (These are relatively loose-fitting, mobility considered a better asset than heavier and more restrictive armor). It also has a second layer of bullet-resistant material (Kevlar and mythril combination) to protect against most small-arms fire.
Her loose-fitting pants match the rest of the uniform in its pale-white color, they are heavily-made and extremely durable, ( in cold areas, a pair with a layer of wool is worn, for additional warmth). The pants are secured by a black utility belt which has a holster (with room for two extra clips besides) and several pockets for other items.
Her boots are solid combat-boots, black in color and reinforced with steel in the toes. Socks are plain white cotton, no distinguishing marks.
She wears a simple brown leather glove over her right hand to hide the mechanical nature of it, as some find it unsettling to gaze upon.
Personality: Nicole’s personality is hard and icy, a young woman who rarely smiles, a cold outer shell to protect herself from the world. Child of two nations, yet having just enough of both in her to be despised by the other. To those from Cher Plek, she reminds them too much of Stamarians in her looks and behavior, and thus is hated. To those from Stamaria, she has too much Verivian in her, and is feared as a result.
A hard thing to grow up with, the knowledge that she was a reject of both nations. Nicole despises Cher Plek and all of the nations within it, hurt by the hatred it showed her simply for her appearance. In her mind, the nation in which she was born abandoned her, about the Stamarian in her, and discounting the fact that she was born in Verivia. For that, she will most likely never forgive Verivia or Cher Plek as a whole.
And yet, her view of Stamaria is only marginally better. In Stamaria she is feared and mistrusted, most think she’s a Korin spy simply biding her time. The single reason she serves the Order is due to the fact that in the Order, most of her comrades don’t care what she looks like or where she was born.
So she built a shell, striving to achieve more and more to please those around her in an attempt to make them forget where she was born. She cares very little for her appearance, glad to hide it away under her heavy helmet, which she wears much of the time. Of friends she has few, not daring to let anyone close enough to learn about her. The less others know of her, the safer she is. Thus she appears to be stand-offish, nervous and shy, resorting to cold sarcasm born of a hard life when people try to get too close.
However, if one were able to somehow push past her high, sarcastic walls. One would find a shy, friendly girl with a tremendous drive to succeed. Amazingly good with mechanical and electronic devices, and with a secret penchant for art that she shares with no one.
Possessions: Nicole’s possessions are few, an orphan for most of her life, she has very little baggage. A small golden picture-frame, tarnished with age. The picture held within its grasp is that of a large, bulky man, brown haired and heavily tanned. He wears a uniform and is smiling proudly at the camera.
A standard Viper-7 sidearm, specifically made for the Order, this hefty pistol is pitch-black in color. It has a flip-up sight and carries a nine-round clip of .45 caliber bullets.
Special Abilities: Nicole is a mechanical genius, able to fix just about anything mechanical or electronic with the most basic of tools. Proficient in keeping vehicles and heavy equipment running, she obviously has a gift for tinkering and coming up with new modifications for her weapons and the weapons of her comrades.
She is also a capable soldier, her marksmanship scores are above-average, her hand-to-hand combat training is superb, and she has the added skill of being able to fully utilize heavy weapons, specializing in the .50 caliber heavy machine-guns that Order Humvee’s mount as standard load-out. And possibly a more important ability, Nicole is noted for keeping a cool head in combat, even at her young age.
Additionally, her mechanical arm and hand gives her several advantages. The arm is heavily modified for combat (most of the modifications done by Nicole herself). The neural connections between her arm and brain are heightened, giving her above-average reaction time with her right arm. When necessary, the arm can be used to lift weights far greater than most anyone her size has any right to lift. Putting considerable strain on the rest of her body (and risking damaging the arm) she can lift up to two hundred fifty pounds in weight.
Hardened for combat, the hand (and arm) can be used to block most swords (presuming they aren’t magically enhanced) and other weapons. In combat-training she was noted as occasionally grabbed an opponent’s blade and simply snapping it in half with the vise-like grip of her mechanical hand.
History: Nicole’s history isn’t so much horrible as it is tragic. Her parents were from two different worlds, brought together by what they thought was love.
Astrid Alper was a small-town girl from Zailleon, on a trip to Verivia with her merchant father. There she met and immediately fell in love with Jared Riley, a modest Verivian militia Lieutenant. Her parents’ story reads like some horribly cheesy romance flick. They met, they fell in love, Astrid became pregnant, and the two tried to live together.
Sadly, the story-book happy ending wasn’t going to come for Astrid and Jared. Astrid’s father didn’t much approve of his daughter falling in love, let alone with a Verivian Militia officer. If knowledge got out about the pregnancy back home, he was sure it would ruin his reputation. He demanded they abort the child, but neither Astrid or Jared could bare the thought of ending the life of their unborn daughter. Yet Astrid’s father was quite insistent, she could not bring the child home with her.
They stayed in Verivia until the child was born, and then with many promises of love and that she would send money to care for their child, Astrid tearfully left her daughter with Jared, promising to return as soon as she was able to.
Time went by, Jared tried to care for Nicole as best he could, but his job was demanding, tensions were high with Stamaria, and getting worse by the month. Still, he did the best he could, under the circumstances.
He shared his love for mechanical devices with Nicole, often sitting her in a high-chair in his workshop to watch while he worked in different machines. Though relatively poor (the militia didn’t exactly pay well), he made sure her schooling was sound, going out of his way to teach her everything he knew about machinery and electronics, which were his passions. All the while promising her that one day they would be reunited with her mother, whom he always spoke of with a wistful look in his eyes.
True to her word, Astrid sent letters at first, and a care package every year for Nicole’s birthday, but more and more time came between each letter, until finally, on Nicole’s fifth birthday, they stopped coming at all.
Inquiries were made, Jared attempted to find out what happened to the mother of his child, but nothing came of all his letters and calls. Finally, Jared sadly accepted the seeming truth that Astrid had abandoned he and Nicole, and he was forced to continue life without the woman he had fallen in love with.
When Nicole was nine, Jared became sick with Pneumonia, and died a little over six months later.
Her father, such a large, vital and healthy man, had succumbed to the one enemy he could not fight with his hands or mind. Nicole’s world was shattered the day she heard the news, sitting in her small class-room at the local school.
Until then, she had lived happily. Times had been hard, yes, but her father had always been there for her, taking time out of his busy schedule to care for her, to spend time with her. Fond memories of circuses and late nights spent in the machine shop plagued her mind as she sat through a somber funeral. As a man from the militia said they would care for her, that she would be sent to the best orphanage.
But somehow, like so many other children, Nicole simply...slipped through the cracks and was seemingly forgotten by the world. Placed in a dilapidated three-story orphanage run by a well-meaning but severely understaffed and underpaid group of well-meaning citizens, Nicole's life didn't so much get harder, as it simply lost much of the happiness it had once possessed.
She would go to school every day, come home and complete her homework, play with the other children in the yard, and every week a counselor would have a meeting with and attempt to help the child through the pain of losing her father. But slowly, Nicole became withdrawn, taking refuge in tinkering with machinery.
As she grew older, her features became more pronounced, and the other children soon realized that she wasn’t quite like them in appearance, her face was slightly different in shape than theirs, the differences continued until one enterprising child looked into the records and discovered that Nicole was half Stamarian.
By that time, the Korin had already formed and the Anti-Stamarian sentiments were powerful in Cher Plek, for almost two years she lived under constant ridicule by the other children, driving her to become distant and cold as a response. She took to staying out of the Orphanage most of the time, wearing scarves and other items to hide her Stamarian features from Verivian eyes.
It was with apprehension that she heard about the horrible atrocities committed by the Korin against Stamaria, and with fear that she learned of the Stamarian reprisals. Now most of the adults at the orphanage began acting hostile towards her as well, muttering under their breath about the “Stamarian child” they were forced to take care of since her father had served in their militia.
In response she withdrew yet more, becoming something of a hermit. Wandering the streets from dawn till dusk in search of something to occupy her mind, to keep her away from the Orphanage until the other children had gone to bed and wouldn’t bother her anymore. She began to tinker with various bits of machinery she found lying about, playing in junkyards where she wouldn’t normally be bothered by anyone.
It was in one of those junkyards that she found an abandoned ammo truck, bored and listless, she began to tinker with it, trying to figure out why the machine had been abandoned. After playing with the engine for several hours, she finally gave up with a sigh and decided it was high-time she got back to the orphanage, that they’d probably be wondering where she was.
As she got up to leave the vehicle, however, something happened that would change her life forever. An explosion rocked the junkyard, emanating from the ammo truck she was in, some loose wire attached to an old battery had started a small fire, which had crept un-noticed into the back of the vehicle and found several crates of explosives, abandoned with the vehicle.
Nicole was thrown from the truck with great force, her back scorched badly, and a deep gash stretching from her right ear to shoulder. It was as she dazedly tried to get up that she realized something was horribly wrong with her right arm, a moment later she realized that most of her arm was missing, and her entire right side was covered in blood.
The next thing Nicole remembered was being surrounded by Stamarian soldiers, being picked up and carried to a waiting vehicle and off to a nearby Stamarian base for medical treatment.
It wasn’t until later that she learned they had responded thinking it was some sort of Korin attack, and had actually debated leaving her there to die on the assumption that she was a failed Korin operative who deserved the fate she’d apparently brought upon herself. Fortunately, the commander of the response team had seen only a hurt child and shown compassion, ordering her
grievous wounds bandaged and treated at the base’s infirmary.
Through DNA matching they were able to identify her relatives, a powerful Stamarian Merchant family now run by Astrid Alper, Nicole’s own mother.
Much of this information was kept from Nicole, however. Due to her family connections she was afforded the best medical care possible, culminating in her entire right arm, shoulder and part of her torso being replaced with a mechanical counterpart.
As her mother wasn’t about to publically acknowledge that she had a half Verivian child, Nicole was largely left to Stamarian orphanages to care for, where she generally received the same treatment as in the Verivian ones, though this time because of the few Verivian characteristics and physical similarities she bore.
Being an adept technician, she quickly was able to find out who paid for her expensive surgeries and mechanical replacement, and was saddened to learn that it was her mother, whom for the last ten years of her life she’d assumed was dead, due to her lack of communication.
Part of Nicole wondered if she’d somehow done something wrong, something to keep her parents apart from each other. Though the rational part of her brain firmly denied those, the part of her that longed for a mother wondered continuously. Finally she decided that maybe, just maybe, if she could become something in Stamaria, something respected enough for her mother to claim as her own, she might again have some semblance of a family.
So Nicole locked away her feelings about Stamaria, frustrated as she was to be constantly denied opportunities due to her partial Verivian heritage, and began searching for a way to become a respected member of society.
Deciding that the regular Stamarian military forces wouldn’t be able to readily accept her, due to her looks, Nicole instead tried to join the Order of the Blade, though she had no combat experience at all, banking entirely on her mechanical and technical expertise to get her into the organization.
At the age of twenty, she presented herself to an Order outpost and requested a chance to join the Order.
In Order history, she is only the fourth member who failed their combat test, and all agree, she failed quite miserably. Fortunately, the man she took her combat test against was none other than Knight-Commander Michael Saint, who saw in her a hunger to achieve something, for what purpose, he wasn’t sure. But Saint was positive that with training, she could do well. So he gave her over to the not-so-tender instruction of Sergeant of the Blade Uban Adams.
After studying for a year under Uban’s harsh yet effective combat training, Nicole retook her combat test and handily defeated her opponent, earning her place as a Soldier of the Blade.
Miscellaneous: N/A