A Closer Look: Amara Nnamani

(Today we look at Tanja the Survivor)

Fenrir File: 449

Area of Origin: Lake Nasser, Egypt   Born: 12/19/2041

Background: The Survivor

Spirin Bonded: Sazori  Arachnid(Scorpion)/Space

Jaeger: Tuma ("Everlasting") (Salvaged Alpha/Military grade Jaeger)

(Amara, File Photo)

Basics: Amara is a powerful woman with a gift of foresight. She has a multicultural upbringing spanning the primitive to the modern. Psychically gifted with foresight, she has stayed one step ahead of danger the bulk of her life, but since the necromorph invasion she has no longer had that option. She was captured by the invasion forces, but when the overseers began forcing necromorph infestation on the populace, the Covenant forces turned on them, saving Amara. She aided the covenant traitors, and has gained powerful technology and allies in the process.

(Tuma, "The Everlasting")

Full Background: Amara was born a Nubian in the lower Nile region of Egypt. Like today, the Nubians are a minority in Egypt, with fewer rights and a more primitive existence than their Egyptian counterparts. Amara was a member of a tribe calling itself the Tehenu, Nubians who made the decision to move into wilderness away from the oppressive governments of Egypt and Sudan. The tribe was very traditional, which meant into nature spirits, female oppression, and crude living conditions. 

At 16 years of age Amara was arranged into a marriage to an older man, a high ranking warrior of the village. She was not attracted to him, and hated the arrangement. To keep herself from succumbing to grief she mentored under the village shaman. For the next 10 years she studied the ways of the spirits, medicinal plants, and tribal medicine. She also had two children in the process, a son and daughter. Her son was Akins, her daughter Aziza, and they were the most important objects of her existence. 

Raising the children was a major issue between Amara and her husband. He wanted them to be in strict accordance to the tribal roles, the daughter to be a farmer and the son a warrior like his father. Amara hated the idea that women were weak, and wanted to raise their children more equally; teaching them both as much as she could. While Amara’s husband never fully gave into Amara’s wishes, he did soften a bit and teach Aziza and Amara some about hunting, how to work a gun, and proper spear and machete technique, but he was reluctant and made it known to them.

When Amara turned 31 her arguments with her husband would come to an end. She had by then become the head shaman of the tribe, and during her meditations she could see a large explosion of fire and earth on the horizon of the tribe’s land. She argued about leaving the tribe for a few days with her husband, but he wouldn’t hear her. So in the middle of the night she took the children and fled to the Nile, following it to civilization. A lone mother alone in a world she didn’t know, and with dreadful sense of dread of the future on her mind she continued to Cairo. The morning she arrived a comet encased Kaiju crashed near Lake Nasser. The impact shockwave wiped out the entire tribe she belonged to, and the monster rising from the crater, an 8 headed 500 foot tall beast known as Hydorah, tore its way through many cities she had stayed in before Godzilla finally defeated the creature… they even nuked the pair of monsters in a futile attempt to kill them both, which killed even more of the Egyptian people, with little harm to the monsters. Amara’s foresight kept herself and her children ahead of the danger, even in this strange new world. 

(The kaiju Hydorah)

Over the next 25 years she stayed in and around Cairo, raising her children and very young grandchildren. (A grandson, Khalfani, and a dranddaughter, Matsimela) Amara was very intelligent, and highly adaptable. She had all manner of jobs over the years, doing what she had to do to survive and provide for her children. Her family stayed close, and grew as her children were married, and they had children of their own. Then the covenant invaded, and all able bodied men were drafted into the Egyptian military. This included both her son and son-in-law. They both died in combat the following year, and Amara was left with her daughters and grandchildren. 

Amara moved out of Cairo, and headed across Africa over the next several years, and settled in Lagos, Nigeria. It was known as one of the safest cities on the continent, and it was a good thing Amara moved there when she did…

(Necromorphs....)

2096, 5 years ago now, a necromorph infested ship crashed in the center of Africa. Life started to become far more dangerous than it once was… but Amara was a survivor, and she defended what was left of her family fiercely. Her gift of foresight continued to keep them safe, until the ‘Necro-Gear’ smashed its way across the continent two years ago now. It destroyed the defensive walls protecting the small country, and spread the necromorph infestation all over the western half of the continent before finally being taken down by Godzilla. 

The necromorphs now invading Nigeria were unlike anything Amara had ever faced before… and when a combined Covenant/Overseer strike team assaulted Lagos, there was nothing Amara could do, they were captured by a heavily armed covenant team led by an immaculately armored elite the others would call ‘Arbiter.’ 

(The Arbiter)

Amara’s entire family was brought to a large plaza with many other people, and corralled into an energy fenced area. Touching the energy walls was a painful shock, but the invaders could walk through them without issue. Amara watched, huddled with her daughter, pregnant granddaughter, and grandson. There was a commotion, as several small grey aliens came into the crowd… Amara swears she could hear their thoughts… and she saw purple ethereal cords weaving around horrifying, batlike necromorph creatures… a creature she would later learn to be called an infector, and started unleashing them on the gathered civilians… In very little time the horrifying transformation was occurring, and the newly infected would be commanded by the other psychic aliens. 

(The Overseers.)

Amara felt her death approaching… but more importantly the death of her family. A necromorph approached. People around her were panicking… when Amara placed herself in front of her family. The creature lunged for her, and Amara closed her eyes. She felt a flash of heat, and through her closed eyes there was a flash of bright blue light. When she opened her eyes, the massively armored elite stood over the necromorphs melted form, the body more a pile of burnt jelly than something that was once human. The creature shouted in his language, and all the gathered covenant forces attacked the small grey aliens and the necromorphs. 

Amara grabbed her family and made a run for it. In the chaos she was knocked down and lost sight of her family. When her eyes found Matsimela, late in pregnancy with an infector leaping upon her… Amara screamed out, adrenalin fueling her legs as she tackled the infector off her daughter. Grappling with the bat-like arms, she throw the creature with all her might into the nearby energy fencing; the creature impacting into it with a surge of electricity. Amara looked down at her granddaughter. The transformation was horrifying, and incredibly fast. Her head split open, her mouth growing multiple mandibles, blades made of mutating bone ripping from her elbows…. Then horrifying bladed tentacles ripping through her stomach, as her necromorph infested child leapt forth from the womb up at Amara. Amara jumped back, noticing a nearby piece of rebar on the ground. Grabbing the iron pole like a sword, Amara swung, knocking the mutated child aside. Turning to run, she impacts into a small grey alien, who raises his hand, and tries to take over Amara’s mind. 

She can feel his desires, his urges… but Amara’s mind is strong, and to the Grey’s surprise, Amara thrusts the rebar right into the creature’s large eye. It screams out, Amara can feel a psychic backlash as if it’s screaming with its mind, and she swings again, and again, and again… Exhaustion overtakes her, and she looks up to see her daughter and grandson looking at her and looking past her. She turns, and the large ‘Arbiter’ alien is there, a twin bladed energy sword in his hand, and to Amara’s mixed relief, her infected family laid to rest. The small grey overseers and the necromorphs were dead, as were many of the covenant. The ‘Arbiter’ then spoke, in fairly decent English for an alien. Its voice was deep, with an otherworldly echo to it, like the creature’s vocal cords had vocal cords of their own. 

“There is no honor in what the Overseers are doing. We are not mindless sheep. We are warriors of the ring. The endless wave cannot be achieved by using the demon plague as a weapon. Our ancestors would be ashamed of us if we allow ourselves to be allied with such a race.” The gathered aliens nodded, the humans stared on in confusion, but thankful for their lives. “The bulk of my warriors will be transporting you to a nearby safe human city, it is called ‘Cairo’ I believe.” He said loudly to the gathered humans. He then pointed at Amara, “You have the gift to resist the overseers mental abilities. I saved your life, you shall accompany me as my advisor. I know too little of your world.”

Amara had no choice but to accept, what else could she say to a group of heavily armed alien invaders? She said goodbye to her family, and she began her journey with a group of Covenant led by Arbiter Elite Ecthelion. 

Ecthelion’s treason did not go unnoticed, and many attempts on his life occurred over the next year. Amara’s gift of foresight came in handy there too, and in an effort to protect both his comrades and himself, Ecthelion, Amara, and Ecthelion’s right hand grunt, a rather opinionated woman named Zarbot, began making their way westward following the path of destruction wrought by the Necro-Gear, cleansing what necromorph infestation they could. The rest of Ecthelion’s crew took to the skies, heading to the space ring in the far reaches of our solar system, awaiting his signal to return.

The Arbiter would ask Amara all kinds of questions while they wandered the continent, everything from politics to music, he was fascinated by our cultures many diverse forms. While the trio was walking, they were salvaging pieces of the ‘necro-gear’ that they would find on the way. The pair’s plasma weapons were used to ‘cleanse’ the equipment, and by the end of the year they had pieced together a rather impressive core for a Jaeger. Zarbot was rather skilled as an engineer, and in the process he taught Amara a bit about the focus crystals that the Arbiter had in his energy blade. Amara set her own mind to work, and with the pair’s help, she managed to design her very own ‘lightsaber’ energy sword. Amara then became a genuine asset to The Arbiter, who started to respect her more and more.

(Zarbot)

One night in the desert, Amara could hear a whisper on the wind. An indistinguishable voice calling for something, but Amara couldn’t make it out. She seemed to be the only one who could hear it. The Arbiter was lying down by the fire asleep, and Zarbot was walking around, gathering different plants to experiment with. The little creature loved earth plants, and she spent all the free time she could eating, smoking, smelling, and otherwise interacting with earth plants. She had an armful of cacti, when a vibrant blue ‘scorpion’ creature, about the size of a small dog, burst forth from the sand. Amara could hear the whispers on the wind, something about saving her… She hopped up, and jogged over to see Zarbot running away, screaming while the blue scorpion chased him. Amara drew her lightsaber, and stepped up to the scorpion. The creature stopped in its tracks, and a rather intelligent sounding voice came from it, sounding almost like an English butler. “Excuse me mi’lady, but I do believe you are in the way of my rescuing you from these Covenant invaders.” Amara deactivated her blade, and smiled at the vibrant glowing scorpion creature. She didn’t seem surprised or frightened of it at all, she seemed more amused than anything else. “Come spirit of the desert night, I need no rescue, these two are actually trying to help.” He extended her arm, and the large scorpion crawled up, shrinking its size down to a more ‘normal’ scorpion as it made its way to Amara’s shoulder. Zarbot looked on, “So the rumors are true, the spirit allies of the Artherian’s are on this world. No wonder your kind have lasted so long.”

(Sazori, the space scorpion)

The scorpion answered back, “We do what we have to alien sir.” Amara smiled, she liked that attitude, and the spirin’s peculiar way of talking. “What should we call you?” Amara asked, “Sazori mi’lady.” The scorpion politely answered back, ‘bowing’ its scorpion head low and gesturing with its claws.    

Not long after bonding with Sazori, Amara’s foresight was intensifying, something bad was going to happen to her family in Cairo, and it involved Necro-Gears. She wasn’t going to let that happen. 

She told the Arbiter about her vision, and she added a condition to her continued ‘employment,’ she was building herself a Jaeger. The two covenant aliens agreed, and set about building a Jaeger for Amara. They made their way back to Lagos, cleared out the necromorphs they needed to, and went to work with the parts they could find at the ‘Oblivion Bay.’ (Jaeger Graveyard.) They managed to make a complete Jaeger for Ecthelion and Zarbot, but all the head pieces were old ‘Drift requiring’ models, so Amara’s Jaeger did not have a head piece available.

Back to the west coast the pair went searching, and washed up on the shore just waiting to be found was the scarred head of the ‘Necro-Gear.’ Once cleansed and installed, Amara got into the pilots seat. Pulling the visor over her head, the Heads Up Display (HUD) flashed an error message, “Pilot format incorrect, reformat? Y/N” not knowing exactly what that meant Amara said, “Yes?” And then there was nothing but pain in her body. She screamed out her body feeling the flesh on the back of her head and spine being manipulated and pried apart. Then it went numb, and she is no longer Amara. She stands, and looks on at the remains of the city and the heavy Jaeger machinery near her. She can feel every ray of sunlight on her glistening hull. Feel the current of the tesla field dance across her chest and back… it’s relaxing, like one of those self-massaging chairs. Amara feels the back of her head, she feels both the cool steel of her Jaeger, as well as a metal device connected directly into the base of her skull. Moving was easy, second nature. There was no learning curve, anything Amara could do, Tuma could do. And so, the pair of makeshift giant robots made its way across the desert, following Amara’s vision of a burning city, hoping they can stop it in time.

(A lightsaber is an amazing anti-necromorph weapon.)

A Closer Look: Daniel Michaelson

(Today we look at another character, Seth the Combat Support Specialist.)

Fenrir File: 441

Area of Origin: Seattle, Washington, USA    Born: 11/5/2070 (30 years old)

Background: Combat Support Specialist

Spirin Bonded: Surge    Earth(Silver)/Air(Lightning)

Jaeger: Blue Sabre   (Experimental Feline Model 01, or EFM -01)

(File photo upon X-Com entry.)

Basics: Daniel Michaelson was a child prodigy student who was accepted to MIT at a young age. His parents went to Mars, and he witnessed their deaths on his webcam via Kaiju. Wanting to avenge his parents, he desires to become a Jaeger pilot and fight Kaiju. The U.S. Military strung him along for awhile, and now he is getting the chance he's wanted in the ranks of X-Com.

(The Blue Sabre)

Full Background: Daniel Michaelson was born to two very loving, well-educated parents. His mother was a scientist, and his father a mechanical engineer. Both of them worked on Jaegers in different support capacities. Daniel grew up playing in labs and with tools, around giant robots, kaiju remains, engineering diagrams, and all manner of advanced scientific materials. Daniel was doted on, in a good way, even when he was at work with his parents. His mother, Barbara, would always make it a point to explain things very well to Daniel, and at a very young age he was understanding the basics behind all manner of chemistry, jaeger engineering, biology, fuels, even anatomy. His dad, William, was similar, only more hands on, loving the time they would spend getting greasy working on all manner of machines.

It was no surprise that Daniel performed well academically, and at 14 years old a decision was being made in the family. Daniel had been accepted as a prodigy student to MIT, and Mom and Dad had made the decision to move to the Mars colony and work on building Jaeger there. Daniel didn't want to leave home. He was excited to be accepted to MIT and didn't want to leave the planet yet. And so, his parents promised to figure out a way to come back by the time he graduated, and they left on the most advanced human craft made by that point.

Daniel would talk with his parents every week over galactic net video calls, (Skype over planets essentially) getting help with his homework, learning about the planet, keeping contact the best he could. Daniel missed his parents terribly, the young man still a little too young to be truly on his own.

Every so often, two of his parents best friends, two older looking scientists involved in the Jaeger program, one Herman Gottlieb-Gieszler, and Newton Gieszler-Gottlieb, would come by and spend time with young Daniel. He did enjoy their company, they were both certainly characters, stubborn, intelligent, but caring and helpful as well. They helped Daniel make it through Jaeger Engineering 101 and Kaiju Biology 101, the trio spending time on group calls with Daniels parents going over every intricacy of the courses. Daniel was performing incredibly well, straight A’s, a favored of his teachers, and like by his classmates. His parents were telling him of their work on mars, terraforming the world, building the worlds 2 defensive Jaegers, and studying the planet. Daniel was fascinated by it all, but he just wished he could reach through the screen, and shake his Dad’s hand, or hug his mother…

(The two scientists in their younger years.)

Then, a horrible even occurred… Daniel has the date burned into his memory. November 15th, 2085… A comet encased Kaiju impacted into the Atlantic Ocean, and a tsunami was on its way to the east coast. Daniel called his parents from his dorm… and when they answered, they were both terrified from their own disaster. Daniel remembers their faces, fear etched all over them. His mother was shaking, his father trying to stay calm, but Daniel could see in his face, inevitability…fear… “Daniel, our Jaegers are losing. A comet kaiju just crashed down here, I don’t think we can stop it.” William said to Daniel. He placed his hand on the screen, and Daniel put his hand to his, his own fear of the Tsunami approaching fading for the time. He could see the screen shake, hear a loud crash, like an explosion far away. He could see his mom looking at a screen out of Daniel’s limited view. “Will… the 2nd Jaeger just fell. The artillery won’t stop it. There’s nothing left.”

Daniel looked at his parents’ horrified faces. They turned to the screen, shaking more and more with each step as the Kaiju came closer to the civilian eco-dome. “Daniel, we love you. We will always love you- OH MY GOD!” Hit mother screamed as the Daniel heard a massive crash, and the sound of metal getting torn apart. Daniel started to cry, and he looked on, his father looked at the screen, “I’m so sorry Daniel. I’m sorr-“ The screen was knocked to the ground, but the feed was still active. The camera was aimed towards the ceiling of the dome, and Daniel could only watch with tears pouring from his eyes, as a massive scaled arm reached down and picked up his parents. He could hear them screaming, and he watched as a massive maw, resembling a tusked snapping turtle, closed around them… and they were gone.

(The Kaiju responsible for the destruction of the Mars colony.)

Daniel cried, watching the creature tear the building apart, scoop up other scientists, and their families… and then his door opened, and a psychology teacher, Ms. Gonzales, began to shout at him. “There’s a tsunami coming, we have to get to the bunker, now!” Daniel was locked in pain, tears pouring down his face, and so Ms. Gonzales grabbed him by the arm and dragged him half way across campus to MIT’s Kaiju bunker. She made it with 5 minutes to spare before the tsunami hit the east coast. 

After his parents’ death, Daniel was lost… angry, depressed, without purpose. Herman and Newton began to spend a significant amount of time with Daniel, helping him make it through school, and helping him with his grief. When Daniel graduated MIT at 20 years old with multiple Bachelors of Science degrees, Herman and Newton were there, watching over him proudly. They then offered him a job in a good lab, studying the differences between the comet encased Kaiju and the rift Kaiju. Daniel accepted, and spent the next 5 years working in that lab, with Herman and Newton coming and going fairly frequently. Neither of them ever saying where they were going.

Daniel was growing impatient… he had learned many things at his time in school and at the lab. He learned that the comet Kaiju were substantially older than any rift Kaiju, for one. For two, he learned that each individual comet Kaiju is a unique genetic structure, unlike the rift Kaiju which appear to be ‘grown’ or ‘engineered.’ 

(Crates and crates of parts...)

Daniel wanted to use his knowledge in a more active capacity against the invasion forces… and he wanted to kill the tusked turtle kaiju that killed his parents. Even if that meant taking a Jaeger to Mars. Leaving the safety of the lab, he went to join the U.S. Jaeger program, citing his extensive academic background and knowledge of Kaiju anatomy as qualifications. Unfortunately for him, the military really wanted combat medics, and blew a bunch of promises up Daniel’s ass about learning field medic work then he would be gifted with his own Jaeger the next time they built one. 

After 3 years of advanced medical training, Daniel was shipped off to boot camp. He excelled there like he did in almost all things, but he was becoming more and more fed up with the broken promises. Daniel was beginning to demand the military keep its promises, and while he never did get to sit in an actual Jaeger, he was given simulator time… which was better than nothing. Daniel, once completing both basic Jaeger and Infantry training, was reassigned to the U.S. Marine ‘local support unit’ which was essentially a much better armed National Guard, dispatched to cities under assault by Covenant and Overseer forces. 

Daniel has spent 2 years now hopping in one transport plane to another, often parachuting in behind enemy lines, keeping those around him alive and keeping civilian casualties to a minimum. On one such mission, something extraordinary happened. The covenant was doing substantial damage to Boston, Massachusetts, a place very familiar to Daniel, having spent his college years there. Daniel had gathered a large amount of people into a Kaiju bunker to keep them away from the covenant troopers. Unfortunately, the door panel had fried itself after opening, and the door wasn’t closing. He was trying his best to rewire it, keeping his body behind the wall as plasma bolts impacted near him… doing more damage to the electronics. Finally Daniel had no choice but to try and fight off the forces pinning him down. Peering out with his assault rifle, he let loose a few rounds, but they deflected right off the energy shield of a covenant jackal. Daniel felt fear as he watched the creature approach, he was all that stood between that plasma weaponry wielding creature. Then, ‘floating’ down behind the Jackal, was a peculiar looking creature. It looked like a small silver robot, with vibrantly electrical blue eyes and a glowing blue lens on its chest. The jackal didn’t seem to notice it, and it paid the price as the small creature took a swing with its right silver arm, electrical energy arcing off it. The little robot impacted the back of the Jackal’s head, and the alien fell forward, blood pooling from a massive crack on the back of the head as it hit the ground.

The creature then looked at Daniel, “Surge man! SURGE!!!!” It seemed to shout excitedly, almost dancing it seemed. Daniel was confused, but the creature seemed friendly. It then said “SURGE!” Once more before fading from a solid little robot to a silver/blue energy and flowing into Daniel. Daniel was confused, but he could hear the creature’s voice, “All good dude, surge that door!” Daniel was not any less confused, but he followed the weird directions, and touched the melted wires on the door panel. Electricity flowed into the panel from Daniel, and the lights on the panel lit up, and the door closed. Daniel, and this little ‘Surge’ creature, had done it. The little energy robot spirin has been with Daniel ever since.  

Once Daniel ‘bonded’ with Surge, (as Daniel has since started calling him) the U.S. military started taking him more seriously, but they still have yet to give him an actual shot at piloting a Jaeger. At the moment, Daniel has been deployed to Seattle, Washington, to help with a covenant assault going on there.  

Daniel was integral in the victory over the covenant forces. On the flight back, he was contacted by Newton and Hermann. At least Daniel has family in the program... and Newton has modeled an experimental Jaeger that drifts with his cat, Sigmund Freud. 

(Who loves kitty!)

A Closer Look: Katsuo Onizuka

(Today we look at another character, Tim the Eccentric Billionaire.)

Fenrir File: 442

Area of Origin: Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama  Born: 10/13/2058 (42 years old)

Background: The Eccentric Billionaire

Spirin Bonded: Pallaton   Mammal(Dog/Wolf)/Space

Jaeger: Kamikaze

(File photo. Not wearing armor.)

Basics: Katsuo Onizuka is an incredibly wealthy man, who has recently lost his wife to the invasion. He feels he has lost his way, and recently devised some of the most advanced weaponry on the planet to protect that which matters most, his only daughter.

(The Kamikaze, one of the most advanced Jaegers the world has seen.)

Full Background: Katsuo Onizuka comes from a long line of wealthy businessmen, with connections going back to the end of the Edo period of Japan in 1867. Their industrial empire began with textiles and owning significant amounts of land as Japan entered the Meiji Era. As Japan became more modernized, the family expanded into education, agricultural science and other innovative fields. Fast forward past WWII, the turn of the century, and to the later 21st century, and it is easier to find what isn’t part of the Onizuka conglomerate than what is. The current head of the Conglomerate, Katsuo, is a well-known Otaku, who has had the opportunity in his rather extravagant life to enjoy all manner of anime, manga, western cartoons, older style video games, and other turn of the century pop culture items. (Pre-Invasion toys/shows mainly.) Katsuo’s interest with that type of fiction has led his organization to make many scientific advances, turning science fiction into science fact, (like anti-gravity weaponry/thruster methods.) which has helped the countries of the world make advancements in their own weaponry, and made Katsuo an even richer man.

Katsuo’s life, until very recently, was exactly how he wanted it. He and his family were safe from any Kaiju related threat, having private planes and offices all over the world. If he heard a kaiju was on its way, Katsuo would just take his daughter, Ai, and his wife, Aiko, to another office somewhere far away from the threat. Which as a multi-billion dollar business with offices in Japan, Germany, America, Saudi Arabia, China, and Brazil, were easy to get to. Then, in late 2085, the year his wife was pregnant with their only child, the Covenant appeared, and life on Earth became much more dangerous. Katsuo could no longer take his family on a plane at the first sign of trouble, covenant ships were far more maneuverable and dangerous than a Kaiju. 

(Covenant Destroyer. Knocking 747's out of the sky for 15 years now.)

Katsuo, in his greed and selfishness, did what he viewed was ‘necessary’ to protect his family, which meant hiring a few more body guards just in case anything happened. Then, June 17th, 2099, a year and a half ago, something terrible did happen. 

Katsuo and his family were at their primary offices in Berlin, Germany, when a combined Covenant/Overseer force began assaulting the city. Katsuo was in his offices, his wife and daughter, however, were at a nearby park playing. As the alarms went off the automatic locking mechanism kicked on, and the building was sealed. Katsuo then saw on his security cameras his family pounding on the glass doors. He called down to the front desk, ordered them to let his family in, and went back about is business making sure all his most secret research projects were backed up, so he could wipe the drives if need be. On his security screens, he could then hear a commotion. Looking back at the monitors, there was a covenant elite and a grunt, along with a small grey creature with a large head, a stereotypical ‘grey’ type of alien, and they had melted through the walls of the building with their plasma weaponry. 

(Small, deadly creatures.)

Katsuo’s security forces were opening fire on the trio of aliens. The elite stepped in front, and our solid rounds began to reflect off the shield. Katsuo turned to his private body guards, “I need you down there, now.” His guards looked on, and in a very small amount of time, all the armed guards on the bottom floor were dead. Katsuo was becoming angry, “Get down there, now.” “No boss, you don’t pay me enough to go get killed.” Was the response, as the pair sat there. Katsuo was enraged, but didn’t make a jolt for the elevator… he watched as well. The small, grey creature walked forward, and the elite began talking to it in an alien language. Katsuo watched as the creature pointed at the child, Ai, Katsuo’s only child… the most precious thing in his life. 

And in that moment, Katsuo’s conscience broke through the selfish billionaire. “Guns, now, both of you. I’m going down there.” The pair of guards handed him their side arms, and as Katsuo gripped them, he could hear a ruckus on the screen, and turning back, his wife was trying to wrestle the small alien’s plasma weapon from him… doing her best to protect their daughter. The elite then took a single shot with his plasma rifle, and Aiko… 

It felt like a lifetime, watching the plasma hit the side of her ribs, burn right through her clothing, her breast, stomach, rib cage… Aiko screamed out and fell to the ground, only a small amount of blood coming from the plasma cauterized burns. Katsuo turned pale, watched as the Elite and Grunt left the small alien in the building, then turned, kicked open the stairway door, and ran 10 stories down in practically no time, sliding on the railing with both guns in his hands like in a John Woo film. When he opened the door on the ground floor, his daughter, the front desk receptionist, and what looked like an older male janitor were standing at attention in front of the small grey alien. Katsuo swears he could ‘see’ some sort of purple ethereal cord connecting the three of them to the small creature.

Katsuo ran forward, raising his twin pistols, and began to fire. Instantly the janitor threw his own body in front of the alien, and the bullets ripped through him. Katsuo was sloppy, never having fired a gun before in his life, and by the time the twin extended 20 round clips were exhausted, the small grey alien was dead, as was the older Janitor. His daughter and the receptionist were both on the ground bleeding, Ai taking a stray bullet in the calf, and the receptionist taking one in the arm.      

Katsuo was absolutely appalled at himself. He spent so much time watching, and ordering others to help… he did nothing while his wife sacrificed herself, protecting their daughter. She was strong, courageous… she always knew what really mattered…

On that day, looking over the death around him, and keeping pressure on his daughter and the receptionist’s wounds, he became filled with purpose. He couldn’t rely on others… he needed to become a legendary hero, like in all those cartoons he watched over his life. Turning a sizable budget towards building his very own Jaeger, and super advanced anti-gravity flight enabled power armor, Katsuo now wishes to bring the fight to the enemy, just like they brought the fight to him.

(Katsuo's 'skywalking' armor.)

Katsuo has become a father obsessed with safety, losing his wife, and nearly losing his daughter, has made him fiercely protective of what he deems as ‘his.’ Martial arts classes, Jaeger simulators, private super secured bunkers, along with his own private drone fleet, navy, and air force squadron are his current methods of keeping his daughter and his businesses safe. 

(You'd get over protective too if this was your daughter.)

This sudden personality change has had an even greater consequence for Katsuo. Six months ago, after he had put Ai to sleep he sat at his desk, a strong drink in hand, and staring at pictures of his Wife, as was standard night time routine since her passing. He could then sense something in the room with him… something strange. He couldn’t see anything, but then he heard a voice, “Your pain is giving you strength, and purpose, but a human mind is not meant to handle everything on its own.” Katsuo stood up, looking around for the source of the voice, but could see nothing. “You feel you were unworthy to your family. That brings you strength, but it also weighs you down. A heavy heart can only accomplish so much.” Katsuo continued to look around, and then in the chair he was just sitting in, there sat a small, furry, pink puppy. It was rather cute, even though it was talking to him. “No Katsuo, you aren’t losing your mind.” The puppy said to him. Katsuo took another drink. “Of course I’m not. I’m just having a conversation with a pink colored dog.” The dog answered right back without hesitation, “Indeed you are, technically a space wolf pup to be exact.” Katsuo gave in, totally losing his mind, he thought to himself. Then the puppy became pink/dark energy, like an ethereal star filled ghost, and ‘flowed’ into Katsuo. His memories… his pain… his body… everything suddenly felt so much more. He could hear the voices of other energy life forms, or spirins, as he learned they were called, and it comforted him. For the first time since his wife died, he felt like he could actually accomplish something. Now, a year later, his training is complete, his Jaeger is finished, his naval fleet is purchased, power armor done… he is ready for a true field test.

(So cute! And well spoken too.)

And so, as his fleet leaves Oregon, heading up to coast to Washington State, Katsuo prepares himself for the first ‘field test’ of his equipment, with both a category 3 Kaiju and Covenant strike force attacking Seattle, it seemed like a good time to make an entrance, and try out the billions that he’s invested in his personal military might.