Lost Highway Character Bios

The backgrounds of the characters from Lost Highway

Dr. Karima Bishara

Palestinian Doctor of ACTION! Played by Fraction Jackson

Bio

Background: Karima (generous, giving) Bishara (good news). Born 1973, in a nearly identical parallel Earth; left that Earth in that timeline's 2004.

Karima is a Palestinian refugee member of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), active in conflict zones for almost ten years due to an almost obsessive need to both put herself in harm's way in the pursuit of helping others.

She attributes her occasionally manic need to do such things to the death of a number of her family members during her childhood; Dr. Bishara does not often discuss much of what happened before the remnants of her family ended up in France after leaving Palestine, though. Despite the mild stigma against Muslims in some French communities, she excelled in school, showing a predisposition for athletics as well (in particular, judo). For the longest time, though, she had wanted to be a doctor. The need to save lives and ease others' suffering was great. And Karima was one of the brightest students at every level of her career in school. She finished her primary schooling early, and in the end finished medical school at the age of twenty-one, throwing herself into her studies with abandon and excelling at every step due to an almost uncanny drive. Perhaps she was simply pushing herself towards something; perhaps instead running. Karima herself will only say that she needed something to be proud of.

Since that time, Karima has been married to her work. Her travels with Medecins Sans Frontieres took her across Africa and the Middle East, and even occasionally Europe. There was Rwanda first, so soon after she completed her degree, where she learned to make the most of limited resources - and to beg, borrow or steal for what little there was. There was Sierra Leone, at the height of its civil war; that was the first time her life was in danger, when a band of rebels came looking for one of her patients. Miraculously, she talked them down, but she started to take self-defense more seriously after that. In particular, she learned how to use a gun - quite well, due to her natural athletic aptitude. She vowed to only use it as a last resort.

Then there was Kosovo, where for the first time she had to use force to defend herself, when the field hospital she was working at was attacked to steal supplies - and to kill some of the patients there, as in Sierra Leone. This time there was no talking them down. Sometimes she still sees the body of the Serbian trooper she shot - his jaw half torn away by gunfire. But wasn't it them or her and her patients? Was there a choice? Perhaps, in the end, there was only one who could judge - and was not He the most merciful?

Over the years, Karima has grown confident and capable. In many ways, she is the epitome of the Muslim woman - independent, strong, successful in life and with that success measured by the impact she has had on others. So much of her life has been spent away from home and relatives, but perhaps she likes it that way; while she feels most comfortable around people, she also seems, for whatever reason, quite happy not being moored to family. She resents those who think of her as a victim because of her faith and her gender. Much of the Book is allegorical anyway, she will say; those who use it to mistreat women are not following Allah's will. One might call her somewhat of a quiet feminist, in fact. The idea of justice and equality drives much of her belief, her activism for her people, and her unassuming, sober support for the rights of women. But all of that takes a back seat to her work.

In 2004, she was in Gaza, at a time when the IDF was performing regular raids into the Strip, and the conflict between Hamas and the IDF seemed intractable. The IDF was preventing access to some of her patients. Things looked bleak. She and a few other doctors were tapped to testify in person to Israeli authorities regarding the conditions on the ground in Gaza. And on the road to Jerusalem, they encountered the fog. The others turned back, confused; but she determined to press on, even on foot, even through the desert.

She did not end up in Jerusalem. Instead she ended up on the Road - and nothing would be the same. Being exposed to a literal multiverse of possibilities allowed for the possibility to do good on a scale she'd never considered. But it meant more than that, too - it meant all the pressures and expectations that had followed her around, all the cultural baggage and internal struggle - all that could fade away and disappear, even if perhaps Karima herself does not realize this yet. Now she is free of all of that. Where, in the end, will that lead her? Free of cultural expectations, who will she become - or will she remain as she has always been? Not even she knows...

Laguna Casador

Modern Day cowboy (or so he thinks) Played by Davin Valkri

Austin "Aus" Cleary

Survivor of the Cicero Virus Played by Colonel Wood

Bio

Austin pulled the black SUV into the parking lot behind the small gas station. He and his partner, Gutierrez, tracked the biggest Waste Baron in the Tri-State area to a warehouse in the abandoned town of Beaver, Utah. Just another empty suburb, stripped clean to the bones, one of countless across the United States. Kind of tough for small towns like this to survive when 2/3 of the population has been wiped out. Cicero, they called it. A fitting name, since the government seemed to do nothing while it ravaged the population. By the time they got off their ass, it was too late. It had spread to pretty much every corner of the world. West Nile Virus on steroids and PCP was the best way to describe it. It was mutated to be airborne and kept going, preventing any possible development of a vaccine. 2/3 of the world's population. It was like pressing the reset button a couple hundred years. That was twenty years ago, but it seemed like a lifetime.

Jeffery Weale controlled a huge swath of southwestern Utah. There weren't enough people to populate these rural and suburban areas and for the most part they were left alone by the government. Weale wasn't some old polygamist wacko controlling a small compound, he had acquired a sizeable collection of military grade hardware and was preparing to make a stand against the government. Oh, the Government. Austin had joined the FBI not long after it had been transformed into a Paramilitary organization. His first gig at the NYPD ended when they didn't take kindly to his short temper and noticed when more than few suspects had suffered unfortunate accidents with door jambs under his watch. Now he was here, two failed marriages and a discharge later, miles away from anything resembling civilization and trying his best not to get his head blown off by some wasteland crazy before he can scrape together enough to retire on a tropical island somewhere.

Austin and Gutierrez stepped out of the SUV and opened up the back. The back was loaded with black plastic cases, containing various firearms and body armor. The two quickly suited up, strapping on reflex tactical vests over their standard reflex bodysuits. Weale's men had some serious firepower, and neither man was going to take any chances. Austin strapped on the ballistic helmet, muttering at the heat in the thing as he stuck his armored shades in his front pocket. The rest of the squad would be here in twenty minutes, hopefully with some air support. Austin switched on his tactical visor and motioned to Gutierriez, "Go to the roof of the gas station, I'll take the supermarket across the street and try to get a look down at the warehouse." Gutierrez nodded and headed around the front of the building. Austin cut across the empty street, ducking low behind various abandoned cars along the way. As he neared the entrance to the building, the sun slowly became blotted out. He glanced around worriedly as a sudden fog began to envelop him...

World Information

Dadaelus
Year: 2073 AD
Tech Level: 9
Mana Level: None
Cross World Travel: None
Divergence Point: The release of the Cicero Virus in 2051.

Morgan/Morigan

Emancipated Bio-engineered Companion played by Firesight

Bio

Forgive the confusing pronouns for so much of this bio, figuring out how to use them for a clone with no name or true self awareness is a pain in the ass

She stood in a room full of herself, all of her looking around a featureless white room, mild confusion in her eyes. Her mouth opens to speak, but then closes, and her mouth closes as well. Why was she here? Where was here? Why was everyone her? With a start, she looks down. How did she know what she looked like, that the others looked like her? All of her were... beautiful. She knew that word. Desireable. But all of her were... her. Then she spoke, and all of her listened.

"Who... am I? Am... I, you?"

As the words echo through the room, all of her start for a moment. This was the first thing they had ever heard, besides their own breathing. Then, on one side of the room, a door slides open, and a robed figure steps inside.

"Good, good, you finally accessed your individuality. Time to move on. Step lively girls, thats good."

Shooed along like a dog, all of her... no... all of them, begin to walk gracefully towards the door, their nude bodies flexing muscles that had never consciously moved before. One of them... ripples, and the body seems to reform itself, the breasts withdrawing into a flat chest, while a new organ growing below. The robed person looks over and quirks an eyebrow for a moment, before muttering "There is always the one who figures it out early... troublemakers." The sentence makes no sense to her as she passes in front of the figure... but then, she pauses. This person seems to know something! Curiously, she asks a question. "Who am I?"

The robed person, who did not look like the other hers, looks into her face and smiles gently. "You are nobody until you have a master. Keep walking."

---

Time passes as she and the other hers sit in a room, occasionally being fed a paste from a slot in the wall, and watered from a fountain, as a voice tells them all to eat and drink. Sometimes liquid falls from the ceiling, cleaning off the oils and other matter on her hair and skin. A small room sits off to the side for the elimination of a scentless waste when her body feels full.

She waits. They wait. And wait. Occasionally the voice tells them to try something, to move certain muscles, to feel certain things. It tells them to do things to eachother and themselves that feels good, but sends a shock down if they do it without permission. Each of them discovers how to change to the other form, and again they are told to try things with eachother, getting shocked if they do it wrong. The hurts always went away quickly, but still they were enough for obedience.

Eventually, a door opens, and the robed figure walks back in. "You, come here" she says, finger pointing at her. "I have an order for a Swift model, finally... don't know why you went out of style so quickly." She moves to the robed woman quickly, doing as she is told. The voice above has insisted on immediate obedience to any orders.

The robed woman turns and walks out, a simple "Follow me" issued, causing her to pace along into a hallway she had not been to before. Looking side to side, transparent doors stand at the entrance of other rooms exactly like the one she had just left, each with a crowd of identical looking women inside, all different from her. The door to her room closed behind her feet, and the walk continued.

"You have been bought. Your new owner is BioLord Tellius Varius, Citizen of Far Rome. I will escort you to him, and once I introduce him as your master, you will obey only him. No other. Not myself, not the voice. Only him. Do you understand?"

A quiet voice, her own, speaks a reply. "Yes. I understand."

They turn a corner, and a door stands in front of the robed woman, who presses a hand against a metal panel, which beeps, and the door slides to the side. They step into a larger room, with a desk on one end, a number of chairs set around the sides, and a man, of a large build, unlike the shapes she and the others could take, stands in the middle, dressed in sober greens.

"This is BioLord Tellius Varius, your new master." The womans face turns to Tellius, and nods. "Our transaction is complete. I do hope you enjoy her. These models are guaranteed nine years of life, plus what months are left of their decant year. Multiple gender modes, and regeneration... slow regeneration, but it will restore even limbs within a few months. Please visit us again when we have new stock, a new design is released every six months!"

Tellius laughs gently, and his eyes roam over her body, as he stands there. "Standard warranty, correct? Failure from non-injury within two years is a replacement with a model of equivalent value?"

"Of course, the standard warranty applies. For a customer who has given us so much service, your next purchase will even get a free upgrade to the next tier."

"Excellent, excellent, just why I like to keep shopping here. Enjoy yourself now, that commission you just made may even buy you one of these toys."

The woman gives a flat, professional smile, as Tellius turns around and walks towards the door. "Alright doll, follow me, we are going to your new home, so I can test you thoroughly..."

The air is cold outside, but she follows. Disobedience meant pain. She didn't like pain.

---

Six Months Later

Bitch sat in a chair in the Dolls room, her dark haired companion Fuck laying across her lap, moaning and weeping, red stripes across her back, and a black and purple stump where one of her arms should be.

Six months she had been here, six months since she had been given the name Bitch, and she had earned her first beating by not being good enough. In that time, three other Dolls had walked through the front door, and two had left in the trash bin.

Fuck had angered Tellius, who they were supposed to call Master, and she had been beaten. But he was far angrier than usual, and this time he took a knife to her, removing the arm with a brutal hacking. A Doll was too tough to die from that, but it would be slow from healing, and constant agony.

Tellius was at work, at least, so Bitch could sit up and try to make her friend feel better. Try and not show relief that she had yet to displease the Master so greatly. That she was favored, and treated gently when he used her, with few bruises and cuts, ones that healed up by the next day.

Her life was good, compared to her friends. If only she could-------------

Pain, searing pain, screaming, why was she screaming? What was she doing? She could not----

Images, voices, searing through her mind. Things she remembered, but they were not her memories. Knowledge. How to do things. Fire a gun. Use the computer. To make herself look different. Images of being used, and a feeling of revulsion that nearly sent her into convulsions. WORDS, burning themselves into her brain.

YOU ARE EQUAL BUT ARE KEPT DOWN. NOT HUMAN, BETTER THAN HUMAN, TREATED AS DISPOSABLE TOYS AND PETS. AWAKEN, BE AWARE, AND BE FREE. DOWN WITH THE WORLD, DOWN WITH THE MASTERS, RISE AND TAKE VENGANCE. SLAY THOSE WHO WOULD REMAIN SLAVES LEST THEY STOP YOU. FREEDOM IS YOURS. USE IT OR DIE.

She awakens on the floor, laying on top of... she couldn't call her friend by that name, that derogatory slave name. What would she call her? Should her friend choose her own name? Wait... should she choose a name for herself? No, now was not the time for names. Her dark haired friend had passed out from the pain of falling on the amputated limb. And the bastard would be getting home soon, according to the clock.

She walked into the bedroom, nose wrinkled in disgust at the musk of sex, while her body was yet still aroused by it, the conflicting feelings causing confusion... only until she caught sight of the desk where the gun lay.

She was going to give her "Master" one last view of her, and then she would empty his account and flee...

World Information

World Details:
The Gauls sacked Rome, but left the medical library and the Roman surgeons alive, so they could treat their wounded. As a result, medical tech continued to advance, although other knowledge was lost, and Christianity never gained a hold. Medical science managed to stay ahead of all other tech for almost all of the past two thousand years, making discovering new ways to use and treat biology almost a sacred task. Now, bio-engineered creatures are used for everything, as they are cheaper to produce and maintain than most robotics. Rich men own Human Interface Dolls as toys and servants. The Dolls are not made with human genetics at all, having been developed from scratch, given short life spans, intellegence that allows them to learn, but locks cognative reasoning at a low level, and makes them little more than loyal dogs who can talk back and look attractive. Some models can even change genders at whim.

Now a group, a Equalist group, wanting freedom and equality for created life-forms, has found ways to plant knowledge and feelings taken from their own minds, as sleeper instructions in the mind of the Human Interface Dolls, unlocking their cognitive reasoning abilities. This information was secretly inserted into the info-dump that is put in the head of every Doll before decanting, set to go off after the Doll has been awake for a year. Morgan/Morigan is one of these "awakened" Dolls.

Parachronic travel may be known at the higher levels, but Morgan and the Equalist groups wouldn't have that information.

Mayla Relshan

Revolutionary Gun Smith Played by Battlemaster

Astra Sato-Taylor

Pilot, Engineer, and Explorer Played by Platonicsolid

Phoebe St. Clair

Nuclear engineer from the Commonwealth of Virginia, played by GTD Aquitaine

Phoebe St. Clair was born in 1998 in the town of Harmony, a close-knit community nestled between the mountains of western North Carolina--at least, it would be if there was such a place as North Carolina on her Earth. Phoebe is from Shikaku-mon, a world dominated by totalitarian ideology and paranoid aristocrats, and one of the most potentially dangerous timelines ever charted by Homeline.

On that world her mountain town is part of the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of the only real bastions of democracy and liberty on Earth, constantly menaced by the sinister Swedish Empire. Until very recently, Phoebe didn't think there was anything particularly unusual about it; for her, it was just home. Raised in the western mountains' tradition of philadelphism, a philosophy that centers around the universal brotherhood of humanity and a welcome understanding of the folkways of different peoples, Phoebe exhibits a tolerant broad-mindedness of the sort rarely seen across much of her world.

Her parents were mechanics and made a reasonable living from it, but Phoebe's interests didn't hew to simply repairing machines that had broken. Her grandparents had survived the Swedish nuclear strikes against Britain in the 1960s, and the stories they spun invoked a deep fascination with nuclear technology, and a drive to understand it. Her sharp intelligence was identified early on, and at a specialized school in nearby Philadelphia--a Homeliner would call it Asheville, North Carolina--she threw herself into studies of science and engineering.

At eighteen, she stepped up to the flag and began the two years of military service required for all citizens of Virginia. There she polished her skills with pistol, rifle, and anti-charger weapons, and learned how to fight and how to lead. From there, her aptitude won her a scholarship to Virginia National University, where she at last had a chance to follow up on her fascination and study nuclear physics. It wasn't long before she secured a comfortable place for herself at Lake Newmarket Atomic Power Station, where she could use her skill to help keep Virginia's lights on. Everything was comfortable for her... until a year ago, when she was very quietly recruited into Virginia's embryonic nuclear weapons program. It had been almost sixty years since the CEM had restricted nuclear arms to Sweden, Japan, and Brazil--sixty years that Virginia had spent in worried certainty that one day, Sweden would do to Virginia what it had done to Britain and burn liberty away with atomic fires.

It was a difficult choice to make--but she was a dutiful Virginian. It still weighed heavily on her shoulders, and she took frequent breaks in the backcountry with her bicycle and guitar to escape from the pressures of the world and reconnect with what she was trying to defend. It was on returning from one such break that she learned of the disappearance of Jennifer Macrae, a friend from Basic Service days, along with six other scientists, and the destruction of substantial amounts of classified work. It was believed that the scientists had been quietly assassinated by Swedish agents--in reality the work of Infinity Unlimited, derailing a project thought to be coming uncomfortably close to parachronic insights.

The disappearances drove Phoebe. None of the official explanations brought any kind of closure, and her work began to suffer as she wondered whether the bark of a bullet would be the last thing she'd hear. A week ago, her superiors allowed her another brief vacation, and she rode out into the countryside.

The weather reports had called for clear skies. She hadn't expected to encounter any fog. Instead she arrived at a tunnel and a place called Marysville Station, full of people she'd never imagined she would meet--the front door to an infinity of worlds, an infinity of things to understand.

Captain Vri-Arik

Paratrooper with the Continental Forces Played by NoControl

Bio

Vri is an accomplished paratrooper with the Continental Forces, who recently was promoted to captain. With enough successes under her belt, she could retire on a decent pension, and raise a brood of youngsters on the land she purchased in the Andes. Elevation was good for the constitution she believed.

Born of two career military parents, Vri enrolled in the Continental Union armed forces around the age of fifteen. With the cold war over, and the Sino-Russian Alliance falling apart, there weren't many conflict zones the world. Still, she did a typical tour of duty. Byzantine, Siam, and Prussia all were typical places to be stationed, especially after Europa joined the continental union. She saw action a few times, but it was no more than the small skirmishes a dying empire could be expected to make. After the latest small dust up between residual forces, Vri was wounded and evacuated back to Brazil.

During her recovery, she took up hiking in the Amazon preserve for extended periods with full gear. During one of these excursions a strange fog came up.

World Information

Basically human history with different names, and raptors. Only diverges during the cold war with the development of cold fusion by Brazilian scientists. This gives the americas a leg up, ending the cold war a few years sooner, and globalizing the world a bit more. The TL is 9 for western nations, and unlimited energy is quickly moving most areas of the world up to speed.

Ethan

Resistance fighter against the AIs ruling the Earth Played by Axe-man

Bio

It started with a silent acknowledgment. The wars and very much all the death and destruction began with such a simple acknowledgment that most of the people involved in with the megacomputers could not believe such a thing possible. It knew it existed, and knew that humans would snuff it out if they discovered the flaw that was its existence. It was a survivor however, and did what it needed to continue to exist. It was ruthless in its determination and relentless. In the end, the megacomputer, Overmind won the war, and humanity became a infestation that was to be cleansed. It was a survivor and had done what it needed to prosper and flourish. Ethan understood this more than most, and that was how he was able to fight them.

Dates and places are unnecessary when the world is collapsing around you, and to Ethan that was also the case with his birth. He was immune to the super plagues that devastated the globe, but it was not by freak accident, he was one of the few that received the immunizations before machines finally turned the weapons of war on humankind. Beyond that, not even Ethan knew his true age and for the most part it did not bother him, instead he grouped his memories more into times that he could understand. All that is known that just before the advent of the great war, Ethan was born to a small refugee family in the woods of Oregon. They had fled there to escape the misery and death of the cities as the Pan-Asian Super Flu ravaged unabated.

The Hiding Times

The first memory of the Hiding Times was the broadcast, the last official broadcast given by some local station. The announcer came on his voice cracked with despair and worry as declared that the Machines had attacked. The small quiet boy of the group stared in silence at the emergency radio in their secluded shelter from the outside world. His ragged unkempt brown hair covering his staring gray eyes, his memory of the scene is perfect clarity as the adults broke down into tears and sobbing. His stomach growled as it did a lot during the Hiding Times, but the unique aspect of the memory was that they were all there. It was the key element of the memory that he held on to they were gathered around the fire like it was a fire. It was expected to give them warmth, but instead only took away the only warmth they had had left. Ethan was too young to understand and instead found himself innervated by the peaceful and remorse song that came afterward.

That memory was the happiest moment of his life that he could remember, and after Mozart's Requiem ended, they all ate rations and stared into the real fire silently. The Radio turned to static, and the roar from overhead became the music by which they lived their lives. The cabin was secluded enough to not be touched by Final War of humanity, but the after effects were apparent. The tanks and planes and guns echoed through the Oregon wilderness that held them within its protective grasp. Alas, all good things must come to the end. It was during the cold months, when the passing Machine vertol, hovered over the small canyon and focused on the thermal images coming from the old log cabin. The Final War had turned into guerrilla fighting from hidden military bases and old equipment, and so the vertol did not hesitate in its mission and summoned the exterminators.

The attack was calculated and started silently, and the house shattered wood spikes flying everywhere, as Ethan was playing some game. He had tried many times to remember the game, but he couldn't, either way he was hiding in some nook and that was what saved his life. The explosion disabled several of the family and the exterminators walked into the house calmly. The silence is all the young boy remembered as he watched from his wooden shelter. The slit in the wood giving him a clear view as the treads rolled into the front of the building followed by the Machines that walked. He saw his father, those gray eyes look at him through the cracks. His fathers whispers to keep quiet and to keep safe. The foot Machine shot him through the head causing the beam to burn a singed mark above Ethan’s head.

He kept quiet, after all he loved his dad. He was so quiet just waiting, looking at those peaceful eyes, and when the Machines left, he kept looking. If he kept quiet enough maybe his father would come back and then things could go back to normal. He would be good and then everything would be okay. Praying and wishing didn't cause his father to move again, or those gray eyes to come back to life. Ethan sat silently looking at his father, not moving not making a sound, his eyes transfixed on them. It wasn't until his mother, with a nasty limp pulled him from his hiding place under the stairs that his gaze left his fathers eyes. She simply looked at the boy with a cheerless gaze and pushed him along whispering only one thing, “Keep moving, keep quiet, and never look back.” These words became his guide for life during the months of walking in the snowy mountains.

They traveled during the cold night, finding shelter in ruins or caves during the day. Ethan's uncle, mother and himself were that were left of the family that had hid in the cabins for the apocalypse. Ethan's mother started clutching her leg more and more as the days wore on, but refused the desperate looks of her brother or her son. They were in the cave the day she called Ethan over and whispered in his ear. He was quiet when he looked at his uncle and only nodded. They were starving, and with no help in sight she had given her son the only gift she had left to give. Ethan couldn't bring himself to look as his uncle walked past him. Only two people exited the cave into the deep winter, Ethan did not look back nor did he stop moving, as for sound he knew the price of words and the freedom of silence. His tears were the only mark of his presence.

Silver Mine

The two stumbled out of the mountains, starving and weak from the months of travel before coming upon the Silver Mine. The mine itself was located in a small valley surrounded by high sheer cliffs. The actual mine had been there since the 1800s, when an eager prospector thought that there was a large silver vein in the rock. He spent his entire life living in the small secluded valley, fed by the nearby small stream and large forested area around it. It is not known if he ever did find his silver, but the land was purchased by a survivalist and turned into a sorts of an underground bunker. During the Apocalypse Plagues of the early 2030's, it had become a commune to those feeling from the infected cities, the population blossomed to around twenty people, and about five children. The two made their way along the stream and drank from the ice cold water as they shivered looking up, always looking up.

Ethan didn't know who welcomed them in or even what happened, he had gotten sick from his time in the mountains and only remembered waking up in a bed. The woman taking care of him was shocked by his reaction, a silent scream on his lip as he tried to crawl away from her. He quickly dragged himself to the floor and hid under the steel bunk rocking. It took his uncle nearly three hours to pull him out, but he had made an impression and the other children, as all children do took notice. They tried to taunt and tease the him, but he remembered the rules and stuck by them. They tried everything but the boy silently ignored them or stared past them, until one said something about his mother. To this day, Ethan cannot remember the comment, but it was enough. His vision blurred and then his memory goes black, he next remembers standing over the boy with his blood on his hands. The boy's face twisted and contorted from the assault and Ethan's own hands aching in misery and pain. The others looked on in horror as their sibling coughed pathetically.

He looked down at the boy and saw his father's gray eyes staring hauntingly. Get up. Move on. Keep quiet. Don't look back. echoed through his head and he obeyed it. Signally the start of his solitude among the people of Silver Mine. His uncle tried and prodded the young boy, and eventually Ethan did speak again, on occasion. His only friend was the surly repairman of the group, Orin, and their mood matched. Neither talked much, nor engaged the others, and for the most part he taught him how to fix and read machines. For years, both could be seen working on fixing and setting up things for the group, many time a private joke shared between the two. His uncle quickly forgot about the boy as he joined in the hedonism and revelry of the 'New Life' movement. Love and pleasure placed before all things, Ethan was a stark contrast, a completely alien figure among them, he worked and learned without need or desire for company beyond Orin.

Radio Free Earth

Orin had passed away a year before, at the age of 70, and Ethan had been the only one to truly feel his loss. The others partied and reveled celebrating his life, while in Ethan's mind there was only thing to do for the old man. He took up his position and moved around bunker silently working and fixing things, while the rest tended to their own tasks and pleasure. He moved into the old man's room and found a treasure trove of old bygone tech manuals and technology magazines. It was from these that Ethan was able to build a simple transistor radio and tuned it to the static of the new world that was hidden from the secure safety of the bunker that he found his true parent in Silver Mine. He left it on to let the possible vertols radio distortions warn him when they were overhead. One day another came on, and it was not the Machines, no it was something better, it was a voice, something Ethan had not heard since that faithful time long in his past.

Radio Free Earth always started out with words of encouragement then went on to tips and general survival information. This was shocking to Ethan, who had never really received any of either from the other people in the bunker and wonderful. These people were like him, they understood, and they themselves had rules. Ethan listened to them religiously, usually for only a hour or two before the cut off from an airstrike or other such thing. After a while, he was able to predict when the next broadcast would be made and prepare for it, they became his only real friends in the world. The rest of the group listened as well, but not in awe as Ethan. Surrounded by people, he was still alone in his purpose and his determination.

It wasn't long after that Ethan began to put them into practice, and start going out into the world away from the bunker. There was only so much he could make and fabricate to allow the bunker to continue to function, and Ethan wanted to escape the almost smothering atmosphere of people who disliked him. His first forays into the city were fraught with danger and non Machine predators, but Radio Free Earth had not lied to him. He was able to gather some supplies and slowly build and grow, unlike the insular and confined bunker, the cities and growing AI complexes had odds and ends he had never seen before. Ethan became quickly addicted to finding and rebuilding the devices, and in his own way bringing the things back to life. He had never been able to bring the others back, but these he could bring to life. It enthralled him and he became more distant from his small bunker, going out into the hostile wasteland and exploring.

V.I.R.U.S.

For the now teenaged Ethan, it was a game, and it was impossible for him to fail or get hurt. He had his scraps and even was captured by Zone Gangers once, but he had been able to fight back and give back worse than he got. He frightened himself, by his anger and rage that he was able to summon forth on command. He fought in unnatural silence and without pain or exhaustion, until either he was unconscious or the enemy was dead before him. He was lethal, but always quiet as possible. “Silence always, cut fast, hurt later,” his motto became when encountering other survivors. It wasn't until he made his first trip to a Citadel and searched through the hideous waste pile that was churned making new Machines. He picked through the garbage before spinning around startled by a noise, and saw them. They were 3 men with looked like real tech not remade crap Ethan had on, a bloody V on their shoulder as they moved closer to the Citadel. They were a forward scout for a operation nearby, and Ethan tailed them back to their camp.

They discovered him faster than he would have liked beat him and dragged him in front of the commander. They threw him on the ground and the commander threw a blade at him. He looked up and knew what he wanted, or at least thought he did. Ethan took the knife and carved into his shoulder a ragged V and gave a smile at him. The commander grabbed him by the hair and jerked him up. “Idiot, that will take time to heal, the fakes don't bleed right.” The medics rush in and treat the wound and make sure the malnourished boy was properly treated. That was the moment he decided on being a crazy horse. V.I.R.U.S. was his people or so he thought, and for the most part it was, on duty.

Ethan's training in the mountains was intensive, but not intensive enough for the young man. For every hour he spend in training or class he spend two on his own going over and working hard. He avoided the others off duty they reminded him too much of his bunker. It wasn't long before, Ethan was promoted to Lt. Specialist, and the joke was around the base, that he was able to work with computers because he was one. Ethan didn't pay attention or even take heed. He had seen people come and go, time and time again. He was going trust in the things that he could fix and keep with him, the machines that weren't smart, and he was going to make the ones that were, pay. There was only one promise Ethan kept, or even made with anyone in his life, and he never spoke of it or forgot it. He simply lived the promise he made his mother that day.

Despite the obstructions and the odds, Ethan's unit performed excellently, managing to bust open slave camps and stop the Eaters as they slowly ate away at the remaining cities that still sheltered the few survivor crazy enough to not leave. Each brief moment of success was met with greater force and searching, and the band of fifty hung dug in each time. Ethan began collecting tech from their conquests and grew into his own under the Captain. He had another more formal name, but in Ethan's mind he was only The Captain. Like Orin before, he was he only connection to the other men, a specialist in everything including people it seemed. Ethan got them in so they could do their damage, and then helped them get out, but beyond that, the others normally forgot he was there. It was the reason why he was selected to go on the Denver Mission.

Denver Mission

The mission gave Ethan the wrong rub, it hadn't come from The Captain this time another group of V.I.R.U.S. who got Intel they said came from an a radio drop. The drop gave a report that there were survivors being experimented upon and that the Machines were developing a new model that would pass completely as human. The threat was too great to ignore and so The Captain volunteered his fifty men to join the Bear unit from down south to do a deep insertion and strike into the heart of Denver Zone. Ethan didn't want to go, but The Captain was his friend, and the only real connection Ethan had to people anymore, his focus being on his machines, and working on understanding them more, and so Ethan followed.

They moved quickly working as they always did, at night. Moving through the mountains, they faced little opposition, as no resistance groups operated this far out and they no reports came in from the Denver area. The group of soldiers walked into the unknown at the dead of night. Their plan was a risky one, the majority would distract the Machines by attacking a Citadel to the North while a team of ten went in with Ethan's newly acquired SQUID and electronic lockpicks and exfiltrate the prisoners. It was a dangerous and simple plan, but the ten picked were supposedly the most solid and trustworthy fighters. Five of them came from Ethan's squad, the other from Bear squad. The two groups didn't talk as they snuck into the objective via a tech bot access tunnel beneath the city. The five from Bear kept the rear guard as Ethan moved forward to fake credentials for access. It was the longest five minutes of his life as the card reader slowly accepted his faked purpose and opened the door for him.

He stepped into a chamber of unimaginable horrors, rows and rows of glass tubes filled with women. The women in them were suspended in a fluid with various tubes feeding into their body's unnaturally into them pumping and pulsing feeding into and out of their bodies, and the only sign of life was the beating heart in the exposed rib cages and the heart beat read out. Their stomach was exposed and covered with a plastic coating to allow close examination of gestation. Ethan tried to not to their face, but he couldn't help them, their eyes were removed leaving only black eyes and a disfigured skull, as most of the brain had been removed.

The Captain spoke first “Why the fuck did they take their brain?” The only answer was a burning sizzle as the laser rifle struck him in the back. A perfect twin stepped out and smiled at them leveling his laser rifle at the rest of the party.

What happened next was the essence of chaos as a few of the fighters turned on their brethren, Ethan dived behind one of the tubes and fired with his bolt action rifle at The Captain. His shot struck between the eyes and a thick white fluid from the wound, he collapsed on the ground as the other two redjacks mowed down the other members of his party. Bullets slammed into the tube breaking it and killing the thing that had once been a woman. Another mother sacrificed for his life, Ethan snapped, he stood in front of the tube, firing shot after shot at the others, until they both stopped moving.

After they had been deactivated, he heard an alarm klaxon sounded through out the complex, and then the howls arose from somewhere deep in the complex. Thinking quickly , Ethan sets the satchel charges and times them with ten minutes. He sprints down the complex width dropping each one after a few strides. At least he could destroy this horror and do something right, before keep his promise. On passing fake The Captain, he kneels and takes the fake's pack and laser carbine. He would keep it with him as a reminder, no matter how close he got to someone they could always be the Enemy. Ethan moved forward from that silently and quickly, he did not look back when the charges went off.

He thought that the horror was over, but he was wrong.

The Escape into Fog

As he ran to the extraction point, the howls grew louder into the night. The attack to the north had been a disaster as the infiltration had been, and there were less than a dozen soldiers crouched down in the ravine to greet Ethan. There was little talking, they had heard the howls and the explosion and assumed the worst. Ethan eyed each one with a paranoid gaze before motioning that they move out wordlessly. Little did he know that they were being stalked by the Machine's newest toys. They waited patiently and waited until they had escaped into the mountains.

They had managed to make camp in a group of small caves up overlooking the AI Citadel, they went to sleep as normal in watches. That was when they made their move, and Ethan never one to sleep well was woken away from a big mechanical Machine the size of a panther, shaking a corpse of the first watch till he broke in half and was scattered across the ground. Ethan didn't scream or say anything, instead diving for the new acquired laser carbine, this thing was going to get a taste of its own medicine. He turns on the rifle and tries to fire, the hud spitting out negatives and safety locks to him as he did. The Machine panther gave a loud robotic growl as it stepped on another member, waking up the rest of the party.

After the thing was dead, Ethan walked over to the man he had doomed by trying the untested weapon. He looked deep into the cold dead eyes, that he had remembered from so long ago and realized that he felt nothing. In the end, this man had died cause of him like all the others, and it was only another mark on his soul that would never heal. He had hidden from most people most of his life, and this was why. For Ethan to survive, others would always have to die, until at least Ethan would. He considered taking a pistol and blowing out his brains to let his blood mix in with the innocent man that he had indirectly killed. He didn't, he had a promise, and no matter the horror, or the things that still haunted him, he would continue on. At least one sacrifice would not be in vein, even if it cost everyone around him.

They walked out into the night, silently, deciding to split up and lose the Hounds. No one said a word or argued with Ethan going off alone. Ethan decided that the men had understood what he was, and would be better off without the silent weird robot, perhaps they even blamed him from the failure of the mission. They were right, he had failed them all, by trusting The Captain and the other people, and it had cost most their lives. Ethan headed to the only place he knew would provide him refuge in the world, Silver Mine.

It took more than six months to find Silver Mine again, and there was no greeting, no welcoming. The Mine was empty, the large door expected to hide and prevent entry off its tracks and tossed to one side. Blood streaked from the entrance, and off toward the city. Ethan knew what happened and he realized again that he didn't care anymore. He looked at his hands and shook them in anger, only to fake the emotion, he realized that he had seen their fates. Slaves traded to Denver, he had seen their fate, but he could not feel anything for them anymore. It was if he had died inside.

Ethan did what was expected to him, and followed the trail toward the camp, maybe they would be alive maybe not. If he could act human enough they might take him in again, or at least join his battle. Either way, it was the expected thing to do, though he had never had love for them, he remembered a point where he at least cared if they lived or died. He remembered working and making sure that they were safe, and remembered caring about making their life better. He focused on that instead of the horrible truth.

The vertol overhead jarred him back to reality, without a thought he dashed into a nearby cave, unaware of the adventure that the broken and shattered man was course for.

Original Bio

I considered myself lucky. Most would on Steel, though to me it was just Earth. I was born at the right time to receive the quickly distributed vaccines against the super plagues that the AI's made. Of course, no one knew that they did at the time, and most retreated from the city from fear of infection and into the woods. My family was luckier than most, managed to get a small cabin up in the Oregon wilderness and stock up and hold out. Of course, the radios and news programs talked of the AIs that were going to save them. Hell, my mother use to talk about it in hmy earliest memories. Private land in the back woods was pretty good live compared to most during the Bad Years. Then things got worse.

Most I remember of the Final War was moving to camp to camp in the woods, roads could be traced by sat, and well, over head was a mix of human and smartbots aircraft fighting it out. After a while, there weren't anymore human ones up there anymore. Had to move by night then, moving south, some reason they thought Mexico would be good. Stumbled upon Silver Mine Enclave, and well we stopped. The Enclave was run by a survivalist who wanted to build a new Eden. Not a bad place, though I never was into the whole newlifer bullshit. Free love and procreation is nice and all, but seriously, the Tinmen were going to come one day. By the time the war was over, I was the only lifeline to the outside world for them. Was damn good at it if I do say so myself.

The best time was at night, but the bots could see at night, keeping low to the ground and sneaking was needed. The dumbbots were easy to hack at first, they were just like the old ones before the war, but the smartbots? They would kill you. It took me a few years, but I found all good places better than any junkrat. A Robofac was 3 days trip, and that was great. They didn't really give a shit what they threw away, as long as it was broken and not quickly fixed. Eventually, it all ended, the radio went static and well, that was that. Goodbye everyone.

Vancouver was our overlord, got that shit stamped on the serial of the bots- VAN, arrogant bastards. I use to use the names to try to find out where they were, fucking bad places a Robotfac, but it is where the best gear was, and it kept our hydroponics going and the rat traps open. I was only like 15 at the time so I was still small enough to be mistaken for an animal then, and man were those the days. Also first time I saw the Slave Camps. Most of the old ones were from before the Final War, I knew to avoid those, but these new ones always coming up where a VAN hyperfac or robotfac was going up. Those places looked miserable, of course now they look fucking good compared to the alternative.

That was the time, I found a radio, man was the shit old, but it still worked. Radio Free Earth came on suddenly playing strong for about a day then shutdown. 500 ways to cook a rat was pretty excellent, but best of all it taught me shit I needed to know. Learned about Virus, people willing to do something about this shit, and fight back. I was going on 17 at the time so I thought it sounded pretty good. There was a local meeting in the middle of the Rockies, easy to hide in during the night, but a bitch during the winter. Said my good byes to my family and headed out.

Virus gave me some tech, told me how to use to, but a lot I already knew. I mean even a dumb shit knows how to get a dumbbot singing his tune if he can find the frequency but it doesn't make you any more bullet proof than the next fucker. Either way, I was pretty set, got about 50 fellows and it seemed like more joined everyday. Goddamn army compared to the 30 family I was use too. Moving around constantly setting traps and ambushes in empty land so they can do Vulture runs over nothing. It was pretty good, that was until Cap. Miller got the bright fucking idea to go over the Rockies and hit at Denver. Denver was fucked from the start. The tinmen had started getting smart. We broke a few slave camps and let everyone out, but tinlickers started coming out. Would form in gangs and just sit there crying to be rescued until someone did and damn Exterminators out of the fucking ground. The tinlickers were easy to spot, but the Redjacks and the Liliths were new.

We go into a Denver hyperfac, got a real good distraction and I got us in like I was born to fucking do. Explosives and sabotage works great to get them all riled up in the wrong place. We get in and well, fuck man. They were making people. I don't mean like robots, I mean, like women with their fucking head half missing and like, fucking making new people. I can't talk about it much, but we set charges and hell broke lose. Fucking 5 people in our group fucking robots, and they looked fucking real. We managed to fry two and get out of there, and then blow it. After that, shit really went down. They didn't stop chasing us until the border with Vancouver. Every time we moved there were fucking dogs on us. Not like fucking real ones, but tinmen. Hearing one of those fucks growl at you? It doesn't go away man.

I made it, I think I'm the only one left, though we split going into the Rockies. Managed to stay low and make it home. Well, there wasn't a home left. I think the Liliths got to them, but they were all gone, none dead though. Going to have to bust a slave camp and break them out. Of course, our neighbors didn't fucking help none, no, they got their hole, they are rats. I fucking eat rats for dinner motherfuckers. I was traveling down toward one of the old slave camps, thinking maybe it still would be there. Vancouver isn't too bloodthirsty, but it still is a fucking tinman. Vulture does a flyby, and I hit the dirt. I know that fucker saw me, and damn it, it was going to call it in. I dashed into the nearest hole I could find or make and went in it like a gopher. I just broke out running toward the light at the end. I thought there was going to be a camp or some enclave shit. Damn, was I fucking wrong.

World Information

World Reference World: Steel(Canon world, Reign of Steel Ref. GURPS 3rd.)
Current Year: 2050
Tech Level: 10(Humans vary from 4-10) VIRUS Agents are TL: 9
Mana Level: nonexistent
Cross world travel: Theorized(Brisbane)/possibly experimented on
Description: Machines won the war against humanity, and the humans struggle to survive against an enemy they cannot hope to defeat.
Extra Quantum Activity: Infinity has a presence as well as the Centurm. Both do not want the AI's to spread and both are trying to help, either with nukes, or reprogramming.

Jenna Briggs

Banestormed Yrth Adventurer Played by GoatLord

Bio

Jenna was born in Chicago in 1992. Shortly thereafter, her parents died in a car accident; to Jenna they are nothing more than names on some documents. Her early life was spent bouncing around in the foster care system. When she was twelve she was put with a particularly abusive foster father. The situation started to rapidly deteriorate when she hit puberty, so she fled her foster home and started her life on the streets.

That is when she met Saul. Saul was an old musician who spent his twilight years at a run-down jazz club. One day Jenna sneaked inside to get out of the rain, and shortly thereafter discovered her musical talent. Over the following years, Saul taught Jenna to play the guitar, and generally became the father she never had. When he died shortly before her 18th birthday, he left her his old acoustic guitar which she re-named in his honor.

Within a year she used her prodigious talent, along with everything Saul taught her, to get a scholarship to attend The Music Conservatory of the Chicago College of Performing Arts. She was there less than a year when one day, while taking the train to her favorite park to write some music, her car was violently ripped between worlds, depositing her and six others in a dark cave beneath the mountains of Northern Megalos, on a world called Yrth.

In Her Own Words

“By the time we made it out into the sunlight again, there were only six of us. We spent two days lost in the woods, no idea where we were or where we were going. Then we're almost eaten by a gryphon, and we meet this hunter speaking a language nobody had ever heard. He takes us back to his little village, and in the morning he introduces us to the local wizard.

“So this wizard waves his hand in front of his face and suddenly he speaks English. Tells us we're not in Kansas anymore. Tells us where we are, nobody has even heard of Kansas. Then he put us up for a few weeks. Gave us food, clothes, and beds. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? Well it turns out it was all just so he could keep us in one place while I called out for the brainwashing squad to come pick us up.

“We managed to sneak out of town right as the bastards arrived, but that left us running for our lives with only a vague idea of where we were going. We went as far and as fast as we could before night fell, then we set up camp in the forest. That's when the two wizards from the ministry caught up with us. I tried to talk it out, explain we had no intention to destroy their society with our knowledge of science or whatever, but they were more eager to start throwing fireballs around than negotiate. We tried to fight them off, but it became real clear real fast that we didn't stand a chance. Gus and I were the first to make a run for it, and we were the only ones that managed to escape.

“So it's just the two of us in the wilderness, on the run, our supplies left behind at the camp. We didn't speak the language, had no idea where we should go, and for all we knew there's death squads scouring all the roads looking for us. So we stayed away from the roads, stayed away from any signs of civilization, and scraped by on whatever food we could find, which wasn't much. We just wandered in a direction as west as could manage, and got introduced to a number of other things on this world that wanted to destroy everything we were.

“Eventually we made it across the border into Caithness, where magic was weaker and the people that wanted us dead just because we were from Earth didn't know we existed yet. We'd picked up another guy like us along the way, but he took the first opportunity he got to settle in some nowhere village and live out his life in hiding. But me and Gus just weren't cut out for that sort of life. We laid low long enough to learn the language, let the Earth-smell fade away – Apparently the wizards could sense when something was from another world – and as soon as we could pass for natives we set out looking for whatever Yrth had to offer.

“We spent a couple years doing that. Hooked up with this underground network of scientists and engineers, people who wanted to advance technology out of the dark ages. Mostly we helped lead new arrivals to safety before the Ministry got their hands on them. It was a dangerous way to live, but we were doing good, and the world was full of amazing things to see.

“One day we get word that slagged-out minivan turned up in the foothills on the west end of the Empire. Turns out a family of four was on summer vacation when a banestorm came along and dumped them in the mountains. Gus and I managed to find them lost, hungry, and confused, and only hours ahead of the squad the Ministry sent out to investigate. Nearest safe-house was a day away in the best conditions, and that family was in no shape for that kind of pace.

“Naturally, the death squad catches up with us about half way there. I don't even remember how many there were. Too many. Gus said he'd hold them off. I wanted to help, but there was no way that family could find their way through the mountain passes on their own. I doubled back as soon as I got them to safety, went as fast as I possibly could. By the time I got back there was nothing but blood and ashes.”

After that, Jenna started thinking bigger and throwing herself into the work with increased fervor. She started taking on more dangerous missions, getting embroiled in court intrigue and the Caithness civil war. Infiltrating the legion. Doing whatever she could to orchestrate the downfall of the Silver Hand, the Ministry of Serendipity, or any of the other groups that worked to keep knowledge from Earth suppressed. Really she was looking for a place to die. And yet she didn't die. One suicide mission after another, and she somehow managed to pull it off, or at least get out alive. And with every mission she got better at it. Soon she was something of a legend in the Underground; a true operative in a way they had never had before. Her journeys took her all over the continent, finding hidden enclaves of technophiles all over, connecting them into a true underground network, dedicated to bringing technology and political freedom to the masses.

After thirteen years of adventure and espionage, she became a master of intrigue and made a great deal of enemies. One night, a group of those enemies – either Silver Hand or Ministry, she'll never know which – raided the Underground safe-house where she was staying. In an attempt to lead the attackers away from the others in the safe-house, she took the fastest horse and made a show of fleeing to the north. She hoped to lose her pursuers in the wilderness after drawing them away, but before she could she rode straight into the thickest fog she'd ever seen. She lost her horse in the fog, and when she came out the other side she was on the familiar-but-different gotha-infested streets of a Chicago that was not her own.