Post by Vet on Aug 12, 2013 18:56:40 GMT -5
Banner, Alexandra Faith
» They say before you start a war ;
NAME: Captain Alexandra Faith Banner
GENDER: Female
AGE: Twenty-seven
SPECIES: Human
HOMEWORLD: Earth - New York
AFFILIATION/JOB: SWRD applicant.
APPEARANCE:Of Dutch and Chinese descent, Alex is considered caucasian. Standing at five feet, four inches, Alex is smack-dab in the middle of normal for height. One hundred and twenty pounds of lean and toned muscle, she knows how to use her small size and light weight class to her advantage even in a fight where she's pitifully out-muscled and out-manned. Having spent her lifetime in one of the roughest places the planet had left to offer, she dragged her way up from the dredges of society to try and make something of herself. Because of this, she has a fair number of scars. However, the most notable runs from the middle of her left cheek up to barely miss her eye and continue on through her eyebrow where it stops just above. It was courtesy of a nasty knife spar with a gang member far her superior with significantly more experience in hand-to-hand. Since then, she's done much to rectify the lack of knowledge. Her hair is a short mop of blond more wheat in color than most and the majority of the time, looks as if frustrated hands have run through it with little care for looks. It barely covers her ears, but is short enough not to require daily maintenance (in her opinion) and keeps combatants from fisting a hand in it to yank her around during training.
» You better know what you're fighting for ;
PERSONALITY:
Loyal: Alex is the type to be there for those she cares for and who are under her care without question. If someone has earned her trust, they've earned her life as well, for she will stop at nothing to keep them safe. She has been known to take altruism to an extreme. When her career was still budding, she put her life at risk as the pilot of a small fighter and took on a Class I Freighter who had taken human refuges hostage without back up. Landing on the Freighter which had been disabled remotely by her ground team on a nearby planet, Alex had infiltrated the base and took out multiple hostiles while managing to get all hostages evacuated with no friendly casualities. It was this mission that earned her a hard slap on the wrist for being so reckless, while at the same time, was rewarded with her first rank. While she has been known to disobey orders, it has only ever worked to preserve the life of those she'd become responsible for and not for anything less.
Natural Leader: Because she can take calculated risks for a greater cause and still come out on top, Alex has earned the respect of many under her. However, she has inspired even those of higher rank by her refusal to give up lives as a lost cause. When it comes to the hard decisions and choosing between lives, she does not do so easily, but shoulders the responsibility of it herself. It is because of this that those who know her hold her in such high esteem. To find one who is willing to carry the weight of their decisions, especially in the universe it has become today, is a rare thing indeed, and helps others want to improve themselves.
Honest: Some would think this a good trait. However, Alex is honest to the point of brutality sometimes. Perhaps it was due to her upbringing that she did not learn how to give white lies to spare the feelings of another. In fact, the only cases in which she has lied have been due to orders or that lives had been in danger should she have spoken truthfully. There is a very clear line for her between right and wrong. On cases where that line must waver, she finds herself doubting in her morals, but under the duress, ends up doing whatever is best for those under her care. Despite this brutal honesty, Alex says things in such a simple way that it is often hard for her crewmates to find reason to be upset by it. She treats everyone equally, regardless of rank, gender, or species - another rarity among the human race.
Introverted: Though her adoptive father had tried all he could to help bring out extroversion in her, Alex remained quite withdrawn in most things. Without a doubt, she was very loving and responsible, but she did not show it as a normal teenager and even into adulthood. Her form of love so far has just been a quiet acceptance of others for who they are and who they aren't.
Compassionate: It is almost an impulsive need for Alex to reach out to others when they are hurting or in danger. She wants those around her to be happy, even if she may not know how to help them feel that way. Her heart is in the right place, though her methods can leave much to be desired.
Meticulous: Alex is precise almost to an obsessive drive. During the course of a conversation, if she notices something out of place, she can be thoroughly distracted by it until said something is back as it belongs. It is this attention to detail that saved the lives of herself and her crewmen when she noticed a small trail of broken branches carefully hidden behind oddly too-thick, wilting foliage. It had been the trail formed by a waiting ambush. Rather than continuing on with her team, she had each split up into smaller strike teams to take on the enemy where they hid unaware of the sudden trap that had backfired on them.
Clarity: There is never a doubt with the Captain what she expects of her crewmen. When she relays an order, it's because she trusts them to follow it to a T in order to keep everyone safe. A ship, afterall, cannot be run by one person alone. It requires a vast amount of teamwork and if the one at the helm is unclear, the system is apt to fall to pieces or be blown to pieces in a firefight.
Impulsive: Alex can be prone to powerful impulses that may be born of careful observation or just simple want for something she's come across. When the pull is strong enough, she usually gives in and takes what she wants. In most cases, this occurs with food. Having grown up in the dredges of society where food was hard to come by and each piece was hard earned and fought for, she can be a bit of a glutton. Despite this, Alex keeps herself in top form with strict daily routines that involve a lot of sparring with combat droids.
Unpredictable: This trait may be seen as negative, but it is most often only with her enemies that she will pull out a hat trick. A vixen in combat, she holds her cards close until the right moment to strike. Perhaps it has been luck so far that has allowed her gambling to pay off, but she never puts all her eggs in one basket and most assuredly has a back-up plan to get her team out of sticky situations.
» I'm an angel with a shotgun ;
HISTORY:
Childhood:
Even in the darkest of places, it was always surprising what could grow with the barest signs of light. An orphan, her mother a victim of too many drugs and father a victim of violence, Alex had to grow up fast or not at all. Because it was the only way for a kid on her own to survive in one of the most violent 'cities' left on Earth, she became deeply engrossed in gang life. The Dark Hazers were the most brutal of the established gangs within the ruins left of Brooklyn, known for their lethal force and surprisingly well organized hierarchy. As she'd been hardly eight, Alex wasn't trusted with anything more than supply runs. Still, these runs were riddled with plenty of danger: enough to require at least one seasoned guard each time. Said guard could be but fifteen, but they were proven enough to have killed for the Family. That's what the Hazers liked to think of themselves as: a family. They killed for family. That was their game. It was what made it okay.
Small and fleet of mind as she was of foot, Alex was often thrown into missions involving stealing from other gangs' caches of food, weapons, supplies. Anything. By nine, she began hand-to-hand training, having proved her worth many times over already. They started off as simple lessons before the game of it became less a game and more a competition to see who was worthy of even surviving long enough to be part of the Family.
Survive she had. At twelve, the normal age for a first kill - another initiation as it were - Alex made a name for herself. She already knew how to use a gun, able to take out bottles with an expert eye. With her skills gaining more infamy amongst the family, her name reached top ranks. She was put on a mission where the goal was to take out some competition. It was a simple enough chore in their minds: take some potshots at other gangs' members. If they hit, great. If not, well, the message was sent for them to clear the hell out.
Lamb was the name she earned among them. Lamb because no matter how many times she was sent to kill, she didn't. Depending on the crime of the person she was sent after - with a small team in tow or even alone - she would either miss completely or hit in non-fatal areas.
She'd grown attached to a few of the Family. Some had grown attached to her in turn. She was a good kid caught in a bad place and they knew it. Some of them saw her as the best they had to offer. Others saw her as competition in the eyes of those in charge. Manipulation was a powerful technique and it was eventually forced upon her with an ultimatum she could not refuse: Kill this hit or you're out.
This hit, of course, was to be an ultimate test of loyalty. It was a mission bordering on suicide. The order was to take out a military official who'd been working on picking their members off the streets and sending them away to other cities that were doing better. However, the gangs did not see things the same way. They say it as being worse than arrested back in the old days.
Giving one revolver fully loaded, the little lamb of Dark Hazers was thrust into the streets with an edict to not return until the job was done.
Earth's military was fractured after the wars. What remained was a joke of what it had once been, so sneaking onto the base was painfully easy. It wasn't long after the target had been located that Alex ended up in a stalemate with the officer. Each had their guns drawn. One was trembling, the other laser straight and ready.
He was a kind man. One with a family - a son and a wife - nestled in the safer districts of New York's underbelly. He'd fought in the war, earned medals for being stabbed by an alien in the first contact. Now he was talking down a thirteen year old from shooting him. It was obvious to him she didn't want to be there, didn't want to do it. Even as he spoke in calm tones, Alex had felt tears prick at her eyes.
Neither of them had known she'd had eyes on her. So when she lowered her gun and tossed it away like a dirty rag, both of them had registered the same surprise when a bullet tore through her shoulder. She'd gone down even as the ranking officer fired off two rounds into her assailant with deadly force. It was then that her childhood - what could be considered one - had truly ended.
Adulthood:
Alex had enlisted as soon as she turned eighteen under the watchful eye of Lieutenant Banner, the very man she'd nearly killed years before. He'd become a father figure to her, taking her into his home, bringing her into his family. A real family. One the Family could never come close to on a good day. With the stability, came a sense of self Alex may very well have lost.
With her background, Alex excelled in training. Her aim was impeccable, making her invaluable as a sniper, though she scored just as well at close range with her hand-to-hand combat. Besides the sniper rifle, a pistol was her secondary weapon of choice should an enemy get close enough to make the sniper too dangerous and too far for hand-to-hand.
Despite spending the better part of her childhood following orders, Alex proved to be an inspiring leader with enough common sense to climb the ranks to one even higher than her mentor. She was selected out of her peers for the Space Program. It was one unbelievably small in the military - most of the humans outside Earth had either been privately funded to leave or had fled on the first ships available as refuges during the wars.
Her mission was to do Recon for the military, which brought her into contact with several alien species, especially when she made a trip to the Council's homeworld. Unbeknownst to her, a political struggle trying to get a few humans into the SWRD program had been going on. Her routine stop to gather supplies had actually been a concealed, high class order to attend a meeting considered 'need to know.' Until she'd landed and been approached by officials, apparently, she hadn't needed to know.
Alex didn't know what the Council had seen in her or any of the other recruits. Didn't know what was so damned special about them, but they'd had something the rest of the human race obviously hadn't shown.
While she is in training, her crew and ship are currently in dry dock.
» Fighting 'til the war's won ;
RP EXAMPLE:
[From another site involving supernatural creatures.]
How many times had he come here? How many times to mourn her? He was lost in the darkness of a world that enveloped him like a vengeful lover intent on making him pay for every slight he’d never caused. He was perched on a thick branch of a massive oak that served to shelter her headstone. His stomach rested against the smooth, well-worn branch. The majority of the bark along it had fallen off or been plucked off from the hours he’d spent since this place had become where her body was laid to rest. Her soul wasn’t there; of that he was perfectly aware. But that there was some place physical to go to think of her brought some level of comfort that even her empty house – now his – couldn’t bring him. With one wing tucked against his back, the other draped down, the tips of the longest primaries just barely brushing the top of the stone engraved with her name.
Eve. His Eve. Smart, funny, courageous, and undeniably his. The need for her swept through him in a powerful wave. No matter the time that passed, he found himself wondering if the gaping hole in his life she’d left would ever heal.
It was odd: how death could make him feel more human. As a full-fledged angel, he’d never doubted who was responsible for murders. It was that of the murderer. Never God. He would never waste life so cruelly. Though some people needed to explain it away – it was in God’s plan – Logan knew better. God didn’t have plans like that. Well, he used to know better. Now he found himself wondering if it had all been a test of his allegiance to the Call. Undoubtedly, he’d failed. He’d murdered in return. A life for a life. Wasn’t that His decree?! An avenging angel. What was wrong with fulfilling that law?
“Is it because she mattered to me?!” he suddenly demanded to the silence, imagining the Almighty listening in to his thoughts. No. Truly, he knew the why of it. In the heat of the moment, he hadn’t been avenging his fallen lover. He’d gone for revenge. But damn it all, was it really all that different in the heat of the moment? The man hadn’t suffered – though he damn well should have – and had been mercifully dealt with. What more did He want from him?!
An apology? Fuck that. “Fuck You.” The barb was weak, tired. Heartbroken.
Above him, the leaves shivered when a biting wind whipped through the cemetery. From the scent, rain wasn’t far off. Your sense of humor is fucking deplorable. “I don’t want your Goddamned pity.” No response. Not that he expected one. His Holiest had obviously deemed him too unimportant to bother with anymore. Or maybe He’d given up. Hell, Logan already had.
He sat up a little, tucking both his wings tight only to roll until his back was now to the branch beneath him. His wings both dropped with gravity, making something of a curtain against the headstone below. Black feathers delicately fingered unforgiving stone as he heard the softest whisper of the first raindrop to pelt a leaf on the tree.
A cold front was moving through, despite being late summer. With it came dangerous storms and incredible damage to property. And physical harm to those caught unawares. Pity he wasn’t on the job to help out with that anymore. His dark eyes were cast skyward through the leaves as if to glare at God for it. Despite the one rain drop, the clouds deigned to hold off for a while more even as thunder began to roll in. Soon enough, he knew there’d be lightning. Logan could already feel that familiar sizzle in the air that it was close and hovering in wait. And here he was lounging in a lightning rod. Well, that would hurt like a bitch.
“Punishment for back-talking, I suppose?” he commented glibly to the air. On a sigh, he gave a humorless smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Up yours, too, buddy.”
» I don't care if Heaven won't take me back ;
