Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Flesh out Firemane's ranks a bit.
Image Credit: Here. 'Jena Shepard' by Jinxiedoodle.
Role: Firemane operative. Cross is employed by the corporation's black ops division. She's a commando, interrogator and cleaner.
Permissions: ARGH gear available per this thread. Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here and here. Permission to use Tricks of the Trade submissions here.
Links: Casus Belli, Denouement, The Rapture, Atrisia Rebellion, Alderaan Invasion.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: 28
Force Sensitivity: Non-Force User.
Species: Human
Appearance: Tall, broad-shouldered and muscular. Cross exercises daily and it shows in her impressive physique. Outside of going to the gym on a regular basis, she keeps in shape by participating in boxing matches and running a lot. She is tough, tenacious and quick on her feet. Her face is marked by vicious scars that even bacta has not been able to heal. She has several tattoos on her body. The most prominent one is a sword hilt on her arm. Cross derives her name from the X on her neck. She received it during her time in prison. It was the defining moment when she let her old self die and reforged herself into something new. Her hair is cut very short to make sure it does not get in the way. Only the top of her head has hair, while the rest is shaved. Cross is never unarmed and generally has a pistol in her holster. She often carries a concealed Hold-out Bolter and a vibroknife.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Goes by the name Cross. Real name is Molly Mog. She really hates it though. Anyone who uses it can expect a knife between the ribs or a broken nose.
Loyalties: Herself, Siobhan Kerrigan, Chimaera Squad, Firemane.
Wealth: Decent. It is a good idea to give the people doing your dirty work a decent salary, lest they get tempted to switch sides and spill the beans on your secrets. After all, they know all about your dirty laundry. Assuming she makes it to retirement age, Cross will be able to retire quite comfortably, though not luxuriously. Pay in Firemane is on a sliding scale based on experience, rank, reward and so on.
Notable Possessions:
- Last Whisper
- Stealth Field Generator.
- Firedrake
- Hellburner Disruptor (purchased here, confirmed here).
- Pack of Kath Hounds (pets, not used for combat).
- Collection of drawings.
- X8-H Endgame Elite Disruptor Rifle
- Uproar Blaster
- Multi-Weapon
- Devaronian blood poison, Senflax, Malkite themfar and other poisons.
- Owns an MN-B Infiltrator bodyglove and a SH-N Projection helmet. Often he wears a blast vest with her street clothes. It is common enough among civilians and contractors to wear without suspicion.
Pinprick Needler - Terminus Shiv
Personality: Every regime, no matter how democratic or peace-loving it purports to be, must sooner or later do unpleasant things. Or look away when such things occur. If they do not they end up being destroyed by those who don't have those scruples. It is easy to claim a moral high ground and state that one is a beacon of peace and freedom, until the barbarians show up at the gates. Thus it is practical to employ individuals who are free of moral scruples and comfortable with getting their hands dirty. Of course, having some form of leverage over them is advisable. Cross is one of those people who perform such a function for Firemane. She was shaped by the Republic-One Sith war into a brutal, cruel woman who saw her ideals die on the battlefield. This has made her an ideal black ops operative for the corporate empire.
Once Cross believed in those lofty ideals that look good on the holonet and recruitment posters: Fight the good fight, stand up for the innocent, defend liberty, democracy and galactic peace. The harsh reality of the war she bravely and naively volunteered for burnt these ideals out of her. She realised that it was a ruthless, predatory Galaxy where noble ideals meant nothing, where the strong did what they wanted and the weak suffered what they must. War turned her into a highly ruthless woman with a sadistic streak, a monster according to some. Eventually her crimes caught up with her and she was convicted and imprisoned, before managing to escape.
Since then she has been a mercenary. Serving only herself, she's worked for the highest bidder. Eventually, her path led her to Firemane. There she found an organisation that put her talents to good use, by giving her a job in their black ops division. She is not the type who will rise far in the organisation. However, she is a nasty commando Lady Kerrigan has on call for when things need to get done, at any cost. Cross is right at home leading commando operations, organising insurgencies and targeted assassinations or extracting information from enemies via torture. The latter also applies to comrades accused of treason.
Cross has no respect for rank or title and does not care much for saluting. But she does not ask awkward questions. Give her a mission and access to the resources needed for the job, and she will see it through. Being loaded with red tape and annoying desk officers will drive her into a fearsme rage. The outside observer might mistake her for a uncouth brute. This is a perception she encourages, right down to her coarse manner of speaking and the amount of time she spends in the boxing ring. In actual fact, she is a meticulous planner and even an avid reader.
Cross feels institutional, but not ideological loyalty to Firemane. She is utterly indifferent to the mission statement Firemane claims to espouse. Propaganda simply does not work on her. Yammering about making the Galaxy a better place and fighting the 'bad guys' does not impress her. Her boss' speeches bore her and she sees Firemane minions who idolise Siobhan as naive fools. By the same token, she is also immune to propaganda against her employer because she does not care whether they are 'good guys' or not. She sticks with the corporate empire because they pay well and allow her to do what she is good at.
Moreover, she does not have to deal with sanctimonious, pacifist Jedi who chat with enemies rather than kill them or Chaotic Evil Sith who may throw their weight around and apply Force chokes at the drop of a hat. Due to her wartime experiences, Cross loathes Jedi, regarding them as weak-kneed, sanctimonious hypocrites. Cross is aware of the power Force-users wield but is not awed or intimidated by them. After all, they bleed, too. She does derive a sadistic pleasure from humiliating and breaking those she gets to interrogate though. Cross does not forget slights or betrayals and is rather vindictive.
For all of Cross' many unpleasant traits, she is loyal unless she is unfairly treated. Moreover, she is free of bias when it comes to gender, creed or species. Provided people pull their weight and do not get in her way, she is fine with them. On an idiosyncratic note, Cross breeds kath hounds. Not to fight in battles or tournaments, but as companions. She is fond of saying, "Hounds aren't like people, you can trust 'em. They won't turn on you if you treat 'em right." When around her dogs, she shows a surprisingly gentle, compassionate side most people do not get to see. Word is that she got her first hound by liberating it from a thug who abused and often starved his pet. He also had a habbit of siccing the poor thing on his victims.
It is rumoured that Cross broke the gangster's legs and smashed his nose with a crowbar, then let the hound eat him. While this may be a case of tall tales, Cross does nothing to discourage the rumour. That said, cruelty to animals extremely disgusts her and makes her violently angry against the abuser in question. The same applies to big game hunters who hide behind high-tech and firepower instead of facing the animals they hunt in a fair contest of skill. Cross treats her hounds well. She also keeps a few budgies around and is very kind to them. She has taught them plenty of words. She also has a knack for art, making drawings of people or places she's visited. Cross donates part of her income to support a national park as well as conservation and anti-poaching efforts on Dahomey. She makes the donation under an assumed name, using a special bank account.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: Blasters, slugthrowers, explosive weapons. She is fond of disruptors and stealth precision weapons such as shatterguns. Also makes liberal use of explosives, gas, knives, garrots and her fists.
Combat Function: Highly skilled commando, professional killer. Cross is a highly skilled marksman with a variety of firearms. She is also extremely strong and tough, fast and skilled in close quarters combat. Cross is good at tracking and trapping. She is trained in martial arts, especially Teräs Käsi. In addition to enhancing her prowess in unarmed combat, this style has also taught her how to close her mind to Force-users, thus protecting herself from mental attacks.
She is good at using knives in melee combat or conversely throwing them. Finally, she has a high pain tolerance and is very tenacious. Cross is the commander of Chimaera Squad, a clandestine black ops unit. Thus she often be accompanied by her squad mates, but she can also accomplish missions independently. Their missions include assassination, sabotage, surveillance, abductions and clandestine support for allied groups.
However, she is still only mortal. Lacking superpowers, she must use her wits, tech and skill to survive on the battlefield. Cross is also not a particularly good duellist or fencer. She's more apt at using knives or bludgeoning weapons than long blades, especially those whose use requires some grace. Thus she would not perform well if given a rapier or a similar weapon. She is a straight-up puncher in hand to hand combat. Cross is trained in small unit leadership, but not a strategic thinker and poor at leading large units. She has some skill in piloting small starships, but is no ace pilot.
Strengths:
- Highly skilled commando, infiltrator and professional killer. She is tough, strong, ruthless and in peak physical condition.
- Capable tactical commander. She is perfect for leading small elite strike teams of commandos or wet works operatives.
- While she is good at closing her mind to mental manipulation, Cross is a Non-Force-User. Lacking Force powers, genetic or cybernetic enhancements, she must rely on natural skill, training and her wits to prevail in combat. She is perfectly mortal in other ways despite her training, and so can be overwhelmed or injured like anyone else.
- Cross is perfectly suited for small unit leadership, but lacks the ability or desire to command larger forces.
Cross' personality and cynical, often callous demeanour is not the result of a traumatic or a dark, troubled childhood. Indeed, compared to what happened to her as she grew up, her childhood was rather idyllic. Born as the embarrassingly named Molly Mog, she was raised by a middle class family on Corellia. Her parents loved her and treated her well. Her father worked as a travelling salesman, while her mother was a professor at a local college. In short, her family oozed middle class respectability.
They imparted her with values such as respect for others, kindness, obedience to lawful authority and a willingness to stand up for the innocent. She also had two younger siblings. Though their jobs kept both her parents quite busy, they made time for her children and were very attentive. An aunt on her maternal side had been a fighter pilot with the Republic and the Omega Protectorate and often told the young girl stories about her adventures. However, Molly's life underwent a profound change during the Republic-One Sith War. If she had not been sucked into this conflict, perhaps she would have led an ordinary life far away from blood-soaked battlefields. She would have probably not become a commando or a cruel torturer.
Ironically, it was her idealism, fuelled by the values her family and her cultured middle class environment had passed on to her, that motivated Molly to get involved in the war effort. Her family made donations to NGOs that took care of war refugees. She herself visited refugee camps to help out. Contact with the victims of the war and their stories about the destruction caused by the One Sith and their tyrannous rule roused her to righteous anger. Though her home was still far away from the killing fields, she wanted to do something. As the say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The fact that she lived a comfortable life while so many people suffered also stirred feelings of guilt inside her. So she visited a Republic recruitment station. Enlisting at sixteen, she lied about her age. Conveniently, the Republic was in need of fresh bodies because the Sith showed no sign of stopping their bloody rampage across the Core Worlds, blazing a trail of destruction. After a few months of basic training, Molly was sent to the frontlines. Nothing could have prepared her for the harsh reality of warfare, for it had nothing in common with the image spread by the recruitment posters and holovids.
To put it plainly, it was a meat grinder. Before long, almost every single member of her platoon had perished on the battlefield. Some were mowed down by repeater fire, others blown up by land mines, devoured by Sithspawn or scythed by Sith Knights or traitorous Jedi. Others again simply succumbed to disease. Brutal, savage attrition thinned their ranks. But she was among those who survived. The experiences hardened her, forging her into a sharp, tough woman. During the Second Battle of Alderaan, her unit suffered so many casualties that she ended up in command.
Caught behind enemy lines after the Republic forces and their allies were forced to withdraw, hounded by Vong abominations, she showed her mettle, proving herself to be an efficient, if ruthless team leader. Teaming up with some native resistance fighters, she was able to rescue some comrades from a Sith prison camp. Refusing to leave them behind, she risked her life to save the captives. Despite the odds they faced, the team was able to secure transport offworld. Cross was the last aboard the ship. They left behind a ruined, Vong-shaped planet that had become the grave of many of their comrades.
What gnawed at her even more than the loss was the fact that one of their own, a comrade she had served alongside, had betrayed them, joining the Sith because they were the winning side. Good people died due to this betrayal, as he led the Vong to them. She herself was badly injured by one of their abominations. It left her furious and vengeful. Returning to Republic lines, she was rewarded for her valour and promoted. The Republic army needed good soldiers, NCOs and officers. She tried to bury her problems, using her fury as fuel. Her calls back home to her family became less frequent and increasingly laconic.
In any case, her reprieve was short-lived because the battlefield beckoned once again. Now an NCO she was paired with a Jedi Knight because the Republic military wanted to cooperate more with its nation's Jedi Order. After all, Jedi were needed to fight the Sith. Those Jedi that had not left the Republic and joined Orders that preferred to sit the war out, at any rate. Molly regarded those Jedi who did not get involved in the fighting as cowards. However, her opinion on Jedi Knight Resha Ve'ela soon soured, too. Though thoroughly lacking in command experience, Jedi Ve'ela was convinced that she knew best because being a Force-user made her a luminous being.
The Togruta was arrogant and self-righteous, seeing herself as superior to the common grunts. Her grasp of military tactics did not go beyond Battle of Geonosis style death charges. The result was disastrous when the Jedi more or less usurped command during an assault on a Sith base. To the Jedi's credit, she put her lightsabre to good use by fighting on the front lines. However, casualties were high, especially since the Sith in command use dark magic against the common soldiers, confusing and manipulating them. Molly was forced to shoot one of her comrades who had gone berserk. On the bright side, said waves of darkness also messed up several Sith troopers.
When they finally reached the command centre of the base, Ve'ela refused to fight the Sith and instead resorted to the age-old tactic of trying to talk the darksider down and convincing him to repent and return to the Light. Because that was obviously how redemption worked. All it took was a few gentle words from a good person, a sudden change of heart and all sins would be forgiven. Obviously the Sith tried to turn her to the dark side, appealing to some sort of bond they shared. Molly got fed up and decided to follow the age-old military tradition of fragging by putting a thermal detonator, a gas grenade and a shotgun too use. Her surviving comrades corroborated her story when she lied to her superiors about what had transpired, claiming the Jedi had been killed by the enemy. The disgust she felt for Jedi did not abate, rather it intensified.
There were more battles to be fought. Eventually she was given a battlefield promotion to brevet lieutenant, when the Netherworld Crisis sent the Galaxy spiralling into chaos. Molly suffered a very personal loss when she received word that Corellia had been devastated by the insane Force Entity. Her attempts to establish contact with her family failed. What was left of her broken homeworld fell under the control of the One Sith. She shut down. All the stress got to her. She took out her anger on pirates, Sith and traitors.
Cross participated in a number of Republic campaigns, such as the liberation of Alderaan and various battles after the conflict with the Sith resumed. She became a frighteningly effective interrogator, using brutal torture to extract information from captives. According to her, this allowed her to save lives. Their enemies were monsters, who burnt entire worlds, butchered millions and enslaved many more for no reason other than sadism and hunger for power. So it was pointless to hold on to a moral high ground for the sake of it.
Finally, she was court-martialled after blinding several captured Sith minions and traitors and driving them forward as human shields during an assault on an enemy position. Unsurprisingly, the prisoners did not survive. Her immediate superior, who shared her beliefs, was also cashiered. Stripped of her rank and the valorous decorations she'd earned during years of service, she was brought before a military tribunal. She did not deny her actions or shirk responsibility, unlike her superior officer, who tried to pin the blame on subordinates. Equally she made no apologies and showed no remorse for her actions, considering those who condemned her to be 'cowards and wet hens'. No longer a part of the Republic army, she was locked up in prison. There she received the mark on her neck that she bears to this day. Casting her old name aside, she called herself Cross. It was in many ways a rebirth, for she also gave up on the last of the ideals she'd clung to. They had been revealed to be hollow and naive.
However, prison could not hold her for long. Soon she began to plot her escape, making a pact with a fellow inmate, who had been marked with the same tats and called herself Drake. She refused to reveal her true name. What Cross did learn was that her cellmate had once been a Force-user cursed with empathic powers. Before the Jedi severed her from the Force. Ironically, Drake preferred it that way because now she was free of headaches and her mind was truly her own. Pooling their brains and brawn, both managed to escape the high-security prison.
After getting out of jail, Cross paid her former commanding officer a visit and murdered him. By that time, the Republic was in its death throes. First Prime Minister Lasedri launched a Selectivist coup and tried to implement radical measures against private enterprise and the Jedi Order. Then the Mandalorian Clans deployed forces to Roche. During the Second Battle of Roche, civilians were vented into space. The Republic Supreme Commander was held responsible for this.
Cross did not feel like caring anymore. She was out and had learned her lesson. So she became a mercenary, working together with her new buddy Drake. For a while she worked for an anti-Sith rebel group, which used methods Saw Gerrara would have approved of. She gained experience in unconventional warfare and directing rebel cells. However, rebels have a tendency of being short on cash and it was no different with this outfit. Moreover, they were, in their own skewed way, fixated on beliefs she no longer cared for. So she eventually drifted away from them, seeking a different employer.
For a while she worked as a ranger on Dahomey. There she trained a team of native rangers to combat poaching. The rangers used direct action tactics to protect wild life and the jungle. Cross took her duties very seriously. She was not personable, but trained the rangers well, was respectful of native traditions and unforgiving against poachers. She even took the time to learn the natives' language. Despite herself, she became genuinely fond of the land and its animals. She was scornful of patronising tourists and foreign missionaries who had come to 'civilise' the natives by forcing their culture on them. The team achieved a significant success when it thwarted the attempt of a Sith to abduct animals and turn them into Sithspawn monstrosities.
However, her brutal methods aroused controversy. Once she forced a poacher to walk into his own trap and left him there till he named his confederates, one of whom was a wealthy businessman. When her past came to light, her employers wisely ended her contract. Cross took it well, all things considered. Perhaps her time on Dahomey, however brief, had allowed her to heal a bit. She would later visit the park under an assumed name, and was satisfied to find that the rangers were continuing their work and had become a respected organisation. She set up a special bank accout to donate money to nature conversation causes.
Later she found employment as a hired gun for an Atrisian crime syndicate, making a living by bashing skulls and blowing away kneecaps for the Reki. She did not find her job particularly satisfying, for she was contemptuous of many of the people she worked with. To her, most of them were weaklings who were only good at kicking little people who could not fight back. However, the pay was good enough.
However, war soon came to Atrisia. The Sith Lord Mythos tried to reclaim his throne with aid from the Dominion. Unwilling to let a Sith take control over a planet so close to their border, the Galactic Alliance intervened. The Sith summoned a Force Storm and a blood sacrifice fuelled volcanic cyclone, causing countless deaths. However, a combined force of Galactic Alliance, Firemane and Mandalorian troops were able to defeat them. In the aftermath, Cross sought new employment opportunities.
Her path led her to Firemane. The Alliance had too many Jedi and regulations for her liking. Understanding that the corporation wished to set up shop, she offered her knowledge about the local mafia, among other things, and secured a job as a security contractor. While the Sith Lords had been defeated, their actions had left behind a number of Sithspawn in the capital's ruin, along with dark cultists. Moreover, the Reki grew bold, seeking to exploit the power vacuum.
After a few jobs, she was assigned to the escort of a Firemane bureaucrat called Kaylah Danton, who had been put in charge of overseeing Firemane's humanitarian operations. During the course of that mission, they came under heavy attack from dark cultists. Cross put herself on the line to protect her charge. She was mostly motivated by a desire for profit, of course, but also out of professional pride and with an eye to the future. Her valour when it came to fighting off the attackers and their Sithspawn monsters, helping Kaylah reach friendly lines did not go unnoticed.
Indeed, word of her actions reached the Lady Siobhan Kerrigan. Kaylah was an important - though rather willful! - associate of hers, so the Lady was relieved that she had not been murdered. Cross' past was checkered, to say the least, but Siobhan saw an asset she could use. So Cross was offered a formal position in Firemane and accepted. It did not take long before she transferred to Firemane's black ops division. One of her first targets happened to be the Reki syndicate she'd worked for. They stood in the way of the reconstruction process.
Her methods were brutal but precise. Her team cooperated with the ancient war droid Six-O. After assassinating the boss' heir, she planted evidence to make the mafia boss believe that one of his brothers was responsible, causing the gang to tear itself apart. She was soon put in charge of a black ops team called Chimaera Squad. It had created in response to the 'troubles' caused by the Netherworld Event. It was responsible for doing wet work. Cross was fine with that. Following her return from the Nether, Siobhan learned of the often brutal actions Cross had undertaken to 'keep order'. In response she issues a decree retroactively legitimising them. Cross did not grow personally close to her boss, but Siobhan kept her on call for when she needed someone to get things done precisely and ruthlessly, regardless of the cost. Her friend Drake joined the team, too.
During the Kaeshana Rebellion, Cross directed and led a unit of Eldorai partisans who conducted sabotage operations behind enemy lines. They fought in the ruins of Santaissa while a blizzard raged across the ruined city. After Firemane forces left the planet due to the Galactic Alliance's withdrawal, she was given a new task. During the battle, a Firemane unit had turned traitor and defected to the First Order, turning on their comrades. Moreover, shortly after word of the defeat reached Tygara, the reactionary Duchess Tarissa Cadalthor attempted a coup against the Eldorai government, using foreigners as scapegoats for the failure of the Rebellion.
To avert future betrayals, Firemane carried out a thorough screening process of its employees. Tarissa, who had tried to stir up unrest in the capital and rally support for an anti-foreign pogrom, was executed by Siobhan in front of the Eldorai council of nobles after evidence of her treason was uncovered. Cross was part of the unit that stormed the Cadalthor compound, supporting Major Tempest and Angelii officer Kaida Taldir.
Later she disposed of one of Tarissa's allies on the council, the Duchess of Caladan. There had been insufficient evidence to put the crone on trial, as she'd sung the same tune as Tarissa in the council, but not exposed herself that much, but a bomb blew up her yacht and ended her existence. Cross also interrogated Firemane members believed to have Sith ties or sympathies. She has remained with Firemane since then. She is mean as hell, but sometimes you need people like that.
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