Mask or Menace: Application

[loyal_soldier]

〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Spider
AGE: Definitely over 18
JOURNAL: N/A
IM / EMAIL: Discord: Cellarspider#9984
PLURK: N/A
RETURNING: Lucien Lachance (applewatcher)

〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: TK-622
CHARACTER AGE: Physical age: mid-late 20s. Chronological age: 12-15.
SERIES: Star Wars (Legends/Expanded Universe)
CHRONOLOGY: Immediately after his death in Empire #13
CLASS: Villain (lawful evil, but he means well.)
HOUSING: Shared housing is a go, would prefer De Chima where a lot of the other Star Wars characters are.

BACKGROUND:

Sergeant TK-622 is drawn from the old Legends (Expanded Universe) of Star Wars, a sometimes-contradictory field of tie-in material. He is a Jango Fett clone, despite his physical age indicating that he was produced prior to the Imperial decommission of the Kamino cloning facilities, as set in later Legends material.  Many other cloning centers were secretly created during the Empire, working from a range of different templates. An accelerated aging process lead to an artificially shortened childhood, spent almost entirely in training, combat sims, and indoctrination. While the Republic's methods were already brutal, the Empire is believed to have instituted even more thorough brainwashing methods, which left 622 with a very simplistic view of the Empire, but a strong sense of duty to the values he was taught to uphold.

622 was deployed as a stormtrooper to Raltiir, where he saved the life of an Imperial officer named Akobi. They became friends, though 622 was always reserved around the non-clone. They saved each other’s lives multiple times, and over the next two years Akobi ensured that when he transferred to other postings, 622 followed.

Eventually attaining the rank of Commander, Akobi was reassigned to his home planet of Ralltiir, where he intended to both defend the Empire’s interests and help the local people. 622 acted as both a guard and an infantry sergeant, performing patrols through a city that Akobi knew well. Ralltiir was in a state of insurgency against the Empire, including frequent ambushes and suicide bombings, some targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. 622’s squad was wiped out by just such an ambush, which ended with 622 doggedly pursuing and apprehending the attackers.

Upon returning to base, 622 reconnected with Akobi, who told him they were to be rotated out the next day onto a new Imperial battle station. 622 was distracted by a strange sound coming from a malfunctioning generator. He shielded Akobi from the explosion, which the commander attributed to accident rather than sabotage.

The next day, Akobi and 622 traveled to the newly-completed battle station to begin their new assignments. Within minutes, a protocol droid picked up a blaster rifle and began firing on officers. 622 shot it in the neck, severing its head and stopping its attack. Akobi again attributed this to malfunction, as the droid’s model was notoriously prone to problems.

622 was tasked with bringing the droid’s head to maintenance for a scan of its processors. The tech who looked over the droid denied that it could have been reprogrammed, comparing the limited droid to clones. 622 noticed something in the read-out that looked like the droid was ordered to assassinate Commander Akobi, but less than a second later the droid head exploded, leaving him with no evidence.

Returning to Akobi, 622 was frustrated with his inability to determine how the droid was able to attack his commander. Akobi advised 622 to stop putting so much pressure on himself: the Ralltiir assignment had been hard on all of them. For this reason, Akobi was unenthused about the prospect of a medal he was soon to receive from Grand Moff Tarkin for his service on Ralltiir.

On the way to the ceremony, they found the way sealed in front of them, and another malfunctioning droid behind them: this time a heavy probe droid, which electrocuted Akobi and 622. Protected by his armor, 622 was able to grapple the droid into letting go of his commander, and the droid was destroyed by other stormtroopers who arrived on the scene.

Unfortunately, they were too late. Akobi had sustained terminal injuries, and was not expected to last through the night. 622 was patched up and began doggedly trying to figure out what had happened. Another visit to maintenance yielded a fruitless trip across the station to try and track down the probe droid’s serial number, where he also received conflicting information on the protocol droids.

Throughout this period 622 was in shock, finding it difficult to stay focused and fearful that another officer might order him off of his self-appointed investigation, and his fears were realized: During this time, a group of rebels infiltrated the station. 622 did not know how many came aboard, only that they escaped in a Corellian YT-1300f light freighter, which he and other troopers fired upon as it escaped the station.

Returning to Akobi’s bedside, the commander asked 622 whether the Empire was really doing the right thing. 622 couldn’t entertain the thought, which Akobi accepted as a part of 622’s conditioning. Akobi admitted to 622 that while on Ralltiir, he had ordered a bombing run on a suspected Rebel ammo dump, which instead struck a hospital. To cover up the incident, Akobi’s superiors published false reports and declared Akobi a hero, transferring him off-planet. 622 blamed rebel lies for manipulating Akobi, but his commander accepted that his hubris was responsible for the atrocity. As Akobi died, he wished that 622 could see how much more complicated the galaxy was than he had been led to believe.

Unable to accept Akobi’s death, 622 returned to the maintenance bay, ignoring a call to battle stations as Rebel fighters started to dogfight with Imperial pilots outside the windows. Within minutes, 622 was himself attacked: the tech he had consulted was a Rebel saboteur from Ralltiir, and the man responsible for Akobi’s assassination. The saboteur attributed his success to 622’s inability to recognize his deceit, and the two fought. Eventually a Rebel photon torpedo targeting a nearby exhaust port caused a structural failure in the maintenance bay, crushing the saboteur.

622 did not attempt to flee, standing before the window as he experienced an epiphany: the Empire had been infected by the Rebellion’s corruption, weakening them with doubt and destroying their spirit. He resolved to meet his end without hesitation, believing that the destruction of the battle station would show the galaxy what terrorists the Rebels really were, so the sacrifice of its crew would not be in vain.

PERSONALITY:

622 is a true believer in the Empire. Due to extensive conditioning that composed much of his accelerated childhood, he is incapable of seeing the Empire’s actions as evil, finding ways to rationalize their behavior. Given his limited knowledge of the galaxy, this could nearly be excused: for example, he has no idea that the station he was assigned to is the Death Star, or that it destroyed Alderaan during his time aboard.

The Empire in his mind is a force of order that is the only thing holding the galaxy together in the face of rebellions and criminal syndicates that would turn civilized space into a free-for-all if no one was there to stop them. Deployed with other clones, 622 is relatively unaware both of the behavior of natural-born soldiers and the cutthroat world of politics among the officer class. He only sees the actions of the rebellion on Ralltiir, which sat on the extremist end of the various rebel factions. His previous posting on Malastare likely occurred during a general revolt against the Empire, the legitimate reasons for which he would not have known.

Despite his limited understanding of these matters, 622 is not an unintelligent person. He is highly introspective, and capable of questioning his own thinking, if not the Empire. He suffers from a deep sense of inferiority due to his understanding of himself as somehow fundamentally lesser to non-clones, referring to himself in an extremely dehumanizing manner. This extends to his relationship with other clones: despite his obvious anger with the Ralltiiri insurgency, he does not ever think about the squad that he lost, nor any comrades of his who died before. This warped sense of self probably results in some of his stiffness around his only friend.

622 greatly admires Akobi, considering him a noble and loyal officer, and believes they complement each other well in their respective roles. 622 believes his contributions are limited to his alertness and quick reflexes, but Akobi thinks 622 is too hard on himself. Despite respecting his friend’s leadership, 622 can’t find it within himself to agree, and as far as he’s concerned, the events he experiences confirm that his constant vigilance is necessary. He is utterly tenacious in carrying out his duties, to the point of potentially self-destructive behavior.

Taken from immediately after his death, 622’s perspective has shifted, but not in the way that most of these stories tend to go. He has a more jaded view of the Empire, but blames its faults on external forces, rather than internal or systemic failings. However, his faith lies in the ideal Empire he was taught to serve, and thus if given the chance, he would likely attempt to improve it from within. While undoubtedly loyal, he has recently shown the ability to act on his own recognizance, a trend which may continue if he receives no word from Imperial Command on Earth. He still believes that he is a limited individual, but he will do whatever he can to live up to his conditioning and act as a force for order in the galaxy.

622 is also going to be doubting his recent canon experiences: He wants to inform any local Imperial forces of what happened and warn the populous in general of the danger that the rebellion poses, but he is a person with a lot of uncertainty in his own perception of the world. given his worry that he was "malfunctioning" in his last day alive, he may take some time to fully come to terms with the fact that yes, his Commander did die, and so did he. 

Given his experience as a heavily indoctrinated individual, interactions with other Star Wars characters will greatly depend on what faction they hail from and how open they are about it:

• All other Imperials (or those who look Imperial like K-2SO) will be given the benefit of the doubt. Those who outrank him will be followed, though he won't do so as unthinkingly as he may have previously.
• Jedi and others with lightsabers will be seen as criminals possessing highly illegal weapons at best, semi-mythical monsters at worst. He has never seen a Jedi and doesn't know what they might look like, but he knows they were a corrupting influence on the Old Republic, and wanted to rule the galaxy.
• Identifiable rebels will be treated with total suspicion: he's apparently seen rebels non-combatants being used either as living shields or being forced to carry out attacks. Given his lived experiences, he's unlikely to ever come around to them, because he may not be able to mentally separate out more humane freedom fighters from the victory-at-any-cost extremists. However, if an Imperial that outranks him gives an order not to fight, he'll follow it.
• Bounty hungers, smugglers and separatists are all seen as other manifestations of the kind of chaos the Empire stands against.
• Sequel trilogy factions are a mixed bag. While the Resistance is identifiable as an offshoot of the Rebel Alliance, the First Order does not benefit from the aura of infallibility that the Empire does. At best, it might be a heartfelt attempt to imitate the Empire, at worst a vulture that's fed on its remains. This may lead to some uncomfortable self-examination if he realizes he's finding fault in First Order characters for things he'd explain away in Imperials.
• Old Republic characters will be treated with a mixture of suspicion and pity, given their 'unfortunate' situation. They don't know any better: essentially he will interpret any Jedi sympathies as the result of indoctrination like his own, but turned to 'evil' purposes.
• Non-aligned characters fall under a great big vague mass of civilians and foreigners, two groups he barely knows how to interact with. He will be polite, maybe even a little curious, but they're of secondary importance, like himself.

POWER:

Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, AKA Improbable Aim (canonical)- 622 already demonstrates an almost ludicrous level of accuracy, both with his rifle and with grenades, even when by all rights he should be totally disoriented. If given a gun or something to throw at a target, his aim is deadly. This is a power rather than a skill due to just how ridiculous it is. I would tentatively place it in the same canon category as Chirrut’s lower-level of Force powers: a person who is not conventionally thought of as Force-sensitive who nonetheless displays a level of luck and preternatural ability that cannot be rationally explained.

Suit Up (non-canonical)- 622 can summon or banish his full Stormtrooper loadout (see Final Notes). Summoning is possible once per day. Any lost, depleted or damaged components will return to full functionality when summoned (ex. power packs will recharge, rations will reappear, he'll have a way to keep up with how often he breaks his frigging armor, etc.)

UnLIMITed POWER!!, AKA Lightning Projection (non-canonical)- This is mean of me, but giving 622 the power to attack people with lightning lets him better defend the righteous and also relive one of the most traumatic days of his life! Hurray! This works pretty much just like Force Lightning in the series: He can manifest lightning from his hands and fire it at people, but it doesn't render him immune to electric shock unless he can... out-lightning them. Or whatever you want to call that Dramatic Anime Power Match-Up trope.

〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:

[622's plastoid armor still has fresh carbon scoring on it, and new scuffs all over its surface. His helmet is nowhere to be seen, but his face is so utterly impassive that he might as well be wearing it anyway.A still-healing electrical burn reaches its tendrils out from the collar of his bodysuit. Apart from his injuries and the tumult of his past few days, he still looks every inch the regulation-perfect cloned trooper. ]

Sergeant TK-622, calling all Imperial forces. Standing by and awaiting orders. Please contact on C1 commlink network.

Repeat, Sergeant TK-622 standing by.

LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:

Civilian centers were a no-go, not right now. Too many bright colors, loud voices, and people getting far too close, asking him too many questions. Deserted streets felt worse, especially when some of the more persistent civvies were still following him. They seemed fascinated by his armor.

He finally shook them off and made a straight shot towards the barracks he’d been assigned to. It wasn’t a real barracks, it lacked the soothing grey of unadorned Imperial prefabs. But it would give him some time alone to let his brain catch up with his feet.

There had to be someone here who really knew what was going on. The Imperial Military numbered in the trillions, it was impossible that he was the only one here. Someone else more qualified to think about these things had to be around.

But he doubted they’d know what was proper procedure when you’d just died. 

FINAL NOTES: 622 will be arriving with his armor. He has a standard stormtrooper loadout on his utility belt as per our dear friends at Wookieepedia, including:

• one thermal detonator
• one high-tension wire
• two grappling hooks
• four spare E-11 blaster rifle power packs
• three flares
• concentrated rations
• one C1 military commlink, encrypted and resistant to comms disruption
• three water packs
• two medpacks
• two blast energy sinks (designed to absorb some of the energy of a blaster bolt)
• one combat de-ionizer (to protect against ionized energy, such as, say, electrical discharges)
• one set of wrist binders
• one electronic lock scrambler/descrambler (i.e. a skeleton key for electronic locks)