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 | | Subject: Kale MacAllen Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:47 pm | |
| • Kale • Christopher• MacAllen• Name: Kale Christopher MacAllenNickname: ’Odin’, ‘The Salamander’Age: 47Weight: 192Height: 6’2”Eye color: Hazel brownHair color: Silver-grayRace: Human (modified)Residence: Librium primarily, travels oftenNationality: AmericanAffiliation: Terran Guard (Unofficial)Occupation: Director: Reconnaissance Division, Terran Guard Play By: Richard Dean Anderson• all in the details • Appearance: Kale has aged considerably since the war, but the years have done nothing to soften his edge. Tall, and with a lean build created by training that has only grown more rigorous with his age, the Colonel’s physique is equal to that of many men half his age, even without his personal modifications. His hair and face show his age more clearly – early gray turning his hair to a silvery white, and the years have left their mark in the wrinkles of his face, as well as a number of faded scars from years of warfare. Most memorable to most however are his eyes – the bone-chilling intensity of his glare when roused to anger is a whispered legend among those under his command. Personality: In many ways, Kale is the consummate soldier and officer, calm, collected, and above all else effective. He is seen as a cold professional by most, one who sticks to the plan and has little room for compromise, regardless of the circumstances. More than most, Kale is certainly the product of the wars he grew up fighting, and he has a soldier’s mentality that often makes him extremely utilitarian and emotionally distant. This does not extend to a general sense of apathy about the world however, Kale takes his duty as a soldier and a protector very seriously, and he takes his duty as an officer and a leader even more seriously. As an orphan he has no family but that he has earned through the military, and his protectiveness of his men is certainly almost fatherly, something he takes more seriously than anything else. To him, the safety of his people and the successful achievement of his goals are more important than other concerns – among them the lives of those opposing him, or what most might see as what is or isn’t ‘morally justified’. Kale will kill without hesitation if required, and he is willing to break other rules as well if necessary.
Despite all this, when not on duty, Kale manages a dry sense of humor and even a certain level of relaxation, at least enough to avoid cracking under the constant pressure. This is something generally kept from those serving beneath him, since he considers his rocklike stability and harsh reputation an asset as a commander, something for his men to rely upon, and so it is a side he only allows himself to show when the situation is calm enough to warrant it. He keeps his attitude strictly professional when truly on duty, though when off duty, perhaps fishing, he can be seen as an almost completely different person. Those who knew him in his youth would recognize this side better – he was not always such a dire person. Abilities:Mana-Altered Metabolism – A result of early exposure to a tremendous amount of magical energy, Kale’s physiology has been something other than a normal human ever since his birth. Like many such mutations however, Kale’s is something that was far from purely beneficial, and nearly killed him at a young age. His mitochondria, rather than producing only ATP from digested food, produce a nearly constant flow of magical energy, turning Kale’s body into a furnace of mana, constantly producing more than it can use. The rest of his cells have since been adapted to draw energy from this source as well as ATP, something that enables his body to push its own performance significantly beyond human limitations, and even produce additional magic-type effects that give Kale a considerable edge on the battlefield. Use of each of his abilities, including enhanced physical prowess, is slowly damaging to his cell structure. While his ability to produce this energy does not fade, except with a total lack of calories to metabolize, his cells lose the ability to properly harness this power more quickly, resulting in his tiring and being unable to utilize his power. When active, his powers result in a glow, particularly centered around the major blood vessels just under the skin.
Resistance – As a constant source of chaotic mana energy, spells cast against Kale have a 50% chance of failure. Spells with lingering effects have their duration cut by roughly 75%. This ability is always active
Enhanced Physical Ability – Focusing his excess energy into his muscles, Kale is capable of greatly increased strength and resilience, roughly three to five times normal. Depending on the level of strength the situation demands, this is one of the few uses of his power he can sustain for extended periods – this power actually can extend his endurance in a fight, so long as he uses it sparingly and is not required to make use of his other powers.
Harmonic Barrier – The only ability granted by his blood which is active almost constantly by reflex, Kale emits a powerful, standing energy wave from his body, which manifests only inches from his skin as a potent defense. Matter and energy that enters the influence of this energy is caught and stopped dead an inch from his skin, resulting in a brilliant glow of the barrier and a drain on the energy in his blood. There is also an audible ring as the barrier reacts, with a pure tone much like a toning fork as the waveform disperses the energy. This barrier is highly effective against spells, explosives, and bullets – it is much less effective against low-velocity close-combat attacks and other relatively low-energy events.
Resonance Strike – By focusing the energy from his barrier into a small area and striking out, Kale can produce an extremely potent, precise attack capable of shattering most physical obstacles. Because of the high-frequency nature of the energy field, it is also capable of ‘shaking apart’ most other forms of energy barrier, making it an extremely effective attack against metaphysical obstacles as well. There are varying levels of focus with which this effect can be applied – Kale often forms the energy into a sort of blade, though to penetrate a powerful defense, he must focus the energy on a single point, usually just ahead of his fist as he punches. In order to use this ability, Kale must take the energy from his barrier – both abilities may not be used simultaneously.
Compression Blast - Dropping his barrier and focusing his power on a single point, Kale concentrates the energy that forms the solid barrier around him into a sphere, which can range from the size of a baseball to a basketball, depending on the power placed behind it, and the time taken to create it. He then hurls the attack at a foe within his line of sight. The attack travels at considerable speed, roughly that of a thrown grenade or baseball (Kale can throw a baseball with a top speed of approximately 135 mph thanks to his enhancement), and detonates on impact with a solid surface or energy barrier. Upon detonation, the compressed barrier expands at a phenomenal rate, creating a concussion wave powerful enough to shatter stone walls or put heavy dents in metal - or send humanoid targets flying with considerable damage.
Skills:Veteran – As a twenty-year veteran of the war, Kale is a master in the art of warfare. He has a tremendous talent for killing and surviving with a variety of methods, many of them improvised, and most without the use of his power. Kale is an expert in marksmanship, close combat (armed or unarmed), a particular talent for black ops and infiltration, and a wealth of other very particular skills. Skills acquired over a very long career. Skills that make him a nightmare to those who would be his enemies…
Survivalist – As a necessity during many of his operations behind enemy lines, Kale is skilled in surviving with only the bare minimum of equipment, or none at all. He is also skilled enough at moving unnoticed that he has even been able to evade the notice of many types of Other, even a number of elves.
Covert Intelligence – During the later years of the war and ever since, Kale’s talents have been put far more toward less visible operations than the open warfare that was once his specialty. Since then, he has become a specialist in intelligence operations, counterintelligence, and security.
Multilingual – Almost incidentally, Kale has picked up at least a moderate level of fluency in most major languages on Terra.
Fisherman – One of the only hobbies Kale has maintained. Unfortunately, he isn’t very good at it most of the time, despite his talent for primitive survival.
Swordsman - Kale carries a special blade with him on most missions, and is highly skilled in its use. The weapon is named "Suchara". A gift from an old friend (and onetime enemy) of Kale's, Suchara is the name of the blade Kale has carried into battle for more than twenty years. The only weapon he carries that is clearly not of human make, 'she' is a longsword that is typically about 34 inches long, double edged, but made of a faintly luminescent, liquid-seeming silver. The edge is plain, with gentle curves carved along the flat. The weapon contains a spirit of sorts, one that communes from time to time with her wielder - she and Kale have a sarcastic, though close relationship. The blade itself is effectively unbreakable, capable of reforming itself after damage and is ever sharp thanks to a constantly re-sharpening blade, and has an ability to extend or contract in length by at least one third. Furthermore, the blade is capable of channeling Kale's powers - ordinarily it shares his ability to cut through spells and barriers, but it can also channel a variant of his only ranged attack, though in the form of a short-ranged shockwave with a sharp edge that allows him to cut and deal damage beyond the actual range of the blade itself, with an amplification to damage.
• the tale of a lifetime• History: Kale was to be born the youngest of five children, a large family out of northern Minnesota, in a small town that had, other than the obvious rationing and other needs of the military, seen little major damage out of the war. His mother was eight months pregnant when a deep strike by renegade elven forces chose the mountain town’s location as the best place to set up a forward outpost for attacks deeper into the Human territories. The attack was swift, brutal, and incredibly effective. As a necessity however, civilian casualties turned out high – including nearly Kale’s entire family. His mother survived the blast that killed the rest, but was mortally wounded by the flash. She survived for almost three months in an elven POW camp, barely managing to give birth to her son before lapsing into a coma from which she never recovered. Kale was returned to humans in a prisoner exchange weeks later, and raised in an orphanage crowded with military orphans and other parentless offspring of a war-torn society.
Early on he showed his potential for leadership, taking care of the younger children and standing up to the older – backing his words up with a frightening aptitude for violence, though he was rarely too eager to jump into a fight. It became apparent as he grew older that not everything with Kale was normal – he was highly prone to fevers the doctors had difficulty explaining, and his bouts of sickness grew worse, to the point that he was admitted to a hospital and nearly slipped into a coma himself. His condition was diagnosed as being caused by a heavy exposure to mana energy, something his body had reacted to in an unusual way. Perhaps, in other circumstances, his latent talent would have given him the powers of a mage – as it was, his talent had been warped and mutated, the overflow from which was killing him.
A possible solution for the situation was in the testing stage however, a retrovirus-based cure that might be able to modify his cellular processes to allow them to cope. Kale was the first human test subject. While the treatment very nearly killed him, and it took him over a year to properly recover, the treatment did save his life… and gave him some capability to control a bit of the wild power within himself.
Some years later, Kale enlisted in the military at seventeen, the very day he was allowed, to take revenge. Knowing how his own family had been killed, as well as that of so many of the orphans, Kale longed not to protect, but to destroy, and return his own pain to the foes they face. It would be years before his anger was tempered, but the young soldier was still able to distinguish himself in battle after battle, later earning himself a commission as an officer. He rose at a steady rate through the ranks both through skill and an ability to survive – it was fairly easy to be promoted in a military where soldiers and officers were often killed in battle, the openings came more often than most liked to consider.
Both Kale’s talents and devotion made him a natural choice for small-unit, covert operations, ironically the same sorts of behind-enemy-lines black ops that killed his family. The connection never seemed to bother him terribly – the soldier was exceptionally skilled at his work, and his string of successful missions eventually earned the then-Lieutenant a place in the inner circle of one Major Elias Grove, who would rise to become one of the most decorated and revered soldiers of the war. Kale and Elias worked well together, both having similar theories on leading from the front and taking care of their men… as well as thinking for themselves when those above them might not have done so. It was around that time that Elias coined Kale’s nickname, “Salamander”, for so often being exactly where the battle was hottest at any given time. Kale was transferred by the powers above some time before Elias’s legendary disobeyal, but the two officers kept in contact on the irregular instances when they were able.
Having advanced to the rank of Major while under Grove’s command, Kale was given a unit of his own to command, one of the Pantheon elite units, a Tier One special operations division he commanded under the name ‘Odin’. The groups were considered entirely outside the normal command structure, having no official affiliation with the human military, allowing for a level of deniability that was both their greatest strength and one of their largest risks. By the end of the war, Kale’s group would have been one of if not the most dedicated unit in the war. As it were, they were quietly paid and told that their services were no longer required… and that their operations remained highly classified. To Kale and his men, this came as little surprise, it was the end they expected, but it left many without direction and without a purpose in life. Dangerous, often powerful soldiers whose world had decided they were best forgotten.
Most turned to mercenary work or personal protection, some tried to return to civilian life, and still others eventually became criminals. Some of them so awful, Kale actually called up a small group of his former soldiers to hunt them down. The Pantheon, it had always been said, took care of its own. A year after the fighting had truly ended, Kale received a call himself, this one from Elias Grove, one of the joint Commanders of the new Terran Guard. He and the Elf he served beside had a job, he said. The talents of men like Kale had not lost their purpose, but the battles would be new, different. Quieter, and hopefully less lethal.
He asked if Kale would be interested in taking up arms, this time not against elves, dwarves, or Others in general, but for the peace that had finally arrived. Kale simply asked when he’d taken up the habit of asking stupid questions. In the nine years since, Kale’s name has never appeared in the newspapers, and the existence of his intelligence network remains a closely guarded secret, but they have been working constantly, alerting the Guard when a threat seems ready to emerge, halting some threats before that ever became necessary. They consider themselves different from the armies most of them served – they don’t stand in the path of oncoming doom, they remain unseen, doing just enough to allow it to destroy itself. A dangerous game… and a new challenge.
Notes:
I’d like to see this group created, so… I’ll work on that.
Last edited by Kale MacAllen on Sun May 13, 2012 1:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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