by M. J Kreyzer
Alexander Carlisle (213-258 M.I)
A former rival of Dr. Malcolm Rowlings, Alexander Carlisle would become one of his top advisors with an extensive background in human biology and organic chemistry. His wealth of knowledge would prove necessary to the development of Elementally based technologies. Serving an executive role, Carlisle would oversee the experiments performed on Durants during the Durant Relocation Act and was the mind behind its conception. Performing the bulk of his experiments at the Durant labor camp Kreckis, Carlisle would eventually die at the hands of Luke Semprys following the capture of the infamous complex.
Daniel Cooper (218 M.I.-Present)
A subsidiary to Dr. Malcolm Rowlings immediately following his placement as head of the Commune's Research and Development Division. His development of concepts concerning miniaturized and controlled Furo reactions would lead to the development of Furo based weapons, most notably the technology used in Freedom Class Rifles. He would also be a pioneer of Furo battery technology, making future technologies such as Grave and Raze armor and the line-of-sight Dimenisors possible.
Verityne Bylko circa 700 M.E.
Leader of the expedition in 7th Century M.E. claiming to have discovered an the fabled city of Andor. It was here that they discovered their common origins not only with the Werewolves, but with every race on Havok. The documents he uncovered, a set of crystal tablets, detailed the history of the Autocthonids including both their choice to leave Andor and the global catastrophe that drove them to it. His return, however, was especially noted due to the fact that he was the only survivor of the expedition.
What made Bylko so influential, though, wasn't his discovery of Andor. This discovery had never been confirmed and ancient documents detail repeated expeditions to confirm Bylko's findings. Every expedition, however, was met with disaster as dozens of deaths resulted in their attempts at braving the Andorian tundras. Following these failures, opinion of Verityne Bylko was polarized. To some, he was a hero of sorts, having uncovered a prehistory of their then mysterious ancestors. (Later, DNA samples would confirm the common heritage of Durants, Highlanders, Werewolves, Vampires, Sirens, Humans, and Wylsks.) To many others, though, he was a fraud, said to have murdered the other members of his expedition in order to return and fabricate his own, sensational story concerning the discovery of this lost city. Bylko would eventually die on one final attempt at rediscovering Andor.
While Bylko's findings are historically disputed, the effect they had would shape the general mindset of Werewolves and Vampires, the resulting consequence being a violent interracial conflict that spanned the western hemisphere. His assertions or 'discoveries' would spark a long and bitter war between the two races based around arguments of superiority and theology. They would continue until 227 M.E. after the two races reached a truce and, in many places, unison, following the agreement reached by Vyvyr Syvyr and Pontious Granlow.
Kylar Altyce (464-1602 M.E.)
Following the martyrdom of William Semprys, an incredible amount of anti-Purist sentiment was generated universally across the religious front. Being one of many members of the Durant faith who viewed William Semprys to have been the temporal being of God, Altyce branched away from the Durant orthodoxy and would form the Durant sect known as Semprianity. While he would be excommunicated from the Durant faith, Altyce based the bulk of his religious convictions that separated the Semprans from the Durants on a single passage of Runic Scripture:
My laws and judgment are without absolution, and though there are those who might tread with sin in the eyes of man, them will I raise up in the day of judgment, for by walking the darkened path and knowingly relinquishing their celestial inheritance they hath saved the lives and salvation of others. These acts of love, done in open defiance of my commandments for the sake of their spiritual brothers and sisters, demonstrates true, unconditional love. By obtaining this love, they hath fulfilled their purpose for being and are among my most stalwart disciples.
Altyce would lead the Semprans in a brutal campaign stretching far into the 2nd millennia of the Modern Medieval Epoch. Though his excommunication from the Durant faith was absolute, Altyce remained a fierce and loyal defendant of the Durants and waged war on the Purists until 1602 M.E. at the battle of Korwood where he would die at the hands of Vladmir Frenz.
Victor Sylvice (Approx.4978 Ae.E-519 M.E.)
Originally considered to be one of the few Durant prophets around the turn of the Modern Medieval Epoch, Victor Sylvice came to be antagonistic following the acceptance of the ideas and teachings of William Semprys and the rejection of his own. This rejection would lead to Sylvice's eventual defection from the Durant faith and the foundation of the Purist movement. Following several hundred years of prophetic leadership, Sylvice would die during an assault on a Purist church by a small contingency of Semprans.
Syn Vyna (776 M.E.-225 M.I.)
Born towards the end of the 8th Century, Syn Vyna would become the iconic leader of the vampire supremacist movement, using her uncanny charisma to generate an enormous amount of anti-werewolf sentiment and ultimately spark a war that would span nearly two millennia. Being a polarizing figure, Vyna came to effectively separate the Vampire race between two major trains of thought. The first was an adherence to the Randist gospel and the teachings of Ava Malyvyn while the second was focused solely on the superiority of the Vampire race and the eradication of their inferior relatives whom Vyna claimed to be 'soiling the heritage of the Vampire lineage'. Her solution, of course, was an aggressive campaign against the werewolf population. Her efforts would plant the seed for the War of the Covenant.
The Vyna coven, an organization of Vampires that she had established, would eventually become a crime syndicate that would relocate to Brún under the unyielding pressure of the Arctanican Empire. She would eventually die in her sleep at the hands of an assassin, a Randist warrior monk known as Vyvyr Syvyr who would assume her position as leader of the Vyna Coven.
Farell Payne (439-531 M.E.)
A member of the Randist discipleship, Farell Payne disagreed with many of the core principles behind the gospels recorded in the Gotho Vysta. During the religious revolution that took place shortly after the martyrdom of William Semprys, Farell Payne would produce his own interpretation of the Gotho Vysta and found a new religion, Dexterianism.
Farell Payne, being a spiritual man, recognized how conducive his new religion was to immoral and sinful people who misinterpreted the Dexterian message. This misinterpretation, as Farell would claim, could be largely attributed to the inaccessibility of the Gotha Vysta, the basis for their religion. In response, Payne would spend decades abridging and revising the Gotha Vysta, transforming it into a simpler, more readily available work. Recognizing the impossibility of mass distribution of what he called The Vystas, Payne would enlist the help of some of the brightest minds of their time, including a budding philosopher and scientist named Carvello Corvice, to concoct a method for their mass distribution.
Farell Payne, however, would not live to see it happen. In 531, records detail Payne contracting an illness with symptoms congruent with that of throat cancer. By 532, Payne bordered death and swore that he would hang onto life until he saw Dexterianism's spread boom. His health took a turn for the worst and he would die later that year.
Weapons
Freedom Class Rifles
Commissioned in the year 250 M.I, the Freedom Class rifles were designed and built with three things in mind: Versatility, Durability, and Lethality. The FR-20 series and FR-30 series operate on Furo-based Ballistics, eliminating the presence of brass. Originally designed as a single rifle during its early phases in 247, the Freedom Rifle (as the original weapon was named) eventually became three grouped together into a single, revolutionary class. These three weapons, the Infiltrator, the Obliterator, and the Heaven's Mandate (referred to in slang as the Incinerator) were so well received that they became the primary weapons of the First Legionnaire infantry.
FR-21 In
filtrator
The entry level rifle into the Freedom Class, the Infiltrator is the most widely used rifle in the First Legionnaire arsenal and all modern arsenals the world over. Although the most basic rifle in the Freedom line, the Infiltrator best embodies the idea behind the weapons which is versatility, durability, and lethality. Doubling as both a long range sniper rifle and a mid to close range assault rifle, the Infiltrator is the weapon of choice for most combat veterans.
FR-38 Obliterator
The focus of the Obliterator was versatility. With more than a dozen exchangeable , grenade-sized rounds, the Obliterator covers everything from breaching to reconnaissance. Though less common than its more popular brother, the Infiltrator, the Obliterator's vast range of purposes has made it a Special Forces go to.
FR-99 Heaven's Mandate (Incinerator)
While seeing little action due to the high-risk of friendly casualties, the Heaven's Mandate focuses entirely on the lethality of the Freedom Line. Through a form of Furo acceleration seen in the similarly structured Elemental form of Fire, the Heaven's Mandate (or referred to often as the Incinerator, as to rhyme with the other two Freedom Class rifles) will heat a spherical radius to extreme, red hot temperatures. The heat radius is adjustable with a maximum diameter of thirty feet and will turn biological matter (such as flesh and plant life) to ash within seconds.
Chainlance
With the amount of power required to generate the high RPM's of the Chainlance, any Chainlance constructed prior to the widespread use of high-efficiency Furo batteries saw short lifespans and impractical uses. The First Generation Chainlance operated on Nitroglycerin, which would power the machine for ten to fifteen minutes. However, as Furo technology advanced, Legionnaire Chief of R&D Alexander Carlisle commissioned that the Chainlance go back into production with new, removable Furo Batteries preinstalled. This new Chainlance, being eight feet in length and nearly two hundred pounds in heft, saw use only in the hands of Berserkers and Monoliths. With three inch steel, diamond-edged teeth, the Chainlance is capable of sawing through most known materials save Eternium. Since its use became widespread, the Chainlance became a symbol of the First Legionnaire's cold and brutal efficiency.
Particle Cannon
As did many other Furo-based technologies and weapons, the Particle Cannon first saw action around the end of the Durant Revolution following the Durant Relocation Act. While not as powerful, the Particle cannon fires a supercharged sphere of explosive energy almost identical to that of an Elemental Charger. Primarily designed as an anti-infantry weapon, it has been multi-purposed by Berserkers and Monoliths alike as an anti-vehicular weapon capable of bringing down light armored ground and air craft.
Anti-Matter Explosives
The Term 'Anti-Matter Charge' has been wrongly mistaken to have received its name from Furo, which is often referred to in one of its many terms, anti-matter. However, that is not where the name comes from. Rather, it comes from what the explosive actually is, which, using Extraction technology, removes the Furo atom and eliminates the positive matter entirely.
Anti-Matter Explosives use miniaturized technology that's quite similar, though greatly simplified, to the technology found in a Furo Extractor. With an Anti-Matter Charge or Explosive, the device separates the Furo particle from its atom. In a Furo Extractor, the ensuing reaction takes place in a confined and controlled environment. With an Anti-Matter charge, that reaction expands into a devastating explosion that is among the most powerful in the world arsenal.
Blazers
Generally considered to be a fourth or even fifth generation Flamethrower, the original Blazer saw its first uses in the hands of Nathan Hendrick during his earlier years as the Helldog. Prior to his solitary imprisonment following a bloody psychological breakdown in the 220's. Before Hendrick revised the flamethrower's design, flamethrower design consisted of a simple tube connected to a tank of gas worn as a backpack. However, a simple, directed plume of flame didn't meet Hendrick's needs. As such, Hendrick set out to design a new flamethrower, the first generation of Blazers.
Originally, a Blazer still operated on a gas and flame basis. However, what he changed was the complexity of the muzzle. With its new design, a Blazer's flame could be adjusted on several levels, those levels being temperature, spread, and intensity.
Over the years, the Blazers became as much of a name as the Helldog who wielded them, and eventually Legionnaire R&D picked up on the design and constructed and mass produced a Blazer of their own. However, once these new Legionnaire Blazers had already been distributed, Hendrick and Durant engineers put together a new generation of Blazer. This Blazer, the same ones Hendrick uses upon Luke's jailbreak, eliminate the use of a gas tank and instead use basic Elemental to create the flame. This new device, assembled in the final years of the Durant Revolution, has a built-in Furo battery and manipulates Furo much in the same way as a Durant uses Elemental. Because of this, the flame produced by the Blazer has the potential to burn hotter, larger, and more intense than any Legionnaire Blazer.
Raze Armor
Raze armor was originally designed as a mining vehicle used to be productive in highly hazardous environments. At this point it was referred to as Grave Armor, a multipurpose machine that saw widespread use in a number of different functions including but not at all limited to mining, factory work, and freight work. This nearly limitless versatility captured the attention of Alexander Carlisle , who, along with the design team behind the Grave armor, rebuilt the Grave armor around the same basic framework. What resulted was Raze armor, a weapon of war unprecedented in its versatility and ruggedness.
Design
Raze armor stands at a solid fifteen feet tall. Operable only by men no larger than six foot five, its cockpit is spacious enough only for the pilot and an approximate foot of nose room while covering only the operator's main torso down to his waist, the rest of him protected by thick armored steel. It sits on the front of a larger pod, the sides of which are more open, allowing the operators arms to move more freely. The operator controls the Raze's arms by moving their own arms while resting inside a mechanical frame known as the Operation Sleeve. The Raze will then mimic the movement as closely as possible, mimicking arm, wrist, hand and even finger movement. In order for the operator to grab objects with accuracy, several simple objects are stored within the pod, including smaller scale cannons and poles that create a sense of physical space for the operator. In order to disengage the arms, the operator must raise their pointer and little fingers only, flex their hand, and release. Movement is controlled through various finger sequences and combinations which determine speeds such as walk, trot, jog, and run. For power, the Raze is powered by a Hyken Reactor, one of the smallest Furo reactors in production.
Grave Armor
Grave armor came as a response to a relative dearth of Highlander dock workers as most Highlanders who decided to contribute to society would sooner enlist in the First Legionnaire. Because their size and strength came at such high demand, crew managers began thinking of other ways that they might be able to achieve the same results at a cheaper, long-term rate. With that in mind, independent contractors, later absorbed by the Commune, developed Grave Armor. With the Grave they were able to increase efficiency and drive down labor costs, saving millions of steele every year.
Machbike
Being the third fastest vehicle in the world, the Machbike is a widely used and heavily relied upon vehicle not only in the First Legionnaire, but by civilians as well. The civilian build of the Machbike has a speed governor which prevents speeds in excess of 300 MPH while the military build can reach a maximum speed of 800 MPH. Function as both a tool for increasing aerodynamics as well as protecting the pilot, acceleration of the Machbike requires that the pilot stretch themselves out across the bike, extending their feet downward onto the foot pedals, thus forcing them below the bike's windshield and making it difficult to get caught in the sonic jet streams surrounding the bike at such high speeds. The Leg
ionnaire Machbike, though, is equipped with a series of turrets located on the front of the bike, giving it effective offensive capabilities while its speed and maneuverability make it a difficult target to hit.
Battlecraft
By far the most common form of troop transport, the Battlecraft has seen a number of variations and builds over its 19 year life cycle. Originally built as a harrier, the Battlecraft was redesigned around the new anti-gravity technology developed during the D.R.A and the Durant Revolution. And while there are a number of different Battlecraft, most can be found with the same basic layout: Two large, sliding doors on either side of the craft with Paxical viewports, a two-pilot cockpit and four thrusters, Ignata based, designed for lower speeds but more rapid acceleration for quick extractions from dangerous landing zones. Other more common variations on the Battlecraft include those equipped with rear bay doors, and less commonly those equipped with heavy weapons.
Stimulant Dose
A Stimulant Dose entered alpha testing in 254 M.I. with the subsequent research being classified at the highest levels. Though its origins are known only to a handful of people (its project leader having been Dr. Malcolm Rowlings) the final product, dubbed the Stimulant Dose or the Stim Dose, gives the user heightened senses as well as amplified aggression and strength. Due to its extreme acceleration of the user's body, Stim Doses are most often reserved for larger individuals, most commonly Berserkers and Monoliths. Overdosing on a Stim can result in cardiac arrest and shock as well as brain aneurisms and strokes. It is administered by needle.
