Nicholas Volk
Character
G e n e r a l-I n f o
Name: Nicholas Volk
Nickname/s: Karo, Arto, 'Kolya', 'Saint Nick'
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: Early 30's
Force Sensitive: No
A p p e a r a n c e
Height: 180cm / 5'10/11ft
Weight: 93kg/205lb
Hair: Dark Brown/Black
Skin: Fair
Eyes: Brown
Distinguishing Marks:
*Back tattoo: Black LS Ranger emblem over a stylized Blue Star.
*Hand tattoo: Deer & Bow: An archaic take on old hunter symbolism, evidently in tribute to a lost Goddess of the Hunt once prevalent on the eastern fringe.
Clothing:
*Much repaired blue-white striped service tank-shirt, sleeveless
*Dark uniform field-ready pants
*Modified winter boots
*Dark plaid all-season jacket
*Repaired canvas backpack for EDC
*//Otherwise, rescued and stitched military service clothing. Including a rough uniform dress assemblage for special occasions.//
P e r s o n a l i t y
Temperament: As calm, cool, and collected as is expected from a Levant officer. However, privately struggles with restlessness and a need for engaging action, which leaves him somewhat tightly wound and a touch intense in his bearing.
Moral/Ethical Beliefs: 'If not us, then who?' This slogan is the guiding principle behind Nicholas' ethos. No one is born in control of their circumstances, and life on the Galactic edge can be callous and unforgiving. He believes it's an obligation, personal on his part, to work towards bettering the lives of both survivors and pioneers in the hope such an example can be reciprocated. Which also leaves Nicholas somewhat ruthless when dealing with banditry, mercenaries, and other forms of predation on the Edge, as he believes only ferocity can meet their form of brutality and cruelty.
Religious Beliefs: Culled from experiences surviving deep in the Dark Forest, Nicholas has adopted a kind of syncretic animism. Things have a soul, from nature to man-made. He tries to give what he encounters a healthy amount of respect and take care of what is his.
Political Stance: Leadership and policy have their places, there's realities to military work and intelligence gathering that make decisions enacted for the greater good appear cruel. Nicholas is a firm believer in discipline and purpose, but also knows the harder a given system pushes down on the people, the potential for death, chaos, and bedlam exponentially skyrockets. Freedom, autonomy, agency. These things he knows are sacrosanct, to spite political agenda.
Hobbies:
*Music collecting
*Amateur dejarik analysis
*Book collecting
*Amateur guitar playing
Habits:
*Mask Cleaning: An absent-minded gesture, cleaning his gas-mask or helmet lenses with his cuff or sleeve, both to keep his vision clear and because Nicholas likes the sound of cloth on metal and armour-glass.
*Mechanical Check: An automatic habit of examining and testing his firearms against possible mechanical failures or damage taken while afield. Although, Nicholas might admit there's also just something pleasant about the sound of a slugthrower bolt-carrier snapping back into place.
Quirks/Eccentricities:
*Ded Moroz: Where possible on his missions, Nicholas collects discarded, lost, or broken toys for children of various settlements and outposts. Sometimes, time permitting, he delivers them personally, earning him the affectation amongst his fans as 'Mr. Frost.'
*Lossless: Seasons of conquest and razing across many worlds of the Inner and Outer Rims have left many physical archives soiled and derelict. Save for older formats that occasionally circulated throughout the fringe. Magnetic tapes, solid-state cassettes, mini-discs, and even ancient vinyl printings. Nicholas has made a mission to rescue these formats for both enjoyment and preservation.
*A Thousand Cranes: Something of a specific calling card, Nicholas occasionally leaves Korinati paper crafts in his wake, both as a sign and a means to guide fellow Rangers following after his trail. His most frequent design are paper unicorns, inspired by an old film still from a lost movie.
*Shrine-Walker: Here and there across the Edge and the Dark Forest are special places of spiritual intersection. Wherever Nicholas believes he's encountered such a site, he leaves both an offering and a prayer, hoping to appease the at-times unknowable spirits inhabiting them.
Likes:
*Music; orchestra, Givin-jazz, score
*Books; specifically manuals and adventure novels
*Dejarik
*Gadgetry
*Sunsets
*Life Day
*Weaponry/Tactical Gear
*Mechanics
Dislikes:
*Bith-Polka music
*Mustard
*Boorishness
Fears:
*Undeath: Nicholas is no stranger to the strangeness and horror of both subterranean anomalies and the wild mutants crawling along the Galaxy's edge. Yet every year seems to give rise to new monstrosities and he fears the creation of something unkillable. Something elusive and overpowering. A potential creature not even the bravery, skill, and firepower of the Rangers can put down. Nicholas doesn't give a name to this worry but it's idea is there, hovering in the back of his thoughts like a splinter in the mind.
*Arthropods: Tucked away in some of the Dark Forest's more foreboding corners are nests and colonies of oversized insects. Nicholas holds a particular aversion to these mutant spiders and scorpions, given their almost alien visage and the purity of their malice against anything mammalian
Strengths:
*Devil in the Details: Nicholas likes to be prepared. To that end, he exhaustively fine-tunes his field kit and tries to ensure he has the right gear for any given encounter. He's cultivated an eye for detail over the years, and can perform basic modifications while out sortieing or on an extended mission.
*The Agoge: Stringent training and selection methods, coupled with a high washout rate and almost guaranteed death in the field, help ensure the Rangers of the Levant only field their best fighters. Nicholas is such a graduate and is a confident gunfighter, mutant hunter, and explorer, able to traverse or at least challenge the worst the Edge and the Dark Forest have to offer. Strong, enduring, skilled.
Weaknesses:
*Ni V Svayey Tarelki: Crowds, busy stations, and prolonged social functions are a source of anxiousness for Nicholas. He worries over being an undue nuisance and often prefers music, the quiet of holo-chess, and the privacy of rumination over socialization. It's left him somewhat solitary, save for whatever company that arrives to ask for help.
*Only the Dead: The Edge leaves its mark. From beasts to bandits, Nicholas has borne witness to viciousness and horror. At times, he struggles to reconcile against what visits him in his nightmares, leaving him prone to black moods and even darker rages when his self-control slips.
Short-term Goals:
*Deathless: Survivors call it 'Koschei': A formidable mutant showcasing frightening intelligence and strange powers, rumoured to include invisibility and the ability to shrug off death. It haunts the edges of the Parthovian Cluster and Nicholas is preparing for a difficult hunt through the abandoned stations Koschei presumably claims as territory.
*The Amber Room: A long-running legend amongst Levant adventurers and stalkers is 'The Trove'. Described as a pre-Zero Hour bunker with an entrance hidden somewhere in undisclosed surface ruins, said to contain caches of still-pristine weaponry, armour, munitions, and other treasures. Rumours of purported maps, locations, tall tales told over mushroom vodka, and other bits of word-by-mouth tripe ebb and abate every year, but it's persistence tells that there may just be something to this 'Trove' after all. With the Rangers still badly outnumbered and underfunded, Nicholas might just risk a few excursions through the Dark Forest to see if he can't claim this so-called 'Trove' for the Levant.
*Refit: Call it an errand list. Nicholas is always on the lookout for armour, weaponry, and gear to help supplement both the Order and his own small arsenal. His own cache is dangerously depleted following several pirate struggles and Sith incursions trying to destabilize already patchy trade routes.
Long-term Goals:
*Daesumnor: A bleak dream: racing rain clouds, skies blotted out by shadow and lightning, wretched landscapes of now untamed wilderness eating away at the remains of an already long dead city. A tower ringed in colours of red and white, eaten with rust, scarred by time. A failing tomb trying desperately to keep a secreted danger hidden away from a crippled world. And an alien face with jet-black eyes peering through a veil of stars and curdling stardust, crying out in pain. It's a dream Nicholas has suffered through more than once but as to what it means, he hasn't the foggiest clue.
Hopes & Desires:
*WIP
Occupation:
*[Sergeant \ Field Combat Operative – Levant Free Rangers]
Skills:
*Special Purpose Warriors: Nicholas is a trained warfighter, taught in the traditions of Republic commando veterans, Mandalorian refugees, and even a few diaspora Noghri within the Levant's small Free Ranger. To that end, he's formidably versed in honed CQB tactics and abilities, equally as comfortable between firearms, melee implements, and explosive munitions, as well as more covert methodologies.
*Books of the Vedmak: A subset of training includes familiarization with threats extending beyond normal sentient and mechanical threats. Nicholas possesses extensive working knowledge of nuclear/radiological, biological, and chemical agents commonly and sometimes uncommonly encountered while on assignment. Adjacent with this is 'bestiary lore', an informal name for the Ranger's evolving codices of the Edge's at times horrifically mutated flora and fauna. As well as how to best deal with them. ...Lastly is Nicholas' own journal of 'Anomalia', the strange anomalies left over from various 'Jedi Wars' over the decades infecting both the Edge and the Dark Forest beyond, though this knowledge is less pragmatic and more across-the-board given their almost maddening and impossible natures.
*S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: A practical skill-set for any survivor on the Galactic Edge and additionally augmented by Ranger discipline. Including terrain navigation, map reading, first aid treatments, bivouac construction, foraging, and a lengthy host of related skills.
*Legend of BBY 1985: Holo-chess in itself is a powerful game that is simultaneously sport, art, and science. Given the lack of most pastimes in the Ranger corp and cramped living conditions while patrolling, it's perhaps the most accessible game left. Nicholas was inspired to take up dejarik after hearing stories of the old Imperial and Givin masters that had once rocked the galaxy, particularly Kas-yuul Navirov and his arch-player-nemesis, Karnok the Red. Nicholas has some ability in playing but admits he prefers analysis, which helps him avoid the eye of more competitive players within the Levant and without.
*The Richness of Sound: Besides violence, music is another of Nicholas' outlets and perhaps his most favourite. He possesses a rare seven-string Alderaanian guitar and keeps an extensive, by Levant standards, sound collection, and practices his playing whenever not training. Foreign compositions especially excite him, with their scarcity and unlikelihood of preservation through tumultuous seasons. Of course, with his time spent mostly abroad, Nicholas' actual playing skill is only somewhere in middling intermediate levels.
*Mechanistic Joys: Nicholas can't quite put the feeling in words; it's not dissimilar to the feeling of childhood, playing with building blocks and fitting together pieces almost secretly to create something. It's a feeling that's translated and grown over the years to include multiple machinery disciplines, and a touch into textiles. He can perform fair repairs to his weaponry and kit in the field should any damage necessitate it, though it won't replace vital overhauls to his gear, and he can remedy a few mechanical issues that don't require a full shop. Provided said issues have the necessary parts within reach, or at least a day's walking distance.
G e a r
[Current]
*Ranger Armour | 'Corsair' Recon Variant: A Metro take on field recon armour, consisting of scavenged pieces of a half-rescued NBC suit married to Ranger urban fatigues, a modified SSO tactical vest over 'Bagarii' armour, a black painted PNR gas mask with filters, salvaged boots, and standard issue gloves.
*Ranger Armour | 'Corsair' Helmet: An aged welder's mask refitted with extra armour materials and given a wider view port. Just barely fits against Nicholas' PMG mask but provides enough protection to ward off small-calibre bullets
*Ranger Armour | Wrist-guard Bracer: A leather and Bakelite bracer with an installed radiation detector, an LED illumination-level sensor, nixie-tube watch, and navigation compass.
*Rucksack: Like other pieces of Ranger gear, Nicholas' rucksack is an aged alpine backpack refitted for field use. Made of toughened leather and reinforced for better weight-distribution, it carries a few kilograms of gear not required for immediate reach. An absolute necessity for any travel within the Metro and above, and this particular model is Nicholas' last until he can procure more.
*Ranger EDC: Order-standard field gear, including lighter, headlamp, universal charger, torchlight, maps, field manuals, mask filters, first-aid kits, among more.
*Akash-74N Osá: In lieu of a full battle-rifle, Nicholas makes do with a salvaged Akash carbine, the still-notorious Akash-74N. Though it lacks some of the bite of its larger brothers, this 74N has been repaired and modified for proper service in the Levant, including a metal foregrip, a forward-mounted reflex sight, and a blue-taped wooden stock.
*Wild Space Outback Revolver: A steady workhorse staple for some of the Levant, the trusty Outback revolver. This one is retrofitted to Ranger standards, with a hefty eight-shot double-action cartridge cylinder, reinforced gripping and barrel, attached with a goodly if makeshift suppressor and tritium sights.
*Ranger Combat Knife: A trench-knife forged out of a single piece of dura-steel, given a spiked guard, a sawtooth spine, and a wickedly sharp edge. Complete with a comfortable leather grip, making the long-knife a Ranger's last best friend.
H i s t o r y:
Forgive Me For Letting You Down
Early boyhood memories are screams. Hoarse, shrill, shrieks of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions more behind them piling on. A crush of running bodies and being almost drowned by their smell, a mass cloud of animal fear that so rarely gets experienced by human senses. Nicholas remembers trying to hide against his father's shoulder, his mother nearby, a big brother and sister forming a bulwark against a sprinting crowd barrelling down a long flight of stairs. Remembers looking back at wintry sky, and seeing spears of aglow fire falling from the heavens.
Then light impossibly bright. Steel slamming into place. The overhead lamps stuttering off. Darkness. Cold. Whimpers. So much shouting and screaming and that awful body smell of terror and - -
For Nicholas and other survivors of his age group, the beginning and end of the last war in the Core are just kaleidoscope nightmares before transitioning to the dinge and shadow of Wild Space. He remembers his father was the first in their family to die; killed defending them when shock-raiders, other citizens desperate for supplies, savagely attacked to get at their meagre food and water. Then Big Brother, devoured by mutants. Illness took Mother, more than likely TB or some other lung infection that brought on difficulties and made her last days painful. Nicholas can't recall what happened to his sister, just that one day, she was just absent. For a long while, he was like other orphans: alone, scared, and angry.
Aimlessness and rage set in. He became a local terror at his station, often thieving, fighting, and running errands for wannabe-gangsters. It wasn't long before he was exiled to the trader space-lanes as a young teenager, left to fend for himself and most likely perish. Days not spent eluding roaming mutant packs and opportunistic bandit gangs were spent starved and thirsty, subsisting off thieved MRE packets and rivulets of contaminated engine-melt water. Already somewhat sickly, Nicholas grew close to fatally ill before a Sithspawn caught wind of his dying scent, on some dead world in an unnamed system. Only the chance intervention of a passing Levant Ranger saved his life. He convalesced at a nearby trade port afterwards, enduring an uncomfortable recovery, with his small but vicious reputation catching up to both the station and the Ranger. Stern lectures followed. While poisons were sieved from his blood and wounds knitted, the boy was left with a set of choices; either grow up into a recidivist and die awfully, or become a fighter and help in the battle to save folks along the Edge.
The Sole Meaning
WIP