Characters
Prime, an Empath from the CoY Scout Corps
Something of a reactionary recidivist, Prime, a young man from Firststar system, is an Empath with the NZP's EKSTECY program who has been conscripted into the Council of Youth's clone control squadron. He insists that not only is he of Ur-Welt lineage, that he is completely Unmodified. He even surgically removed the bonepiece from his own head, and wears an ancient Stimsen StickTM instead. He has been redeployed to the Extraordinary Rendition Center on Multa several times for disciplinary action, but appears to have a patron among the Rigel-Kentish Firelords who has been able to repeatedly secure his release. Although he appears to be a young man of Rock Hopper blood, there are those who claim he is far older, even some who swear that he is a Guilderguide spy, sent to infiltrate the New Zion Project, and the secret goings-on in the Fractal Zion Cluster.
Shin, an Empath from the Young Guilderguide Girls
Shin is a young woman, too old really to be called a girl anymore. She met Prime when they were both at the ERC on Multa. He removed the bonepiece from her maxilla, and fitted her with an exoware Stimsen WearablesTM rig. There are those who say that they are lovers, while those who know both of them say that the relationship is much more like brother and sister. With eggplant-colored hair and several nodal piercings, Shin is not completely Unmodified, but she does say that it "just feels good to get Haos Redro the fuck out of my head." When not controlling several CoKA units at once, she enjoys covering the crew with outlandish henna tattoos in indecipherable magickal scribblings, and kicking anyone's ass who looks sideways at Prime. She used to be a gallery girl for GearUP 3nd0w4r3zTM, and before that she peddled pr0nstix and bootleg vvd's in Old Neopolis. She says the Guilderguides Girls saved her life. She says she's not completely Unmodded, and although she's not completely Original, she's pretty sure she's a Master Dub.
Jed & Ned
Jed and Ned, The CoKA Commandos, have been around for as long as anybody can remember. They were two of the original Automat Units, and even survived a metatemporal insertion into the Fire-bat Eradication Wars. Since they both look exactly like Ked, it's really hard to tell them apart, but anyone who knows them well knows that Ned can't pronounce the letter "J", and continually calls Jed "Zed". Just to mess with Prime, they also like to claim that they are completely Original and Unmodified, and often argue loudly about which of them is actually the Real Ked Ambrit, while disclaiming the other to be a mere copy, and a poor one at that. It's quite possible that they are more than just friends and comrades, but that's just one drone's opinion.
Master Gunnery Sergeant McMaster "Gunny" Cordex MacDunwright
Gunny is a hardened battle veteran, a fully licensed and registered duplicate of his late, beloved clone-father Brevet-Major General McMaster "Iron Balls" Dexrod MacDunwright. There are those who say that Gunny will never measure up to the old man, but he knows that he will, or die trying. And if he dies, he's got a Nine Lives clause in his re-enlistment orders that will let the Merc Militia make up to ten new copies of whatever remains of him they can find. One, of course, will be purely for archival purposes, to be buried next to the remains of his sainted sire, in the ancestral Hall of the Dunwright Sons, on the world of their forefathers, the martial society of the planet Swordsmith.
Jesu-Esau "Simmer" Oberreiter
Simmer has been with Corporate Investor Media Relations since Haos Redro got booted out of the Pink Corridor, and forced to instead pursue ventures in the New Far South. This arthrosaur infestation has really gotten to be a big pain in the ass. Frankly, he's sick of it. I mean, isn't there some kind of product or service that these reptilian bugs could be buying from HR, instead of all this money spent on killing? Oh well, at least he had the foresight to be heavily invested in Tumbo stock. Who cares about the fate of the omniverse? As long as they keep making Mass Drivers and Luci Cannons, he can continue to have three lovers in different systems, each a jump away from the next, never guessing of each other's existence. And since they are all creature-people - "furries" - of the Unvanquished megaclan, his boss back at Corporate never better find out, either. If anybody knew he was a freak-fucker, he'd wake up in a hanging cage on Multa, without so much as a Neopolitan tritium-thaler in his accounts. It made him gassy - and turgid - just thinking about it.
Fractopolis Fats "Slim" Dirgebottom
Fractopolis Fats "Slim" Dirgebottom is a low-res dub of the Original Fractopolis Fats Dirgebottom, who used to make his living in a dupeshow, a traveling snake-oil carnival of duplicated flesh, various dubs and dupes of famous people jumping around the OSSZ, playing lookalike for the rururban rubes of Bumfuck Nowhere. Not only could he shoot surround-snooker as good as (some said better than) the Original Fractopolis Fats, he looked exactly like his brother, Southerboy "Slim" Dirgebottom, one of the most infamous Guilderguides in the Executrix's Navy, the son of a bitch who helped Ked kill the FZEF and those poor settlers. "Reprint them all," my ass. What a fucking callous thing to say. After his drinking ruined his aim at s-snooker, Slim the Dub became a Guilderguide himself. Said if he couldn't do the job of his real dad, who he didn't look like, he might as well do the job of his fake dad, who he did look like. His drinking didn't help his aim much at that job, either. Now he's a washed-up has-been, assigned to pilot a bunch of ignorant fools to their fates on a worldlet that's not even on the charts. He knows it's a suicide run, but he's not sure who he's supposed to take down with him.
Doctor Johae "Jane" Ha
Johae Ha has degrees in xenohuman medicine, xenozoology, xenomorphology, and xenopathology from the renowned Omniversity Collegial at the prestigious Institute for the Historiography of Technology. She also enjoys studying ancient techniques of stealth, breath control, contortion, hand-knife surgical techniques and the ways of the kitchen-witch and hearth-shaman. When not dissecting unique, new, previously-unheard-of specimens on uncharted planetoids in far-off locales of exotically chic solarities, she can usually be found with some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend. (Wife of a close friend.)
Terrible North Wind, a Poignantly Devilish Advocate
TNW, a drone unit of lastcen manufacture, has been leading HR Holdings insertion teams since your clone-father's clone-father was but a smear on a slide. What the fuck are you lookin' at, clone-son?
The Übergeist
The Übergeist eagerly awaits the arrival of this latest team of pinkskins. It has developed a taste for clonal pineal gland, and wonders how much sweeter must be that of an Original Unmodified.
