Kadiri Vance
Obsidian Shield contractor who took a better offer in the middle of a firefight, and stayed. Not disloyal — priced.
Descriptor: Clever · Type: Soldier · Focus: Fuses Flesh and Steel · Tier: 1
Overview
Kadiri Vance was on the Obsidian Shield squad hired to take the X-43 off the crew that had already found it. Partway through the fight, somebody made him an offer. He considered it, took it, and turned on the people he had arrived with.
He does not present this as a crisis of conscience, and it would be a mistake to write him one. He was a contractor on a contract; a competing party made a better one; he accepted. To Kadiri the transaction was ordinary, and the only unusual part is that everyone keeps bringing it up.
He is older than most of the people he works with, unhurried, and plainspoken in a way that reads as easy until you notice how little of it is actually about him. He does not volunteer opinions. He answers questions accurately, including uncomfortable ones about himself, which people find more unsettling than evasion would be.
Some of him is machine, and not subtly. There is a shield folded into his arm.
The Open Question
He can be bought. That is not a suspicion — it is a demonstrated fact, and he has never once disputed it.
Ask him why he turned and he will tell you the amount.
State Block
Last played: M3.231.640 Condition: Might 13/13, Speed 9/13, Intellect 8/10 Wounds: 4 MODERATE — several self-inflicted by the push implant XP: 0 held Tier: 1 Effort: 1 Where: aboard a brokered shuttle, one month out from Mars Locked: yes — mid-job, CTR-8EKN-Y2W2
Edge: Might 0 · Speed 1 · Intellect 0 · Armor 0 · Recovery 1d6+1
Wound capacity: Minor 6 · Moderate 4 · Major 3
Abilities
Passive
- Expert Combatant — trained in medium ranged attacks
- Push Implant — after attacking, activate for an additional attack as an extra action, inflicting a moderate wound on himself. Enabler
- Defensive Cybernetics — if he has a minor or moderate wound, he can rally to remove it as an action at no Might cost. Renews on each recovery. Enabler
- Hidden Shield — a concealed shield built into his arm, usable freely as a light melee weapon. As an extra action he can attack with it, but both attacks are hindered. If destroyed blocking wounds, it takes about a day of resources to repair. Enabler
Active
- Combat Enhancement (2 Speed or Intellect) — initiative rolls under 15 are treated as 15 (no intrusion on a 1). Effort raises the floor by 3; 18 at tier 3. Enabler
Skills
| Skill | Level |
|---|---|
| Systems Operation | Trained |
| Zero-G Fluency | Trained |
| Tracking | Trained |
| Attacking: Medium Ranged (from Soldier) | Trained |
| Deception (from Clever) | Trained |
| All weapons | Practiced |
| All armor | Practiced |
| Healing | Inability — hindered |
Attacks
- Vacuum rifle — heavy Speed attack, 6 damage (energy pack, 50 shots)
- Hidden shield — light melee, concealed until used
Equipment
Vacuum rifle and a weapon energy pack (50 shots) · armored bodysuit · appropriate clothing · smart device · backpack · breather · environmental tent · single-use vacuum suit · a restraint · everlight · two days of rations and water · grooming kit · eyeshades. Money: 0, plus starting currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.
Personality
- Unhurried. He does not rush decisions, conversation, or leaving
- Easy company, and not warm. Friendly on shift, pleasant in a bar, no closer at the end of the night than the start
- Honest to an uncomfortable degree about his motives — within a boundary nobody has located
- Not sentimental about Obsidian Shield, and not hostile to them. He assumes they feel the same.
- Keeps his own counsel about the past without making a mystery of it. He has not been asked the right question yet
What He Knows
- Obsidian Shield's methods — how they take a contract, how they scout, how they break off
- That Orion Dynamics funded the recovery, and roughly what they were paying
- The crash site — he was there, he saw the interior, and he was in the cargo bay when the power came up
- What professionals cost. He can price an opposition force on sight
Relationships
The crew — bought him, kept him. He is straightforward with them.
Obsidian Shield — a former employer that lost a contract and a contractor on the same day
Affiliation
One of Grimshaw Risk Partners' peripheral contract teams — no visible tie to the company, and the company claims no one.
Status
Locked to CTR-8EKN-Y2W2 and out of the pool until it resolves. Carrying four moderate wounds out of M3.231.640, several of them self-inflicted by his own push implant.