Characters: Mu-Alpha Ceti-Epsilon 2, another Cell of Tower

These are the new characters I use for the convention games.

Anja Kohler

Anja grew up in the barbaric streets of northern Africa, on the edge of the longest war in history. The Reich support puppet dictatorship of the Italian Republic has been waging war in all parts of Africa since the Reich mandated the “African cleansing” in 2014. Africa proved to be harder to cleanse then the Reich and their puppets planned on.

Anja was an orphan, adopted by a gang leader in the streets of Tripoli. She and her adopted siblings were more like slaves to this gang leader, doing housework while he was out running raids with his gang.

At the age of eight however, she met Greek missionary who told her she was special. Somehow, she knew she could trust this missionary, who took her away to a monastery of others like her. They all had incredible abilities to do things with their minds and Anja began to learn also.

Until the Reich arrived and took her away.

At the age of 11, Anja and her friends was taken by the Reich Ministry of Psychic Research. She watched as the missionaries were lined up and shot.

For the next 15 years, she was enslaved as a psychic test subject in a secret lab somewhere in the Russian north. Overtime, she grew accustomed the captivity. She was given a better place to sleep and better food than she ever experienced. She learned how to use and control her abilities. It was better than the streets of Tripoli.

She was assigned to what her Reich doctors called a Coven. Along with her was 5 others with similar abilities –

Patrik – a somewhat androgynous person with strong abilities of telepathy.
Silina – A rough a tumble ganger from the streets of Argentina, her and her brother combined could start fires with their minds.
Sabino – Silina’s brother, he had a thing for Anja.
Silvana – A loner from somewhere in southern Europe, perhaps the former Czech regions, she had strong abilities to predict the immediate future.
Marije – a Russian elite who was given up by her parents because of the dangerous things she would do in her sleep.

Anja thought this was the life she was destined to have. Although not ideal, it was better than what she had. Both the others in the Coven had ideas. An escape plan was hatched between Patrik and a member of the staff who claimed to be a resistance member. Before Anja knew it, she was wrapped up in the plan as well. 2 of the Coven died as did the resistance member, but she and the others got out in a stolen truck that was waiting for them.

The tundra of northern Russia was harsh and the fuel in the truck did not last. Patrik died from his wounds suffered in the escape 2 days later. Silina could only keep them warm so long before she was too exhausted to conjure up more fire. Hope was almost lost until they heard the bell – a bell of a monastery.

The group was rescued by a small pocket of monks that occasionally pilgrim out into the tundra. They were fed and given shelter until the spring thaw came. Staying with them, they learned that they worked with the resistance as well, monitoring the psychic lab for activity.

This is how Anja came into contact with the Tower.

Beo Woulfe

Beo was genetically generated in a Reich lab that was located a far north artic island off the coast of the northern Norway. He and his pack were trans-genetically crossed with a rare breed of Arctic wolf. This is one of many genetic trans-genetic experiments the Reich performed in the early 2000s, and it is rumored that the Imperial has a competing program. There were many groups of different kinds located in the Facility – wolves, polar bears, leopards and others.
Beo knew nothing of the outside world. He only knew of the Facility, the Custodians, and the Yard. In the Yard, the Custodians would encourage fights between the different packs, each sending a champion and fighting each other to the death. Beo was often selected and always was the last beast standing.

The Facility was at the center of a large former prison complex. The owning corporation expanded it more and more as the population grew. Eventually it grew to a respectable village with every pack contributing their part.
Beo’s Pack family included two alphas – male and female and eight siblings. At his birth, Beo’s alpha-father told him that a seer of the wolf-kind declared Beo would be a part of something extraordinary and this will affect the village forever. The seer never said whether it was bad or good – just extraordinary.

Beo’s alpha-father – Jaris – was wolf pack leader and Beo was his second. Throughout his life, his alpha-father has a strange key on a cord around his neck. When asked, all he would say was it would belong to Beo one day. There were several family packs within the wolves of the village, but his alpha-father was the lead alpha.

Beo’s alpha-mother was – Valma – a grower in the hydroponics levels of the facility. She grew some of the non-meats that some packs needed. It was said that she was the alpha-mother before with another alpha-father, but Jaris killed the old leader to take the role and the wife.

After spending 20 years behind the walls the Facility under the close watch of the Custodians, young pack members are allowed to venture out. They called them Mission and each time they are given specific instructions to follow. They are also given a collar to wear and was told it was to keep him safe and make sure he returned to his home. On these missions, he learned there were other villages of people that looked more like the Custodians all around the land beyond the walls. When Beo and his team visited the villages, the people looked at them strange and never spoke. Some missions were to get supplies, while others were to capture people and bring them back. Other times, it was to kill people in the village.

On these missions, Jaris began to teach Beo more of the real world beyond the frozen hills and sea – something he knew was forbidden by the Custodians. Jaris blatantly disobeyed orders on some missions, as if to show mercy to the enemies of the Custodian. It was confusing to Beo until his Jaris introduced him to man named Wulmar who showed him the realities of the world. He said he was with a group called Tower and they were helping Jaris and the others to escape the Facility and be free.

It was then that Beo realized what true freedom was. No Walls. No Yard fights. No Collars. He realized he was nothing more than a slave to the Custodians. Freedom was suddenly something he craved, almost instinctively. Talk of it awoke a savage hunger inside him and the others. They would soon break their bonds. It took the death of both Beo’s alpha-parents at the hands of the Custodians to awaken his true destiny.

With Jaris’s key around his neck, Beo lead the packs against the Custodian. The Uprising, as his packed called it, was a moment Beo would never forget. He had spent 50 years in this place and did not realize there was so much more in this world to see. After leaving behind the burning hulk of the Facility, the Tower helped all the packs find new homes in Cities and towns all over the world. Beo helped the Tower as a Hunter of men that betrayed the Tower – people that broke the pack code. He also worked with the local underground and became well known in the pit fighting rings.
Beo lived with a doctor who was friendly with the Tower. He helped him deal with some of the issues he had after leaving the Facility – some emotional and others medical. The Doc learned that Beo was oddly long-lived and perhaps treated with a longevity dru that allowed him to live longer than most humans. Beo wasn’t sure what that meant but he liked and trusted the doctor. Beo was saddened to find out he was taken away by the Reich – who he learned were like the Custodians. He hated the Custodians.

Finn Diederich

Finn Diederich was told of his family history at an early age – including their real name. Before the occupation of what was the United States, his family surname was Callaghan. However, his great great grandmother was German, and with that lineage, his family changed their name during the start of the occupation.
Their lineage of freedom fighters and soldiers goes far back. His great-great-great-grandfather – Killian – was an American cop in New York, fighting organized crime during Prohibition. His great-great-grandfather – Killian Jr – fought and died in the war. His great-grandfather Killian III – fought and died the occupation as a resistance member. It was his grandfather – Colm – changed this course of the family fate. He encouraged his whole family to capitulated to the new regime. He worked as a local collaborator to keep the piece. He did not want to see any more Callaghan/ Diederich blood spilled.

Reich collaboration pays well and the Diederich family grew into the upper end of the middle class with a large home, household servants, and private transportation. This is the world that Finn was born into. His family history was put in a dark light, calling the soldiers and freedom fighters fool hardy and terrorists. Grandpa Colm was heralded as the savior of the family line and a large portrait was placed in the main hall of the house.
Finn’s father was a American Gestapo chief for their city in New Jersey. His mother was a history teacher for the local school system as well as a local leader of the Ladies of the Reich auxiliary club – a very politically active group for the Reich.

Finn was one of four children. His older sister works for the science ministry as a Aeropace researcher. His younger brother is a doctor in the local hospital. His youngest sister works in textiles down in the Southern territory. They were all good Reich citizens like Grandpa Colm wanted them to be. However, Finn felt something driving him away from his Grandpa’s doctrine – something in his blood.

It started when Finn’s family was forced to move from their fine home in New Jersey to an orbital station called Oracle Station. His father said it was for a new job but his mother’s face of fear told him different. For most of his teenage years, Finn Diederich lived in a grungy, God-forsaken station, where his father worked as the head of the Gestapo unit there. His mother was miserable and always seemed paranoid. Finn occasionally worked various jobs on the station, getting to know the orbital life.

When Finn graduated, he entered the Gestapo academy like his father before. This returned him to Erde once again much to his relief. He kept a telescope panned to the sky and each night check for the station when it circled around. Finn would never forget the night it did not come around in its proper orbit.

The story was that a fanatical group religious terrorists overthrew the stations administration. Unbelievers are rounded up and murdered. The Reich had no choice to “terminate the stations orbit.” Thousands of station personnel and citizens were lost, including his parents. Finn did not entirely believe that story but never could find out the truth. The Oracle Incident remains a mystery.

During the Midwestern uprising of 2059, Finn’s Gestapo unit was conscripted by the Wehrmacht as military police. This grew into several years of war between the Reich Wehrmacht and a strong resistance back uprising in the regions formerly known as Kansas and Missouri.. The fighting is intense. For a time, the situation was grim. All noncombat troops were put in the field as light infantry, including his team. Finn suffered several wounds throughout his stint – left arm and above his right eye the most prominent. Others were deeper – psychological. War changes a man, they say. This one changed Finn.

Finn felt the call of the Callaghans even stronger, after seeing so much injustice in the war. Once the uprising was finally quelled, Finn returned to New Jersey as a beat cop for the Gestapo. But he knew he had to do something. He resigned from the Gestapo and became a private investigator first. He waited a year to let the heat cool off from his resignation and then started feeding information to contacts he knew were resistance, as an attempt to gain their trust.
Contact was made with the resistance in the past few weeks. Finn has seen more of the Tower than ever before. What is was strange for Finn was the diversity of peoples he has seen – Minders, mutants, cybernetically enhanced people and more. At times, it has made Finn uncomfortable as these people were not the kind Finn would find himself working with. It was hard at times to see people he would normally be told to either shoot on site or take into custody walking around freely in the underground facilities he was brought to. It was an all-new experience, but he knew that his Callaghan blood would carry him through.

Gunnar Bengtsson

Gunnar was raised in a Reich Creche for Einherjar Delta-Omega program – “Army of One.” These were one of many programs in the Einherjar series that littered the Reich territories in an attempt to find the perfect soldiers. Delta-Omega was the Einherjar program in Southern Afrika.

Central Afrika has been in a state of war for nearly 100 years. The Reich abandoned the attempts to tame it 50 years ago, leaving it to the Republic to complete the job. The Reich’s goal – to turn Afrika into the breadbasket for the Reich. It was the Republic responsibility to tame it. The Reich used the opportunity for training and testing of their super soldier programs like Einherjar.

Gunnar’s family – his unit – was made up of 6 other Einherjar soldiers. The commander Naja was very capable warrior with a strong talent in knife combat. Gunnar still morns her loss at the Battle of Ubangi River. The incredibly petite but agile mechanic Carina who could fix anything on wheels. She also had a bad habit of stealing whatever she needed to get the job done. The deft and crafty Laust was the teams scout and supplier of anything. No one asked where he got what the team needed. He was also a very talented botanist and swore he could talk to plants. Hugo and Adam were twins and were both heavy weapons and demolitionists. Vidar was the tech and communications guy who could always make friends anywhere.

The team fought in many battles against an enemy painted as terrorists and savages. There was a particular warlord his team was tasked to neutralize General Zion. They engaged his forces multiple times. As they fought, Gunnar began to realize these warriors were not savages – they were very intelligent and tactical. Their enemy was far more then what his superiors were telling him.

It was the battle of Ubangi River that changed everything. The team was surrounded by Zion’s forces. Naja was already dead, and Laust and Hugo both were wounded and in need of medical evacuation. They knew their target was leading the force over-taking their position and they reported the intel to command as soon as they learned of it. They expect the evac to arrive and soon after, a surgical strike. The evac never came, but the strike did. All Gunnar could remember of the horrible roar from overhead. The last thing in his mind before he blacked out was something constantly drilled into his head by his commanders -you are expendable.

Gunnar awoke in a grass roofed hut with the sounds of the jungle all around him. Above him were several faces looking down on him and others behind them stood with guns. One of those faces was the warlord Zion.
The next several months was life-changing for the young medic. Instead killing Gunnar, Zion showed Gunnar a side of Afrika his commanders kept from him. The people, the beauty, the culture – all things his superiors were trying to wipe out. Gunnar began to question everything his life. He realized just how many lies he was being told; how much propaganda and programming he was put through. Now only did he have this epiphany, but he also found love in the Zion’s daughter – Junia.

Zion never revealed what happened to his team. A year after he awoke in Zion’s village, he found out. His team – along with several others raided the village. Gunnar realized his life had changed and fought on the side of Zion. Unfortunately, he was unable to save Junia. Zion and Gunnar were some of the few that did escape and they both were able to find shelter within Tower.

Mina Colella

Mina was the name given to her by the Warriors of Spartacus (Italian resistance) agents that found her in a secret War-era Reich containment facility in the Alps. Appearing to be the young age of 16, she has awakened from a 120-year slumber induced by Reich experimental technology. The agents said they thought she was some kind of experiment – perhaps a clone or genetic hybrid. They were not sure and did not have time to figure it out. A Reich strike team was on the way.

She was the only person to escape when the Reich strike team attacked. They left her to die in the frozen peaks of northern Italy. Incoherent from being abruptly awakened from a 120 year long sleep, Mina wondered the tundra for days until she blacked out. She dreamed of strange faces – non-human – and alien worlds. She felt connected to something beyond this world and felt a part of her being pulled to some far-off star.

She awoke in a cabin of a couple that had found here. The man – Omero – was an Italian businessman. His wife – Lorenza – was his business partner. They were on vacation in the mountains. They found here on a hiking trip and rescued her once they realized she was still alive. They took care of her, helped her heal from the harsh trek, until she was able to walk on her own. It was then she began sense things about these people – a extra-sensory notion that maybe they were not entirely truthful about what they did.

Despite this feeling, Mina accompanied the couple to Milan, where they lived. They had no children and opened their home to her. In exchange for a good life the couple provided, she soon found herself working for the Mafia organized crime syndicate within the Republic, engaging in several illegal operations. Through her life in the mafia, she would help her new family, using her abilities to weed out people they could not trust. During this time, she also had dreams that were more like memories that belong to someone else. Some were scary; others wonderous and amazing. Life was good.

However, with the assassination of the Omero, her life was turned upside-down.

Lorenza arranged everything. They both ran away from everything they knew and disappeared into the underground with the help from some of Lorenza’s friends. Mina had always felt that Lorenza was hiding something from Omero but did not know what. As it turned out, she was a intelligence agent for the MIS – Republic intelligence. This began her own path into the Republic intelligence service.

Mina continues to have visions while she sleeps and as she got older, they came in her waking hours as well. Her work with the MIS has recently been guided by these visions. And this has lead her to investigating into Project Die Glocke.

Shinohara Jun

Shinohara grew up in the streets of the northern regions of Korea, occasionally travelling with a group of Mung nomads in and out of northeastern China. She was a street rat that took care of herself with very few friends. She was good all levels of thievery and this got her noticed by the local gangs and underground guilds. By her teenage years, she worked for the highest bidder acquiring things for them.

Shino remembers a man who took are of her when she was very young. He thinks it was her father but does not know as he disappeared during her childhood. She remembers he was a strange looking man, not like those she sees every day – larger eyes, slender face and tall head. He had a group of friends he called his congregation. They all shared the same strange faith and worshipped at night. She doesn’t remember the focus of the religion or the practices, she just knows she has not seen anything like it since.

She occasionally dreams of her father. One of her dreams has her father sitting at the edge of her bed mat. He would tell her stories of an ancient curse that befell their family; one that he wishes to break and not pass on to her. He told her she was different – very special and she had to keep things to herself, no matter what. That was the night before he left.

She spent the rest of her childhood in a small street rat gang of 4 – other children she called her siblings. Zhong was the oldest and specialized in stealing from the market to get the group food. He was kind and forgiving; talked about his lineage being of a noble line and how he would grow his gang to serve a great Yakuza boss. Ju was great maker of things and good with animals. When they needed horses, Ju could get them. He also had a lot of contacts within the other rat gangs. Ping was the big strong brute of the group and was rarely kind. However, Shino somehow knew he was really a gentle giant. He dreamed of being a space pilot one day and was commonly found watching the shuttles launch from the local Imperial base. However, physically, he reminded Shino of her father because he had the same strange features.

It was late in her childhood when she met a person who claimed to know her father. She met with the man alone in some ruins outside of the town only to be kidnapped by radical followers of the same religion her father advocated. This group apparently saw her as a savior that would protect them from a horrible curse. They wanted to return home – two some far off world not in this solar system. The only way they could do this was sacrifice her. Something in here told here they truly believed what they said.

If it wasn’t for Ping, she would have been dead.

Late in her teen years, Shino discovered that a prominent and popular government official is really the head of the local Yakuza cell. His name was Daichi “Great One”. From that point, she worked hard to get noticed by this organization, with the goal of working for them. By her early 20s, her little group was doing jobs for this kingpin for good money. They were living the life they had always wanted – until the war started.

A yakuza war is bloody and horrifying but very few see it. Regular citizens live their normal lives in the streets while a tea house is a yakuza battle zone. This is where she developed her skills in fighting and weapons. She found herself very adept at fighting. She grew into a roll of assassin and covert operative for the Great One.

She also learned to hone her ability as an Empath – the ability her father warned her about. She found that she could use her ability to bring peace to those she killed as they died. There was also a side of her that enjoyed sensing the final emotions of those she killed. She fought to suppress that side. When it surfaced, she heard her father’s voice warning her once again of the curse.

As the war waned to a close, Shino and her team of killers – the former street rat gang – were sent on a mission to assassinate the leader of the enemy. The team was successful. She learned later that the enemy was working with the Reich intelligence agents to destabilize this region of China. She killed the lead Reich agent and in his dying thoughts, she learned just how terrible the Reich was.

Shino was decorated for her heroism – she became the equivalent of a knight in the organization. However, the Great One was jealous of her and her team’s popularity. Drawing her in as a close confidant and friend, he secretly sought divide her team and one by one have them assassinated. She was going to be the last. She escaped with her life, leaving her life with the Yakuza behind, and swearing revenge one day.

Wilhelmina Grassl

Willhelmina “Willie” grew up on Krueger Station in the L5 legrange point, helping her parents make a living away from the horrible situation on Erde (Earth). However, it was not much better on the station. The Krueger was a waystation for ships coming into Erde orbit from the inner and out worlds. It saw a lot of traffic. It also saw it fair amount of crime and underworld business.

Thievery and piracy was a common problem on Kreuger. For a simple laborers like Willie’s parents, they can be dangerous as they simply see laborers as canon-fodder. This is exactly what happened to Willie’s family. She is still haunted by the site of here parents being walked out an airlock by the Blackstar pirates.

Willie was the oldest of six and was left to take care of all of them. All five have grown to be product members of society and they remain close to this day. On occasion, they serve on ships together as they are all involved in the space trade in some way or another.

Not long after the pirate raid that killed her parents, she found out that her father was working on a ship – The Hummingbird – for the whole family to travel and run a business from. This ship sat in an old dock on the less-maintained areas of the station, lower levels. She made it her goal to get that ship operational one day. In her free time, she worked on it as often as she could.

It was during this time that one of the administrators – a Republic woman named Gabriella – of the station noticed activity on that level of the station. When she found a young teen Willie working on the ship on levels that were not maintained, Gabriella warned her that it was dangerous to work in this area. Seeing her dedication however, Gabriella promised to watch over her as often has she could with the security systems. They became fast friends after that and in fact, Gabriella became a proxy maternal figure for all the kids.

One evening (station time) when Willie was working on the final repairs of the Hummingbird, the Blackstars returned. Because they had already paid off the station security, the pirates had their way throughout the ship. However, a specific group of them seemed to be searching for something. It turns out they were searching for The Hummingbird.

Bursting into the bay where Willie was hard at work, she had already been warned by Gabriella. Not knowing their true interest, she hid on the ship and hoped they would go away. Unfortunately, they did not.

Willie soon found herself staring at the face of the pirate that killed her parents and now she knew why – The Hummingbird. Captured, the pirates were escorting her to the same airlock they threw her parents out of when 6 guards lead by Gabriella turned the corner and opened fire. Gabriella was able to scrouge up enough loyal guards to save Willie and the other kids. This turned into a shooting battle down the corridors back the Hummingbird. Several guards were wounded as was Gabriella. She pushed all of the children along with Willie on to the ship and gave them coordinates to a private station where her brother served.

The next few seconds were a blur to Willie however. All she knew was that she could not let go of Gabriella and was pushing away telling her that she had to stay. Willie was in the ship and Gabriella was outside the airlock, shooting at pirate as they came in. There was an explosion and a rush of air as the ship was thrown out into space. Willie’s arm was caught in the emergency airlock closure, still holding Gabriella body as it floated into space.

Gabriella’s brother – Ranolfo – was a member of Tower and also new some very adept cyber-surgeons. Her youngest brighter Ratu went on the become a very successful Merchant, working with Republic and Reich corporations while at the same time secretly working to free slave laborers throughout the outer colonies.

With regards to Willie’s siblings, they all have done well, for the most part. Tatianna went on to work in the mafia as an agent for Tower, seeking out threats within the underground while at the same time finding information that will help bring down the Blackstars. Joost, the little brother that was her partner in all things technical, went on to become a skilled roboticist. Bartek, her youngest sister, became an accountant for the mafia along with Tatianna, laundering money for the Tower through the mafia. Finally, her youngest brother Matthias is estranged and missing. He developed many enemies through his dealings – a mystery and one of Willie’s personal goals is to find out what happened to him.