Gallic Royal Navy Application Form A-184 - file appears to be dated from Sirian date 822 AS. Nearly six years ago..

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I. Personal Information

Your name: Achille Augustain Nadeau.
Date of birth:????
Birthplace: Chateau Gountier Freeport, Maine System, Kingdom of Gallia.
Current location of residence: Planet Marseille.
Sexuality: Extremely homosexual, but appears to flirt with everyone regardless.

Current or previous occupation:

ERROR. Datafile too extensive for standard summerical process.

ERROR. Criminal record detected.

ERROR. Lack of data consistency detected.

ERROR. Normand bloodline.

ERROR. Critical personal information undisclosed.

Recompiling with input from royal police and ONI data-shares:

Achille Augusta Nadeau is a chequered man. Born into the kingdom’s mercentile middle-class, Nadeau was born into money, but not into aristocracy. It appears he spent most of his formative years away from the the centre of the Crown’s control, near the Normand border wall. The lack of familial history before the first Gallic War and the recursion of the name “Nadeau” within the colonisation of the Normandy verge strongly implies that the Nadeau’s descend from a Normand family http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=121898&highlight=Achille+Nadeau - although the level of familial removal from the separatists remains ambiguous. What is known is that Achille’s step-uncle languishes in Fleury Mergois on a cross-border smuggling charge, rendering Achille himself only two relations removed from a separatist watchlist.


Achille himself had a mostly law-abiding childhood. Educated in Burgundy, Achille was strongly influenced by the push-pull of the Gallic border words in his youth - the constant threat of brigandry and the intrigues of the Marquis, the near martial law of the GRN, became facts of everyday life for the teenage Nadeau. Academically minded since youth, Achille made it his founding goal to lecture at New Paris, and for much of his early twenties cheated and bartered his way through two separate criminal law and vector physics majors (although it remains unclear if he actually finished the degrees), supplementing the minimal support of his relatives by redoctoring the cargo manifests of small time EFL contractors to minimise import tax - taking independent plastic shipments and filing them as a single, larger shipment to minimise overall tax loss, retagging the containers with their correct units once the shipments had been offloaded at the warehouses. Achille was arrested twice for fraud, but successfully claimed innocence of the illegality of his work, narrowly avoiding prison. Lumped with a two hundred thousand credit fine and no method of repaying it, Achille enlisted in Gallic royal naval college, despite being older than most of its other participants. Initially back-classed for his record, recalcitrance and generally anarchic attitude, Achille exhibited significant psychological fortitude despite failing the physical training repeatedly (and perhaps, deliberately), landing himself a comfortable, if unimpressively ranked, desk job overseeing squadron requisitions within Anjou. Achille showed unusual efficacy in his job, with wings designated to him appearing to suffer a near zero percent component decay rate even during training sorties - a figure that had his superiors impressed until spectator algorithms flagged Achille’s performance as mathematically unsound. When asked to explain his performance in before tribunal, Achille elaborated that his job mandated noting the depleting of parts per ship within Anjou. Achille, knowingly pedantic, had written that the majority of the part losses occurred instead within Touraine, the GRN’s official long-range training system, and had been accumulating in-going components and using them to replace damaged parts replaced in Touraine without noting the damage on official reports. Rather than have him thrown in a military prison, Achille’s shrewdness was seen as wasted in the rear line fleet and he was retrained as a signal intelligence analyst within the Office of Naval Intelligence, based on planet Marne, designated to decode liberalist comms traffic within the industrial backwater, embedded undercover as the proprietor of a chain of private pay-for-service gentleman’s societies, linked to the underground body modification scene, monitoring wealthy patrons for suspicious medical and surgical requests, such as appearance modifications whilst providing an in-road into their finances. Achille was largely successful, his profession permitting him to mix his mercentile upbringing, tendency towards the underhanded and love of the crown into a unified profession. Achille himself started to accrue significant personal assets, most of which he immediately squandered in IDF shipping shares, personal property and luxurious living. A lover of the arts and historical artistry, Achille invested significant portions of his wealth into the tentative Sirian collectables trade, obtaining a quiet stash of Bretonian personal effects imported on the sly by Junker profiteers. Achille, in part because of his Separatist connections, became fascinated with the potential wonders of the worlds beyond the mines. Well aware that his interest was treasonous, Achille used his connections with Marne’s liberal cabals to obtain pan-simian artefacts, including literature. Achille claims to have possessed the first copy of the Golden Chrysanthemum in Bloom ever imported into Gallic space, opened the first page, found its contents dissatisfactory to his worldview, and torched the item, although with his extreme reputation for braggadocio the truth of the narrative is in doubt.

Achille’s extreme self-fascination and lack of a moral compass eventually caused him to lose all intrest in his efforts. Marne may have offered adventure but it tendered little more, and after turning in all of his contacts within the Junker smuggling rings as leverage over to the ONI, Achille resigned from the service - but his fascination with the alien never abandoned him. Displeasured by the prospect of being caught amidst a revolution, Achille headed as far to the cosmic south as he could, settling into the Monte Carlo pleasure scene with nothing but his retirement money. Indulging himself in the body modification scene he had once operated, Achille temporarily experimented with NOX during a reading of the Sol poet Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. Achille reacted poorly to the drug, becoming so un-lucid he began to imagine himself as reincarnation of the playwright, empathising with the author’s need as a social and biological renegade within a deeply aristocratic society to excel. Achille, ever gaudy, re-invented himself as a Monte Carlo socialite, living off the remains of his trade investments and gambling what assets he did have. This state of ill-sobriety continued until the outbreak of the Second Gallic War.

The exact circumstances of Achille’s meeting with Robert du’Autoine remain unclear, but the two appear to have met over a gambling match for the acquisition of a small transport company, the Gallic Borderworld’s Trading League, http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=103853&pid=1409569#pid1409569 from d’Autoine. The victor remains unclear (Achille claims it was him, Robert claims the company was never his to gamble in the first place and he was only in the game to make a quick mark), but the pair became so impressed by the chicanery of the other, both parties shared the proceeds. Seeing Achille as a confidence trickster after his own heart, Robert employed Achille as his number two http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=106254&highlight=Achille+Nadeau. The history of the League remains ambiguous until two years after the council’s breach of the Reunion minefield, at which point the League, fascinated by the potential of the Sirian import market, illegally exfiltrated the Gallic realm and adapted themselves to the Zoner way of life, seeing their tradition of adventurism in the absence of government well in keeping with their own beliefs. Renaming themselves “the Commonwealth” http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=107760&highlight=The+Commonwealth (an internal joke suggested by Achille, who noted that the only unifying factor between the Gauls and the Sirians was that all wished to be commonly wealthy), the Commonwealth became notable as the first major movement of Gallic civilians outside of the council and the GRN into Sirius proper, beginning formal trade relations with the rest of the sector long before EFL and IDF had developed trade networks to Rheinland and Kusari.

Taking up residence in Freeport 10 with the sanction of the COF http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=97808&page=3&highlight=Achille+Nadeau, who, straining to preserve Zoner neutrality under the pressure of the war between the Colonial Republic and the GRN, welcomed the presence of non-hostile Gallic civilians, Achille rapidly began to refurbish the station to the liking of a Gallic outpost, restructuring the Freeport’s biomes to a replication of Monte Carlo’s own http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=100227&highlight=Achille+Nadeau . Rapidly the station became a pivotal trading hub between the world of the Royals and the less salubrious denzins of the Omicrons, becoming a magnet for independent research organisations. Finding most of its profiteering in R’n’D, the outpost became a focus site for off-the-books blue sky research programs http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=102155&highlight=to+The+Commonwealth . It’s suspected that Achille himself has dabbled in the Maltese trading market, although never to the violation of Gallic law. In process, Achille appears to have cultivated a singular distrust of the IMG, finding their neutrality between the king and the Council to be evidential of a lack of principles, believing that a true servant of the King would pick a position. Irked by miners of Tau 23, Achille appears to have abused his position on the Confederation of Freeports to permit anti-IMG pirates basing rights on his station http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=113291&highlight=to+The+Commonwealth, although nothing has been confirmed.

Achille appears to have become increasingly recalcitrant and anti-social during his duration as administrator of the Commonwealth, investing in Omicron expeditions and other blue-skies distractions. The Gaul’s use of NOX never abandoned him, however, and may be the cause of his social decay http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=101896&highlight=Achille+Nadeau . Achille’s interactions with the world became reduced to interaction with his inner circle and his exercises at dominion over his home away from home, reconstructing the Freeport as a bastion of Gallicisation upon the maltese border http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=99185 . As the citizenry swelled, Achille began to expand the Commonwealth from its Gallic origins to pan-sirian fraternity mirroring more closely the Zoner whole - if only with great reluctance http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=99726&highlight=The+Commonwealth+Zakir . During this period, Achille, ever the lover of the unknown, briefly flirted with both the infestation and the Gammu intelligence http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=99597&highlight=The+Commonwealth+Zakir , http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=99515&highlight=The+Commonwealth+Zakir , http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=101551&highlight=The+Commonwealth+Zakir , but appears to have predominantly rejected them, mostly from an internal fear of raising the ire of the overwatch. Despite his disappearances, Achille appears to have remained a loyal enough citizen of the crown, frequently revisiting his homeland throughout the duration of his exile, although the nature of his visits have occasionally proved less than salubrious. http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=121910&highlight=Achille+gallia

Despite his blood crime, Achille remains a diligent loyalist, professing loyalty to the crown even in situations where it would be inopportune or dangerous to do so, floridly displaying Gallic identification-friend-or-foe markers on any and every ship he operates. http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=99597&highlight=Achille . Socially, Achille is a monarchist and a keen believer in the aristocracy, convinced that poor “idiots” do not have the mental fortitude to preserve their own interests in aggregate. Economically, he is a libertarian, having personally benefited from a lack of police oversight.

Achille’s actions for the last two years remain undisclosed. It is possible Achille simply tired of his administration, with even the unlimited freedom of the Zoner community too little for him. The Achille of later years has proven less sober than even his older self, and his attempts to find steady employment as both a volunteer in the Royal Navy reserves and EFL indicate that his financial resources are steadily running away from him. Presently residing on Marseille, Achille has been leading a life of boredom and leisure.




Motivation for joining his majesty's Gallic Royal Navy:

Sonder. I have suffered a dose of sonder. It has smacked me in the mouth and abandoned me wondering how the bloody hell I got these asymmetric teeth?

Let me the principle of Sonder to you; sonder is the emotional state of realising every other four limbed carbon based water bag around you is just as emotively complex as yourself.

This is cancerous. This is murder.

I am tired of playing d'artagnan only to have the cannonball descend ignominiously on my bonce in the third book. I have served myself long enough for one lifetime - and what has it won me but wanton regret? A retirement, dipping my toes in a saline see till the sharks bite them off?

I have seen a many wondrous works of both man and unman. Dyson spheres, pulsars. Dark matter fields, hyper-gates. Aliens that wear the skin of men and men who wear the skin of aliens. Sentient machines and men who behave as machines. I have seen them all and I am tired. I am bored. I am, beyond all else, skint.

And I see the council laying into my beloved Kingdom. So I left my saline sea, recruitment officer. I abandoned my tuxedo, practiced my goose-step, and marched off to risk my life over nothing. I have given nothing for everything. It is time to repay my debts.




Commendations from Royal Navy officers (if applicable):

Achille has collaborated with ONI several times during his administration of Freeport 10, often trading information on the internal affairs of the TAZ in return for political leniency. He is known to have ties with embedded ONI agents and was an acquaintance of the previous grand Marshall.

Short biography:

Synopsis:

Gallic civilian-turned-adventurer-turned-merchant-turned-Zoner, Achille is a competent administrator, negotiator and spy. He is moderately technically adept due to his extensive tertiary education, but can only be considered a jack-of-all-trades. Achille’s flying ability is indeterminate - he prefers to talk others into killing themselves rather than get stuck in himself, but a life in the Gallic and Sirian border worlds have taught him at least the rudiments of how to defend himself in space. Achille has rear line experience in the ONI, conn

Achille is a rogue but he is not inherently crooked - just self-interested and arrogant. He is a passionate social climber with a tendency towards disdain rather than violence. Nonetheless, he is a fierce patriot with significant, if rear-line, military experience, and naturally exploitative. His connections with important Sirian representatives (Angela Corino, Michal Golanski, Tara snow, Finn McCool amongst others) grant him an expansive worldview - although limited by his narrow-minded nature. Once a Zoner himself, Achille maintains an intense disdain for fellow Zoners and Junkers especially - indeed, anybody who follows the same principles as himself, viewing them as either competitors or sparring partners. Achille’s decision to participate in the war may be an attempt to recompense the crown for the years he has lived skirting its authority - or it may merely be another abortive scheme. Achille is extremely intelligent, but psychopathic. He has no discernible empathy for humanity outside of himself. However, he is extremely competent at coercing others to his worldview and extremely competent at obtaining information from others - an ability he has occasionally used antagonistically by impersonating GRN operatives during the siege of Leeds. Achille is known to have a soft-spot for Bretonians and Bretonian culture, but no love for their government, a distinctly xenophobic attitude towards Kusarians and a phillia for Rheinlanders. Achille is gay, but appears uninterested in pursuing permanent relationships and mostly uses sex as a tool to disarm opponents. As an ex-Zoner, Achille has a wide range of Border and Edge worlds technologies at his disposal, but he rarely uses them of his own volition. Achille might be harbouring nomad artefacts from his Omicron expeditions, but if he is, he’s keeping them close to his chest.

Advantages:

- Shrewd.
- Genius intelligence.
- Likes to impress.
- Patriot.
- Worldly and extremely experienced with Sirians.
- Older, and thus more astute, than most Gallic pilots.
- Has a comprehensive awareness of nearly all Sirian current affairs.
- Politically minded.
- Social climber.
- No moral direction.
- Comprehensive knowledge of Liberty and Bretonian space, mindset and culture.
- Has experience of Royal Navy life.


Disadvantages:

- Dandy.
- Dislikes any lack of authority.
- Will start intrigues and confidence tricks for their own sake.
- Moderate pilot, but not terrific.
- Feels belittled by his lack of aristocratic lineage.
- Rabidly loathes poor people.
- Doesn’t like being a grunt and won’t initially respond well to being tossed in with the grunts.
- Considers Kusarians to be lazy surrender monkeys. [/b]


II. Knowledge Questions

Who is the current Grand Maréchal of the Gallic Royal Navy?

The indefatigable Grant LeRoux.

What is the flagship of the Gallic Royal Navy?

The Royal Navy Flagship Chant du Cygne. Gorgeous swan she is too.

Enumerate the primary factions the Gallic Royal Navy is currently at war with, and summarize the reasoning for said wars.

Why are we at war?

Do you want the economic, the political, the ideological, the bloody-minded rage?

We’re at war because dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. We’re at war because it is valiant to die for what one believes. We are at war because we have been isolated from the rest of human discourse for so long we cannot participate in it without degrading into an autistic shouting match. We are at war beacuse the damned liberals strong-armed our beloved King into turning our beloved Navy’s raison d'etre from an ideological bullet point to a walk-the-walk scenario. If the proof of fine dining is in the pudding, then the the narrative of a good invasion story is in the actual invasion.

Of course, we are also at war because if we lose the war, we lose the stability of our house. We lose the harmony we have masterminded for centuries. We lose the Gallic flavour.

If we cannot save ourselves from the Alliance who once masterminded our sabotage, then we truly should have never left Sol in the first instance and fallen under the socialist yoke arm-in-arm with the Australians, with the Koreans, with the Italians.

We have not an armada. We have an armada of armadas, each many millions of men strong. We exact revenge because revenge is noble. We spay-paint our honour on the spray-deck because arbitrary whipping posts are all we have in this universe.

Sirius is in disarray. Sirius has failed - an ancestral horror story of betrayal and revenge. Who are betrayed? Are not the aliens also betrayed by the Sirians? Our vengeance is not bound to the yoke of men.

I have played the merry fool for decades. It is time for the fool to poison the cup.

It is important to note that this application was summarily denied by the GRN, after it became apparent that A.Nadeau was attempting to gain access to the Tau defence network.

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Application End