■ Loyal to House Rheinland
■ Tends to be a lone wolf
■ Not prone to insubordination
Born:Planet New Berlin, Neukolln quarter countryside, 797 A.S.
Hobbies:■ Sports
■ Reading
Marital Status: Single
Status:On Duty
Biography
Herr Karl Verstappen, currently ranked Spezialagent and among the newest blood to have joined the Buro der Marineintelligenz.
Chapter 1: Early life
Herr Verstappen was born in the countryside nearby the Neukolln quarter, on Planet New Berlin. Both his parents were farmers and transport captains, flying as independent traders but under contract from Repubblican Shipping, mainly doing in-house runs. Ever since his very youth, Karl was taught to work hard in order to obtain what he desired.
Even during the period of his schooling period at the Eckener-Oberschule in the nearby quarter, he mostly worked at the family farm, thus not having so much free time to spend with his peers - due to this, he developed a rather lonely character. Despite this, he enjoyed whatever free time he had with them.
His school years were rather tough not much for learning issues, rather for the school's price - as the years went on, the school cost increased, and he even had to start working at a very young age in order to contribute in paying his own school costs. However, these effort were finally successful as he graduated from the Eckener-Oberschule with top scores.
Chapter 2: Hauling for Republican
His own top scores allowed him, shortly after his studies were done, to be chosen by Republican shipping - the same company his parents worked for - as a hired freighter pilot, with the specific job of moving various commodities between Dortmund, Bonn Station and Oder Shipyard. Within the following two years, he was contracted even for inter-house hauls, flying as far as New York, most notably the Baltimore Shipyards and Trenton Outpost. The longer the run, the higher the price and the higher the risk. Between the haul runs, he started to follow a basic combat course offered by Republican to volunteers or contracted external personnel in order to be able to act as private escorts whenever needed. He passed the course with good results, but the possibility of being hired as escort opened his path to higher money revenues.
Chapter 3: Life of a gun for hire
The next 3 years of his life saw him away from Rheinland, working his way as a private hired escort for whoever had the bucks to pay him. Despite the risks, his training allowed him to have a slight edge over most dangers headed his convoys' way: Rogues, Xenos, sometimes Mollys or Gaians or, when moving through the Taus or Omegas, Corsairs and Outcasts. The latter ones were tough nuts for him to crack open, since he mostly flew a Griffin, thing that made him switch to a heavier asset: an Eagle superiority fighter. Not only did the Eagle work wonders as an escort ship, but it also deterred most of the motley pirates or bandits preying on the convoys he escorted. And what's more, he now had an edge against the Outcasts' Border World ships and against the Corsair shipline, with the Titan as an exception as he rarely had to encounter one of those. During an escort job, his convoy was ambushed by strange alien ships Karl never saw before - he later reckognized them as Nomad vessels - and was put in a run for his own life, barely making the convoy escape. He escaped as well, not before blasting his way through. His battered ship landed on a nearby neutral station, where it was repaired back to 100% in a few days. While waiting the repairs, he headed for the bar, his intent to take a drink. While sitting at the bar counter, curious, he read the news articles - while reading, he noticed that the Rheinland Military was seeking new pilots to join. Eager to join, he was about to make his way to the ship when a flash news appeared: news spoke of an ambush at the hand of a couple Hessian ships against an Albatross transport on the trade lane to the Stuttgart jumpgate, in New Berlin. When a close-up of the Albatross came up, he almost immediately reckognized the ship as his parents' - a repair patch he helped repair with his father was seen in the close-up. This made him set aside his job and re-set his course back to the green skies of Rheinland...for a personal vengeance.
Chapter 4: Venegance before duty
While he was eager to join the Military, he needed first to mourn his loss, and then to exact vengeance upon the bastards that killed them. During his time as an escort, he got around how a pirate chooses his prey: if you target a transport, you need an entry way and an escape route before law enforcement arrives. Given the location of the accident, he first headed to Bonn Station, which is located right near the incriminated lane. After landing, he went to the bar and started to discreetly ask around about the accident. While most of the patrons confirmed that two Hessian ships, one of which was a bomber, assaulted the transport, none noticed where they went. Just a passerby Junker - after having paid, of course - told him where those two holed up for the time being: Kreuzberg Depot, deep in the Ruhrfeld, and handed Karl the coordinates of the station. Bent on revenge, he left Bonn and set course for Kreuzberg. Soon after entering the Ruhrfeld, his ship's scanners beeped, as two contacts came in range: a fighter and a bomber, squawking Hessian transponders, most certainly the Hessians Karl was looking for, probably tipped off by the Junker he met back on Bonn. Unlucky for them, two cruise disruptors stopped their escape, and the Eagle's guns did the rest. Yet Karl, despite his rage, did not kill them in cold blood - instead, he tractored their pods in and turned them to the RFP on New Berlin. With this matter set aside, he could now do what he wanted to do in the first place: aspire to join the ranks of the Rheinwehr. He was successfully admitted into the ranks of the Military under the rank of Flieger. Within the following two years, he ascended up to the rank of Feldwebel, with various victories over the LWB, Bundschuh and Hessians - as well as his crushing defeat at the hand of Hessian Generalmajor Anna Heinrich, which costed him his own Wraith. This incident also made him hospitalized for months, with several scars on his torso remembering that period - without the chance, though, to resume his post. After leaving the hospital, he was posted in Frankfurt, near Mainz, to oversee incoming traffic from Sigma-13 and Munich. Yet, he felt like he was being toyed with, as most of the times the system was empty, no ships passing by. In light of this, he ultimately - and painfully - took the decision to leave the Rheinwehr and return to his old escort job.
Chapter 5: A new path opens
Returning to his old job, Karl started taking up escort jobs again, this time getting paid better than before as more transport kept heading to the Omicrons, some went as far as Freeport 11, but the paths were infested by pirates a lot more than in the past. This time, however, gunboats started to show up, and his Eagle was no match for those. To solve this, he managed to obtain a Roc bomber, with which he undertook most of the escort contracts. He spent years going back and forth, from the Taus to the Omegas, to and from the Omicrons. In this period, he learned the basics of encryption, decryption and intelligence gathering, skills that further refined with time. Sometimes, he took an hiatus to head back to Rheinland in order to relax a little. During one of these, he happened upon reading news regarding the relations between RM and BDM. Choosing to investigate further by his own, Karl discovered that not only the Rheinwehr Field Admiral changed, but the standards of RM pilots were below average - he remembered the harsh training under Major Odinsdottir while reading. He was tempted to return to the Rheinwehr, but he ultimately choose not to as this Rheinwehr didn't represent Rheinland's glory anymore. Instead, he went and tried to apply for the BDM, which looked like the best choice between the two.
As of today, he quickly rose the ranks and is now ranked as Spezialagent.
Training/Skills: Education:
■ Eckener-Oberschule absolvation
BDM training:
■ Basic BDM Agent training
Other skills/training:
■ Basic flight and combat training
■ Rheinwehr flight and combat training
■ Above average encryption, decryption and intel gathering