Ash Falthion

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Ash Falthion
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Profile
Origin	Freeport 4 IMG Bretonia
Occupation	42nd Order Recon Intelligence officer, 30th Assault Squadron Commander
Affiliation	The Order
Rank	Commander
Born	17 March 792 A.S., Freeport 4
Died	M.I.A. around 12-23-817 A.S. Returned to service 5-14-818 A.S. Lives to this day

Humble Beginnings

Ash began his life in a situation rather apart from his present one. After being born to a Bretonian mother by the name of Wylanda Falthion and Freelancing father Ignus Falthion, of no major house origin, Ash was initially put to work as a cargo loader on Freeport 4. He was just turning twelve at the time. Life was hard for a son of working-class parents. His mother moved cargo between the border worlds and the independent systems, and his father had a rather nebulous background - often disappearing for days to weeks at a time without much notice. Ash would later discover that his father was an independent contact for The Order, holding the rank of Ship Captain in the Primary Fleet. One could say that being a member of The Order was quite literally in his blood.

After his short stint as a dock worker (ages twelve to sixteen), Ash was moved to South Shields Refinery to work under a taskmaster doing mineral processing. He would help to refine the loads of raw ore that came in from sectors around, and then in turn, move the refined and smelted ore back onto another hauler for resale. The work was dirty and harsh on the body, but Ash became physically hardened by this line of work, and thoroughly loved the camaraderie that developed from working such a taxing job with similar souls.

The Life of a Grunt

Once finished with his civil service period, Ash was conscripted into the Bretonian Military as a Weapons Specialist, upon completion of initial Technical School training and evaluations. A year into working as a Weapons Specialist (seventeen at this time), Ash submitted a request to become a pilot upon turning twenty years of age. Three years later his application was approved and he was fully qualified by a military medical examiner. Simulator training began shortly thereafter and lasted two years...Ash proved sufficiently capable to apply for escort duty and was given the rank of Warrant Officer 1 (WO1), despite having failed the Advanced Marksmanship class once. His first introduction to combat came when Molly Pirates laid siege to a freighter full of commodities, headed for New London from Edinburgh. The flight lead maintained control of the situation and Ash worked well as a wing-man...the freighter crew and three of four escort pilots survived. The flight lead was awarded a medal for limiting casualties and he recommended Ash for promotion to Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CWO2). Fourteen months later (aged twenty three now) Ash was transferred to the 9th Combat Patrol Group, having maintained a good service record. Ash contionued to serve with the 9th CPG for two more years (aged twenty five) until he decided to separate with an honorable discharge from the Bretonian Military. He knew that there was more to the world outside of Bretonia...he purchased a Combat Service Vehicle (CSV) from the Junkers on Trafalgar Base, New London, after making contact with them via short-wave communications, and began the next stage of his life - despite the pleas of his mother to do otherwise - in service to a new family, The Junkers.

New Horizons

The life as a Junker was interesting...difficult in different aspects from Ash's time in the military, while always remaining interesting. The Military and Police within Bretonia did not really care for them, and after several 'heated' encounters, Ash said goodbye to his mother, and headed into the Inner Worlds, in search of further adventure and the possibility of finding his father, Ignus Falthion. As he worked his way into becoming a full-fledged Freelancer - providing escort and carrying cargo temporarily for various corporations - Ash found one facet of life he really loved... exploring. He found it possible to go for hours at a time looking inside an asteroid field for something...different or unique. A passerby or miner focused on cutting into the rock for profit would miss these different aspects of celestial bodies, without taking a closer inspection. One day this proved to be the turning point - and almost his undoing.

Das Wilde

Ash was making a cargo run to Leipzig Station in Dresden, a fringe system in Rheinland. He'd recently upgraded to a Combat Service Freighter (CSF) from the Junkers, having proved fairly efficient and capable in handling the CSV. Ash had finished his delivery, contacted the nearest Junker relay and told them of his successful trip. He was then authorized for R&R back in Rheinland territory, and he had initially planned to go to Stuttgart and then Hamburg, for he had only ever passed through those systems, or stopped at stations for repair and resupply. Something had decided this was not to be....Ash ran afoul a member of the insidious Das Wilde as he was making his way back to the New Berlin Jump Gate. The Trade Lane collapsed, and Ash panicked, seeing a strange tentacle-enshrouded vessel floating before him. Strange sounds issued from it, he punched the thruster and sped past it. He would later understand that it was a Scorpion Gunboat, and was apparently extremely lucky that it was a young human/nomad morph, just learning to communicate and identify its surroundings, else he surely would have become either space dust, or another infectee. Ash vowed that he never wanted to feel so defenseless again, and decided to head to the Edge Worlds in search of a mentor to train him in the ways of advanced combat techniques.

Flare, Ophidian, and The Order

Ash scoured the sectors after finding a way through to Sigma-13 from Frankfurt. He asked around in the area and found that there was a Luxury Liner stationed in Sigma-19, which often attracted unscrupulous, notorious, note-worthy, and well-off people. He figured that amongst them, a high chance existed that he could find someone to teach him. Luck once again struck in a strange way. Rather than a mentor, Ash found a friend in the Freelancer Flare. Mr. Flare, after talking with Ash for several hours just off of Atka Research Station, led him to Omicron Theta, where Ash was brought to Freeport 9, a hub of the Edge Worlds. Flare told Ash of a contact named Ophidian, and that he was going to put in a good word for him. Ash waited for three days, when Ophidian personally found him and they went off to a private meeting room to become acquainted with one another. Ophidian was intrigued by Ash's desire to fight these 'aliens', and now that he knew something about them - Ophidian figured - there was no turning back for the lad. Ash was introduced to the ideals and goals of The Order, to which, after evaluating, he clung steadfastly to. Ophidian had him undergo some combat training evaluations, and Ash was allowed in as a Recruit, eventually exchanging his X-Shuttle for a Nephthys - a formidable and significantly more agile craft.

Ash would then work as a recruit for the next two weeks, eventually being inducted into The Order. He then ran into Captain Meredith Savoy while on his first tour into Omicron-100, the Order Guard system. Captain Savoy, taking a look at his Curriculum Vitae[1], she apparently deemed him capable enough to train for entrance into the 42nd Reconnaissance Wing, to which Ash was absolutely ecstatic about.

The 42nd; Rise and Fall

Ash entered service to the 42nd, and rather promptly, was given a significant amount of work to do. Meredith, call sign Seshat, had tasked him with patrolling the independent systems and Kusari for Nomad infestation. Ash took to the task willingly...he began making use of the Freeports as his bases, forming contacts there. Occasionally, he would return to Delta, Minor, and 100 to help with patrols and a little administrative work regarding new recruits for the Primary and Secondary fleets. Ash ended up making a great friend in a Freelancing Mercenary that he met whilst patrolling through Honshu one evening. One Viktor Narovski. Viktor, unbeknownst to Ash, was apparently a member of a faction that would surface years later - The Coalition - but had claimed Edge World heritage. Viktor hated the Nomads and Wilde just as much as Ash did, and thus, they made a fantastic scouting team. Each man knew the other's limits, flew as if they were two parts of the same whole. After one particularly confrontational move into Liberty and run-in with the Liberty Navy and LSF, Viktor and Ash were forced to split up for a time. They kept communication up with their private transponders and call codes, but Ash suddenly disappeared one day, after failing to report from Deshima Station in Shikoku. Viktor did not hear from Ash for another eight months, in which time, his friend had been captured by Mercenaries, held inside a cargo hold for two months with minimal food and water, then managing a radical escape after freeing himself and stowing away in the upper part of the bay with hydraulics and wiring, above some paneling. Ash knocked out his captor, swapped clothes with him and left him amongst cargo in a maintenance bay of Rostock Station. Ash then left in his captor's ship, keying the com system and working to hail the nearest -other- station in the system. Ash would come full circle, returning to the Junkers, as he found his salvation in the battered, beaten down, Bornholm Depot of Omega-15. After getting another change of clothes and being offered asylum - if you're part of the family, you tend to stay that way, unless you really make somebody mad - he began trying to piece his old life back together.

Full Circle

Life at this point was rather unkind to Ash. He had no contacts, could not get any of his friends on a wave - via legitimate or illegitimate channels - and was out of cash. All he had was the hijacked Raven's Talon that the schmuck who'd captured him was now relieved of. While it was a heck of a craft to fly, Ash knew it was too unique a commodity to maintain...it painted a target on him and always raised questions when he was towed into a maintenance bay. Ash did not relish in being recaptured, only to be sold into slavery which he had so narrowly escaped. He quickly found a buyer for the craft, then purchased himself an unassuming Collector. Ash then began the long process of rebuilding his reputation and network of contacts through taking several escort missions, as well as honest trading to the other Junker relays out in the Edge Worlds. Through effort and grit he learned from the Junker family, Ash built up enough funds to safely transfer himself back into the Inner Worlds. Here, Ash worked under another alias for a time - 'Raspise' - searching always for Viktor, the 42nd, or any member of The Order he could find. The Edge Worlds are a vast place, and Ash began falling into a depressive state, being unable to hear of or find any of his previous network of contacts within the Order. He was one man, now seemingly against the entire universe, who wanted to regain his higher purpose, rather than continue combing wreck fields for the Jukers. He appreciated his Junker family, but continued to feel that he had more to offer the universe than hauling debris and scrap. He would not dare go back and visit his mother now, for fear that either the Mercenary company which kidnapped him - or any other unlawful groups he had run afoul during his time with the Jukers - would find him and harm her. He felt truly alone at this point in his life...

Chasing the Duke

Ash, near the end of his wits, and under the title of a Freelancer with contacts among the Junkers, stepped into a dive in Honshu one evening, hoping he could find Viktor on a whim. While he still did not find his friend, he came upon someone who could still help him...one Chase Deaucorian. Chase was an entrepreneur who also had an itch for diplomacy and exploration. While not as sound at the cockpit controls in combat as Ash was, Chase would prove to be a stalwart companion in the months to come. He had noticed Ash during one of his stops in the hangar area of Hudson weeks ago, while he was moored outside with his vessel, The Longwall Gob at Cold Bay Depot. Chase thought it was odd that he'd run into this notable fellow twice, and made an effort to sit down with him at his booth in the bar. "Mind if I join you?" Chase asked. "S'long as you don't plan on bringing any violence my way...sure, why not." Ash responded forlornly. Thus began a beautiful and enduring friendship between the two men. Chase would come into Ash's confidence, after Ash entered his employ as an escort for some time. Chase, the son of a Bretonian miner father and his Kusarian Freelancing wife, enjoyed both trading and mining to some extent, but had come to feel these trades were beginning to grow a little drab on him...similar to the color of his cargo pods - used to conceal any precious cargo as bland, boring storage. Mr. Deaucorian, as Ash often jokes, came to bankroll Ash's return to The Order, outfitting him with a Wasupu and according Freelancing equipment. Ash would eventually - after an exasperating set of months - come to have an almost regal return to The Order.

Back in the Saddle

Ash immediately set to work to figure out what had become of the 42nd. Upon learning that they were all but disbanded, with but one nebulous member remaining incognito amongst the Inner Worlds, he asked Admiral Lee Brandon and Rear Admiral D'Souza for permission to re-activate the detachment. With permission granted, Ash brought back the 42nd iconic callsign, and upon requesting and receiving clearance to use the name, he dubbed his vessel - then a Spatial custom outfitted in a deal from Chase's employment with the IMG - The Khonsu, giving him the callsign 42|Khonsu. Ash went back into combat maneuver training, put the Wasupu into storage for a later time, and has since had his hands busy trying to organize both the 42nd Recon Detachment and now 30th Assault Squadron, in addition to policing the recruiting process with a rather brutal efficiency.

Das Wilde Part II

Never forgetting his encounter with that Scorpion Gunboat and his pledge to never want to feel that helpless again, let alone allow anyone else to fall prey to a similar situation, Ash set out with finding a way to study these eccentric infected individuals. The OSD, or Order Science Division proved to offer that avenue. Upon meeting the swiftly promoted and sharp witted Lt. Michal Golanski, Ash applied for a joint-operation assignment under both the 42nd and the OSD. Receiving clearance to take on the task, Ash split his time providing additional intelligence to The Order outside of the Edge Worlds, as well as beginning to study the Das Wilde subjects in both the Omegas and Omicrons. The behavior patterns, Ash noted, while different on a superficial level between the Wilde of Tohoku and Omega-55, contained basic 'group think' that was similar on many levels to that of the Nomads. While this might seem obvious to any observer who understands what the Nomads and Das Wilde are, it is curious because of the efficiency levels of Das Wilde when compared to the Nomad morphs. Ash found that those infected Das Wilde pilots - particularly when in concert - operate on a rather vicious and focused level when compared to the somewhat sporadic and erratic patterns of Nomad morphs working in packs, particularly without a more superior 'brain' present to guide them.

Into the Storm

With The Order currently strained on resources due to the constant and bitter conflict with the BHG, Ash opted out of asking for a Hathor once he found the need for further protection against hostilities whilst continuing his research on the Nomads, Das Wilde, Aoi Inseijin, and Alien Organisms. Instead, under Chase's direction, he decided to try his hand at diplomacy and worked hard to acquire the rights - under the public radar - to acquire an Ahoudari class exploration and research craft. This gunboat-like vessel, retaining the title of Khonsu, is now Ash's main base of operations as he traverses the stars in search of answers as to Wilde mutation, behavior, and any possibility of salvaging an already infected person. Currently a little over-stressed, as he's trying to enlist some help and additional membership in the 42nd, as well as help stand up the 30th Assault Squadron with one Lt. Henry Frederick - a mutual friend of him and Cmdr. Michal Golanski - as well as occasionally help with the defense of Minor against the BHG and the rising Libertonian Naval threat. Furthermore, the situation is now not helped with the abrupt disappearance of Admiral Kaylee Staite, as well as the foreboding abandonment of two of her craft; her personal Bastet and the Ailuros, her gunboat. With the OSD reduced to two active personnel, and Michal away on attempted research deep within the Border Worlds and possibly Gallia, Ash is being pushed to his limits. Thankfully amidst all of this, Ash and Chase came up with a way to help with subroutines aboard their respective vessels, creating two virtual intelligences, MARY and MACY, to the two men respectively. With the fear of AI problems that they've seen in the past - particularly with the Harvesters and the incident on Planet Gammu - Ash and Chase are wont to upgrade the units just yet; they serve their needed purpose well enough for now, which is all the two men could ask for in these trying times. Ash can often be found in the company of 30th Assault Squadron members, Captain Wilson of the OCV-Montu, and more frequently members of the Zoners Trading Consortium, as he attempts to forge a bond with them, and ask their research division for the assistance he so direly requires.