Dropship
From Axalon RPG
Dropship is based off of Mercury, modified for the Vehicon Dawn of Steel RPG
Contents |
Basic Info
- Created by: riboflavin
- Name: Dropship
- Aliases:
- Spark Identity: Mercury (migratory bird Maximal)
- Faction: Vehicon
- Allegiance: Knights of the Steel Dawn
- Rank: 1
- Type: Basic
- Vehicle Mode: Armored Jet
- Size: medium
- Gender: Male
- Primary Function: Courier
- Theme Song: "Going the Distance" - Cake
- Quote: "I had to hit some traffic on the way."
Attributes
- Strength: 4
- Speed: 10
- Skill: 8
- Stamina: 10
- Intelligence: 7
- Firepower: 4
- Discipline: 5
- Aim: 5
- Luck: 7
Modifiers
- Hitpoints: 73
- Damage: 6
- Bare Hand Damage: 7
- Dodge: 8
Skills
- Piloting: Atmospheric, Astral
- Gravity: High G, Low G, Zero G
- Stealth- Mid to long range, i.e. avoiding radar systems and sensors, as well as decoy and cat and mouse games. Not the slinking in the shadows and stab you in the back type of stealth.
- Electronic Warfare- Primarily in the department of tricking sensor systems.
- Technical: Basic, Computer
- Aerial Combat- Vehicular and Hand-to-Hand. While most dogfighters will concentrate on getting a laser shot or missile lock, Dropship's speed and durability make his body his primary weapon.
Physical Description
Vehicle Mode
Dropship was designed primarily to ferry captured sparks from Vehicon harvesting teams on Cybertron to home base on the moon. This means flying solo through hostile airspace every mission. Though he has some stealth technology installed, he is built to rely on his speed and toughness to get through.
Angular, golden brown jet with thick, retractable wings and fins and four rear jet/rocket exhausts. Fully retracted, looks more like a rocket than an airplane, and for good reason. Dropship was designed for rapid liftoff and re-entry of Cybertron's atmosphere, but also, with his wings drawn out, for tight maneuvers near or even under the surface of the planet.
The jet has barely any weapons, and is above average but not remarkable in manuevering capability. Mercury's skill as a pilot gets the most out of that, but the most striking (literally) feature of his jet mode is its extreme durability and ability to function normally after a serious impact. He's crashed through a few buildings and kept on flying, in addition to numerous Maximals.
Transformation
Robot Mode
Dropship's overall build looks something like a miniature Omega Supreme.
Stocky for a flyer, though this still makes him a little tall and thin compared to a midsized ground based Vehicon. Folded wings and fins form a V-shaped shield stowed on his back, and his jet/rocket engine components are visible as four mini-engines, two mounted on his hips and two that form his forearms. His hands are heavy industrial claws, four prongs per hand, which slide back over the outside of his forearms when not in use. Dropship, despite having perfectly functional legs, prefers to float in the air most of the time using hidden anti-grav units. His mini-engines provide large bursts of thrust for acceleration and sudden maneuvers, and can double as short range weapons.
Yellow-orange visor and canopy on his chest, long dull red, wide and flat antennae on either side of his head, otherwise he is mostly the same grey-to-bronze as his vehicle mode, aside from a standard white for his leg and arm extender segments. Has a young looking face under the visor and between the cheek guards, but this is probably because of the faceplate he extends whenever he gets into a rough patch.
Personality
A pragmatic thrill seeker, Dropship thrives in the thin middle ground between the risks most bots won't take and the risks that will get him killed. Also, he thrives on alcohol. This is not necessarily compatable with that first part, though he claims he flies better while drunk. There is a bit of truth to this, since he gets very depressed while sober and just wants to sulk in a corner. In order to function as a stunt pilot, he needs to shut off the memory circuits that keep reminding him that his one true love is missing presumed dead, and it's only a matter of time until he screws up some maneuver or flies into an ambush and winds up dead himself. A little liquor doesn't make him totally forget, but it gives him a devil-may-care, we're all going to die tomorrow attitude about it.
Inventory
Weapons & Special Abilities
- V Shield - Heavy shield, blocks energy weapons, projectiles and explosions, but Dropship's favorite use for it is a battering ram.
- Mini-jets - Jet engines mounted as forarms and on swivel joints on his hips. Used for locomotion, but within three feet or so can deliver a strong blast of heat (up to 1000 degrees F) and physical force (equivalent to a hard shove, given his Strength rating). Can operate each jet for 10 seconds at a time, followed by a 10 second cooldown and refuel.
- Ion Cloud (Vehicle mode) - Discharges a strongly ionized particle cloud behind him, disorienting the sensors of pursuers. Black smoke, to cloud vision, or acid vapor, effective against technorganic beast modes, can be released along with it.
Equipment
- Spark Extractor - Standard Vehicon issue.
- Spark Containment Chamber - Can hold up to ten sparks in stasis in his cargo bay, or four cubic feet of whatever else. He can jettison cargo, and has worked on the accuracy of this for use in bombing runs.
- Holo-Shell - Small, basic holographic emitters on his front and back mimic whatever's behind him from the observer's vantage point to make him fade into the background. They do not cancel out any light being reflected off him, though, or replicate background details. It looks like a translucent, shell shaped haze around him. Good for making him tough to see at a distance, not very useful at short range. Solid, simple and durable design is built to survive harsh conditions and battle, not to be a sophisticated cloak.
- Sensor Scrambler - Generates noise that can hide him from medium to long range scanners.
History
Originally a flying Maximal named Mercury. What he remembers of that life is boring and unremarkable (at least until I think of something that isn't).
Around the time he was captured, the Vehicons were shifting tactics in their raids. Dropping out of a mothership with a few dozen drones each and raiding an unsuspecting village was a fun way to get your carnage jollies, but the Maximals were wising up and their villages weren't so unsuspecting anymore. Raids were becoming difficult battles, and each one risked sparking a larger conflict that the Vehicons couldn't win. The Vehicons shifted to sending smaller raids, more stealthy raids, and even stationing covert units on Cybertron full time. Elite Vehicon fliers became couriers, taking the dangerous mission of rendezvousing with the covert unit and bringing the sparks back to the moon. Ambushes at the drop point were always a risk, as was being spotted in the open air.
Dropship was commissioned as just such a courier for the Destrons. He was assigned as courier to a specific covert unit, and among them he found his love. As fighting with the Knights increased though, she was recalled to Cybertron to help defend an outlying province.
Months later, Dropship was floating back to the moon on fumes, having just flown halfway around Cybertron being chased by a horde of Maximal bees, only to get caught in the crossfire of an orbital battle between the Destrons and the Knights. He made an emergency crash landing the only place he could, deep in Knights territory.
He was soon captured, but to his surprise, his captors repaired him, and treated him well. Having spent most of his time offworld, Dropship didn't know much about politics, besides that the Battlemaster he worked for was a self-important jerk who didn't appreciate the risks he took. But, the more he talked with his captors, the more their cause made sense to him. But he wanted to return to his love, and he knew she was committed to the Destrons.
Until, that is, her province fell. Losses were heavy on both sides. Official casualty reports listed her as MIA. With nothing more tying him to the Destrons, Dropship agreed to join the Knights. Since then, he has developed a drinking problem.
