Massif
From Axalon RPG
Contents |
Incarnations
Originally created by Agent Rasp as the Security Chief of the Argos on the Maximal side of Ultimate RPG. Ahriman warped him into his darker, more cynical mold during his reign as Mod, and Ironhide ran with that to develop the bastard beyond reproach that everyone loves to hate. He's now an NPC, really two NPCs, under Tarantulas's control on the Axalon Underground RPG and Riboflavin's control in Predacon Base RPG. The bio below is for the AUG RPG version. The Ult/Pred version is wiser, though not that much older. In spite of his relatively short years (as Transformers are concerned) he now commands a good deal of rank and respect, but has the same outlook, reputation and armament to him, the same seriousness that belies his youth...plus some extra gravitas and maybe some more overt cunning. On the Ultimate RPG he was Security Chief of the Argos, and, by virtue of rank, intimidation, initiative and hiring some hit men became leader of the Temple Maximals. That Massif is now Chief Tactical Officer of the Sleipnir on Predacon Base RPG.
Basic Info
- Created By: Agent Rasp, Ahriman, Ironhide, Tarantulas
- Boards Active: Axalon Underground RPG (Tarantulas), Predacon Base RPG (Riboflavin)
- Faction: Maximal
- Primary Function: Security Officer
- Secondary Function: Heavy Assault Unit
- Rank: Page of the High Council (Maximal Government), Lieutenant (Axalon Police Department), Security Chief (Argos, Maximal colony ship), Chief Tactical Officer (Sleipnir, Maximal warship)
- Type: Transmetal
- Beast Mode: Mastodon (Woolly Mammoth)
- Third Mode: Tank
- Size: X-Large
- Gender: Male
Physical Description
Beast Mode
Transmetal mastodon. Massif resembles a huge elephant, though more impressively built with longer, more curving tusks, silver in shade. The rest of his shell is largely fiery colors, mostly dark red with orange highlights on his shoulders and feet. He has gold-colored interlocking plates over his huge shoulders, and sheafs of bronze metal that gives the impression of a shaggy coat around his front. His ears are flexible silver solar panels. His prehensile trunk is also red, but he has no apparent mouth. The color of his eyes is so dark a blue as to be almost black. His huge legs have tank treads in their backs, and his shoulders have metal wheels visible in them.
Transmetal Alternate Mode
Tank. Massif’s legs fold down and to the sides of his body, allowing use of the aforementioned treads. His shoulders and back fold open, revealing banks of guns. His head moves back slightly, and the mammoth’s back rises up to form a rotating turret.
Robot Mode
Massif’s shell bears an intentional resemblance to the Convoy series of G1 models; of which the most notable was of course Optimus Prime himself. Massif’s shell is more rounded and streamlined, fewer square angles and more sharp ones. His tusks become the smokestacks on each shoulder, with half of his beast mode head on either side of his massive chest. Though still smaller than a G1, for the scale at which he is built, Massif is considerably broader and bulkier. Of course, Massif being a Transmetal, that means high-resistance steel musculature, of which the chief has plenty. He prefers to downplay it, however, generally wearing several layers of bandoliers over his chest. He is a police officer first, naturally.
His face closely follows the pattern of Prime’s, with a mouthguard and visor accounting for most of his facial features. However, in keeping with modern sensibilities, his optic panel is larger, with a more flexible and expressive brow, and his mouthguard can part to reveal a pair of fully articulated lips. His helm has several backswept, slightly curved fins and vents. (Reference: Think of something of a cross between Optimus Prime, Primal and Depth Charge and you’ll be somewhere along the right track.)
His voice is deep and commanding, but still young, without the resonance greater maturity might bring.
Statistics (68)
- Strength: 10
- Stamina: 10
- Speed: 3
- Skill: 5
- Aim: 9
- Firepower: 10
- Intelligence: 8
- Discipline: 8
- Luck: 5
Skills
- Leadership
- Tactics and Strategy
- Expert: Rules, Regulations and Law
- History: Military
- Heavy Weapons
- Autofire Weapons
Traits/Special Abilities
- Trait: Heat Sink- Massif is himself mostly immune to damage from high temperatures, fire and even some amount of plasma. His shell is extremely efficient at cooling itself down, and can actively sap energy from heat in his vicinity-- including a small amount from weaponized plasma bolts. He is equally safe from cold temperatures, as his systems work to keep his internal environment constant and will produce additional heat.
Armament
- Firehose- Primary weapon. Flamethrower, formed by beast mode trunk. Heavy damage, better than normal range, speed and accuracy for its type, pretty much as its name suggests: a stream of a pressurized lame. Almost more of a beam weapon. Massif likes his beam weapons.
- Hardlight Flashlight- A police laser. Fires a spotlight of radiant energy which can push unanchored objects in its ten-foot field of sight up to thirty feet, and pin them against barriers. Strictly non-deadly. Fairly limited in both range and duration (i.e. mod’s discretion).
- Microwave Lasers- A line of tiny glowing studs along the sides of Massif’s tusks, twelve on each side. Focus highly accurate beams of intense heat which, in tandem, can cut holes in light to medium armour in nothing flat, and leave dangerous score marks that significantly weaken stronger shells.
- Machine Turrets- 4x heavy auto-turrets. Chest- and back-mounted, two on each shoulderblade, two on either side of his neck. Low accuracy, high firing rate, medium to high damage dependent on the armour type.
- Cryo Grenades- Wide-ranging area-affecting ice attacks. Good for extinguishing any fires Massif might otherwise start, and for freezing an enemy in his tracks. Forms an icy coat which can be broken if a target is of sufficient Strength.
- Ground Stomp- Can knock down everyone but Massif in a ten-foot radius.
- Police Truncheon- Piston-driven, built into both arms, Maximal insignia on the head. Strikes with considerable power, also releases high-frequency vibrations that can paralyze affected limbs. The vibrations are sufficently powerful that they can travel along a weapon, be it gun or sword, to affect the hand that wields it.
Personality
Massif is reputed to be strict but even-handed in all his dealings. He is considered above question by his direct superiors. His psych evaluations are flawless, revealing him to be highly impartial and not permitting personal feelings to get the better of him at any time. The law as he sees it applies to everyone, and there is no space for bias or compromise. His primary concern is keeping the peace, and personal quests, for justice or anything else, have no place in law enforcement. If everyone did what they personally believed to be necessary, without regard for the consequences they brought upon others and themselves, Cybertron would fall into anarchy. Conflict, however nobly intended, ultimately leads to more suffering. As Massif commonly says, “Just do as I say, and no one has to get hurt.”
Massif saw too many people get hurt during his cycles with the military, and before that on the streets, and now he’d just like to put an end to that; somehow, some way. He has been well-loved by those who know him best, although he is aloof and perhaps a little obsessed with his work. In his precinct, he has a modest following of rookies constantly coming to him for advice.
The Lieutenant has learned from his past mistakes. Through education and self-discipline he has matured quickly from the brash thug of his youth into a cool-headed, contemplative individual able to employ a powerful sense of deductive reasoning. He is no longer just a huge bully to be feared, but a diplomatic, sophisticated, respectable pillar of the community. He is a cool head and a man of reason, a man of the people.
It’s all a façade. This shouldn’t be much of a surprise, to those that know his history. But since he never lets anyone get close to him, it probably comes as a surprise to almost everyone.
Massif is a time bomb waiting to go off. His life has not gone as planned, and he does not see that he will ever see his truest, loftiest ideals realized in the long term without abandoning them in the short term. This is what it seems to him everyone else does. The Pax is the perfect example of this manner of compromise, to Massif: dealing with the problem by succumbing to it, becoming part of it. Meaning the Maximals are hypocrites, and the Predacons never had principles to begin with, so where does that leave him now?
The key to understanding Massif is knowing that he has never knowingly broken the law since coming to attend the Maximal Academy; and that is saying something, because in that time, Massif has come to know a great deal of the law. He understands it intimately; upholds it with more vigour and candor than almost anyone; and he can spot a loophole at a hundred parsecs.
So ultimately, the law works for the Greater Good, but only if the Greater Good knows how to work it.
History
Massif was activated in a bad area during the last gasps of the Great War. It left its scars on him, as he and his neighbours had to survive in the worst of conditions as the newly created Maximals fought their way through a rebel cell resisting the new Pax. The Maximals came to their rescue, at last - hand in hand with their new Predacon allies. The young Massif, confused and frightened, attacked the first Predacon through the door. The Pred fought back, the only way he knew how: viciously.
One night of bad dreams in a newfangled C/R Chamber would shape Massif for the rest of his life.
After a few false starts on the mean streets of Cybertropolis, Massif eventually found his way into the Maximal Academy, where he rose to the tops almost from the very beginning. Here he made friends, established dominance and influence with more highly connected individuals than himself, showed his bright, blazing colours to the Officers Corps and eventually graduated with honours. Third in his class. Above him, in second, was his longtime rival, with whom he had competed, bickered and all but come to blows with all through their mutual career. Her name was Ravena, a young engineer who had the patronage of an old-school Great War veteran, Kodiak, from the very beginning. Massif hated this seeming favouritism, but more than that, he hated her flippant, maverick attitude toward the rules, and teachers, and classes, and last but not least, to Massif himself.
Nonetheless, either one of them could have been a shoe-in for first in their class, leagues in advance of anyone else, until a famous blow-up, the clichéd “Incident” between them both that to this day neither one will admit blame.
Directly out of the Academy, Massif was offered a post as a Page of the High Council: one part ceremonial aide, one part honour guard. He accepted, both because he was truly honoured and because he knew it would be an excellent first step in what he intended to be a long and decorated career.
Several years later, Massif turned out to be right, when he was delivered into the plum position of Lieutenant in a new police precinct in Axalon City.
As a direct result of certain events in Axalon, Massif would be later asked to undertake a tour of field duty under Captain Kodiak, along with Ravena, with whom he had not spoken in years. The old resentment hadn’t died, not by a longshot...
