Shellshock (Ultimate)
From Axalon RPG
Contents |
Basic Info
- Created by: Ironhide
- Name: Shellshock
- Alias: Shelly, Shellhead
- Sex: male
- Age: 102 solar cycles
- Faction: Maximal
- Primary Function: warrior
- Secondary Function: medic
- Type: Transmetal
- Alternate: All Terrain Vehicle
- Size: large
- Height: 11’ 4”
- Beast Mode: Alligator-snapping turtle
Physical Description:
Beast
Shellshock’s beast mode is the rightly feared alligator-snapping turtle, an amphibian from earth that combines much of the look of the two animals, hence the name. Like all turtles, Shellshock has a large, tough turtle’s shell on his back, though the shell of his beast mode is spikier and rougher than most other turtles. It’s roughly seven feet tall, from the softer underbelly to the top of the spikes, a roughly rounded rectangular shape, with the six holes customary to all turtle shells. Since being altered into a transmetal, his shell gleams dully in the light, though the dark green colour does not reflect all that well even at the sunniest of moments.
His forelegs are the more powerful of the two sets, and provide the majority of his admittedly rather weak mobility in this form. The front two limbs are a pair of wide flippers, a little over three feet long and curved. The rear limbs are stubbier, with a shape similar to that of his forward limbs. They are more backswept than his forelimbs, however, which point straight out from his shell. His rear legs are of little use on land, though they do much to propel him through the water. His head is mostly jaw, a large beak-like mouth filled with a matching set of close-set, extremely sharp teeth. His eyes are small and rather beady looking, hidden under a prominent brow that leads up into a sloping forehead. His tail is very stubby and roughly triangular, and does little more than poke out the back of his shell before stopping. His natural beast attributes have been muted slightly by the transmetal upgrade, his ‘flesh’ smooth and metallic, his eyes glowing a faint blue.
Robot
Shellshock measures just over eleven feet tall in his robot mode, and it’s obvious that it’s all powerful endoskeleton under his psuedoskin. He is a solid bot, obviously constructed of very heavy-duty materials and covered with strong armour plating, coated with dark earth tones to match his beast mode. His lower arms and legs are a dark forest green, while his upper limbs are a brighter emerald. His chest is a mottled brown, several shades mixed together, while his shell is a similarly multi-hued mixture of greens. His eyes are blue, fairly light, and his face is very human-like. He has an actual mouth under a raised bump that stands in place of a natural nose. Just over his eyes is a raised ridge, darker green, which circles around his head to just over his audio sensors and connects with another ridge that runs from between his eyes and back over the top of his head.
He is powerfully built, with a wide, barrel-like torso. His beast mode's underbelly covers his chest and stomach, more heavily armoured after his transformation into robot mode, with the plates giving his torso definition, picking out muscle-like regions on his body. A band of thickened His maximal symbol appears over his fluid pump, red on the green of his chest standing out clearly. His shoulder-pads are formed by the turtle’s head, split down the middle, with the eyes looking straight ahead from his shoulders.
His arms are thick, their rounded edges lending them the look of two smooth cylinders, with his upper arms smaller and thinner than the lower. Instead of the usual four, he has only three fingers to go with his thumb. He has a very strong grip, and the backs of his hands are covered with the front flippers of his beast mode. His legs are equally powerful, and like his arms get wider below the joint. His upper legs have a little more of an edge around them than his upper arms, but his lower legs are consistently smooth and rounded, widening the lower down they go. He has no visible ankle joints, and the front and back parts of his broad, flat feet fold out from inside his lower leg. His rear turtle flippers are pressed against the outsides of his upper legs and stop just above the knee.
His shell is mounted on his back, held there by a pair of small but powerful magnetic clamps located on each of his shoulder blades. The shell is somewhat smaller and flatter in this mode, with the spikes being much less pronounced and more uniform, giving it a cleaner, constructed appearance. The changes are principally made so that the shell makes a better shield, both from the standpoint of his being able to hold it and using it against his enemies.
Alternate
When he changes to his third available form, Shellshock makes few major structural alterations from his beast mode. His turtle legs retract into the shell, following the normal route of a turtle’s retracted limbs, to be replaced by four small sets of treads, one from each limb hole. On each side, the two pairs of treads link together, so that he runs on two thick lines that extend from his tail to his front shoulders. His head draws back somewhat, so that less of it is exposed, and a portion of his shell flips forward to provide extra protection. The spikes on his shell reshape slightly to provide passenger space, shrinking into the shell and moving somewhat further apart to facilitate this.
Specialties:
Non-Combat
- First Aid
- Endurance
Combat
- Autofire Weapons
- Melee Weapons: Club
Fighting Ability:
- Strength: 9
- Speed: 4
- Skill: 8
- Aim: 7
- Discipline: 7
- Stamina: 9
- Intelligence: 7
- Firepower: 8
- Luck: 4
Weapons:
Scatter Laser
His signature weapons, Shellshock carries a pair of these massive beam-gatling guns with him when charging into battle. A little over two feet long, they are rectangular in appearance, with a thick, sturdy handle attached to the rear of the weapon, and six rotating, linked barrels on the front. The casing of the weapon is dark green, with gunmetal grey barrels and a grey handle covered by thick brown padding, molded to fit his hands.
The weapons are able to fire roughly three bolts a second, though the individual blasts are not particularly powerful, ranking much lower the output of a standard laser pistol’s discharge. However, Shellshock’s steady aim makes up for the weakness of the weapons’ individual shots, as he can generally hold a medium-sized target under fire for several continuous seconds, subjecting them to a hail of low-powered rounds whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Despite the high heat tolerances of the various materials used to construct his weapons, extended use can cause a catastrophic meltdown. The weapons can continue firing for up to thirty seconds straight, but the metal in the barrels will begin warping badly after that point, making the bursts erratic and harder to aim.
Warhammer
A large sledgehammer-like weapon, black handled with a dark green and brown head. The shaft is a little over four feet long, with padded grips spaced evenly a third of the way from the bottom and top of its length. The head itself is made of a very dense ceramacrete compound, giving it extra stopping power and preventing fractures and warping in the head. The head is a rectangle, two feet long by one foot wide by one foot high, with a Maximal emblem etched into the side.
Without a sharp edge, its usefulness is often underestimated. However, Shellshock can wield this close combat weapon with lethal efficiency and either one or both hands. He is capable of shattering armour and crushing limbs with a well-placed blow. Alternatively, he can switch on a cushioning forcefield, which minimises the damage done, though still allows Shellshock to use the weapon to put down opponents. This ability is rarely used outside of crowd control situations, and has yet to see use on the Rock.
Equipment:
Repair Kit
For emergency conditions. This kit contains the needed tools to allow a transformer badly damaged on the battlefield to remain operational long enough to get them back to a CR chamber. He mounts it in a compartment inside his right leg, which extends outwards when needed. It contains items such as emergency fuel and mechfluid infusions, pressure bandages, laser scalpels and micro-sutures.
Shell Shield
In times of extremely heavy fire, Shellshock can detach the turtle shell from his back. Made up of several layers of tightly packed steel, this shield can withstand pressures up to 150 lbs/square inch, and heat up to several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The only drawback is that the shell makes up most of his rear armour, and without it, a shot in the back can be devastating. He holds it by strapping it to his arm, leaving both his hands free to wield a weapon if need be.
Personality:
A generally easygoing and sociable bot, Shellshock is the kind who makes friends without much trouble. He gets along with most bots, and is willing to overlook bad habits and the occasional bout of nastiness so long as the other party is at least making an effort. He doesn’t hold with the concept of revenge, believing it’s a ridiculous idea and does nothing but prolong the circle of violence and pain. He has a very ‘live and let live’ attitude about him, but this should not be mistaken for complacency. Though he is difficult to anger to any truly great degree, once roused he can be as fierce as any Predacon killer.
He does not particularly enjoy violence and bloodshed, but given the war-torn history of his planet and his people, he has long since grown resigned to its reality. As a security officer, of course, he has often had to use violence in the past, and would be perfectly capable of doing it once again if the situation called for it. As well, as a warrior on the Rock, he realised that if the Predacons refused to back down, there could be no retreat; the Maximals had to hold their ground and protect themselves. Nevertheless, in general he will attempt to seek some peaceful solution to a problem, and strives to use the minimum necessary force in any encounter. This should not be interpreted, however, as a sign of weakness. He realises that the enemy, be they Predacons, aliens or any other life form, will do its level best to destroy him, and has no wish to help it along. So, while he may seek non-violent alternatives in most cases, when called upon he has no trouble spilling mechfluid in defence of himself and his shipmates.
If he were willing to spill fluid for his shipmates, however, he’d be willing to bathe in it for his sister. One of the other guard drones, and one of the very few who managed to break their programming, Sheila may not be his literal sister as far as organics would see it, but Shellshock doesn’t think that way. To him, Sheila is the only family he has, and if that makes him a little overprotective then he doesn’t see it as anything to be ashamed of. After all, he knows she’d use all her power to protect him, and he sees no reason why he shouldn’t do the same for her when he can. Besides, since she’s quite the pacifist, Shellshock worries that she’ll get herself into serious trouble if nobody’s around to look out for her.
In a social setting, Shellshock is comfortable chatting with a few at a time, though large crowds of people still make him somewhat uneasy. He much prefers small gatherings and more intimate conversations, where he doesn’t have to worry about making a fool of himself through some social faux pas or other mistake. It should be remembered that, by the measure of a species that can live tens of thousands of years, easily, a bot just over one hundred is still very much a young adult. Caring and compassionate, he is always willing to lend an ear, a shoulder, or a strong back to his friends; all they have to do is ask. Ever sensitive to the moods and needs of his comrades (well, except for a couple face-reddening mistakes, but he’s put those behind him) he does his best to help his shipmates with any problems they may have, and is a very good listener. Staid and stolid, he would be perfectly content listening to someone drowning their sorrows over a pint as he would listening to a sobbing diatribe against a third party. His advice isn’t usually blindingly insightful or enlightening, but it is sensible and rarely leads to trouble. He fancies himself a bit of a matchmaker, but would never go so far as to outright tell two parties that they should be together, choosing to respect their own intuition more than his own.
He respects authority as all ‘good’ Maximals do, so long as nothing is done to sully that authority in his eyes. He preferred the leadership of Kodiak over Massif, but has been surprised to find that the security chief is actually a decent enough commander. He has been more impressed, however, by the performance of Captain Axel, and feels quite at home on the Sleipner. He rarely disobeys direct orders, but is willing to take liberties with more open-ended comments and suggestions. Thinking of himself as a gentlebot, he would never hesitate to risk life and limb to protect a fem or child, and would probably have a great deal of trouble fighting back against any fems on the other side. Fortunately this weakness has gone unnoticed so far (aside from his obvious hesitation with Calamari, though a plausible excuse for that one was quickly discovered), but he admits to himself that it could be a problem. Nevertheless, his own personal code of chivalry would certainly hamper his ability to defend himself against the so-called ‘weaker’ sex.
A quiet and contemplative bot for the most part, Shellshock’s personal time generally involves equally quiet, contemplative activities. He enjoys reading and music, especially the classical composers, and after spending so much time caring for Braille’s little plant nursery he has taken a liking to horticulture to some small degree. Of course, he is too modest to even think of comparing himself to Braille in this regard, but the few small desert flowers he has collected in his quarters are doing quite nicely in his care.
History
On Cybertron he began life as little more than a guard drone, with limited processing power and far too many program blocks to live any kind of fulfilling life. Constantly frustrated, he was easily turned to the seedier side by a group of hi-tech criminals who felt he, in his role as guard at a weapons storage facility, would be a perfect asset to the group. In return for his help in slipping around the other security measures, the criminals removed many of the neural blocks, and even upgraded him to a certified Cybertronian. Of course, with this upgrade came a better ability to think of the terms right and wrong and how they applied, so it should come as no surprise that, after a few days, he realised the error of his ways and turned the gang in to the local justice department.
Cutting a quick deal with the prosecutor, Shellshock’s reward for turning them in was his quiet quasi-exile on a deep space exploration vessel. He was still welcome to land and relax on Transformer-held worlds, but it had been made clear to him that, for the next fifty years, he would not be welcome on any planet as a permanent inhabitant. Serving what actually turned out to be a pleasant sentence (the captain, first officer and science officer were all very understanding and quite kind to him), he later returned to Cybertron an enlisted in the Maximal Security Forces, determined to continue repaying his debt to society.
His early years in the MSF were uninspiring, his superiors wary in spite of the good reviews his former captain had given him, but eventually he was moved up to more interesting assignments, including diplomatic missions and the occasional chief of staff position until a more experienced superior could be brought in.
After a decade or so of pretty much straight work, Shellshock finally decided to take a little sabbatical. His work had never suffered, per se, but he’d been finding himself a little slow on the draw lately, and he knew that if he actually lost his edge t could be gone for good. So, putting in for and receiving a temporary leave of absence, Shellshock returned to the city of his creation, only to find quite the surprise waiting for him.
A sister.
Sheila, another of the guard drones, had found a way to break through her programming blocks on her own. She’d heard of Shellshock from others in the area, and when word was out that he’d returned (never a quiet one, he’d single-handedly broken up a vicious bar fight on his first night back) she sought him out. Shocked to find her, he was nevertheless pleased, and the two took to each other easily. They argued, of course, as all siblings do, but for the most part it was never very serious. However, one night there was a particularly bad one, and Sheila had stormed out of the apartment they’d been sharing.
Upset when she didn’t return, Shellshock passed a few more weeks on Cybertron, but eventually he just couldn’t bear to stay. Selling his apartment and informing the MSF that he was ready for duty once more, he was almost immediately assigned to the Argos, a posting that he had no special feelings one way or the other about. He hadn’t known any of the crew before he boarded, and as they were only a few days out before they were ordered after the Kismet and he was stuffed into a stasis pod when they went down on the Rock, his socialization time was understandably limited. Though he was tossed from the ship as it entered the atmosphere and landed a fair distance away, Shellshock had little trouble returning to the Argos once he awoke. Having already taken a beast mode, he found the high energon levels of the planet to be no real problem, and quickly set about adapting himself to the new role and circumstances that he found himself in. Thanks to friends like Id, Braille, Gigi and Twye his life has never been dull since landing on the Rock, although sometimes he might wish he didn’t lead quite so adventurous a life.
