Character Writeup 6: Sullivan(Ork Mercenary)

Details:

Dependent means there is a person that depends on him, taking up some of his time(in this case, his old deceased buddy's 8 year old son.)

Quick Healer reduces Target Numbers for healing by 2.

Will To Live(1) adds an extra box of damage overflow.

Dossier on File means one has an extensive profile stored in a government or corporate intelligence database(in his case, government from the military.) He needs to take extra steps to stay undercover.

Appearance and Personality: Sully is an older Latino ork-pushing forty, for a race who has known shorter lifespans(granted, this average is brought down by the poverty they can fight against more than their biological makeup), and fairly unexceptional looking, quite on purpose; as he feels it does not work to stand out. Standing about six-three he's a little below the typical Ork average, and while he's robust, he's a little more slender than average too, weighing around 250 with his fairly light augmentations. His hair is brown and worn shorter in a utilitarian cut combed backward, his skin is fairly well tanned and weathered, and his cybereyes are hazel, picked out to resemble his originals. He usually keeps himself clean shaven, though he occasionally lets slip and lets a bit of a goatee and mustache grow in. His tusks are kept well groomed, and are fairly small.

Clothing wise he usually goes in jeans and a sweatshirt or t-shirt depending on weather, opting for a slightly battered camo jacket for day to day outer wear, and sneakers or basic work boots. His only visible cyberware are a datajack on his left temple, and a multislot chipjack on the right side of his head. Everything else is internal, and his 'ware is light on top of it(cybereyes, some headware memory, plastic bone lacing, a smartlink, and some bioware like Muscle toner and a synaptic accelerator.) He keeps some formal wear on have for meets that require it, and can conduct himself accordingly.

On runs he is quite professional, dressing in clothing fitting for the time(black, or urban camo, or whatever is necessary), a combat vest with anything he needs, a variety of tools and weapons necessary for the job, and even backup communications, taking no chances; his military training makes him particularly good at scouting areas and keeping his head low.

Sully is quite the professional. Easily the most experienced of the team, having entered the military at not quite 18, he has a lot of experience. A large amount of time between the military and corporate security, and nearly six running the shadows gives one quite a healthy amount of it. He believes in planning out missions carefully, leaving behind a minimal of damage and casualties, and getting in and out quietly. He will take on rougher jobs as a sniper if he believes in it enough(he feels that some people need removing, but he does not take such jobs easily nor lightly, and does extra legwork), and when taking demolition style jobs he makes sure that he mostly does what he has to.

His professional attitude is both very welcome by the rest of the team, and occasionally a spot of contention; given that he tries to stay silent and get away with minimal casualties, he can sometimes butt heads with the likes of Downfall and especially Talon who tend to go more fatal than he likes, though they can also contend with the rest of the team with that, too. He does not say much about their pit-fighting; he knows some of the people who fight in those, and how they do it out of a thrill, and he knows they're mostly doing it to help clean them up in their sort of vigilante ways along with getting some pay for it. Downfall at least tries to go in non-lethal until the security takes out live ammo, but for him, so long as the mission is not compromised, he tends to leave it at an occasional lecture, or simple agreement that they lived different lives than him. He feels for Talon's past trauma, as he knows several who have likewise carried old wounds with them. 

Sometimes Vallie's co-lateral damage can make him roll his eyes, but he's been teaching her the finer points of demolitions and how to better control the blasts. She even listens most of the time. They get on fairly well in an older brother/little sister sort of way almost, and they both have a penchant for card games, which they occasionally play, though to keep work discreet they don't spend a lot of time in the same areas. 

With his experience, he brings a lot of knowledge about the military, some corporate knowledge, leadership abilities, and just plain street smarts as well. He's perceptive in dealing out mission plans and can pinpoint objectives very nicely. His role besides that is mostly cover-fire; when going non lethal, he sticks to concussion launch weapons used from afar along with high-power rifles loaded with gel rounds(which can actually pack quite the sting.) If he has to take care of a target permanently, he relies on his classic modified Barrett Model 121, which can take out targets quickly and without them barely knowing what hit them, and silently as to not raise other alarms.

If in close, he usually uses subdual combat(which seems to Downfall to be a form of Akido that he can tell), and one of many guns for the job(again, generally loaded with non-lethal rounds, though he'll pack a clip of regular and/or APDS when he needs to mean a little business, or to lay suppressive fire with.)

When off runs, Sullivan enjoys reading books; he does own a fair few actual paper books, though he would like to own more, and musically he trends toward a mix of either symphony or classic rock, depending on his moods(some of his other military fellows used to listen to a lot of it, as it seemed to be attached to a lot of the old flatvids about wars.) He likewise enjoys flatvids and tends to go to a local bar to play poker or blackjack once a week or once every two weeks. He enjoys a beer from time to time but rarely drinks to excess, and tries to keep his smoking under control, though accepts it as his one usual vice. He's not terribly adept in the kitchen, so food is usually McHugh's or various stuffers, or one of his many collections of MREs which he keeps from his time in the military(and he has quite a collection of varied countries, he's actually, on his spare time, part of a Shadowlands group that reviews and trades them.) 

One(of the many) reasons Sully tries to keep himself fairly moral is the fact he has a charge; an eight year old human boy by the name of David. David's father was killed in action when he was only four, and Sully took him on since he knew him when he was a baby; he did not want him to end up in a corporate orphanage to be turned into a cog in one of the great machines. David trusted Sully as well, so it worked out. The two live in a decent, well-secured house in the Snohomish district, Sully using most of his old funds for setting it up, and most of his funds to maintain it; he keeps a well-secure safehouse in Auburn as well, with a lot of emergency equipment. He stays very prepared, as he was always trained to do. His team are the only ones that know about David, and none of them are betraying him(and none of them would tell any brand new members, nor temporary members, about him; and even then they didn't find out until about two years after the fact, for good reason. Sully keeps his whereabouts very secure, though he goes to school as normal; he figures that he should keep his life as normal as possible to not look out of place; hiding in plain sight. He has not run into trouble so far.)

For now, he runs to make the world a better place bit by bit, in the way he can. Being the caretaker of a child can do this to one's mindset, and he does not want him to grow up among a ton of corporate wars, though he figures he alone won't be able to stop them. He sometimes thinks of his own mortality, given his age, though he's made it through quite a bit as is, and he has the documents to prove a lot of it(not that he'd show them.)

Quotes:

“I really wish more of these young runners would listen to what Matador was saying. He's one of the few people who know what professionalism and honor is in the shadows.”

"Better to not be seen. Corps have a long memory. Especially ones with three A's next to their name."

"How did it go? Three days of planning, only to break down the front door shooting?" *shakes head* 

History: Sullivan Ortega was born two a lower-class family in Philadelphia; he was the second youngest of four children. He had two older brothers and a younger sister(one brother was KIA, as he was also military, and he is not sure of the other two's whereabouts nowadays, though the last he heard one brother managed to get a job doing mall security and his sister is apparently a Snake shaman working for a medical company as a healer, though he does not know who or where), and like many with multiple kids, it was a case of scraping to make ends meet, though they were lucky enough to not go hungry. The kids did start to do some work around the city-mostly the Stuffer Shack and other type places-from time to time for some extra cred.

As they grew, his oldest brother ran off to join the Aztlan military rather quickly; a bit too quickly for all of their tastes to be fair, but he reckoned recruiters had come to the lower-class school they were in in an attempt to recruit people who would likely buy into the glory of it. He remembered him coming home, packing up, and leaving, he did not get news of his passing until he himself was in the military later on.

His sister was found to be magically active, and as an apparent shaman; with Snake speaking to her, a healing totem. She was quickly moved into a school for mages and a lot of places-particularly medical based ones-began to take a great deal of interest in her. The family was quite happy, needless to say, as she would pretty much be taken good care of. His other brother seemed to have an interest and knack for sports, and seemed to have a fighting chance at a scholarship there.

Sullivan seemed to want to follow to the military, as well, however; though for the UCAS, as he did not trust Aztlan, since he had started to hear more things about them(and he figured his brother found out too late.) He made sure to finish high school, but as soon as he did he was off to the UCAS recruitment office, with his parent's blessings despite his other brother having gone. They were a bit older themselves, and were more pleased that all four of their kids managed to find something to do with their lives that was paying and would provide for them.(His parents passed away in the late 2030s/early 2040s of old age.)

The actual time he spent in the military-mostly doing duty in the West-border patrol and other gruntwork-was fairly uneventful for the first five years, but he decided to stick; he moved up the ranks(albeit slowly, as orks were generally passed over for promotions more often than they could have been), but eventually, after about three more years, was promoted to a more higher end security detail, and he would be working over for a particular corporation in Germany...namely Saeder-Krupp.

This is where things started to get interesting to him, as he knew about S-K, and he also knew about S-K's eccentricities somewhat. He was a little nervous, as one might be when ending up in a fairly important S-K role, but he kept composed as he did. He actually learned to quite enjoy Germany, picking up some of the language(he had access to chips, but he liked to try to pick up languages when he could), and his job was mostly to guard middle-management types in traveling around hostile areas. Mostly he was paid to look intimidating and occasionally shoot threats. He did not have any run-ins with the corporation's CEO, though he heard rumors about a large, mysterious looking man with long, white hair meeting a strange looking elf at the Bucket-Burger once.

During this time, he was stationed with a human fellow originally from Denver by the name of Jonathan; it turned out the two had quite a bit in common between music and some of their favorite gambling games, and soon found themselves buddies. It was nice to have a buddy of sorts; Jon had a girlfriend back in the UCAS, though the money he would bring back between his stint in the military and this would be more than enough to set them up fairly comfortably when his duty was up.

While most of the overseas time was fairly uneventful, it was after Sullivan's return that he would see his road paved toward his new life in the shadows. He and Jon ended up working together from time to time during their now-illustrious military career; even stationed near Denver. Eventually Jon broke up with his girlfriend, who ended up on the wrong side of a BTL addiction, posing a danger for their then two year old son. His girlfriend disappeared into the bad side of Denver, and Sullivan remained at his friends side, and even helped out with the young one from time to time.

The two ended up overhearing something a few months later that would lead them to question one of their leaders; something about arms smuggling to possible rival corporations. They were told that nothing of the sort was going on; but Jon decided to not let it go...and it got him killed one night with a silenced bullet.

Sullivan, not being completely dense, decided to make his break for it; thankfully, Jon had kept news of his child on the down low, so after quickly tying up as many ends as he could, he grabbed the now three year old, a load of equipment and survival gear, and disappeared into the night, heading to Seattle, where he knew someone of his skills could be useful, and to get the boy far away from Denver.

For the first year, he laid low, got a place set up in Snohomish that was discrete(and very well equipped with security)-the area is more 'countryside', so it was a good place to go. The entire first year was spent burning what trails he could and taking care of a kid who knew him somewhat, but no longer had a family; he used what cred he had saved-he counted himself lucky he decided to 'put away for a rainy day' so to speak. The cred ran dry after about a year, though-especially with the cost of a nanny which he had to invest in-and he didn't dare get something legal.

One day, on the odd night where he would go out in an attempt to 'overhear' something, he indeed catch wind of a man by the name of Spanky apparently looking for 'workers', so he went to go check the bar out, and after speaking to him, he liked his overall attitude and professionalism. It was not often that one could get a 'trustworthy' feel from someone in this day and age. He generated a rapport with him and soon became one of his most reliable runners in his 'network.' It was here that he began sticking more with his usual team(starting more with Silver and the adept Wind, with a couple of other semi-regulars who are no longer around, and then with Downfall, Vallie, and the rest joining later here and there.)

Contacts:

Besides sharing the normal contacts with the rest of the group(Spanky, Douglas, Mama, etc), he has:

Rick, a dealer. (Dealers are more mercenary versions of fixers.) Rick is an older human from the NAN(he's Sioux) who has since left the battlefield; nonetheless, he stays connected and chooses to help from behind-the-scenes securing gear. He's actually quite non-violent these days, though recognizes the need for conflict; he is choosy on who he sells too(rather dealing with people with slightly more morals, which is difficult to find these days.) His prices are a bit high but the gear is excellent. He is an old pal of Sullivan and trusts those he associates with. He is also good for dealings with the NAN. 

Billy, a young Troll street kid. Roughly only fourteen or fifteen, he's not unhappy with where he is, though Sullivan would like to see him maybe living in a better place than the Barrens. Nonetheless he provides some fairly good ears. He works odd jobs around, mostly lifting and carrying stuff around Stuffer Shacks for spare nuyen.