About Ophelia HoltDegrees and Ranks:
Degrees
Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering Masters of Engineering in Design and Manufacturing Doctorate of Philosophy in Solid Mechanics and Materials Ranks
Medals
Base Stats:
Str: 10
Dex: 14 Con: 11 Int: 22 Edu: 18 Wis: 17 Cha: 12 Soc: 11 Fort: 0
Stamina: 18 (6 Professional, 4 Academic, 1 Navy, 3 Professional, 2 Professional, 0 Con, 2 Favored Class)
XP: 18,000
Offense:
Base Attack Bonus: 1
Total Attack Bonus: +3 (1 Base, 2 Dex) Weapons
Ammo
Explosives
Defense:
AC Base: 16 (10 base, 3 Dex, 3 Mesh) [+2 with Shield] Flat Footed: 13 (10 base, 3 Mesh) [+2 with Shield] Touch: 13 (10 base, 3 Dex) Armour
Skills:
Appraise +10 (1 Rank, 6 Int, 3 Class)
Craft (Carpentry) +10 (1 Rank, 6 Int, 3 Class) [+2 for Masterwork Tools] Craft (Gunsmithing) +10 (1 Rank, 6 Int, 3 Class) [+2 for Masterwork Tools] Craft (Metalsmithing) +14 (5 Rank, 6 Int, 3 Class) [+2 for Masterwork Tools] Craft (Weaponsmith) +10 (1 Rank, 6 Int, 3 Class) [+2 for Masterwork Tools] Combat Engineering +11 (5 Rank, 6 Int) Demolition +6 (4 Rank, 2 Dex) [+2 to Disable/Disarm] Driving +6 (1 Rank, 2 Dex, 3 Class) [Wheeled, Ground -2, others -4] Entertain (Violin/Fiddle) +8 (2 Rank, 1 Cha, 3 Class) [+2 for Masterwork Instrument] Forward Observer +9 (1 Rank, 5 Int, 3 Class) Knowledge (Chemistry) +8 (1 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Knowledge (Fortifications) +10 (3 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Knowledge (Geology) +12 (2 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class, 3 Skill Focus) Knowledge (Ground Vehicles) +8 (1 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Knowledge (Metallurgy) +10 (3 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Knowledge (Mining) +8 (1 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Knowledge (Physics) +8 (1 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Knowledge (Homeworld) +7 (0 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Leader +11 (2 Rank, 6 Int, 3 Class) Navigation +8 (1 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Perception +4 (1 Rank, 3 Wis) Pilot +13 (4 Rank, 6 Int, 3 Class) [Jet, Ship's Boats, Aircraft -2, Others -4] Professional (Prospecting) +8 (2 Rank, 3 Wis, 3 Class) Technical (Astrogation) +9 (2 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Technical (Communications) +9 (2 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Technical (Computers) +9 (2 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Technical (Electronics) +10 (3 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) [+2 for Masterwork Tools] [+2 to Repair/Construct/Sabotage] [+2 to Disable/Disarm] Technical (Engineering) +12 (5 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) [+2 for Masterwork Tools] Technical (Gravatics) +10 (3 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) Technical (Mechanical)* +15 (5 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class, 3 Skill Focus) [+2 for Masterwork Tools] [+2 to Repair/Construct/Sabotage] [+2 to Disable/Disarm] Technical (Sensors) +9 (2 Rank, 4 Edu, 3 Class) * - Can always take 10.
Feats and Traits:
Traits
Inspired: A positive force, philosophy, or divine presence fills you with hope, and is a guiding force of inspiration. Once per day as a free action, roll twice and take the better result on a skill check or ability check. Easy Recall: You find it easy to recall information from your past experiences and learning. Once per day when you make an Education-based skill check or ability check, you can roll twice and take the better result. Feats
Gear:
Carried Worn [5] MW Mesh Armor [2] Boots Wrist Watch (Simple) MW Assault Rifle w/ Folding Stock (Slung on pack) [3] MW Dagger (In boot) [0] Pack Armored Satchel (AC 6, 62.5 cm^3) Utility Belt Belt and Pouches [2.28]
Pack [2.5]
Armored Satchel [6.5]
Total Weight: 16.28 kg Stored
Auto Pistol Ammo Clip - High Explosive [.25]
MW Carpentry Tool Set [25]
Wrist Watch (Fancy)
19 HEAP Grenade
Credits: 89670
Vehicles:
Minkosha Personal Jet [TL 7] Aircraft EP Output: 5 Agility: 1 Initiative: 1 Size: 1000 AC: 10 SI: 36 Climate Control: Yes Drive Train: Jet (x1) Capacity
Flight Stats
Other Equipment
Description:
Ophelia is a short-ish woman with light skin, hazel eyes, and sharp features. Her black hair goes a few inches past her shoulder, often pulled back either into a ponytail or with a bandana. Her high cheekbones rest above a small nose, which is itself above her plumped lips and sharp chin. Her body shows the toned muscle of one that is sometimes, maybe even often, required to do heavy labor.
Personality:
Ophelia is a generally good-natured woman who finds endless fascination in the working of machines of all kinds. It is unusual to see her without a smear of oil or grease somewhere on her person to accompany her smile. And it is obvious that she takes a form of personal pride in her work.
Despite being a Naval Officer, she tends to shy away from leadership duties that aren’t directly related to some kind of engineering project, tending to be more collaborative than authoritative. But, despite being shy to order others around, it doesn’t stop her from throwing her all into her duties and making sure that the job will get done.
Background:
Ophelia was born to Derek and Morwen Holt in Ivangrad, a little town out in the middle of nowhere, in the Iron Hills Holding. Ivangrad did have good history: at one point in time it had become wealthy thanks to the numerous veins of heavy metals in the nearby mountains, as well as the tall, thick trees that made not only good furniture, but charcoal for smelting. But when the mines had mostly been tapped out, most of the people left, along with their money.
Today, Ivangrad has a population of about a thousand people, most of which are farmers or carpenters, but some of which still mine. Derek Holt was one such man who made his living by cleaving through stone and rock. He was a strong man, a proud man, and while he could have easily changed jobs, he kept at the mine, knowing that the planet always needed more metal, and that without men like him and his team there would be none. Derek’s wife, Morwen, was a lovely creature, a teacher, and a homemaker. Her time as a teacher was more charity than labor, as she often didn’t charge some of the less well off in the town, or sent their children back home with a freshly cooked dinner. She was also a musician, trained in several instruments, and would often give children music lessons in trade for small sundries. She was a smart women, who spent her free time with her nose in a book, usually enlightening, sometimes bawdy. The two of them lived on a few acres of old farm land. The land did not have much ability to provide food, but there was a small garden and a decent enough chunk of forest to get wood from. They didn’t have a lot, but people lived a simpler life out here on the fringes of wilderness, whether they wanted to or not. Ophelia was born on a cloudy fall day, the chill just starting to bite. The hospital, like almost everything else in the town, was small and unassuming. Morwen’s labour was long but fairly painless, and after a couple of days she, her husband, and their child, returned home to a small celebration of neighbors, baked goods, and grilled meat. Ophelia’s childhood was relatively peaceful. She went to school part of the day, was homeschooled by her mother for another part, and then played until she passed out. She was a good child, she listened, was well behaved, maybe got a little loud now and then, but who didn’t? It wasn’t until she was 6 that she got into her first bout of real trouble. Ophelia had taken apart her fathers weather and emergency radio. Well, he was not happy about that. And a spanking and some quiet time later, neither was Ophelia. Shortly after she had been set free of her punishment, Ophelia returned to her father, his radio whole again. Sure, it was a little staticy, but it had been properly reassembled. And this was indeed a foreshadowing event, because as Ophelia got older she continued to tinker and play with machines. Ophelia also gained much from her parents. From her father, she learned his strength and his optimism. From her mother she gained her compassion and her intelligence. And being the self reliant people that they were, she learned many skills, including carpentry from a neighbor, metalworking from her father, and the violin from her mother. Of course, while her mother liked classical pieces, things she called ‘ancient world’ pieces, Ophelia didn’t mind re-tuning the violin into a fiddle every now and then. - - - - - By the time she was 14, Ophelia was doing her best to keep her family and neighbors farm equipment running. See, the machinery was expensive, both for parts and for transportation. And the townsfolk did not make that much money, so they did the best with what they had, and it was not uncommon for a 200 year old tractor to still be in service, which was surprising since it was more bubblegum and string and J.B. Weld than anything else. Ophelia couldn’t help it, machines were just so fascinating. They came in all shapes and forms, some more human, others simply cold and precise. And she wondered if you could determine anything about the creator from the machine? Were the sterile, boxy stamping machines designed by a stiff man in a three piece suit who frowned all day, settling down at night with a bottle of bismuth and the knowledge that another day of efficient work was done? Was the truck with the curved, smooth lines designed by someone who didn’t wear a tie, who worked in the city but vacationed out on a farm? When she was 16, Ophelia decided that she needed to learn more. She could only get so much out of self study from repair manuals and repeatedly disassembling and reassembling engines. So she sought out a teacher, and she didn’t have to look far. There was a man in town, a retired Naval Engineer, Senior Petty Officer Zachery Durant, that also went around fixing machines, not just in town, but all over the entire Holding. Ophelia needed to work for this man, to gain his knowledge, to see what else there was. So, she prepared something that she had built, a simple, efficient, hand-cranked machine for shucking corn. She approached his office, which was much nicer and finer than the dirty workshop that she had been keeping. She approached him and said ”Senior Petty Officer Durant, my name is Ophelia Holt, and I’d like to become your apprentice.”, her eyes trying to avoid making contact with his. Durant, smiling, said ”I’m retired, so you can call me Mr. Durant. And I have heard a bit about you… even lost a couple of customers to you.” He stared her up and down, like he was determining something about her makeup, the same way one would a new car. Ophelia was nervous, and began to bite her lower lip. Finally, he broke the uncomfortable silence and said ”Do you have something that you could do to show me your skills?” Ophelia reached into her bag and withdrew her machine and a few ears of corn. Durant took them silently, looking them over, playing with the machine, and finally using it to clean one of the ears of corn. ”Clever. Good use of gravity and pressure… But I’m sorry this is unacceptable.” Ophelia’s heart sank into her stomach, and she was worried she might cry. Durant took her chin in his hand and looked into her eyes as he said ”Show me something that demonstrates you. You have a week to bring me another specimen.” And with that he let her go and turned back to his work. Ophelia left both sad and curious. She wondered what he meant by demonstrating her. Was her machine not a good demonstration of her skills? Returning home, Ophelia spent most of the week trying to decide what to make, but she was drawing a blank. Every time she thought that she had something, she realized that he would turn it down again. It was two days before she was supposed to return, when she was laying out in a field and witnessed a storytelling of rooks fly by. Distracted, she wondered what it would be like to fly. And that was when she knew what to make. - - - - - Ophelia returned to Durant, this time seeming much more confident. Durant, curious about this, asked ”So Ophelia, do you have something to show me? Something to show me your character?” Ophelia nodded and retrieved her machine from her bag. Initially, it looked like a mess of clockwork gears and cylinders, with sets of rods welded to them sticking up into the air. Atop and across triplets of rods, were scraps of paper. It wasn’t until Ophelia started the machine, the distinct clicking of wind up clockwork lightly humming in the room, that Durant realized what she had done. The paper scraps moved and folded as if they were flying birds, bobbing in the air in a slow, steady rhythm. Durant smiled, even laughed softly, and said ”Now this, this is a work of passion. Understand, Ophelia, that anyone can learn these skills. It takes someone with passion to see that machines are not just tools, but they are realizations of dreams… And this one speaks wonders about you. ” Durant looked her up and down again before going over to a set of lockers and retrieving a bag. Tossing it to Ophelia, Durant says ”Here is your uniform. We have a long drive tomorrow to a sawmill about 500 kilometers out into the forest. Be here at dawn.” Ophelia was quiet, frozen as a deer in headlights. And when she gained her voice again she finally managed to squeak out ”Thank you Mr. Durant. You won’t regret this, I promise!” before she ran out the door. - - - - - Ophelia spent the next four years working for Durant, first as his assistant, and then as an agent of his, often left to supervise his shop and his other workers. But every time she got to go with him to a remote site, which was fairly often, Ophelia learned much. Durant not only fixed things, but he also designed new machinery and did efficiency inspections of current machines and designs. It was often a difficult job, and it required a deep understanding of not just the obvious working of machinery, but of the complex, indirect interactions between distinct parts. The other thing that Ophelia learned was that Durant was crazy. If a customer wanted a comms relay examined, Durant would climb and shimmy up the tower with not a second thought… or any safety gear. He would reach right into whirring engines to get something, or place his face just centimeters from a disk whirring at 10,000 rpms just to get a look at the nearly imperceptible wobble. And he expected the same of Ophelia, which was less than comforting at times. But neither of them ever got hurt, at least not more than a burn or a scratch. But, after an especially long days work, Ophelia and Durant would sit down out back of his shop, a couple of beers in hand, and smoke pipes while Durant told stories. And Durant’s stories fascinated Ophelia. Durant told war stories, business stories, personal stories, even some stories that Ophelia were pretty sure he had made up. But the ones that Ophelia loved to hear about most were the ones about his time in space. These stories filled Ophelia with thoughts of skies and stars and distant worlds, a storyteller fanning the flames that had been started by a flight of storytellers. - - - - - Ophelia was always amazed at just how well Durant understood machines, almost like he could talk to them. It almost never took more than a brief examination to determine not just what had broken, but why and what was next. Wanting to gain this same understanding, Ophelia took it upon herself to get a better understanding of not just machines, but their materials. Some days Ophelia would go down into the mines with her father. She had been there before to fix machines, but this time she was going there to find ore. And when she had a handful of nuggets of tin and iron, she would return to the surface and begin smelting her findings. She would attempt to make steel, at first trying to make simple tools. She snapped, bent, melted, and reforged many screwdrivers before figuring out just the right amount of carbon that was needed in her steel, the entire time seeing how metal changes based on its making. But this forging didn’t stop at simple tools. Soon she was making parts from scratch, small blades, even art pieces here and there. Or at least she thought it was art. - - - - - But one day, when she was 20, Ophelia had a life changing experience. She had been told by Durant to arrive early again, not that that was unusual. They drove for a bit before going out to an abandoned air strip. When they stepped out of the truck they began walking towards a rusted out hanger, when Durant said ”Ophelia, I’m afraid I have mixed news. It was four years ago that you began your apprenticeship. And well, I’m not sure that I have anything else I can teach you. I mean, I’m sure you would continue to gain experience around me, and heaven knows I could use someone like you around. But it is time to do your own work.” Ophelia, unsure of how to feel, replied ”But, Master Durant, there is still so much that I don’t know? And besides, I don’t want to compete with you for customers...” She didn’t know what to say. Part of her knew it was true, but another part of her didn’t want to go back to just fixing tractors. Durant smiled. pulled out his pipe, and said ”I know. Besides, you’re too nice, you wouldn’t charge them even the pittance I do anyway, and then we both would be having trouble making ends meet. ” Continuing to walk towards the hanger, he continues ”And that is why I have gotten you this.” He throws open the door of the hanger to reveal a small plane, not in great condition, but seeming serviceable. Laughing to himself, Durant continued ”It isn’t much, that is for sure, but it is yours. I got it off of a farmer a while back in trade for a combine engine. Apparently they used to use it for crop dusting and cloudbusting. But it hadn’t run in years. And let me tell you, it was no simple feat to get it going again with the parts I had available… and it still needs a lot of work before it is in tip top shape.” Ophelia was excited, a sudden gasp escaping her as her hands quickly cover her mouth, as if trying to catch it. She turns to Durant and says ”Thank you so much Master Durant! But… I don’t know how to fly it.” Durant smiled at her and said ”Well, if you’ll check her out and fuel her up, I’ll teach you...” And over that next week Ophelia learned the very basics of flying. Enough to get around if she didn’t have to make any sudden maneuvers, which, considering the state of the craft, weren’t going to work anyway. And it was exactly this experience of freedom that let Ophelia know what she wanted to do. Ophelia wanted to go into space, so she was going to join the Navy. But she knew if she just enlisted that she wouldn’t make it to the ISS Telthani. And even if she did she might just be polishing floors and welding sheet metal. No, she needed to prove what she could do, and the only way to do that was to go to The University, to earn her degree. - - - - - And so Ophelia saved up her money and sold off most of what she owned before saying goodbye to her parents and setting off for Telthani University. This was exciting for her, but having gone straight from a small town to the largest city on the planet, was definitely a case of culture shock. Not to mention her distractions with some of the ancient machinery. But despite the distractions she managed to get into school, and to even enroll into the Naval Officers Training Corp. She studied hard, but still took work study positions to find the money to continue to pay for school. It didn’t leave her much spare time, but she didn’t mind. It was even kind of fun! But machines weren’t all she studied. She also studied metals and geology, trying to learn as much as she could about how stone and metal were formed, what that did, how it could change. Still thinking back to her father, she studied techniques that could be useful for mining, especially concussive mining techniques that used controlled explosions to quickly loosen veins of ore and dense rock, instead of slow water drilling. But probably her favorite courses were her Navy courses where they would bring down space shuttles so that the students could study shuttle design. They would make projects to try and design small crafts that could survive the vacuum. Ophelia was one of the few to create one that was space worthy, having taken the time to forge and peen and temper her own parts. But quickly enough four years had gone by and it was time for Ophelia to graduate. She had not been the best in her class, not for lack of trying, but for tending to get distracted, or for trying to catch up on things that she had just not learned in her small town school. But still, a degree is a degree, and she was still in the top 15%. Her parents had shown up, as had her high school machine shop teacher, her principal, and her local minister, as apparently she was something of a legend back home at this point. Even Durant had shown up, dressed in his Navy Uniform. Ophelia was proud that day, and nothing could take the smile from her face. - - - - - Ophelia had packed her things, said goodbye to her parents, and was headed for more Naval training. She had applied to The University again, to try for a Masters program, but she had failed the entrance exam, too distracted by the thoughts of maybe, finally, going into space. So instead she was headed to further learn her military skills, before being sent out on active duty. After some basic physical training Ophelia was sent to oversee and assist a group of Naval Engineers who were constructing a facility deep in a set of secluded mountains, reachable only from the air. This didn’t bother her too much at first, as it at least gave her a good excuse to spend her commission bonus to fix up her plane and learn some real piloting skills. It was at that facility that her superiors were quite pleased to learn of her geology and mining skills, and it was there that she received more specialized training. Since Ophelia had so thoroughly studied the properties of metal and stone, and with her mining knowledge, it was decided to train her in the ways of demolitions. Normally, she would have been sent as a cross-training program with the Army, but she was needed to help construct this facility, and so the Navy did its best with what it had, as always. - - - - - The entire time Ophelia was handling these construction projects, she continued to apply for transfer to the ISS Telthani. And each time she was denied. But after serving in the Navy for three years, she finally received the letter she had been waiting for: she had been accepted into the Naval Core of Space Engineers. Apparently she was a prime candidate for a set of missions related to incoming asteroids. However, Ophelia never made it to that mission. She, and the other members of her assigned squad of engineers, were called to an emergency mission before their shuttle departure. It seemed that a number of smugglers had taken advantage of the communications issues during the Solar Storm to steal some very valuable equipment. Having limited troops available, and unable to reliably call more, it was decided that Ophelia would lead her engineers as a strike team against one of the more lightly armed crafts, their mission to try and recover the stolen goods. Ophelia and her engineers loaded onto a plane, and the plan was for them to force a breach into the cargo hold of the target plane. The problem was that the smugglers kept threatening to blow the cargo if they weren’t left alone. So it was decided to use cloud cover to lower the team down from above the smuggler’s plane. The plan worked, the Navy plane flying unseen, and also blind, in the cloud cover while Ophelia and the others rappelled down. Setting a quiet breach charge, the team punched a small hole through the cargo bay and climbed in. Almost immediately they were set upon, but some of the engineers made quick work of disarming the bombs or scrambling their remote detonation signals, while others protected them from fire with ballistic shields. After making their way through the combatants and to the cockpit of the plane, Ophelia took control of the guide stick, starting to turn the plane back. But one of the smugglers had survived long enough to toss a grenade into one of the engines of the plane, which started to bank and tremble out of control. Knowing that the chances of landing the plane safely were small, Ophelia ordered her crew to parachute out, staying behind herself to try and land the craft as best she could. There was nothing around but a thick forest of hardwood trees, which Ophelia knew wouldn’t make for the softest landing. But, doing her best, she at least managed to level out the plane before crashing. But it did hit hard. The cockpit glass was shattered and Ophelia was thrown from the plane, striking a tree and collapsing into its branches. - - - - - Ophelia awoke a couple of days later. She had broken her arm, several ribs, and suffered some severe internal bleeding, but she was alive, her crew was alive, and she had made it out safely. It took her some time to recover, not just from the broken bones, but from the brain swelling that she had experienced. But, after she was patched up, she received two shiney new medals: a purple heart for her injuries, and a Meritorious Conduct Under Fire for saving her crew in spite of her own safety. And even better news, once she was back up to her fullest, she would be returning to her assigned post, aboard the ISS Telthani. She couldn’t wait.
Misc.:
Land Holdings
-Telthani- Cabin near the Iron Hills Silver Mine near ??? Emerald Mine near ??? Various Statistics
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