Major G. Redthwaite



G. Redthwaite

Title : Major in 4th Meridian Mechanized Cavalry: Pathfinders Division, Retired.

Race : Human

Homeworld : B-15 Europa

Quotes : "Anger cannot be dishonest" and "Dead girls need loving too"

Specialties : Recon, Close Combat, Tech Savy, Ground Vehicles, Spiritual Thuggery

Weapon of Choice : Major G. Redthwaite's Bi-Cycling Resonant and Vibratory Energy Storage/Conduction Device (Which Is Also A Sword)

Personality
His Meridian military file describes him as "antisocial, bordering on criminal, with a marked lack of moral responsibility or social conscience". In addition, Redthwaite is possessed of a near pathological inability to lie or act dishonestly. On the other hand, he is a powerful Spark and considered high functioning by military HQ. This coupled with his military successes allowed him to overcome his psychological shortcomings and have a full military career.

Having seen war bring out the worst in people, he harbors a general disgust for humanity. Intelligent and gifted in Technika, he sadly sees these talents as weapons and a means to achieve an end. That end being his day to day enjoyment, he squanders his abilities in selfish endeavors.

Redthwaite's perfect day is putting the boots to a deserving gent, then scarpering off for a cold pint and conjugals.

Biography
Redthwaite was abandoned at an orphanarium as a child. Attached to his blanket was a note with his full name and birth date. He excelled in school and tested in very high percentiles on state sanctioned aptitude tests. He was recruited when he turned 18, and served for 6 years in the Mechanized Cavalry and Special Services Division.

While in S.S.D., he became privy to intel regarding various genius level Sparks throughout the world and the astounding research they were conducting. When he was released from military service he decided to put this info to good use. With his discharge papers still warm in his pocket, he booked passage to a reclusive village in southern Meridia. There he found the laboratory of Dr. Abram Goldman.

Dr. Goldman, like the others targeted from the intel, was following a line of research that Redthwaite extrapolated could end with the destruction of the world. Since the world's destruction would be a tremendous inconvenience, he introduced himself to the good Doctor as an interested colleague. They spoke at length about the experiments, confirming Redthwaite's suspicions. When the meeting was over they shook hands, and Goldman was shanked through the orbital socket with an oversized screwdriver.

His laboratory was a trove of interesting objects and prototypes. With a scientist's eye, the Major sifted the dross from the diamonds. He pocketed the promising looking items, and rigged the building to explode in a tragic accident. All the dangerous research was destroyed along with Dr. Goldman's assistants, family, and a parrot he was fond of talking to.

Major Redthwaite continued to erase dangerous thought processes in similar manner for years. He accumulated a staggering array of prototype devices which he stored away in an undisclosed cache. He only understands a small percentage of them, but has modified a few for his own use. Because tragic laboratory accidents are not uncommon among the most powerful of the world's Sparks, he managed to get away with this relatively unscathed and unnoticed. All this changed when he visited the mysterious Dark Continent.

He was tracking an inventor about whom little was known. Locals referred to him only as Nganga. Unlike his previous targets, he had no laboratory and was constantly on the move. The sketchy intel on him was a second hand account by unsuccessful colonists, and listed such abominations as corpse revival and possible germ warfare. When Redthwaite arrived, his questioning confirmed this, and other even more incredible acts were credited to him.

Passing through this inhospitable country required all of the Major's military scout training, and even then it was touch and go. When he finally found him Nganga was settled in a craggy valley waiting for him. They spoke and it quickly became clear that, somehow, Nganga was fully aware of the Major's violent intentions.

The Nganga (it is more of a title really) spoke at length about his connection to the spirit of the land, and his family's long and storied past as healers and miracle workers. He explained that he was not the type of creature that Redthwaite was hunting, and according to his divinatory abilities, if they were to have a confrontation, one of them would die and the other would desire death from that point forward.

The Major had much to think about. The existence of a whole other, spiritual, existence he had never imagined. "Magic" existed, and was proved by the Nganga at Redthwaite's request. In addition, Nganga WASN'T what he had set out to stop. He was no danger to the world. He was just a man who wanted to protect his people, and live in peace. On the other hand, Redthwaite hadn't travelled half way across the world to just turn around and walk back. Plus, zombies...gross.

The Major nodded to himself, stood, and pounded a dagger through the Nganga's ribs. Something unexpected happened then. Redthwaite, a student of the frowned upon science of Elektropunk (a discipline involving the alteration of your own inherent elektrical field), felt a pulse of strange energy rip into his body. Nganga gasped, "With my last breath I curse you.  May the dead see you and never give you peace". They both fell to the ground.

When Redthwaite awoke, the Nganga stood over him in a strange spectral form. Luminous smoke made up his body and it was beautiful in an unsettling way. He smiled down, spoke his name, and slashed a vicious claw mark into the Major's chest. Scrambling back, he saw the corpse of Nganga laying prone on the ground. "Yes.  The dead, like myself, will see you and hound you for all the rest of your miserable life.  They will see your weakness, and give you pain as you have given it to others".

He leapt forward and rained blow after blow on the Major's shoulders until Redthwaite raised his hands and caught the arm of Nganga. He felt as solid as any man, and the shocked alarm in his eyes let Redthwaite know this should not be happening. Straining against him, Nganga tried to escape. The shaman looked into the fierce, white hot joy beginning to replace fear on the face of his enemy, and despaired for himself and the other spirits who would not find the peace due to them in the afterlife.

What followed was the first, but by no means the last, man on ghost beating thrown in the world of Europa. It was savage in nature, and the strange horrors of it won't be repeated here. It is enough to know that as the shaman's ghostly body was destroyed, the energy of it was "consumed" by the altered elektrical field of Major Redthwaite. Invigorated by his unnatural feast, the Major began his journey home to Meridia.

From that point forward, he could see and interact with the dead, and they with him. He often finds himself famished for their strange essence, but using an proprietary blend of Regal Element alloys has created a ectoplasmic storage device that functions as a spiritual "lunchbox" for those times. He spent the next several years exploring the new scientific avenues opened by this discovery. In addition, knowing that knowledge can live on beyond death, he remurdered those dangerous scientists he previously visited.

He has been recently introduced to the concept of the Multiverse, and is eager to explore all the wide worlds.

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© Airship Isabella 2012