Round Table class Star Leviathan "Mordred", Messer cluster, Pinwheel Galaxy
The Mordred officially did not exist. Neither did its owners. Its sightings were the stuff of discredited crackpot conspiracy theorists on lonely sections of the hypernet, yet it was here all the same. One Hundred Sixty Eight kilometers from stem to stern, eighty one from port to starboard, twenty from top to bottom. It rarely moved from its position all that often, but it rarely needed to.
It was a terrifying testament to the power of those who built it, and its ominous feldgrau and forest camo green hull glimmered with small lights from various external systems. A mobile base of operations as much as it was a warship. One able to serve as the mothership for military operations across an entire sector without the inconvenience of putting down roots.
Perfect for a Division that's not supposed to exist.
A much smaller ship exited N-Space near the Mordred, its stealth systems dropping briefly to let the Mordred know not to fry it the moment it appeared. Slender strike craft emerged from the Mordred's cavernous hull and flanked the canard winged intruder after rushing towards it as it came to a halt relative to the Mordred's path through space.
"+This is callsign Morifax requesting contact with Black Knight over.+"
"+This is ISWACS designated "Laser Hound", welcoming callsign Morifax to Black Knight. Please confirm intent to land.+"
"+This is Morifax; I will roger that, requesting permission to access hangars.+"
"+Granted, safe landing and good luck Morifax. Laser Hound over and out.+"
The ship slid through the openings in the defensive screens and extended its landing gears, putting down its roots and opening up to allow a sinuous, silvery shape coalesce into the appearance of a jet black carapaced insectoid and then a more human woman; albeit with a skin tone a shade of pink unlikely without modifications. A stream of small creatures seemed to follow her, keeping within her line of sight but not quite making themselves stand out.
A squad of basics was at the ready, while turrets in the hangar kept focused on her at all times and a number of drones and mechanoids stood at the ready. She offered a small wave and folded her arms, a smug smile present on her face.
The squad's commander stepped forward, with their heavy armour at odds with the silence they were making their movements with. Smoothly angled pauldrons that flared at their ends sat atop arms clad in clean, symmetrical armour plates, the chest was hidden beneath a few neatly interlocked armour plates that made discerning sex or even species beyond a vague range of humanoids impossible. The Feldgrau and Dark Olive Green Armour was without insignia or unit identification. The R.A.I.D officially did not exist, there was no need to out themselves as members. The boots were heavy, enough so to immediately sink to the bottom of water without worrying about flotation. The abdominal armour was made of a number of vertically stacked segmented plates, giving an almost milipede look to the belly area.
Their helmet; rounded at the top in a vaguely stahlhelm esque manner with a visor somewhat like a riot officer that partly was covered by a pronounced mouth shield that covered everything below the eyes, a sun and shrapnel shield extending about a finger length forward to shroud the visor, leaving only narrow eye slits to glow a decidedly menacing shade of blue.. The helmet made no sound as it processed air for the user, and the tubes that connected back into the helmet didn't so much as flinch with their breaths. In their hands; which were rather prominently fitted with electroshock knuckle dusters; was a menacing looking longarm, built more like a small rocket launcher that happened to have a magazine than a standard gun, with a meaty looking grenade tube just below and a wicked looking top fitted bayonet.
"Operator Mercy, I wasn't expecting you back so soon." They said. Their accent was relatively neutral, a human of another era might have compared it to some midway point between the American and British newscaster accents, but the coldness to their tone was something that would be immediately threatening to most.
"You know I'm not going to deny requests from the boss, Commander Arthur." She said, adjusting the peaked cap her shapeshifted form came with.
"Request is an interesting choice of words, Operator. You're still the last one here, and you know how some of them feel about late arrivals." He said, motioning for her to come with him.
"Where else are they going to find another shapeshifting psyker?" She snorted, clearly dismissive to the veiled threat in his words.
"Don't tempt them. Ma'am." He said.
"Hrm, and what if I wanted to go by something else?" She said with a catty questioning hum at the end as she leaned forward to try and get a rise out of Arthur.
"Then out of professional courtesy I'll call you by whatever disguise you're rolling with. For now though, with me ma'am." He said, shooting down her effort
"So, who else is there?" She asked.
"Everyone else in Dead Hand Alpha." He said simply.
"What's got the crew together?"
"You'll know when you're in the briefing area and not a second before. You know the rules about trying to extract intel you're not supposed to know with that telepathy of yours." He said as they walked towards a transport station near the hangar. With the size of the Mordred simply walking around was impractical, so the ship was spider-webbed with internal supersonic mag-trains with personnel taking the lighter blue rail and freight going with the heavier chrome rail.
The train shut its doors as soon as the greenlight was transmitted from their pass cards and then shot forward. Shields wrapped around the rail tunnels prevented the sonic booms from having any unwanted effects, and the train needed to change route a few times to avoid the movements of other trains. Each jolt was virtually unnoticed however, and the train rapidly deccelerated as it approached its final destination.
The usual procession of guards waited for the train's doors to dilate open and for the passengers to exit, automated defenses watching every step of the way.
A black haired woman in rather form fitting dark coloured armour was busy leaning against a wall passing the time on a video game she had installed into her suit, her helmet sat down on a table next to her.
She was pleasant on the eyes for sure, though Mercy wasn't fond of her perpetually flat expression as if she was forever unimpressed by what she saw. Her hair, kept in twin tails, was long but neatly kept, and her features suggested her ancestry mostly came from the Earth continent of Asia.
She flicked her gaze upwards as Mercy approached, and the flat expression on her face drew a slight frown. The small spaulders on her suit's shoulders lowered as she sighed through her nose, and she folded her arms over the modest chestplate of her suit.
"You're late." She said.
"Keik-" Mercy said before Dagger raised her left index finger in protest and hardened her expression.
"We are not and never will be on a name basis. It's just Operator Dagger to you." She said.
"Still mad about me and your br-" Dagger interrupted Mercy again.
"You flirt with both me and Operator Cloak constantly when I've told you to stop multiple times. And you took advantage of him while he was drunk, Mercy. So yes, I am mad." She said.
"You really are no fun at all." Mercy sneered with contempt. She shifted form once again. She was really not quite as good at infiltration as one would expect of a shapeshifter due to her arrogance and inability to suppress her urge to show off or properly prevent people from identifying her tells, but she was more than able to use it in battle.
Something more akin to her true visage flowed from her guise as her shifting quicksilver like body spread its mass out into a spidery beast as large as a whole family of Tyrannosauruses. A thicket of limbs speared into the ground while wriggling tendrils flowed out, ending in narrow spikes while hexagonal grid shapes appeared on her "skin" as the creatures rejoined their central mass like water pooling together.
A maw ringed by tendrils expelled hot breath at Dagger who continued to just stare at her without the slightest hint of flinching. Not even the scorpion like tail Mercy extended out got her to move, only making her curl her fingers more tightly around one of her namesake daggers.
"Why won't you give me even the littlest ounce of satisfaction?" Mercy grumbled as she began to shift back into her prior form, her mass splitting apart to let her resume humanoid scale. A scowl was on her face, seething and bitter.
"Shut up and get inside." Dagger growled.
"Operators of the Dead Hand huh?" One of the RAID troopers snorted before Mercy, Dagger, and Arthur turned to stare at the trooper who let out a nervous cough and tried to move out of everyone else's line of sight after a meek apology.
The next door retracted open to let the procession through. But already there was someone who was clearly displeased with being made to wait. A Saurian with a horizontal body posture like some resurrected Dinosaur busily calibrated his rifle before looking at them and flicking out his forked tongue from his varanid like head. His S-shaped neck brought that head up somewhat more reared itself up to bring him to more proper face to face contact level with Mercy as he studied her, the bionic eye he had fitted to their right side a telltale mark of someone who made a living as a sniper. The attachment points on his armour however, hinted at the usage of the Shadow Mech he was even more well known for than his skill with a marksman's weapon.
"I trust that you have good reason for your tardiness." He said, his crest raising itself with interest. His grey scaled skin seemed like so much rock, and his nimble hands' claws tapped against his sniper rifle repeatedly. He seemed slender, almost insignificant without his mech, but his raptorian gaze was intense enough to make even Mercy flinch as he licked his eyes like some overgrown gecko, the slitted pupil on his one remaining true eye expanding to let in more light while the sickle like big toe claws on both feet tapped against the ground in a subtle rhythm.
"I had some complicated issues to work out Veil." Mercy said.
"I hope for your sake you're going to be more thorough than that in the report. Which you are going to file, Operator, no excuses." Veil said, adding a reptilian cough for emphasis as they sloped their stance to make themselves a bit taller.
"As for you Dagger, you're going to need to watch your temper. Continue to report for psych evaluation, I want you to have your head on straight and I don't want a repeat of your hesitation on Elax Secundus." Veil hissed.
"So glad to see being free from consequence does such wonders for the moral integrity of this unit." Dagger muttered, rubbing her fingers around the hilt of one of her knives. She didn't give Veil one of her usual hard stares, but she did find herself wishing she could make him shut up somehow.
"We are not here to concern ourselves with petty civilian or green ops hang ups. So I advise you to drop it. You're a soldier now, and we need results." Veil said, craning their head closer to Dagger's face as her neutral expression became a genuine frown.
"Now, now, now; that's no way to treat our friends in arms!" A big, loud voice said. A mustached man with a heavy square face and an aristocratic countenance stepped into the room. Even without his new suit he'd be a mountain of muscle. His dishwater blond hair and heavy sideburns completed the look of a proper bully boy, and speaking of his suit…
The armour was built surprisingly on the lighter side, with heavily articulated blue coloured plating. As one would expect from a black ops unit that did not officially existed, he bore no insignia to mark him as a member of RAID, just the icon of a skeletal hand on his pauldrons. His skull like helmet was couched in his left arm, and the grin on his face could only be described as far too pleased with himself.
"Cyrus." Veil said, giving him a nod.
"Now let's not fault Dagger for having a conscience or Mercy for taking her time. We are all supposed to be good soldiers here." He said, clapping his hands on the two women's shoulders and grinning before letting them go.
Dagger tensed at the sensation but allowed it, not wanting to have to file an incident report for her discomfort at the unwanted contact.
"So where's the rest? Come on, I can't be the only one who was late here." Mercy asked, after peeling herself away from Cyrus' grasp, cupping her hands in front of her mouth to amplify her voice.
"I was wondering when you'd show up. Luckily it's not me who's going to be chewed out by the bosses this time. But if you want to stay in command's good graces, I recommend working on your punctuality." The baritone voice of Quietus said, the slender mechanoid almost seeming to manifest from the ether. Stilt like limbs scrambled for purchase on the ground, points splitting into starfish like feet tipped with claws to grab at the ground like a hawk. A blank screen like face wrapped around by a helm not too unlike those of the usual RAID troopers and all too long arms ending in radially arranged claw hands were by far the most distinctive part of their upper body, while a subtly V shaped torso with another screen; circular in shape; at the centre of the chest connected the digitrade legs to the limbs and head. Flat pauldrons formed their shoulders, and mechandrite tentacles waved around their body, emerging from their waist like coiling tails.
"It would be a shame to have to see you be reassigned because you slacked on your form filling. Where would we be without your pointless flirtations?" They intoned.
"Come on Quietus, not all of us can just spit out our reports the second we need to fill them out. Unlike you, I've got more important things to cram into my head than cyberwarfare suites." She said, pivoting to look Quietus in their cold, blank face as she gave the machine a daring look, almost as if she wanted to start a fight between the two of them.
"I would very much like to skip the small talk and get to the business at hand. " Dagger grumbled to herself.
"So we are in agreement then, let us begin." A cold voice said as the room began to drop in temperature noticeably. Static electricity began to build up and a shape started to descend from one of the air mobility shafts. Mercy paused briefly before turning around and shivered slightly at the drop in the temperature, tensing in anticipation.
"We will begin this meeting now." A second, slightly higher pitched voice followed, very close to the first.
"Speak and interrupt if you're feeling daring, or be like good dogs and keep quiet." The third, shrillest voice said, also only a little bit far away from the others. Gusts of air were blown away, crackling with some static energy and cold as winter as two hooved feet slammed into the ground.
A huge shape dipped to the ground, with yellow fur and cyan osteoderms and scutes covering the body as its digitigrade legs buckled from the impact, wings like a great and terrible pterosaur used as forelimbs as their claws flattened, the rear digits that held the membranous wings together folding up for convenience. Two whip-like tails ending in spiked, mace-like clubs with unpleasant sneering faces swung around behind this mighty body as it rose.
One head, on a neck like a combination of a serpent and a giraffe arose, its stag horns curling somewhat downwards. The head, like a stag's skull with false eye pits in front of its true eyes; a cold and unforgiving blue, had rows of sharp teeth with pronounced snake-like fangs. Then the second rose from the cover of its wings, its horns curling upwards, its face somewhat longer. Then the middle head pulled itself up, its horns curling outwards and its somewhat broader head looked upwards and let out a high pitched, shrieking call that resonated with itself, a bell-like reverberation being heard as a gust of cold air emerged from the head.
Adder, Cobra, and Mamba, the left, centre, and right heads of a great and terrible beast. Together, they were Viper. Even in this low, quadrupedal stance they stood twenty meters at the shoulders, from nostril to tail they extended for some eighty meters in length, and their wings would have spanned more than eighty-two meters if fully extended. Though certainly not possessing Ridley's grace or agility, Viper had a similarly unmistakable menace that commanded obedience.
Cobra snapped their jaws to call the gathered Operators to order, and flicked out a forked tongue to sniff the air.
"The Directorate and our Aurora units have orders for us. I expect you to listen carefully to them." Cobra snarled.
"Failure to comply will be punished." Mamba hissed, snaking towards Mercy and snorting.
"And we expect the smart aleck comments to be kept to a minimum. Unless you wish to out yourselves as in need of disciplinary action." Adder said in a low, serpentine voice filled with a venomed sweetness as if they dared the others to test their collective patience.
"Am I understood? Or must we demonstrate why we are in command, and not any of you?" Cobra growled, raising their head as high as possible as they perched atop their preferred podium.
A sea of affirmative replies were all that Viper's three heads needed to simmer down and cease the noises they made.
"Excellent." They said in unison.
The image of a number of Aurora units; great armoured hybrid computers that combined advanced molecular computing in the form of enormous artificial brains and highly sophisticated quantum computational technologies who "saw" the world from a vertically arrayed trifecta of optics while kept suspended in special fluids and connected to the bottom of their tanks through cyber-brainstems the size of tree trunks; cut into holographic displays of the briefing room's imagers. New additions to the Federation's toolkit, they were its secret weapon in organization.
Accompanying them were a number of more shadowy figures, overseers and commanders among the Federal Central Intelligence Network and the RAID. All kept in silhouette. The antennaed form of Director Vzorag was perhaps the only one most would recognise due to being a public official. The director's insectile four bore four arms and four radially arrayed legs, and their blueish and white carapace was mostly covered by the suit of their office, a formal politician's attire.
"We are glad to see that you have convened on such short notice, Dead Hand One. For we have a matter of substantial importance for you to handle with your unique skills." The Director said.
"The Ensryn Volunteer Army has uncovered a large trove of Alimbic technologies on the planet of Cylosis; including living Alimbic inhabitants. They are to be dealt with as quickly and quietly as possible before they can spread this technology to the rest of the paramilitary force, or worse; to the Omyn Democratic Council Republics and its Intergalactica." Aurora Unit 13 said. One of the older Aurora units, his deep voice echoed upon itself with the voice of a legion.
The world of Cylosis was then displayed by the holographic systems in its orbit around the star of Cynar in the Pinwheel galaxy. The usual details were given out. It was a relatively cold planet due to its distance from its star, and had a particularly strong magnetosphere and thick ozone layer that filtered out the majority of solar radiation. Substantial tectonic activity due to its small, fractured plates created a large number of mountains and islands across its continents and seas and provided enough CO2 to keep it decently comfortable despite its distance from Cynar. A population readout of about 45 million people was given, spread widely across the planet for the most part with some fortress town concentrations.
"I thought we were leaving the EVA to needle the Pirates and the Krikens in that sector?" Dagger said with some concern. Dealing with the monsters that go bump in the night was one thing but she was...hesitant about expanding that to people she considered mostly alright as heard in the slight tremor in her voice.
"The EVA is not an innocent party nor is our understanding with the Intergalactica supposed to be an inviolable pact. We tolerate them for the presence of greater enemies, but we cannot allow them to expand into a greater threat themselves." Delta Majestic-6 said, the shadowy figure's feminine figure moving slightly as she spoke, though there was a deep chill in her voice.
" From our agents on Cylosis, it appears the discoverer happens to be Colonel Gyda Skjǫldr and her husband, Erik Skjǫldr. The clan champion of the Grendakals is noted to be a highly skilled and well equipped combatant. Do not assume she or her husband will go down lightly." Aurora 399 said, the genderless voice of the supercomputer having a somewhat higher pitch than the prior aurora.
"Do we have to eliminate them?" Cyrus asked, stroking his moustache with his right index finger and thumb while he thought. His brows furrowed and he looked at the holographic images of Gyda and her unit. He didn't know them yet, but he didn't really see much of that violent edge in many he was sent to eliminate. She just seemed like a mother who was well equipped to protect her family.
"Capture is unlikely, but if possible you are permitted to attempt it. Doing so may make getting access to their personal data somewhat easier. Additionally, their son; Arne has had some contact with the Alimbics. Ensure that he relinquishes his information." Gamma Nova-3 said, their silhouette seemingly more mechanical based on the shape of the protrusions that emerged.
"I don't suppose we'll be drawing straws to see who gets to be the one to kill a three year old in cold blood?" Quietus said.
"Soft. Fortunately I have already elected to take responsibility for this task. The family will reveal its secrets; whether as corpses or captives." Cobra said, giving Quietus a somewhat disdainful look as if they had admitted to cowardice and thus flaw and weakness.
"What are the defenses of note?" Veil asked, callibrating his cannon as he raised the question before tilting his head upwards at his superiors.
"You will find the more complete analysis uploaded to your armour computers. But the system has a number of picket screens and orbital defense platforms. The planet itself has theatre shielding and a number of deeply dug in and shielded fortress towns. As the EVA is in the process of evacuating the planet however, non-combat infrastructure is being uprooted and system traffic will be increasing as the populace is evacuated." Aurora Unit 13 said, displaying a readout of the planet's rather formidable defenses for a world so sparsely populated.
"And what are we going to do with an Alimbic warship? We don't have the punch to handle something like that and its a pain to sneak past telepaths." Mercy said, folding her arms.
"We will deploy precursor countermeasures should the warship's denizens be hostile. However our Alimbicologists have concluded that their intervention is unlikely. We are more interested in the means to track the ship and to prevent those means from falling into the wrong hands. If they do intervene however, you are expected to defend yourselves. There can be no half measures with an attack such as this." The Director said.
"Cowardice is unacceptable. Trust in the commands of your superiors. Perform your duties above and beyond expectations. Your orders are commandments. Honour them, and you will succeed." Cobra said, the middle head of Viper looking from one end of the room to another.
"Don't hesitate. Analyse, decide, and act. I will be watching your efforts. Fail and perish." Mamba snarled, cold air bursting from their mouth as they made their demands of their unit.
"And the one who distinguishes themselves above all others...well...they get a reward...do you want it? Good...because I guarantee you that you will like it." Adder hissed, the left head's forked tongue flicking out of their mouth to taste the air.
"This will be dirty work, but we have every confidence in your abilities Dead Hand 1. Remember, we are the thin grey line against chaos. As always, We fight in the dark." Vzorag said.
"So that others may live in the light." The others completed.
"Outstanding. I want all of you to prepare to board the Dreadnought Nifelheim. We leave immediately." Cobra commanded, getting salutes out of the other members of the elite team.
Sylux's logbook
Individuals: Special Forces: Galactic Federation: FCIN: RAID: Unknown Void Wendigo: Tri-Gender: Dead Hand Alpha: Viper
Viper is in actuality three beings conjoined into a single body. The central head, Cobra is the most dominant and imperious. The right head, Mamba is female and a violent enforcer. The left head, Adder, is male and manipulative and inquisitive. Where Viper is from or if they are indeed a natural entity instead of some deliberate mutation or even a fully artificial life form is uncertain, and the designation of "Void Wendigo" is one born entirely of convenience based on their appearance. From all psychological evaluations, Viper is at once a totalitarian disciplinarian and also happy to please their superior officers. Perhaps as a result of a lifetime of forcing their three heads into a single line of action, but their shared lack of mercy is a binding element.
Arne's Notes
"Triple Threat" , "The Three Wintery Deaths", and the "Thrice-King of War" or whatever other title they like to go by haunts my thoughts like a demon. The cackling bell like roars from their three throats have kept me from sleeping for weeks at a time, I'm lucky that I don't need it I guess... But I need to do something about them. Or else the hydra of the dead hand is never going to let me know peace.
Individuals: Special Forces: Galactic Federation: FCIN: RAID: Seskrak: Male: Dead Hand Alpha: Veil
Veil is sometimes mischaracterised as simply a sniper and a demolitions expert. But he is also one of the top trainers within the dead hand, moulding new recruits from the R.A.I.D and its recruitment programs into universe class operators who serve the federation as the deadliest of the deadliest. Addittionally, Veil is an expert operator and lead designer of the prototypical "Shadow Falcon" mech series that serves as the bleeding edge of the R.A.I.D's mech R&D program. Hard to please and coldly stoic, Veil is infamous for starving recruits of emotional affection until they cling to even a bare hint of his approval.
Arne's Notes
Veil is small and physically unassuming and all that means is that he's got a size complex on top of everything else. He feels powerful from exerting control, and everything he looks at he looks at like a predator. He doesn't see people, he sees targets to pick apart, analyse, kill and dissect. But I don't think he'd hold up very well if he was ever brought face to face with someone keen on punching him in the face.
Individuals: Special Forces: Galactic Federation: FCIN: RAID: Human: Female: Dead Hand Alpha: Dagger
Ishimoto Keiko, AKA Dagger was originally one of the highest preforming Freelancers in the Triangulum galaxy from a young age; operating in tandem with her brother Ishimoto Amiyana. The two made use of abilities gained through spelunking in Ylla ruins that exposed them to unusual energies that gave them a number of abnormal abilities; particularly involving teleportation, cloaking and spacewarping. Keiko was later handpicked for Dead Hand Alpha by Adder through threats to the lives of her parents and offers of amnesty for high profile thefts. Bitter and sardonic, Dagger's loyalty is in constant doubt.
Arne's Notes
If Keiko really regretted her life in the dead hand then why doesn't she just take the risk and leave? She can hide anywhere in the universe and a whole army would be at its wit's end trying to find her or whomever she wanted to keep out of the public eye. Yet she stays with five...seven of the universe's worst murderers. Why?
Individuals: Special Forces: Galactic Federation: FCIN: RAID: Synth: Agender: Dead Hand Alpha: Quietus
Quietus was manufactured by R.A.I.D affiliated black site R&D facilities to make use of N'Kren technologies that the unit had managed to crack some of the secrets of to produce a prototype and extremely dangerous assassin synthoid. Taking their duties in grimly humorous good spirits, Quietus is a prolific murderer despite their apparent joviality and detests missions that require low casualties. They are devoted to the cause and often fake doubts to suss out potential defectors and flakes within the R.A.I.D, and always have a direct line to Viper to deal with would be traitors.
Arne's Notes
Quietus likes to put happy faces on that display screen face of theirs and it's the single most off putting thing imaginable. If they were just a sadist I could maybe understand, but I'm not sure what they get out of it beyond the programming they were created with. Best to scrap the thing and figure out the programming faults later.
Individuals: Special Forces: Galactic Federation: FCIN: RAID: Unknown: Female: Dead Hand Alpha: Mercy
Mercy's original species is a mystery but her varied skills as a psion and a shapeshifter make her a person of extreme value to the Dead Hand, more than enough to forgive her of her indiscretions. A skilled infiltrator and an extractor of information par excellence, Mercy is infamous for her ability to slip in unnotice and leave nothing but corpses and ruin and all data mysteriously gone. She is regarded as a woman of a million masks and her genuine personality is hard to decipher, but she seems to be easily frustrated by those who refuse to reciprocate her games.
Arne's Notes
Mercy's hard to get a read on. What's motivating her? What's in this for her? How can she smile after everything she's done? I don't get it. I don't know why I need to know so bad, but I can't rest when these questions rattle around my skull. I'll get my answers, I need them.
Individuals: Special Forces: Galactic Federation: FCIN: RAID: Human: Male: Dead Hand Alpha: Cyrux
Cyrus Jones, also known as Cyrux due to a comical mishap with his name was accidentally infused with highly charged nanites during Freelancer operations in tandem with the R.A.I.D. This resulted in significantly enhanced abilities and an ability to maximise the capabilities of technologies he interfaced with so as to push his combat armours to heightened extremes and even make use of technologies he shouldn't be able to. Needless to say, this and his boisterous, battle loving nature brought Cyrus to the attentions of the Dead Hand program and into the direct employ of Viper as one of the original members of Dead Hand Alpha. Though Cyrus still maintains some of his chivalry from his past, he has become increasingly accepting of the nature of his work.
Arne's Notes
Cyrus is probably one of the only members of Dead Hand Alpha who even tries at the act that he's done something worthwhile in his time in the unit. But his hands are as bloody as everyone else's in that whole outfit. If he really wanted to uphold chivalry, if he was really honorable, he wouldn't hide with them.