Difference between revisions of "Daryl Haur"

Revision as of 14:13, 15 September 2014

Daryl Haur

A Soldier of Justice, with a love of Asteroid racing. Formerly a green-eyed Blonde who might've been Deunan Knute in another life - now a Suntanned Ayanami. ^[1].

Origin

Daryl Haur is part of the New Wave of Fen, in that, she doesn't come from a fannish background. Her father, Jan Haur, was hired as the head brewer for Crystal Sapporo immediately after the Boskone War, with enough of a salary to make moving to the eponymous city worth the trip. Daryl came along through virtue of being his child and him not wanting to leave her with Grampa Haur...

Daryl thus spent the majority of her teenage schooling at Sapporo 3rd Public High School.

By all accounts, she was a middling student with average grades everywhere except in physical activities - where she excelled. She passed through the SAM academy with scores good enough for shipboard duty, then surprised everyone by joining the City Guard, gaining a Great Justice Troublshooter rank of OF-5 for her anti-thionite work. It was here she met with her partner, Ranko Mill. ^[2]

The made a highly effective duo in their year of working together, both earning a Usagi medal in the process. They also took up Asteroid racing together, where Daryl found her second talent. She could race with the best of them in the Zig divisions with Ranko keeping their little bird flying.

And then Mill's sister was kidnapped and taken hostage as a reprisal. The pair raced to the rescue, but didn't find her in time to keep her from the catgirl machine. It seemed like her mind had been left intact, right until she shot her brother in the back, killing him instantly. She then turned the gun on Daryl.

Daryl defended herself.

While she knew who was responsible, and burned with fire to bring them to justice, Great Justice suggested she take some time off on administrative leave to recover - assigning another troubleshooter to the case.

Incensed, Daryl resigned from GJ, and left for the Main Belt.

History in Fenspace

Why someone like her ended up on 77 Frigga isn't known. ^[3] She used her City Guard experience to work as a training instructor, and range-safety officer for Survival Shot. She was notorious for both being very strict with range rules - and for embarrassing BNF's who thought they were hot stuff.

Daryl remained in contact with the Millennium, and seems to have been the driving force behind Frigga's slide towards Millennium protectorate. It might've been Serenity II's idea to find a mine to get a secure supply of Heavy Metals for Bristol, but it was Daryl who seeks to have suggested that it would be easier to re-open the old mineworks at Frigga instead. ^[4]

She used her severance pay to buy a second-hand Aeritalia F-104 from a fan, who'd bought it from a fan who might've bought it as scrap and waved it - then set about converting it to race-spec by herself. It was entered in a few races, but the Silver Arrow just wasn't up to running with the leaders and Daryl lacked the mechanical abilities to really make it go fast.

Still, she scores some respectable results with it, including top-tens. She sells it in 2023, it gets renamed to The Last Starfighter by its new owner and promptly does little better.

What it was being sold for, was to fund Daryl's new venture- Asagiri. Rather than buy a Valkyrie, or Blackbird, or Talon and spend the time converting it - Asagiri decided to build a brand new spacecraft from scratch - a homologation special asteroid racer for the warbirds class- designed from the ground up to actually race, then given the bare minimum of components to meet GJ cetification.

The RF-047 Kulbit took two full years and a good chunk of cash to develop, with Daryl as the test pilot and eventual racing pilot. ^[5]

At its first race in 2024, it wins by three minutes - embarrassing the entire field to the point where Stonewell-Bellcom throws the financial kitchen sink at the Lafiel Abriel's VF-4 to match its capabilities. What follows is a ding-dong battle through the year, interrupted halfway through when Daryl steps off the winning step of the podium and heads on down to her locker room for a shower - only to find that the flightsuit won't come off. ^[6]

She's the third victim that year of a race-fixing syndicate that'd been trying to influence race results by biomodding competitors, and making it look like an accident.

Four weeks later, the Knight Sabers brazenly pick a woman up off the streets of Serenity Valley and deliver her to K.M. Lun. She tried to escape, blowing herself out the cargo door in the process. ^[7].

At Titanicon, Daryl gains a little more notoriety for making an attempt at taking the Whole Fenspace Speed Record aboard a traditional spacecraft^[8]. It was also, due to PEPPER quirks, a genuine rocket on initial launch fuelled by HTP and Kerosene making Daryl one of the few in Fenspace to have ridden an honest-to-Gods motherfucking controlled explosion ROCKET without the benefit of a wavetech cushion and with a very publicly Broadcast attempt to fool nature in the old NASA manner^[9] thrown in to boot.

Nature is successfully fooled^[10], the rocket flies, and gets within a thousand kph of the record when the speed drive boots to life.

A few weeks later we learn the true extend of her biomod when she shows up to the final race of the season with ghostly grey hair, and the traditional Ayanami blood-red eyes. Only a strong tan keeps her from falling down the Ayanami valley. The words 'biopolymer matrix' ^[11] are thrown around. Daryl gets up in her plane - named Stratos - gets herself pole position, promises a flag-to-flag battle for the lead and Championship - and then promptly flies it around the Ultima circuit at a steady pace, not even bothering to defend the lead. Or second place, or third.

And keeps flying it around and around, even after everyone else has landed for fuel except for two Blackbirds with droptanks. While Abriel's VF-4's refuelling, she goes full throttle for the first time and builds up such a lead that theoretically, they couldn't catch up before the end of the race.

Except for the slight mistake they made in tracking their fuel consumption. They monitored what they'd burned but not what was left, and an extra warmup lap because of a faulty timing system had left them with bingo fuel. And not enough of a lead over the VF-4 for a splash and dash by the time anyone realised it. ^[12]. Abriel in her VF-4 just eats up the gap going full throttle with more than enough in her tanks to do it,

Daryl finishes half the final lap on one engine and fumes, crawling across the finish line moments before Abriel catches up, before guttering to a halt barely a thousand kilometres later.

She wins the Championship, becoming the first Champion from the Millennium, the first to win in her debut season, and the first to win in a spacecraft competing in it's debut season. This is, of course, cause for celebration in the local bar/restaraunt . A bottle of something called Rocket Fuel is opened. ^[13].

For reasons known but to God she's appointed as Captain of the K.M. Lun for it's mission to Arcadia, and by all accounts does a good job of it. Her first real test comes on a trial run to the Great Lakes, when she basically rescues 5 people from a capsized trawler in a full-blown storm by landing the Ekranoplan on the water, picking them up, then managing to make the thing take off again inspite of the sea conditions being far beyond the old bird was rated for. ^[14]

Rumours Surrounding Daryl

The biggest and most obvious.... why did she leave Venus and move all the way out to Frigga? What attracted her all the way out there? On a secret mission from the Queen to bring the old mine into the Millennium fold? There's certainly a fair bit worth having out there beyond the mine - It'd make a hell of a forward base. Along with a training school, a large arsenal, a massive landing bay, an onsite source of resources and massive defensibility.

Answers on a postcard.

Second - just what is up with her biomod? Rumour is, it's more than just some sort of skin-tint, or biofusion with her skin - but has some genuine physical benefits for an asteroid racer. Towards the end of the racing season, she was sure taking far more G load than any human has a right to. And that original flight suit was designed to help a human tolerate G.... Maybe she's having second thoughts about giving up that advantage, rather than just being uneasy about surgery.

Third. Did she ever really leave Great Justice service?

Finally. Future Sailor Frigga? Has she done anything to deserve it? Publicly?

Signature Gear

It used to be the standard Senshi outfit, but now she's more likely to be seen wearing just a pilot's jacket, occasionally with her pilot's logbook, an emergency pistol and a wrist-comm with recovery option.

Known Transports

• Aeritalia F-104 "Silver Arrow" (2020-2022)
• Outlaw Class "Dragon Wagon II" (2021-2024)
• RF-047 Kulbit "Stratos" (2024)
• Ekranoplan K.M. Lun (2024 - current)

Personality

Complex.

Daryl's a soldier, a professional member of the SAM and former City Guard. She has a soldier's ability to hold her nerve in stressful situations - including combat^[15]. She takes combat training, and safety seriously and doesn't tolerate fucking around on Survival Shot's range.

On the other hand, nothing pleases her more than showing the cocky and overconfident, just how overconfident they actually are.

She's a skilled race pilot, having the right combination of nerve and intelligence to really do well in the sport. She'll stick to a strategy, but is at her happiest pushing and pushing and pushing again until she edges against the limit. ^[16]. Her natural piloting style is fluid and exuberant - and not normally very fuel efficient. It's one of the few times she lets the joy out.

Self-respect is important to her - at least, her own peculiar version of it. She hates fanservice and ecchiness, ^[17].

It's peculiar, really. I think she's deathly afraid of it being perceived that someone's gotten one over on her, that they've either made her submit somehow, or that she's let someone do something to her without fighting against it - that she's been made to do something. She hasn't had a relationship since Ranko's death and I'm wondering if that hasn't left something deep seated on her psyche. ^[18] And She's notorious for holding a grudge against people - and not being afraid to act on it either.

She used to be prone to getting angry and acting before she thought, but a few years have done a lot for her maturity. Daryl still values her own personal agency, however - just because someone tells her not to do something, or something's forbidden - doesn't mean she won't do it anyway if she's sufficiently driven.

She has little patience for technology and its quirks, and likes things that 'just work' rather than requiring faffing around and training manuals. If it's not obvious to her, or doesn't specifically interest her, she won't care to find out how it works.

Finally, Daryl's not especially a socialiser - she keeps to herself in public.

Any and all of this can be forgotten in the presence of Kotono Ito.... about the only person I know of that Daryl would consider a true friend.

Faction Affiliations

Crystal Millennium (2014 - Present)

Known associates

• Partner: Single.
• Children:
• Business partners: Jet Jaguar, Ford Sierra, Mackie Jaguar, Kotono Ito, Anika Daini,
• Friends: Briareos Georgiou, Lafiel Abriel, Kotono Ito. ^[19]
• Business Contacts: Hephaestus Mining and Manufacturing, Stengovich Steelwear, Crystal Sapporo Brewing, Julian Bashir.
• Possible: She may still have contacts in the SAM who owe her favours.... The entire asteroid racing scene will know who she is too.

Mundane: Her parents, Azra and Jan Haur, live on Crystal Sapporro. Her mother teaches European history. Her Father is a brewer.

Motivations

Possible Motivations:

• + Self Respect
• + Personal agency.
• + Crystal Millennium
• + Justice
• + Asteroid Racing
• - Cocky assholes
• - Overtechnology
• - Allowing people to think someone's beaten her, or made her 'submit' somehow.
• - Dependency

Reputations

Daryl's got a reputation as a hothead - something she's mostly grown out of but found hard to shake. Recently taking the Warbirds championship has earned her a lot of personal recognition as a race pilot, and also attracted the usual keyboard warriors looking for a good anonymous sneer. The most obvious one is that she's racing in the warbirds class without having any flight combat training. The second is that the RF-047 is against the 'spirit' of the series, which hasn't stopped everyone from jumping on the same bandwagon. The Third is that being biomodded has given her an unfair advantage.

Most people will just think it was cool, however. ^[20] But the interwave is full of assholes who'll never win anything and so insist on ruining everyone else's victories. The usual pains of the beginnings of fame, so. She's not quite BNF yet.....

She's more Justice that Love... she's got respect from being in the service, but it's been a while since she left. She might get some pull for bringing Frigga into the Millennium fold, but only from people who know she was the one who made that happen. Bringing in a major trophy got her a lot of positive attention throughout the faction, and hearing the Venusian anthem on the podium more than a few times upped her standings.... Making a 'valiant and courageous' attempt at the All Fenspace Speed Record helps.

The best, and most succinct description is that she's generally respected for what she can do.... both as a race pilot, and a Survival Shot instructor/rangemaster.

Core Competencies

• Excels at: Soldiery. Race Pilot. Classified
• Good at: Leadership, Investigations. Hand-to-Hand. Firearms. Classified
• Acceptable at: Venus politics, European history. European languages. Mathematics. Ship handling
• Poor at: Singing. Carousing. Engineering. Computers. Aerospace combat.
• Oddities: Sometimes, she won't take being told what to do, and will act on her own initiative.

Future Outlook

Daryl's a tough one.

The Asagiri business she's got going with Jet Jaguar (And occasionally Mackie Jaguar) looks like it's got a chance of doing something interesting ^[21]. OK, so they spend as much on a whole spacecraft as Bellcom or BAT spend on a single thruster bell, but so far they've shown an ability to do some unique and interesting things on a small budget. The RF-047 won a bloody championship for her.

She's on the cusp of BNF-dom - all it'll take is for another strong showing in the '25 season for this to reach critical mass.

The other major possibility is that she'll pull something off that'll earn her a Named Sailor commission... another season victory while racing might do it. It's something

Daryl could become one of the faction BNF's.... provided she doesn't blow up publicly at the sneerers that being a BNF attracts.

Secrets

• Her grandfather was condemned by a judge in a 'peoples court' to death. He escaped. Ten years later, the exact same judge under a new regime, sentenced him to life. Her father thus has little patience for those who act out against the social order, because he saw the price his mother paid for his father's activism. Daryl's more circumspect about such things...
• Daryl is, in fact, the Blue Knight Saber
• Daryl Joined the Knight Sabers as a means to an end - to get a chance at her revenge. And took it, stealing her blue hardsuit and taking off to find the person responsible for Ranko's death. Ultimately, she stopped herself before killing him - delivering him to the Patrol instead.
• The person responsible for her biomod is imprisoned at The Vault. The person the Knight Sabers actually extracted was a SHIELD Skinwalker agent. The 'escape attempt' was a SHIELD extraction from Lun.... and it was SHIELD who hired the Knight Sabers without telling them they were really picking up a Skinwalker.
• Daryl's biomod has enhanced her G-tolerance. And fitness. And strength. Due to the design of the original flight suit. It also includes a gravity brake.

Notes

1. ↑ Call her that to her face and die... just don't
2. ↑ Before you ask, yes, he was male and always had been - the random name generator however, was cruel to him
3. ↑ Really - given her known traits at the time, you'd expect she would've been chasing madly after the person responsible. But someone calmed her down. Maybe the money was good enough
4. ↑ We're guessing she was the point of contact and negotiation for the deal, which might be a bit of a conflict of interest....
5. ↑ And that notorious flight suit based on the Muv-luv 'fortified suit'.... which is made even funnier by being genuinely necessary to fly the thing at race speeds. You should see the male version....
6. ↑ Supposedly, she took it a lot harder than it appeared on the surface... but people are being tightlipped
7. ↑ Yeah...I know this was a GJ euphemism for 'we dumped the scumbags in open space and good riddance', but then again, there's this video of her cutting cables to try to override an access lock so I guess the euphemism had to have started somewhere. Sometimes prisoners do really fall down the stairs....
8. ↑ An old Moskit missile named Yuri, with the warhead removed and just enough space for a human cargo added
9. ↑ We have a problem with a safety critical system, we don't know what caused it, but every other time its happened nothing's gone wrong so Light That Blue Touchpaper and Retire
10. ↑ This time.... fool me once, she says
11. ↑ Whatever that means
12. ↑ Seriously, one of the funniest radio broadcasts from the entire season is that simple 'Oh fuck' when Jet realises her cockup. It's hilarious
13. ↑ A rare Klatchian Coffee liqueur, which explains what happens next....
14. ↑ If you say one thing about her, she's got a lot of nerve...." Her master's license is scrutinised after the Arcadia controversy, earning herself an endorsement alongside that motion of censure. Daryl has considered getting corrective surgery for her biomod - at least partially, but she's been dithering over it for months. <It's definitely possible - it seems to be the sort that's just skin deep, and synthskin's been around for years for big-area burns. A fairly large surgery sure, but not a risky or difficult one.
15. ↑ Even after realising she might run out of fuel at the Ultima 700 - she still holds resolute to her strategy rather than dashing for fuel and taking second
16. ↑ Sometimes she'll keep pushing past the limit, or driving herself hard when maybe it'd be better to stop at take stock
17. ↑ Clearly, it was Jet Jaguar who was responsible for some of Asagiri's advertising and attitude then
18. ↑ Though I'm smart enough not to suggest anything like that to her face....
19. ↑ Odd.... She might know more people in the militia, but she just doesn't socialise
20. ↑ And yeah - it was....
21. ↑ Or at least just about making enough money to justify its own existence