Hmm, didn't realize my pilot name would also become my forum name. But no worries, I'll just introduce myself and my pilot separately.

ME

Male, early 30s, mixed African-American/Latino descent, avid roleplayer and writer, thinks the BT Universe has lots of untapped potential.

MY CHARACTER

Name: Lina Thoren
Rank: (pending)
Title: Grafina von Dundalk
Callsign: Banshee
Date & Place of Birth: 5/24/3004, Tamar City, Tamar, Lyran Commonwealth
Current Residence: Dundalk, Alexandria, Skye March, Federated Commonwealth

Physical Description:
154 cm, 56 kg (roughly 5'1", 123 lbs.), stocky, curvy build (owing to Tamar's 1.2x Terran gravity); dark reddish-brown skin; brown eyes; bleached blond hair (worn in traditional Lyran Mechwarrior style). Mixed Swedish (via Rasalhaguian refugees on her father's side) and Guyanese descent; it shows in her accent.

History:
A shameless sybarite born to minor Tamar nobility, Lina sought a Mechwarrior's commission against the wishes of her family. She got into the Nagelring on Tharkad only through the personal intercession of Duke Selwin Kelswa, was forced to repeat her second year, and (eventually) graduated with dismal grades. Considered unfit for combat, she was initially assigned to the TharHes BattleMech factory on Tharkad as an acceptance trials pilot, in the hope that she would grow tired of the busy-work and resign. Instead, she used her charisma, connections, and an innate talent for intrigue to secure a BattleMech, a small landhold on the planet Alexandria to replace the one she was now unlikely to inherit from her parents, and a combat posting--one that, in hindsight, she was not at all prepared for--making several powerful enemies in the process.

She likely would have evolved into yet another shining example of Lyran military incompetence, were it not for one of the many friendships she made during this time. Margaret Aten, the common-born orphan-turned-Duchess of Skye, took Lina under her wing, and secured for her an assignment to the Fourth Skye Rangers under then-First Leutnant Moira Bruce, confident that Bruce (a hard-edged Skyeswoman and a minor noble herself) would whip Lina into shape.

Their first assignment (officially as part of a parade unit sent to Terra in advance of the wedding between Melissa Steiner and Hanse Davion, while ferreting out and eliminating potential threats to the royal couple on the side) helped as well. While many of the details about that assignment remain classified (OOC: Translation: the campaign's still in progress), it allowed Lina to utilize her existing strengths while both easing into combat (the unit was involved in gunplay on several occasions while on Terra) and acquiring sorely-needed experience at her "day job." By the time they rejoined their parent unit for the start of Operation Götterdammerung, Lina was a respectable pilot of "Incorrigible" (as she'd named her DV-6M Dervish) and a talented strategist. She'd also caused a minor scandal by getting into a relationship with Sergeant Major Kevin Resk, a common-born Davion NCO attached to the Fourth (who she would eventually marry.)

She remained with the Fourth Skye through the War of 3039, apart from a brief stint in the Kelswa House Guard during the Ronin War that saw her assigned as liaison to one of the mercenary units Duke Kelswa had hired for security on the recaptured Tamar Pact worlds. Caught between her heritage and her loyalty to her Duke when she learned that the mercs were tasked with destabilizing the nascent Free Rasalhauge Republic, she made a hard decision, publicly feigning obedience with her Duke's orders while secretly tipping off the LIC and MIMIR, the FRR's intelligence service. Afterward, the Duke "loaned" Lina's services to his daughter, Morasha Kelswa; with Morasha's marriage to Duke Ryan Steiner of Porrima, this meant that Lina was now working part-time for the Free Skye movement whether she liked it or not.

She lost her beloved Dervish on Kessel during the War of '39, and between her party-girl reputation (which, to this day, she has never been able to completely shake), Duke Ryan and the LIC both trying to make her a full-time spy, and the newly-combined Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth (AFFC) making an effort to weed out so-called "Social Generals," it appeared her days as a Mechwarrior might be finished. In desperation, she took on the only assignment available: a posting to the newly-raised Alexandria Skye March Militia.

This supposed "step-down" from the Rangers ultimately saved her career, as it allowed her command skills to finally come to the fore. She took a mixed-bag of raw recruits in hand-me-down light 'Mechs and shaped them into an effective "Lightning Company," handling reconnaissance and skirmishing duties for the Militia regiment. The posting to Alexandria also gave her a chance to become personally involved in the management of her landhold of Dundalk, encouraging outside investment and increasing the prestige of the planet as a whole. She remans with the Alexandria SMM to this day, soon to return to a combat command afther three years training and administrative duties.

Her ability to make friends in high places easily has been both her greatest asset and her biggest liability: while she can call in many favors from powerful people, they can and often do ask the same of her, and rarely at a safe or convenient time...