Source

Duel: Aces HighMurder Death Kill (13, 15)

Description

Race: Hrothgar
Age: 34 (estimate)
Birthplace: Bozja

A hypertuned soldier of the IVth Imperial Legion's magitek unit, Dabog pilots two of the latest warmachina to be conceived by the Empire: the scorpion-type Vigilia and the flying armor Gabriel.

In recent years, many of the Empire's weapons have been sent to Valnain, where they undergo enhancement under the supervision of Senior Engineer Sicinius mal Vellutus. Two notable fruits of this project are Vigilia and Gabriel, which are designed to be controlled both physically and mentally for superior responsiveness and maneuverability. Piloting these units, however, demands a heightened state of mental sensitivity verging on telepathy, and only those soldiers who have been augmented with magitek can achieve the requisite synchronization between man and machine.

While theoretically sound and showing promise in the laboratory, this new interface technology remains in its infancy, and being all too familiar with the fickleness of the flesh, Sicinius resolved to test it fully in Bozja in preparation for the outbreak of conflict in Dalmasca. For this he required a test subject, and the person chosen was Dabog─a cruel twist given that the Hrothgar was not a soldier of the IVth but of the enemy, the Bozjan Resistance.

The death of his parents and siblings in the Bozja incident prompted Dabog to join the Resistance, and for more than a decade he fought tirelessly against his hated Empire. Even when he was taken prisoner two years ago, he never stopped fighting, and ever sought a way to flee his captors. But on one such attempt, he plummeted from the castrum wall, the long fall shattering his spine. The chirurgeon's diagnosis was grim: he would not live out the week.

In the IVth Imperial Legion, testing is only permitted upon living men when their safety is absolutely assured, and be it friend or foe, all individuals are to be treated with compassion. Thus has the legatus himself decreed. Perverting his commander's noble intent for his own ends, Sicinius reasoned that he was saving a man's life, and proceeded with his testing in secret.

So it was that Dabog was reborn a hypertuned soldier and returned to the battlefield at the helm of fearsome new warmachina. And owing to a further act of so-called compassion on Sicinius's part, he is spared the pain of having to kill his former comrades─for he no longer remembers them.