Ley Amuredda

Ley Amuredda is written by ketsudan.

Biography
Primarily cared for by her older brother, Celu, as a child Ley found herself wanting for little, if anything else out of life. Though the burden was often on her brother to act as a provider for their family, their mother enduring a long rehabilitation following a car accident and their father typically away for military service with the Autonomous Mars Cell, hardships were generally few and far between for the two siblings. Despite being a relatively shy girl, Ley got along well with her schoolmates and usually found it easy to make new friends. Things weren’t idyllic, but they were a happy family nonetheless.

Eventually, the fateful day arrived on which Ley was to receive her own Martian coming-of-age tattoo. Though nervous about the procedure, Ley found herself more at ease as a result of her older brother accompanying her. Sadly, the group being received that day was the target of a crime syndicate, leading to the abduction of numerous children during the confusion created by syndicate’s members. As a result, Celu and Ley were separated, leaving him without the safety net of a tattoo to determine her whereabouts.

Though unidentified by the media, the crime syndicate that had abducted Ley was known as Leviathan, headquartered on Mars. Occasionally referred to as, “the beast that swims the Deep Black”, their reach within the solar system was fairly large and with access to plenty of resources, thanks in part to under-the-table deals with private companies and corrupt military officials, be they AMC, CEF, or VSC. For Leviathan, the purpose of abducting young girls throughout the system was for the sake of a project known as the Gamut Program, which would test the viability of creating a small, specialized unit of nano-enhanced soldiers ideal for deployment in various operations across a wide range of environments. As a result of the attire assigned to members of the unit, red and black for girls who were enhanced for strength, green and black for those enhanced for speed and reflexes, and blue and black designating sensory enhancement, the name Chroma was chosen for it.

While not one of the more fortunate captives to be freed early on by the syndicate, Ley managed to survive the horrible ordeals that she and the other girls had been put through in the name of the syndicate’s research, learning over the years how to utilize the nano-implants forced upon her. While having formed something of a bond with one of the only researchers to show any concern for her well-being, a woman she had come to know as Dr. Candice Halvard, at the same time Ley acknowledged her as another one of the syndicate members responsible for keeping her there in the first place. Ley appreciated what little compassion the woman was capable of expressing, but sympathy alone wouldn’t grant the girl her freedom. For Ley, she knew the chances that she would die there weren’t mere speculation, but indeed a very real possibility. Though Candice was a rare exception at the facility, the majority of the researchers held no regard for either the physical, mental, or emotional state of their subjects so long as it didn’t impede their work, the cruelty of tests administered or the danger presented by assignments of no relevance to them: no amount of pleading or distress would sway them, be it from Ley or anyone else. As a result, even the slightest amount of physical contact eventually became enough to send a chill down Ley’s spine, leaving her to find comfort only in the touch of the few people she could trust. With the connections to her past and whatever innocence she once knew fading away gradually, Ley had all but resigned herself to her fate.

Finally, on a rare night when the researchers put their work on hold in favor of reviewing their results, a series of explosions rocked the facility, jarring Ley from her slumber. Getting out of bed to approach the door to her room, the girl took hold of the handle, discovering much to her surprise that it was unlocked. Once outside, fires raged throughout the hallway, with thick smoke creating a nigh impenetrable screen. Coughing from the inhaled smoke as she navigated her way around the hazards along the path, the girl was soon able to hear the exchange of gunfire in the distance. Watching as a group of several men were mowed down within mere seconds, two of them armed guards and the other two a pair of the more callous researchers that she had recognized, Ley looked around the corner to see that they had been dispatched by none other than Candice.

Approaching as the doctor emptied the expended rounds of a revolver, Ley’s questioning of just what was happening was greeted by a perfectly calm answer: “My two weeks notice.” No longer able to stand idly by, Candice had chosen to sabotage the experiment by not only escaping from the facility with Ley, but providing the other surviving girls with the resources necessary to ensure their own escapes during the confusion as well. Furthermore, all research data concerning the Gamut Program had been stolen by Candice before she destroyed the original records, with all of Leviathan’s outside collaborators, both private and military, outed the very next morning. With her newfound freedom and the syndicate now heavily weakened and disorganized, Ley’s hopes of finding her brother and reuniting with the rest of her family were renewed once more.

Physical Appearance
Standing at only 5’4”, with a weight of about 105 lbs., she’s fairly petite, her measurements of B33”/W22”/H34” further highlighting a slender build. Of a fair complexion, her hair is jet black with enough length to reach her upper back, styled so as to frame her face with a fuller fringe slanted to her left yet not obscuring her eyes, which are a russet color evocative of fresh black tea. By all means a girl with a delicate appearance, the last sort of person one would likely imagine to be trained as a combatant.

One would likely consider the field attire from her days with Leviathan...unusual. Consisting of a skintight suit of a subdued, jungle green polymer material, it shrinks to mold to the contours of her frame via vacuum activated by a lengthwise, transparent green button on the back of the collar (said activation indicated by a brief flash of light emitted from the button), the collar itself colored black. The gloves of the suit colored green, yet black along the palm sides, the arms and sections of the suit covering the shoulders, bust, and upper back are also green in color. Colored black from the midriff down to the rear and inner thighs, a black line goes up the side of the left leg to stop below her outer thigh, the number 6 written on its right side just before it.

Providing a greater degree of mobility (and to an extent, protection) than its appearance might suggest, its primary function is to monitor and support her vitals, the seams of the suit pulsating with a red glow in response to either extreme fatigue or conditions far more serious. The secondary purpose of the suit is to allow her to drain the nano-implants of an individual target through physical contact, the action causing the subject to faint yet otherwise not harming them. Stored separately from the suit’s own self-contained power supply, the energy obtained from draining can be used to either deliver an electroshock capable of incapacitating a target (effective whether the person is enhanced or not), or to provide a recharge for the energy cells of her plasma weapon during a mission.

When not on assignment, she tends to have a preference for loose, comfortable clothes, often gravitating toward relaxing or otherwise more understated colors.

Personality and Traits
Though fairly introverted, Ley is perfectly capable of carrying on a conversation, and is known to be rather kind and helpful. However, a condition that she developed over the years as a research subject for Leviathan presents a hurdle to normal interaction not shared by those around her: aphephobia. While touching others of her own accord tends not to present an issue, physical contact initiated by a third-party with whom Ley isn’t sufficiently acquainted (be they male or female) can not only cause her to freeze up, but potentially make her recoil or even lash out depending on the situation. These involuntary responses are an ongoing source of guilt, leading her to seek security in those close enough to her not to trigger such reactions between attempts to nurture bonds with new allies. Part of the reason for her continued emphasis on close-range combat is to engage in a form of systematic desensitization, resulting in Ley being stable enough to conduct field assignments in spite of continued trials stemming from her phobia in ordinary social settings.

Primary Combat Style
Specializing in close-range combat, Ley is augmented with nano-implants that greatly enhance her speed and reflexes beyond that of a normal person, leading her strengths to lie in precision and maneuverability as opposed to brute force or robust endurance. Though capable of fending for herself in hand-to-hand combat, her preferred weapon for close-quarters is a hybrid plasma blade originally provided by Leviathan. Featuring a moderately thick, 24” single-edged white blade made from high carbon stainless steel, the slightly curved gray handle of the sword more closely resembles the grip of a gun. A pair of small, round buttons embedded in either side of the hilt toward the front, an LCD with a blue digital display is located on the back of the handle. Pressing and holding these buttons with the thumb and index finger causes a motor to deploy a trigger guard from beneath the handle, complete with a thick, transparent azure trigger. This motor also triggers the blade open from the hilt all the way to the tip, the top and bottom halves of the blade parting to reveal a plasma arc. The LCD displaying the amount of remaining energy as a percentage, a two-stage trigger operation is used to dispense the plasma (characterized by a pale green color), pulling slightly producing a steady stream for cutting that lasts for up to 10 seconds on a full charge, while pulling the trigger fully to the rear creates a powerful, short-range burst that uses up all remaining energy.

Additionally, she carries a black handgun derived from the SIG Sauer P229 Enhanced Elite. Chambered for .357 SIG rounds (12 FMJ rounds per magazine), the ammunition’s high velocity and stopping power make it an effective weapon against targets protected by light armor.

Trivia
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