Ardan
Basic Stats
Species Dasher
Model: Iris-HXD-01b Stable Prototype Release
Gender: Male
Actual / Equivalent Age: 3.75 years / 19 years
Height: 3 meters nose to tail, 2.25 meters bipedal height
Weight: 90 kg
Move: 10/14 Multilimb 14/18
Psi Active: Yes
Personality: Incredibly energetic, optimistic, and sometimes overly helpful.
Objectives: To become a superhero. Also to survive Helena when he comes home beat up from hero work.
A Quote: “The guy on the holivids that dashes in guns and fists and takes down the bad guys? Just watch, that’s going to be me!”
Best Known For: The Four Sword slice’n’dice.
Background
Watching holovids and wishing you could be the hero on the screen is not an uncommon childhood aspiration. Soon enough we learn what acting is and that what we are watching is not real. For some, the fascination doesn’t die, and for fewer still, they has the physical prowess to make it a reality. Arden was given a name that meant ‘high aspirations’ in the silly hope that he might live up to it. If it was a combat class or a group working on increasing their agility, he was there. Between cheetahs and some of the ferrets, he had some of the best repulsorlift drivers one could hope for. With six limbs, he became a real headache for martial arts instructors when he learned how to use all six of them in combat. Arden pushed ever harder to be faster and stronger than his classmates, but he never let his ego grow with his skills. Having a fake it until you make it attitude, he was not afraid to fail nor be laughed at. At first he was a regular in medical, but with time he was shaping up to be a skillful combatant and driver. Seeing the need for protection and extra strength at times, he also began working to test power armor until his skill reached a point where he was allowed to work with experimental systems as a test pilot.
Arden is likely one of the force sensitives that slipped through the cracks as some of the second gen wildkin with the gift took the stage. Had his skills been known, he might have had other training, and he could have easily been Keene and Fwiffa’s best buds. Without a trainer, he was left to discover his abilities on his own, and most of these came about in unusual if not comical ways. The first burst of speed to manifest slammed him into a door and broke his nose. Another moment when simply pushing his climbing and jumping skills on the gym’s obstacle course, he jumped so high that he hit a beam and nearly knocked himself out. Having no idea why these things happened, he could only try to repeat them until he figured out. Medical kept a chair ready for him while the admins simply marked this off as an exceptional specimen of a dasher and were pleased.
Jumping and running were not enough for him though. It was the superhuman combat in the holovids that drove him, and there was little need to imagine when Jedi were well known. Arden never for a moment thought he might have potential like that, and in that he was kept at a distance from the force sensitives and most chances of being discovered. That did not, by any means, stop him from imitating them and trying to do his best. Grabbing a friend and a stun pistol, he spent a lot of time and pain trying to learn how to stop an incoming energy weapon with a sword. While he failed in that, he did begin to show a definite resistance to stun bolts, and his general combat prowess improved greatly.
Had he stayed solely on the path of armed combat, someone might have noticed him and his unusual abilities, but the were instead masked by Arden’s other means of becoming super: power armor. Rising to the ranks of an advanced pilot, he was allowed to test new armor in live fire combat where his subtle skills still gave him an edge. Even better, two suits of armor were tailored just to him anatomy, an older suit of smasher armor and a very special custom rigged Krait 210 armor that is in testing and may one day become a combat standard for Dashers in armor. He is only allowed to use it in testing, but that doesn’t stop him from leaving nose marks on the glass when he is staring at it from the widow in the hall.
Arden’s disposition is no secret, and his strong moral compass can be dangerous in a military conflict as it risks him disobeying orders. It makes for amazing public relations though. “Hi, my name is Arden! Like a lot of kids, I wanted to grow up to be a superhero and help others. Well, I’m growing up and the mission hasn’t changed!” Those words with a smiling, fuzzy face combined with training video of non-lethal takedowns of suspects or helping on a humanitarian mission while leaving droids in the dust might be a good start for getting units into more than just military applications. Regardless of the PR, Arden still wants to be out there kicking ass and taking names so those that can’t might sleep at night.
Felyxan Weavers and Relatives
The older Star Wars D6 version of these documents can be found at CWK-HX Series. This article refers to the versions used on Spindizzy