Drift Seer

Race: Robot - unicorn android
Class: Omniseer (Mage/Tracker)
Gender: Created to emulate a male
Name: In the past - Knottear Drive, now - Drift Seer


Racial skills:

Repair: You are made entirely of metal and wiring, making you stand out among other sapient races. This has the unfortunate downside of making you immune to healing spells. Any spell that would normally heal you now has no effect whatsoever; the same goes for the Lifestream skill and any skills that affect the mind. Instead, you can attempt to self-repair. This has a recharge of 2 and restores 4 hits, as well as 1 wound if used outside of combat. In addition, Tinker acts as per Heal if used on you.

Android: You are designed to look identical to a race of your choosing, and are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing unless inspected closely. You may take one racial, either primary or secondary, from the race you choose. The only exceptions to these are changelings and goo ponies.

Winkmaster: passive; instant; Teleportation magic just comes naturally to you. Teleport's recharge is reduced by 1. Whenever you're targeted by an attack or ability, you may increase Teleport's recharge to 5(unaffected by this ability) to use it as an instant action (interrupting or avoiding  the action that triggered it). You may also spend two skill-points to purchase teleport regardless of class.


Class skills:

Teleport: automatic, recharge 2, spell; warp yourself or a willing or helpless subject or an unattended item within a medium range to an unoccupied destination within equal distance. Warping a hostile target or carried item is Min+2.

Sight Beyond Sight: spell; Can see beyond walls, barriers, illusions, and see through lies.

Survival: spot check rolls +3. Can create and forage for basic supplies like rope, bandages, tents, torches and low-quality meals. Can see far into the distance and can see in dim or night light.


Special Talent:

Recon droid
Survival does not grant the ability to create and forage supplies, but instead applies the visual enhancement to auditory senses as well (+3 to hearing; can hear things from afar)


Trained Talent:

Fleet caretaker
When directly connected to a ship, receives a base +2 to operating its devices, though the number can either rise or diminish, depending on the current relationship with the ship AI


Equipment:

Knives, some of them of the thrown kind (either single or ranged)

300 Sovereigns


Backstory:

First thing to be noted about Drift is that he was custom-designed to fill in big shoes, akin to those of a butler. Whether it was overseeing the cleaning process with superior eyesight, teleporting his master a drink from a kitchen half a vessel away, warning him of disguised Changeling assassins incoming or manning the craft's weaponry as his superior pushes the big red button, he was meant to do that and more on a daily basis, all the while looking presentable, as expected of a servant on the very bridge of the flagship. For a good while he did serve the intended purposes impeccably. However, his occupation required of him some forward thinking - instead of only doing what he was told alike regular droids. He was meant to anticipate his master's wishes like a true butler would and be always at the ready with a plethora of options, be them combat maneuvers or entertainment measures. By design, this translated into a degree of autonomy and learning capabilities, on top of already receiving and processing a staggering amount of data, due to his enhanced senses. All of these combined though would've probably not been enough to make him the robot he is today, if not for a certain influence.

While ordering around cleaning and cooking robot underlings provided little to no mental elation, there was some leeway for him, due to the privileged overseer function he was in charge of. Over the course of serving on many a starship, he's had the opportunities to tend to and, consequently, interact with their AIs. These programs, many of them gifted with consciousness and possessing of vast experience, shared a world view that was both familiar and foreign to him, being artificial creations, yet occupying completely different bodies and perceiving the world in a different fashion. They were exotic and fascinating companions for him, one of the few he could hold a level conversation with on deck, without the servant/master relations clouding the air in-between. Due to that, they played a major role in the development of his own self-consciousness and personality. Over the course of time, the other crew members have started noticing a lighthearted, even somewhat flirty manner of speaking creeping into his manner of interacting with the various ship AIs, especially those he's spent a good while and became familiar with. For the most part they dismissed it though, taking it for a simple quirk arisen from a long time of servitude. That is, until the day of the incident that ended his career.

It was a diplomatic mission of sorts. The situation was rather tense. Drift was tasked primarily with piloting the emissary freighter and secondarily, with the well-being of those on board. Ambassadors under his care were meant to participate in a conference on the deck of the enemy carrier. As the moment of approaching and docking said vessel arrived, the unicorn android made a slight deviation from the standard procedure, shifting somewhat the flight pattern before landing the ship. Even though there were no rules set outright in how the emissary ship should board the carrier and it was not commented upon over the comm unit, this alteration brought some disturbance and worry in the minds of those diplomats he was escorting. These passengers let their stress loose in openly criticizing the lousiness and incompetence of the pilot, whom they accused of endangering their task. While this act of supposed frivolousness was not mentioned by the enemy even after the landing and the debates afterwards ended successfully, the Drift's captain recalled it happening and brought it up later on, once they docked at a nearby planet. The answer extracted from the android surprised her insurmountably. Having gotten to know the shared history and the preferences of this particular series of carriers in the past, Drift knew how their AIs -wished- to be approached. Thus, being aware of the participation of the experienced AI of this carrier in the incoming debates, he's deemed it wise to employ this subtle maneuver in order to wordlessly affect its disposition. Adhering to both the primary and the secondary objectives he was presented with, he acted out of his own accord in order to heighten the chances of successful negotiations.

The implication that the manufactured being claimed its empathy to be solid grounds for altering the course of events in a potentially dangerous manner enraged the captain. She proceeded to deliver a speech, which included quite a few yells akin "Do I pay for your maintenance to have you do a fucking mating dance with the ambassador ship!?", which, at the end of it, the android answered with a simple query - that is, whether his services were no longer needed. Upon getting something to the effect of a very angry confirmation, coupled with proclaiming the intention of replacing either the faulty AI or the aged servant in its whole, he was gone. In his wake, in the suddenly silent bridge, he left an exasperated captain, fully convinced that the machine wouldn't have had enough free will to go off on its own. Not like she needed the amount of money she would've gotten from scrapping him though. For her, he was a nuisance from the past, gone.

That was exactly the thing. Times have changed. Those who have requested the construction of Drift were long dead. His last owner barely traced a line to the ones he first served and felt, retroactively, a genuine loyalty towards. Not like he understood the meaning of this word back then. It was mere smidges of melancholy now. Hence, he did not regret leaving and once he's teleported off the ship, he did not look back. If there was one thing he's felt assured of by all the precious ship AIs he's called his companions, it was the fact that life was a journey across the stars and there were countless worlds to be seen.

That being said, it wasn't easy for the robot in question to find an occupation alike the one he was used to. He wasn't sure whether he'd wished for that either. For the first time in a long time, he was truly free, for his duties were the major factor deciding what he was doing at any given moment. He was in need of learning again and that is precisely what he did, making use of the equipment that was given to him. Namely, he observed.

He wasn't blind to mundane conversations happening on the decks of the ships he was serving at beforehand. He did require a solid backbone for interacting with a variety of individuals. Moreover, the flow of information that he was in charge of monitoring was oftentimes crucial to his masters' security. After breaking these bonds, Drift spent a significant amount of time, simply strolling across vastly differing rural zones or even just staying in place - watching, listening and learning. Blending the newly acquired knowledge with what he's been making use of as an overseer, he continued nurturing the foundations of personality that he'd been seeded with. However, it was practical experience of employing said brew that gave shape to his current disposition.

Given the dangers inherent in Drift's previous occupation, as well as the in-built countermeasures, he didn't abstain from visiting the more shady parts of the society. More than that - he's found himself enjoying visits to such places, for they not only offered the thrill of danger, but also held a plethora of secrets. A number of those sharing forbidden tidbits under the guise of the night, obscured by walls and barriers accused each other of betrayal upon discovering them to have been brought to light. Drift, at that point, found it amusing to stir trouble and did not serve any particular agenda behind doing what he did. The cloaked android did not act as an information broker, for he left clues both for the police and the gangs opposing each other, observing the tipping of the scales from the distance. He learned how power grabs and maintaining dominance work in such circles. Nonetheless, he did not bond with any of the factions present to the extent of revealing the scope of his abilities, vying to simply enjoy bad company every here and there. His looks and mannerism had been largely influenced by this period, for it was the bloom of his self-discovery.

It did not end there though. At some point, the call of space resounded within Drift's mind - at first slighty, but then ever more strongly so. The roots echoed with longing. Having come to the conclusion that he'd learned his fair share, Drift decided it's time to set his hooves once more upon the void-faring vessels. He'd developed a hope that he may yet find some of his companions of old - the ship AIs that he's come to know - as to show them how much he's grown and what came of it. However, he was not given a chance to get to know what would've been their reaction at that point, for the path he chose in order to get close to them once more wasn't a short one.

Drift decided to enroll as a fighter pilot. Luckily for him, a properly maintained robot's skills never quite rust. His flight and combat skills, gained a good while prior, served him well, even if he did need to brush up on his database of some of the newer tech gizmos. Seeing things from a rookie's point of view, be it from position only, did broaden his horizon as well. The time spent with co-pilots, risking life together and sharing a jolly time afterwards with did smoothen up some of the rougher patches of his development thus far. Even more so, since he's seen the more gruff and less sociable members of his squad change over time as well in a manner similar to him, yet sometimes taking even more time for it than he did, despite being a machine. Overall, it was a bittersweet, enlightening experience. It did not bring in the results he'd hoped for, however.

Although he was recognized as a good pilot, he was never awarded a position higher than that. For some reason or another, the superiors neither saw him fit to perform functions of a higher rank nor did they fancy sharing the reason behind such a view. This situation left Drift frustrated and questioning whether it had something to do with him, being a machine. He was programmed to perform duties of a higher station and he improved his qualifications immensely since the last time he did so. Did the expectations rise faster than he could hope to keep up with or was he simply missing something right outta his view? These kinds of questions plagued him for an extended period. Officially quitting his fighter pilot career at the navy, he's decided to try an alternative that presented a similar environment, yet left him more breathing space, promotion potential, higher chance to interact with ship AIs, more opportunities to grow, as well as unknown, delightful variables.

He's decided to become a freelance mercenary.

Appearance:

What remained of the butler-overseer from the past is a manufactured and cared-for look. However, it is one of a completely different tone. Adorning an ashen coat is now an artificial bright red-and-blue spiky manecut, standing upright and to the back, alike a hoodlum's or a ganger's. Making use of the fact that he does not sweat, Drift wears a stylish, yet somewhat ragged black leather jacket. Complementing that is a belt, providing a display of the dangerous, sharp objects he carries around. By design, he was meant to look akin a real unicorn and he keeps up that ruse. It is broken, however, in case he wishes to get more accurate data readings, for his horn, if needed, extends into an antenna dish. On the other hand, the sensors in his eyes do not pose such a dilemma, operating fully functional, while retaining their intensive yellow hue.