Maverick Francia

Maverick Francia is a player character played by DJ P4NTSL3SS.

Maverick Francia
Aliases:	None
Species:	Nepleslian
Gender:	Male
Date of Birth:	30日 9月 YE 08
Organization:	Contractor
Occupation:	Starship Pilot
Rank:	Pilot, ad hoc IT
Current Placement:

An adrenaline lover and a lover of 'alternative' art and style: it shows not only in how the starship pilot acts but also in how he dresses. His dirty blonde hair is undercut with the top kept long and slicked back, while sporting a thick and darker beard on his heart-shaped face. His physique is firm and fleshed out from a few years service in the Nepleslian Navy, with broad shoulders, and a tall frame. He's also very typically Nepleslian that in spite of his relatively young age he's already has laugh-lines at the corner of his mouth and eyes while his skin is rough from years of hard work and lifting. The only sort of tell that his smile isn't always genuine is the way that those almond-shaped amber eyes seem much harder than the rest of his expression.

Maverick's apparel is very utilitarian but at the same time obviously designed to make a statement or stand out. Whether aboard his ship or out in public he wears heavy boots that have been stained and worn from years of ship-side work, worn and faded jeans, and the shirts he wears reliably flash some form of Nepleslian pop-culture or another. In colder weather he often prefers a baggy hoodie or a dark leather jacket that sports a number of Nepleslian military patches and insignia across its sleeves and back. Where accessories go he often keeps a shoulder-holster for his pistol and knife on him, and a large pair of headphones about his neck.

Like any Nepleslian, of course Maverick has his shiny pieces. These include:

• His left arm is replaced at the shoulder-joint by a cybernetic replacement, with minor surgical scarring at the connection.
• His right arm is replaced above the elbow with a cybernetic replacement, though this one has a cleaner connection.
• His eyes are passable at a glance but a concentrated look will reveal their cybernetic nature: allowing him to see into the thermal spectrum and to use his eyes as a HUD when operating a vessel.
• His left leg is replaced with an above-the-knee cybernetic leg.

• Both ears sport a whole collection of piercings, most in matte or polished black color, to include: helix rings, scaffold bars, forward helixes, traguses, and lobe piercings that are near identical to one another.
• He has two rings on the right side of his bottom lip.
• He has twin stud piercings in his tongue as well.
• He also has a ring piercing in the center of his nose and two rings on the left eyebrow.
• A fictional star-scape fills up the entirety of his upper right arm from the shoulder down to the connection of his cybernetics.
• He has 'One In The Grave' on the back of his right calf, done in black ink with a stylized font.
• A nautical star on the back of his neck, done in a Nepleslian Navy blue. Under it in black text is the declaration 'Squids Die Easy'.

Maverick is loud and in charge. He's one of the best pilots you'll find this side of the system and he knows it.

Its very Nepleslian really: 'humble' is a four-letter word where he's from, right along with 'quiet' or 'low-impact'.

The man enjoys playing his music too loud for some to be comfortable, he enjoys having a cold beer in hand, and he's not afraid to interject with a smart comment if he feels the desire. Its apparent from a five minute conversation with the man that he's never been taught the idea of dialing himself back or restraining himself. One could use the term that he 'wears his heart on his sleeve' to some degree with how emotive and boisterous he can get. When he walks into a room he has no qualms with letting everybody know he's arrived and the same holds true when he's on his way out the door again.

Maverick's personal life is rather empty for a man who seems to enjoy being the life of the party. He can tell you about the one-night stands he's had and the occasional 'long-term flings' beyond that, but it seems he doesn't have any interest at the moment in pursuing a romantic partner. Where friends are concerned he can often talk about those men and women he served with in the Nepleslian Navy, but it seems that those friends he's made for life are never close at hand or nearby. He acts as if he likes the idea of saying he is committed and trusting of others more than actually practicing it.

His stated life goal is to quite simply 'travel far, see it all, and die between two stars'.

• Likes: Aethersperm, music, flying, space
• Dislikes: Crowded cities, staying ground-side, tofu, yogurt

They say that a man who is born to the stars is destined to return to them his whole life.

Maverick Francia was born in YE 08, on a Nepleslian tender ship that was running maintenance and construction resources to the outskirts of Nepleslian space. His mother was the captain's daughter and his father was a newly promoted Certified Rating who hadn't thought about the penalties of being so handsy. What followed was what could be shortly described as a shotgun wedding, though it could more accurately be described as “a shotgun, four pistols, something both homemade and illegal, and the threat of being spaced” wedding. The two were brought together because his grandfather was certain his baby girl wasn't going to be put through the pains of raising a child all on her own.

It goes without saying that even if he's an only child, Maverick was almost raised by the whole of the crew in various ways.

When he was old enough to run around on the work decks, the Able Bodies and Ratings would occupy his time by teaching him how to do the smaller scutwork that a boy could be trusted with. With a growing age came more allowances, while his mother saw to his more 'conventional' education. Now the Ratings in the engineering room wouldn't run him off if they found him lingering by the door and instead the Chief Engineer would sit with him and help him learn how to tinker and take things apart. Curious enough to take it apart, smart enough to figure out how it worked, and clever enough to hide the spare parts when he put it back together as the old woman would always say.

What he remembered best of all was the time he would spend in the ship's bridge with his grandfather. The two of them would sit together for hours while he watched his grandfather work and toil away. They'd talk sometimes, but at others they would sit together in silence and watch stars streak by on the holographic displays. That old gray-haired man was Maverick's hero and he taught him his love for the stars.

The war came like it did for everybody. In YE 26, the young man was 18 and the squids had come seemingly from nowhere.

A call to arms went up and the space-loving young man ran to his nearest Navy recruiter to do what he could in the war effort.

He came out of it with friends, experience, a helmsman's certification, and minus a few limbs. To ask him: you haven't really lived until you've been on a lazy cruise at somewhere around three times the speed of sound, watching squid battle-pods getting torn to shreds by point-defense fire and fighters. Sadly he lost his parents over the course of the war: lightyears apart when a patrol of NMX warships came across a small cluster of civilian ships fleeing to safety under the guiding work of his grandfather and father. He can even tell you he's worked out the rough time differences to know that he was dragging himself dead-tired to morning chow before a twelve-hour shift when it had happened.

That was enough to make him sick of fighting for the Navy and instead he sought out work elsewhere.

It was easy enough in a market that had been stripped of qualified pilots and helmsmen by grievous civilian and military losses. He met Captain Glas in a grungy little bar on the bad side of a starport when he was between jobs and she'd offered to get him licensed and set as an ONI contractor because her ship was looking for a good pilot. And like that the partnership was settled and they had an agreement.

Maverick has the following social connections

Optional section. Maverick Francia has the following notable skills:

Maverick is familiar with basic radio operation and procedures and can make transmissions to and receive transmissions from others through headsets, starships, power armor, and shuttles in both combat and non-combat conditions. He is fluent in Trade, Yamataigo (邪馬台語), and the Freespacer Languages. He is capable of reading and writing in all of them with enough clarity and efficiency to fill out reports, converse, or give orders in any sorts of circumstances. But he attests that he only learned 'Yam speak' because of the hushed talk about what the 'Old Enemy' might do after the squids were dealt with.

Like any Nepleslian sailor, Maverick was thoroughly schooled in the art of 'fighting and dying'. He was trained to keep in shape, how to handle a gun in a fight without taking off his own digits, how to clean and service his weapon, and a few generous Marines even took the time to teach him a thing or two about explosives. He was trained how to operate a power armor independently or with the assistance of an AI, and his training was finished off with extensive training in self-defense training to make sure he could keep up with the Marines in emergencies.

Maverick is capable of operating any computer that runs the more common operating systems used by Nepleslian technology. He can enter or search for information, handle basic encryption and decryption, and can be reliably called on for general troubleshooting if a less experienced user has issues. He's even dabbled in the Kessaku OS used by the SAoY well enough to understand and use its basic functions and he is working to improve his abilities with it.

Maverick has been educated in basic mathematics, algebra, and trigonometry up to the standards of Nepleslian public and home-schooling. He's also trained and experienced in the more advanced mathematical formulas that come with starship operation and interplanetary travel and both atmospheric and micro-gravity flight. Not to mention the troubling work that comes with the transition between those two states that is so often overlooked by the less informed or those who have watched too many action movies that take place on starships.

Maverick has been put through intensive training to become familiar with the operation and function of the various vessels of the Nepleslian military. This also carries over into the basics of understanding how to operate more civilian-oriented vessels, as well as the less specialized military vessels and more general systems of foreign military forces. He can read system read-outs, conduct basic damage control and maintenance on general systems, and reliably function as a member of the general crew. His training also included being able to recognize the general classes and fleet structures of the more powerful nations around Nepleslia.

While he is no master mechanic of any measure, Maverick has been trained in the basics to know his way around a starship's systems. He can conduct general repair and preventative maintenance when given the proper time and tools. With proper resources he can even diagnose and solve more serious issues, or at the very least stabilize and handle them well enough to limp the ship to the nearest friendly port for repairs.

Started as something of an idle hobby, Maverick is most proficient with the acoustic guitar but has since proven to be a capable electric and bass player. He practices and knows the notes to several more popular Yamataian and Nepleslian songs. He's able to parse some notes from only hearing them without a sheet to reference and is talented enough to pick up, tune, and play a guitar as a means to pass the time or entertain others. To a lesser extent he's dabbled in other common string instruments as well.