Slon Kuznyetski

Slon is far too tall and barrel-chested to be such a nice fellow. He stands just over seven feet tall, weighs in at close to three hundred pounds, and he has arms as thick as legs and legs as thick as tree trunks. He has dark skin from years in the sun with wrinkles at the corners of his soft and bright blue eyes with smile lines at the corners of his lips. His hair is a sandy blonde mess that is bleached from spending most of his time outdoors even since he was a child and, while it is unkempt for its length, it is kept reasonably short around the ears and neck. He keeps his chin clean shaven except when long periods in the field don't allow that sort of luxury.

He has a number of tattoos across his body. 'DROP DEAD GORGEOUS' is tattooed across his fingers in a way that ends up splitting 'GORGEOUS' in half, a provocatively clothed Nepleslian woman in a pin-up pose is on his left bicep, his right arm is a whole sleeve of symbols and markings tied to his Kuznyetski heritage including a belt of ammo wrapped around his forearm, and he has 'HARD WORK BREAKS NO BONES' across his chest in bold text. One of the more recent additions is on his right shoulder, where the Scout-Sniper badge has been recreated in black ink.

His complexion is worn for his age by hard labor that shows itself in ways, like with his scarred knuckles and calloused hands. His attire is often simple and functional instead of chasing after the latest trends. He seems to prefer well-worn denim, sturdy work boots, and an absurd collection of flannel-patterned button-down shirts. He isn't one for jewelry or glamorous clothes, and the most expensive clothes he's ever owned were issued by the Marines.

Slon is a kind-hearted young man who joined the Marines because he wanted to help people. He thinks violence for its sake is pointless and to be avoided, and for all of his bulk and strength he'd avoid hurting a fly if he could. He joined the Marines because he wants to help others and thinks that he can help to make a difference in the world as part of something so much larger than just himself or the community he came from. Maybe that makes him an idealist, or maybe he's just a passionate optimist, but the fact of the matter is that these are things he has believed ever since he was a boy and he's taken them with him into his early adulthood. They've come to help shape who he is and how he views the world and treats others.

He has no sense of personal space and doesn't consider anybody to be a stranger, even to a fault. For some people this can be uncomfortable to have the fellow they just met wrapping them up in a hug but to him its all well and fine. In his innocence he can seem a touch 'simple': he doesn't go for plays on words, subtle implications, or veiled lewd jokes. He would prefer people speak directly and openly about what it is they want or are trying to say instead of using euphemism and allegory to make their point. Its not that he's oblivious: he understands at least some of it he just has no taste or patience for it. At times, it makes his sense of humor seem rather plain and sober by Nepleslian standards.

He's a hard worker who doesn't complain even if something visibly gets to him, and it takes a great measure of stress for him to express it to others. If he's asked to work out in the sweltering summer sun for twelve hours with barely any break, he won't complain not because he doesn't mind but because he was raised that complaining till he was blue in the face would only make things worse for him when he ran out of breath. He'll suffer through others who don't share his mindset with the dismissal that they came from a wholly different place and he can't rule in on how their family raised them. Even if that sounds a bit high-and-mighty of him when said aloud, but its not like he's going to actually tell anybody that.

The real weak point for Slon is women. The poor boy knows next to nothing about them. He's more comfortable around a rifle or a bathroom gin brewery than any woman he knows. He seems to speak with a romantic interest more about his rifle than any woman but at the same time those strange and foreign creatures can still manage to get him starry-eyed and lost if they fit his type. Not that even he'd really know what his 'type' is when asked.

• Likes: Working with his hands, his rifle Anatevka, his home community, gun-smithing, and meeting new people
• Dislikes: Unnecessary violence, talking too much, seeing a firearm mistreated, and hearing people complain too much

Slon Kuznyetski was born in YE 20 aboard a freighter packed full of Kuznyetski who were seeking to start a new life on one of Nepleslia's many moon colonies. His parents were former merchant sailors who had sought out a more stable and familiar life among those they were most comfortable with when they had learned they were first pregnant with their child. Patriotism in Nepleslia and those sorts of ideals weren't exactly virtues taught in childhood when he was born and for the most part Slon would consider himself a Kuznyetski before he considered himself a Nepleslian. It was a close-knit community that relied upon everybody within it to stay together and functioning.

'Home' for the unusually large community was comprised of three apartment complexes. Two were bought out entirely by the community elders, while the third was owned by the community while still serving as an open place for other tenants. All three buildings were connected by a number of skywalks over time so that families could easily reach one another in safety. In times of hardship the buildings became a bastion of security for the locals that not even local crime-lords felt like messing with, and in times of peace and safety it was an open market of trade and culture. If only by the circumstances of how they were arranged, the community had to accept outside cultural influences playing an every-day part in many of their children's lives. It would turn into an interesting cultural melting pot over the years as the community developed.

Slon's mother and father put their skills from their time sailing to use in the community in order to support themselves. His mother practiced her medicine to treat the weak and the inform, while his father worked as a 'handyman' who could do everything from electrical work to carpentry around the complex. His days were spent either helping his father when the work called for tight spaces and more than one set of hands, to sitting beside his mother's desk and trying to pretend he could understand half of the medical readings she would be pouring.

If neither of them needed him around and he didn't have classes taught by the community elders then he'd rummage through the junk pile, or play handball and hide-and-seek with the other kids. Like any good Kuznyetski child he was immersed in a reverent gun culture and could slamfire a shotgun or fix a double-feed with his eyes closed by the time he was twelve. Then his parents and the other elders agreed that it was time for him to undergo his ceremony into adulthood.

At twelve years old he made Anatevka. 'She' had wooden furniture worked on at his dad's work-bench, chambered in 9.36x65mm, had a straight-pull bolt, and for a rifle meant for somebody his size at the time the barrel was absurdly long. A few years later when a local mafia had failed to convince and shake down some of the community's storefronts for their protection racket, they thought it would be a smart idea to assault the compound. During the attack he took his rifle up to help defend his community, and at four hundred meters without an optic on his rifle he managed to kill one of the thugs driving down the street.

In his mind this was just something that had needed done, but his parents continued to mention it and the elders always seemed to bring it up whenever one caught him by himself during a Nasvehk feast. His growing talent and apparently talented eye for marksmanship would one day see him sitting in the back of a truck as he and some other young men and women from the community drove to the nearest NSMC recruiter's office.

While in boot camp in Funky City his predisposition and past experiences in medicine were noted. After his basic infantryman's training was completed, he was sent to the Nepleslian Scout-Sniper School for training as a Marine Sniper. It would lead to long weeks full of sleep deprivation, book work, studying, and learning field-craft. He excelled at learning to operate the four most fundamental systems of a NSMC sniper: the 'Scout' Cannon, the DSR, the ITD, and those basic senses he had been given when he was first born. He ended up graduating in the top 4% of his cycle and when personnel reports indicated a lack of qualified personnel for the billet, he was given orders to report to the 309th AID.

Emilio has the following social connections

Slon Kuznyetski has the following notable skills:

• Slon 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 and is capable of reading and writing, reading, or speaking with conversational clarity. He is able to efficiently fill out reports, converse, work within a chain of command, and give or take orders in any circumstances without any notable difficulty.

• Any good Marine knows how to stay fit, operate just about any firearm the Nepleslian military has, and can punch somebody's lights out in a fist-fight. Slon knows how to establish a healthy workout regimen and diet in order to stay in shape as well. With a weapon he can fire accurately with a variety of weapons, employ explosive devices, or close with the enemy in either armed or unarmed hand-to-hand combat. This training was followed with basic instructions and field exercises in Nepleslian power armors that have left Slon able to employ the more common systems without needing the direct oversight or influence of his superiors.

• Slon has been well versed in the most basic of skills necessary to be a Marine: following orders and killing the enemy. He's learned infantry combat tactics both for light infantry and power armor. He has experience working in combined-arms operations, working alongside assets of the Nepleslian navy and various airborne assets in support of a military operation. He has learned how to plan and execute non-standard operations such as commando raids, long-range reconnaissance patrols, manuevers in inclement or urban terrain, artic warfare operations, and even starship boarding and combat. This has also included training for both normal and micro-gravity conditions.

• A Marine is trained and expected to know how to survive and life off the land without a resupply. Part of Slon's four months of training in boot camp was focused on the skills to recognize edible plants, to hunt and catch animals, navigation with anything from a GPS to a simple star charts, and other forms of field-craft essential to survival. He knows how to make a fire without any of the more conventional or ready-access means, he can make a shelter and disguise it from enemy observation, and how to navigate and survive in a variety of harsh conditions. On top of this his training in foraging and camouflage was expanded on in his training to become a sniper: constructing camouflage by hand from local flora, foraging and making shelter for others, and the finer points of long-range reconnaissance operations.

• Most Kuznyetski learn how to handle themselves at a workbench before they're even old enough to start drinking. Slon is familiar with a variety of simple and power tools, can operate a welder or cutting device, and can deal with low-voltage electrical wiring without guidance or supervision. To a certain degree he can even be called on to perform work on vehicles or other systems, and with enough time and proper tools he can be relied on to trouble-shoot issues with the system. Where he shows specialization is in working on and tinkering with firearms: modifying, improving, or simply maintaining firearms. While it is not his billet, he's almost skilled enough to put a Marine armorer to shame.

• Taken up mainly as a way to pass time when he was less occupied by work, Slon has taken to playing various card games in order to pass the time. He has a fairly decent 'poker face' and can keep his cool when chips seem to stack against him. He also knows enough of some of the more common card games played by most Nepleslians and Kuznyetski that he can pick them up and play in the moment, or even teach them to those less experienced to start a pick-up game. He's taken such a liking to it that he often keeps a 52-card deck close at hand.

• The Sniper Training Program is a twelve week course that focuses on every aspect of being a Marine sniper. Soldiers are taught how to use and clean the Na-W3301 and the Designated Sharpshooter Rifle, Model 1. They are trained extensively in how to operate these weapons with and without power armors. They must also learn how to infiltrate behind enemy lines, how to escape and evade hostile forces without support, and how to make the most efficient use of their skills. Since it is a job that requires a great degree of confidence and discipline, Marines who pass this course are considered to be a cut above most others.

• More important than the marksmanship aspect of the training, is the observational aspect of the training. It is important for a sniper to keep watch for a squad, to pass along important information to where it needs to go, and to call for support when it is needed. All snipers are trained on the target designator and how to use it and a datapad to send requests for orbital laser strikes, fighter attacks, mortar, or even beyond line of sight power armor attacks using mini missiles.

• At the end of the course, Marines are awarded the coveted “Sniper” designation as well as a badge, proving that they are among Nepleslia's elite.