Silhouette

I: HISTORY
Silhouette's true designation is Ain Soph, though she traditionally uses the alias "Amelia Sandoval," an allusion to her creator, Dr. Rafael Sandoval. Silhouette is one of three artificial humanoids (the others being Omega and Lewis Sinclaire) created by Sandoval in the course of an experiment to use a quantum singularity to tap into what he called the "Empyrean"--the raw energy which sparks the creation of life. As a gesture to his daughter, Kyra Jenolan Sandoval, who had accompanied him on the research project he crafted Silhouette in the image of his daughter as he imagined she would grow into.

Through unknown circumstances, Silhouette found herself on Kuran colony, amnesiac and utterly terrified. Her past a complete blank (though she has since regained bits and pieces over the years) her present only came into focus when Kienan Ademetria saved her from a local gang which attempted to rape her. Soon after her rescue, she would learn that her strength and recuperative powers were far above those of a baseline human in dealing with the remnants of the gang that attacked her. Scared, confused and uncertain about everything, she accepted Kienan's offer of protection and they would live together for the next two years, soon becoming lovers.

During those two years, Kienan would ultimately enlist her in his occupation as a freelance assassin. Silhouette showed a natural aptitude for it and eagerly absorbed the lessons of Toriares and Kienan. During this time she began molding herself in Kienan's image, taking up smoking and even dying her hair a lighter shade of brown to match his.

However, as the years went on she began to tire of Kienan's increasing distance and the ethical complications of the job seldom left her at piece. Regretting the bloodthirstiness, she began to question the morality of her actions, as decision that would ultimately lead to her separation from Kienan. Realizing that breaking from the Syndicate and from him would mean he would be sent to kill her, she devised a solution to both problems.

She faked her death by taking a bullet from Kienan and escaping during the confusion. Unbenknowst to Kienan, her recuperative powers would allow her to survive the gunshot. Kienan believed he had murdered the woman he loved and Silhouette began her preparations for her new role as a redeemer.

She began to gather a group of operatives who would work against the Syndicates and provide an underground railroad, a way out of the life the Syndicates offered and a new life where the Syndicates couldn't retaliate against them. Perhaps in a callback to her former employers, she called her new group the White Dragons.

Her first recruit was a former assassin named Sabre, formerly of the Golden Phoenix Syndicate. Unknown to her at the time, the man behind the Sabre identity, Lewis Sinclaire, was Ain, a fellow creation of Dr. Sandoval. Sharing her ideals, Silhouette and Sinclaire formed the nucleus of the White Dragons, and would ultimately become lovers as well.

Some time after her death, Kienan and Silhouette's path's crossed again, and Kienan learned she was still alive, in addition to sparking his rivalry with Sinclaire. This would put some stress on Silhouette's relationship with Sincalire, as her inability to fully break from Kienan, stemming from her guilt about making him think he'd murdered her and the effect it had had on him.

The cracks in Silhouette and Sinclaire's relationship would become full-blown fissures soon after. The White Dragons, having grown into a large organization needed a mobile base of operations to facilitate their operations. Silhouette managed to raise the money to commission Meridius Soldato, the head of the Olympus Corporation and commander of the Olympus Vanguard, to build her a base ship, the White Angel.

Soldato wasn't interested in payment for his services; he was more interested in Silhouette's knowledge of Kienan Ademetria, who had stolen several prototype starfighters from him several years ago. Silhouette attempted to avoid giving him up, but Soldato persisted. Perhaps attracted to his inner strength, as she had been with Kienan and Sinclaire, Silhouette found herself attracted to him, and soon they were lovers. Sinclaire, embittered, left the White Dragons and Silhouette.

Silhouette expanded the role of the White Dragons beyond rescuing apostate Syndicate members, and soon they were functioning as equalizers--sabotaging special weapons projects that would destabilize the balance of power on the Frontier. To aid her with this, Soldato built her personal fighter, the Umbra, a defensive counterpart to his Gryphon fighter.

During this period, Silhouette saved Kienan from a fatal gunshot wound through unknown means, causing their minds to link. While their consciousness were overlapping Silhouette learned much of Kienan's past and when Kienan pushed back, she learned of her past as a test subject of Dr. Sandoval, and the irony of her name--that she was a "silhouette" of Kyra---was first revealed. They would part on slightly better terms this time, although both still carrying a welter of ambivalent feelings about the other, this would ultimately even out into a kind of close friendship that persists to this day.

Later, she and Kienan would cross paths again, this time on a mission to a planet deep in Rigellian space. Kienan had been sent to assassinate Warlord Algrim, and Silhouette intended to sabotage a research project involving ancient alien technology. While not entirely successful, Silhouette did make an enemy of Count Heinrich Straeger, who would frequently attempt to arrest and question her in the years following this incident. It was during this time Silhouette also began to experience flashes of clairvoyance, most of which were a warning against Kienan ever travelling to Earth. It was during one of those flashes that she would hear a line that Kienan would later hear as well: "It will end as he began."

Following Kienan's exile from the Blue Dragons, Silhouette visited him again, this time offering Jayla-2 a safe haven from Kienan's now-fugitive existence. While Jayla-2 would ultimately reject the offer, Silhouette was still resolved to protect them, and so conspired with Soldato to bring Kienan and his crew under his protection whether they wished it or not. The story is ongoing.

II: FIGHTING STYLE
Silhouette was trained by Kienan and Toriares, and uses a style based on a blending of their philosophies. Silhouette uses a primarily defensive fighting style, generally based around blocking her opponent's attacks and punishing mistakes, usually with counterstrikes, but also with throws and holds very similar to the Earth martial arts of Aikido, Judo, and Jiu-jutsu. As much of her work involves stealth, Silhouette is very skilled at nerve holds and quiet methods of killing or otherwise incapacitating her opponents.

Silhouette also has what Kienan has termed a "mean streak," where, when sufficiently provoked, she will abandon her methodical fighting style for a straight-ahead style that makes maximum use of her superior physical gifts, particularly her above-average strength and speed. This is an exceedingly rare occurrence, as Silhouette takes great pains to keep a cool head in combat.

III: WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT
Silhouette sidearm of choice is the Romanova 9mm Automag, a compact semiautomatic handgun with superior stopping power for its size. It fires plasma-charged bullets at a rate of one shot per second. At full power, a clip will discharge for 10 shots; standard powers offer 25 shots. This is an ideal weapon for Silhouette's philosophy, as she prefers to take her shots methodically, and rarely uses her weapon to pin down the opposition or harass them with a salvo of bullets.

Silhouette's flight suit is also designed to enhance her abilities at infiltration. A thin, formfitting lightweight suit of body armor, the suit also has an outer layer of optic prism armor, which in addition to blunting energy weapon impacts, can generate an active camouflage effect when activated (generally by pulling the hood of the suit over her head) The invisibility effect is triggered by a charge altering the way the optic prism armor reflects light.

The effect offers a passable stealth mode, but is inferior to similar systems, like Mirage's Shroud, in that the invisibility effect is compromised by movement, and works better in concealed spaces as compared to open spaces. Silhouette has adapted her tactics to compensate for the limitations of the optic prism system, and generally only uses it for infiltration as opposed to combat.