As I mentioned before, Freddie's the first of the team that I
worked with (Okay, him and Neon, but one profile at a time) and as such, I've
known the longest. He’s also in many ways the most open of the team, so I have
a lot to say about him.
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| Orks with 'staches are apparently not that common. Freddie makes up for that all on his own |
First up, he's an Ork. As mentioned, he Goblinised during
puberty, something that I've gathered doesn't happen very often any more. He's
in his late twenties, but that's a human late twenties, not an Ork late
twenties, for whatever that means. I really can't say much else on the physical
looks side of it beyond his moustache. It's actually rather impressive, and I
can tell he's proud of it and takes good care of it. Combined with his love of
driving caps, it gives him a bit of a dapper, old-world look.
Aside from that, though, he's got this whole "farm
boy" thing going for him. I know that he's from rural Tir Tangire,
although the "rural" part definitely shows in everything from being
mostly laid back to the fact that his Matrix persona is a scarecrow. He speaks
Sperenthiel, which Wraith finds kind of amusing given that I don't. Also, going
towards the 'country bumpkin' thing is the fact that he can't tell a lie to
save his life. It's painfully obvious when he tries.
Freddie's actually his real name, by the way. He hasn't come up
with a Street Name, and given his inability to lie with any conviction, I doubt
that it'd really work if he could. The Freddie name just kind of stuck, and
everyone uses it. Besides, he looks like a Freddie.
Apparently he was in some sort of military unit in past, which
is where he got his training and a chunk of his equipment like his Vehicle Rig
and Control Console. That ended badly for him, but he doesn't talk about the
details. What I do know is that it left him with a considerable skill-set,
experience with operating drones in a combat environment, a good idea of what
to do with an assault rifle, a lack of employment and a need to get some fast.
It also left him with Benny. More on that to come.
So he turned to running, having managed to scrape up enough for
a GMC Bulldog (Because its apparently standard issue to Riggers in the shadows)
and a bunch of drones to go with it. That's how I met him, when the pair of us
(plus Neon) were hired to go break into a research facility and take out a
particular researcher inside. And while things on that run didn't go according
to plan, none of that was Freddie's fault.
He puts his little mechanical army to good use as well. His
Fly-spies are usually the first physical part of any infiltration, buzzing
around and scouting out the locale whole remaining mostly unseen. He's been
able to spot enemy forces and keep tabs on their movements, find weak spots in
their defenses, spot our targets and a trillion other things that make our
lives so much easier.
Then when the shooting starts, he sends in his Rotrodrones.
While they are pretty much factory spec, he makes very effective use of them.
Both of 'em are armed with AK-98s, which allows him to hose down enemy forces
and, even if they're not the best shots in the world, goes a long way to
suppressing, pinning down, herding and controlling the enemy, while allowing me
and Wraith to take out high-priority targets. They're also great spotters and
have done wonders at flushing out hidden opponents like supposedly concealed
snipers.
Added to that, he's been finding creative use for the grenade
launchers as well. While lobbing around explosives is fun, he’s been doing a
lot of stuff with smoke and Neuro-stun gas. We had a fantastic extraction
planned that began with his drones popping up and hosing the target area,
followed by me going in and simply collecting an unconscious target. It didn't
work as planned due to a number of reasons (not the least of which was a
lion-headed spirit in an Opera cape) but none of them were due to him.
(And hey, it was better than some of the alternative plans
which involved stealing a firefighting helicopter...)
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| The Freddiemobile |
Finally, there's his GMC Bulldog. Now while it's nothing truly
special as Bulldogs go, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. On
the contrary, Freddie has made that van sing and can do amazing things behind
the wheel. We can be getting chased by mutant gerwalk bikers intent on murder
and Freddie will be steely eyed, not missing a beat as he swerves and dodges
with the utmost control and precision, He can take it off-road and you don't even
notice because he's handling it so well, and he can keep pace with sports cars.
Inside it's kitted out largely for supporting his drones; it's
got carry racks, spare ammo, toolkits and the like, He also keeps an advanced
medkit in there to help patch people together when things go bad; it's saved
several lives including his own. Neon also spends a lot of time in there, and
it's often her first base of operations during a run. Freddie's got it nicely
kitted out otherwise as well; nice carpet, synthleather seats and a great sound
system means that it's a pretty cool ride. He's a bit particular about it too;
he tries to make sure we wipe out feet before entering, even if it’s a combat
evac. Captain Cancer's cigarettes are causing him to have fits already.
The other thing that his van sometimes sports is Benny. An old
army buddy of Freddie's, Benny apparently left in the same 'incident' that cost
Freddie his job. For whatever reason, Benny ended up pretty much ended up
living on Freddie's couch and eating his food. (His diet seems to consist of
nothing but corn chips and frozen pizza). The upside of which was that Freddie
could also call him up for advice from time to time, taking advantage of skills
that Benny learned in the military, like bomb-making and first aid. And he even
saved Freddie's life once.
Benny's a human, and about Freddie's age. And, um, there's not
much more to say about him beyond the fact that he sleeps on whatever couch he
can find, is pretty good at console games and eats copious quantities of corn
chips and frozen pizza. He's a pretty okay guy (except for when he needs people
to go out and get him more of the aforesaid); I like him and Wraith thinks he's
cool. I can only assume that he knows how to handle a gun, but we've never needed
to find out.
There's one other upside to Freddie, and that it's through him
that I met my boyfriend, Alfonso. So hey, bonus.
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