SAM

Same character as

Sam is a prototype supersoldier created by an organisation called The Armoury. The Armoury is not a terrorist group, nor is it a cabal of supervillains. Instead, they see themselves more as “logistical support” for other groups. They provide weapons, equipment, intelligence, resources and manpower to any organisation or individual that can pay. Leader of a rebel group looking for weapons; The Armoury can provide 200 state-of-the art M41A Pulse Rifles. Building a superweapon and need security guards for your island hideout; The Armoury can have 100 trained mercenaries dispatched to your location as soon the bank transfer has cleared.

With the global metahuman population slowly rising, more and more metahumans are willing to use their powers in a law enforcement or military capacity. Because of this, the Armoury has begun to research a new product line; soldiers augmented with genetic and cybernetic enhancements. Ideally, these “supersoldiers” would be able to serve as assassins, covert ops troops, whatever the buyer desires. Known as Project Apex, the project is still in its early stages with more failures than successes. However, The Armoury is hopeful that it will soon have the capability to create its own army of metahuman mercenaries.

Project Apex is not the first supersoldier program, there have been SSPs as early as the 1960s beginning with the Patriot programme in 1963. Over the decades, they have met with varied success and have always had an exorbitant cost in both money and resources. However, The Armoury has one advantage that the various national programmes consistently haven’t; a distinct lack of ethics and morals. In the mid-1980s, DARPA conducted a study aimed at trying to improve the success rate of its various supersoldier enhancement techniques. They revealed that if a patient’s body was already undergoing significant physiological changes before the procedure began, the success rate improved dramatically, cutting the chance of the subject developing Enhancement Rejection Syndrome by as much as 75%. Although the study never came out and said it openly, the best demographic to recruit from would be teenagers going through puberty. Of course, using minors in such a way is extremely unethical no national programme would consider doing so. Unfortunately, The Armoury didn’t feel constrained by such ethical considerations when it came to launching Project Apex.

The Armoury abducted kids aged 14 to 16, each of them carefully selected to ensure they possessed certain genetic markers that were favourable to the enhancement process. Once in The Armoury’s custody, each batch of twelve were subjected to an extensive, and painful, brainwashing program designed to break down their mental defences, erase their memories, destroy their original personalities and “programme” them to be 100% loyal to The Armoury and the projects goals. Once they had been mentally prepared, the enhancement procedure began.

Sam was one of the twelve unwilling recruits in Echo batch used by The Armoury in their experiments. Like the others, Sam doesn’t know who he once was, or even if Sam is his real name. He received cybernetic implants and genetic enhancements designed improve his combat effectiveness. Drug injections and implanted muscle tissue were used to increase his strength and speed, his agility was enhanced though the implanting of a super-conductive nervous system. Neurosurgery was used to modify the sensory centres of the brain to cope with the additional information coming from optical implants embedded in the back of his retinas. Gene therapy was used to increase the integrity of his body’s cellular structure; providing him with improved health, resistance to diseases and toxins, and giving him a form of regeneration allowing him to repair damage from injuries at a vastly improved rate. Finally, the MAO-A gene was artificially activated in each of the recruits. The gene, also known as the warrior gene, promotes aggressive and violent behaviour as well as impairing the function of the orbital cortex which is responsible for decision making and inhibitions. Activating the gene increased the aggressiveness of the recruits and removed any lingering moral qualms they may have had to violent behaviour and inflicting pain and injury on others. In short, turning them into ruthless soldiers.

Over the next six months, the recruits underwent a rigorous training regime. They were taught rudimentary military tactics, fieldcraft and various combat techniques all in an effort to understand the effectiveness of the various enhancements and augmentations. Failure and disobedience was not tolerated and strictly punished. Those that failed to measure up or suffered medical problems due to their enhancements were reassigned or sent away for treatment. In truth, they were euthanized and examined by science team; this fact was kept from surviving recruits.

By the end of the testing and training process, only six recruits remained in Echo batch. The final test was an exercise staged on a Caribbean island, the first time the recruits had left the security of the facility where they were being trained. The scenario the recruits were given was that their employer had hired them to infiltrate an armed stronghold and eliminate the enemy commander. If they passed, they would then “graduate” and be able to join The Armoury’s mercenary forces.

This, of course, was another lie. The island was a death trap and the forces they would be facing vastly outnumbered and outgunned the Apex recruits. The real goal of the exercise was to “stress test” the Apex recruits to see how long they lasted against overwhelming forces. In other words, to see how long they could survive. Of the previous batches of recruits, the record for surviving the longest was held by Beta batch who had managed only three days; Echo batch were not expected to last much longer. The otherwise uninhabited entire island was wired with surveillance equipment and booby traps and the mercenary forces had access to nearly unlimited ammunition, heavy weapons and armour, real-time satellite imagery, but most importantly, live ammunition.

Echo batch discovered the truth before the end of the first day when Dex, Echo Five, was shot and killed by a sniper. After getting over the shock of Dex’s death, they soon realised that they were being hunted down by armed professionals with orders to kill them on sight.

Over the next few days, they fought to survive whilst dismantling much of the island’s surveillance network. Since the island was surrounded by treacherous reefs, the only way on or off the island was by air. The Apex recruits and the mercenary troops had been deployed to the island via parachute and the mercenaries were supplied every few days via a stealth-equipped UAV.

Echo batch came up with a plan that involved infiltrating the mercenary encampment and smuggling one of their number into the UAV’s small cargo compartment. They chose Cass, Echo Six, the smallest and youngest surviving recruit for the job. Once in the air, Cass would override the UAV’s preprogrammed flight plan and manually pilot the UAV towards the US mainland. With his small size and weight, it was hoped the UAV would have enough fuel to make it to an airport where he could raise the alarm and send help.

It was a good plan but getting close to the mercenary camp proved extremely difficult. As their supplies and ammunition ran out, they became desperate and despite their best efforts, the mercenaries picked them off one by one. Seven days after arriving on the island, Sam was the only one left.

He stayed in hidden in the jungle, waiting until he saw the UAV land at the mercenary encampment. With nothing left to lose, he decided to make one last run for the landing strip. As he crept around the camp, a sentry stepped out in front of him. There was no doubt that he had been spotted, he’d made a rookie mistake and been caught out in the open. The sentry had his assualt rifle pointed right at him, finger on the trigger and ready to fire. Sam was exhausted and had almost nothing left to give but instead of pulling the trigger and completing his mission, the sentry just said “false alarm, nothing to report” into his radio and lowered his weapon. He looked at Sam for several seconds then said “21-46” before walking back to camp. Sam didn’t let his confusion about what had just happened distract him and he hurried over to the landing strip. The UAV wasn’t guarded and he crept over it, crouching by the hatch to its small cargo compartment. The hatch was secured by digital keypad, the number that the sentry had given him was the passcode. Sam climbed inside the compartment, it was just big enough to accommodate his small size and removed a panel which gave him access to the UAV’s avionics. He was able to disable the UAV’s tracking beacon and, using Cass’s microcomputer, he reprogrammed the autopilot.

When the UAV took off an hour later on its pre-programmed return to base, it veered away from the Armoury’s supply base and headed towards the US mainland. With its tracking beacon disabled and with its stealth covering, The Armoury lost contact with the UAV. It wasn’t recovered until it was found floating a mile of the Gulf Coast having apparently ditched in the ocean. Sam had escaped. The Armoury had to get him back.

Why the sentry helped him escaped is still a mystery to Sam. The only thing he can think of is at that moment, the sentry suffered an attack of conscience. Maybe he hadn’t been comfortable with the mission, hunting down and killing what were essentially a bunch of kids. When he found Sam at the edge of the camp, instead of seeing a target or an enemy, perhaps what he saw instead was a dirty, exhausted and scared looking kid armed with nothing more than a combat knife and apparently running on fumes. Perhaps he just couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. The truth is very different. The truth is that someone in The Armoury screwed up. Every single one of the mercenaries on the island was supposed to be vetted in order to ensure that they would have no problems carrying out their orders. If the person responsible had done their job properly they would have discovered that one mercenary had recently lost their kid brother in a tragic accident and shared the same surname as one of the Apex recruits being tested. That night, that mercenary had come face-to-face with the kid brother that was supposed to have died six months previously.

Attributes
Strength 6, Stamina 3, Agility 5, Dexterity 5, Fighting 6, Intellect 1, Awareness 1, Presence 0

Advantages
Diehard, Equipment 1, Evasion, Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Defense, Improved Initiative, Instant Up, Interpose

Skills
Acrobatics 5 (+10), Athletics 4 (+10), Expertise (Survival) 5 (+6), Expertise (Tactics) 3 (+4), Intimidation 6 (+6), Perception 7 (+8), Stealth 5 (+10), Technology 4 (+5), Vehicles 5 (+10)

Powers

Enhanced Cellular Integrity
   Immunity: Immunity 2 (Disease, Poison)
   Protection: Protection 3 (+3 Toughness)
   Regeneration: Regeneration 5 (Every 2 rounds, Advantages: Diehard)
Muscular Enhancement
   Enhanced Ability: Enhanced Strength 3 (+3 STR)
   Power-lifting: Power-lifting 4 (+4 STR for lifting)
   Speed: Speed 6 (Speed: 120 miles/hour, 1800 feet/round)
      Swimming: Swimming 6 (Alternate; Speed: 30 miles/hour, 500 feet/round)
Sensory Augmentation Implants: Senses 4 (Danger Sense: Sight, Infravision, Low-light Vision, Tracking: Sight 1 (-1 speed rank))
Super-Conductive Nervous System
   Concealment: Concealment 1 (Sense - Hearing)
   Enhanced Ability: Enhanced Agility 3 (+3 AGL)
   Enhanced Ability: Enhanced Dexterity 3 (+3 DEX)
   Movement: Movement 4 (Safe Fall, Trackless: Sight, Wall-crawling 2 (full speed))

Equipment
Retractable Forearm Blade (Sword)

Offense
Initiative +9>
Grab, +6 (DC Spec 16)
Retractable Forearm Blade, +6 (DC 21)
Throw, +5 (DC 21)
Unarmed, +6 (DC 21)

Complications
Enemy : The Armoury
Sam has escaped from The Armoury, an organisation the supplies weapons, resources, intelligence and manpower to supervillains and terrorists. Recently, they have begun research into creating their own supersoldiers to sell to the highest bidder. Sam is one of those prototypes and escaped after he and the other prototypes were sent to die on an unnamed tropical island as part of a test. The only prototype to ever survive "the final exam", The Armoury is very interested in recapturing Sam. Both to make sure that the authorities do not learn about the project, and to understand just how Sam survived.

Languages
English

Defense
Dodge 5, Parry 6, Fortitude 3, Toughness 6, Will 1

Power Points
Abilities 36 + Powers 54 + Advantages 8 + Skills 22 (44 ranks) + Defenses 0 = 120