Achilles

See also Achilles v2 Hoplite Armour.

Background

"Draw near, that you may meet your doom the sooner”
-Achilles in the Iliad, Book XX .

Achilles, greatest warrior-son of Ancient Greece. Immortalised in the Iliad as the hero of the Trojan War. Son of the water spirit, Thetis, and the king of the legendary Myrmidons, Peleus. Tutored by the wise and noble centaur, Chiron, on the slopes of Mount Pelion. Eternalised throughout history until once again reborn in humanity’s hour of need.

In conceiving, initiating, and succeeding with Project: Warrior, ALEPH effectively became king, queen, and tutor—or father, mother, and mentor— to the greatest hero that ever lived. A force of nature. An immortal reborn.

Created using technology that even ALEPH con- siders experimental, Achilles’ biosynthetic Lhost body incorporates enhanced artificial musculature, cybernetic micro-engine assisted joints, a skeletal structure of laminated calcium reinforced with TitaniumSupra®, a dual-control nervous system, accelerated and improved by experimental wet- ware, and subtle subdermal armour protection. The AI gave everything to its first and favoured son, and in so doing gave humanity their greatest champion.

Hewn from the stories of ancient Greece, Achilles personifies the god-like athleticism and beauty of the heroes of his age. A skilled commander and tactician, many look up to him as an inspiration and wonder. There are just as many, however, who view him as arrogant and vain. Regardless, his confidence is born of the definite knowledge that Achilles and his Myrmidons cannot, will not, be defeated. An avatar of fury and glorious combat, war has become his bride, and he lusts for her relentlessly.

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Achilles, the transliteration of Αχιλλεύς orAchileýs, was the greatest Greek hero, the finest of all warriors. Son of the Nereid, Thetis, and of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons of Phthia, in Thessaly, he was trained by a Phoenix and by the centaur Chiron. He took part in the Siege of Troy, in which his involvement was decisive, and was immortalized by Homer as the main character of the Iliad.

The experimental Project ‘Warrior’ was developed by ALEPH to offer the great powers a biosynthetic combat organism model able to provide the features of a TAG in a human-scale package. Gifted with an immense budget and requiring several years of research, the ‘Warrior’ Project produced the AR-1 prototype. A Lhost biosynthetic body, it contained enhanced artificial musculature, cybernetic micro-engines in all joints and a solidly reinforced skeleton, twice as dense as that of a human, composed of laminated calcium and TitaniumSupra®. All of this was controlled by a dual-control nervous system, accelerated and improved by experimental wetware, and shielded by subtle armored protection for both vital and non vital areas. A perfect body and a superb combat machine in human form. Nevertheless, attempts to download real personality Cubes to it were fruitless. The human brain was incapable of managing all the information supplied by the AR-1 Lhost body. ALEPH solved the problem by creating a new artificial personality, able to control the prototype. To give AR-1 an identity, the greatest warrior in history was needed. And it was Homer who provided it: Achilles, the irascible hero.

Achilles has been recreated as how he is imagined to have looked in the Iliad, during the years of his greatest strength. His physical appearance is attractive and impressive: with a strong, heavily built body and defined musculature. Once glance at Achilles is enough to confirm his legendary status. His eyes are sharp and incisive, a curious and changeable bluish-grey. One look, with eyes that accept no reply, can judge, tear apart, and frighten the most brave and hardened men. His mouth remembers the old statues of Assyrian kings: hard, and indicating an implacable will. In an age in which beauty is just a matter of money, Achilles is beauty epitomised, a strong and powerful body balanced in perfect harmony and symmetry, the prototype of physical human perfection.

He is an excellent soldier, capable of working out all the variables of any combat in a moment and making decision with absolute certainty. He exceeds all men in his courage, his thirst for fame, and in his zeal for carrying out the most glorious military deeds. However, he is also capable of hasty acts of violence and of a savagery beyond belief. His reasoning capabilities can be overshadowed by his immense capacity for anger and his lust for glory. He is a terrible enemy and the greatest of all warriors, skilled, strong, brave and clever, but both human and monster. All his qualities have a dark and sinister side, an implacable aspect, a deep well of unexpected fury and despair. The monstrous part is full of rage, and when it erupts, the human part vanishes, and no emotion remains other than a white-hot anger.

Achilles has inherited legendary qualities of command and authority from his original, and part of his strength comes from the ability to comfort and inspire his men. A single spoken order, and ten thousand men will follow him into combat unquestioningly. Though he is a tactical genius, Achilles despises all enemy forces equally, convinced that he and his Myrmidons are superior in skill and discipline to any foe. Other officers often hate him for his arrogance, stubbornness, and total inability to accept any way of thinking other than “strength overcomes everything”. Nevertheless, his men worship him as a cruel and terrifying god, considering him immortal and indestructible.

ALEPH hasn’t loaned Achilles to any power of the Sphere, using him as its own killing machine. Defined as an “Individual of Mass Destruction”, Achilles is ALEPH’s leashed monster. The champion of the AI, he appears where required in a brutal and peremptory fashion. Carrying humanity’s banner into war against the Evolved Intelligence, Achilles has also killed in the Commercial Conflicts and annihilated enemies in the Wars of Paradiso, as well as undertaking unknown numbers of covert operations. Since his creation over ten years ago, he wanders from war to war, carrying out ALEPH’s secret orders: Achilles can’t live without fighting anymore. Around campfires it is said, in low voices, that he both feeds on war and sleeps with her, as she is the only one capable of satisfying him…

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"Sing, Goddess, of the rage of Peleus’s son

Achilles, the accursed rage that brought great suffering to the Achaeans.”

—Opening Lines of the Iliad

Perhaps the greatest warrior of antiquity, what could Achilles have accomplished without a weakness in his heel? ALEPH intended to find out. Perhaps the most advanced Recreation, and certainly the costliest to produce, Achilles is a stunning piece of work. Inspiring courage in his allies and dread in his enemies, the Blond Titan is the leader of the Steel Phalanx, and every bit the inheritor of his namesake.

The result of Project: Warrior, the AR-1 Lhost combines the power and durability of a TAG in a human-sized package, with peerless dexterity, and a bleeding-edge sensory suite. So demanding were the AR-1 prototypes, that not only could no human successfully inhabit one, but countless Aspects weren’t up to the task. Enter Achilles. The first entity to be classified as a Person of Mass Destruction (PMD) by O-12, the Blond Titan possesses matchless battlefield acumen, and unleashes it to unparalleled success.

He is undoubtedly a hero. He is also, by every account, a monster.

Just like the hero of antiquity, he is strong, daring, and clever. He also has boundless rage, and relentless bloodlust. While there is always a certain darkness to his personality, when Achilles loses himself in anger, there is little else that remains. Arrogant, stubborn, and relentlessly violent, Achilles’s ability to retain his tactical genius while in a fit of vengeful rage makes him an incredible, if impossible, commander. Those who serve under him have likened it to following a wrathful deity, dangerous and demanding, but they would choose no other life.

Foremost among these is Patroclus, his constant companion, and one of the only living beings genuinely acquainted with the Blond Titan’s gentler side. Even so, ALEPH has expended a tremendous amount of resources stocking the Homeridae with companions who can provide a counterbalance to Achilles’s tempestuous temperament. From Project: Amazon’s Penthesilea, to the veteran warrior Aspect “Old Man” Phoenix, there’s never a shortage of answers to Achilles’ rage. And from ALEPH’s perspective, they’re all worth it in the moments when hope seems lost until Achilles emerges from the smoke, mutters “not today,” and furiously unleashes hell upon his enemies, grasping victory from the jaws of defeat.

Quotes

“The situation, in short, is this. I have just destroyed your escape module. You are trapped inside here with me. I am Achilles. And you are dead already.”
-Achilles, Second Ghost Conflict. Unauthenticated record, probable origin: Nomads Black Propaganda.

Profile

N4

ISC: Achilles			Character			Heavy Infantry
Fury: Frenzy			Training: Regular			Back-Up: Cube 2.0
MOV	CC	BS	PH	WIP	ARM	BTS	W/STR	S
6-4	24	15	15	15	4	6	3	2
Skills and Equipment: Martial Arts L4, Courage, Dodge (+2"), Immunity (Shock), Mimetism (-6), Stealth, Terrain (Total)

Loadout

Special Skills

Weapons and Equipment

Melee Weapons

Points

SWC

1

Spitfire, Pulzar

Pistol, EXP CCW

75

1.5

2

Lieutenant

Spitfire, Pulzar

Pistol, EXP CCW

75

1.5

N3

Retired

ISC: Achilles Heavy Infantry Fury: Frenzy Training: Regular Back-Up: Cube 2.0 MOV CC BS PH WIP ARM BTS W/STR S 6-4 24 15 15 15 4 6 3 2 Skills and Equipment: Martial Arts L4, Multiterrain, ODD: Optical Disruptor, Kinematika L2 Name Skills and Equipment BS Weapons CC Weapons Points SWC MULTI Nanopulser, MULTI Rifle EXP CCW, Pistol 73 0 MULTI Lieutenant Lieutenant Nanopulser, MULTI Rifle EXP CCW, Pistol 73 0 Spitfire Nanopulser, Spitfire EXP CCW, Pistol 75 2.5 Spitfire Lieutenant Lieutenant Nanopulser, Spitfire EXP CCW, Pistol 75 2.5

Unit Logo

Current Miniatures

Unboxed
Photo Credit: Azaries