Post by Edgecrusher on Jan 5, 2012 1:09:59 GMT -5
Rper: Fear the Engineer
Character type: Permanent
Name: Edgecrusher; formerly Lawrence Andrew Igorek
Nicknames: None
Specie: Cybernetic Organism
Sex/Gender Identity: Male
Age: 36
Alliance: Insurgent (Fugitive)
Job: Special Warfare; Espionage
Height: 185 cm (6'1")
Weight: 208 kg (460 lbs)
Personality: Edgecrusher could be accurately described as "the guy in the background" - he is extremely introverted, but can blend in anywhere. He maintains a strict, no-nonsense mentality and holds himself and others to a high standard. He is extremely unforgiving of incompetence. It isn't always easy to tell whether he's good-natured or nefarious, since he isn't above pushing others to the breaking point, stealing, or even killing if he thinks it's necessary. He has an unwavering hatred toward control and suppression, though he has no problem following orders if he feels that it's his own choice and he is not being forced. It follows that he despises most professional scientists and doctors; to him, they're playing God and forcing restrictive, absolute definitions for scientific principles which could be interpreted multiple ways, and doctors destroy peoples' lives by pretending to be omniscient when they are not. He is also adament about the idea that information should be free for access - given the opportunity, he will download massive amounts of information from covert databases and place it in the public domain for all to access.
Despite his hardened and logical personality, Edgecrusher has a fierce moral standpoint which he will defend to the death. He believes that authority should never have unbreakable influence in a person's life - the authority should be there as a guideline, but the choice to follow should always be up to the subordinate. All humanity should have an equal and reasonable chance to defend themselves from the control of authority figures, and they should never be "programmed" using tricks of the mind to force them to believe anything that is told to them. Questioning the most basic foundations and establishments of information is the very definiton of freedom to Edgecrusher, and he feels that anything which prevents or tries to prevent this is an abomination.
However, Edgecrusher also believes that individual freedom is the responsibility of the individual. While he has made it his life's mission to destroy the major sources of suppression and restricted information, he insists that once the resources to extend beyond reality have been provided to a person, it's their own responsibility to use those resources. He will not teach them how to use the resources, as they need to learn and interpret on their own if they are to truly be free. Edgecrusher doesn't necessarily engage in individuals' battles for their freedom, unless they are fighting one of the major sources of control and suppression which he despises.
Likes
- Freedom
- Information
- Equality
- Gaining knowledge
- Debate
Dislikes
- Control
- Suppression
- Most major authorities
- Most large corporations
- Being dehumanized
Fears
Edgecrusher's greatest fear is that he will once again lose control of his body... or worse, his mind. He is terrified by the thought of what certain corporations would do with him if they got ahold of his technology, and the ways in which it could be used to control and suppress others. He also fears the restriction of information, since he believes that information is freedom and the one and only thing he can rely on. Finally, he fears what would happen if people found out he was a cyborg - he's all too aware that humanity would never be able to accept him, thanks to misinformation propaganda spread by the government and other organizations.
Appearance:
Edgecrusher is a tall, sturdily built American man of Ukranian, Polish, and Israeli ethnic heritage. Because of his cybernetic components, he's substantially heavier than most men of his height and musculature. He has a nondescript appearance - somewhat taller than average with brown hair parted to one side, a rectangular face with a well-defined jaw line, a slightly oversized nose relative to his face, and a goatee - which aids in espionage and allows him to blend into any environment. He could be easily identified by the pronounced scar which extends vertically all the way down the center of his chest and abdomen, as if he had been cut in half, and the more subtle scars which diagonally intersect it in a perfectly parallel series of lines down his upper body. These scars are the after-effect of the procedure which reformed Edgecrusher into a cyborg, and are simply hidden by clothing to prevent identification.
When he is cut or otherwise injured, the appearance of the cybernetic system through his flesh is similar to that of a Terminator - if one could examine it closely, though, they would see that while the general structure is the same, both the mechanical and electrical systems are far more complex. Cables, wires, and tubes run in and out of the mechanical system, disappearing inside the structure and then resurfacing somewhere else, and he has many smaller, far more precise actuators and mechanical parts which allow him to automatically balance and perform simple tasks without a constant feedback loop from his control system.
Preferred Vehicle: Usually any vehicle which has a large storage capacity and is built as low to the ground as possible, so he can transport supplies and take sharp turns without flipping off the road.
Preferred Weapons: Edgecrusher prefers to do his work in the background from a distance, and as such, favors long-range weapons which do a lot of damage with a single hit. Some of his favorites include a Carl Gustav grenade launcher and an AR-15 rifle with a laser sight. He often carries a semi-automatic handgun with a silencer. Despite his preference for ranged combat, Edgecrusher is a perfectly competent melee fighter and is well-trained in Krav Maga - the close-combat system used by Israeli law enforcement officers to take down terrorists. His cybernetic systems also enhance his close-combat skills, allowing him to detect the vital signs of his opponents and know when they are tiring, when they are in pain, and to an extent, where their defenses are weakest.
Abilities: Being a cyborg, Edgecrusher is capable of maintaining feats of strength, stamina, and endurance that an ordinary human being could not. He isn't enormously stronger than a human of his build and physical training, but since his "muscular" system is purely mechanical, he can hold awkward positions and grueling weights indefinitely, while a pure human would tire under the strenuous activity. This was incorporated into his design as he was intended for espionage, which often involves hiding for extended periods of time in cramped, hard-to-reach, extreme, or otherwise dangerous conditions. Also incorporated into his design for espionage is the ability of his control system to rapidly regenerate and redirect certain cellular divisions in his organic systems to mimic the fingerprints and retinal scans of other people. The same ability allows him to rapidly regenerate his flesh and maintain a human appearance. However, he can only use it to mimic biometric signatures and regenerate; he cannot change his hair color or facial appearance to mimic the physical look of another person.
Also due to his titanium-alloy framework, Edgecrusher has invulnerability to small, low-powered bullets and other projectiles. Large and more powerful bullets and projectiles do run risks for him, though; he has a human organ system, be it surrounded by metal and interfaced with an electrical control system, and a high impact force that could break the titanium framework could drive pieces of it into his vital organs and kill him. His control system can rapidly regenerate arterial damage which would kill an ordinary human, but the system isn't flawless: Edgecrusher could still theoretically bleed to death, it would just take much more damage to overcome his rapid regeneration.
Since Edgecrusher's control system is connected directly to his brain through his spinal cord, he can use it to wirelessly access computer databases and the Internet directly to his brain. This risks downloading computer viruses, though, and while that would do nothing to his organic half, it could completely shut down his control system and leave him defenseless. He believes Securitron Corporation will try to get him back under their control using that disadvantage at some point in time.
Skills
Espionage - Expert
Tactical Survival - Expert
Navigation - Expert
Combat - Expert
Demolition - Expert
Reconnissance - Expert
Strategy - Advanced
Field Medicine - Advanced
Electronics - Advanced
Mechanics - Good
System Maintenance - Good
Explosives Disposal - Good
Cryptanalysis - Good
Programming - Amateur
Construction - Amateur
Strengths: Being built for espionage, Edgecrusher can easily infiltrate highly classified locations. Combined with his control system's ability to wirelessly link computerized data to his organic brain, he can access nearly any information, given the right circumstances. Because he is a human brain and nervous system linked to a machine through an electrical control system, he has the advantages of both sides: human ideals and thought processes intended to allow him to blend in for espionage, combined with mechanical durability and endurance. Since his brain wasn't altered by the prototyping, he still has complete knowledge of his memories and Navy SEAL training as well. He also has unbreakable determination in everything that he does; otherwise, he wouldn't bother doing it.
Weaknesses: Edgecrusher's unbreakable sense of morality may be considered a weakness - he's determined in what he does, but he can also be closed-minded and refuse to listen to reason at times. His anxiety due to having been paralyzed and watching helplessly as the Securitron treated him like a dead man can also fog his reasoning skills; he sometimes chooses to do things an unnecessarily complicated way to avoid any possible risk of losing his freedom again.
Being a cyborg, he also has a level of susceptibility to power surges and strong magnetic fields, as well as computer viruses and hardware malfunctions.
Family: N/A
History: As a child, Lawrence Andrew Igorek demanded a challenge in everything he did, be it physical or intellectual. If he was bored, he would go through extreme lengths to create a challenge. He also loved his freedom, and felt restricted by laws, rules, and people around him. That was why he joined the Navy Special Warfare immediately upon turning eighteen - not just to defend his country, but to extend his freedom from within by becoming a more powerful political influence without directly participating in bureaucracy. He proved to be a fast learner, exceptionally good at staying level-headed under the most pressing circumstances, and keeping things working smoothly between his teammates, and eventually achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer. Shortly after his promotion, he and a small group of other exceptional Special Warfare Operators volunteered for a research project being conducted by Securitron Corporation, the company which supplied the Navy with most of its combat gear and technical equipment. The project was supposedly intended to enhance early-warning security and defense systems, allowing international problems to be dealt with as soon as they started and therefore aid in preventing wars. Lawrence believed that such a project could greatly benefit society, and was glad to sign up for it.
For the first seven weeks after volunteering, Securitron Corporation's assignments seemed rather routine: Lawrence and the others would field-test technological prototypes, engage in activities intended to put them in specific emotional or mental states while a computer monitored their brain activity, and do tests intended to improve their pattern recognition, response, and awareness of their environment. On the eighth week, Lawrence and his fellow volunteers were residing in their designated complex going over their study materials, and an explosion occurred inside the complex which destroyed the entire section of the building. The other volunteers were killed instantly, but Lawrence - who had been farther away from the source of the blast - survived. However, the explosion drove a piece of shrapnel into the base of his ceribellum, leaving him with locked-in syndrome: completely paralyzed, unable to talk or move any part of his body. The investigators from Securitron who found him assumed he was brain-dead and obtained his commanding officer's permission to use his body for another experiment: this one pertaining to espionage and obtaining information. The officer, not realizing that Lawrence was still capable of conscious thought, signed him over to them.
As it turned out, Securitron Corporation had been working on a cybernetics project intended for espionage in environments too dangerous or tight on defenses for an ordinary human to enter. To infiltrate rival corporations in other countries which threatened homeland security, they needed a soldier that could silently and safely drop eighty feet, handle extreme heat and cold, and go for days without having to see to biological needs, yet appear completely human and perform all of these inhuman feats silently. The first part of the extremely risky prototyping process involved removing the subject's entire musculoskeletal system - except the skull and spine - in small sections at a time, and replacing it with a titanium-alloy framework. Nano-robots used as a guiding system ensured that there was no damage to the subject's vital organs or circulatory and nervous systems as the integration took place. Later in the process, these microscopic robots were also used to merge the subject's nerves with the electrical components of the feedback control system, using silicon and germanium semiconductors as a conduit. Through this, the subject's brain had a direct, "wired" interface with the feedback control system of the mechanical components. The subject's immune system was completely suppressed to prevent their body rejecting the mechanical components, and they were injected with nanoparticles which bind to foreign entities to prevent infection. The procedure was done on Lawrence and four other subjects... only Lawrence survived the initial integration.
Securitron's technicians kept Lawrence immobilized and locked in a testing facility for several months while they compiled data and worked on ways to advance the project. He had plenty of time to think in between the times that the technicians were performing tests on him, and while he was searching for a way out of his predicament, he found his understanding of freedom and morality completely redefined. He realized that many of the organizations commonly thought of as providing freedom were actually stifling it - they helped defend their country from enemies only to win the public trust and to prevent those enemies from severing their control. Even the organization he worked for out of preservation of basic freedoms; the military... they had once been the only thing standing up for freedom, but now they were restricting information, forcing people to believe falsities, trying to win favor as they suppressed the very human lives they defended. Lawrence decided that if he ever took his freedom back, he would do anything he could to stop the reign of political and corporate suppression, free all restricted information, and allow people the basic right to draw their own conclusion... with all of the facts.
Eventually, Lawrence underwent the final procedure of the prototyping: He was injected with a nanotechnological reciprocal of the titanium alloy, which formed a hard metal coating over the bone surface of his skull and spine. After that, Securitron's project managers finally released him from the test facility. He was no longer known as Lawrence Andrew Igorek - his official designation was now the product marketing name Edgecrusher, and he was the property of Securitron and the CIA.
Edgecrusher, however, had other ideas than becoming government equipment. One thing the corporate scientists hadn't considered was that by building a cyborg intended for espionage and infiltration, they needed to take extensive precautions to keep him from slipping through their fingers... something that they didn't set up. A few days after he was transferred to the CIA facility, a technician opened the door to Edgecrusher's enclosure and he burst out, locked the technician in the enclosure, and was free to wander the CIA building unaccounted for. Being able to use his mechanical systems to rapidly alter the parameters of some of his biological systems, Edgecrusher was able to mimick the fingerprints and retinal scans of others. This allowed him to easily slip through the CIA's warning systems and access a large area dedicated to weapon storage. He got hold of some plastic explosives, and used them to destroy a large portion of the CIA research facility.
After his successful escape from the government, Edgecrusher spent a year living on the street as he tried to understand exactly what Securitron had done to him. He eventually figured out how to directly use his control system to wirelessly access computers and cyber-databases, and hacked into Securitron Corporation's files on the cybernetics project. He found that Securitron had deliberately caused the explosion in the volunteers' quarters, intending to use the newly dead bodies to attempt a nanotechnology-based rapid regeneration project - it was believed that if a dead body could be repaired before its degeneration reached a critical point, it would be possible to resurrect soldiers who otherwise had no hope of survival. Securitron had intended to kill every volunteer for such experimentation, but when Edgecrusher survived, they seized the opportunity to get around the laws which forbade such inhuman activity and transferred him to the cybernetics espionage project. They then realized that people who were brain-dead but physically healthy were a loophole in the anti-human-experimentation laws, and injected four other test subjects with a serum to suppress their brain function and make them appear to be in a vegetative state... none of these test subjects had survived.
Edgecrusher saw just how corrupt Securitron Corporation really was: Living under the immunity that they were the military infrastructure; the only thing protecting America from foreign invaders, while in reality they used their government and corporate connections to play God and take away other peoples' most basic rights and freedoms. Edgecrusher decided that the only way he could truly set America free was to go renegade and destroy the system which was corrupting it and suppressing its citizens. He set out, an insurgent, determined to destroy every branch of Securitron, along with all of their government and corporate support.
Additional information: Edgecrusher's cybernetic system consists of a human brain, nervous system, circulatory system, vital organs, and skin combined with a mechanical musculoskeletal system and an electrical control system which acts as a conduit between the organic nerves and the electromechanical systems. The power source for the machine components consists of the waste organic material which the human systems are unable to process. As such, Edgecrusher still eats human food, but he no longer has to use the toilet since the waste material is used by his mechanical systems rather than expelled. The system is also capable of storing energy both to sustain itself and to sustain its organic counterpart; therefore, unlike a normal human, he can eat a large amount of food then go for days or weeks without eating. Edgecrusher's skull and spinal column are shielded by a nanotechnologically-based form of the titanium alloy composing his metal framework, which formed a chemically identical metallic plating over the bone. His arteries and veins are shielded in a similar manner; in that case, the nanotechnological structure of the alloy was altered slightly to lessen its rigidity.
A slightly malleable polymer plastic between the mechanical framework and his skin maintains the strictly human shape of his body without the musculature, as well as preventing his organic components from interfering with the system. Being nanotechnologically based, this plastic is surprisingly strong for its minute thickness and also acts as a damping system, lessening impact on the mechanical framework. It also serves to shield his control system from weaker electric and magnetic fields.
Custom title: Shock to the System
Character type: Permanent
Name: Edgecrusher; formerly Lawrence Andrew Igorek
Nicknames: None
Specie: Cybernetic Organism
Sex/Gender Identity: Male
Age: 36
Alliance: Insurgent (Fugitive)
Job: Special Warfare; Espionage
Height: 185 cm (6'1")
Weight: 208 kg (460 lbs)
Personality: Edgecrusher could be accurately described as "the guy in the background" - he is extremely introverted, but can blend in anywhere. He maintains a strict, no-nonsense mentality and holds himself and others to a high standard. He is extremely unforgiving of incompetence. It isn't always easy to tell whether he's good-natured or nefarious, since he isn't above pushing others to the breaking point, stealing, or even killing if he thinks it's necessary. He has an unwavering hatred toward control and suppression, though he has no problem following orders if he feels that it's his own choice and he is not being forced. It follows that he despises most professional scientists and doctors; to him, they're playing God and forcing restrictive, absolute definitions for scientific principles which could be interpreted multiple ways, and doctors destroy peoples' lives by pretending to be omniscient when they are not. He is also adament about the idea that information should be free for access - given the opportunity, he will download massive amounts of information from covert databases and place it in the public domain for all to access.
Despite his hardened and logical personality, Edgecrusher has a fierce moral standpoint which he will defend to the death. He believes that authority should never have unbreakable influence in a person's life - the authority should be there as a guideline, but the choice to follow should always be up to the subordinate. All humanity should have an equal and reasonable chance to defend themselves from the control of authority figures, and they should never be "programmed" using tricks of the mind to force them to believe anything that is told to them. Questioning the most basic foundations and establishments of information is the very definiton of freedom to Edgecrusher, and he feels that anything which prevents or tries to prevent this is an abomination.
However, Edgecrusher also believes that individual freedom is the responsibility of the individual. While he has made it his life's mission to destroy the major sources of suppression and restricted information, he insists that once the resources to extend beyond reality have been provided to a person, it's their own responsibility to use those resources. He will not teach them how to use the resources, as they need to learn and interpret on their own if they are to truly be free. Edgecrusher doesn't necessarily engage in individuals' battles for their freedom, unless they are fighting one of the major sources of control and suppression which he despises.
Likes
- Freedom
- Information
- Equality
- Gaining knowledge
- Debate
Dislikes
- Control
- Suppression
- Most major authorities
- Most large corporations
- Being dehumanized
Fears
Edgecrusher's greatest fear is that he will once again lose control of his body... or worse, his mind. He is terrified by the thought of what certain corporations would do with him if they got ahold of his technology, and the ways in which it could be used to control and suppress others. He also fears the restriction of information, since he believes that information is freedom and the one and only thing he can rely on. Finally, he fears what would happen if people found out he was a cyborg - he's all too aware that humanity would never be able to accept him, thanks to misinformation propaganda spread by the government and other organizations.
Appearance:
Edgecrusher is a tall, sturdily built American man of Ukranian, Polish, and Israeli ethnic heritage. Because of his cybernetic components, he's substantially heavier than most men of his height and musculature. He has a nondescript appearance - somewhat taller than average with brown hair parted to one side, a rectangular face with a well-defined jaw line, a slightly oversized nose relative to his face, and a goatee - which aids in espionage and allows him to blend into any environment. He could be easily identified by the pronounced scar which extends vertically all the way down the center of his chest and abdomen, as if he had been cut in half, and the more subtle scars which diagonally intersect it in a perfectly parallel series of lines down his upper body. These scars are the after-effect of the procedure which reformed Edgecrusher into a cyborg, and are simply hidden by clothing to prevent identification.
When he is cut or otherwise injured, the appearance of the cybernetic system through his flesh is similar to that of a Terminator - if one could examine it closely, though, they would see that while the general structure is the same, both the mechanical and electrical systems are far more complex. Cables, wires, and tubes run in and out of the mechanical system, disappearing inside the structure and then resurfacing somewhere else, and he has many smaller, far more precise actuators and mechanical parts which allow him to automatically balance and perform simple tasks without a constant feedback loop from his control system.
Preferred Vehicle: Usually any vehicle which has a large storage capacity and is built as low to the ground as possible, so he can transport supplies and take sharp turns without flipping off the road.
Preferred Weapons: Edgecrusher prefers to do his work in the background from a distance, and as such, favors long-range weapons which do a lot of damage with a single hit. Some of his favorites include a Carl Gustav grenade launcher and an AR-15 rifle with a laser sight. He often carries a semi-automatic handgun with a silencer. Despite his preference for ranged combat, Edgecrusher is a perfectly competent melee fighter and is well-trained in Krav Maga - the close-combat system used by Israeli law enforcement officers to take down terrorists. His cybernetic systems also enhance his close-combat skills, allowing him to detect the vital signs of his opponents and know when they are tiring, when they are in pain, and to an extent, where their defenses are weakest.
Abilities: Being a cyborg, Edgecrusher is capable of maintaining feats of strength, stamina, and endurance that an ordinary human being could not. He isn't enormously stronger than a human of his build and physical training, but since his "muscular" system is purely mechanical, he can hold awkward positions and grueling weights indefinitely, while a pure human would tire under the strenuous activity. This was incorporated into his design as he was intended for espionage, which often involves hiding for extended periods of time in cramped, hard-to-reach, extreme, or otherwise dangerous conditions. Also incorporated into his design for espionage is the ability of his control system to rapidly regenerate and redirect certain cellular divisions in his organic systems to mimic the fingerprints and retinal scans of other people. The same ability allows him to rapidly regenerate his flesh and maintain a human appearance. However, he can only use it to mimic biometric signatures and regenerate; he cannot change his hair color or facial appearance to mimic the physical look of another person.
Also due to his titanium-alloy framework, Edgecrusher has invulnerability to small, low-powered bullets and other projectiles. Large and more powerful bullets and projectiles do run risks for him, though; he has a human organ system, be it surrounded by metal and interfaced with an electrical control system, and a high impact force that could break the titanium framework could drive pieces of it into his vital organs and kill him. His control system can rapidly regenerate arterial damage which would kill an ordinary human, but the system isn't flawless: Edgecrusher could still theoretically bleed to death, it would just take much more damage to overcome his rapid regeneration.
Since Edgecrusher's control system is connected directly to his brain through his spinal cord, he can use it to wirelessly access computer databases and the Internet directly to his brain. This risks downloading computer viruses, though, and while that would do nothing to his organic half, it could completely shut down his control system and leave him defenseless. He believes Securitron Corporation will try to get him back under their control using that disadvantage at some point in time.
Skills
Espionage - Expert
Tactical Survival - Expert
Navigation - Expert
Combat - Expert
Demolition - Expert
Reconnissance - Expert
Strategy - Advanced
Field Medicine - Advanced
Electronics - Advanced
Mechanics - Good
System Maintenance - Good
Explosives Disposal - Good
Cryptanalysis - Good
Programming - Amateur
Construction - Amateur
Strengths: Being built for espionage, Edgecrusher can easily infiltrate highly classified locations. Combined with his control system's ability to wirelessly link computerized data to his organic brain, he can access nearly any information, given the right circumstances. Because he is a human brain and nervous system linked to a machine through an electrical control system, he has the advantages of both sides: human ideals and thought processes intended to allow him to blend in for espionage, combined with mechanical durability and endurance. Since his brain wasn't altered by the prototyping, he still has complete knowledge of his memories and Navy SEAL training as well. He also has unbreakable determination in everything that he does; otherwise, he wouldn't bother doing it.
Weaknesses: Edgecrusher's unbreakable sense of morality may be considered a weakness - he's determined in what he does, but he can also be closed-minded and refuse to listen to reason at times. His anxiety due to having been paralyzed and watching helplessly as the Securitron treated him like a dead man can also fog his reasoning skills; he sometimes chooses to do things an unnecessarily complicated way to avoid any possible risk of losing his freedom again.
Being a cyborg, he also has a level of susceptibility to power surges and strong magnetic fields, as well as computer viruses and hardware malfunctions.
Family: N/A
History: As a child, Lawrence Andrew Igorek demanded a challenge in everything he did, be it physical or intellectual. If he was bored, he would go through extreme lengths to create a challenge. He also loved his freedom, and felt restricted by laws, rules, and people around him. That was why he joined the Navy Special Warfare immediately upon turning eighteen - not just to defend his country, but to extend his freedom from within by becoming a more powerful political influence without directly participating in bureaucracy. He proved to be a fast learner, exceptionally good at staying level-headed under the most pressing circumstances, and keeping things working smoothly between his teammates, and eventually achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer. Shortly after his promotion, he and a small group of other exceptional Special Warfare Operators volunteered for a research project being conducted by Securitron Corporation, the company which supplied the Navy with most of its combat gear and technical equipment. The project was supposedly intended to enhance early-warning security and defense systems, allowing international problems to be dealt with as soon as they started and therefore aid in preventing wars. Lawrence believed that such a project could greatly benefit society, and was glad to sign up for it.
For the first seven weeks after volunteering, Securitron Corporation's assignments seemed rather routine: Lawrence and the others would field-test technological prototypes, engage in activities intended to put them in specific emotional or mental states while a computer monitored their brain activity, and do tests intended to improve their pattern recognition, response, and awareness of their environment. On the eighth week, Lawrence and his fellow volunteers were residing in their designated complex going over their study materials, and an explosion occurred inside the complex which destroyed the entire section of the building. The other volunteers were killed instantly, but Lawrence - who had been farther away from the source of the blast - survived. However, the explosion drove a piece of shrapnel into the base of his ceribellum, leaving him with locked-in syndrome: completely paralyzed, unable to talk or move any part of his body. The investigators from Securitron who found him assumed he was brain-dead and obtained his commanding officer's permission to use his body for another experiment: this one pertaining to espionage and obtaining information. The officer, not realizing that Lawrence was still capable of conscious thought, signed him over to them.
As it turned out, Securitron Corporation had been working on a cybernetics project intended for espionage in environments too dangerous or tight on defenses for an ordinary human to enter. To infiltrate rival corporations in other countries which threatened homeland security, they needed a soldier that could silently and safely drop eighty feet, handle extreme heat and cold, and go for days without having to see to biological needs, yet appear completely human and perform all of these inhuman feats silently. The first part of the extremely risky prototyping process involved removing the subject's entire musculoskeletal system - except the skull and spine - in small sections at a time, and replacing it with a titanium-alloy framework. Nano-robots used as a guiding system ensured that there was no damage to the subject's vital organs or circulatory and nervous systems as the integration took place. Later in the process, these microscopic robots were also used to merge the subject's nerves with the electrical components of the feedback control system, using silicon and germanium semiconductors as a conduit. Through this, the subject's brain had a direct, "wired" interface with the feedback control system of the mechanical components. The subject's immune system was completely suppressed to prevent their body rejecting the mechanical components, and they were injected with nanoparticles which bind to foreign entities to prevent infection. The procedure was done on Lawrence and four other subjects... only Lawrence survived the initial integration.
Securitron's technicians kept Lawrence immobilized and locked in a testing facility for several months while they compiled data and worked on ways to advance the project. He had plenty of time to think in between the times that the technicians were performing tests on him, and while he was searching for a way out of his predicament, he found his understanding of freedom and morality completely redefined. He realized that many of the organizations commonly thought of as providing freedom were actually stifling it - they helped defend their country from enemies only to win the public trust and to prevent those enemies from severing their control. Even the organization he worked for out of preservation of basic freedoms; the military... they had once been the only thing standing up for freedom, but now they were restricting information, forcing people to believe falsities, trying to win favor as they suppressed the very human lives they defended. Lawrence decided that if he ever took his freedom back, he would do anything he could to stop the reign of political and corporate suppression, free all restricted information, and allow people the basic right to draw their own conclusion... with all of the facts.
Eventually, Lawrence underwent the final procedure of the prototyping: He was injected with a nanotechnological reciprocal of the titanium alloy, which formed a hard metal coating over the bone surface of his skull and spine. After that, Securitron's project managers finally released him from the test facility. He was no longer known as Lawrence Andrew Igorek - his official designation was now the product marketing name Edgecrusher, and he was the property of Securitron and the CIA.
Edgecrusher, however, had other ideas than becoming government equipment. One thing the corporate scientists hadn't considered was that by building a cyborg intended for espionage and infiltration, they needed to take extensive precautions to keep him from slipping through their fingers... something that they didn't set up. A few days after he was transferred to the CIA facility, a technician opened the door to Edgecrusher's enclosure and he burst out, locked the technician in the enclosure, and was free to wander the CIA building unaccounted for. Being able to use his mechanical systems to rapidly alter the parameters of some of his biological systems, Edgecrusher was able to mimick the fingerprints and retinal scans of others. This allowed him to easily slip through the CIA's warning systems and access a large area dedicated to weapon storage. He got hold of some plastic explosives, and used them to destroy a large portion of the CIA research facility.
After his successful escape from the government, Edgecrusher spent a year living on the street as he tried to understand exactly what Securitron had done to him. He eventually figured out how to directly use his control system to wirelessly access computers and cyber-databases, and hacked into Securitron Corporation's files on the cybernetics project. He found that Securitron had deliberately caused the explosion in the volunteers' quarters, intending to use the newly dead bodies to attempt a nanotechnology-based rapid regeneration project - it was believed that if a dead body could be repaired before its degeneration reached a critical point, it would be possible to resurrect soldiers who otherwise had no hope of survival. Securitron had intended to kill every volunteer for such experimentation, but when Edgecrusher survived, they seized the opportunity to get around the laws which forbade such inhuman activity and transferred him to the cybernetics espionage project. They then realized that people who were brain-dead but physically healthy were a loophole in the anti-human-experimentation laws, and injected four other test subjects with a serum to suppress their brain function and make them appear to be in a vegetative state... none of these test subjects had survived.
Edgecrusher saw just how corrupt Securitron Corporation really was: Living under the immunity that they were the military infrastructure; the only thing protecting America from foreign invaders, while in reality they used their government and corporate connections to play God and take away other peoples' most basic rights and freedoms. Edgecrusher decided that the only way he could truly set America free was to go renegade and destroy the system which was corrupting it and suppressing its citizens. He set out, an insurgent, determined to destroy every branch of Securitron, along with all of their government and corporate support.
Additional information: Edgecrusher's cybernetic system consists of a human brain, nervous system, circulatory system, vital organs, and skin combined with a mechanical musculoskeletal system and an electrical control system which acts as a conduit between the organic nerves and the electromechanical systems. The power source for the machine components consists of the waste organic material which the human systems are unable to process. As such, Edgecrusher still eats human food, but he no longer has to use the toilet since the waste material is used by his mechanical systems rather than expelled. The system is also capable of storing energy both to sustain itself and to sustain its organic counterpart; therefore, unlike a normal human, he can eat a large amount of food then go for days or weeks without eating. Edgecrusher's skull and spinal column are shielded by a nanotechnologically-based form of the titanium alloy composing his metal framework, which formed a chemically identical metallic plating over the bone. His arteries and veins are shielded in a similar manner; in that case, the nanotechnological structure of the alloy was altered slightly to lessen its rigidity.
A slightly malleable polymer plastic between the mechanical framework and his skin maintains the strictly human shape of his body without the musculature, as well as preventing his organic components from interfering with the system. Being nanotechnologically based, this plastic is surprisingly strong for its minute thickness and also acts as a damping system, lessening impact on the mechanical framework. It also serves to shield his control system from weaker electric and magnetic fields.
Custom title: Shock to the System
