78 Chronological, 22 biological

Female

t-Human, 4th Order (Human)

187cm

Karin is a slender, lean-bodied fighter showing full evidence of excellent military conditioning on an already toned body. She looks powerful without being overtly muscular, and her slightly angular features and typical non-expression give her a disapproving, even stern look. In an attempt to soften that harsh image at least somewhat she wears her hair long, to mid-back, and tied back with a simple cord at her neck when it isn't up in a quick and dirty ponytail. If she has to fit it under a helmet it's quickly braided then piled atop her head, held in place with said helmet.

Like all other members of the CMC, Karin's skin is a blue-tinted ashen gray colour, paler than average. The freckling on her face, shoulders and hands shows up as a darker grey with less blue. Her hair is an unnatural ruby shade of red, and her eyes are their natural charcoal grey.

Karin made the transition midway through an operation, so she arrived here (wherever here is) in her usual fatigues. At rest a uniform dark charcoal colour, the cloth can interface with her I³ to become active camouflage. It's a uniform that goes back well over a century from her time, a field jacket, shirt, uniform pants with many easily accessible pockets, and harness. A CMC unpowered antiballistics vest over her shirt but under her jacket, helmet with heads-up panel over her right eye, and solid, low-tech boots finish the ensemble.

Lieutenant-in-absentia from the ECF of the Confederate Marine Corps.

Karin is a Confederate Marine. As such she's extensively trained in many varieties of combat, from the ranged hunting game of building-to-building firefights to extra-urban combat to melee struggles and unarmed combat. Most skilled with a rifle or her AMW (Adaptable Melee Weapon) in her hands, she dislikes hand to hand unarmed combat when she's not under an Anima, and her pistol proficiency is notable but not her preferred weapon.

As a member of the CMC's "Extraordinary Combatant" branch, she's also trained in esoteric, highly unorthodox techniques, such as high velocity orbital assault drops, where most soldiers would be unsuited. She is more than capable of operating alone, especially since her Anima can be used to provide any heavy hitting power she herself lacks (either personally or in arms loadout).

Karin's primary power is her ability to assume an Anima. Anima are the physical manifestations of certain concepts or traits that an individual channels through herself, using her own body to house and support the power contained in that concept.

According to A.S.P.E.C.T. (Advanced Specialization Programme for Extraordinary Combatant Tactics) doctrine and research, a disproportionately large number of Confederate citizens are capable of manifesting at least one Anima; that is, they have the mental capacity and the necessary complexity and intensity of thought processes to be able to handle the assumption and personification of a concept or trait.

What most lack, and the reason that Anima manifesters are so unusual and extraordinary, is the force of will necessary to marshal that concept into an image of their choosing, which is the necessary bridge that must be in place to allow such power to flow. Those that have such will usually only exercise it by pure intuition and reflex, which is why more than 99% of manifestations occur in high stress situations.

Doctrine holds and research supports the hypothesis that for those with all the right qualities, the Anima is a kind of self defense mechanism, much the same as a person flinging up their arms to protect their face against debris or heat. Thus, to manifest an Anima, the manifester needs to be put into a high stress situation without struggling against instinctive protections.

This works fine for a single Anima, and most manifesters content themselves with only the one without traveling the harder route of learning how to channel and choose and control more than a single Anima. It is in part for those who do choose to go on that ASPECT was founded.

The ASPECT curriculum is an intensive battery of stress inducement in all situations, intended not to acclimate the soldier to such situations and reduce stress but instead to teach them to think and act while stressed without suppressing instinctive reactions. This training allows her to choose which Anima she wants to manifest, rather than simply the one she's most comfortable with.

Karin presently holds five different Anima within her arsenal. Her Persona, which is the title given to a manifester's most familiar and preferred Anima, is Jade, a tigress/leopardess mixed-morph that embodies Karin's idea of pure physical power. SnowBlind and Ignis came next, representing Ice and Fire respectively, then Noose as the embodiment of asphyxiation and entrapment, and finally Freefall as the embodiment of gravity and similar forces.

As a soldier in the CMC, Karin's present body is not the one in which she was born. When she signed up for service with the Corps, she agreed to an awareness transfer into a specially modified body based on her own genetics. All of the modifications were done to adapt her to a rapidly changing arena of combat.

The most basic of the upgrades are the usual "super soldier suite," things like reflex speed, muscular efficiency, improvements in oxygen utilization and sensory perception. These are easily obtained, though still highly expensive, for government agencies under the various interstellar treaties to which the Confederacy is party. Her oddly coloured skin is radiosynthetic; that is, it absorbs a broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation and uses its energy to boost the oxygen and blood sugar levels of Karin's bloodstream, much the same way photosynthesis uses light for food and oxygen production in plants. While it is not efficient enough to supply her entire needs, it does blunt the various radiation based injuries she might otherwise take, and provides a useful leg up over her more conventional opponents.

One of the more major improvements, and likewise legal for government entities, is the creation of a semi-organic computer that has completely integrated into her brain, allowing for its processes to augment her own and for her use of its capabilities to be wholly natural. Known as the Intelligent Integrated Interface, or I³ (known to the soldiers as their "icecube," of course), the device also serves to handle intra-unit communications and soldier/weapon communications for diagnostic and handsfree functions.

Karin's a fairly low-key individual. She doesn't excessively brag or boast, she's not into carousing, and she doesn't have a "look at me" complex. She's comfortable with being the driving force behind the scenes. She prefers to get things done while it's all still fresh, avoiding procrastination and deferral.

Karin has a bit of a soft spot for children, despite not knowing how to relate well to them; attacking or injuring a child is guaranteed to get her angry.

Karin shows the marks of her time at ASPECT, however. Like all other graduates of the program, she exhibits traits of being constantly under stress. They are small but present, manifesting as a constantly wary look, nervous tics (Karin's right eye twitches at the corner, and when she stresses more her left pinky finger does the same), and a slightly elevated breathing rate than one would expect from a woman of her age and obviously good physical condition. She accumulates stress more rapidly than most, though is less likely to mentally panic: ASPECT training, after all, is designed to allow soldiers to panic while remaining in control, essential for utilizing Anima to their fullest.