Captain Solaria
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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Overview
"You're so fucking bright and cheery, Little Miss Sunshine."
Most of Portal Corporation's dimensional field team are women and men in labcoats or soldier uniforms - then there's a short, bronze-skinned girl in a sweater-vest and knee-socks, humming theme songs and musicals as she goes over a batch of lab data. That's Aliyah Fields, also known as Captain Solaria.
A Praetorian refugee, Aliyah is a very intelligent young woman and brings to Primal Earth some interesting theories on portal science - but she's not a top researcher in her field. She doesn't have a Ph. D., and she's only started working on her Master's Degree recently. What makes Aliyah special is that she is a superhero.
Using her power armor, Aliyah braves the transdimensional skies over Firebase Zulu, taking readings, escorting soldiers, and protecting the Shadow Shard's residents from the distorted echoes and disturbed spirits which lay there.
She is a licensed hero of Paragon City, however, and can be found outside the Shard on occasion, doing heroic things unrelated to Portal Corporation. She has a good relationship with the Paragon PD, and she is considered a special deputy, often being placed in liaison positions between the police and heroing communities. Her relationship with the criminal defense lawyer Victoria Lawson complicates the situation, but she will never hesitate to act to save endangered lives that she sees.
In Paragon, Aliyah can most often be found taking action against overtly militant groups, such as the Council, Sky Raiders, and Nemesis Army. Her relationship with Crey and Arachnos is more complicated than the others; Arachnos typically tries to avoid tangling with Portal Corp. too much given the current Praetorian situation, and she has had both positive and poor experiences with the myriad departments under the Crey umbrella. Organized crime tends to escape her involvement; it's far too messy for her off-the-cuff style and she's usually content to leave that to more experienced heroes. Most of them aren't dating a lawyer who typically works for organized crime.
Magical organizations both allied and antagonistic don't interact much with Aliyah, although she has begun raising questions among the Midnight Squad about the Dream Doctor's relationship with Rularuu the Ravager.
Her favorite things from Primal Earth are Katy Perry, Sara Bareilles and musicals, and though she misses Enriche (a lot - getting it in Paragon is much more expensive), she's become a big fan of burgers from Infront Steakhouse. If she's actually completely off-duty, she can be found boogeying and headbanging with earphones on and a burger in one hand, Enriche in the other.
Character History
"I think that there was... another you, once. A happier you. And it's like it got sucked out of you some time, long ago. And I want to bring that back. It's a beautiful world, you know. I'm a hero, and I know you hate that word, but it's my job to make sure everyone can see that beautiful world."
Ward of the Empire
"What do you mean, there's no time for cake?"
Aliyah has dim memories of her parents. Her father, Cyrus, was a member of the Imperial Defense Force and was lost when she was young. Lucy Fields - her mother - wasn't prepared to raise a child alone, much less one born with the multitude of birth defects and health problems her daughter had been plagued with. Not long after Cyrus died, Aliyah became an orphan; to this day, she's not certain if her mother killed herself or merely ran away, but in either case, she became a ward of the Empire. This worked out better than expected, however; Aliyah was a naturally obedient girl, and grew into the Praetorian education program with no difficulties, proving herself an excellent student. Though not a genius, she was certainly of exceptional intelligence. However, her naturally weak health led to the girl becoming an introvert, one who spent much of her time fantasizing about living a different life.
After three years at the CDEC, Aliyah graduated, and went into the Praetorian Police Department. As clumsy and slightly overweight as she was, she didn't have a chance of making it into any of the combat divisions which she romanticized; no, she was left as part of the Technical Support Division. There, however, she became fast friends with Assistant Interrogator Samantha Chirac. Samantha was older, confident, friendly and athletic - everything Aliyah wanted to be - and had a good grasp of common sense to boot. The Interrogator was technologically challenged, however, and had a terrible habit of breaking her equipment despite her great success rate.
Even though it was against regulations, Aliyah constantly pushed herself to late hours in the evening, working on making modifications to Sam's equipment to improve its userfriendliness, efficiency, performance, and durability. Most of these attempts were fruitless... But then one night, Aliyah's experimenting set off dimensional disturbance alarms across the precinct. Careful evaluation by specialists later concluded that somehow, through some freak chance of luck, Aliyah had opened up a dimensional aperture inside of her own body that connected to a radiant singularity. (Later analysis by Primal Earth's Portal Corp would suggest that the energy was closely related to that used by the Kheldians.) She had become a walking battery of energy.
The Loyalist Puppy
"We're looking for pitbulls and rottweilers. You're more a poodle."
Soon, Aliyah was informed she would submit to Praetor Barry and Keyes' experiments to find out how she'd pulled off her serendipitous accident. Though completely trusting of the Praetors, Aliyah instead eagerly suggested that she be made a Powers Division agent; though Praetor White was beyond skeptical, his girlfriend Cleo took a liking to the girl and suggested he give her a chance. She was told she had a month to become competent enough to hang with the 'big dogs,' and Aliyah leaped at the opportunity like she never had before; over the next month, she'd become Sam's temporary field partner as she got a crash course in the crimefighting business, before ultimately being confirmed as a solo agent of Powers Division.
It wasn't long before Agent Fields made her debut, using her technical know-how and a pair of blast-gaunts to thwart a Resistance bomb plot. Her career was less than stunning on the whole, though - Agent Fields' rookie status would show itself time and time again, and she longed to work with Samantha once more... but Praetor White disapproved of being overly chummy with the Praetorian PD regulars, so their contact remained limited. The majority of her successes at this time arose from the titanic amount of raw power she could project, though in a clumsy and uncontrolled fashion.Eventually, however, things became crazy. What should have been a routine clear-out of a Resistance hideout linked to Cutter Cain proved to be a trap. One of her informants - unbeknownst to her, Cleo - had sold her out to the Resistance and equipped them with disruption gear that made short work of her suit's batteries. Aliyah expected the worst - but rather than being killed, she was brought face-to-face with Cutter Cain himself. He explained that he had been watching Aliyah for some time, and that he thought she deserved to know the truth. And then, calmly, Cutter Cain began to lay out many of the secrets of the Empire which Aliyah protected.
Confused and uncertain, when she was untied, Aliyah made no attempt to attack them or join them; instead, she slowly walked home, her mind heavy. The stories they told made sense of so many things she hadn't been able to make sense of up to that point. That night, she spent a lot of time deep in thought; when morning came, she was determined to ask for a leave of absence, to get some time to consider everything and find the real answers. That time never came, however.
Unlimited
"I hope you're happy, now that you're choosing this. I hope you're happy in the end... my friend."
Not long after leaving her apartment, Aliyah stumbled into a heated battle between the Resistance and the PPD - and the unit of the PPD was being led by her friend, Samantha. Aliyah took her mentor aside to discuss the matter in depth, hoping to see dialogue rather than bloodshed. In return, she found out that Samantha had already known many of the dirty secrets of the Empire, but believed the system could be changed from within. Shocked at her mentor's almost nonchalant admission that the Resistance's claims were true, Aliyah knew she could stay no longer in this world. She went into the battle, weapons blazing, but purposely missing; when one of the Resistance managed to strike her, Aliyah timed a reactionary blast to fake a chain reaction that lit up the sky and sent her flying.
Hiding out in the slums of Nova Praetoria would prove to be a real eye-opener for her. Living with the Resistance was rough on her. Once more, Cleo would come to her assistance, for perhaps a final time. Strings were pulled, and Aliyah was introduced to Portal Corporation of Paragon City. A few weeks later, a woman remarkably matching her description appeared in Paragon City. For a brief period time, Aliyah lived under an assumed name, doing work with the PPD in a completely different costume to limit knowledge of her activities getting back to Praetoria.
Doing some minor good as Captain Solaria, she was - however - unremarkable as a hero, doing things that almost any other hero could or did do. Things started to go strange, though, after a botched apprehension of a Family muscle man. He'd murdered a man who had failed to pay back a sharked loan on time, right in front of his now-orphan children. Aliyah's haste to catch up to him had resulted in improper attachment of her gear, and a repulsor blast intended to knock him down instead had badly burned him.
In court, the muscle man was represented by Victoria Lawson, controversial criminal defense attorney, who managed to turn the case over on its head by showing a lack of evidence to convict - in part caused by Aliyah's errant blasting - and working out a deal with the city government to drop the case in return for avoiding a suit against the PPD for the injuries caused to him.
Heartbeats
"Why won't you hate me?!"
Despite this, Aliyah eventually cultivated an odd relationship with Victoria. From the older woman, she gained a certain amount of respect for procedure and planning, taking more care in future arrests. She was intrigued how Victoria was capable of being personally friendly - though she often mistook sarcastic gloating for friendly advice - but work for criminals. For her part, Victoria was fascinated by Aliyah's raw naivete, and insistence on doing good, whenever possible, despite how much Victoria made that difficult.
This holding pattern continued for a few weeks until Victoria found that she had crossed the wrong man; her odd code of ethics had led to her turning down a case from a Sky Raider Colonel, who retaliated with sending a strike team to hit Victoria's mansion while most of the city was preoccupied with the meteor strike in Galaxy City. Aliyah managed to beat them back, but Victoria had to be hospitalized. The experience was life-altering for both of them; in order to beat the mecha on the team, Aliyah had to utilize more power than she'd thought she had available to her, and in return, had widened the dimensional aperture in her heart.
Once Victoria had fully recovered, Aliyah made a statement - she would be working with Portal Corporation in the Shadow Shard in return for their monitoring of her medical condition, and she wanted Victoria to help. She had constructed Victoria a power suit for her own safety, but she felt in the Shard, Victoria would only have to worry with head-on threats, which Aliyah could handle more easily, rather than playing a game of cloak and dagger with every major criminal organization. To boot, the natives of the Shard were looking to create their own justice system, and Portal Corp was willing to pay well to help them out.
Reluctant to give up her law practice, Victoria nevertheless agreed to give it a try.
Defying Gravity
"So if you care to find me, look to the western skies."
In the Shadow Shard, Aliyah operates out of Firebase Zulu into the Chantry and Cascade Archipelago, where she takes measurements for Portal Corporation and provides security escorts for groups traveling through the area. Unparalleled in the air, the Rularuu have taken to calling her the Sun Dancer.
Powers and Equipment
"As someone told me lately, everyone deserves a chance to fly."
Though she started out an overweight bookworm, a few months of training from hell and real-life experience have transformed Aliyah Fields into the queen of the skies, something that Arachnos, Sky Raiders, and Rularuu have all found out firsthand. This owes heavily to her equipment; Aliyah's powers are useless without technological assistance, just as her suit is useless to someone without her powers.
The Sunheart
"Man, and I thought the Nuclear 90 were ridiculous."
The dimensional aperture inside of her body has been nicknamed the Sunheart, due to its location and its appearance. It is a tiny, pinhole-sized link to another dimension, and generates energy extremely similar to that produced by Kheldians. This energy is harmless - even beneficial! - to a human body except at extremely high concentrations. However, the pinhole is slowly and steadily growing, and its effects on her physiology once it interacts with her flesh are yet to be determined. The nature of the aperture, and why it sticks to her body, is also poorly understood.
Three systems have been utilized to harness the Sunheart's power for her different armors: the PRACs, the ARCAS, and the AMIDI. The PRACs, or Passive Radiant Aura Collectors, are external collectors positioned on her chest near to the Sunheart. Based on designs meant to harness cosmic energy from dimensional rifts by Praetor Keyes, the PRACs are an extremely safe method of collecting energy - but also extremely slow, leaving her with only a few hours of suit operation time a day. The chestplate also had to remain on her body at all times, even while sleeping, for maximum collection benefit. The PRACs were used in the Pinnacle armor series.
The ARCAS first appeared in the final build of the Pinnacle armor series, retroactively classified as the first of the Radiant armor series. Finding Primal Earth was a lot more wild, untamed, and openly dangerous, Aliyah found herself wanting on necessary power to run all of the suit's systems at once. Desiring to circumvent the restriction, Aliyah underwent a homebrew cyberization process, creating the Active Radiation Circulation and Adaptation System. The ARCAS employs an internal nanobot system that continually makes quick trips into the dimensional window created by the Sunheart, and returns supercharged, releasing the energy into internal bays which connect with her external suit. The ARCAS was based on a competing design by Praetor Berry for dimensional rift energy collection.
The AMIDI, or Array of Mirrored Inductance of Dimensional Instability is the system that debuted with the release of the Nova Armor series. Portal Corporation and Wetware Engineering had jointly devised and patented the device prior, but had found no real use for it; all it did was create a 'mirror' of an existing portal or rift at a maximum of 2 meters away from the source portal. However, it was perfect for Aliyah; the AMIDI reduces the dimensional tension in the Sunheart, slowing its growth significantly, and allows her gauntlets, visor, chestplate, waistguard, shoulderguards, and boots to all have their own power sources. The AMIDI is an external system which requires no cyberization, and produces almost as much energy as the ARCAS, with significantly less entropy than the nanobot delivery system. The AMIDI also has an additional benefit that Aliyah has recently managed to harness - by storing up energy into her suit's containment fields, she can temporarily overcharge the Mirror Array and create a large dimensional rift outside of her body temporarily, dealing heavy damage to surrounding foes.
The Wristcom
"It's all in the wrist."
Aliyah relies heavily on her wristcom, a small but complex computer that is linked to the Mediport system. It tells her the time, and it also can directly teleport her needed armor onto and off of her body, allowing her to dress for battle in under one minute. A small amount of time is needed for the armor systems to completely boot and interface with her body, despite their instantaneous appearance.
The wristcom has very, very minor functions beyond the teleportation capacity, which requires most of its brainpower to use accurately. It is an item Aliyah confiscated from a Syndicate boss who she defeated.
Armor Series
"You know what they say... the clothes make the man. Woman. What...ever you are. Thing."
Though powerful, the Sunheart is actually useless on its own; Aliyah has no ability to harness its powers without technological assistance. She's used various armor sets to circumvent this issue, as well as the fact that she is not an extremely athletic woman.
Nova Armor Set
The Nova Armor set is the first armor set Aliyah was not the principle architect on; though she had significant input on its construction, the Nova Armor was created by Portal Corporation and Wetware Engineering as a major redesign of the Mark VI Radiant Armor set. It bears many external similarities, but the internals are extremely different; most of the suit's size is devoted to the AMIDI architecture. Lacking the complicated heating issues of the Radiant Armor, the suit uses proprietary novakinetic - a sort of tangible light used in multiple kinds of forcefields - generators for both offensive and defensive applications.Notable features include a cloaking device, an internal user-biostasis maintenance that injects serums and monitors life signs, and the installation of a new AI - the Tactical Advantage Neural Interfacing Application, or TANIA - created by Architect Entertainment originally for their simulation software. TANIA constantly evaluates a situation and directly feeds better angles and approaches into the user's brain, allowing them to become both more evasive and more damaging as a fight continues. A drawback to TANIA, however, is that it heightens Aliyah's sensitivity to any psionic attack that successfully breaches the force field's interference - which is already lessened against psychic approaches. The suit's complicated Biostasis Unit is also less effective against immediately acting toxins.
In both cases, however, Aliyah is able to activate the Radiant Overdrive emergency protocol, which temporarily fills her body with fast-acting steroids to counteract psionic and toxic effects, and doubles the strength of all forcefields - while the Radiant Overdrive is active, she is nearly unstoppable.
TANIA has developed a personality from interfacing with Aliyah's darkest thoughts - resulting in a very sarcastic AI who comments on all the things Aliyah won't allow herself to.
This armor is represented in-game as a Kinetic/Energy Brute.
Radiant Armor Set
The Radiant Armor set was Aliyah's first set made in Primal Earth; built around the ARCAS, it has since been retired due to the vast superiority of the AMIDI architecture. Key characteristics of the Radiant Armor set included excessive overheating (which was weaponized to an extent, resulting in its characteristic destructive power), a loss of stealth capabilities, multiple redundancy fail-safe systems, and superior anti-range defense capabilities. Its primary weapons were the expended coolant ejector and repulsion force projector. Aliyah was assisted in using this armor by the Crey combat application suite SARAI, or Strategic and Ranged Analytic Intelligence. Many of the parts of this armor were stolen from Crey or Sky Raider technology, most notably the Force Field projector, the AI, and the Crey CBX-9 Rapid Cooling Systems. The most recent version of this Armor is Mark VI.
It is represented in-game as a Kinetic/Fiery Scrapper.
Pinnacle Armor Set
The Pinnacle Armor set was Aliyah's primary armor set during her time in Praetoria. The Pinnacle Armor set employed only a very weak force-field projector for its defensive capabilities, slowing rather than stopping bullets. It was notable for its extreme amounts of directed repulsion force energy, which could damage reinforced Impervium walls at maximum settings. It was powered by the PRACs; it could be conceivably redesigned to take advantage of the AMIDI architecture, but its relatively low defensive capabilities concern Aliyah. One of its key advantages over the Radiant Armor set was that the system was extremely quiet, and could be used in detection-avoidance situations. The most recent version of this Armor is Mark III; the Mark IV was retroactively classified as Mark I Radiant Armor.
It is represented in-game as an Energy/Energy Blaster.
Out of Character Information
"So what's your story, kid?"
- Her theme song is Defying Gravity from Wicked. It's also her favorite song.
- Praetorian Defeat List: Anti-Matter (x3), Marauder (x2), Neuron, Siege, Nightstar, Battle Maiden.
- @SolarDjinn is extremely friendly. Not always open for RP, but that's because I am often busy. Please say hi sometime!
- While I can be found in the D, I'm more interested in plot than clubbing. Plots are delicious. Mission RP can be fun, but I'm not -crazy- about it unless it's part of a plot.
- If you want to walk-up and say you're someone minor from her backstory - a fellow member of the PPD, or a member of Portal Corporation - feel free! :D
- I do fire farming on the scrapper version (and soon the brute version) of the character, so if you need to level an alt, please let me know.
- I like fights and am interested in learning how to PvP.
- New to the game - I joined a few weeks before I21.