Claim to FameThough not conventionally famous, Jericho has a certain reputation among those hunting him, specifically as a royal pain in the ass whom everyone would like to see run in or run down. ReputationTo the extent that he has one, Jericho is most known as Aspect - a very talented hacker who appeared on the scene about a year ago and has targeted a bewildering assortment of public and private networks for digital theft and outright destruction. Authorities have not yet, that Jericho is aware, connected that hacker alias to the occasionally destructive brawls that occur in odd parts of the Tri-City area. Among Hydra Jericho is known as a royal pain in the ass that everyone would like to see taken down so they can reap the secrets of the Digital Polymorphing technology. BiographyThe story of Aspect is really a product of the unlikely intersection of two separate tales and it goes like this: Once upon a time, 1981 to be exact, a Department of Defense scientist named Calvin Bainbridge conceived of a system to create weapons and armor in the field on demand. As originally conceived Bainbridges' system involved using micro fabricators to assemble items soldiers might need on site rather than having them shipped from the States. Subsequent investigatory studies eventually concluded that the idea was far, far beyond the technology that would likely be available in the near future. The concept however, portable arsenals on demand, was deemed worthwhile enough that in 1985 the Pentagon formed a permanent team under the code name ‘Project Prometheus’ to study and develop the capabilities necessary to make Bainbridges’ concept a reality in some fashion. Fast forward twenty two years. Project Prometheus has survived over two decades of budget cuts and several presidential administrations. Over the course of that time the Project had investigated and discarded several methods of delivering the final product. Micro constructors turned out to be far too slow and bulky. Nanomachines were too new presented too many variables. However recent advances in cybernetic implants and power field manipulation presented an opportunity to not only meet Bainbridges’ vision, but exceed it. By utilizing a suite of cybernetic implants they could create a computer controlled power field capable of interacting with the physical world. This field could, with some fine tuning, enhance soldier’s senses and physical attributes, speed healing, shield him from harm and even manifest weapons or propel the wearer in flight. The entire package was named the Digital All Purpose Weapon System (DAPWS) but became commonly known as the Digital Polymorpher. Enter Jericho Trent. The fairly average child of a fairly average family from Los Angeles, Jericho had enlisted in the Army out of high school as an infantry man. In the army he finally distinguished himself in two combat tours. During that time he also worked on his higher education and discovered a knack for technology and programming sufficiently impressive for him to be offered a position as a cryptologist when his three year enlistment expired. Happy to have a chance to both further his education even more and put some of his undergrad computer classes to use, he accepted. This is where the stories converge. A year into his second enlistment, he was approached by his superiors with an unusual offer. Because of his combat experience and technical expertise, he was uniquely qualified to join a select group of soldiers to field test a new cybernetic weapon of unprecedented versatility. Staff Sergeant Trent agreed, underwent the surgery to have the DAPWS implanted along with some related information warfare implants appropriate to his skills and experience, and for the next four years he and eleven other soldiers tested the systems capabilities in a variety of combat situations. In most respects, the tests were unqualified successes. There were some concerns about the long term effects of its use, as a few of the soldiers had displayed unusual though nonlethal reactions to the device over time. Even Jericho had, his grey eyes developing light amber flecks that shone if light was shined into them. In the event, the Army decided to end the program and do further research on the system before approving it for manufacture and deployment. The surviving ten soldiers were brought in for a surgical procedure to remove the devices. As Jericho happened to be coming to the end of his enlistment at the time, this marked the end of his army career. Having been working on his education throughout his army career, it only took Jericho a year to finish his Masters in Computer Science. From there he quickly found a job as a cybersecurity specialist, a counter hacker in essence, and began to make a name for himself. Three years after leaving the military he was quite firmly established, working for a firm in New York and enjoying life. Unfortunately for him, another organization had been tracking the DAPWS tests with a great deal of interest: Hydra. The powers that be greatly coveted Digital Polymorpher for the power and flexibility it could give their operatives, but they’d failed in all of their efforts to subvert the design team or steal it from the Army. When Jericho mustered out though, they saw an opportunity. Subverting the medical team tasked to the do the surgery, they secretly not only had his implants retained, but also installed a virus in them that would minimize their power output and cause the field to manifest only as images of various animals, barely more than holograms and certainly useless in a fight. Their reasoning was that though a soldier might be noticed missing, a civilian most certainly would not, at least not in the same way if they waited long enough. They almost caught him off guard. A ghost in the machine, a glitch in the virus caused the dormant implants to suddenly spark to life. To say Jericho freaked out is an understatement, but once he got ahold of himself, he realized this could mean nothing good. He immediately fired up the system and analyzed it, detecting the virus in short order. The malware proved to be too sophisticated for him to counteract outright, but he did manage to work around it enough to make the system useful as a weapon again, minutes before Hydra kicked down the door to his office. The fight was a near thing. Power issues aside, he found that the Polymorpher would only manifest fields that could be related to what looked like a database culled from the animals section of Wikipedia. This made the polymorpher near useless in the first fight except as armor. Luckily Hydra had rather underestimated his more conventional combat skills and he managed to escape back to his home with enough time to gather a few necessities before fleeing ahead of the strike team he was sure would arrive soon. Space bought him time to get the Polymorpher working a bit better. He did manage to increase the power flow but it still only functioned at a fraction of its potential output, meaning that he couldn’t run all of its functions at once. He also never did manage to get around the animal centric restriction on the shape and function of the power fields either. Both considerations drove him to program the device with preset parameters that would activate certain functions on the Polymorpher in predefined shapes. This gave him the ability to switch through the devices functions rapidly as best suited the situation, calling them up manually took far too long to attempt in the heat of the moment. What Jericho needed more than anything else at this point, was information. One does not go to war with the most deadly subversive organization on the planet with a half functional super weapon and no game plan. Nor does one escape them for long. He had to disappear, gather himself and find a way to deal with this whole mess… somehow. So he took to the net. His implanted cyber warfare suite still functioned, giving him network access from nearly anywhere even without otherwise necessary accoutrements like a phone or a computer. He began to frequent hacker sites using the handle ‘Aspect’, gathering rumors and information to stay ahead of those trying to track him. Putting his counter hacking experience to use from the other side he targeted systems and networks that Hydra had compromised. Over time he discovered that some sites couldn’t be accessed remotely. These he visited in person, quietly where possible but sometimes provoking a destructive brawl that left the building gutted of people, information and structural supports. The game of cat and mouse dragged on, with Hydra becoming more determined and ruthless and Jericho more and more adept at staying off the grid and striking where it would hurt. The two have hunted and evaded one another throughout the Tri-City area for the better part of a year now and the chase shows no signs of letting up. It’s only a matter of time though before someone else takes notice… and then things will get *really* complicated. |
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Character DetailsA year of running from one of the most ruthless, invasive organizations in the world hasn’t done wonders for his social skills. Hydra’s reach and repeated brushes with death have rendered Jericho suspicious and slightly more cynical than he used to be. Where they are involved, he has an ‘anything goes’ attitude, will kill their operatives without remorse and go to extreme lengths to disrupt or shut down their operations. Disconnect him from the object of his simmering rage, though, and he’s a different person. Driven and loyal to a fault, the same qualities that made him an effective infantryman and caring friend are still within him, it’s just harder – much harder – to get to see them. Relationships
NotesCurrent Theme Song: It's Time by Imagine Dragons and Thrive by Switchfoot Character GalleryLogsLog EntriesDemon Tech Primal Force: Hellgate and Leylines Polymorphing Mage Fear and Magic In New York Core Dimensions Mythology and Science Martini Fight Party in New York Infusing Mutants Dreamcatching Apology Eight Nine Ten Basement and Vices Why So Much Power Gotham Interconnection Let's Go Dancing Catching Up On The Hydra Thicker Than Water Transposition Restless Dead Clothing Partisan Resurrected Partisan Back to: Current Cast |
Aspect