Antarctica Starts Here.

One thing I've noticed about Eclipse Phase is that the system makes it easy to develop very detailed, very powerful (which stands to reason, when you think about it), and sometimes very quirky characters. It isn't often that a game system will let you design a character that has stats that cover a high degree of skill in a hobby as well as a profession, say, Zen calligraphy or tailoring.

As with all Eclipse Phase stuff, this character data bears the Creative Commons v3.0, Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike, unported license.

Character name: Alprentice Higgins
Gender: Male
Apparent age: 25
Character concept: Transathlete, specializing in extremely high altitude skydiving. Former military, Special Forces, fought in the TITAN War. Uploaded to an orbital platform shortly before the Fall and escaped to Luna.
Favorite sports: Orbital HALO jumping, competitive exospheric drag racing (aerobreaking optional), low gravity ultramarathon, crater luge.
Background: Lt. Colonel Alprentice Higgins served in the United States Army's Special Forces during the TITAN War, where he fought alongside ground forces as a ground-effect tank jockey and later heavy weapons specialist of a vectored thrust infantry unit. After his squad was all but obliterated by the machines he was reassigned behind the front line to military intelligence, where he worked to analyze information reported by squadrons in the field and devise strategies against the TITAN war machine.

Alprentice was uploaded to one of the last circumgaian habitats just before the fall of Earth. Due to his distinguished military career and close proximity to Earth, he was resleeved almost immediately in case his skills should become necessary. The TITANs vanished a few weeks later and he relocated to Luna during the interdiction. Higgins kicked around the lunar colonies for a couple of years working as a courier and messenger and eventually got hold of a rocket buggy which he then used to set up a thriving shipping and transport operation that spanned a half dozen habitats on Luna and in circumlunar orbit.

As a pastime, Alprentice indulged in his passion of extreme sports while taking advantage of the fractional gravity of Luna. He got his start running in ultramarathons and playing amateur low gravity rugby with the occasional downcrater luge run on the lunar surface. He also developed an interest in exospheric drag racing in his rocket buggy, from which he used his winnings to further expand his company as well as purchase a pair of droids to augment his already busy schedule. Upon discovering that skydiving could be done on other worlds he adapted the principles of HALO jumping (high altitude, low opening) for low planetary orbit. Higgins had a couple of run-ins on Luna and Mars because he would frequently neglect to obtain permission to enter anyone's airspace, but his notoriety was enough to eventually draw the attention and sponsorship of a pair of hypercorps that specialize in sports entertainment and high performance vehicles. His daredevil antics have brought him fans and contacts all through Sol system... as well as the attention of Firewall, who contracts him from time to time for assistance planing or carrying out operations within the inner system. Having seen near-constant combat during the inter-faction wars on Earth and later against the TITANS, Alprentice developed borderline personality disorder from the pressure. The underlying structure of his moods has been shot to hell so he can and often does switch from a gregarious pilot to a viciously sarcastic misanthrope at the drop of a hat. He still isn't sure how he managed to survive the destruction of his infantry unit at the hands of the TITANs and he's not entirely certain that it was through luck or skill. Visions and half-broken recollections keep him awake every night, suspecting that he may have betrayed them to the machines and not let himself remember the act. It might be that his love of death-defying sports and spending long hours signing autographs and chatting with his fans might have something to do with this. His muse has taken to badgering him to have periodic backups left with his insurance company, just in case.

Sometime between his first championship wins on Luna and first orbital skydive on Mars, Alprentice fell in with a group of Ultimate mercenaries en route from the Aspis habitat toward the inner system. Their ascetic practices and daily training regimen appealed to Higgins' feelings of disquiet and they formed a camraderie over their shared military experiences (or as much so as the Ultimates are capable of). While Alprentice has no real desire to return to battle (hence his rejection of a Remade or Ultimate morph) he has accepted much of the Ultimate philosphy as his own and sought to expand his horizons beyond a life of sports and black ops. Studying physics and martial philosophy have given him a unique perspective upon the universe and all that it contains and has done much to teach him control over his unstable emotions. While he hasn't really shown anyone his hand carved sculptures or calligraphy, he feels little need to do so because those works were made for the benefits of no one but himself.

Background: Lunar Colonist
Faction: Ultimate

Motivations: +Adventure, +Fame, +Pushing the Limit

Ego Statistics:

Cognition: 15
Coordination: 15 (20)
Intuition: 15 (20)
Reflexes: 20 (25)
Savvy: 20
Somatics: 15 (25)
Willpower: 20

Calculated Statistics:

Lucidity: 40
Trauma Threshold: 8
Insanity Rating: 80
Initiative: 70 (morph bonus: 80) (mental speed implants: 110)
Melee damage bonus: 1 (2)
Speed: 1
Moxie: 3

Reputation:

@-rep - 20
c-rep - 40
f-rep - 40
i-rep - 20

Skills:

Active Skills:
- Athletics - 59 (69)
- Beam Weapons - 30 (35)
- Climbing - 40 (50)
- Demolitions - 25
- Exotic Ranged Weapon: Vortex Ring Gun - 30 (35)
- Flight - 50 (60)
- Fray - 35 (40)
- Freefall - 30 (35)
- Freerunning - 30 (40)
- Hardware: Personal Flight Equipment - 40
- Infiltration - 30 (35)
- Interfacing - 30<
- Kinetic Weapons - 40 (45)
- Navigation - 30 (35)
- Networking: @-rep - 25
- Networking: c-rep - 40
- Networking: f-rep - 40
- Networking: i-rep - 25
- Perception - 40 (45)
- Persuasion - 30
- Pilot: Groundcraft - 30 (35)
- Pilot: Spacecraft - 60 (55)
- Protocol - 25
- Scrounging - 30 (35)
- Swimming - 25 (35)
- Unarmed Combat - 35 (45)
Knowledge Skills:
- Academics: Military History - 40
- Academics: Military Strategy - 30
- Academics: Physics - 45
- Academics: Sports History - 45
- Academics: Astrophysics - 55
- Art: Sculpture (rock) - 30 (35)
- Art: Zen brush painting - 30 (35)
- Interest: Extreme Sports - 45
- Interest: TITAN War - 45
- Native language: English - 85 (90)
- Language: Japanese - 45 (50)
- Profession: Intelligence Analysis - 45
- Profession: Logistics - 45

Positive traits:

Brave (+10 to resist fear or intimidation) (10 CP)
Situational Awareness (no distraction or combat perception modifiers) (10 CP)

Negative traits:

Borderline Personality Disorder (-10 CP)

Credits: 6500
Morph: Olympian

Implants:
- Basic Biomods
- Basic Mesh Inserts
- Bioweave Armor (Armor 2/3)
- Cortical Stack
- Direction Sense
- Enhanced Respiration
- Enhanced Vision (+20 to all visual Perception checks)
  - +Antiglare
  - +Radiation Sense
- Medichines
- Mental Speed (2 extra complex mental actions, Bullet Time, Initiative +30)
- Oxygen Reserve
- Temperature Tolerance
- Vacuum Sealing
Aptitude maxima: 30
Durability: 40
Death Rating: 60
Wound Threshold: 8
Morph bonuses:
- +5 Coordination
- +5 Reflexes
- +10 Somatics
- +5 Intuition

Gear:

Standard Muse
- Intuition - 20
- Academics: Psychology - 60
- Hardware: Electronics - 30
- Infosec - 30
- Interface - 40
- Knowledge: Cultural Anthropology - 40
- Knowledge: Spacecraft - 40
- Knowledge: Engineering - 40
- Profession: Accounting - 60
- Programming - 20
- Research - 30
- Perception - 30
High Dive Suit (13/10 active)
- Three (3) hours of breathable air
- -30 on Perception tests to spot, +30 if re-entering
- Thermal dampening system
Smart Vac Suit (+20 Infiltration, +10 when moving, 2/4 armor)
Utilitool (+10 repair/modify/hack technical tests)
Backup Insurance (1 month)
Automatic Rifle
- Armor Penetration: -6
- Damage Value: 2d10 + 6
- Average Damage: 17
- Modes: Semiautomatic, Burst Fire, Full Automatic
- Ammunition/clip: 30 rounds
- Shock Safety
  - Ego Identification
  - Attack unauthorized users:
    - Damage value: 1d10 + 2 + shock
    - Average damage: 7
  - Smartlink
    - Attack Test +10
    - Microcam
    - Control flux ammo
- Ammunition: Armor Piercing
  - Armor Penetration: -5
  - Damage Value Modifier: -2
- Ammunition: Flux
  - Statistics per specific ammunition type
- Ammunition: Biter
  - Damage Value Modifier: +1d10
- Vortex Ring Gun
  - Targets hit are at -10 for the rest of the round
  - Targets must roll Somatics*2 or be knocked down
- Rocket Buggy
  - Up to 4 passengers
  - Handling +20
  - Movement 8/32
  - Maximum velocity: 2500 km/hr in atmosphere, 3000 km/hr in vacuum
  - Durability: 100
  - Wound Threshold: 20
  - Inside a low-atmosphere gravity well, can travel most anywhere inside of an hour
  - Outside of atmosphere, has a range of 30,000 km
  - Life support under a full load tops out at 50 hours
  - Lighting, radar, radio communication tops out at 250 km
- Automech
- Servitor