The Angel of Artillery

[Moe Lane]

Alleyne
Kyriotate Master of Valor
Angel of Artillery

Corporeal Forces: 5 Strength: 8 Agility: 12
Ethereal Forces: 5 Intelligence: 8 Precision: 12
Celestial Forces: 5 Will: 10 Perception: 10
Word-Forces: 8

Vessel: none (see below)

Skills: Computer Operations/3, Dodge/3, Electronics/3, Fighting/1, Knowledge (Ballistics/6, Mathematics/6, Soldiering/6), Languages (English/3, German/3, Russian/3), Large Weapon/3 (bayonet), Ranged Weapon (Artillery/6, rifle/6, pistol/6), Savoir-Faire/1, Small Weapon/3 (knife), Tracking/1

Songs: Affinity/3 (Ethereal), Attraction/3 (Celestial), Cacophony/3 (Celestial), Fire/3 (Ethereal), Healing/6 (Corporeal), Machines (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/3), Motion/3 (Ethereal), Shields/6 (Corporeal)

Attunements: Kyriotate of War (unused), Seraph of War, Ofanite of War, Proficiency (artillery), Howl, Blood Oath, Kyriotate of Lightning, Master of Valor, Angel of Artillery. Alleyne has no vessel currently assigned to it.

Special Rite: Fire an artillery piece.

Angel of Artillery: Alleyne has a permanent +5 (his Ethereal Forces) to all skill rolls involving artillery pieces. This bonus may only be used to negate penalties to skill, as assessed by the GM. The angel also has the equivalent of a Role/2 whenever it possesses an artillery shell.


Of course Michael has an assassin. Every Archangel has an assassin... what? Actually, yes, that does include Novalis. Hers has had a long career, perfect record, no fatalities, three injuries; but the focus should be on Alleyne, here. Alleyne is Michael's favorite assassin.

It does make a certain... amount of sense, in a totally senseless way, no? The best place to hide a murder - or call it an "execution," if you're squeamish - is on a battlefield; and even a paranoid would find it hard to believe that death via artillery shell could be anything except fortunes of war. You'd need somebody to aim the shell with inhuman precision, somebody to guide it in all the way to the explosion, and somebody to able to control the shell in flight as if it were a living thing - and have them be in constant and perfect communication with each other. And how likely are you to get that to happen?

And that's how Alleyne works. Alleyne actually doesn't do all that many special jobs for Michael, mostly because the Archangel of War prefers not to overuse a trick - but the one the Kyriotate knows is a doozy. Possess the artillerist, possess whoever would make a convenient forward observer, possess a particular shell - then crunch the numbers and fire the gun. Done correctly, it looks perfectly natural, if a bit of malignant luck for the target. For that matter, Alleyne can also be very useful for destroying inconvenient or malignant evidence that's too large for a pickup truck, let alone a shredder.

If this all seems like overkill, please bear in mind that Michael does not really recognize the concept.

Alleyne is not a stereotypical Servitor of War. To begin with, it started out working for Jean, and retains the same habits of precision and restraint that it learned under Lightning. While Alleyne had his service transferred to Michael roughly six hundred years ago, it did not receive its word until some time in the 19th Century AD. The Kyriotate apparently feels that it's best to cultivate an air of studiousness and restraint; Alleyne has rather strict views of the obligations of and expectations for a Word-bound angel, and so it actively regulates its own behavior. Aside from that, Alleyne is a pleasant enough entity, provided that you can get past the fact that it typically is constantly calculating the trajectories and ordinance payloads needed to handle any situation, including the social ones...

[chris the cynic]

First off, I like it. I want to say more than that but can't think of anything worthwhile to add.

Second, I've noticed that while you are clearly actively producing stuff (such as this) your site has not been updated in quite some time. Is the stuff you're writing now going to show up there eventually?

[Moe Lane]

First off, thank you. :)

Second, "eventually" is the right word. I'm hoping to update before 2008. New kid, you understand.