Appearance
The Varangian is a woman of fairly impressive physique, standing tall and with an athletic build. She has long, dark brown hair with pronounced, dark eyebrows and eyes of a deep and very obviously augmented violet. She isn't an unattractive woman, but her violent profession has left scars on both her mind and body. She has a broken eyebrow, a scarred lip, a cut from a monowire across her chest and numerous scars from old gunshot wounds over her body. There are patches of synthetic skin along her temple, and a hexagonal metal plate is grafted to the back of her head, with visible connections running down the top of the spine to eventually disappear underneath the skin. A datajack and numerous chipjack slots are grafted behind her ear, along with a small LED light. All those old battle wounds and cyberware makes her look unfriendly but she also tends to have an aloof and serious demeanour, although this might just be her living up to an East Slavic stereotype. She seems to take fitness rather seriously, since she has a preference for comfortable but stylish sportwear like leggings, windbreaker jackets and wrist sweatbands.
Experience
The Varangian is a fairly well-established Shadowrunner in Denver. She's known for being a crack shot with long guns and frequently provides sniper/marksman support for her team. Her paramilitary background has also drilled her into a tactical mindset and often participates actively in pre-op planning, provides tactical analysis on the fly while in the field, and is quite firm on radio discipline while running. Her greatest asset as a team member, however, might be her enormous range of practical skills due to her Skillwire implants, allowing her to master just about any skill instantly. She's known to confidently operate vehicles, heavy weapons, parachutes and scuba gear, electronics, and has even done a bit of decking on her own. At her core, though, Varangian is a soldier for hire.
Services (Shadowrunning)
Long-range marksmanship
Extraction (Material / Personnel)
Personnel protection
Physical reconnaissance
Sabotage
Non-lethal application
Wetwork
Background
The Varangian's peculiar accent is not her own. It's merely a linguasoft program she uses to compensate for the fact that she doesn't speak English. Her native language seems to be Ukrainian or a heavily "ukrainised" Russian. She arrived to North America only recently after having left behind some sort of security/military career in Europe.
Skills
The Varangian has a professional background in a European SWAT unit and has training in marksmanship, CQC, small-unit tactics, breaching, demolitions, and unarmed submission combat. Additionally, she is equipped with a highly sophisticated skillwire system which allows her to instantly acquire new abilities, making her a potentially highly versatile operative.
Known Hangouts
Custom Gunz 'N' Armor
Colorado Blvd Gym
SIN
The Varangian has a UCAS-issue SIN:
SIN#: UCAS-13867-001PB3-000CO2-LNM
Name: Ellen Shaw
DoB: 04.11.2058
LoB: Burlington, VM, UCAS
Anyone in the know is likely to realise that this SIN is false. She is not known to operate with any other false SINs.
Identity
The Varangian's real name is Iryna Vasylenko, born into an ethnic Ukrainian military family with Constantinopolitan citizenship.
History
Iryna grew up in the Free City of Constantinople but moved to Ukraine to attend secondary education in Kiev. After graduation at age 17, she joined the National Guard of Ukraine, a gendarmerie (military police) that operates directly under the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Not technically being a Ukrainian citizen, she likely acquired her position at the NGU through family connections. She served little time as a regular patrolling police but graduated quickly to division OMEGA, an anti-terrorist unit analogous to the Russian OMON. After being promoted to the rank of an NCO, she was accepted into a "universal operative" program with extensive cybernetic augmentation, in particular a state-of-the-art skillwire system intended to allow her to operate any weapon system, vehicle, or employ any skill as needed by her unit.
She has also served as a mercenary for the 10.000 Daggers PMC, based in Constantinople, employed in the late 70's, but her contract was terminated in the spring of 2080, shortly before she left for America and ended up in Denver.
