<strong>Name:</strong>Stephen Grayson.<br/><br/><strong>Race:</strong>Human<br/><br/><strong>Age:</strong>26<br/><br/><strong>Class:</strong>Vanguard<br/><br/><strong>Class Specialization:</strong>Powerhouse frontline soldier.<br/><br/><strong>Appearance:</strong>Stephen is a reasonable height, standing at 6 foot, 4 inches. He has fistfuls of blonde hair and striking hazel eyes that seem to constantly be analysing. His face is best described as handsome and angular: combine that with the sharpness of his eyes and you would be able to see that somewhere in the distant-but-not-to-distant past, there was some slight Asian ancestry, although the tan peach skin tone meant that it was at least a few generations past.<br/><br/>Stephen has a certain talented for wearing faces. He will commonly be seen with a smile on his lips: something that can give people the silly idea that he is, in fact, some sort of Happy-go-lucky joker character, something that he neither quells nor proliferates. This is, however, a falsehood. Sometimes in flashes of annoyance, or when people seem not to be looking, they will see that Stephen's eyes have a habit of shifting to a cold, almost dead gaze: betraying the more hidden face behind an assassin's trained mask.<br/><br/>Underneath whatever attire Stephen wears hides a great few oddities. He is as toned and handsome underneath as you'd expect except for his left side. From the left side of his chest and all the way down the left arm, the entirety of his flesh is replaced by a soft, synthetic cybernetics augmentation. The results of a rather traumatic accident 4 years ago that separated the assassin from his flesh and part of his lung: These synthetics now keep him alive, as well as providing him a much needed second arm, something that is highly vital in his line of work.<br/><br/><strong>History:</strong>At first glance, Stephen appears to be a lucky man. Just looking at his résumé would give that impression as well. He is a handsome human; with a good wit about him, a keen intellect, nearly unparalleled skills with a gun and a certain lucky knack to be in just the right place. Sadly, this is slightly less realistic an observation, were someone to get a hold of more facts.<br/><br/>What is known by the council and what is known by the Shadow Broker are two wildly different things. One account is nearly completely false, and one is nearly completely unaffordable. Suffice to say, the Shadow Broker’s account is the correct one, for it is from his deck of cards that Stephen makes his hand.<br/><br/>Stephen was born on one of the Alliance’s many outer rim colonies: pair of fairly unimportant soldier types. From his very birth, Stephen was notably unusual in that he had a fairly high potential for biotics: well above average for human biotics and almost tickling the other races levels of the biotic arts.<br/><br/>Sadly for Stephen though, was the simple fact that his parents were not fond of the Alliance. Put simply, his father had gone AWOL from the ranks of the Alliance for reasons he rarely shared and his mother was a convicted mercenary. Put two and two together and you get the simple fact that letting the Alliance know of Stephen’s existence would spell an end to them ever seeing him. As such, the only solution that would allow Stephen to use those biotic talents was to put him into the hands of a non-alliance organisation.<br/><br/>Eventually, Stephen was put forward to live on site of an Armali Council: a group of Asari artisans who specialised in Biotic amps and research. Most of the time, the Armali council wouldn’t bat an eyelash at rejecting some human youngling the amps required, but a combination of a fair amount of credits, a little bit of blackmail and the simple fact that it was rare for an Asari to get the opportunity to observe a human biotic combined in Stephen’s favour. The company agreed to watch the maturing cycle of the human biotic…An Eighteen year contract to watch Stephen’s growth and to test the human friendly amps on.<br/><br/>And this is how Stephen spent most of his entire adolescent life. He was educated and taught to use his powers by members of the Armali Council’s research division, in exchange for acting as a Guinea pig for what would be one of the first human friendly biotic amps produced by Asari corporations. One of the main people who were in contact with the young man was an Asari matron, who taught Stephen some of the more complex biotic techniques.<br/><br/>As well as being trained by the Armali Council’s Asari biotics, Stephen was taught to wield guns by his parents. Both of them were wildly talented with weapons, and both of them were eager to pass on that legacy to their only son.<br/><br/>Stephen was raised and pampered, perhaps even spoilt, but still: he did not find any joy in his position in life. He was a walking Guinea pig who was on a ticking contract. Soon he’d be expendable and soon the Armali Council would toss him away, no longer needing him. They’d near as dammit perfected the human friendly amps, not that many humans had the cash to afford the amps.<br/><br/>In the Seventeenth year of Stephen Grayson’s existence, tragedy hit him like a truck. His parents were both killed in a mysterious shuttle crash: Leaving Stephen alone and without a legal guardian, something that would soon come back and cause him a fair amount of trouble.<br/>Here is where the story given by the Shadow Broker and the Alliance starts to differ.<br/><br/>The alliance tale tells of Stephen finishing up his time with the Armali Council: inheriting the small fortune his parents had earned and a payoff from the Council, then living it up for a few years before ‘The incident.’<br/><br/>The Shadow Broker’s tale: the actual tale, tells of less favourable circumstances. The Council, having cared for Stephen as a minor and not seeing him with a Guardian, did not get any of the payout promised. And the inheritance from his parents was seemingly lost as well, never given to him and never having any clue as to its location. Simply put, having reached the age of Eighteen, Stephen was thrown onto the streets of Illium with nothing more than his skills, his biotics, a few amps he’d managed to steal from the Armali Council and a hungry belly.<br/>For a good month of two, Stephen lived off of stealing and begging. It was two months that hammered all of the pampering, spoilt nature that he’d been given. He committed sins and nearly died several times; he stole, begged, mugged and pilfered whatever he could and learned the only skill that had not been given to him in his adolescent life: The ability to survive alone. It was at this point, after two months of solitude and desperation that Stephen’s ‘luck’ kicked in. For he was found by the Asari Matron who was most in contact with him in the Armali council: Jen’ann.<br/><br/>Jen’ann took in Stephen and nurtured him for a year as he tried to make a find the inheritance of his parents: the fortune they’d left him. He had no real desire for the money, having learnt how little it truly meant. What he did want, was a purpose. It took most of a year to do so but, with help from Jen’aan, he managed to track down the fortune…into the hands of a crime boss on a distant moon.<br/><br/>Stephen hunted down the crime lord and used his talents for the first time. The unprepared pirates were unprepared for the power of a human biotic of his magnitude, and most were incapacitated with relative ease. Yet throughout, Stephen didn’t kill: A last stab at innocence before he reached the crime boss. He fought the criminal who lorded over his wealth and beat him to the ground, literally. The boss was beaten to a pulp, but was alive. He would have stayed that way: had he not run off his mouth.<br/><br/>“You punk ass kid. I should have killed you when I whacked your mommy and daddy!”<br/><br/>A mistake, to say the least: for the crime lord had revealed the truth. He was apparently the man responsible for his parent’s death and putting him through the wringers. Stephen plucked the bloodied shotgun from the floor, claiming it for himself that day. The kickback of the Shotgun became second nature after just the first shot, and the blood splatter that cascaded against his cheeks was nothing more than a delightful wash.<br/><br/>It’s true what they say: The first kill is the hardest. But it was something that Stephen needed to go through. He’d reclaimed his inheritance and had learned to take a man’s life. Jen’ann approached him once he arrived on Illium and made him a deal.<br/><br/>For the first time, Jen’ann revealed herself for what she was: an agent of the Shadow Broker. She’d been working for the Armali Council, stealing secrets and gaining fame in the Shadow Broker’s inner circle. She’d watched him develop into a rather devastating force; a Triple threat of Fierce weapon skills, biotic potential and the face of the newest Council race. He was offered a place at the Broker’s side. But more importantly, he was offered a purpose.<br/><br/>Under Jen’ann’s guidance, Stephen spent 5 years in development of a warrior’s instincts: killing, learning, growing again. He gained everything he lacked; A purpose, conviction, his own sense of self, everything required to make a person a person.  He even gained a calling card: he was nicknamed ‘Mjolnir’: Due to the devastating hammer blow of his Biotic charge. Life was good for the human. Perhaps too good, as hubris would soon come knocking.<br/><br/>Everything changed when the Asari who trained him went missing. The Shadow Broker suspected she had been killed, possibly by a Blue suns mercenary who she was working against. Stephen took up arms, not willing to lose the only person he cared for. He took a shuttle to the last known location of the Mercenary, aiming to pick his brain for her location, then spread it across the walls.<br/><br/>Sadly, Impossibly even, the Mercenary was aware that Stephen was coming. His welcome gift was a rather charming Cobra missile, which slamming into the side of his Transport shuttle and nearly ripped him apart. He was able to get up a barrier in time, but Stephen was trapped in the wreckage of the ship. He was badly injured; with broken bones and bruises, but worst of all, his entire left arm, and a large part of his chest, was crushed under the shuttle irreparably. He would have died that day, had he not struck been by the luck he is often attested of. Luck would have it that an Asari woman would find him, a doctor even. She managed to stabilise him with medigel and calm him with her biotics. He awoke in the Huerta Memorial Hospital.<br/><br/>No one knew who this mysterious human was, but his bills had been paid as soon as he’d been admitted. After a brief assessment of his wounds, it was clear Stephen’s life was changing. It was suspected that Stephen would be left permanently incapacitated by the attempt on his life, and it was highly likely he would never be able to act as an assassin again. The path that the man had finally forged for himself had been ripped away.<br/><br/>The reason that he couldn’t simply get patched up and fight again was complex, to say the least. A synthetic arm was one thing, easy to replace and it could even prove a boon. But a lung puncture, especially one of the scale and magnitude that he’d suffered was something thought to be irreparable to the modern sciences and medicines. Nothing on the market would be able to function for Stephen. The assassin Mjolnir would not be allowed to simply die stuck without the ability to run, to shoot, and to kill even.<br/><br/>So Stephen made a deal with the Shadow Broker: calling in the last favor, if you will. It cost him the lion’s share of his entire fortune in credits: but he was able to get a hold of some of the most impossible, experimental technology around. A synthetic, semi-malleable augmentation technology, built to be electronically re-forge-able and actively redesign-able. It was supposedly based around Warengion tech: god knows how the tech ever left Warengion hands…figuratively speaking.<br/><br/>The only issue was the lack of a control system. Warengion’s were far more talented with the augmentative technology. They could probably make the stuff sing and dance, were it their desire. A human would not have that skill, and no Warengion would allow their talents to be wasted on some random human. So without the aid of a Warengion, the default was to improvise.<br/><br/>The answer came in the form of A.L.I.C.E, or the Artificial Limb Integrated Combat Engine. ALICE was, simply put, a shackled AI unit, installed inside the arm and given the simple job of running the material optimally. With ALICE, Stephen’s lung patch could expand and stay tight at all times, under any stress conditions. Hell, she could even re-forge his arm into a weaponised blade.<br/><br/>The recovery time for Stephen was a whopping two years. Two years of Stephen’s life was left in the hands of the Asari doctor who saved him: Iliarya Maveptis. It was with her that Stephen went through Sixty three (and a half, if you include the secret installation of ALICE), sessions of surgery. It was with her gentle guidance that Stephen went through hellish physiotherapy, and it is her that Stephen counts amongst his only living friends.<br/><br/>Two days was all it took to track down the Blue Sun’s merc. He’d been foolish to ignore Mjolnir’s continued existence it came to bite him in the ass when Stephen came knocking. Extracting the information he wanted from the Merc took far too long, and was far too pleasurable. Sometimes, even now, Stephen wonders if he crossed into the borders of evil that day…<br/><br/>Two years have passed since then. In that time, Stephen has made a living on the Citadel, founding the prominent ‘Asgard protection agency:’ A human security group, specialising in the protection of members of the diplomatic factions of the Citadel. That, at least, is his day job. Whilst most of his time is spent atop Asgard’s lofty throne, every so often, the Shadow Broker sends him interesting leads, attempting to reignite the thunder in Mjolnir’s heart.<br/><br/><strong>Powers:</strong>Biotic Charge, Shockwave, Barrier, Biotic Slash<br/><br/><strong>Weaponry:</strong>M-27 Scimitar (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/M-27_Scimitar#Mass_Effect_3), M-99 Saber (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/M-99_Saber)<br/><br/><strong>Sexual Orientation:</strong>Straight<br/><br/><strong>Preferred Position:</strong>More dominating tendencies. Closer to a switch than a full up Dom<br/><br/>