<strong>Name:</strong>Elizabeth “Railgun” Raines<br/><strong>Age:</strong>24<br/><strong>Appearance:</strong><br/><br/>(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/35/ReiCrop.jpg)<br/>(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/fc/Katsuko_Kobayakawa.jpg)<br/><br/><strong>Personality:</strong><br/><br/>Intelligent and curious, Beth is just as passionate about learning new things as she is about piloting mechs. She is a bit tomboyish at times, though not averse to dressing in a feminine manner. She is easy to get along with, and surprisingly well grounded for a professional athlete. Occasionally she will attend high profile social events or awards shows, but she lives fairly simply and is just as happy to stay in and read or watch holovids on a day off. Most of her outrageously high salary goes to charity and college funds for her siblings’ children.<br/><br/>While Beth is bisexual, she has never been in a romantic relationship with a man and finds women to be far more physically appealing. Her interests include programming, science, philosophy, and using her celebrity status to raise awareness for various causes.<br/><br/>Beth was always a cheerful person—and she still tries to be—though since the accident (see below) she has been a bit more subdued.<br/><br/><strong>Background:</strong><br/><br/>Beth Raines grew up in a middle class New England household, and was the youngest of four children. She was a very gifted student, skipping two grades and aspiring to someday work in the field of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) research. Despite spending a lot of time with her intellectual pursuits, she also had an active social life.<br/><br/>Growing up, Beth had always been interested in mechs and MBF events—though no more so than the average person. Freshman year of high school she went out for the school mech team, but only because she thought it would be fun and look good on her college applications. However, she quickly proved to have uncanny talent—sharp reflexes, cunning tactics, and remarkable accuracy at extreme range. She was captain of the Melrose Mortars for three years (junior year was one of those she skipped), and her town won the State Championship twice in that time.<br/><br/>After the Mortars came in second place in the national competition her senior year, Beth was offered the chance to join the MBF right out of high school at age sixteen. She was very torn, but her new-found love of being a mech pilot won out—the way Beth figured it, she could go to college anytime, but her reflexes would eventually diminish with age.<br/><br/>Often called “Railgun” Raines in the media, Beth has had a very successful career and is a fan favorite. She’s known for her supreme accuracy with that weapon, and its considered folly to deliberately engage her at long range. Unfortunately for her opponents, it is also quite difficult to trick her into a close-up ambush. When commentators compile lists of the top ten international players today, her name usually comes up. Because she always stays out of trouble, tabloid writers seem to enjoy making up wild rumors about her—she rarely dignifies them with a response.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, Beth’s personal life has been marred by one major tragedy. At age nineteen, she married her high school sweetheart Melissa McDermid, a fantasy author who had been a cheerleader for the Mortars. Six months ago, Melissa was killed in a hovercar accident. Beth took half a year off from the MBF, during which she mourned and struggled with severe depression.<br/><br/>Beth has reluctantly come back to work, hoping that a return to normalcy will help her feel better. She is much more like her old self before the accident now, though there’s still pain beneath the surface.<br/><br/>---<br/><br/><strong>MW Name:</strong>Lissa<br/><br/><strong>Appearance:</strong>The Lissa is less angular in its lines than most mechs, giving it a more organic, humanoid look. Before each match it is painted in camouflage appropriate to the part of the battlefield Beth expects to be fighting in the most—grays for urban ruins, green and brown in a forest, etc.<br/><br/><strong>Standard Weaponry:</strong><br/><br/>- 1x Railgun. This long weapon is attached to the right arm. It has no recoil due to magnetically accelerating its large, armor piercing rounds. It normally fires one shot at a time, but it can also fire multiple rounds in rapid bursts in an attempt to defeat projectile countermeasures.<br/><br/>- 1x Artillery. Long range, high explosives useful in situations where indirect fire is needed. Shoulder mounted. Due to all the room taken up by the railgun ammo, this only has eight shots.<br/><br/>- 3x Plasma Cannon. Good for medium range and close-up work. Their heat can also ignite fires in certain situations. Torso mounted, two on the front and one on the back that fires behind the Lissa. These weapons have an alternate fire mode that shoots a large number of weak plasma blasts rapidly in random directions—this is a last-ditch missile defense and can also be visually confusing to anyone close-by.<br/><br/>- 1 x Vibro-Machette. Effective at cutting through armor. Normally hidden within the left arm, but deploys into the hand on command.<br/><br/><strong>Optional Weaponry:</strong>None.<br/><br/><strong>Other Systems:</strong><br/><br/>- 2 x Jumpjets. Allow for four impressively long jumps per battle. Located on the lower legs.<br/><br/>- Low Emissions System. This is not so much a single item as a series of design choices that lower emissions and make the Lissa more difficult to detect. The Lissa only has passive sensors in order to make this system work.<br/><br/>- The Lissa has above average speed, but below average armor as a consequence. Beth relies on her quick reflexes to make this tradeoff beneficial.<br/><br/><strong>Construction and History:</strong><br/><br/>The Lissa is a highly customized machine that Beth ordered and received two years ago. It was named after her wife. The mech was relatively expensive to build, and would not have been possible except for Beth’s preference to live in a modest apartment and stick to the middle-class lifestyle she is accustomed to. Funds from a few key sponsors were also important here, though Beth is scrupulous about only taking money from companies that are relatively ethical.<br/><br/>When seen in a holovid by spectators, the Lissa has numerous advertising decals that are put there through computer graphics—they do not actually exist on the machine itself.<br/><br/>While the Lissa is an impressive machine, there are others in the MBF that are even more expensive or have more firepower. What is good about the mech is that it is versatile and stealthy, which perfectly compliments Beth’s style.<br/><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Second Character</strong></span></div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Candice “Candy” Fiedler<br/><strong>Age:</strong>38<br/><strong>Appearance:</strong><br/>(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/c/cb/EvaH.jpg)<br/><br/><strong>Personality</strong><br/><br/>Candice is a true muckraker, delighting in finding scandals and standing in judgment of mech pilots and officials. She is condescending and enjoys baiting her targets. While she’s capable of being  charismatic and even refined, her behavior is usually more vulgar and she frequently uses profanity. She cannot stand not getting her way. Candice is preoccupied with her slowly fading looks—while she is still considered attractive and not afraid to use that to her advantage, she knows those days are numbered. She has a love of drinking that borders on alcoholism.<br/><br/>In recent years, Candice has developed some self-awareness that she once in lacked, in that she can admit to herself that she is kind of an awful bitch who only takes joy in the misery of others. However, she believes she is incapable of change. She has a very distant relationship with her children and guilt over being a lousy mother.<br/><br/><strong>Background</strong><br/><br/>Candice is the only child of wealthy German American industrialist Klaus Fiedler, and as a child she lived in perfect luxury and was spoiled rotten. At age 17 she married then famous mech pilot Richard Wilson. A year later she had twins, Karl and Janice. The marriage began going rotten right from the start. Richard was cunning on the battlefield, but unrefined and not terribly bright. Candice frequently mocked him for his stupidity and for mishandling his money. She increasingly had to rely on her father’s money to maintain the extravagant lifestyle she was accustomed to.<br/><br/>When Richard’s piloting skills began to fade and he started losing most of his matches, he quickly fell into bankruptcy and lost his mech. Candice divorced him and did not even bother pursuing custody of the then eight year old twins—she wanted to go back to the lifestyle of her teen years. Richard soon became an alcoholic relic who hung around fan conventions talking about the glory days. Candice (or perhaps more accurately, her father) was forced to pay for the twins to go to an expensive boarding school because Richard could not provide for them.<br/><br/>Klaus Fiedler belated realized what a monster he had created in his daughter. He severely cut Candice’s access to his funds and insisted she get a job if she wanted to stay in his will. Candice was furious, but had no choice but to acquiescence. She went to school for journalism, and afterward began her career as a MBF pundit and muckraker. She has been very successful, making a good deal of money. She is watched by a number of fans who like the seamy underside of the sport. Besides appearing on news shows as a talking head, she is known best for the following three recurring segments in her personal holovids:<br/><br/><strong><em>Ambush!</em></strong>is about what it sounds like—Candice drops in on a pilot or official out of nowhere, and proceeds to ask rude, leading questions and make accusations that may or may not be true.<br/><strong><em>Fiedler’s Fuckwits</em></strong>Candice picks out matches where one or more pilots fail embarrassingly and then records a scathing and profane color commentary over it. This segment has killed many a faltering career.<br/><strong><em>Candy’s Corner</em></strong>is the closest thing to nice Candice does. Pilots who pay her a lot of money get an interview filled with softball questions where they can whitewash their image or malign detractors.<br/><br/>As for her personal life, there has been lots of sex and partying for Candice, but no meaningful relationships. Lately she hardly goes to parties or public events at all, partially because she is too tired to keep up and partially because she no longer enjoys them. Karl and Janice are now both in college—Karl is an amateur mech pilot who basically hates his mother’s guts for ‘picking apart dad like a vulture,’ while Janice is a studious young woman and a bit more forgiving.