Tora Riutene

__NOTOC__
==History==
Formerly a 2nd Lieutenant of the 9th Nekommando battalion of Editi Eadrom's Special Solutions Division. During the Dokuritsu Insurrection, she commanded her unit in defense of TE and Kantoku facilities and personnel.
Although having spent the year prior as part of the Nekommando counter-terrorism corps, Tora was nonetheless shaken by the violence of the insurrection, and found herself questioning how things had got to be so bad. Over the course of her unit's deployment, she would come across a Domestic Catgirl named Tsuki, who had been cornered by rioters. Although normally unable to use force against humans for the sake of another demi-human thanks to a genetic geas, Tora overcame this limitation and shot the rioters, saving Tsuki. Having awakened to her free will, Tora began to question the morality of her actions, and the actions of the Engineers.
Tora would later appear at the TE Headquarters, having been ordered to fall back to the Tower to defend the personnel and equipment still inside. Now lacking her rifle and squad, but still with Tsuki in tow, she offered to guide Silver Knight and Hanai past the eighth level of the facility, which the genetic geas normally prevented. Despite being nearly overwhelmed with instinctual terror, she managed to open the way for the two AC pilots, coming face to face with the Immortals. As Mark and Hanai left Tora and Tsuki behind to confront Tommy and Editi, Tora managed to work up the willpower to question the Immortals, finally coming to understand her role in everything.
Realizing that Mark and Hanai had instead decided to help Tommy and Editi escape rather than bring them to justice, Tora confronted the pilots in the base's central elevator, where she attempted to lure Editi out of Carrier Prime to kill her. After shooting the dummy Avatar Drone that Editi sent out of the suit to placate her, she then demanded that Editi be made to pay for her crimes. Mark instead intervened on Editi's behalf, belittling Tora as a killer. Outraged, Tora shot Mark, which naturally had no affect on the suited android. Powerless to do anything else despite how far she had come, Tora could do nothing more than watch and cry in fury as Editi escaped with Mark and Hanai's help.
Afterwards, fearing reprisal from both the Japanese and Armor Corps, Tora took Tsuki and fled, eventually winding up in Europe as displaced persons. With no identification and no future, and Tsuki incapable of functioning in normal society, Tora accepted a role with the European Federation's Special Operations Executive, putting her gene-enhanced skills to use eliminating the enemies of her new masters while nursing a blistering grudge against the Armor Corps for their arrogance and complacency in the face of suffering.
After the 18th cell's suspension, the rest of the team was forced into Federal Army units as punishment. Lambert, realizing he couldn't do the same with Tora, suggested instead he would give her to Pandora. As it would turn out, Pandora wasn't interested in taking her on, and she was instead retained as part of the SOE's enhanced screening program.
===Life in the European Federation===
Tora was required to divulge everything she knew about the Kantoku to Federal Intelligence, and cooperate with the Ministry of Justice in training their agents in identifying clones for elimination. Tora was then released to the Special Operations Executive under the arrangement that so long as the catgirl kept herself useful as one of their agents, the Federation would pay her a wage, give her a home, and handle caretaking for Tsuki. With her only other option essentially being execution, she agreed, and was assigned to the SOE's 18th cell. As part of the Jolly Deadmen, her skills in urban combat, close-range rifle specialization and explosives training help round the squad out. She is capable as a pointman, reconnaissance and as a spotter. In truth, being only a few years old, she lacks the same experience as the rest of her new team and relies heavily on her unnatural abilities to cover that gap. She was the only member of the team to be formally trained in martial arts (Jieitaikakutōjutsu), though only to an amateur level due to her age.
Generally her circumstances were known only to her commanders, and a few other units on a need-to-know basis. Nevertheless, rumours gradually spread that there was something abnormal about her. During Major Lambert's dressing-down of the 18th cell after Operation Burnt Offerings, he strongly laid out that he considered Tora a sub-human and a disappointment, and implied on several occasions previously to other members of the JDM that she was to be kept an eye on. After her decommissioning and reassignment to the SOE training cadre, her status as a demi-human was no longer kept a secret, making her life that much harder. She was less than pleased when Charles Cresswell sent notice that she was being recalled to her previous squad as part of a new unit for a very special operation, and her trepidation proved prophetic when the team's incompetence once again nearly got her killed.
After managing to escape Libra, Tora was forced to return to Japan onboard an autopiloted shuttle for the first time since she escaped over two years ago. The homecoming proved highly stressful for her, something not helped by ISA Lt. Hana Tanabe's provocations - referring to her as a "stray animal" and noting her willpower making her "a lone aberration among aberrations". Negotiation between the Europeans and the Japanese for the intel operatives was hampered by the Japanese considering Tora stolen property. Interested in finding out the full story of what happened on Libra given the confusion of the other two soon-to-be-former operatives, the EuF agreed to let the Japanese keep Tora in exchange for Elizabeth and Jeanne, until a personal intervention from Major Takamitsu Nakagawa allowed her to leave with the rest of the team.
==Personality==
Always fairly serious due to her greater responsibility as a unit leader within the SSD, the events of the Dokuritsu Insurrection all that followed made her extremely negative and cynical. She has been described as "edgy" and as having a "disagreeable personality" with a contempt for authority. Her frigid attitude earned her few friends among the humans after leaving Japan and further persecution has kept her on guard when dealing with people. She claims no flag or people and resultantly has no love for the Federation, humans, or fellow demi-humans. Standing outside both groups, her anger stems from a profound sense of loneliness and frustration with injustice in a cruel world where only might truly makes right.
Those few who have interacted with Tora directly who don't consider her an outright genetic freak think her only a scornful bitch full of bitterness contempt for humans, overly critical of weakness and failure, never once cracking a smile or shedding a tear. Faced with abuse from all angles, Tora's resolution to press on and stay focused on a vague concept of "revenge" have led people to consider her, on top of everything else, undeservedly prideful and haughty, with some even using her dismissive attitude as an excuse to claim victimization and point to it as justification for her terrible treatment. This disdain ultimately  originates from the Kantoku global infiltration effort that was uncovered with the Dokuritsu Insurrection, which Tora ironically played a key role in resolving for the Federation. Nonetheless, her association with the Engineers' pod-people has lingered over life for those informed, ensuring she continues to suffer for her cursed origins.
In terms of squad dynamics, she has very little patience with her teammates and remains frigid towards them. Feeling unable to trust the others, she testily tries to cover as many roles as she can on her own while asking as little as she can from the rest of the team. This has continued over to her new companions with Federal Intelligence, though she seems to at least be willing to follow Elizabeth's orders for now and acknowledges Jeanne's saber skills as something impressive. 
==Appearance==
176cm tall, with short brown hair and eyes. Like all catgirls, she has four ears; two human and two cat, the later of which stick out atop her head, as well as a tail. Neither feature is normally visible under her combat gear, and she makes purposeful effort to hide them whenever possible.
Although taught English from birth with an American accent, her time in Europe has seen her speech become progressively more British.  
===Equipment===
Finding the Osprey Mk 5 to be too heavy for her liking, Tora prefers to wear a simpler combat vest over an SAS-style grey jumpsuit with black, steel-toe boots and knee-guards, with black fingerless gloves.
In terms of armament, Tora has heavily favored the G36K carbine, as it is the weapon that she has the most combat experience with. Her personal loadout replaces the carry handle for a flat top rail with a reflex sight, and an angled foregrip and laser designator. Because she can see well in the dark, she omits flashlight attachments. The foregrip was later replaced with a AG36 underbarrel grenade launcher to keep the total number of weapons she carried down. During the operation in space, this was traded for a more compact G36C, with the AG36 omitted once again for an angled foregrip to trim on weight.
For a secondary weapon, after joining the SOE, Tora carried a GL06 grenade launcher, as she found the ergonomics of the G36 with a foregrip preferable to an underbarrel launcher. The launcher was carried on a separate sling with no modifications. This was later dropped for an AG36 attachment, and her secondary weapon instead became an ultrashort barrel STF/12 pump action shotgun, carried on a thigh holster on her left leg.
For choice of sidearm, Tora initially used a P9, a licensed copy of the SIG P220 manufactured by Minebea of Japan. She briefly used a Glock 40 during the Dokuritsu Insurrection but quickly abandoned it due to its impractical length. After joining the SOE, she switched to the standard Five-seveN, but in time eventually exchanged this for a USP Tactical in .45 ACP, favoring the larger caliber over the higher ammo count. Like with her G36K, this is old Bundeswehr equipment, and isn't used with any special attachments, but is compatible with a screw-on silencer.
Although originally uninterested in knives, Tora eventually added a KM2000 combat knife to her kit as well. The KM2000 cannot be used as a bayonet (the G36K's barrel can't attach one anyways), but has many other utilities such as prying windows and containers open, cutting ropes and fabric, and breaking glass. It is, of course, also good for killing silently.
==Relations & Allies==
===SOE 18th / Federal Intelligence===
Angela Watson: Despite originally being a Intel attaché rather than a soldier, Tora has discovered Watson to be the most/only useful member of the squad thanks to her intellect.
 Pvt. Bob "Master Maple" MacKenzie: MacKenzie has shown to be the only Deadman that regularly shows any kind of initiative on and off the battlefield. Although initially considering him to be somewhat reliable, Tora has since reversed this opinion to one of MacKenzie being an oblivious idiot only good for sniping. Thinks considerably less of him after his resignation.
Cpl. Cecilio "Heron" de Lima: Did not work with long enough before his discharge to gain much of an opinion of, but did consider him somewhat useless in a fight.
Eddy "Lagodny" Wójcik: Had no real opinion of the man in life. Considered his death a pathetic one.
Cpt. Daniel "Skull" Piper: Piper reminded Tora strongly of a Gernadder due to his propensity to wear his armor all the time, speak infrequently and wield heavy weapons.
Pvt. Gunther "Sloth" Gehring: She considers him useless and out of place in a special forces unit.
 Jeanne-Amandine "Punished" Le Penn: Aside from a brief meet and greet, Tora didn't really know anything about Jeanne and never has a reason to care about her in particular. If she found out the woman used to be (and has returned to being) a Pilot, she would probably try to kill her.
Matti Heikkinen: Does not consider the small man especially strange compared to her other teammates. Does not appreciate his nickname for her either - "Kisu", meaning "Kitty" in Finnish and sounding too much like "Kiss" in Japanese. Has more or less forgotten about his existence.
Cpt. Robert "Reaper" Wallace: A sniper who's existence has pretty much been forgotten.
Sgt. Nieve "Rayas" Liuche: Found her to be extremely unsettling to interact with due to her medical background and being one of the few individuals that knew for certain that Tora wasn't human. Despite Liuche's eagerness to get close to and "save" her, Tora remained on guard until Liuche's eventual return to Nazgûl.
PFC. Sheng "Paladin" Wu-Er: Tora generally considered Sheng to be nothing more than a bumbling fool, but at least a bulletproof one. Feels she may have been able to prevent Sheng's death, but hasn't lingered on his demise.
===Other===
Editi Eadrom: Previously only known as "Mother" to her, Tora spent her two years of life blindly following Editi's wishes, killing a number of Japanese in counter-terrorist operations and more during the insurrection. The mounting body toll eventually caused her to question the validity of her actions, and Editi's wisdom. These doubts were reaffirmed by her talk with the Immortals, and after confirming for herself that Editi was in fact incapable of basic human empathy and seemingly beyond reprisal, attempted to kill her creator with her own hands. Her failure to do so haunts her constantly.
Silver Knight: A person she harbors a deep personal hatred for due to his siding with Editi and assistance in her escape, which has only grown upon getting out into the human world and learning that he is hailed as a self-styled hero of justice. She considers him an arrogant hypocrite and a two-faced, self-serving bastard, and were it not of the fact that he is basically invulnerable and protected by an army of equally invulnerable, irresponsible sycophants, would probably pursue attempting to kill him out of sheer disgust and spite.
Susan Foster: A Domestic-type Catgirl Tora rescued from rioters during the Dokuritsu Insurrection. Probably the most pathetic thing Tora has ever encountered. She takes care of the other catgirl as her unofficial guardian despite hating what she is - her pity outweighing her disgust.
TRFSTRFIN by UW-b011.png|Tora in full SOE combat gear.
TRFSTR2FIN by UWU-b011.png|Hatless Tora.
Category:PACYOA: TE
Category:European Federation
Category:Japan
Category:Demi-Human
Category:Catgirl