H0W-D33

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**H0W-D33** is a Unified Specialist and member of the player party. He served as the Helmsman on the SS Eastwood during their mission to Malevolence. He has since left the SS Eastwood in pursuit of a new life with his new friend, Bunka.

## Background

H0W-D33 was, as with all Unified, united in a large collective. Athough not from Calculos like most Unified, he existed on a small colony world in order to gather more intelligence for the collective at large. H0W-D33 was captured by a group of researchers during a raid on his world.

He was imprisoned by the researchers and interrogated frequently. Due to the time he spent away from his kind, his mind began to fall apart. The only thing H0W-D33 had to keep himself going was old western cowboy movies from Earth. Using his Unified abilities, H0W-D33 linked into the systems on board the ship he was on and watched these movies obsessively. Eventually, he began to believe himself to be a cowboy, and adopted the personality of a lone sheriff. Thus H0W-D33 was born.

He altered his form to take on the appearance of a cowboy, and created two pistols for himself. H0W-D33 broke from his cell and killed his captives, and calimed their ship as his own, which he named Silver.

## Appearance

H0W-D33 takes on a male appearance. He stands at 7"0 tall but weighs very little due to his Unified nature. He has a bronze colour to him, with red eyes and a robotic external appearance.

He imitates the stereotypical old-earth cowboy, donning a long duster coat that is brown in colour, and a black brimmed hat that he wears at all times. He has a gold buckled belt and two brown holsters for his weapons.

After losing his arms in "The Vault", H0W-D33 is without arms. He eventually finds replacements in "Two Minds", with one large robotic arm and one smaller robotic arm.

## Personality

H0W-D33 is a complicated person to say the least. Not much is known about his personality beneath, and who he was before he was 'H0W-D33'. However, he is a seemingly good person, although he doesn't always follow the rules to do the right thing.

In his H0W-D33 persona, H0W-D33 is a no-nonsense old-school western sheriff. He frequently talks in cowboy-isms that not many other than him understand, and has a habit of transmitting western music over any intercom he can find. He often provides comic relief to the other members of the party, although this isn't always intentional on H0W-D33's part. In stereotypical fashion, he enjoys alcohol and flirting with women.

H0W-D33, perhaps due to some hidden memories, despises robots or anything mechanical in nature. He shows contempt to Petra for being a 'damned robot', despite Petra being a Unified like H0W-D33. He will treat robots as lower life forms.

H0W-D33 is extremely stubborn at times, and will come at odds with members of the party. He is unwilling to follow orders that don't suit him, and will only do so reluctantly if there is no other choice. He is often reckless and will carry out actions without really thinking them through first, such as taking the two-man shuttle through the minefield with Bunka in "Minefield" and nearly getting them both killed. Despite what many might think, H0W-D33 is very intelligent, although he rarely shows this and can come across as a bit of an idiot.

## Relationships

### **Arthur Steele**

Steele and H0W-D33 initially had a good relationship. H0W-D33 respected him as 'a fellow human' and obeyed his orders as he seemingly did the right thing, affectionately referring to Steele as his 'Deputy'.

Their relationship became rocky when he fought Steele over keeping the Solar Chrysalys egg that H0W-D33 referred to as his "Son", "Huckleberry". Steele, following orders, had Petra kill the Egg by lowering the temperature in the area it was stored in. When Petra and Steele admitted to this, H0W-D33 refused to follow him and had a great distrust and anger towards him, with H0W-D33 now referring to Steele as 'Traitor' or 'Ex-Deputy'.

This rocky relationship lasted throughout the remainder of their mission, and is ultimately the reason H0W-D33 left the Eastwood at the conclusion of their mission. As he was leaving however, he did admit to Steele that he still respects him, which Steele admitted in return.

### **Bunka**

Bunka and H0W-D33 initially had a rocky relationship, beginning when Bunka decided to trap H0W-D33 in the two-man shuttle they had found on the unnamed desert planet. This began a 'war' of sorts between them that led to constant fighting, that almost caused H0W-D33 to leave until he came to his senses. After some mediation from Steele and Petra, the two have worked together begrudgingly. After their near death experience in the two-man shuttle incident, the two grew quite close, with Bunka being one of the only ones to get through to H0W-D33 during the events of "Two Minds". Eventually, they decided to leave together to pursue a new life, as friends.

### **Calliamarianna**

Calli, due to her kind nature, formed an instant friendship with H0W-D33. H0W-D33 has come to respect her and is one of the only ones he will listen to in the party. H0W-D33 enjoys working with Calli, and is one of the few that he genuinely cared about in the party. He respects her navigational abilities, which assists him with his piloting.

### **Petra**

Petra and H0W-D33 have had an awkward relationship from the get-go. It began when H0W-D33 saw Petra as a 'damned robot'. Since that moment, H0W-D33 has been rather short with Petra, starting with not knowing her name, despite Petra telling H0W-D33 on numerous occasions. For most of the mission to Malevolence, H0W-D33 referred to Petra as 'Trash' (stemming from Petra's short-lived name, Junk).

H0W-D33 had a large amount of anger towards Petra for their role in Huckleberry's death, although he does not seem to hold as much of a grudge as he does for Steele, likely due to it being Steele who gave the order.

H0W-D33 often takes snipes at Petra for being a robot, and doesn't listen to them. Eventually, Petra confronted H0W-D33 about their attitude and refusal to learn her name. H0W-D33 claimed that he genuinely believed her name was 'Trash'. After Petra told H0W-D33 her name again, H0W-D33 mispronouned it and has done ever since, calling her 'Petraaaaaa' or 'Petrol'. Petra however, doesn't seem too bothered about this, simply giving up on trying to get H0W-D33 to pronounce her name correctly.

When H0W-D33 left, he admitted his respect for Petra who admitted theirs in return.

### **Huckleberry 1 and Huckleberry 2**

H0W-D33 was quick to adopt the strange egg he found on the small moon, and he named it Huckleberry. H0W-D33 showed a great amount of affection towards the unhatched egg and quickly made plans for their future. However, this would never come to fruition as Petra killed Huckleberry on Steele's orders. The death of Huckleberry represented a major rift in party morale, as H0W-D33 carried a great amount of anger towards Petra and Steele for a long time.

H0W-D33 eventually gained a new 'son' when he acquired a Squiffler from a trader in the casino during "Two Minds", he named this small green creature Huckleberry 2, or Huckleberry Junior. Unlike his predecessor, Huckleberry 2 actually lived and H0W-D33 was able to interact with him. H0W-D33 affectionately taught him rudimentary tricks and kept him with him almost all of the time. He took Huckleberry 2 with him and Bunka when they left the Eastwood.

## Character information

### **Notable items**

#### **Current Items**

* Empath Cowboy Figure
* SureShot (Always hit cowboy revolver found on Pulara)

#### **Former Items**

* Sheriff Badge (Had through most of his life, later gave to Dr Arbo).

## Trivia

* H0W-D33 had the joint highest intelligence score in the party, tied with Arthur Steele at 18. This isn't always made obvious due to H0W-D33's personality however.
* H0W-D33 had the highest dexterity score in the player party at the time.
* H0W-D33 had the lowest total HP of the party at the time he was present.
* H0W-D33 was the first player character to find a grandmaster weapon through normal means.
	+ Arthur Steele found the actual first grandmaster weapon, but he acquired his through the Sun Card from 'The Deck'.
* H0W-D33 was the first member of the party to have sexual relations with another individual.
* H0W-D33 is the first player character to leave the party, quickly followed by Bunka.
	+ H0W-D33 nearly left the party once before, but came back.