William Slade

## Early Life

From the beginning, William Slade's life was marked by darkness and struggle. Born in the country of Paladi several decades before the Outbreak of 2107, Slade was raised by his uncle Damien, a gun smuggler with a hardcore reputation. Over time, William learned the trade and proved himself to be a valuable asset to his uncle's organization. But at age 14, everything fell apart. His uncle's partner turned traitor, enabling a rival drug empire to attack and kill Damien and his crew. William escaped and became a homeless orphan, using what he had learned to survive on the streets of Paladi until he turned 18.

Once he was of age, William enlisted in the Paladian military. While a teen with no formal ID and no references normally would have been turned away on the spot, Paladi was in the middle of a brutal war and was in desperate need for soldiers. He joined an accelerated training program and was quickly recognized as having exceptional endurance and drive. He rose up the ranks quickly, and was eventually offered an opportunity to lead an infiltrative special operations team. His world grew increasingly dark and corrupt, and even when the war was finally over the Paladian government continued to utilize Slade's skills for espionage and eventually some loosely justified assassinations. He grew sick being used for Paladi's dirty work, and used his underground connections to disappear from the country.

### An Unlikely Path

Upon arriving to the United Territories of Lotaryn (UTL), Slade began seeking work. Despite honorable intentions, he eventually met with a contact from a local underground organization at the suggestion of a mutual friend. The contact offered a job that was described as "local guerilla recon". Few details were provided. With a nearly unbelievable payout and no other prospects, Slade took the job with his mutual friend, Dawson.

Unknown to Slade, the organization was called S.M.I.T.E., and the job called for the distribution of a chemical agent into the local water supply. After doing some recon of his own, Slade and Dawson discovered that the chemical agent was intended to harm a massive amount of civilians in what appeared to be part of a global terrorist act. In the end they debated whether they should drop the job or actively sabotage it. They ended up opting for sheer escape - S.M.I.T.E operatives had discovered their investigation and pursued them.

In the end, Slade and Dawson were unsuccessful in preventing the catastrophe. The chemical, pure akka fluid, was distributed across the nation and used to commit the mass corruption of millions. Slade and Dawson had a slight head start to prepare for the impending disaster and attempted to flee the city, but only Slade survived the trip.

### Post-outbreak

Using his prior connections, Slade was able to attain some heavy duty combat armor and weaponry before all communication channels broke down. Once he was well equipped, he began seeking out a stronghold where he could wait out the plague. During his search he encountered and ended up teaming up with a mixed group of civilians, TCF personnel, and an experimental TCF-designed bio-mechanical android. Together they proved to be a potent fighting force.

During their travels together, it became clear that things were far worse than they had originally seemed. The percentage of corrupted individuals and slagic creatures was increasing exponentially, and it became unclear whether things would ever recover. After a close encounter in which Slade became briefly engulfed by slag, the crew fled yet another compromised base. Taking a gamble, Slade directed the team to a distant island that had been designated "safe" by the plans he and Dawson uncovered. The island, codenamed "EDEN", contained a secret almost more shocking than the outbreak itself: a population of reptilian humanoid creatures that had enslaved a community of humans. Slade and his team discovered what appeared to be an akka fluid manufacturing plant that was being operated by these creatures, but were quickly were spotted and captured. These creatures, identifying as "Exin", seemed to have some sort of symbiotic relationship with slag, and quickly recognized that Slade was unusual for a human. The apparent leader of the operation connected with Slade psychically, confused that a human could be connected to the hive mind without corrupting entirely. The entire team was thrown into a prison cell onboard the orbiting Exin warship.

### A Twisted Fate

Curious about the bionic android, KEVIN, that had accompanied the team, the Exin attemted to utilize this robot for their own purposes. This proved disastrous, and KEVIN ended up wreaking havoc on the reptilians and breaking the rest of his team free from their captivity. The team managed to jettison from the ship in an a small shuttle. Using pre-loaded coordinates to return to the planet's surface, they crash-landed near some sort of Exin compound that contained a "brain", a large slagic organism that produced massive amounts of akka fluid. Believing that destroying the brain might stop the global corruption, the team made a heroic effort to infiltrate the underground compound and kill the slagic creature. One member was brutally killed, and Slade himself began to mutate once he was in close proximity with the brain. During his mutation he was able to do serious damage to the brain, but was ultimately engulfed by his own corrupting flesh.

### 3044: Over 900 years later

In the year 3044, a chance construction project uncovered the remnants of the former Exin compound. A slagic chrysalis of sorts with a humanoid figure trapped inside was discovered many meters underground, and this spurred the interest of the Keonic Slagology Division. After some brief observations, the designated slagologist Margaret Zahra realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime discovery and became set on claiming as much credit for it as possible. She requested a transfer to the planet Hados on the claim that the artifact could present a significant danger to Earth's planetary security. Calling in a few favors, she managed to become the sole slagologist in charge of the transfer and flew the artifact to Hados, where she was recieved by the Unum Vires Warship, *The Impervious*. With a "grey horizon" event occurring on the surface below, she began experimenting on the artifact using the ship's research level. During a cerebral scan conducted by the only available channeler (an apprentice named Iris), Slade was awoken. While Iris was convinced of Slade's humanity, Dr. Zahra was far more suspicious and focused on the fact that despite appearances, all of Slade's cells were, in fact, corrupted. The events that followed are documented in *The Void War: Grey Horizons*.