The Black Swordsman

> **DIE.**
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# The Pilot

The Black Swordsman was a particularly powerful Puppet active during the Human-Vannai War. It was first encountered during Operation Vector To The Heavens, where it was dispatched alongside Flügel to defend the shipbuilding site there from Armor Corps attack.

The Black Swordsman proved to be an extremely powerful melee fighter, overpowering single opponents easily. However, its inability to think tactically proved to be its undoing. As it focused on the closest target in front of it, it continuously left itself open to ranged attacks even in the event of taking extreme damage. It was successfully able to incapacitate Carrier Prime before Silver Knight finally forcefully carried it into the ocean and, in a desperate fury, managed to cut off one of its arms and EMP-stun it. Unable to move, the pilot was dragged down into the ocean depths, where he either quickly bled out from his wound or simply drowned.

Of course, owing to having a  cyberbrain, drowning or bleeding out didn't guarantee that it was gone for good. The Chosen would recover The Black Swordsman from the ocean after the attack, repair its suit and give it a new body to pilot with, though they were unable to locate the distinctive ultra greatsword the suit had used previously. It remained on Ascension Island while The Chosen rebuilt the facilities there, and was present for Armor Corps  second attack on the island. It engaged Moqaddas pilot Valkyrie in one on one combat, who was able to hold her own against the berserker long enough for the seismic bomb the  Engineers had placed to detonate. With the island beginning to fall apart, Valkyrie was able to deal a lethal blow to the suit, who was then crushed beneath the dragon Fortress Urban for good measure. What was left of The Black Swordsman's remains were left to be claimed by the revived volcanoes that had been set off by the Armor Corps' bomb.

Aside from pure brute force, the berserker served another unique purpose as a trap designed to ensnare AI that attempted to hack the suit. The pilot's own memory palace, vacant of a whole mind to house, served as an open trapdoor to be triggered by the cyberwarfare AI Blackjack. With Blackjack's incarceration following Armor Corps' first encounter with the suit, The Black Swordsman's allies lacked fine control over its actions, requiring them to keep a wide berth from in in battle lest it turn its berserk rage on them instead.

## Personality

Being a Puppet, The Black Swordsman has no real personality to speak of. Whatever identity they held before being forced into the armor has been suppressed and eroded away by incessant, frothing rage, which required the presence of an AI to forcefully contain.

## Appearance

The wearer of Manslayer is unable to doff the suit, and as a result their physical appearance is unknown.

# The Suit

> Hate is a place where a man who can't stand sadness goes.
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> Screen text displayed at startup

Manslayer is a Medium-class suit, Tall and terrifying in its layered shell of black, jagged armor plates topped by a wolf-like helm. The suit's most distinctive feature is the massive sword it carries as its primary weapon; a huge slab of metal that crushes all resistance.

After the suit was recovered from the ocean, The Chosen were unable to locate the giant sword it had used up to that point. They instead gave the suit a Varangian-style battleaxe they had found on the battlefield and replaced the missing arm with a mechanical prosthesis integrating a plasma bow and power fist.