Crow

Crow, born Institute Courser X9-13, is a prototype Gen5 Institute Synthetic Human. As a courser, his purpose is to track, hunt down, and recapture escaped Institute synths, as well as deal with both internal and external threats to the Institute with extreme prejudice. Bred to be a highly skilled and trained killer, Crow originally only appeared in the Commonwealth during recall operations. An encounter with the members of the future Ragnarok Mercenary Company resulted in his brain 'resetting', which enabled former DIA engineer Deathwave to give him a new persona. Crow is known across the Commonwealth as the Nuclear Arsonist, for his almost entirely nuclear-related arsenal of weaponry. Like the other members of RMC, Crow operates a custom suit of power armor, heavily armored to allow for a constant barrage and onslaught of nuclear ordinance, such as mini-nukes, and irradiated ammunition. Crow is a divine follower of the fanatical religion of Atom, and often sees himself as Atom's Chosen. The various Children of Atom sects offer high payment for small, independent contracts, which is the primary source of his lone income.

## Background

### The Institute

Crow was designed at an unknown date during the creation of a new batch of synths. Rayne and an unidentified engineer, attempting to create a fully conscious synth, injected Crow with the corrupted OS, masking it to avoid alerting the Institute's Synth Retention Bureau. X9-13, having been preselected to undergo genetic training and muscular development to become the next series of Coursers, was booted without issue, and presented to acting-Director Justin Ayo, who claimed that the Gen5 Courser would ensure that all Institute operations would be carried out with no issue. Crow spent the next few months apprehending a wide number of Synths, even taking on additional tasks, such as performing check-ins on individuals throughout the Commonwealth who have been replaced by Synths, expanding the Institute's reach. Crow's life was relatively ordinary, until he was tasked to recover a escapee Rayne. Although he and another courser were dispatched with a substantial synth unit, he was forced to retreat when the Brotherhood of Steel intervened, capturing Rayne and killing his backup. Upon his return, he reported the failure to Director Ayo, who threatened Crow with deactivating and retraining. Crow, unlike his predecessors, politely challenged the threat, stating that he acted in a manner to preserve valuable Institute technology, as his OS was only implemented in him, and if he were to be killed, it's enhanced software would be lost forever. Ayo reconsidered, and dispatched Crow to recover an escaped synth, while simultaneously preparing to download the OS from the courser upon his return.

### The Tower Incident

Crow had secured the synth, and was preparing to relay her back to the Institute. He found, however, that the relay would not be able to be done within the walls of the tower, and as such, he aimed to either take her all the way downstairs and outside, or simply head to the roof. The options were lost, however, as the USS Constitution, equipped with massive rocket thrusters and with the RMC crew on board, crash-landed into the roof. Crow planned on taking out the others to plot his escape and return to the Institute, when a way-ward swing of Kairune's power armor disabled his Stealth Boy technology, revealing him to the group. Identifying him as a Courser, the group opened fire, bombarding the deck with small arms fire while the Courser delivered wounding strikes to each of them. The detonation of a Fusion Core in his proximity blasted him off the side of the ship and off the tower, the impact of his body hitting the ground floor causing a tremor across the area. Discovering that he was in fact still alive, Crow was reset by Rayne, and brought back to RMC, where his Institute propaganda and programming was removed. While recovering, the newly born Crow found a few posters and drawings gifted to Deathwave by the Children of Atom, and he soon took that to be his true god, believing that Atom himself had given him a new life.

### Formation of Ragnarok Mercenary Company

Years after his capture, Crow began to join the members of RMC on quests in exchange for caps, allowing them to pool together to build a home/workspace, with garages for working on their suits of Power Armor. As they grew, the caps came in harder and harder, eventually allowing them to recover and rebuild a pre-war military cargo plane, converting it into a large VTOL mobile air base, called the Valkyrie. Crow filled the demolition role of the group, operating as a large crowd splitter, using his Fatman and mini-nukes to both cut down waves of enemies, but also force them into funnels by heavily irradiating the landscape. Seeing the growing success of their group and operations, the group decided to start offering more and more of their services, even taking up smaller, more independent contracts with the various settlements of the Commonwealth, forming and expanding their name.

### Fallout: Ragnarok, Book One

The story starts out in the year 2290, three years after the Sole Survivor's rise from Vault 111, and two years after the unification of the Commonwealth Minutemen, who currently serve as the commonwealth's 'national guard'. Crow is one of the members of the Ragnarok Mercenary Company, working alongside Leader Deathwave, fellow heavy Chaos, loyal friend Kairune, and technician Rayne.

## Appearance

As a synth courser, Crow has a sleek and almost emotionless face, designed to be one that could be seen in settlements all over the Commonwealth. During his Institute time, he wore the traditional black leather trench coat and boots, and a pair of silver aviator sunglasses. Clean-shaven, and hair trimmed short, Crow was an imposing sight as a courser. When he joined and became a part of the Ragnarok Mercenary Company, Crow allowed his beard and moustache to grow out. He is bald, which is either due to him shaving, or due to the vast levels of radiation he endures. He has also adorned his skin with a series of web tattoos paying homage to Atom, extending over both arms, legs, and over his back. He is usually found in his cybernetic armor system, which allows him to move easily while burdened with heavy equipment and gear, a Deathwave and Rayne special design.

## Personality

Crow's personality balances on eccentric to full-blown insane. Often daring himself to dangerous challenges out of devotion to his god, Atom. Crow is referred to as the Nuclear Arsonist for his tendency to leave a battlefield sufficiently scarred and radiated. To his friends, he is loyal, faithful, and will constantly attempt to open them up to the wonders of Atom. Kairune feigns a mild interest, which allows her to deescalate him rapidly during his more manic periods. As a courser, however, Crow was ruthless, brutal, and relentless when it came to achieving his goal. Crow as a courser was willing to kill anyone standing in the way of his objective, be they raider, or lone farmer.

Crow harbors an intense fear of Nora, primarily after hearing of her ripping the brain chip out of both Kellogg and another Courser. Crow also harbors an extreme hatred for the Raiders of the Wasteland, regularly seeing the damage they inflict on the world and on innocent people, and often will void his operation fee depending on the circumstances if Raiders are the target. On one of his solo operations, Crow encountered a young girl, who's family had been killed by a group of Raiders. She pleaded with him to find her some water and food. He offered her his rations, and spent the night with her to protect her, offering for her to come with him to seek a new home in Nuka-World. She told him of the things the Raiders did to her before she escaped, enraging him. That night, Crow left her camp, and found the Raider compound. Without warning, he unleashed a sustained bombardment of nuclear ordinance, eradicating the Raiders. A scout for the compound attempted to escape, but Crow caught him, breaking both of his legs, and leaving him to slowly burn in the high concentration of radiation left from his assault. He then accompanied the girl back to Nuka-World, where she works to this day, enjoying her life as an apprentice merchant, as well as the blanket of security provided by the RMC.

## Equipment

### Power Armor

Crow's Power Armor, nicknamed the Atomic Fury, is customized with heavy armor paneling and lead lining, making him highly resistant to the nuclear fallout caused by his vast weaponry. His armament includes a modified Fat-Man weapon, using custom mini-nukes that can be set to rocket upwards and come down on his targets from straight above, both in regular and MIRV styles. Crow's Power Armor is equipped with a long-range EM rail system, capable to firing mini-nukes across long distances with pinpoint accuracy. The rail system is also able to open up, allowing him to fire three independent nuclear bombs simultaneously. Crow is also able to link with a modified Sentry Bot, named Spotter, forming a sort of 'trailer' for his armor. The Sentry is designed to carry numerous nuclear ordinance, and reload his EM rails as needed, making him an extremely reliable mobile artillery platform.

Due to the immense level of energy required to move and operate his armors modules, Crow generates an extreme amount of heat. As such, he regularly needs to vent the heat outwards, resulting in a thick cloud of radioactive steam. In the event he finds himself surrounded in close proximity, this venting acts as an effective close quarters weapon.

Crow's power armor is equipped with a destructive failsafe, which he coins 'Final Division'. In times of extreme duress, Crow utilizes the armor's hand-activated ejection system to trigger a critical reaction in all fusion cores and any stowed ordinance currently equipped, including those aboard his Sentry addition. The suit begins the process with a highly energetic, pre-recorded message from the courser himself, calling for a Great Division that will force anyone nearby to surrender to Atom in his full might. Linked to a majority of the commonwealths technology, this sermon will be played from any PA system near him, followed by the sounds of an air-raid siren. The suit then disengages Crow, sealing him in a portion of the rear, which then ejects using a combination of rockets and EM technology, propelling him almost a mile into the air. This portion is also equipped with a heavy lined parachute. Crow's suit with then trigger the overcharging of it's onboard fusion cores, dispersing an EMP that charge disrupts and detonates them, and any explosive ordinance in his immediate vicinity. The resulting explosion is comparable to the initial bomb that struck the Boston area, resulting in the surrounding region being reduced to a radioactive dead zone. Crow's armor is completely destroyed in the maneuver, reduced to small pieces of scrap metal scattered across a 3 square mile area, with the only salvageable portion remaining being the components of his ejection system. The detonation of this suit can only be achieved when standing within ten feet of his Sentry Bot addition, Spotter. Due to the destructive nature of the blast, the only way to initiate it is through an extremely complicated series of hand and finger gestures, followed by vocal confirmation. In the event of possible casualties, the RMC crew are all equipped with a cancellation system, disabling the full yield of the blast and containing it to just his suit and onboard components, generating a substantial explosion regardless, but to a less damaging degree.