Tobias Franklin

Tobias Franklin was born in the United States of Eastern America on April 22nd, 2066 HCE, in the midst of the Second Civil War. He signed up for the Phalanx Armored Defense Division (PADD), and scored highly on his AECU aptitude tests. He passed his other tests with flying colors, and was accepted into the PADD.

In his early years in the PADD, Tobias piloted an AECU called CCU-109. He served with CCU-109 for three years, until he was upgraded to a custom AECU under the callsign Gravity. His callsign originated from an incident at boot camp where Tobias fell off the top bunk and landed on one of his more sensitive external organs, and let out a shrill scream that woke half the barracks.

He served for two more years in Gravity before he was selected for an experimental unit called Rhodes Squadron. Based out of Fort Stane in central Pennsylvania, near the Allegheny National Forest. In Rhodes, he served in a UPICO unit called Duskhammer.

Tobias played a major role in the successful protection against the Feniks insurgency in the Battle at Fort Stane, and was promoted from Specialist to Corporal. He went on to lead Rhodes Squadron in the place of their former leader, Alexander Hernandez, who went missing during the Battle at Fort Stane, in 2089 HCE. Rhodes Squadron went on to be an key instrument in the final days of the Battle for Cincinnati.

Tobias completed a stealth mission in 2092 HCE, infiltrating a UAS bunker on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. This mission resulted in the USEA obtaining top-secret info about the state of the UAS's internal politics. These documents directly led to the negotiations preceding the signing of the Rockford Treaty and the end of the war in 2094 HCE.

After the war, Feniks and Phalanx were reabsorbed into Archimedes, and Tobias was promoted to Sergeant. He was posted on a garrison in orbit of Luna for a few years. In 2097, Tobias opted into a stasis procedure for the planned Prometheus project. He was kept in regenerative stasis for the next eight years, when he was transferred to long-term storage stasis aboard the completed Prometheus.

He awoke thousands of years later, in 4620 HCE, aboard the Prometheus in orbit of the planet 67128C. He led a team to explore 67128C's orbital megastructure, codenamed OR-1. He and three others piloted SPICOs, disembarking the landing shuttle onto OR-1's outer surface. After a few hours of exploration, the team discovered openings on the inner surface of the ring that were emitting a strange particulate. The team took samples of it, and returned to the Prometheus.

A few months later, the Prometheus had manufactured a berthing mechanism and had connected to the outer surface of OR-1, and radio began to be used for further construction around OR-1 Compound Alpha, as well as a communications unit and massive beacon light connected to the underside.

Two months later, Franklin led a response unit to investigate motion detected at the nearby elevator cable. This team was composed of himself, Captain Samantha Cross, Specialist Julia Carter, Ensign John Johnson, Private Valeria Miller, Private Jorge Vasquez, and PSC Liam Peltz. These seven would be the first humans to come into contact with their sister species on December 13th, 4620 HCE.