Valeria Acaldamus

**Valeria Acaldamus** is a combat medic who joined the Council Recovery Corps to enter the residency program on the CSV Resurgence.

## Biography

Valeria was born in the capital of Palaven, Cipritine, daughter to Aurius Acaldamus and Vitiria Sancscus, a family of surgeons with more than enough means to give her a good education and assure she'd get a promising future. Due to their work, she spent most of the time with a babysitter, which left her starving for her parent's affection. During her first three years, she showed a fairly average development, although a bit quick, and great curiosity.

When she was 5 years old, she had two main friends, Ticus and Artis, turian classmates that spent their recess time playing with her. They helped her learn a bit more about the world around her by partaking in her little experiments, mostly just observing and studying bugs, since that's almost all they could do. During this time, she showed a growing interest in biology.

Within 9 years, her studies quickly absorbed her life, barely leaving her home to study for her tests, while her interest in biology in general, focused on anatomy and medicine. Despite being young, her current goal was a degree in medicine, which she committed to achieving, following her parent's steps in becoming a medic, hoping it would make her parents proud so they'd spend more time with them.

Seeing her efforts in what she did, her parents decided to try and be there for her. Due to their schedules, it wasn't much, but it was deeply appreciated. At 12 years old, her social life was struggling, she had no friends except Ticus and Artis. Her parents tried to make up for it, helping her whenever they weren't too busy at the hospital. They spent as much time as possible with her, lending her a hand whenever it was needed, and helping her through the stress and anxiety of her last schooling years before hitting basic training and beginning her work on a degree. This made a huge difference in her life, as she finally had the means to vent out everything wrong with her situation with someone she could trust and relate to.

Within 15 years, she was enlisted in the obligatory military service. Used to having her parents almost always with her by then, she felt uneasy, growing shy around the other recruits during basic training because of her lack of social skills. Even despite this, she managed to get two friends at her barracks, Qutina and Plina, two female turians who shared her desire to help, just a bit less extreme, so they quickly got to know each other and talk for some time.

When she was 18 years old, after one year in basic training and two boring years of guard duty, Valeria decided that, if she was going for a Degree in Medicine, she might as well begin practicing. Like that, she began paramedic instruction. It was a bit easier than usual for her now that she already heard about some of the things they were teaching thanks to her parents, and she honestly enjoyed being able to learn such a wide set of skills that would surely prove useful in her future. Valeria felt more confident now that she knew both the theory from her studies and how to put it into practice.

At 22 years old, seeing her service at the base wasn't necessary, she requested to temporarily leave military service to keep studying. During two years there, her studies went smoothly, thanks to her efforts and the help her parents were offering whenever it was possible. She learned everything she could and made her best efforts to show she had everything it took to get her degree.

Studies were hard, as she expected them to be, but Valeria knew that all her efforts would pay off in her future. During this time she also decided that, after getting her degree, she'd study xenomedicine to help people regardless of what species they may be.

During another year and a few months, she kept studying as she intended, but began getting in touch with Plina regularly. Valeria asked her how things were going at the base, and made her promise she'd tell her if they were going to be deployed. Plina tried multiple times to tell her that it was ridiculous, and she should just keep studying and finish as soon as possible, but Valeria didn't listen to reason. She didn't want anything else but to be there for them.

One day, Plina told her they were getting ready for deployment, and so she returned to service. She wanted to help her squad, and they began slowly sending people to all kinds of conflicts throughout the galaxy. They didn't know when their turn would arrive, but Valeria made sure she'd be there for it. The next year, she was deployed at Triginta Petra to fight against extremist Genophage supporters. During this time she earned the first-hand experience as a combat medic she needed, from treating wounds in war zones to bringing injured soldiers to safety. She was also tasked with treating gruesome wounds that reinforced her conviction in being a medic, causing her to begin developing an overprotective attitude because of what could happen if she wasn't there for someone. She rarely got in the line of fire, so her weapon was barely used, and she liked it more like that. She knew was inevitable and there would always be conflict, but deeply preferred not being the one firing the guns.

After the fight there was finally over after a year, they returned to Palaven to enjoy some rest. Valeria managed to get her parents to stop calling her nonstop, asking about her experience there. With her parents finally leaving her alone, she could her time in peace. The peace there was, however, short-lived when they were redeployed during the Reaper Wars.

On July 7th of 2187, Valeria and her squad were deployed again in Asteria in collaboration with asari forces, where they fought against the Reapers for the first time. The battle was fierce, and in a few hours of conflict, she had to fire more times than during a whole year in Triginta Petra. Most of the time, Valeria had to treat critically injured soldiers under heavy fire and help relocate them to safer locations until they could take them to the infirmary. She and the rest of the infirmary's personnel also had to treat soldiers with gruesome wounds caused by Reaper abominations.

During this battle, she ended up reuniting with Ticus, who was serving as a combat engineer at the front. With the combined efforts of all their forces, they stood against the Reapers for some time, Plina falling critically injured after being hit by an explosion that severely damaged her left side, the explosion also hitting Valeria causing numerous scars on her chest due to the shrapnel. Plina had to be transported to the camp and, after being urgently treated because of her wounds, they ended up having to amputate her arm. After stabilizing her, Valeria didn't leave her side except to treat other wounded soldiers, constantly telling her what they would do when back at home and acting as her emotional support, despite having her own problems to care about.

The numerous days of the battle took a toll on everyone, both turians and asari, who had to do their best to hold them off long enough for the civilians to be evacuated. Many lives were lost during those battles, and the infirmary just couldn't treat everyone arriving. It was without a doubt something tragic, but Valeria did her best knowing their troops were giving their life for a cause they believed in. Knowing that made it easier for her to accept their deaths.

From all the abominations she fought against, the one that caused the most impact were the brutes. Her turian comrades changed and shaped until they were barely recognizable, only their heads still recognizable. These horrible creatures still appear occasionally in her nightmares. Her first time seeing one, the shock of being witness to the rampage a monster like that could cause left her paralyzed, almost causing her death if it weren't for Ticus ramming her out of the way of one while it charged, barely avoiding it before taking it down.

While the rearguard bought them some time against the overwhelming Reapers, the rest had to evacuate the planet with as many civilians as they could. After that, she took some time to process the horrors she fought there, and Plina was sent home and out of military service. To this day she's still in contact with Valeria. Things between her and Ticus got awkward after he confessed his love for her, a love she just couldn't accept. For a few weeks, he felt like he failed her, but he knew he had to accept it. After all, if he pushed it further, it would only damage their friendship too. After getting over it for the sake of their friendship, it became a recurring joke between the two of them, finally able to laugh like they used to do.

With 29 years, she requested to follow her studies now that she was almost finished. After the request was accepted, Valeria went to med school for the few months she had left and finally managed to get out with a medical degree, now ready to make her residence. The only thing she needed to know was where to do it because many options were available for her to choose from, and her parents didn't stop giving her some recommendations.

After hearing about the CRC, Valeria applied to the residency program at the Resurgence so she could do it there. She packed up her luggage to say goodbye to her parents and friends before leaving in a shuttle. This way, she can start the life she wanted, studying xenomedicine online to keep pursuing her dream.

## Personality

Valeria is a person who doesn't like getting herself into fights. Her sweet, tender personality makes her react in non-aggressive ways to almost any kind of conflict, and back off or give in when confronted out of the battlefield. In the heat of battle, she throws herself right in when her squad is in danger to ensure their survival, laying decoys and defensive drones while boosting shields so everyone gets by just fine. When one of them does fall injured, Valeria makes sure to try and drag him to safety, but rarely shoots.

She's shown signs of emotional attachment to whoever gets assigned in the same squad and ship as her, something to compensate for the few years where her parents weren't attached to her. The lack of friends in her teenage years may have also affected this, as she does not care for the quality of the friendships, but the quantity. This usually makes her seem more likable to the people around her, at least for a really short time until they start getting tired of her. At the same time, all this ends up making her more gullible and prone to falling victim to the lies and deceptions of people close to her.

When worried about something, she usually refuses to get the help she surely needs because of a fear to show any kind of weakness. This sums up with the fact that her overprotective attitude tends to make her take other's problems as her own, quickly adding up with her own and causing constant stress and uneasiness which her bubbly attitude tries to cover.

She also displays some kind of nervous tick, as she's often found playing with her fingers or repeatedly tapping on her chest plates. Being as overprotective as she is, when she meets with a good friend, which for her is most of them, she tends to just walk up to them and examine them, checking their arms, head, eyes, and generally just being invasive in her approach to supposedly protect their well-being.

When someone does ask about her problems consistently, she just gets more and more nervous about it, sometimes exploding and screaming at them in a sudden fit of pent-up stress, letting out a charade of barely understandable words before turning and leaving, not even giving time to answer.

Her friendships tend to be short-lived. Her enthusiasm and exaggerated efforts to keep people close to her generally end up with the opposite effect, turning people away after she makes them grow tired of her over-enthusiastic personality.

In conclusion, she's a talkative, bubbly person with a heart of gold, always there when people need her and willing to risk herself for the group's well-being. Underneath the exterior, she's just a big mess of bottled up worries and problems, which must be regularly checked on to make sure she is doing well and not overworking herself. She's also easily deceived, tends to blame herself whenever something goes wrong and has extreme difficulties making permanent friends. Her positive personality also tends to get in the way of common sense, usually favoring unrealistic, positive positions over the facts.

### Exceptional Skills

* *Video games* - She loves playing MMORPGs because she can have fun with a lot of people at the same time while still feeling like she's being useful as a healer.

* *Reading magazines* - She mostly reads informative magazines about medicine and scientific discoveries but has a bit of everything.

## Physical Description

Like almost any turian, her body is slim and tall, her pale blue skin covered by plates of her brown exoskeleton all over it. Her light blue eyes are rarely covered by anything, as she prefers having a clear, unobstructed vision all around. In combat situations, she wears an open-faced, dark blue helmet, covering the little spike-like structures on the back of her head. She's rarely seen with an expression that isn’t a tender smile.

Her chest is left with numerous cuts and scars from a particularly tough mission in the Attican Traverse during the Reaper War. She's also not particularly bulky, but her body is still well toned.

Her clothing is almost always fairly used, obviously worn out as Valeria prefers utility and comfort over good looks but makes her best efforts to make it stay at its best condition always. Anyone who sees her for the first time would most likely get the impression of a casual but functional person with little worry about her looks.

The clothing she tends to use when not using a uniform is always something casual and comfortable. A tracksuit, a T-shirt, and a pair of jeans, sometimes she gets so focused on her studies that she ends up just wearing her pajamas.

Usually, this clothing is big enough to fit effortlessly and give her as much mobility as possible. From time to time she does put on something tighter so she doesn't have to spend time readjusting it if it happens to move.

Valeria also tends to gesticulate a lot with her hands while talking, most of the time to emphasize what she's saying. Sometimes she does move them just because she can't keep them still for some time.

### Armament

* Phaeston
* M-3 Predator

### Abilities

* Shield Boost
* Decoy
* Defense Drone