Artemis Vickers

Second Lieutenant Artemis Vickers is an officer in the Tartarian Militia, and the commander of Recovery's second Raider Section. During the events of the Imperial Invasion, she leads 2 Section from the Defense of Tartarus, to the Battle of floor 90 and the Uprising. She is the only protagonist that is confirmed to have survived.

## History

Vickers was born in 12126 in a large family in Newfoundland, Canada. When the United States invaded in search of the planet's few remaining freshwater sources, she joined the Canadian Atlantic Rangers. At that point in the invasion, the Canadian Military had all but ceded every defensive position and engaged solely in guerilla warfare, striking out of the few remaining camps left in the vast northern wilderness. Most new soldiers were given a week of training at most and sent into battle against US bomber drones and attack robots. It was on one such mission that Artemis's entire unit was wiped out by a chemical weapon attack. Vickers survived a week hiding under the corpses before losing consciousness and being subsequently transported to the Afterlife. She soon joined the Tartarian Recoverat.

## Appearance

Artemis is the tallest member of Raider 2 Section at 6’1”. She initially sports long, straight light-brown hair that is relatively well maintained, although she cuts this later to be very short.  She has Hazel eyes with traces of blood and fair skin. Most often mistake her to be older than she really is. Artemis appears cold and dignified, with a scowl or humorless smile. She always moves with swift, powerful movements and never without purpose. Artemis wears a dark green or black beret sometimes covered in camouflage netting similar to a shawl, with the cap badge of the 4th Atlantic Ranger Regiment, an old Canadian Ranger Unit. Artemis wears a mostly black antique field officer's uniform of the Federium Army and bloused black combat boots. This, combined with her reputation as a Recoverat Officer and friendship with Adrian, gets her more respect from the Infantry than most others do. Artemis has a caffeine addiction from her time in the Canadian Rangers and is usually seen with an energy can in hand. She frequently uses dipping tobacco, and always keeps a container of it in the fold of her beret. Artemis does not drink alcohol, realizing that if she used it to dull the pain of living, she would immediately become addicted to it too.

## Personality

Despite appearing cold and unfriendly, she does have compassion for those who she sees as being in a bad situation. She is immensely caring and protective towards anyone under her command, due to trauma from losing subordinates in combat during the US invasion of Canada. She will go out of her way to sacrifice people even on her side if it meant protecting her subordinates. She is cordial and friendly with people normally, although this is mostly a façade she learned to adopt as an officer. Artemis will sometimes submit to others, but never in spirit and will always attempt to take initiative. She is said to posses an air of authoritativeness. Artemis always appears confident in anything she does as according to her, “pretending to have confidence is the same as having confidence.” In combat, Artemis frequently sprints across the battlefield to check in on other members of her unit. She constantly gives out orders to her section to give them direction. This, along with her officer's uniform makes her immediately recognizable as a leader. Artemis will command units and higher ranking troops not under her command if she thinks they lack direction or freeze from stress. Despite being a natural born leader and talented officer, Artemis has found the job to be boring and a pain. Many years of service has left her jaded and disillusioned in her role, constantly being pestered by people under her while being misunderstood and talked over by those above her. She thinks the civilian officials and higher command don't understand anything about the military or the people in it, often making decisions that make no sense to her. The complete lack of support or change for the better in the Canadian military has killed her sense of patriotism and respect for the military. Now she only cares about those under her command. Secretly, all Artemis wants is a peaceful life on Earth with a family of her own. She detests people who are unfaithful to their partners. Artemis wishes to return to Earth when the war is over, get married, take care of her Fireteam and raise a family. She frequently checks in with the Discovery Guild in Tartarus to see if any progress has been made on finding a way back to Earth.

Artemis dislikes the Infantry for their disregard for regulations and recklessness in battle. She dislikes the service units for their laziness. She dislikes the armour for disliking the service units. She dislikes the Canadian Armed Forces for their absolute refusal to try and improve anything or treat its members better, and dislikes the Unity Armed Forces for the same reasons. To her, the senior officers are senile and incompetent, the junior officers are inexperienced and useless, the NCOs are selfish and full of shit, and the junior NCMs need constant supervision to make sure none of them accidentally blow their brains out. It's quicker to type out a list of people she doesn't dislike. Artemis has no strong political opinions. She expresses socially conservative views, but has no issue serving on behalf of the anarchist Tartarian military. Artemis dislikes fascists for all the things listed above. Artemis has no problem with the idea of police as enforcing order, but dislikes them for trying to be soldiers. Artemis hates people who ignore her input or act like they're better than her. If she thinks she can get away with it, she will drop her façade and outright insult people, calling them incompetent or useless. Artemis realizes that she has serious mental issues and is also probably depressed. Artemis is totally engaged in working to better her unit and trades her own mental health to help others in it. She finds it almost impossible to relax and keeps all her insecurities, grieviences, and opinions bottled up under her calm and collected facade. Artemis occasionally breaks down completely, giving up on life and becoming an empty husk of herself for several days or weeks.

## In combat

Artemis is the section IC of Raider 2 Section. She is in Team Alpha of Group 2. As a ranger, she is able to travel extremely long distances while camouflaged, sometimes donning cam paint or using parts of the environment as camouflage. While she does not possess high strength, she has exceptional endurance and can hike several dozen kilometers if needed.

She carries the Vickers Recce Scout Rifle, a semi-automatic 30-round carbine that fires 5.56x45mm NATO, dealing moderate damage but with good accuracy and extremely high durability and reliability. Having been used since World War II and being the service rifle of the Canadian Rangers, the Recce Scout Rifle has a reputation for never failing and being able to fire with utmost accuracy even after being run over by a tank. As a Second Lieutenant, she also carries an officer’s survival revolver, which holds up to 6 shots of whatever ammunition can fit, from .22LR up to 7.62x51 NATO.

In the story of Vickers’s War, Artemis is the most respected member of the Tartarian Recoverat, one of the main leaders of the Tartarian Militia, and the leader among the main characters. She commands her unit in every mission and battle Raider 2 Section undertakes.