Sierra Palmer

Sierra Katya Palmer (born October 29th 2449) is a primary character of the 'Perseus Veil' campaign.

Early Life
Sierra palmer was born on Talussia, Marathon system to Artyom Pavlovich Pavlenko and Helen Cassandra Pavlenko. Moved to the city of arcadia on Signus b shortly after with her parents and twin sister. Her parents deceased under suspicious circumstances and sierra was taken under the care of Alric Drarov around her second birthday, just after her parents died. Sierra was too young to remember any of this so assumed all her life she was born on signus b and was an only child Orphaned at birth.

She did not experience the typical orphan upbringing. Under Alrics care she was home schooled and experienced tough survival and evasion techniques while Alric was on the run from the Alliance. Always ready to pack up and move at a moments notice she never lived in one home too long.

In these years she wanted to be just like him, to grow up and take on the world by his side, be a fighter, save people from the big bad people as Alric did. At her age she couldn’t fully understand what was going on. At age thirteen she was left alone on arcadia as Alric fled the alliance, this time not taking her with him.

Quickly she took to surviving in the lower districts fast for a kid her age, getting involved with a gang of orphaned kids, stealing from small stores, markets for food and finding shelter in abandoned buildings. She felt like she was part of a family, like these other kids were her siblings. Forming particularly strong bonds with two twin siblings. Alpha (Arillia Krespo) and Echo (Ekelen Krespo) both nicknames based from the phonetic alphabet, forming the inseparable group of Alpha, Echo, Sierra.

Things would escalate from petty crime to more severe offences within the group of kids as some of the older members began to use violence. Reports of assault with blades, armed robbery, arson, and many cases of public and private burglary. Many of the young kids were caught and found out to be the bait or distraction for the older members to commit the serious offences.

Sierra and the twins were the next group of kids to be used as distraction as the older kids broke into a pawn brokers on the edge of the district. What they didn’t know was that it was a front for one of the districts main pirate operations. The older kids were murdered by the pirates and they were to take sierra and the twins to sell and use as they seen fit. Sierra and alpha managed to cause a distraction but only Sierra managed to escape.

Living alone on the streets, starving and suffering in the harsh winter she found herself desperate. Having a run in with a diner owner who gave her a second chance after finding her in the back room stealing food. Returning to the diner every other night the owners initially provided her with the occasional meal and place to stay to eventually taking her in, giving her work and a place to stay.

Finally feeling like she had a place to call home again she was found by the krespo twins, and told she would have to repay the pirates by setting up Mr and Mrs Abbot, the diners owners. With the pirates threatening to kill the twins then the Abbots then herself she felt like she had no other option.

Forced to set fire to the diner thus drawing the Abbots out of their home allowed the pirates to rob them for everything they had. After that she tried to convince the twins that they didn’t need to work for them, that they could fend for themselves, run from the pirates but to no avail. The twins had already suffered enough and were brainwashed by fear. The pirates quickly caught up with them and forced them back into their ranks.

Living with the gang
Interviewer: What did you do after Alric left?

What he taught me to do, survive. I found out very quickly that i could get by fine without him. I got involved with a group of young kids, we called ourselves a gang but we were nothing more than a group of young abandoned kids fighting to survive.

Interviewer: What did you and this gang get up to?

You know just petty shit, Stealing from stores, pick pocketing from those rich pricks who would venture out of the financial district late at night, raiding the backs of hotels and bars for some food. Most of all we just tried to survive, it was good to be with each other, felt like we were all part of a group. Me and two others became close with in the group, we were inseparable we always worked together and stuck together.

Those two friends were Alpha (Arillia) and her twin brother echo (Ekelen) Obviously those weren’t their real names but when we first met they didn’t believe my name was sierra so in time they adopted their names from the phonetic alphabet believing that I had done so too. So we went as Alpha, Echo, Sierra. We were a good little team.

Things were going okay until the older kids in the gang started to commit some horrible acts and worst of all they would use the younger kids as bait, forcing us into impossible situations just so they could accomplish their goals. A lot of kids were getting caught by the police and taken away, some just never came back.

Then the leader had some perfect little plan for me and the twins, we were to be the distraction while they raided this small pawn brokers on the edge of our district. A suicide mission for us while those bastards got away with all the goods. Me and the twins weren’t having that so we planned to get the hell out of there all while sabotaging those fuckers. We were to go in with our weapons and hold up any staff or customers while the older kids broke in the back and stole as much as possible then we would be picked up by them but we knew they would just leave us.

Instead only two of us went in to hold up the shop, I waited round the side until the older kids had broken through the back and as soon as they had I went round and jammed the back door shut, wrapping a chain and padlock round it. I ran back round front to get the twins but was smashed over the head with something, picked up and carried into the shop. All six of us were thrown in the back room by these big rough looking guys with guns. I didn’t know at the time but they were pirates we must have hit some front for some pirate operation.

The Biggest guy just shot two of the older kids and then beat the shit out of the third one. “They wont even be worth trying to sell” he said “but him? Ill have some fun with him, he seems like the leader of this little operation, don’t ya! “Stick the younger ones in the van, Sell the girls and the boy can work for us”

Interviewer: What did you do next?

Me and alpha were being carried over each shoulder of one of the men and the other one had echo, I caught alphas eyes and gave her a look of be prepared and I bit into the man’s neck, she realized what I was doing and bit him too. He dropped both of us and grasped at his neck, I tried to grab his knife but couldn’t get it loose while Alpha tried to wrestle his gun free. The guy holding echo threw him down so hard it looked like it would have killed him and grabbed alpha so I just ran, I heard gun shots come my but just kept running, hoping I wouldn’t be hit.

After that I ran for days, I tried to get as far from that district as possible. I was terrified, starving and exhausted but worst of all I was so sure I had just lost my friends too. Those first couple of months were extremely difficult but I got used to it, just getting by, doing the old tricks to get little food and creds.

The Diner
Winter was still to come though. I got very desperate one night, I was starving. I had scoped out this small diner, easy place to get some creds and a bite to eat I thought. I waited until closing time, waited until the guy left or so I thought, I went in blind, too focused on the prize to pay attention and I was caught in the back room filling my bag with as much food as I could carry. He stood in the doorway, This massive guy blocking the doorway.

That’s it I thought, I panicked and ran straight for the door, I tried to slide under his legs but he reached down, grabbed me and picked me up to bring me to his eye level and I think he said “look kid I understand what this is but… but in that time I pulled out my pocket knife and slashed at his arm, he dropped me and I ran for it only to find out all the doors were locked. He shouted “look kid I am not going to hurt you! Just need you to know you cant do this sort of shit” Look ill make you an offer, if you give me that bag of stuff back ill let you go without getting the cops involved” I was trapped, I had too but I was so god damn hungry. After about 30 minutes of standoff I threw the bag towards him “let me go now! He empties the bag and heads back through the back. He comes back through and says “you’re not going anywhere without a meal in you kid, sit down and ill cook you something up”

I wanted out of there so bad, all I wanted was to run away to safety but what safety I thought? The smell of the cooking food made me stay, I couldn’t run from that no matter how much I wanted to.

That was one of the best meals I have had since living rough, Al was a pretty good cook. He left me to eat it alone while he cleaned up the shop and his arm. He came back through after around 45 minutes “okay kid look you could really hurt someone with that thing” I felt sorry but didn’t say anything “you can go now he says “just don’t… and I ran as fast as I could.

I thought about that night a lot when I was alone, in the rain, freezing cold with nothing to eat. All I wanted was to prove to myself I could make it on my own, survive like that fucker taught me. I did miss him though, he looked after me, fed me, protected me. I had had a place to stay, well places to stay until he just left, I hated him for that but that hatred faded away over the years.

Part of me wanted to go back to that diner, to be cared for, to be warm and safe. I would go back every now and again and watch from a distance then that became almost every night. One very cold and snowy night I went back, I hadn’t eaten for days, I couldn’t see properly and the shivering had been going on so long I didn’t notice it anymore. I stood and watched from a distance, customers were still inside, I watched them come and go until closing time and that’s when I just walked up to the front door and collapsed.

I Must have been out for a day or so. I woke up in the back storage area of the diner in what seemed to be a make shift bed, there were plenty of pillows and blankets, water and a tray with food on it. My mind told me to run but I couldn’t move, I didn’t want to move, I was warm and dry. A woman came in and said “hey you need to rest, don’t get up yet, just try and eat some of that soup and get some more sleep, don’t worry, we’re here, its okay”

That night the two of them came in, sat down on the floor next to me and introduced themselves. One was the guy I had a run in with before, his name Herschel Abbot and his wife Heather. They wanted to help me, care for me, they made me welcome to a meal before opening then a meal just after closing but best of all they let me sleep there overnight. Over the next few months I ended up working for them. I had a place to stay, food to eat and was even earning some credits for myself and maybe I had as close as I would ever get to having parents. But of course that didn’t last long.

The Betrayal
I had been around the diner for just over a year now, I was sixteen. One night closing the place up alone one night and they walk through the door. It was the twins. They sit me down and tell me I have a debt to pay and if I don’t do it they will kill the twins, then the Abbots then me. I was to set the abbots up, I was to find out were they live and help these pirate fucks steal everything from them. I didn’t know at the time but the abbots were extremely wealthy and chose to run this diner in their retirement.

I tried to convince my friends we didn’t have to do this, that we could just get away from these pirates or take them on, kill them all. I wanted to believe that there was another way but I knew deep down there wasn’t, we were only sixteen. The twins had already spent a year with these pirates and seemed to be doing it out of fear for their lives.

I had no choice, Over the next couple of weeks I relayed as much intel on the abbots back to the twins as I could. Over this time we had countless confrontations about the whole operation. It must have been some sick joke because it was the same set up as when the pirates caught us the last time except I am the distraction and the twins relay everything to the pirates for them to then raid the abbots for everything they’ve got. We were assured countless times that no one would but we were so fucking naïve to believe that. Someone always gets hurt with these scumbag pirates.

The day came, the pirates had all the data they needed to wipe the abbots clean the only thing left to do was for me to cause the distraction. I was to set the diner ablaze, not just some bin fire outside of it, something big so that it would cause the fire service to contact the abbots. So that’s what I did, I started a sizable fire in the back storage room, I actually used my bedding as the fire starter, it was all I could find. That really fucking hurt, I left the storage room after starting the fire and turned all the gas cookers on full and got out of there as fast as I could.

I wanted to run away and not look back but I heard the loudest bang and couldn’t help but turn round. The place exploded, debris flew everywhere as a massive fireball flew up and outwards, I was knocked back by the shockwave and felt like I was burning alive for a split second. I didn’t even bother contacting the emergency services, I didn’t need to. A few streets down I stood frozen, feeling nothing at all as the trucks arrived and tried to fight the fire. Time didn’t feel like it was passing until I seen Herschel arrive and crushed me, my legs went numb and all I wanted was to fall to the floor and give up but with no control I was slowly walking back towards the diner. A hand came down heavy on my shoulder, pulled me back and round, It was Echo “come with us” he said. I never did find out what happened to the abbots after that, I didn’t want to know.

We drove around all night, we didn’t really speak at all. Slept in the car that night. But the next morning we spoke about many things. What could we do, plot to kill these pirates, run away from them, work with them? Make promise to kill these fuckers in time, not now though, we aren’t ready. We had no idea what to do and we were terrified. After 3 days avoiding returning to the pirates who now owned us eventually we all agreed it’s the only thing we could do for now.

But we made a vow on the second night sleeping in that van that we would kill the fucker responsible for this and everyone working for him, First though we would need to work for him, we didn’t really have any other choice right now.

Life as Freelancers
Echo had these grand plans of putting a crew together and being some sort of merc robin hood and me and alpha were in it with him, for the most part. As time went on he was acting more and more like the people we set out to stop.

Over the years Echo became more and more violent. Killing innocent people, torturing people, robbing people who I felt didn’t deserve it. I don’t know if he was deluded enough to believe what he was making our crew do was true to our cause or if he knew it was evil and just lied to us for his sick enjoyment. That’s why I left, I had to get out before I seen anyone else hurt. Especially when he threatened me and alpha.

I tried to convince Alpha to leave with me but she wouldn’t leave her brother, what did I expect? They’re family. They were the closest thing I had to family too, it tore me up having to leave but Echo was out of control.

Joining The Hyperion
I went back to Arcadia for 2 and a bit years, I didn’t know where else to go, well didn’t have anywhere else to go. I knew I could go back there and lay low with the credits I had leftover from my time with the twins. I got myself a small apartment downtown and lived in some normality I guess. Spent some of my spare time looking into my past, some drunken nights spent digging around for anything on Alric not knowing what I would actually do if I found any.

It was so boring for the first few months, I thought about trying to get a job, even went to a couple of interviews but they went to shit. The alliance recruitment officers pissed me off and that led to a nasty exchange but luckily I managed to hold back and they let me leave without any police action.

So it didn’t take long to fall into old habits. I had enough credits to get by but that wasn’t any fun. I ended up involved with electroclash culture. The scene in Arcadia was thriving, countless underground parties, illegal raves, concerts fucking everything. Lots of alcohol and substance fuelled weekend benders, weekday benders, it didn’t even matter what day it was, The music was insane and I would dance night after night. a very blurry two years.

Instead of just enjoying the scene I started working it. Mostly I would be selling various substances but occasionally I would help out with employee or patrons troubles. Throughout those two years I did feel extremely lonely and guilty for leaving what was essentially my only family, I guess you may see these two years as a break? A loss of control? It really was a dark time, the culture I was involved in made me forget or maybe that was because I wasn’t sober for most of it. I wanted that back but I knew I couldn’t go back to the Krespo’s.

That’s when I came across the prison transfer for the Perseus vale expedition. I was determined to be a part of that, I didn’t see it for the glory or any of that bullshit, I seen it as a way to get out of this low life shithole for good, see the galaxy and have a fresh start. I was hopeful again.

Reuniting with her twin sister


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Personality
Raised by Alric Sierra was taught to be very cautious and untrusting of anyone except those deemed trustworthy by Alric, Those people were few and far between. She has a lot of determination, wanting to grow up to be like Al she was very eager to learn from him. Very quickly she discovered a natural ability for stealth, infiltration and deception.

Having Alric abandon her when she was 12 years old absolutely shattered her trust for anyone and she still shows remnants of that to this day. Building some trust back up in people when she met the twins, growing very close to them over her formative years. She finds it difficult to be honest especially with people she doesn’t really know, often feeling awful when lying to those closest to her.

With that background she can be very shy and reserved around new people and even around friends, often using Alcohol and narcotics to alleviate social stress. Having tendencies to take it too far a lot of the time. She often has quite a negative outlook, only occasionally seeing the positives but in this war the positives are quickly shot down soon after they arise.

Upon joining the Hyperion she did take a while to warm to a lot of the crew, often spending time on her own or with the shipboard ai. In better circumstances she can be quite fun and is always up for having a good time, whether that’s having a couple drinks with friends or full blown nights out.

Relationships
From an early age Sierra adored Alric, her guardian, the closest thing to family she had. Wanting to grow up to be just like him until he abandoned her around age 13. She felt a massive sense of betrayal and hurt which turned to anger and hatred. Throughout the years that faded away into nothing, she had gotten over it. Until they were reunited on the Hyperion. Old emotions brought back up but sierra hasn’t faced these issues and has rather avoided them instead. Their relationship is rocky at best, sierra seems to avoid him or doesn’t engage with him most of the time. On the field they do work well as a team though, that much is clear. One of Sierras best friends from the age of 12 probably more like a sister than anything else. Meeting only a couple of weeks after Alric abandoned her and growing up together they had been through countless situations, good and bad. They look back fondly of their time growing up together, often stating how much simpler it had been. In August 2473 Sierra made the very difficult decision to up and leave what were essentially her sister and brother, probably sierras biggest regret.
 * Alric
 * Arilia

After 2 years she would reunite with Arillia aboard the Hyperion as it evacuated refugees from Cobin. It was a bittersweet reunion as Arillias brother Ekelen had been captured by the passengers.

Sierra with no hesitation would help in retrieving Ekelen from the passenger clone labs. After the family reunion the mood would turn sour again as Sierra remembered why she left the twins in the first place, it was because of him. Instead of leaving them again Sierra would convince Arillia to leave with her, she could see how much pain Arillia was in trying to keep a hold on her brother.

Upon joining the Hyperion they would both be met with a lot of anguish but as usual they would stick together and support each other through it all. Sierra is very grateful that she has her best friend with her throughout this most difficult time.

“Hopefully when this is all  over we can have that nice fancy dinner and wine without having to steal it from the back stores of the restaurant” Despite having a very rocky start Ashley is probably sierras closest friend on the Hyperion. Commonly found enjoying a few drinks together, heading out to some clubs and generally just having some normal fun in this situation. Sierra managed to stabilise Ashley after the Hyperion was shot and crashed on an unknown world. As the ship went down both of them braced between two mattresses in sierras room.
 * Ekelen
 * Ashley
 * Issac
 * Grant Taylor (Casper)
 * Kat