Valentine

Name: Hector Nee

Blood type: B+

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Nicknames: Crawler, Midnight

Pastimes: Exploring, hunting, cooking

Scorecard:

Physical

Combat skill

Psychological Strength 2/5 Accuracy 4/5 Intelligence 2/5 Endurance 4/5 Reflexes 2/5 Bravery 2/5 Agility 2/5 Weapons versatility 3/5 Resilience 2/5 Constitution 2/5 Battlecraft 4/5 Wisdom 4/5 5=Exceptional 4=Specialist 3=Trained 2=Average 1=Poor Overall role: Specialist Hunter

Bio: Born in France 1984 December 1. Valentine was born into a traditional family with 2 sisters. Being the middle child Valentine found himself craving attention until Benedict came into his life. The two became as thick as thieves while Benedict was left with Valentine's family overnight sometimes. Enjoying a comfortable childhood without strife Valentine was often a moral compass for his friends, initially for Benedict then Collette.

Attending a public school of poor reputation of which Valentine’s parents saw as a method of toughening him up he avoided ridicule for the most part avoiding attention from his peers. He hated violence and regularly pulled Benedict away from unnecessary fights while trying to uphold Benedict’s self worth regardless of what other children said about him. Eventually he also developed a strong friendship with Collette on a walk home from school one day at the age of 11.

Apparently frustrated with the lack of responses from most of the students who had learned to defend themselves from such people they managed to corner a girl from a private school. Predictably Benedict launched into action regardless of weighing up his odds which resulted in his friend being beaten to the ground. Unsure what to do Valentine joined the fray if only to try pull them off his friend dodging a right hook swung in his direction. Focussing on dodging the flurry of wild strikes Valentine threw a few punches of his own to begin turning the tide of the fight.

Taking a hook to his cheek Collette joined in the fight to support the boys who so desperately tried to defend her. With the fight continuing for a minute police eventually spotted the fight and attempted to intervene. Accepting being caught all the boys stopped their fighting without running to avoid further trouble, except for Collette who had broken into a dead sprint through an alleyway.

Turning to each other Benedict and Valentine followed her lead. Ducking, weaving and dashing past people and stalls scrambling over chain link fences managing to elude the police they collapsed onto the grass of a park laughing over the situation. After catching their breath Valentine questioned Collette's sudden panic on seeing the police come over. She replied that it wasn’t worth having her parents deadbolt her door if the police took her home. From that day the 3 friends enjoyed a variety of adventures throughout their childhood.

Coming to the end of his schooling with a strong academic record the 3 joined the reservists looking for something more exciting in their lives. Benedict became apart of the UIR to directly defend his country if it came under attack while Valentine and Collette joined the USR together while studying at university training for support roles more suited to their academic backgrounds.

The 3 friends also completed a number of multi day hikes and survival challenges enjoying the simplicity of surviving in the wild. Training to specialize in hunting dangerous boars in the forests for days at a time their appetite for adventure grew as Valentine developed a knack for predicting behaviour and weakness. Valentine studied a zoology course with interests in veterinary science and ecology in which he thrived in completing an honours program after his course was finished.

At the age of 23 Valentine was leading his own research project in which he uncovered what he thought to be a previously unknown influence promoting actions in schools of fish. He stated that their movements were too quick, precise and consistent as a group to be possible through observing each other and reacting. He proposed that further investigation could reveal some form of link between each fish that made them immediately aware to incoming stimuli from a fish on an opposite side of the school resulting in such an instant reaction. Valentine found his project hastily shut down with professors claiming he’d bring down the institution with such wild claims and destroy his reputation, though he always suspected some foul play was involved.

After conquering mount everest in 2008 at the age of 24 the group decided that the zone would be the ultimate test for their exploration and survival skills. Infiltrating with their trusted survival equipment and hunting weapons including back up pistols, shotguns and a semi automatic rifle they were introduced to the zone by operatives posing to be from the cerberus organization. Upon entering the operatives disappeared and the 3 friends were left on their own to survive. Valentine overwhelmed by the situation began to panic at the prospect of being left to rot in a wasteland until Benedict ordered him forward. With no other alternative he followed him without question hoping he had a plan.

Marching through the zone on alert the group found their first prey. Successfully bringing the mutated boar down Collette began initially dissecting the boar that Valentine had shot proud of managing to kill such a formidable and mutated creature so easily the resilience of which was revealed by Collette. Mesmerized by the creatures mutations pointed out by Collette the world suddenly went dark after a sharp pain was felt at the back of his head as they cooked the meat.

Coming round Valentine saw 3 outlaws rummaging through their equipment with Benedict pinned while one outlaw took explicit interest in Collette. While the other outlaws ordered it was time to leave after the smash and grab one outlaw began clawing at Collette’s protective suit.

Shocked, panicked and terrified Valentine closed his eyes as tight as he could until a gunshot rang out. Eyes snapping open with a frightened gasp a cloud of blood erupted from the outlaw atop of Collette as she fired relentlessly into him. Seeing the outlaw pinning Benedict raise his rifle to finish Collette the outlaw holding down Valentine went to help his wounded friend. Before being able to take advantage of the situation Benedict had already knocked his assailant to his knees

Turning back the outlaw ripped a knife from its sheath and slashed wildly towards Valentine almost digging into his flesh until the assault ceased as a round tore through the outlaw. Turning again to see Benedict had shot him the pistol was immediately knocked from his hands. The distraction proved long enough for the outlaw to close on Valentine once more knocking him to the ground brandishing the knife ready for the kill. Hearing a gun scrap over the ground towards him Valentine reacted firing two shots into the man's chest. Seeing Benedict forcing his assailants head into the fire he threw the pistol back so Benedict could finish the job.

The terrors of the night had only begun unfortunately and shortly after shaking the shock of the ambush off to grab the outlaws equipment terrifying aberrations of humans turned feral beasts appeared. With a soul piercing scream the next assault began as the group covered their sectors in a panic where Valentine saved his friends numerous times as he quickly learnt their attack patterns. With Benedict ordering a retreat the 3 friends found themselves running for their lives through the forest stopping only to witness a tear night sky followed by a tremendous groaning.

Unsure what it meant other than that it couldn’t be good the friends continued running before running into another pioneer panicked by the sight. Collette preparing to fire on sighting the man brought down her rifle on Benedict's order as the pioneer ordered them to follow him. Charging through the darkness arriving at a manhole leading into a collapsed tunnel the scream tore apart the landscape breaking the groups resolve leaving them paralysed in terror. Once it had passed the 3 looked to each other not sure what to feel apart from regret. Offering a canteen of water the man introduced himself as Noah and under his guide the 3 friends flourished in the zone.

Though the years were rough on the group of friends once the despair of not being able to escape had passed they found themselves well suited to surviving once being taught about the area. They became quite renown pioneers as they made numerous and major updates to the public bestiary studying the creatures of the zone as a group of hunters. Valentine developed an uncanny ability to discern a creature's behaviour from its anatomy and the threats it might pose. This allowed him and his friends to bring down a record number of creatures as well as safely disengage what they couldn’t kill with conventional means. He always found a weakness eventually and no beast was safe forever from his hunt.

Valentine like the rest of his friends however still wanted to leave the zone. He despised the cowardly and shameless acts of crime and violence commonly displayed by the desperate. He was sick of the corruption he saw every day he left the safety of the camps and most of all the way the zone corrupted the minds of men to create the abominations and atrocities that plagued the land. He felt for there to be any hope for themselves the only way out was to destroy the zone all together. Trying to convince his friends to join the crusaders to rid the world of this cancer his pleas fell on deaf ears as both Benedict and Collette had different ideas.

All agreed however to continue as simple pioneers on Noah’s hint that he may just might know a way out of the zone and that all he needed was help with one last job so they could all leave. Just some unfinished business he said. Praying that the chance to escape hadn’t come too late and his luck wouldn’t run out now the light could be seen at the end of the tunnel he pushed through whatever the next day would bring. Surely fate wouldn’t be so cruel to see him murdered on the path to freedom. He had to believe otherwise. What else did they have left.