Post by Lars Langstrom on Sept 8, 2014 3:03:11 GMT
Character
Name: Lars Langstrom
Faction: Anti-Earth Union Group
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Birthday:
Blood Type: A Neg
Ethnicity: Scandinavian, Spacenoid
Character Paradigm: None
Specialty: None
Description
Height: 187 cm
Weight: 70 kg
Hair Color and Style: Platinum Blond
Eye Color: Blue
Identifying Marks: None
Skin Tone: Pale
Build: Lithe
Clothing: Antiquated as his tastes
Family
Mother: Franziska
Father: Unknown
Siblings: None
Personality
Nobody wants to be in the same room with him when he’s cracking jokes. He has a bad sense of humor mixed with a hint of sarcasm, leaving much to be desired. He’s cocky, he’s arrogant, and he reminds everyone of his reputation as a louse. Most believe him to be overly personal. Only those close to him know it’s all an act.
It’s catharsis. His effectiveness is maintained by projecting a perceived certainty onto his subordinates. By remaining certain, he is able to provide the certainty of his crew. To him, camaraderie is essential for running a warship. Langstrom carries around a handwritten list of the names his crewmembers and they like or dislike.
For three years, Lars Langstrom has been in the midst of an existential crisis. Without his friend or mentor, his reasons for fighting are consistently begging the question. He secretly desires to find his reasons for fighting with the AEUG while resolving all internal and external conflicts.
Idealistically, Langstrom is particularly stubborn. He follows a very specific, narrow worldview that makes him a bit of a cynic and a pessimist. The Titans are an embodiment of the Earth Federation’s regressive and xenophobic foreign policy. Part of him has reconciled with the fact that this was purely and historically consequential- especially in the aftermath of Zeon’s despotic actions.
If the AEUG could resolve their differences with the Earth Federation, he would finally have an excuse to hang up his uniform for good.
History
Even at a young age, Lars was different from the others. While other boys played outside, Lars stayed close to his mother and helped her run a bakery on Side 3. He never met his father. His mother seldom spoke of him. They lived by modest means, apart from everyone. This was, undoubtedly, the source of his reputation as a recluse.
He was a bit of a social outcast, even at school. His only friend was a spirited redhead named Sigurd, who had a bit of a reputation as a troublemaker. An instructor once asked Lars why he befriended him after a skirmish on the playground. Lars simply responded: “Even I mind the peace, once in a while.”
By high school, it became obvious why these two opposites were friends. One was a source of moderation. The other was a means of escape. In his own misguided sense of justice, Sigurd extended his force projection from the playground to the field of national politics. Against the wishes of his mother, Lars entered the Zeon Military Academy with his friend Sigurd in 0076.
The war would part them. They were close friends, but they had different talents. Sigurd became a mobile suit pilot and Lars entered the navy. The quiet and soft-spoken cadet had proficiency for history and tactics.
His instructor, Wolfgang Messer, was a harsh but fair man, and would become his future skipper. In order to evoke his personality, Messer becoming deliberately belligerent. Lars eventually fought back against a subjectively oppressive doctrine, and was awarded for his response. Messer, surprisingly, gave him a positive evaluation and cleared him for active duty.
He would see his friend one last time before the war began. After graduating, Lars was assigned as gunnery officer to a Musai-class light cruiser: the Parzival. As part of Zeon’s second mobilization, Lars would miss the heavy fighting at Loum and Operation British. Under the guidance of Captain Messer, the Parzival was tasked with patrolling Side 3 and Solomon under Dozzle’s Space Attack Force while the combat mostly took place on Earth.
By early December of 0079, the Earth Federation Space Forces became increasingly aggressive and started openly challenging Solomon’s perimeters. The Parzival was charged with keeping them out. Initially, Zeon’s naval forces were not prepared to deal with the onslaught of new Federation weapons. Messer relied on the token mobile suit force on board to keep them away.
Lars was tasked by his mentor with developing new strategies for taking on Earth Federation Space Force pockets of Salamis-class frigates and RGM-79s. This tactic was put to the test during the Battle of Solomon. The Space Attack Force confronted the full fleet from Luna II in a massive engagement that represented an end to the war’s prolonged stalemate. In the battle, his friend and mentor, Wolfgang Messer, was killed in action by a direct hit to the bridge. Lars was next in the chain of command.
----------------------------------------REDACTED-----------------------------------
Langstrom heard the bad news after A Baoa Qu. Zeon was defeated, and her forces were scattered. His ship, the Parzival, and every other ship in the Zeonic Navy were scattered to the vast oceans of space. Fearing capture and trial, the Parzival continued to evade the Earth Federation Space Forces for the next three years, occasionally docking sympathetic colonies.
Months later, he received a message from his old friend, Sigurd, inviting him to join the Delaz Fleet Remnants. They were planning a massive counterattack effort to soften up the Earth Federation before the return of Axis: Operation Stardust. Lars found little reason to refuse.
When he arrived as a member of Delaz’s personal entourage of fleet officers, his opinion on Operation Stardust drastically changed. Plagued with cronyism and country club politics, Delaz left the planning to the unqualified and untrustworthy- leaving out key details to the remaining officers without their consent. It took Sigurd hours of convincing to keep Langstrom on board.
He took part in the operation recover Gato from orbit and preventing a pursuit from the Earth Federation. The resounding success gave him and his men a much needed morale boost. After repeated requests to Delaz, Sigurd’s mobile suit team was finally transferred to reinforce the Parzival’s hangar-, which remained depleted after Solomon.
Shortly after, the second stage, the attack on the Naval Review, was put into action. Delaz’s sources within the Earth Federation remained questionable, but were accepted after the Earth Federation officially announced their maneuvers. Lars, Sigurd, and the Parzival were given their orders: Act as a diversion while the Gato evaded security and penetrated Konpeito Island.
The scarred Parzival served as excellent bait. The ship, although fully operational, made repeated feints to lure Salamis class destroyers and mobile suit teams into fire traps, where they were systematically torn apart by the Musai’s main batteries and her escorts. With visual confirmation of the operation’s success was met with cheers on the bridge. Revenge had never been so sweet. The feared Earth Federation Space Forces’ navy was served a crippling defeat. It was a rout.
Inevitability caught up with Lars and his crew. Lars was careless. The details that Delaz withheld were his undoing. With plans to drop a colony, Lars became an accomplice in a war crime. They became part of the instrument of Zeon that he so despised. After confronting Sigurd about the plans, they parted their friendship. He would never see Sigurd alive again, who was presumably killed in action in the thick of the chaos.
His foot was already halfway out the door when Delaz was assassinated. All that was needed was an excuse. Without a central authority commanding the Delaz Fleet, he had his excuse. Lars made the controversial decision to retreat- well aware that this was the end of any chance of redemption. He issued an ultimatum to his crew: They were now fugitives, and they either had the choice of remaining with him or going their own separate ways.
Before any arrangements could be made, the Parzival found herself pursued by faster, lighter Earth Federation corvettes and a substantial mobile suit attachment. With one of her engines destroyed, the Parzival had no hope of outrunning them. Langstrom made the difficult decision to abandon ship. He would remain and continue to retaliate while the majority of his crew evacuated on the Komusai dropship. The massive hull and the main guns masked their escape. From a distance, the crew witnessed tragic demise of a place they called home for the last three years.
According to Earth Federation records, Lars Langstrom was dead. He went down with his ship and never resurfaced. There were no survivors. For Lars, that was exactly the narrative he wanted. For two years, he spent his days lying low and wounded with regrets. The Titans, who emerged victorious from Stardust, became an ever presenting and ever reminding him of the consequences of Delaz’s and Cima’s actions.
With no real cause, Lars took part in two conflicts and witnessed the deaths of his mentor and friend. He lacked the wisdom of his mentor, and the passion of his friend. With nothing acting as an influence in his life, he was cast adrift in a sea of uncertainty. The men who he was loyal to no longer existed, but the men who wronged him were still ever present. He could hang up his uniform for the last time, or cure his disease of dissatisfaction by seeking the reform he had always wanted.
When the Bunch 30 Incident happened, Langstrom instinctively recognized the flashpoint. He had contacted Hilda Steiner, and arranged to do what he could by enlisting in the AEUG. In a controversial olive branch to the competent former Zeon officer, Blex granted him a ship and a mixed bag for a task force. Their mission: Run interdiction operations during the raid on Green Noa 2.
Name: Lars Langstrom
Faction: Anti-Earth Union Group
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Birthday:
Blood Type: A Neg
Ethnicity: Scandinavian, Spacenoid
Character Paradigm: None
Specialty: None
Description
Height: 187 cm
Weight: 70 kg
Hair Color and Style: Platinum Blond
Eye Color: Blue
Identifying Marks: None
Skin Tone: Pale
Build: Lithe
Clothing: Antiquated as his tastes
Family
Mother: Franziska
Father: Unknown
Siblings: None
Personality
Nobody wants to be in the same room with him when he’s cracking jokes. He has a bad sense of humor mixed with a hint of sarcasm, leaving much to be desired. He’s cocky, he’s arrogant, and he reminds everyone of his reputation as a louse. Most believe him to be overly personal. Only those close to him know it’s all an act.
It’s catharsis. His effectiveness is maintained by projecting a perceived certainty onto his subordinates. By remaining certain, he is able to provide the certainty of his crew. To him, camaraderie is essential for running a warship. Langstrom carries around a handwritten list of the names his crewmembers and they like or dislike.
For three years, Lars Langstrom has been in the midst of an existential crisis. Without his friend or mentor, his reasons for fighting are consistently begging the question. He secretly desires to find his reasons for fighting with the AEUG while resolving all internal and external conflicts.
Idealistically, Langstrom is particularly stubborn. He follows a very specific, narrow worldview that makes him a bit of a cynic and a pessimist. The Titans are an embodiment of the Earth Federation’s regressive and xenophobic foreign policy. Part of him has reconciled with the fact that this was purely and historically consequential- especially in the aftermath of Zeon’s despotic actions.
If the AEUG could resolve their differences with the Earth Federation, he would finally have an excuse to hang up his uniform for good.
History
Even at a young age, Lars was different from the others. While other boys played outside, Lars stayed close to his mother and helped her run a bakery on Side 3. He never met his father. His mother seldom spoke of him. They lived by modest means, apart from everyone. This was, undoubtedly, the source of his reputation as a recluse.
He was a bit of a social outcast, even at school. His only friend was a spirited redhead named Sigurd, who had a bit of a reputation as a troublemaker. An instructor once asked Lars why he befriended him after a skirmish on the playground. Lars simply responded: “Even I mind the peace, once in a while.”
By high school, it became obvious why these two opposites were friends. One was a source of moderation. The other was a means of escape. In his own misguided sense of justice, Sigurd extended his force projection from the playground to the field of national politics. Against the wishes of his mother, Lars entered the Zeon Military Academy with his friend Sigurd in 0076.
The war would part them. They were close friends, but they had different talents. Sigurd became a mobile suit pilot and Lars entered the navy. The quiet and soft-spoken cadet had proficiency for history and tactics.
His instructor, Wolfgang Messer, was a harsh but fair man, and would become his future skipper. In order to evoke his personality, Messer becoming deliberately belligerent. Lars eventually fought back against a subjectively oppressive doctrine, and was awarded for his response. Messer, surprisingly, gave him a positive evaluation and cleared him for active duty.
He would see his friend one last time before the war began. After graduating, Lars was assigned as gunnery officer to a Musai-class light cruiser: the Parzival. As part of Zeon’s second mobilization, Lars would miss the heavy fighting at Loum and Operation British. Under the guidance of Captain Messer, the Parzival was tasked with patrolling Side 3 and Solomon under Dozzle’s Space Attack Force while the combat mostly took place on Earth.
By early December of 0079, the Earth Federation Space Forces became increasingly aggressive and started openly challenging Solomon’s perimeters. The Parzival was charged with keeping them out. Initially, Zeon’s naval forces were not prepared to deal with the onslaught of new Federation weapons. Messer relied on the token mobile suit force on board to keep them away.
Lars was tasked by his mentor with developing new strategies for taking on Earth Federation Space Force pockets of Salamis-class frigates and RGM-79s. This tactic was put to the test during the Battle of Solomon. The Space Attack Force confronted the full fleet from Luna II in a massive engagement that represented an end to the war’s prolonged stalemate. In the battle, his friend and mentor, Wolfgang Messer, was killed in action by a direct hit to the bridge. Lars was next in the chain of command.
----------------------------------------REDACTED-----------------------------------
Langstrom heard the bad news after A Baoa Qu. Zeon was defeated, and her forces were scattered. His ship, the Parzival, and every other ship in the Zeonic Navy were scattered to the vast oceans of space. Fearing capture and trial, the Parzival continued to evade the Earth Federation Space Forces for the next three years, occasionally docking sympathetic colonies.
Months later, he received a message from his old friend, Sigurd, inviting him to join the Delaz Fleet Remnants. They were planning a massive counterattack effort to soften up the Earth Federation before the return of Axis: Operation Stardust. Lars found little reason to refuse.
When he arrived as a member of Delaz’s personal entourage of fleet officers, his opinion on Operation Stardust drastically changed. Plagued with cronyism and country club politics, Delaz left the planning to the unqualified and untrustworthy- leaving out key details to the remaining officers without their consent. It took Sigurd hours of convincing to keep Langstrom on board.
He took part in the operation recover Gato from orbit and preventing a pursuit from the Earth Federation. The resounding success gave him and his men a much needed morale boost. After repeated requests to Delaz, Sigurd’s mobile suit team was finally transferred to reinforce the Parzival’s hangar-, which remained depleted after Solomon.
Shortly after, the second stage, the attack on the Naval Review, was put into action. Delaz’s sources within the Earth Federation remained questionable, but were accepted after the Earth Federation officially announced their maneuvers. Lars, Sigurd, and the Parzival were given their orders: Act as a diversion while the Gato evaded security and penetrated Konpeito Island.
The scarred Parzival served as excellent bait. The ship, although fully operational, made repeated feints to lure Salamis class destroyers and mobile suit teams into fire traps, where they were systematically torn apart by the Musai’s main batteries and her escorts. With visual confirmation of the operation’s success was met with cheers on the bridge. Revenge had never been so sweet. The feared Earth Federation Space Forces’ navy was served a crippling defeat. It was a rout.
Inevitability caught up with Lars and his crew. Lars was careless. The details that Delaz withheld were his undoing. With plans to drop a colony, Lars became an accomplice in a war crime. They became part of the instrument of Zeon that he so despised. After confronting Sigurd about the plans, they parted their friendship. He would never see Sigurd alive again, who was presumably killed in action in the thick of the chaos.
His foot was already halfway out the door when Delaz was assassinated. All that was needed was an excuse. Without a central authority commanding the Delaz Fleet, he had his excuse. Lars made the controversial decision to retreat- well aware that this was the end of any chance of redemption. He issued an ultimatum to his crew: They were now fugitives, and they either had the choice of remaining with him or going their own separate ways.
Before any arrangements could be made, the Parzival found herself pursued by faster, lighter Earth Federation corvettes and a substantial mobile suit attachment. With one of her engines destroyed, the Parzival had no hope of outrunning them. Langstrom made the difficult decision to abandon ship. He would remain and continue to retaliate while the majority of his crew evacuated on the Komusai dropship. The massive hull and the main guns masked their escape. From a distance, the crew witnessed tragic demise of a place they called home for the last three years.
According to Earth Federation records, Lars Langstrom was dead. He went down with his ship and never resurfaced. There were no survivors. For Lars, that was exactly the narrative he wanted. For two years, he spent his days lying low and wounded with regrets. The Titans, who emerged victorious from Stardust, became an ever presenting and ever reminding him of the consequences of Delaz’s and Cima’s actions.
With no real cause, Lars took part in two conflicts and witnessed the deaths of his mentor and friend. He lacked the wisdom of his mentor, and the passion of his friend. With nothing acting as an influence in his life, he was cast adrift in a sea of uncertainty. The men who he was loyal to no longer existed, but the men who wronged him were still ever present. He could hang up his uniform for the last time, or cure his disease of dissatisfaction by seeking the reform he had always wanted.
When the Bunch 30 Incident happened, Langstrom instinctively recognized the flashpoint. He had contacted Hilda Steiner, and arranged to do what he could by enlisting in the AEUG. In a controversial olive branch to the competent former Zeon officer, Blex granted him a ship and a mixed bag for a task force. Their mission: Run interdiction operations during the raid on Green Noa 2.