Roger Dawson

Overview
A seemingly conventional man finding himself in unconventional circumstances is an accurate way of briefly describing Roger. Unlike many heroes, villains and adventurers who populate the wider multiverse the Rocketman takes on things in the human, grounded way. Efficient and resourceful when approaching obstacles between him and his goals he often applies outside of the box solutions and ideas, for benefit of his allies and headache of his foes, Integrating various fields of both the mundane and supernatural on his plans. Through struggle and faith he has learned to endure, live and love, having embraced the multiversal adventurer's life at the age of 21 after unknowingly completing training from the least expected source.

Early life
Being the first natural birth in the ICFEC since a couple centuries meant Roger was in a peculiar situation from the very beguinning, even more so as he was later diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome or high functioning Autism. Learning from exposure to the real world the young Roger found the pursuit of knowledge and using his traits to make the world a better place one day at a time to be his life goals, which drove him to enlist on the ICFEC Taurus-IV colonial flight to the Rodina star system (formerly known as Kepler-442b in the 21st century) after graduating as a Systems Engineer, decision that changed his life irreversibly forever, entering his cryopod unaware of the wider multiverse he was about to become a part of. Nothing eventful happened during the interstellar journey, at least from Dawson's perspective. Things were going according to the flight plan all the way till the 5000'th Solar year of travel when disaster struck. Located at about 328 light years away from its destination, a bright flash of light bathed the ship: a supernova, product of the death of a lone star thousands of light years away, sending radiation shockwaves across the cosmos. They struck the Taurus, systems began to fail as the AI was severely damaged.

But no one was woken up due to severe driver malfunctions. An ear-piercing sound shattered Roger’s sleep as his cryo chamber opened. He slowly recovered from the hibernation sickness while laying in the chamber. As the dizziness went away he saw the date on his arm mounted terminal: 20,345 of the human era, May 21st. The mere sight of it struck deep into his mind: “6300 YEARS¡?” This can’t be. He received an alert on it. The ship was in a course that was inside a newly discovered black hole. He could do nothing as all systems were useless. Closing his eyes as the vessel fell into the event horizon. Everything turned pitch black as he was pulled towards the singularity. Then, a flash of light brighter than the sun rendered him blind for a moment, after that... dead silence.

He woke up again only to see the craft ripped into pieces. He was attached to a more or less intact deck so without hesitation he boarded an escape pod which looked like a Soyuz. He used it to maneuver away from the debri field. When he looked out of the window he realized he was back into space but… the stars were very different that day...

First assignment: Altair
Unaware of it yet, Roger had been recruited by the then enigmatic organization known as the Protectorate. Dawson had been introduced to them through what he perceived as simply magic, which in reality was a virtual environment indistinguishable from the real world. There the man was informed of the truth after a series of questions: He had died with the Taurus, his brain saved to serve a greater purpose. In this case, that meant becoming an agent of theirs. Understandably, he was shocked to his core but ultimately Roger complied. He was then trained inside this simulated world, improving over countless "levels" and tests, pertinent knowledge downloaded to his mind. Inmediately after he was given his first assignment, to assist a group of undercover agents on a medieval-tech world known as Altair by the locals, the group's mission consisting of rising the ranks to later steer the dominant civilization to accept Protectorate integration. The biggest obstacles to this goal were mainly two, a yet unknown force emerging on Altair's moon and a more down-to-Earth rival nation of that which the agents were infiltrated in.Ready to be deployed and feel the real world after so long he mentally closed his metaphorical eyes, waking up inside the same escape pod. It was orbiting Altair, moments later he would blink and find himself in a new, alien body, feeling lighter as his new self was elongated with dark and rough skin. He was now wearing protective clothes made out of strange leather and silk-like metal. Tall trees and foreign fauna was all he could see. A moment later three individuals approached, some looked like him while sporting better-looking equipment, and they had weapons as well. The beefiest spoke first, and even he would be slim-fit by human standards. Such was the beguinning of the Altair mission.

Turns out, they were part of a local species who called themselves "T´waze", the meaning of the latter roughly translated as "The people", at the time Roger was rather interested on their culture. However more pressing matters occupied his days, as The people were struggling to maintain a military balance of power with their direct rivals: The "Shkabaz", which also meant The people in their own language, as they used to coexist peacefully until Altair's moon became shrouded in dark mist, some interpreting as a sign of a time of purification, others as the coming of a third nation to the known world. In reality, whatever was on the moon had reacted to the arrival of Protectorate vanguards in the star system's far reaches.

The four agents went from common soldiers of the T´waze to acting generals over the span of 2 Earthen years, losing two of their comrades in battle. Given their knowledge of both the physics of this planet and examples from historical records of medieval warfare, added with their in-situ experience allowed them to grant the tactical edge to the T´waze on numerous occasions, using combined arms tactics and relaying orders through telepathy casters for great effectiveness on the battlefield. Earning the name of Turian's warband, in honor of their signature hit and run tactics, for their allegiance belonged to Turian, king of theirs.

Despite costly losses due to the Shkabaz' superior numbers and fiercely indoctrinated soldiers Roger's side was about to launch a final, surprise flank assault on the enemy camp to capture their Religious and military leader: Gallius. Having infiltrated as if they were one more regiment which had been dispatched there as reinforcements it all seemed to be going according to plan, and it would be until Roger himself had sneaked up upon the leader's tent, when his personal archmage suddenly turned and revealed knowledge of their plan, it wouldn't be long before Dawson was sentenced to watch the slaughter of his flanking force, only to be executed alongside his fellow agents later that night.

Temporarily discharged
With a similar flash of blinding light his mind was back to the virtual space, shock and guilt causing Roger to fall in despair, his superiors having no choice but to purge his memory of these events and put him on mental stasis for rehabilitation, it wouldn't be until years later of a simulated life for him to be given a new oportunity. On the meantime he would believe the Taurus-IV incident never happened and he made it to Rodina alive alongside his fellow colonists. But it would all end when the Protectorate first discovered Azure, a hub universe unlike anything encountered before. Many scouting missions, probes and even agent losses later the future Rocketman was assigned to it, not as an agent but a test subject, meant to gather valuable data about Azure's effect on the human psychology. Needless to say, his memories of this events were wiped too for security reasons. Once again a clean slate when it came to emotional balance he was this time reinserted on the Taurus incident, chaining the moment he fell onto the black hole with his appearance on the same capsule, but this time around it would be in interstellar space, the Azurian sun shining in the distance as one star among many. With no other choice but to set course there he entered hybernation.

Second chance: Azure
Thousands of years had passed since he went to sleep according to the date on his neuralink, ignorant that this whole ordeal was yet another simulation, in the real world a Protectorate outpost located in the edge of the Azurian star system had launched his pod to engage reentry on the only habitable Earthlike world. Back to Dawson the transition from simulation to reality was all but seamless, the vessel's emergency cryo chamber being about to break. It woke him up near the Azure star system, but he didn’t know the planet’s name yet. One extra sleep later he had arrived at Azurian low orbit, the man tried to execute the reentry and almost failed miserably. The craft almost bumping on the atmosphere before burning like a fireball and crashing into the forests near a 21st century-looking city, which inexplicably was the only one of its kind on the whole planet. Everything turned pitch black, then, he saw an otherwise familiar bright flash of light. The dammed neuralink on his brain executing the data gathering programs and inducing an augmented reality protocol to create the illusion that he was dead, or at least not physically there.

Roger was shocked when he saw his body laying in the middle of molten debri, fire and ashes. After an hour, he rematerialized where the capsule had crashed in the Azurian forests, which actually happened as the crash was real, but not the method of his revival. The smoke had been cleared out, he looked up, and around. Crawling out of it and slowly walking towards what the man didn’t understand yet, but was the beginning of a new life, and a new Roger.

Days became weeks, and those in the man's first month on the city. It was like most cities of the Old Earth during the 21st century, bustling and in constant change. What he didn't count on was the presence of not only superpowered individuals who defied all logical explanations, but non-humans as well, Roger had arrived to a multiverse hub indeed, for random portals opening in the middle of the busy streets and beings of any kind popping out of them soon became the norm for him, as everyone else.

Weaknesses
Being still a young virtual entity Roger is susceptible to strong enough technomancy or similar types of informatic damage, such as a virus developed with quantum programming paradigms. When it comes to his physical weaknesses they are proportional to the vessel he is currently using, and what gear he is using. His "main" body is that of a vanilla human, with minor tweaks for tech compatibility such as a neuralink module being part of the brain. These bodies must be manufactured, as he can only use vessels with sufficient processing power and peripherals that can support his "weight" in data and computer architecture, for instance he couldn't "posess" a modern day PC, too low specs and unsuitable hardware (digital). Which can be considered a weakness on its own, just like with your average self-aware AI.

MM Rank
In contrast with most adventurers Roger's ranking is constantly fluctuating. Tied to various factors in both the abstract and practical realms. However, it is posibble to pin down his current ranking based on the following points, note that if stripped down of them all he sits at Hunter I, assuming he only has a human body available for combat purposes:


 * Gear: Includes current suit capabilities, weapon configuration and other useful items carried or used, such as artifacts.


 * Allies under his command: Includes any combat-capable asset, be it a starship or fellow adventurer which Roger can count on to follow advice and strategic directions. As such, the Rocketman's impact on any given conflict scales geometrically (Aka the team becomes more than the sum of its parts) with the number, versatility and power of his teammates, given he often uses combined arms tactics and unorthodox thinking, let alone exploitation of the enemy's traits and if applicable, psychology.


 * Relevant Knowledge: Dawson's strategy, what he may expect and his take on any scenario will adjust to the information and evidence available. He is open to criticism and regularly asks for their teammate's view on the subject, his favorite command structure being one of decentralized operation, meant to allow every asset to be tactically independent and proactive in the face of unpredictable variables and outcomes. Sadly this can turn to be a double edged sword if an ally communicates poorly.


 * Environmental and circumstancial factors: Things such as buffs and debuffs, where / when battles take place and what is at stake may play in favor or against Roger's goals, by far the most unpredictable and by deduction unreliable means to gauge how much danger the man may pose to any given foe.


 * Samples obtained: A more obscure but nonetheless important factor. Being a researcher Roger and any ally capable of reverse-engineering (or magic-ing) will take full advantage of seemingly useless things found in the aftermath of battles, and if given enough time iterate counters and solutions to previous failures.



What to expect when facing him
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Trivia
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Misc gallery
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