Ryan Sullivan

"Hey, I'm an engineer, of course I'm good with numbers!... I'm like an accountant... apart from the personality of course..."

- Sully, c. 2079

Lieutenant Ryan 'Sully' Sullivan (born June 3rd, 2060) was a primary character in the second chapter of the 'War' campaign. As a new recruit of the newly formed UFEC he served as Chief Engineering Officer aboard the UFEC Tombstone under Captain Langford. Sully embarked on a new career aboard the Tombstone alongside his younger sister Kate Sullivan in an attempt to bring much needed support and stability to the Sullivans. In early 2085, Sully was dishonourably discharged from UFEC and sentenced to life imprisonment after the murder of his father, Michael Sullivan.

Early Life
Ryan Sullivan was born in the impoverished Maryvale district of Phoenix Arizona. Throughout his childhood, Ryan was noted for his good behaviour and manners despite growing up in a dysfunctional house in one of the poorest, harshest neighbourhoods of Phoenix. During his childhood years, Ryan seldom saw his estranged father, disappearing for weeks at a time, and only returning to borrow money - despite this, he maintained a very close relationship with his mother. After news that the Sullivan family was expecting another child - Ryan's father abandoned the household, leaving Ryan and his expecting mother to meet household payments on their own.

On the evening of October 1st, 2070, Ryan's mother gave birth to Katherine Sullivan. However, the taxing birth of Kate left the Sullivans' mother fragile and weak before losing her life to meningitis, several weeks later.

Over the next 4 years, a 10-year-old Ryan and his infant sister were passed down the chain of social workers, foster homes and childrens' housing, never finding a permanent place to call home. Despite his young age throughout this period, Ryan learned to assert himself and take the initiative in being forced to take upon himself the role of provider and protector over the Sullivan siblings.

At the age of 14, Ryan (who had matured significantly beyond his years by this point) decided he needed to properly learn to support himself and Kate and make a life for themselves. After seeing an advertisement recruiting crew-members aboard a 'general contractor' vessel known as 'The Albion', Ryan decided to take his chances and apply. The captain of The Albion was impressed by the work ethic and positive attitude of the young Ryan and offered him a general duties position, realizing his potential as a long-term investment.

On February 4th, 2074, Ryan joined the crew of The Albion, bringing his younger sibling on board alongside him.

Life aboard The Albion
Soon after joining, the young Ryan quickly realized that the contracts undertaken by The Albion were as varied in nature as the crew-members themselves. From cargo-haulage to private security to salvage recovery. As Ryan settled in as a crew-member of The Albion, he discovered a surprising aptitude for the maintenance, mechanics and engineering side of life aboard a space-faring vessel. By his 15th birthday, Ryan had secured a position as a apprentice engineer. Aside from maintaining and repairing things, Ryan also displayed a particular finesse for demolitions and sabotage work and occasionally found his skills being occasionally called for several 'private security' contracts undertaken by The Albion.

Over the next 7 years, by his 21st birthday, after splitting time between schooling classes and his apprenticeship, Ryan had honed his skills enough as an engineer, saboteur and occasionally, a soldier to earn the respect of his more senior and experienced colleagues aboard The Albion.

Socially, Ryan and Kate settled in comfortably aboard the vessel over their time aboard. Ryan found friends amongst his colleagues on the engineering deck while Kate was fortunate enough to quickly make friends with children of other crew members. As did Sully...

2081 Hellion Incident
As of December 2084, save for a few details, little is still known about the 2081 Hellion Incident, which saw The Albion raided by the pirate vessel, The Hellion, on the afternoon of March 15, 2081.

While earnestly working on a faulty hydrogen inlet of one of the Albion's fusion engines, Ryan was oblivious to the fact that the Albion had been hailed by an approaching vessel and was to soon dock. To this day, the reason why Cpt. Wylie agreed to dock still remains unclear.

Soon after the Albion and the Hellion had docked with one another, Ryan ceased his work after recognizing the sound of gunfire coming from further down the deck in the docking bay. As he turned the corridor onto the docking bay, he was met from a hail of fire from half a dozen figures, who appeared to be standing over the bodies of his colleagues. Despite sustaining minor wounds, Ryan reacted swiftly and threw himself back into cover and proceeded to run to the crew quarters where he knew his younger sister, Kate would be.

As the growing sounds of gunfire filled the decks of the Albion, Ryan was relieved to find his sister in their, confused as to what the commotion was. With barely an explanation, Ryan attempted to hurry his sister up to the bridge deck, which happened to house 6 escape shuttles. However, before turning onto the bridge deck, the Sullivan's were met with volley of fire from a figure down the corridor, forcing them into the nearest room for cover, which happened to be the medical bay. Knowing that they only had seconds before the figure would follow them inside, Ryan forced open a nearby air duct access hatch and forced himself and Kate inside before swiftly replacing the hatch.

For the next 3 hours, the Sullivans were forced to take refuge in the ventilation ducts of the Albion as the sounds of gunfire died down, along with the screams that came with it. After navigating their way to the escape shuttle bay, Ryan and Kate quickly but quietly made a dash for the nearest shuttle.

As the shuttle detached from the Albion and dropped from orbit down towards Mars, Ryan looked up from cradling his distraught sister in his arms to the window and read the name "The Hellion" etched onto the hull of the pirate vessel.

The shuttle landed after a journey of several hours for the Sullivans to conventiently find themselves only 12 miles from Buenos Ares, Mars.

2081 - 2083 Interval
After finding themselves back on familiar ground, the Sullivans realized that as well as putting what had happened on the Albion behind them, they both still needed to make ends meet, prompting Ryan to once again search for work aboard other vessels. Having acquired years of experience and a wealth of skills during his time on the Albion, Ryan was confident he would more or less walk into a job aboard the first ship he saw. However, while many vessels were indeed interested in Ryan's skillsets, they were discouraged by the presence of the now 11-year-old Kate and ultimately rejected Ryan's applications.

After several weeks of scouring the various spaceports and shipyards around Mars for a contract, Ryan eventually managed to find a willing employer in the form of the HLV Calcutta.

HLV Calcutta
Despite being only an 8 month contract, Ryan was relieved to finally find a job that would allow his sister, Kate to travel with him. The 'Heavy Lift Vessel' Calcutta dealt exclusively in the haulage of other space-faring vessels but like any other ship, would benefit from a skilled and experienced engineer. Over the 8 month contract, the Sullivans struggled to settle in aboard the HLV Calcutta, arguably due to all-troll crew who mostly kept to themselves. Despite not exactly finding the 'home' they were looking for, both Ryan and Kate simply gritted their teeth and endured - when Ryan was not working or Kate exploring the ship, they both simply enjoyed each other's company.

Eventually, in early January 2081 Ryan and Kate said their scarce goodbyes and left the HLV Calcutta.

███ ██████
After another brief stint of looking for work, Ryan eventually managed to negotiate his way into a new position as a ███████ Engineer aboard The ███████, a ████████ contractor.

Despite the contract lasting only █ months, it would be true to say both Sullivans felt uneasy as soon as they stepped aboard ███ ██████, ;whether it be the shifty looks from the crewmembers or the sheer amount of ██████████ on board, Ryan was keen to finish his contract and leave with his pockets full of nuyen.

On board, his work was as expected - engine maintenance, minor repairs and systems upkeep, etc. Despite this, he found himself commonly using his skillsets for 'special' projects including but not limited to  ███████ research, ██████ experimentation and on the rare occasion "████████ ███████████".

Aside from his engineering duties, Ryan made sure Kate was never informed as to what her older brother was doing as he departed their quarters in the middle of the night for these 'special projects'.

After his contract of █ months had run its course, Ryan and Kate departed ███ ██████ with a lot of unanswered questions - the only solace being Ryan's wallet was significantly fuller. ​Information redacted, c. 2084 by UNKNOWN USER.

The Jikan Maru (間 丸)
After his previous assignment, Ryan was eager to find more of a stable and less dubious form of employment. This pursuit took him onto the decks of the Jikan Maru, another 'general contractor' vessel who had recently lost the Chief Engineer to a particularly nasty case of liver cirrhosis. Someone of Ryan's skillset was what Cpt. Saitou was exactly looking for and welcomed the Sullivans on board. Despite the significant language barrier between the siblings and the rest of the crew, both Ryan and Kate were immediately welcomed as one of the crew's own and greeted as if old friends. While Ryan wasn't the heaviest of drinkers, the weekly 'bar nights' and slurred Japanese drinking songs did provide enough entertainment him and Kate. As for the work itself, as another 'general contractor' vessel, the work of the Jikan Maru was as varied and diverse as the Sullivans could have hoped for. While one week the ship may be shipping a cargo of retro classic cars, the next week it may be on a contract to requisition' some 'missing' materials from UCAS. Over their 9-month stint on board, Ryan became fast friends with the only other English speaker on the engineering deck, Taka - the 40-something engineer hailing from Kyoto. When not fixing fusion engines together, the pair swapped stories and in return for teaching Taka how to play basketball, Ryan was able to pick up some handy Japanese.

While all good things have to come to an end, the siblings were disappointed to hear the that the Jikan Maru was due to cease its operations by December 2083. While the reasons were not entirely understood at the time, Ryan later learned that the tax man eventually had caught up with Cpt. Saitou and the Captain was forced to abandon his vessel's operations and auction off the Jikan Maru.

The Mayflower
Once again the Sullivans were without a home but fortunately, Ryan's search for employment was short-lived when he was approached by Cpt. Wagner of the Mayflower, a family-owned general contractor who had heard of Ryan's work during his time aboard the Jikan Maru. Impressed with his work, Cpt. Wagner offered Ryan an attractive offer and after minimal negotiations, Ryan and Kate had now found a home aboard the Mayflower.

While Ryan's contract specified he would fill the role of Chief Electrical Engineer, he found himself once again delving into his varied skillset whenever the Mayflower required extra hands, from security to demolitions. Outside of his work, Ryan enjoyed his life aboard the Mayflower - despite the workload being greater than he head previously encountered, he still found oppurtunities to socialise and make friends among his colleagues, even finding enough time for his first relationship.

While life aboard the Mayflower was perfect for the Sullivans, their stint was cut short when Cpt. Wagner informed the crew that the ship would cease operations due to personal reasons within the family - despite Kate being best friends with Rebecca Wagner, the Captain's daughter, Ryan was never informed as to what these personal reasons were.

As the Sullivans were saying their long-goodbyes, Ryan was informed by Chief Engineer Evans that an asteroid-mining firm was offering jobs to experienced engineers and was urged to pursue it. While the money was ten times what he would make elsewhere, Ryan had to decline, realizing that his younger sister, Kate, would suffer from the hectic lifestyle that this job brought. Allegedly, the last words that Ryan heard from Evans were:

"...fine Ryan, walk away and make the biggest [expletive] mistake of your life... See you around...",

as Ryan and a confused Kate disembarked the Mayflower, side by side.

Only hours later, Kate would spot a recruitment poster for U.F.E.C. Realizing the potential this had for the Sullivans, Ryan agreed to head down to the careers office and sign up the next morning.

U.F.E.C Training
Only a week after signing up to U.F.E.C, Ryan found himself on a troop transport, destined for his phase of officer training. Despite some difficulties adjusting to the military environment, Ryan proved his worth under Drill Instructor Henderson, excelling particularly in the weapons handling and physical training portions of his training. After 2 months of training, Ryan moved onto phase 2 of training and found himself headed to Fort Bragg to begin his engineer training. Considering his background in engineering and demolitions, Ryan managed to sail through the month of training in North Carolina. While he did pick up a few tricks from his instructors, Ryan was already well-versed in several disciplines of engineering and the use of explosives.

On August 1st, Ryan graduated from his U.F.E.C training at the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

During his months of basic training, Ryan made sure his sister, Kate was well-looked after and temporarily enrolled her in a local boarding school, ensuring she continued her education as well as making sure she had a place to stay.

Life aboard the UFEC Tombstone
After graduating from his training, Ryan was eager to find out where his first assignment would take himself and Kate. Due to his aptitude displayed throughout training, Ryan found out he had been fortunate enough to land himself the position of Chief Engineering Officer aboard one of the top-tier vessels of the UFEC fleet. Upon finding the UFEC Tombstone within his assigned shipyard and after some negotiation with Captain Langford surrounding the 'Kate situation', he finally stepped aboard the Tombstone on the morning of August 27th 2084.

Crozia
With the UFEC Tombstone, Ryan's first assignment brought him to the planet Crozia to assist in defusing a delicate situation brewing between the elite inhabitants of 'Hightown' and the lower-class workforce of 'Erosia'. His two-week stint on the planet brought him several new experiences, some positive, such as Ryan's first time in a nightclub, and some uncomfortable situations such as having to deal with the collateral damage of one of his improved explosives - a memory that would burden Ryan for some time after.

Despite it being his first assignment with U.F.E.C, Ryan rose to the challenges that his mission on Crozia offered and together with the other members of the Tombstone, succesfully resolved the situation on Crozia between the warring factions. His efforts did not go unnoticed and soon after, Ryan was promoted to 1st. Lieutenant.

Chicago
After the Tombstone's excursion to Las Vegas, a task force from the vessel was assigned to help assist U.F.E.C forces in containing the second outbreak of HMHVV within the city of Chicago.

It was here that Ryan was awarded his first Purple Heart due to wounds he sustained after a suicide-bomb was detonated only feet from where he stood while on an extraction operation in Chicago's St. Mercy's hospital. After significant reconstructive surgery and augmentation procedures, Ryan was discharged a week later from U.F.E.C's Chicago field hospital.

[TO BE COMPLETED]

Arrest and Imprisonment
In January 2085, after responding to a distress signal from a civilian vessel while on a routine patrol, Ryan came across his estranged father, Michael who was found to be captain of the boarded vessel. After a bitter exchange of words, Ryan took his father's life, wounding Cpl. Carter in the process. After the altercation, Ryan was sedated and transferred through U.F.E.C's military police service and held on Earth before standing trial by court-martial where it was held that Ryan was found guilty of Voluntary Manslaughter and was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in June 2085.

Personality
Despite his demanding upbringing, Ryan maintains an optimistic and friendly disposition in both his work and in his attitude to others. From having to more or less raise both himself and Kate from a young age, Ryan learned to mature from a young age and develop a hard work ethic in order to get what and where he wants in life. While being never one to shy away from work, Ryan values highly his down-time and often opts to spend his in a variety of ways from pranking his younger sister to shooting hoops on the basketball court with his colleagues.

From his time during many treacherous situations, Ryan has developed a keen sense of humour which he often uses to raise morale or diffuse conflicts. While always seeking to maintain a relaxed and upbeat temperament in life, especially around Kate, he regrets to occasionaly have to show a darker, more serious side when the situation calls for it - frequently when his workload calls for it or the rare occasion when Kate has been in danger.

Relationships
While Ryan tries to find the best in most people he has come across, experience has taught him he should often be wary when meeting new people - especially if Kate is around. As such, he often takes time to get to know those around him - a way of finding out who he can trust.

Kate Sullivan
Considering that Kate has been more or less the only constant throughout Ryan's life, he values her as his closest companion. Not only because of his position as her older brother but also due to the situations they have both found themselves in, Ryan is extremely protective of Kate and her wellbeing.

Despite there being a 10-year age gap between Ryan and Kate, the two siblings are remarkably close and share several common interests - whether it be teaming up to prank other crewmembers or their appreciation of Michael Jackson music. The closeness between both siblings can be attributed to innumerable adventures and escapades they have had over the years they have travelled together. While close, the two do have their squabbles and disagreements, often as a result of either Ryan's perceived over-protectiveness or Kate's overcuriousity. In spite of their quarrels existing, the two have remained thick as thieves over the years and look to meet their next challenge with optimism.

Unknown to Kate, Ryan harbours great feelings of guilt about not being able to offer Kate the stability he feels he owes considering their early life. While its obvious Kate enjoys her ever-changing and exciting life, Ryan has always sought a steady and stable life for his younger sister.

Despite being hesitant upon hearing the Kate bore the abilities of the Awakened, Ryan gave his consent for his sister to use her magic abilities and learn the way of the Hermetic Mage. While Ryan is, at times, uncomfortable with the power she now possesses, he realizes she now needs to ability to protect herself when he is not around.

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