Darren Leverton is a player character played by Firebrand.

Darren Leverton
Species:	Minkan
Gender:	Male
Age:	23, born YE 18
Height:	5'11 or 180 cm
Weight:	260 lbs or 118 kg
Organization:	Star Army of Yamatai
Occupation:	Star Army Infantry
Rank:	Ittô Hei
Current Placement:

• Height: 5'11 or 180 cm
• Mass: 260 lbs or 118 kg

Build and Skin Color: Tall for a Minkan, Darren is notably built with a solid, tank-like form. Words that describe him include “Barrel-Chested” and “Stout”, but also include phrases like “Huggable” and “Teddy-Bear”. He's nowhere near out of shape or anything, and no-one would mistake the big man for 'fat' unless he was wearing lots of clothing. Certainly he has fat on him, but it's less of an unhealthy sign of excess and more of a healthy, cushioning layer. The best way to describe him would be to say that he's an Olympic Power-lifter, not a bodybuilder. As if to compliment his form Darren has a dark brown skin color with lighter skin on his palms, and the soles of his feet.

Eyes and Facial Features: Darren has a rough, dark face unnoticeable cheekbones. His chin is large and fairly wide, though it doesn't jut out forward much if at all. His nose is average sized and neither too wide nor too thin, and seems to be just a bit rounded at the tip. He has a average shaped forehead with well managed eyebrows. His eyes are a brown cololor that turn hazel in the light, and tend towards being small or narrowed. Much of the time, Darren's default expression and the shape of his eyes gives others the impression that he's angry about something.

Ears: Darren has the standard Minkan human ears, nothing out of the ordinary. His earlobes are free.

Hair Color and Style: Leverton has dark, wiry hair that naturally forms tight curls due to the ovoid shape of the individual strands of hair. Fast growing and hard to work with, Darren has chosen to braid his hair into simple cornrows in lieu of an afro or having his hair conked.

Distinguishing Features: Darren has no obvious distinguishing physical features aside from his frame and dark skin.

Personality: On the surface Darren appears to be an upbeat, friendly fellow who lives in the moment and enjoys all the things that a country boy turned infantrymen should: Good food, Good drink, spending quality time with cute women and Nekos, the occasional scrap up in a bar, all of those good things. He's more than capable of being a good, dutiful soldier when on duty or when it's important to seem like all soldiers are emotionless robots, and has a surprising talent for judging people and making friends.

Underneath the surface Darren is much the same, Albeit far smarter than he lets on; His thick country accent and inability to pronounce some Yamatai-Go words are mostly acts put on to avoid making people think the big guy also has brains. Intuitive and cunning, he is extremely professional when needs be. The truth is that Darren likes being underestimated by people: it helps to stop people from picking fights, and allows him to avoid being put on the spot so often. When you want a job done, ask Darren and it will get done.

• Likes: Hunting, Fishing, Guns, Tinkering, Math, Good food(“I tell ya what, ya jus can't find no good steak on ol' Yamatai”), Good Drink (“Aint no gud likker either. Dat Say-kay's alrigh' but aint as gud as whiskey”), Attractive Women, A good fight
• Dislikes: Bad people, Arrogant people, People who can't turn off, A bad fight, Brussel Sprouts, Natto.
• Goals: Darren wants to see more of the galaxy at large.

Silva Leverton, Mother, Farmer; Edward Leverton, Father, Farmer; four siblings, various.

Darren Leverton was born on Tatiana in YE 18 to a pair of Nepleslian Immigrants who wanted a better life, living out in the country and taking on the role of yeoman farmers. Darren is the oldest child and grew up there with a happy childhood. Sure he would get in trouble sometimes for various antics, but he was always reliable and helped when needed. His hobby of going into the woods and hunting helped with food often, and the various jobs he picked up were enough to support the family when times got tough.

Things got boring though and eventually all boys become men. So when he turned 17, Darren became a man and left home. Picking his way through the backroads and countryside of Tatiana, he drifted from town to town on his way to the capital city, sometimes staying in one place for a few weeks before moving on. In one town he became what was essentially a bouncer before he moved on. In another he helped a gunsmith with his trade; he stayed in that town for four months. He even had his first encounter with races like Nekovalkyrja and Elysians: The farm he had grown up on had never been visited by a Neko or an Elysian, so seeing one of those for the first time was quite the shock. He got used to it though, being fairly open minded about the whole “A cute girl is a cute girl, even if she has wings or cat ears” thing. As he turned 18, he ended up joining the Star Army: mostly to find some form of steady employment, and mostly because he wanted to see new things and get some excitement in his life.

Now, for a big guy like Darren, the training was both easy and hard. Easy because he was in excellent shape and already skilled at things like Shooting, Fighting, and Land Navigation. Hard because high technology and Darren didn't mix, or because the training Mindy was too small for him. He adapted, though, and managed to make it out of boot camp with a huge grin on his face. Then there was the choice of occupation.

Anything non-combat was definitely out, and many other jobs that required advanced technical know-how were also out of the question. That left Infantry, Military Police, and Intelligence Operative. Darren was far too willing to bend the rules to get things done to be an MP, and far too moral and straightforward to be a spook: the choice was easy then.

Darren Leverton striked for Infantry, and got it.

Darren was pretty well liked on his short stint on the Heartbreaker. He got along with his fellow infantry, annoyed the Captain with his chew habit (It ain't smoking!), but served with distinction for his short time there. during his single away mission, without any sort of Power Armor, the away team was ambushed by a Crab type Mishu. Unsurprisingly, Darren sprung into action, engaging the Crab with all firepower available to him to ensure that his team survived. Despite being grievously injured enough that he had to be shipped back to a starbase to recover, no members of the away team were killed, with Darren having personally made sure of that.

Darren was transferred out of the Heartbreaker after recovering from his injuries, and has since bounced around the SAoY- performing to the best of his abilities, but kept from further promotion by a combination of peacetime and his unique approach to solving problems.

Somehow, someway, Darren managed to talk one commander into letting him attend the Star Army School of Advanced Infantry Combat. Even more surprising than managing to get in is the fact that Darren fully applied himself while there and was a model of professionalism and efficiency… and graduated. Now a fully fledged Giretsu, Darren was promoted to Itto Hei and found himself with a choice in assignments.

Darren is familiar with basic radio operation and procedures and can make transmissions to and receive transmissions from other characters through headsets, starships, power armor, and shuttles in both combat and non-combat conditions. He is fluent in Trade (language) and Yamataigo (邪馬台語), though his Yamatai-Go sometimes gets slurred by his accent; If he concentrates hard he's able to speak perfect Yamatai-Go. He can speak and write both correctly and efficiently and can write reports, fill forms, issue orders under fire, etc.

Darren received hand-to-hand combat training, followed up with a rigorous training program. He is skilled and experienced in combat both in Yamatai-like conditions and in zero-gravity, with and without weapons. Weapons He is trained in include energy pistols, knives, and power armor.

Outside of his military training, Darren has two notable focuses when it comes to fighting: Firearms of all manner, though not sniping; and fighting up close and personal. He's particularly good with using firearms to directly engage the enemy, with an intrinsic ability to nail shots with all manner of long arms. He is also fond of getting up close, where his love of dirty fighting can come into play. Darren is an especially dirty fighter who hates even the prospect of fighting fair. Whenever possible he'll attempt to fight as dirty as possible and has no qualms against eye-gouging or throat punching.

As a graduate of the School of Advanced Infantry Combat, Darren is further trained in a variety of combat methods above and beyond the standard SAoY Basic training, including: hand to hand fighting inspired by Martial Arts of Yamatai; the ability to consistently and accurately place shots using all of a Power Armor's weapons; proper swordsmanship and knife fighting; and the proper use of a shield. He is also trained in the usage of a bayonet, and in long range shooting. Darren's long range shooting training extended to learning the ability to rapidly account for factors such as magnetic fields, planetary curvature, and wind speed.

Darren is capable of operating any computer system that uses the Kessaku OS, found on all Star Army starships. He is proficient in entering and/or searching for information. Darren isn't the best with computers, but he's passable enough with their operation to get by.

Darren received basic mathematics training, to including up to algebra and trigonometry. He's also actually good at math, and enjoys doing it in his spare time. Of course the form he does it in tends to be ballistic calculations. Hell, if he hadn't joined up with the Star Army he could've gone to some fancy university to study physics or something.

Darren Leverton has always been a big guy throughout most of his life, and the combination of an enjoyment of physical fitness and the military upgrades to his Minkan body have taken that to almost ludicrous levels. He's strong and heavy, and not just in that “huge slow guy bodybuilder” look. He's fast too thanks to powerful leg muscles and his Minkan respiratory system. Not to mention that all that cushioning fat gives him a good reserve of energy and stamina. The best way to describe Darren's physical prowess is that he's a main battle tank: He moves fast, he hits hard, and he can take some punishment.

With his Giretsu training, Darren is much, much more knowledable about the functions of his Minkan body and just what it can do.

Often hunting in his spare time as a youth, Darren is capable of living off the land on most Yamatai-like worlds when given the right equipment and tools. He's also received the standard infantry survival training of most Infantrymen, though to a lesser extent than the gropos.

As a graduate of Giretsu school, he has received extensive training in wilderness survival and stealth, escape and evasion of a superior enemy force during combat operations, and proper commando and stay-behind operations.

If Darren has any real major hobby, it'd be gunsmithing. He picked it up as a teenager, learning how to hand load, machine, and repair firearms from a gunsmith. While not really yet capable of designing his own weapons, he's more than capable of customizing and tinkering already existing ones.

Darren received the basic training in operating the military vehicles that all Star Army Infantry are expected to be able to use, but he's still a bit inexperienced in the practicalities of using them in the field. He's a decent enough driver, and had some experience driving farm equipment back home.

Darren Leverton has the following items:

• Star Army Butt Pack, Type 29 containing:
  • Type 31A Survival Kit
• Star Army Duffel Bag, containing:
• Toiletry Kit
• Environmental Suit
• 2 Duty Uniforms
  • 1 Star Army Cap, Type 32
  • 1 Star Army Coat, Type 32
• 2 Working Uniforms. Includes boots and gloves.
• 2 Exercise Uniform (can also used as sleepwear)
• Undergarments
• Star Army Utility Belt, Type 32, light-blue gray
• Communicator, Type 36
• Pistol, Nekovalkyrja, Type 33 with 2 BR-28E Battery Magazines (1 in the pistol and 1 extra)
• Scanner, Science, Type 31
• EM-J5-1 Flying Assistant Robot Series (SAOY)

Ke-M2-4 Series "Mindy" Armor

Darren also has a small collection of “Personal” items he keeps with him.

• Zen Armaments .45 Caliber Pistol A .45 cal handgun based off of an ancient design. Sometimes carried on missions because “That type 33 is alrigh, but I prefer me a pistol that shoots big whompin bullets.” Has a box of 100 rounds.
• Sandra A 12 gauge shotgun, affectionately refered to as “Sandra” by Darren. Yes, it is his first gun he ever bought himself. Yes, if possible he'll try to use it to go hunting on an alien world if possible. Has a box of 45 rounds.
• Rebecca A heavy hunting rifle. Possibly purchased by Darren for the whole “In case of heavily armored alien beasties” problem. Or for the occasional Crab Mishhu back home. Has 45 Standard Rounds and 18 HE rounds.
• Sunflower Seeds - In attempting to break his chew habit but still suffering from an oral fixation, Darren has taken to sunflower seeds like a fish to water. Commanding Officers are not sure that this is better.

Darren Leverton is currently a Itto Hei in the Star Army of Yamatai, who has been in the SAoY for more than 3 years. Thus his monthly pay is 2575 KS.

Concept: Country farm boy from Tatiana with some surprising skills underneath a boisterous and friend exterior. Somewhat based on Dennis Silva of the Destroyermen Novels.