Threnody (Engineered to Serve)
Threnody is a special operative with the Astrean Defence Force, specializing in combat tactics and personal combat. She and her partner Zenith handle search, extraction, and rescue missions - finding and rescuing Astreans who have found themselves in trouble outside of Astrea.
Threnody's public cover identity is as Captain of the Astrean civilian heavy mineral freighter Starlit Hypatia.
Appearance
Threnody maintains the "ideal" Astrean body shape: tall and strong, with full womanly curves, and intense but very feminine features. Her one concession to her duties is that hidden underneath the soft female curves is a layer of steely, powerful muscles.
Her most noticeable feature is her glowing red pupils.
Personality
Biography
Skills and abilities
Relationships
Zenith
.jpg)
Astrean off-colony military operations always involve two-woman teams. Zenith is Threnody's junior mission partner.
Zenith was assigned to Threnody as her first junior partner, and Threnody was warned that it would be her task to make a soldier out of the lazy, unrefined young troublemaker. It didn't go well. Zenith was not a great student, and Threnody was not really all that great a teacher. The first months of their partnership was a rough time, particularly for Threnody, who felt frustrated and betrayed at having her otherwise perfect military career stymied by this young upstart. She openly despised Zenith, and made no secret of her desire to get her either reassigned, or booted out of the ADF altogether.
Nevertheless, she did not fail to notice that while Zenith had no respect for Astrean military tradition - or Astrea in general - when it came time to save their sisters in need, Zenith was perhaps even more devoted and intense even than Threnody herself was. After one particular mission where Zenith appeared ready to sacrifice herself for a fellow Astrean - covering for a mistake Threnody herself had made - Threnody changed her opinion of Zenith entirely. Zenith was still an infuriating and troublesome bitch. But now she was Threnody's infuriating and troublesome bitch.
The relationship between the pair of opposites grew quickly after this. Both developed a deep respect for the other, and learned to tolerate the other's quirks. Zenith learned to be more respectful of Threnody's need for good, upstanding Astrean behaviour, while Threnody learned to be more lenient regarding Zenith's antics - or at least when to turn a blind eye and pretend she didn't know about them.
Eventually they became inseparably close friends - close as family. Their opposite personalities became complementary, and they were able to accomplish much more, must better, as a team than either could alone. They even found physical comfort in each other's arms on long, lonely space trips.
Threnody is not a fool, however. She knows full well that Zenith remains a troublemaker. She keeps a wary eye on her antics - especially with regards to her gene-sister, Gossamer, for whom Zenith has been both a good, and a corrupting, influence - and is always ready to step in and put a stop to them if they go too far.
Gossamer
Gossamer is Threnody's younger gene-sister. They are fairly close, as gene-sisters go. Threnody sees herself as a mentor, guiding her younger gene-sister to become a fine, upstanding example of Astrean womanhood. Gossamer, for her part, appreciates having someone who cares for her and guides her well, and is deeply touched by the fact that this tough, strong, powerful woman who is otherwise very walled off emotionally has so much affection for her.
Their relationship goes just about as it would between a similar pair of unmodified human sisters. Threnody can get a little bossy and controlling, while Gossamer sometimes rebels just for the sake of pissing Threnody off. And there are plenty of bitter and nasty fights, where they say horrible things to each other.
Their relationship might be much worse, or even non-existent, if it weren't for Zenith. Zenith often acts as mediator between the two, ready and willing both to tell Gossamer to stop being a naïve idiot, and to tell Threnody to stop being a controlling idiot, and to have both listen.
Thanks to Zenith's influence and advice, Threnody has learned to grit her teeth and accept some of Gossamer's decisions that she doesn't like. She was not pleased when Gossamer wanted to become a spacer, but she accepted that it was understandable given that both of her two strongest influences were (albeit, in their case, only as a cover). She was also not pleased when Gossamer wanted to visit an outside vacation world. But Zenith convinced her to bite her tongue on that, too.
