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Quentin is a rather inhospitable planet near Terra in Davion space. It is noteworthy in that it possesses an operating Battlemech factory. Being within the 30 light-year jump limit of planets in both Kurita and Liao space, the world has been the target of unending raids and invasion attempts. Much of the land has been laid waste by the carnage of frequent Battlemech combat, except for the lands around the factory itself. Such a prize of lost Star League technology is exempted from even the most desperate attacks by the agreement of all.
Melissa Blake was born on Quentin on September 10, 3007. It was a time when the century-old Third Succession War was drawing to a close, its participants all but exhausted. Her father was Doctor Jamison Blake, an established physician. A little-believed family tradition holds that he is descended from the Blessed Jerome Blake, founder of the quasi-religious Comstar organization. Missy's mother was Gloria Bender, a mechwarrior commanding a mercenary Battlemech unit. Missy was the youngest of five children, and the only one to survive a particularly savage Kuritan attack on Quentin in 3011. Two of her siblings died piloting mechs, two from the shelling of the family home. Their unit and home devastated, the family gathered what resources remained to them and joined Haldane's Harriers, another mercenary company in the Quentin garrison at the time. The Harriers had been founded some years before by verterans of a Davion Crucis Lancer regiment.
Over the years, Missy grew up in awe of the swaggering, self-assured mechwarriors, and especially of her mother. To be a mechwarrior herself, to carry on the family tradition and honor, these things became her life. After the loss of her mother and the last of the family mechs, she became even more determined, and entered the Harriers' apprentice program.
After the Tragedy on Kalidasa, Mechwarrior Apprentices Melissa Blake and Daniel Duggan were promoted to active pilots and took part in the Proserpina raid in late 3025. Piloting the medium-sized Griffin Tailbiter as a member of Captain Haldane's Command Lance, Missy was credited with two heavy mech kills. In the year since Proserpina, she has been reassigned to Lieutenant Taylor-Wu's lance, and has been utterly bored with garrison duty on Somerset. She wants some action. She'll soon get her wish.
Missy considers Haldane's Harriers to be her home. She can imagine no other. She grew up in the unit with her three cousins and with the other children of the unit's mechwarriors and techs.
Doctor Blake, who became the Harriers' Quartermaster and Chief Medical Officer, was always a bit cold toward Missy's plans as he had already lost his wife and four of his children to Battlemechs. Yet if that is the path Missy prefers, then he will support her. In fact, he will push her relentlessly.
Missy looks much younger than her nearly nineteen years. She has short straight brown hair, brown eyes, and a "cute" face (she hates that word), but is rather short and without much of a figure.
Still a bit immature, Missy is impulsive and emotional, and tends to make quick judgements that are unburdened by fact. Indeed, she is quite adept at viewing people and situations in whatever manner is most convenient for her.
Missy has a great need for acceptance and approval, despite the fact that she is rather reclusive and pushes people away. She is unlikely to complain about a disagreeable situation, preferring to sit and stew about it. She is very careful to follow orders to the letter, never doing the slightest thing that could be seen as going against them. She is intensely loyal to her fellow Harriers and especially to Major Alister Haldane. She believes that everything good is in the Harriers, and everything in the Harriers is good.
Except maybe some of these new Legion of Vega rejects....
Oh yes, she is also quite, quite mad.Missy doesn't like strange techs working on her mech.