Burke Vestille



Burke Vestille is a Terran captain within the UFCL Peacekeeper Corps, a specialized task force within the UFCL Space Marine Corps sent in to cull uprisings and coups. He has a preference for using rapid-fire laserarms, usually types considered unconventional amongst UFCL military operations.

His squadron, due to the requirements of needing to be immediately deployable for insertion runs, is small and only consists of four other members under his command: Coates Lotalah, his second-in-command and utilizer of semi-automatic metal slug firearms; Goroku Himei, resident gunner who utilizes a heavy, transforming weapon that can switch from a close-range broadsword to a devastating long range energy cannon on the fly; Raye Dessko, trained in the ways of the Tunip Staff, a weapon that is half-"magic" staff, half-bazooka, and all explosive hardlight ordinance; and Yukyo Seigonus, trained in ranger and scout tactics and the use of a laserbow. He often allies with others on the worlds he visits, though these always vary depending upon the mission.

Appearance
Burke is of average height for a Terran male. Terrans, a species evolved from and outright replacing Modern Humans, have continued the trend of their ancestors when it comes to gradually getting taller, and as such Terrans are often between the heights of 6'10" and 7'11"—Burke himself stands at a cool 7'2".

Normally donning his standard-issue UFCL Peacekeeper Corps captain's uniform when on duty, he surprises everyone with just how disheveled he reveals himself to be when he is finally given a day off. Orange-blond hair that would normally be accepted as "bed-head" is in fact his natural hairstyle; however, as he will generally get black-out drunk when free to do so, combined with his preference for wearing his shirts undone and exposing his hairless chest, most individuals would never question that his hair-do was simply due to drunken shenanigans the night before.

Outside of his suit he is always seen wearing shades and has a c(yber)-garette pressed between his lips, an evolution of the cigarette and electronic cigarette that is no longer unhealthy (though it is not by that standard healthy, either) and never needs refilling.

Personality
While he often appears as professional and selflessly heroic upon first glance, those who get to spend some actual portion of time begin to notice his various quirks and immaturities. His life is governed by two things: being the hero and being a party animal. While "shore leave" for him does not occur particularly often, when it does occur he outdoes himself with alcohol consumption and cheap, alien floozies.

His entire childhood he spent daydreaming about being the hero. This however has led to him feeling entitled to being the one in the limelight, and when some other individual steals his thunder, so to speak, he rarely is able to put aside his jealousy to continue to like them as a person. This has caused him to "have the displeasure" of teaming up with other spacefaring greats, such as Adus Lesk and Syler Korsse.

When he doesn't get his way he hides his frustrations behind a thin veil of sarcasm, never more obvious than when his vacation plans fell through on Xrosroads.

However, he is always "professional enough" and will always be able to focus on getting the mission at hand finished, whether he is throwing sarcastic remarks around the whole time or not.

Abilities
Burke is a typical Terran male, though he is well trained in the use of laserarms (guns which fire lasers instead of lead bullets). He is so well-trained in laserarm usage in fact that being extremely hungover barely affects his accuracy. Unlike some Human descendant races such as Diakatanian Humans, Burke is unable to naturally tap into the quantum fields to utilize what many refer to as magic. Instead, he has been known to install manadrives into his UFCL Peacekeeper Corps uniform in order to keep up with planetary inhabitants who are capable of utilizing magic; this however is technologically driven instead of being an actual ability of his.

Burke is capable of both drinking in incredible excess and keep himself from dying of alcohol poisoning, and is notorious amongst his own crew for always being caught in bed with some extraterrestrial floozy after a night out.

His natural height means he can see further than many other individuals of smaller height, though it also means he is an easier target on these worlds, such as what occurred on the planet Warudo. He is also an excellent captain when on missions so long as he hasn't just had a vacation interrupted.

Relationships
The way Burke Vestille considers his relationships is a complex one.

He was close to his family until they were all killed in the catastrophe that befell his homeworld, Warudo—the Za Invasion. It was where met the individuals whose survivors would later become his squadron, sans Cidolfas Tesla, who elected to stay behind the help Warudo's recovery, nor Confun, Skritch or Pollen who could not leave the planet for various reasons (Confun was not sapient, Pollen's lifeforce was tied into the planet itself and Skritch simply disappeared mysteriously). Due to what he and the others had been through—Coates, Goroku Himei, Raye and Yukyo—he considers them as his extended family. This may explain why he has never attempted to get Raye or Yukyo into bed, despite his obvious focus on doing so with other females when inebriated.

After the successful war in Warudo's favor, members of the UFCL arrived on-world and offered Burke and his team recruitment into the Peacekeeper Corps, which Burke readily accepted now that he had nobody on Warudo to keep him tied there. The others followed suit for their own reasons. He considers his superiors in the Peacekeeper Corps and by extension the UFCL with respect... with the exception of other heroes. These heroes he has a significant disdain for so long as they are the ones in the limelight instead of him, which is usually the case. Although he tries to act mature about it, he has trouble restraining himself from being sarcastic around them and hesitant in situations that would only help these heroes and nobody else. He is known to have a distaste for both Syler Korsse and Adus Lesk, two Terran heroes that he has had the "displeasure" of serving with.

He has a surprising success rate at wooing alien females, and he has never failed at getting at least one of them into bed with him during the few shore leaves he has had. He does not appear to hold the relationships beyond the one night stands, however, and he has therefore not been known to keep in contact with any of these floozies.

Due to mission parameters, he has found himself at odds with numerous opponents over his years of service. These include but are not necessarily limited to:
 * Xander (FFX)
 * Crux Space Pirates (C:S II)
 * Space Pirates (MTII)
 * Unspecified (Imperilon)
 * Cult of Bone (Xrosroads)
 * Unspecified (MS)
 * Unspecified (DW)
 * Unspecified (AO)

The Za Invasion
By the time Burke was 20, he had become enrolled into the Blot Academy of Technology & Sciences. However, while talented and promising, he quickly fell into alcoholism and his grades plummeted drastically. The collegiate dean eventually pulled him into his office and threatened to call his parents if he didn't shape up. Angered and worried, he wished for something - anything - to prevent his parents from learning that he had been squandering their money. Little did he know, just such an event was about to come to pass.

That very afternoon, his city would become one of the first cities to be attacked during what would become known as the Za Invasion. During the ensuing hours, most citizens of Blot were slain, including both of Burke's parents. Somehow however, he managed to survive and discovered the fate of his family. Shocked, enraged and seriously distraught by his sudden loss, he attempted to get out of the city limits while fighting the Za forces. Although his somewhat blind rage would eventually get him cornered with the Za ready to execute him, he found himself saved at the last second by a small group of survivors - headed by his old dean. The dean informed him that he had started a small but determined coalition of Freedom Fighters who had survived through guerrilla warfare. The dean brought the injured Burke back to their current headquarters, a tavern in a decimated building, hidden under ample rubble from the prying eyes of the Za and their minions.

While the Dean reprimanded Burke for his brash behavior but admitting how impressed he was that the former student had survived as well as he had, he offered Burke a chance at operating as a soldier for the Blot Liberation Front. Burke accepted. The team consisted of only fifteen members, including Biggs, Wedge, Vicks, Jessie, Gibbs, Deweg, Coates, Goroku, Raye, and Yukyo.

Despite their best efforts, the freedom fighters were eventually ran out of town after they risked contacting a rival nation's capital city in hopes of a temporary alliance, only to have their position betrayed by these same individuals receiving the information, having sought their own safety from the Za's wrath by giving out the positions of others. A number of members were killed in the raid, and those who survived became separated from one another for some time, becoming known as Team A, B, and C, respectively. While Team C (Deweg, Gibbs, Goroku and Yukyo) was separated from the others by a significant margin, Teams A (the Dean, Burke, Coates and Raye) and B (Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Vicks) would soon meet back up, only to be pushed back into a labyrinthine cavern system in the mountains surrounding Blot. Even here they were not safe however, and Za carpet bombing runs weakened the structures of the caverns, leading to a collapse. In the process, Teams A & B were once again separated from each other, and the Dean was mortally wounded. Before dying, he passed his command on to Burke, having seen great potential in him that he hoped he could fulfill.

Although they had lost their commander, they soon ran across a Cave Moogle named Meggle Vot who lived with her family in the cave systems. Having realized that the cave-ins had trapped her family as well and that they would eventually starve to death because of this, she formed an alliance with Team A, joining their party to help dig both them and herself out. While they successfully accomplished this task, her family insisted that she join with them permanently in order to strengthen the forces fighting against the would-be oppressors of the entire planet.

Eventually the Za realized Burke's incredible potential and that he wielded it against their forces admirably. Sinister beasts not to be deterred from their insidious goals, they returned to Blot and located the bodies of his now-deceased parents. Through the use of their horrific technologies, they merged his parent's bodies into a monster in the hopes that he would not be able to bring himself to fight against the creature. They were right. Upon seeing the creature he had a breakdown and was unable to fight, leaving the team a man short while they begged him to react. His shock had temporarily rendered him into a catatonic state however, and he did not respond. Although the team seemed to get the better of this monster, a few desperate blows brought the team to their knees. Before the creature could deal the final blows though, Burke came to his senses and finished the creature. Afterwards he needed some time to clear his head, which the team gave him.

Xrosroads
Although he takes his job seriously, the stresses of his missions have left him seeking a much-needed vacation for 75 years—however, as his underlings are quick to point out, most of that time was spent in stasis. He finally does get the time off for his vacation, and immediately heads to the planet Xrosroads. Unfortunately for him, an uprising on-world soon occurs and, partially due to his already being there, his squadron is picked for insertion. This leaves him frustrated and still wearing his vacation clothes during the mission, while all the while battling a fierce hangover. During this time he eventually meets with members of a rebellion known as the Bonebreakers—Curlinar, Kara, Lin-Wan Otobi, Lan-Lan Xiaoshuai and Jen-Ren—and ultimately joins forces with them in an attempt to stop the Cult of Bone from claiming Vuul's Sternum.