Kara Virtanen

Background
Kara is an Ottomar citizen from Halor, along the Ress border. Her parents were killed in the 3rd Ress War and she encountered Ress soldiers as a child.

After the war Kara was raised by foster parents on a farm in Laz, She took up photography and joined the militia at the earliest cadet enrollment age. As of the militia deployment, she is trained as a military driver and as an assault trooper with a submachine gun.

Session 1: The Train Station
Kara dove to the ground when it looked like there would be a deadly crossfire in Charington Station centered on the Templar. A retcon (Mar 24) established that she took pictures of the Templar's ritual, though those were confiscated (by Ottomar military intelligence?).

Session 3 - Sawmill Assault
Along with Jane Wayneright, opened the bridge for travel by killing unsuspecting Ress infantry.

Once the overall assault commenced, ran in to the lumber warehouse and killed a Ress soldier on the first floor. Captured two of three active Ress soldiers on the third floor. A retcon established that she took a photo of the captured soldiers once they were bound.

Kara has gotten better at Intimidate! (+4 ranks)

Session 4: Tales of a Hero
The whole of Charington Company, Kara included, hit their stride during the remainder of the Battle of Bormane. After suggesting the unsuccessful attempt to cross the river Mina to the north of town, she was in the lead vehicle as the jeep column made its way south toward the bridges, and the first in contact with the yellow-armband militia, one of whom wounded her.

Along with Jayne Wayneright and Mac Rover, she was grazed by grenade shrapnel while attacking a disabled Ress munitions truck. Seconds later, she killed everyone in that truck who hadn't been previously killed by sniper fire.

She and Mages were first through the door of the western machine gun nest, though both their weapons jammed on the first floor. After clearing the jams they fought their way through the second floor and forced the surrender of the machine gun team on the third floor, though Mages had to kill the team commander and Kara had to kill a prisoner who changed his mind after sniper fire continued coming through the windows despite their surrender.

After Judd managed to destroy the temple window with only a few armor-piercing rockets, she bravely/foolishly took a look inside the temple and nearly had her head blown off by a machine gun. Combining a basic knowledge of machine gun kill zones (in front of the machine guns) with a dislike of being killed, she then suggested that the temple be burned down using some of the company's diesel fuel. It was.

When vehicles fled the scene of that massacre, Kara impulsively stole a jeep to pursue, along with Judd, Jethro, Sid, and Jack. Mages and Jane followed them in another jeep. When the Ress jeep tried to cross the bridge that the munitions truck had been left on, Judd destroyed the truck to block the way, and the Ottomar jeeps blocked the way back off the bridge. Thus started a bloody engagement between a handful of Ottomar militia and a lightning-producing Templar leading his personal guard. Faced with heavily-armored badasses, Kara demanded Jack call in mortars on their position, and tended to Jane, who had been badly wounded. With their two jeep-mounted machine guns, repeated anti-tank rocket fire, a couple of machine guns, and well-directed mortar support, the militia wiped out the Kleitosians to a man, while suffering only moderate casualties of their own.

Kara has gotten even better at Intimidate (+4 ranks) and the feat Move by Action!

Session 5: Murderjeeps
Kara was on the northern road and shot up the third jeep in the column before Salazhar aerosolized it. She did not participate in epicly chasing down the two stray deeps from the southern column.

She stuck with Ellie and the group while they blew the footbridge, halting the Ress advance to the west, and was with them when they were driven away from the bridge at the fork by the Zeppelin.

That night, along with Sid and Nathan Salazhar, she went into Fuckville in search of civilians and saw the Zeppelin get destroyed. After getting pissed off at Salazhar and almost killing him, she suggested the group go fuck up the coming Ress rescue operation. After the group had done so and returned to HQ, she returned to Fuckville alone to investigate the source of some helpful sniper fire.

Session 6
Kara and the assaults were in a precarious position during the Ress armored offensive--she suggested that the incendiary bombs be made so that non-RPGs could tank hunt. Third Squad helped Ellie avoid getting killed to a limited extent, and then (accompanied by Salazhar) went off tank hunting and got fucked up, losing Sgt Yevin Trost in the process. Kara took rounds through her armor but was not badly hurt, only stunned in the ensuing jeep crash.

After the battle, Mages was promoted to fill Trost's slot, and Kara filled his.

Kara has become a Corporal! Now she can be directly responsible for the deaths of a whole fireteam.

Kara has learned that machine guns aren't so bad, gaining +1 CON and +1 to reflex saves!

After hours of playing with grenades, Kara has learned Dynamic Entry!

Session 3 - Sawmill Assault
[written shortly after the sawmill attack]

Today I killed two people. It was easier than I thought it'd be.

We had to cross this bridge to get to the warehouse we were attacking. Sarge, Wayneright, and I sneak up to it in a ditch and there's these two guys arguing over some shit. Wayneright said beer and sandwiches. They don't even know we're there til I'm hitting one guy in the neck with a shovel. If he screams we're fucked so I put a knife into his throat. I took a second to see what he had and got a sandwich for my trouble. Genuine Ress.

The second guy I ran by in the warehouse. He was in front of me as I came into the first floor so I pulled the trigger and ran for the stairs. He fell down. I didn't find out he died until later.

Upstairs things got weird. Doc had spotted the machine gun up there and that's where it made sense for it to be. The third level took rifle fire and multiple grenades. As we entered the warehouse, that's one of the places they fired from. Some of those guys shot Sarge, actually. I wanted to kill them. But when I get there, they're just setting up this gun...moving stuff. Something changed. I just aimed and screamed at them to put all that shit down. One drew on me but the Corporal got him. We tied them up with their belts.

It doesn't bother me that I killed those men. But I'm still not sure why I took those prisoners.

Session 5: Murderjeeps
[written first night of the Ress counterattack]

Dear Sis,

I feel like I have family here. They'll protect me.

Love,

Kara

Session 5b: What the fuck just happened?
[written in the pre-dawn of the second day of the Ress counterattack]

Dear Sis,

[the pen strokes off to the side underneath, aa if the author has fallen asleep]

Photographs
Kara carries a camera as often as she can manage. Some of the subjects she's taken photos of include:
 * The Templar's Ritual at Charington Station
 * Several scenes of the Battle of Bormane:
 * Ress prisoners taken in the lumber warehouse in the northeast
 * Rocket-charred remains of OPFOR militia (yellow) on a road
 * Badly-shot-up corpses in the badly-shot-up cab of a badly-shot-up munitions truck, before a bridge view of the river Mina
 * Ress prisoners posed around their machine gun nest in the grocery store/professional building(?) near the town center
 * The temple in northwestern Bormane, burning