---- Here On Earth ---- Asteria Nicos is from out of the country, visiting New York City from Greece as part of an exchange program. Shekos is very soft-spoken, extremely easy-going, and fairly bright but a bit... Confused about local customs. She's from a rural area. Please be kind. She is studying engineering and takingAster just left the military and opted to study advanced engineering, and take the opportunity to review New York architecture. Don't be alarmed if she stares at all of the buildings. ---- Beyond Our Skies ---- Asteria is the daughter of Adelphi Nickos, a Void Engineer scientist, and a petri dish. Dr. Nickos was stationed on the Void Engineer's pride and joy, Copernicus Research Center, located owithin a Dyson sphere encompassing a distant star for most of her career. While there, she decided she wanted to have a child and, being a bio technician, decided to make this endeavor part of her test for the new spaceborne human genus Homo Asteris. Where better to raise them than the post-scarcity society of the Technocratic Union's Copernicus Station? As it turned out, somewhere with children. Aster came out of a creche with basic education downproblem-solving built into her genes. She'd been genetically engineered as an embryo and spent her early childhood under hypnotic suggestion for earlya swift education. She came out strong, capable, attentive, and loyal to the Union. With few other children about Aster was the product of her environment. She learned to socialize the way the scientists and the marines did, in a manner that was more about work and cooperation than actually building a social life. Before long, Aster went into the advanced school programs for members of the Union, and ultimately entered the Border Corps Division of the prestigious Halley Academy as one of the youngest officer candidates ever. Graduating with honors, 1st Lieutenant Nickos was eager to be deployed... Until she discovered what battle on the front lines against Nephandic forces truly entailed. Eventually, Aster was stuck on a planetoid with no atmosphere, oxygen running low on her Alanson Hardsuit, just a thin plate of transparent carbon crystal between her eyes and the void, hunting the children of Cthulhu. Or possibly Nyarlathotep. Either way, Field Ops definitely take a toll on the psyche. After her second tour, Captain Nickos was sent to New York City for some "special" R&R and a chance to see a specialist about her nightmares. It was supposed to be two weeks planetside. Then everything in New York went to shit.