Character Profile - Red Vorten

Red Vorten - Character Profile

Overview

Species: Transhuman (Humanoid Spotted Hyena)

Gender: Female

Sex Assigned at Birth: Male (forcibly assigned)

Age: 28 (biological, 2035)

Legal Name: Red Vorten

Project Name: Red-14

Birth Name: Nikolai Sergeivich

Pronouns: She / Her

Status: Civilian (classified former asset)

Affiliation: None (formerly black-site classified asset)

Character Description

Red Vorten is a 5’10”, 190 lb transhuman hybrid of human and spotted hyena origin, engineered for survivability rather than aesthetic. Her digitigrade frame is all muscle, scars, and engineered defiance. She has mottled cream and brown fur, blood-red accents down her nape, and cold, blue eyes. Blue is her natural color, that shift with her mood: brown when sad, amber when angry, green when guilty, hazel when steeped in self-hate, and dull grey when intoxicated. Her voice is quiet, her movements deliberate. Her face rarely emotes.

Red was forged through trauma, physically and neurologically erased and overwritten. The woman that remains is not who she was, but what she survived becoming. She retains elements of Nikolai’s personality, but Nikolai was transgender without knowing it. Now in a female body, Red enjoys that aspect of her existence. Current traits resemble her origin self, but she is not the same person, continuous erosion of self has left her wholly different.

Species Origin

Red is the result of Project Zvezda-14, a covert transhuman weaponization experiment run by the Russian Federation’s Federal Directorate for Human Adaptation (FDHA). She was no rogue experiment, she was planned, broken, and assembled as a demonstration of perfected obedience and psychological erasure.

Spotted hyena DNA was chosen for its hormonal aggression, pain resilience, and structural strength. Her body was shaped to erase all familiarity: no trace of her human identity, gender, or culture was meant to remain. She was designed as a weapon that forgot it was human.

Biology

Red is fully hyena in physiology, with humanoid-shaped organs and skeleton that function like hyena equivalents, her liver processes food differently than a human’s, affecting her diet, and her lungs are built for extreme endurance. Her auditory cortex is reinforced for hyper-directional sound. Her visual rods and cones are compounded with humanoid ones, making her highly light-sensitive; she wears yellow-tinted glasses to reduce spectral exposure without compromising low-light vision.

Her hormones are naturally regulated, no implants control her cycles. Her transformation was executed at the molecular level, replacing her original Klinefelter (XXY) chromosomes with custom-engineered chromosomes for a transhuman female phenotype. This was not a transition as it was a complete genetic reconstruction, erasing Nikolai in a Ship of Theseus scenario where nothing original remains.

She has endured fourteen full memory resets, leaving chemical scarring in her hippocampus. Her hypothalamus was once regulated by an implant during the project, but she no longer carries it. She cannot recall much of her pre-modification life as her own, what memories remain feel like someone else’s.

History

Born intersex in Kyiv and forcibly assigned male, Red, then Nikolai, endured orphanhood, abuse, and medical mutilation. Adopted briefly before her parents were murdered, she spent years surviving on the streets, falling into the hands of human traffickers before escaping. Eventually captured crossing into Russia, she was sold to the FDHA and subjected to Project Zvezda-14, undergoing fourteen full memory wipes, total genetic reconstruction, and extreme psychological conditioning until her human identity was erased.

Discarded as unstable, she was released into the world with a fabricated identity. Years later, fragmented memories drove her to orchestrate the cyberattack that triggered World War III, an act she considers her completed revenge. She now lives in the shadows of Sigma City, disconnected from her past, existing on survival alone.

Personality

Red isn’t cold, she’s scorched. Her identity is fractured; she does not see her past as hers, only what she’s experienced since release. She avoids trust but might form tenuous bonds with others. She sees herself as a worthless subhuman unworthy of love or care.

She does not seek healing. She seeks silence. Her coping mechanisms include drinking, drugs, sleeping, and video games. Triggers include reminders of trauma, unwanted touch, and difficult conversations.

Equipment and Weapons

Red’s primary firearm is a heavily modified HK G3 chambered in 6.8mm, configured for hyperburst fire via a custom gas system and trigger group. The weapon features an extended barrel, lightweight stock, skeletonized grip, titanium upper receiver, adjustable hydraulic and magnetic recoil management, and feeds from 40-round magazines or 50-round drums. She favors armor-piercing ammunition, sourced from Sigma City’s abundant markets.

Her sidearm is a titanium nitride–coated tungsten carbide boot knife, designed for close combat and armor penetration.

Her armor is a custom-built UHMWPE/tungsten composite suit designed for full-body ballistic and kinetic protection. The exterior consists of interlocking, faceted plates with angular geometry to deflect impacts. The chest, abdomen, shoulders, and thighs are protected by overlapping panels, while the joints retain mobility through segmented articulation. A reinforced spine plate extends from the nape to the lower back, integrated with a compact power pack housing the suit’s electronics and a 25-meter area passive radar array.

The helmet is fully enclosed, with a smooth, angular visor design that conceals her face completely. Internally, it carries a basic HUD displaying ammunition count, inventory management, vitals, and an armor integrity diagram showing the location and severity of plate damage. All plates are modular and replaceable without dismantling the suit.

Beneath the rigid armor is a flexible, form-fitting undersuit providing impact absorption, environmental sealing, and a mounting base for the plates. The suit maintains mobility while offering complete coverage, from the helmet down to armored boots.

Red always wears the helmet during operations. Her armor is kept in pristine functional condition, with every surface cleaned and every mechanical element tested regularly, bordering on obsessive maintenance. While she carries no field repair tools, her home contains fabrication equipment for new plates, weapon parts, and custom medical supplies. Her medkit includes a self-made regenerative compound tailored to her biology, optimized for accelerated healing.

She does not carry lockpicking tools as most obstacles are removed with a few well-placed shots. Scrap metal is salvaged whenever possible for future repairs.