Vlasta Korolivsʹka (Власта Королівська) (Royal Power or Power in Royalty) is a female humanoid Nikolsky’s viper, heavily augmented with cybernetic limbs and an altered skeletal structure to support a humanoid form. She has deep black scales with a faint purple iridescent sheen, piercing golden eyes with slit pupils, and a sharp, angular face. Due to her genetic modifications, her body is unnaturally flexible, and her movements are eerily fluid, much like the snake she was spliced with.
She stands 6’2” (188cm) and weighs 340lbs (154kg) due to the heavy cybernetic reinforcements integrated into her body. Her armor adds an additional 120 lbs (54kg) to her frame.
Species Origin
The Ukrainian government, like many world powers, sought to develop the ultimate soldier through transhumanism. While other nations focused on augmenting humans or blending them with more conventional predator DNA, Ukraine’s researchers pursued a more radical approach. They spliced human DNA with that of the Nikolsky viper, creating a prototype that could survive in extreme conditions, blend into environments, and utilize venom as a biological weapon.
The results were mixed. The process was highly unstable, leading to grotesque mutations or complete systemic failure in most subjects. Vlasta was the only survivor.
History
Vlasta was born in 2006 in Kharkiv. Her childhood ended at 19, when an artillery strike wiped out her home and family, leaving her with nothing. Wandering the ruins, hungry, alone, and emotionally dead, she gave herself willingly to the transhuman program, seeing no other reason to live. She didn’t care what they did to her.
The scientists stripped away everything that was left of her humanity. The viper DNA rewrote her body, warping her skeletal structure, removing her natural limbs, and forcing her into a serpentine form incapable of independent movement. She was trapped in her own body, helpless, until they fused cybernetic arms and legs to her frame, grafting them directly into her nervous system. The pain was indescribable, but she didn’t scream.
They conditioned her to be the perfect front line soldier, one that never needed to stop, never hesitated, and never questioned orders. The venom they modified inside her could kill a man in seconds or incapacitate him for hours. Her cybernetics made her a tank, designed to sustain damage and keep moving forward. They never planned to let her live long enough to question her purpose.
By 21, she had been deployed into numerous classified conflicts, wiping out entrenched enemy forces with brutal efficiency. She had no name, no rank, and no official record. Her handlers controlled every aspect of her existence. When she wasn’t on the battlefield, she was locked in a facility, studied like an animal, and routinely "maintained" like a machine. She realized too late that she wasn’t a soldier, she was property.
At 22, during a deep-insertion operation, she turned on her handlers and defected, leaving behind a trail of bodies and burning wreckage. She didn’t run because she believed in anything. She ran because, for the first time, she wanted to live.
As the war expanded across Europe, she found herself moving from one battlefield to another; first across the war-torn ruins of Ukraine, then into Poland and Germany, then the deserts of the Middle East. She fought in Israel, Gaza, Palestine, Egypt. Wherever the war went, she followed; not as a mercenary, but as a predator hunting for the next fight.
By the time she reached the United States, she was a ghost on the battlefield, known only by her pointed, angled helmet and broad pauldrons, armor clearly designed by someone skilled, someone who knew exactly what they were doing.
She never took it off. The armor had been repainted matte black, stripped of any identifying marks. Even when she found temporary shelter, she removed only what was necessary—the bottom half, to relieve herself, helmet to eat, and nothing more. No one alive has ever seen her real face.
Personality
Vlasta’s mind is wired for war. She is aggressive and unrelenting, never stopping, never second-guessing. She has no allegiance, no cause, and no ideology. She fights because it’s the only thing she knows how to do.
She is cold but not emotionless. She feels anger, pain, and exhaustion, but she buries it deep beneath layers of steel and scars. She hates authority, hates being controlled, and refuses to take orders from anyone. The only contracts she accepts are the ones where she calls the shots.
When she isn’t fighting, she is alone, and she prefers it that way. She sleeps in her armor, she eats alone, and she moves only when necessary.
Equipment
Her armor is a custom-built heavy combat suit, reinforced with plating designed to withstand high-caliber rounds and shrapnel. The helmet is angled, coming to a point at her nose, great for deflecting bullets aimed at her head. The torso has locking angled plates, both front and back. The legs and arms are only armored where she'd be hit the most, the rest is UHMWPE and Kevlar. It is painted matte black, blending into shadows.
Her primary weapon is a heavy machine gun called the UHM-22. It's a weapon specifically built for her. It fires 12.7x108mm rounds from a 200 round belt stored in a metal box underneath the rifle. It has a 22 inch, reinforced, chrome-lined barrel, adjustable grip, and adjustable stock. The UHM-22 has only one fire mode, and is capable of 580 rounds per minute. The barrel is specifically designed to avoid overheating, and is finned for its entire length, being covered by a square, perforated barrel shroud with a reinforced grip and picatinny rails.
Strengths and Abilities
Vlasta's skeletal structure is vastly different from a human’s. The viper DNA that was spliced into her body forced an entire reconfiguration of her bones to accommodate her once-limbless form. Even though she now walks like a human, her skeleton is flexible, allowing for inhuman levels of movement and durability.
Unlike a human, Vlasta’s joints have a wider range of motion. She can bend her torso and twist her limbs in ways that make her nearly impossible to pin down. Her reinforced, semi-flexible skeleton means she can survive high-impact trauma that would shatter human bones. Falls from great heights, high-speed collisions, or blunt force attacks rarely break her frame.
Inspired by the musculature of vipers, her cybernetics and natural muscle fibers lock into place when applying force, allowing her to hold impossible positions without effort. She can brace against walls, anchor herself during rapid movement, and exert maximum force while stationary.
Vlasta’s nervous system operates on a different level than a standard human’s. Her viper-derived nervous structure, combined with artificial stimulants in her bloodstream, gives her a massively increased reaction speed. She can react to threats faster than a human brain can process them. This means she can dodge before an opponent has fully committed to an attack, making her seem untouchable.
Her brain processes information at a higher rate, allowing her to make split-second tactical decisions mid-fight. In combat, time feels slower to her—she sees movement before her opponent has finished making it. She can consciously process multiple data streams simultaneously. She can fire her machine gun with pinpoint accuracy, track multiple moving targets, and assess battlefield positioning all at once.
One of her most terrifying weapons isn’t mechanical, it’s biological. Vlasta retains fully functional venom glands, but they have been genetically modified to enhance and diversify their effects. Her venom can be lethal or non-lethal, depending on her intent.
Weaknesses and Faults
Her biggest flaw is her refusal to stop. She pushes forward even when she shouldn’t, refuses to retreat even when it’s the best option. She doesn’t know when to quit. This makes her a terrifying opponent but also a walking corpse waiting for the wrong fight to finally kill her.
Her cybernetic arms and legs, while strong, do not provide tactile feedback. She doesn’t feel pain in them, doesn’t feel touch, doesn’t feel anything. This makes her prone to overexertion and unnoticed damage, sometimes breaking components or overloading systems without realizing it until it’s too late.
She does not rest, does not eat well, does not take care of herself. She has spent years in a cycle of constant battle and self-neglect. When she finally collapses from exhaustion or injury, it isn’t from a single wound, it’s from the accumulation of a thousand untreated ones.
Her greatest weakness isn’t physical. It’s the fact that, deep down, she doesn’t know how to be anything but a weapon.
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