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Subject: "CoV: Longbow Dossier: GEN. ROSSUM"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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"CoV: Longbow Dossier: GEN. ROSSUM"
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jan-01-06 AT 03:09 PM (EST)
 
Someone on the CoH official boards started a thread in the Roleplaying forum calling for villain dossiers akin to those produced for the official-site writeups of some of the game's NPC villains, and I thought that was a capital idea, so here's one.

Identity: Gen. Rossum
Real Name: Rossum, Jennifer
Known Aliases: Jennifer Ross, Ilyana Rosumova
Date of Birth: October 7, 1989
Threat Level: Moderate

Height: 5'3"
Weight: 114 lbs.
Hair: White
Eyes: Blue
Distinguishing Marks: Missing right eye (fitted with bionic optic mount)

Convicted: April 2005, Murder in the First Degree (multiple counts), Negligent Homicide, Aggravated Assault with Intent to Kill (multiple counts), Armed Robbery (multiple counts), Possession of Illegal Armaments (battle droid "No. 76"), Arson, Unlicensed Use of Super-Powered Technology (battle droid "No. 76"), Escape, Resisting Arrest
Note: Convicted as adult
Sentence: 25 years to life, Zigursky Penitentiary
Wanted: Escape, Possession of Illegal Armaments, Assault, Suspicion of Murder, Conspiracy, Armed Robbery, Terroristic Threats, Industrial Espionage

NOTE: Since her escape from Zigursky Penitentiary, Gen. Rossum is believed to be an active participant in the terrorist syndicate known as Arachnos. Among much else, she is wanted for questioning in connection with the "Outbreak" incident in Paragon City, various thefts of technology from Paragon corporate labs, and the recent raid on the Freedom Corps cargo ship M.V. Holiday Spirit.

Investigator's Report:

Jen Rossum is the daughter of the late Carl Rossum, a.k.a. Karel Rosumov, a Czech-born Soviet roboticist who defected to the United States with the aid of Miss Liberty and the Freedom Corps in 1982. Dr. Rossum worked as a researcher and instructor at the Steel Canyon campus of Paragon University, and was an active supporter of the city's technology-based superheroes throughout the '80s and '90s. He and his wife June, an American woman he married in 1985, had two children, John (born 1987) and Jennifer.

By all accounts, Jennifer Rossum was a genuine prodigy, taking an interest in Dr. Rossum's work at a very early age and becoming an unofficial lab assistant to her father by the time she started grade school. By the time of the Rikti War, she was a capable technologist in her own right. She and her father spent the war in a Freedom Corps secure bunker in Founders Falls, helping with repairs and upgrades to high-tech heroes' equipment and working with other researchers on attempts to decipher Rikti technologies. For these efforts, she was awarded the Distinguished Citizen Cross by Statesman at the end of the war - the youngest Paragon citizen ever so honored.

After the war, however, the Rossum family fell on hard times. In March 2004, Dr. Rossum was murdered, his lab at Paragon University ransacked, and the Universal Robot, a prototype security droid he was developing for the city, taken. It is believe that the perpetrators of this crime were members of the Sky Raiders. (The distinct resemblance between Rossum's Universal Robot and the Sky Raider Jump Bot makes it appear likely that the Jump Bot is a reverse-engineered production version of the UR.)

What happened subsequent to Dr. Rossum's death is unclear. Our best guess is that her father's murder unhinged Jennifer Rossum's mind. We know she built a lethal combat droid of her own, possibly by converting a previously constructed servant robot for combat. We also know that a group of Sky Raiders went to the Rossum home a few days after Dr. Rossum's death and were annihilated by said robot under the command of Jen Rossum. In the ensuing chaos, the Rossum house burned down, June Rossum was killed, and John Rossum disappeared. Evidence obtained in a subsequent investigation indicates that Jen Rossum lured the Sky Raiders to the house intending to ambush and kill them in revenge for her father's murder.

Rossum was arrested at the scene and charged with arson and murder in the deaths of the Sky Raiders whose remains were found in the wreckage of the house, as well as the negligent homicide of June Rossum. She was remanded to a juvenile detention facility to await trial. A month later she improvised a control device for her battle droid, which she called "No. 76", and with its aid escaped into the Paragon City underground. Once there, she adopted the costumed persona of "Gen. Rossum" and began a one-girl war against the Sky Raiders, the Paragon City Police Department, and anyone else who got in her way.

Rossum was recaptured in April of 2005 by the registered heroine Paradox Archer. She was tried as an adult both on the original charges and on others stemming from her escape and her subsequent activities. Upon her conviction, Judge Sebastian Cranston sentenced her to a 25-to-life stretch in Zigursky Penitentiary. Her first parole window would have been in 2017.

Zig records indicate that Rossum was a model prisoner. She was placed on Warden Sokolov's "trusty" list in late June and even allowed to work on one of the prison's Internet work-outreach programs (doing database work for an Internet dating company under strict supervision). She put her technical skills to good use, stayed out of trouble, and was well-regarded by prison staffers and her counselors, who reported that she was making good progress managing her anger.

All that was apparently a front for an audacious escape plan, however. On October 29, 2005, forces of the international terrorist organization known as Arachnos attacked Zigursky Penitentiary and freed a number of inmates. Among those released was Gen. Rossum, who was seen by several guards receiving her distinctive weapon and costume from an Arachnos trooper. She and the Arachnos personnel shot their way out of the prison and escaped aboard a vectored-thrust aircraft standing by to evacuate them. At around the same time, another Arachnos strike force stole her battle droid, No. 76, and control equipment from the Paragon Police evidence storage facility in Kings Row.

Two days later, Rossum and No. 76 were sighted by Longbow agents in the Etoile Islands, commonly known as the "Rogue Isles", a well-known hotbed of Arachnos activity and the site of that organization's world headquarters. Longbow operatives assigned to cover the defection of Arachnos Operative Egon Burch reported that Rossum and 76 were responsible for the failure of that mission. Since then, her name has been connected to a string of crimes and terroristic activities, both in the Rogue Isles and in Paragon City. She appears to be headquartered in the Rogue Isles now, and there are strong indications that her association with Arachnos was not limited to her escape from the Zig. She has also been linked to an organization known as "The International Techno Union", but almost nothing is known about this group.

Gen. Rossum customarily dresses in a black or maroon leather jacket marked with a logo showing interlocking gears, matching trousers with a stylized diamond pattern, and heavy boots. She sports a bionic optic device in place of her right eye, which was lost in her first confrontation with the Sky Raiders. When traveling incognito, she removes the optic unit and wears an eye patch over its mounting hardpoint. She has naturally white hair, which she sometimes dyes.

Though still in her teens, Gen. Rossum is an incredibly intelligent young woman with special talents in the areas of mechanical and electrical engineering as well as software design. Her intellect is well-rounded and is not a form of savantism, though her formal education has been interrupted and her interest and willingness to learn does not span the same breadth of subjects as her capacity to learn. She is physically courageous and a cunning strategist whose youthful appearance belies a ruthlessness tempered by more than a year of hard criminal living.

Gen. Rossum is always accompanied by at least one robotic servitor; some reports have her possessing as many as four. These are heavily armed and armored machines built for war and should be approached with extreme caution. Rossum herself is not shy about leading her robot minions into battle; even if encountered alone, she should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.

Chief Investigating Officer: AXELSSON, Lt. P.J.
LONGBOW - WHEN DIPLOMACY FAILS


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