A.R.G.U.S. Threat Report
- CodeName: Ultramarine
- Place of Origin: Emerald City, Oregon, USA
- Real/Birth Name: Veronica Steeley
- Real Identity Status: Secret
- Age/Apparent Age: Late-20s/Early-30s
- Height: 5'9" (natural) / 7" (in Ultramarine suit)
- Gender: Female
- Category/Occupation: Hero / Entrepreneur
- Superhero Affiliations: The Sentinels / Baywatch
- Real Identity Affiliations: Steeley's Diving & Salvage Co.
- Power Set: Power Suit
- Power Origin: Technology
- Player/Type: NPC
Appearance
Ultramarine's power armour was designed as a unisex marine diving suit for the US Navy, and its communications systems were designed to protect the identity of the diver in case of enemy communication interception. It was not specifically designed to hide the user's gender but, since becoming Ultramarine, Veronica has found it useful that the suit completely conceals the fact that she is a woman and protects her own identity (she is more concerned about her friends than herself). The suit was built for functionality and blending with marine life, and so looks quite sleek and curvy rather than sharp edges, and blue and white coloured for low-visibility. In the suit she stands around 7' tall and looks imposing.
Outside her Ultramarine suit, Veronica is above-average height and, whilst not physically muscular, nevertheless looks like a woman who participates in regular exercise. As a result she is in good physical shape with an athletic figure. She keeps her brown hair short and usually in the pixie style. This is both an aesthetic choice as well as a practical one as she believes that longer hair would be an inconvenience in the Ultramarine suit. When not in the suit she usually favours trousers a shirt/blouse when presenting a more formal/professional demeanour, and loose-fitting and thin clothing such as vests and yoga/form-fitting pants when casual (or intending on wearing the Ultramarine suit). Occasionally, when not working or expecting trouble (usually when going to social occasions) she can be found wearing casual mini-dresses or a blouse and skirt.
Background
The history of Ultramarine began decades ago with Veronica Steeley's father, Capt. Gil Steeley. Gil was a Navy diver for years before he retired and began work as a salvage operator and inventor. Both endeavors proved quite successful and he and his family were able to travel the world (on salvage jobs) while still maintaining a permanent home in Emerald City.
Due to his interest in diving, he began innovating designs for diving suits. It started simply enough, slight adjustments and additions to a standard wetsuit, but then he began developing specialized pieces of equipment that allowed divers to stay under longer, dive deeper, lift more, and on and on. This process took years, during which he and his wife Marcia had a daughter, Veronica. When Veronica was only ten years old, Marcia died in an accident during a salvage operation. Gil and Veronica were devastated, but Gil surprised everyone by marrying Elene Kostas within a year of Gail's death. Elene's son Bradford, two years younger than Veronica, happily accepted Gil as his step-father.
Veronica never really forgave her father for her mother's death or for remarrying so quickly. Gil, in turn, had a difficult time showing his feelings for Veronica. He always pushed her with his stories about responsibility; that those with greater capabilities also had a greater duty. He wanted the best for her. Her step-mother Elene was a weak and dependent woman compared to her mother, even more so after she fell ill and it became Veronica's responsibility to hold the whole family together and to look after her younger step-brother, Brad.
Brad idolized his step-father, but was always being reminded how Veronica was his superior in every way: "Listen to your sister" ... "Why can't you be more like Veronica" and so on. She was the better swimmer, the better student, the ideal. When Brad's mother passed away, he tried even harder to win his stepfather's approval, but Veronica was always there first. The discipline she chaffed under, he craved. As a teenager, Brad acted out and got into trouble to get attention, and Veronica was always the one to bail him out of it.
So, when Veronica earned college scholarships in engineering, she couldn't wait to leave home and finally have a life of her own, out from under her father's expectations and her step-brother's screw-ups. Brad enlisted in the Navy to impress Gil and managed to earn nothing more than a dishonorable discharge within two years. Veronica, on the other hand, blossomed in her studies, graduated magna cum laude, and went on to grad school. Her visits home became less and less frequent.
On one such visit, Veronica found her father hard at work on his diving suit design, as always. He'd taken on Brad as an assistant, although he commented that his stepson was nowhere near as capable as Veronica. Her father's work had taken on an unusual sense of urgency. Veronica learned Gil Steeley's company was heavily in debt. He needed to show progress on his designs, or he could potentially lose everything. The stress was taking its toll on the older Steeley, who could no longer handle the kind of dives required to test his work.
Veronica offered her help and, together, she and her father were able to make the breakthroughs necessary to get the prototype deep-sea suits functioning. Veronica and Brad tested the suits together, although Veronica understood them better and proved more adept. Veronica was performing a solo test of the newest prototype when Gil Steeley learned that Brande Management-the financial backers Brad brought in-were interested in turning the suit into a weapon for covert operations. Now that he knew it worked, Brad intended to hand the designs over. Gil forbid it and they argued. The enraged Brad used his armor's electrical blaster, intending to intimidate his stepfather into giving him the passcodes to the plans. Instead, he gave Gil a fatal heart attack.
Veronica returned to find her father dying and no sign of her step-brother. Gil Steeley lived just long enough to tell his daughter what happened, how proud he was of all her accomplishments, and to make her promise she would keep the Ultramarine suit from falling into the wrong hands. Veronica swore to use the armor to help others, and to bring Brad and his stolen suit to justice.
Personality
Ultramarine is driven and serious-minded. She's always working through one problem or another in her head to find the best solution, which makes her seem somewhat distracted even at the best of times. She was very close to her father and still mourns his loss. His old Navy buddies mean a lot to her and she can often be found sharing a drink with them and listening to their stories. The rest of the time she's in her workshop, tinkering with the Ultramarine armor or some other gadget.
Motivation: Responsibility
Veronica wants to live up to the ideals instilled in her by her father, an ex-Navy man who believed the more one could do, the more one should do.
Secret Identity
Veronica now runs her father's salvage and diving business, Steeley's Diving & Salvage Co. Thanks to naval contracts for technology prototypes of some of the systems in her suit (Veronica has avoided selling complete plans for her current suit), salvage operations and assisting naval engineering teams the once-struggling business is now prospering and functions independently of Veronica - allowing her to dedicate time to tinkering with her suit in her workshop or "on duty" with the Sentinels (or Baywatch) without worrying too much about the business. Regardless, she tends to oversee it's activities (especially anything potentially lucrative - which she always finds suspicious - or unusual) and make her presence felt to her staff.
Whilst she keeps her identity as Ultramarine secret, it is no secret that Ultramarine "is subcontracted" by Steeley's for (usually riskier) diving operations and works alongside Steeley's ships and crew. Whilst she tries to protect them, she is willing to employ Steeley's to assist Baywatch's activities.
Other Notes
Iron Man (and Dr Anderson)
People have inevitably drawn parallels between Ultramarine's suit and that of the more-famous Iron Man. Whilst Veronica could give you a list of differences, to most people the main difference is that her suit is blue whilst Iron Man's is red (although it is known that Iron Man has many variants, some of which are also blue). Iron Man's suit was designed for aerial and land combat, whilst Ultramarine's for marine (but adapted for aerial and land) and so (she claims) her suit has the edge for intended purpose.
Rubbing in the fact that whilst Veronica is a very smart and incredibly educated woman, Iron Man (aka Tony Stark) is a known billionaire, philanthropist, playboy genius owner of one of the world's largest military weapons developers, and thus his (many) suit(s) are technologically likely to be more advanced than her own... is a very good way to get her riled up. Sophie Anderson has offered to have a look and see if she can help, but as a matter of pride Veronica has flatly refused so far.
Baywatch
Although Veronica assisted the original Emerald City Knights various times, she never officially joined their group. More concerned with protecting the bay area (both shipping and maritime life) Veronica (or rather, Ultramarine) joined the small Baywatch group, which had the intention of monitoring activity in the bay and acting to preserve marine life (and assist sailing crew and vessels where possible). Although Ultramarine has on occasionally disagreed with Dr Kyla Earle (aka Abyss), and the group lost one of it's members (Sirena) leaving it just them two, there is still enough common ground between them that work together.
If asked about conflicts of interest, Veronica will argue that an issue in the bay area large enough to concern the Sentinels will by default have concerned Baywatch already - so their interests would coincide - and that her Baywatch activities with Abyss are no different to Dragoneye's protection of Jadetown, Wyrmhole and Princess' protection of Emerald City University campus or White Witch's protection of Blackborough. She says that if a conflict of interest ever did occur, she would act as she felt best in the circumstance, regardless of group membership.
Since Abyss is also a recognised ambassador for the aquatic "Blue" race, it suits both the Sentinels and Emerald City's government for Ultramarine to keep this close relationship functional.
Combat Style
Although the Ultramarine suit is quite resilient, and grants Veronica superhuman-level strength (and Veronica is a competent close-combatant), Veronica prefers to employ ranged combat and try to avoid (rather than absorb) damage. She states this is both because she does not want to find out the hard way if an attack is powerful enough to kill her or damage the suit, and that whilst other superheroes can regenerate or magically heal damage, she has to spend hours in the workshop repairing her suit when it takes damage.
As such in combat Veronica prefers to remain in the air (or underwater) and rely on her suit's laser as primary offense. If engaged in close quarters, however, she does not try to retreat and has been known to hold her own against even superhuman-level foes.
What other team-mates have stated is possibly her best asset in combat is her genius-level intellect, natural teamwork ability and willingness to help (and even take the hit for) her allies - although she dislikes having to take leadership roles. She will usually attempt to analyse a situation and determine the best solution to the immediate problem, rather than go in guns blazing (unless she has determined the best solution is a rapid and aggressive offence).
Social Style
Wyrmhole has described Veronica as "a natural killjoy with her head in the clouds" and Mongrel seconded the motion. Veronica is not an unpleasant person, indeed she can be very charismatic when she wants to be - but she has a naturally driven and serious personality, and is constantly thinking about problems in her mind. When she is "off the clock" (which is not often) she can be surprisingly amiable and friendly. Whilst slow to trust and make friends, the fact that she is still good friends with her father's old navy buddies and frequently shares a drink with them (or with her own friends) indicates that once that friendship is earnt she becomes a trusting and loyal friend and ally. So far she seems to have quickly become friendly with Sophie Anderson (to no-one's surprise as both women are technology-oriented geniuses, and "as fun as a heart attack" - Wyrmhole) and Princess (Veronica seems to be big-sisterly to Princess, who she appears to believe has a lot of potential). She appears to tolerate but be less friendly towards Mongrel (although she gets along well with his Michael Morgan form) and White Witch. This indicates that she appears to respond better to those who take the responsibilities of being a Sentinel seriously, and not so well to those who appear to take it more lightly (Wyrmhole drives her up the wall even without her suit's multi-environment turbines).
Signature Powers & Special Abilities
- Genius-level intellect
- Engineering genius
- Naval and marine expert
Ultramarine Suit
- Multi-Environment Turbines: 500 miles/hour flight, 120 miles/hour aquatic speed
- Sealed Systems: Environmental life support and aquativ adaptation
- Sensors: Various enhanced sensors
- Storage pods: concealed storage compartments in the suit (designed to hold small items obtained during dives)
- Enhanced Strength and Stamina
- Computer Controls: ranged and close combat and defensive assist systems
- Armour: Impervious protection
- Communications systems: Radio communications, loudspeaker and vocaliser.
- Armaments: Blue-Green laser in right arm. Netline in left arm and Micro-Missiles on shoulder.
Signature Equipment & Gear
- Ultramarine Suit
- Beretta M9 9x19mm pistol (not used when in suit)
Signature Quotes
- "Yes I KNOW that Tony Stark's Iron Man suit is POSSIBLY better than mine... but he had billions of disposable income and years of experience and research tech of one of the world's largest weapons developers behind him. My father and I had little more than a wooden shack and a minimal naval grant whilst the ink on my Masters degree was still drying! I think we did a damn good job considering!"
Gallery
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Veronica Steeley
