"Secured, you say? Sergeant, I am the daughter and the granddaughter of riveters, and it is perfectly clear to me that structure is not secured at all. None of my men will cross through there until you strengthen all those fasteners, got it?"

Rosie Munroe, patrol operations in Shepard gorge, Ariadna Exclusion Zone.

When the Special Operations Command liaison showed up to try and recruit Rosie Munroe, he found her in the brig for punching a superior. True story, man. They were letting her simmer down, but she was obviously guilty. I mean, a bunch of people saw her do it. Know what she had to say during her court martial? “melon-fether had it coming, sir.” Now, to be fair, the melon-fether did have it coming. You know the type, a sort of ingrained stupidity that can only be cured with therapy. Well she gave him therapy all right: knuckle therapy. ‘Round these parts you don’t just talk gak about a Riveter, even if you’re her CO. Alright, so Rosie’s not technically a Riveter—that’s exactly why she joined the USARF, so she could leave her village and lead a different life—but her mom and her mom’s mom are Riveters. You could say she’s honorary.

What’s a Riveter? They’re the indefatigable workingwomen of the USAriadnan factories! Flesh-and-blood national treasures. These girls are reckoned to be some of the toughest guys on this gosh-dammed rock. I don’t mean manly. I mean they’re womanly enough to cave your head in, and your swole-ass cousin’s head too if he steps up. The women here are made of wrought steel is what I’m saying. They built this great nation from a hostile, beset soil. You best respect that, and if you don’t, it’s your balls. It very nearly was Rosie’s CO’s balls, matter of fact, so he can count his lucky stars he’s still hanging onto them. Or vice versa. Anyway, Munroe was a Grunt at the time, and I guess she demonstrated some talents that caught the eye of the Spec-Ops people. Judging by her record and her MOS code—Artillery, Explosives, and Demolitions—I’d say she sounds like a ‘damage-to-property’ kinda gal. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy wrecking gak up with malice and forethought? Most USAriadnan women I know are into that, but Rosie’s taken it to the next level. She doesn’t believe in doing a half-assed job, and if that job is to blow bad guys up, her work will be whole-ass—or even double-ass! That’s the kind of determination we need out there, where our country will find nothing but enemies and monsters.

Captain Roger Van Zant, personnel selection meeting for the third contingent of the AEC (Ariadnan Expeditionary Corps) bound for Paradiso.

Precise plasma fire punches through body armor and reinforced tissue underneath. Internal organs explode. His enemies may belong to strange species, they may even be technologically enhanced, but each body is a biological machine with its own internal logic, and Kerr-Nau’s knowledge of comparative anatomy is comprehensive. He knows where to aim, what to punch. Any who withstand his Umbra training inevitably fall when their brains are fried out by the white-hot daggers of cyberagony.

Excerpt from the Chronicles of the Onyx Contact Force, a record of their activity intended for research and further glory of the Ur Hegemony cultural patrimony.

After more than a decade in the Nexus-7, the best of the best of the Onyx Contact Force, Kerr-Nau has seen it all: every doomsday device, every terrible atrocity a spacefaring civilization might contrive when pushed to the brink of survival. And he’s seen them all fall through, time and time again, when tested against the Combined Army. He’s seen those civilizations fail to avert their own extinction, an inevitability once they made the mistake of attacking the representatives of the Ur Hegemony. So, when they stationed him on this new front, in some place called Paradiso, Kerr-Nau didn’t flinch. He hadn’t heard of this race, these ‘humans’, but it didn’t make a difference. If they put up any resistance, it would fail. Kerr-Nau already knows how the conflict will end, and he is determined to be the agent of that preordained conclusion. It has happened before; it will happen again. He is one of a select few specially chosen by the EI to wipe the weak off the face of existence. He is among the most dangerous individuals in the entire Combined Army, and whosoever stands in his path has their seconds numbered.