Midnight Beetle
“This ain’t no tank, this is a walking fortress!”
Pilots : Persephone Key, Gabriel Ruiz-Cruz
The Midnight Beetle began its life as a combat vehicle during the Great Artic wars of the last 20th century. This was a war between America and Russia, battling over the artic circle and trying to establish their own dominance to carry into the next century. This was a frozen war, with battles taking place well below freezing. The American forces were falling short because of these conditions, until they pivoted and put more resources into building great machines that could help swing the tide back in their favor. The B-27 was first designed as a troop transport, but was quickly modified to carry increased payload and serve as a road clearing force ahead of infantry units. Nicknamed The Walking Fortress, the Americans deployed a great many of these types of machines, turning this from a war in the old style, to a new machine driven conflict.
The captains of these vessels were highly touted for their abilities and determination for their country. This included the two pilots, Capt. Persephone Key, and her co pilot Lt. Gabriel Ruiz-Cruz, who had taken to calling their personal B-27 The Midnight Beetle. The style of the machine had a very insectoid look, which the two leaned into when painting and personalizing it (a common activity for units of the era). They saw any number of endless nights while serving in the north, as the war didn’t stop for the change in seasons or the orbit of the earth away from the sun. The Midnight Beetle became synonymous with the troops as a stronghold that could protect them no matter what the odds.
That belief was put to the test as the war was resolving. The Midnight Beetle was caught in an ambush, and quickly took severe damage while attempting to protect the ground troops stationed with it. To be sure those units could make a full retreat, Key and Ruiz-Cruz opted to use their mech as the fortress it was claimed to be, ultimately finding themselves on the losing end of the battle. Their mech was trashed, and the two were left for dead, Key suffering severe damage to her lungs and abdomen, while Ruiz-Cruz was left without his legs below the knees after they were crushed by debris.
Like so many times before, the American government was very proud of their soldiers when going out to battle, and more than happy to forget about them and their sacrifice when they could no longer serve. Such was the case for both Key and Ruiz-Cruz, who soon found themselves completely abandoned and trying desperately to just live a life with some kind of joy. In less than a decade out of service, the two vets found themselves with no options, destitute and on the verge of homelessness.
They weren’t alone, as many other veterans from the Great Artic war, as well as earlier conflicts had been left to try and muscle a life out of bedrock. Key put together a team consisting of a group of these veterans, all of them swearing they’d use the skills and tools they’d developed protecting their country to now give themselves a second life, even if it was at the expense of the American government and bank systems. It would take Key and her team some time, but they were able to bring the Midnight Beetle back to life, using it as their center piece when taking on the system that abandoned them.
Outfitted with any number of weapons and ammunition, Ruiz-Cruz had only increased the mech’s capabilities by adding a rear gunner position, complete with a nearly impenetrable ‘beetle shell’ armor to protect the pilots. The result is a mech of incredible power, truly a walking fortress bent on righting certain wrongs.