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Species: human (modified mutant)
Gender: male
Age: 38
DOB: September 3, 1968
Birthplace: Earth>United States>Fort Sill, OK
Praetor: Empelilu 126
Occupation: scientist (Orion Team Leader for PietTech Industries, xenotech specialist)
Languages: English

Personality
Nervous and neurotic, Rammy is a hard person to love, much less tolerate. He has a phobia of abandonment and needs almost constant reassurance and flattery. Whatever he is doing, there must be witnesses to praise and admire him for it. He tends to treat even the smallest situations as life-ending drama, demanding the attention of those around him, and is quick to seize upon any praise thrown his way (though he rarely remembers to return it).

Rammy is governed by his fears. He is constantly worried that things are out of his control, leading him to assert dominance over his surroundings. He can be extremely bossy and throws fits when things don't go his way. Most view him as demanding, fussy, and always two steps away from a mental breakdown. With his tendency to throw tantrums and obsess over minor injustices, he is often compared unfavorably to a two-year-old.

His saving grace is his mind. While he is by no means the greatest genius ever to walk to earth, he is certainly in top hundredth of a percent, and his ability to modify and reverse engineer foreign technology is second to none. While working under him is very difficult, no one can deny that he gets results out of his people and is very good at delegating tasks (though he sometimes fails to give credit).

Given his constantly demanding nature, he has few actual friends, but plenty of enemies. For the tiny handful willing to look past his abrasive exterior, Rammy is a worthwhile and well-intentioned person. His intentions just seem to get muddled somewhere between thought and action. He's aware of it, too, and for all of his grandstanding and posing he truly looks up to his friends and values their opinions. He falls a bit short of loyalty, but his admiration is frequently sweet and endearing, almost hero worship. He may forget to show his appreciation as often as he should, but he is always quick to defend his friends from slander, especially in their absence.

Physical Characteristics
Height: 178 cm
Weight/Build: ~85 kg; somewhat overweight
Hair: brown, short with receding hairline
Eyes: bright blue
Skin: pale and pasty, has a very slight tan nowadays
Face: oval, wide, flat nose, has been unfavorably compared to a watermelon
Attire: PietTech Industries standard issue employee uniform, R&D model

Collective History: The Area 51 Effect
Located deep under the Nevada desert is the United States military's Archive of Extraterrestrial Objects, a collection of debris and various specimens recovered from alien crash sites around the world. Long-hidden from public knowledge, hinted at but never confirmed, the Archives under Area 51 housed secrets of untold power. On an otherwise uneventful day, a research team accidentally triggered an emergency teleportation device designed for a spaceship. The device was not attached to a spaceship at the time, and instead teleported a large chunk of the base and everyone inside to a shipyard on the planet Annstice.

Once there, the scientists and soldiers were viewed with some amazement by the Tipa, who had been studying Earth for some time. The Tipa quickly proved their willingness to help by erecting a shield around the base to isolate it from the planet's atmosphere, which, while perfect for Tipa, was fatally toxic to humans. The Tipa graciously teleported the base structure from the shipyard to a world terraformed for human usage, the so-called "sanctuary" planet Terra, since the Tipa were not willing to allow the newcomers to return to Earth lest they reveal details of the Tipa's presence.

Terra consisted of several abductees and a few dozen descendents of abductees. The newcomers from Area 51 quickly learned that, despite claims of benevolence and goodwill from the Tipa, Terra was little more than a zoo and staging area for experimentation and testing while the Tipa decided what course was best to take concerning earth. Under the leadership of Captain Andrew Starkey, they objected to the treatment, an objection the Tipa ignored.

Unfortunately, the Tipa severely underestimated both the willpower and knowledge of the group from Area 51. Rigging up a communications array, they made contact with a second alien race, the Ama-Su, who were very interested in Tipa technology and the humans. The Ama-Su also gave the humans contact with several other alien races, and with their help the humans declared Terra independent from the Tipa. This simple quest for freedom by the humans triggered a galactic war, with the humans and their stolen Tipa technology at the center of the new Alliance.

Individual History
Rammy's genius with numbers was present at an early age, but despite this gift he was a constant disappointment to his father, a career military officer, who only wanted his son to be good at athletics and sports. Rammy's parents' marriage was not a happy one. The couple tried for several years to have a child before Rammy was finally born (they did have one son stillborn prior to his arrival), and there has always been the small, nagging question as to which party was the problem and whether or not Rammy's mother sought to rectify the situation by sleeping with another man. If she did, she never did it again, for though the couple wished for several children, they produced only one. If she had cheated, it might explain why Rammy's mother never raised any objection to anything her husband did or said. Perhaps she was silenced by her own guilt.

Sensitive and poor in constitution, Rammy was a disappointment to his father. His few forays into the field of athletics at his father's urging ended only in disaster, and by age seven Rammy's father had given up on ever having a football champion son or producing any other children to fill that void. Rammy tried desperately to win his father's approval in some other arena, such as science and mathematics, but to no avail. When he graduated from MIT with a double PhD at age 23, he even took a job with the military to try and impress his father, but a job working in the middle of Nevada could hardly compare with front-line combat duty in the Middle East. The job even served to alienate him from those peers and professors he had impressed at MIT, many of whom had a healthy disdain for classified military work.

Little did his peers know he had landed the most incredible job on the planet: researching recovered alien technology from the Roswell crash site, among many others. It was an incredible place, filed with unimaginable wonders and some of the brightest and most motivated researchers on the planet. Unfortunately, Rammy's excitement at this scientific playground was short-lived.

Rammy's father died of a heart attack only a year after Rammy began working at Area 51. Now that his father's recognition was impossible, Rammy settled into the drudgery and misery of a pointless life. He had no close friends and was an impossible git to his coworkers. He constantly flitted with removal for insubordination, but again and again kept his job when the people at the top said, "He's the best we've got." Even miserable and grumpy, he was. No one could figure out alien puzzles the way he could. In order to keep him working, the higher-ups made him head of his department, where he quickly gained a well-deserved reputation as a tyrant but helped lead his fellow scientists to some of their most important discoveries yet. He was so productive they doubled and then tripled the size of his research team.

He ended up with so many subordinates he relegated a number of them to a "junior" research team, whose responsibilities were mostly menial. Upset, these researchers complained until Rammy waved his arm at a crate and flippantly told them to research it without bothering to realize what he had assigned them to. The junior researchers were too inexperienced and accidentally activated the device, leading to the base's teleportation to Annstice.

Being thrown into another galaxy was on the one hand less traumatic for Rammy than the others -- he had little in the way of personal attachments to Earth -- and on the other more, as he was very quickly forced to rely on the people around him as more than mere sycophants. He remained a leader among the scientists, but suddenly had to follow orders as military personnel organized to save the base from Annstice's toxic atmosphere and then, on Terra, planned the resistance against the Tipa. Gradually Rammy adjusted to this new situation and became an integral part of the human presence in the Alliance.

Rammy fell in love with one of the local Terran humans who served as his loyal assistant for over a year, but she was tragically killed in an altercation with an alien race called the Keldraran, sacrificing herself to save Rammy.

Post-Extraction
Shortly after the death of his love, Rammy was invited to join the Fleet as a full split member along with his colleague Rustam Zakharov. They joined for the benefits of Fleet technology and the chance to escape the hostilities of the Alliance and the war at large. Rammy was never a soldier, and being able to walk away from the conflict and relax was immensely liberating. He was quick to take full advantage of the Fleet's recreational facilities, earning himself the notice of the Supreme Commander.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Rammy was to spend 100% of his time working for the Fleet and 100% of his time working in his home dimension, a feat accomplished by temporal manipulation and dimensional freezing. While Rammy was in the Fleet, relative time in his home dimension would not move, and while he was in his home dimension, relative time in his home dimension was sped up so that a single day might pass in half a second. In this way, Rammy could return to his home dimension immediately when he left and not miss anything no matter how many days he spent working for the Fleet.

A second part of the terms involved the usage and development of Fleet technology. Rammy was allowed to use Fleet technology while in the Fleet, but was not allowed to transport any of that technology back home. He was, however, allowed to keep his knowledge of the technology and was free to attempt to duplicate the technology using available means in his home dimension.

Problems arose almost immediately. Rammy reengineered his temporal settings so that instead of spending 100% of his time in the Fleet and 100% of the time in his home dimension, he was only spending 75% of his time in his home dimension, essentially vanishing from it for stretches of time. Dr. Zakharov attempted to cover for these absences and talk Rammy out of the situation before it was noticed by anyone, but without success. Rammy also smuggled out several pieces of Fleet technology to his home dimension, mostly "comfort" tech and not things of immediate military application, but illegal contraband nonetheless.

It did not take long for parties in both dimensions to uncover the situation. Commander Starkey picked up on Rammy's absences and an emergency Praetorian intervention had to be arranged in order to recruit Starkey and protect the Fleet's existence from exposure. Rammy was charged with class four temporal fraud, class two dimensional tampering, and breach of contract. Even his connections with the Supreme Commander could not keep him from conviction, and Rammy quickly learned that the Black Pathers (the Supreme Cammnder and her followers) would do nothing to help him unless it was of direct personal benefit to them. Of course, none of his crimes entailed any penalty greater than the embarrassment of being caught and tighter monitoring to prevent future problems and he resumed work as per his recruitment terms.

Working in both the Fleet and the Area 51 Effect, Rammy was able to further his research and development beyond his wildest dreams. He and Dr. Zakharov helped to turn the tide of the war to their own favor using their knowledge of Fleet tech. They also developed a new teleporter using hybrid Fleet/Tipa technology with the hopes of returning to Earth, but it was a project with mixed feelings for all involved. On the one hand, many had loved ones and friends back on Earth they wanted to see after four years of being stranded, but on the other, they were in the middle of a fight and could not simply abandon their allies and new friends. Eventually they decided to make the trip.

Once on Earth again, Rammy learned his mother, his only real connection to the planet, had passed away. There were issues with government interrogations and quarantine and almost everyone involved in the return was eager to leave again. They had wisely chosen to subcutaneously hide a remote to the teleporter and, stuck down in holding cells in Area 51, triggered the device and hoped to hell they were near enough to the transporter to get home.

In their worry, they may have set the boundaries for the device a little too far. They all managed to get back to Terra, and took with them nearly all of Area 51. Weapons depots, personnel, archives, planes, and enough sand and dirt to bury a small town. Luckily they teleported back into a prearranged empty area, though the gross miscalculation of the size wiped out several croplands and killed a family of farmers.

Among the unwilling recruits was an ROTC intern named Mia Moretti. Rammy and Mia became trapped together while attempting to get out of the base. It was the start of a very strange but undeniable relationship.

Not long after, Rambaldi and Zakharov managed to create interdimensional technology in their own universe, enough to make their Alliance aware of the Fleet and open up interdimensional trade, albeit under the same limited technology constraints. The shift ended the full split arrangement and Rammy was free to divide his time between dimensions to his own liking. He was also free to pursue a relationship with Mia. The couple became something of a legend, known for doing it prettymuch anywhere and anytime, regardless of whether or not others were present.

Rammy considered this to be the best time of his life, since he finally had total free reign and power to do whatever he wanted. He married Mia to celebrate his success. It was a short-lived happiness. Less than a month later, a dimensional schism occurred, and in the process of containing the schism Mia was killed. Rammy was devastated. He was given leave for a month until the Second Conference. When the results of the Conference were announced, Rammy did not even have to ask to be reunited with Mia; Dr. Zakharov used his option to bring her back. Happily reunited, the couple decided to go on their honeymoon (which had gotten interrupted the first time). They took up residence on the planet Issheret, where Mia gave birth to a son, Terence Mackensie Ramsay. Initially, Rammy arranged for a 24:1 ratio of time relative to the Neighborhood, so while he and his family spent two years on Issheret, only two months passed in the Neighborhood. He then switched to a flexible rate when he returned to work, spending up to a week's worth of time on Issheret each night and always returning to work at nine in the morning the next day. He became the Orion Team leader for PietTech's research and development, overseeing various projects ranging from weapons design to energy propulsion systems. Thanks to his family's influence, his demeanor mellowed. While he can still be unbearable to work with a lot of the time, he is generally well thought-of by his coworkers.

Three years after Terence Mackenzie's birth (January 2007 real time), Mia became pregnant again. Rammy wanted to spend more time at work and less time on Issheret, going so far as to propose that they move to the Neighborhood, but Mia disliked the idea, very much settled into her life on Issheret. Around this time, Rammy began an affair with the praetorix Empelilu, more commonly known as Sunny. Mia figured it out and demanded a divorce. This resulted in an ugly custody battle in which Mackey was sent to live with his father and the unborn baby's fate left to be decided at the time of her birth. Mia and Rammy are currently not talking. Rammy has moved to the Neighborhood with Mackey.

Terence Mackensie Ramsay - Rammy's son. Conceived (very) shortly after the Second Conference, Mackey is a shy and sweet little boy. When he was four, his parents finalized an ugly divorce, and Mackey was placed under his father's custody. Rammy has been trying to find a way to balance his son and his work without sacrificing either.

Mia Antonia (Moretti) Ramsay - A creative and enthusiastic university student with a penchant for bright hair colors. She was an ROTC intern who accidentally became tangled up in the second sending to Terra, where she immediately deserted her duties for the safest hole she could find, which happened to be the one Rammy was hiding in. Several terrifying and soul-searching hours later, she and Rammy became something of an item. They married shortly before the Second Conference and have a son, Terence Mackensie.

Dr. Rustam Zakharov - Ramsay's alleged best friend, and his right-hand man in the laboratory. Zakharov is the calm counter to the storm that is Ramsay. Their friendship arose more out of mutual situation than personal compatibility, but over time developed into a real friendship. When Ramsay is in trouble, it is usually Zakharov who bails him out, Zakharov who gives him good advice, Zakharov who convinces the involved authorities to not punish Ramsay. During the Fleet years, they were roommates.

Commander Andrew Starkey - Starkey was one of three captains who survived the teleportation of the Area 51 base, but he quickly emerged as the leader thanks to his fast thinking and problem-solving skills. As leader among the military types, Starkey was forced to develop a relationship with Ramsay and bridge the gap between the soldiers and the scientists. Starkey and Ramsay are provisionally friends, who can get along with each other and have a good working relationship and stick up for one another, even if they don't hang in the same social circles. Starkey has mastered the art of dealing with and even controlling Ramsay, to his own considerable amusement.

Known as "Rammy." His "spectacularly awful" name comes down two generations from his great-grandmother, who thought she was being clever when she named her son Randall Raynard Ramsay, a name that starts with three Rs and uses only the A vowel. Her son, possibly to appease his mother, possibly because he agreed that it was so clever, named his son Randall Raynard Ramsay Jr. Junior, appeasing both his father and grandmother, named his son Randall Raynard Ramsay, which is how Rammy ended up with it. The source of the nickname was a misprint on the attendance list the first day of school which left out the S in Ramsay. Rammy, too scared to speak up his first day of school, failed to correct the teacher and it was not until two weeks later that the mistake was discovered. Unfortunately, Rammy's classmates, amused by the teacher's pronunciation of "Ramay," proceeded to tease him and address him by it for the rest of his school life. By second grade it had morphed into "Rammy" and by fifth grade, it had simply become his name, used by friend, foe, and teacher alike.

In the course of his many adventures in the Area 51 Effect, Rammy has been the subject of alien medical treatments and modifications (as all of the humans involved have been) to make it easier for him to live among his alien brethren. These modifications include stomach, lung, and skin linings to allow him to tolerate a greater variance of habitats. Additionally, he has been near-fatally wounded several times and been treated with various alien techniques to the point where his body physically contains enough alien parts to remove his classification as human. For medical purposes, he is classed as a modified mutant, a stigma he has yet to fully live down.