Name: Francesca Testarossa
Alias: Fran-chan
Age: 10
Birthday: Feb 8
Height: Petite, DFC and "loli"
Rank: Captain (OF-2)
Hair: Long flowing blonde, tied into 2 giant pigtails by the sides of her head.
Usual wear: Brown Liberian Army Air Corps uniform, Barrier Jacket
Likes: Singing
VA: Nana Mizuki (and her songs! <3)
Country: Romagna-Liberion dual citizenship
Striker Unit: Neuroi Fighter-class "Rallos"
Armanents: Warscythe "Bardiche", Thompson NEPMOD rifle, signal set
Stratagem: Signals, ECM, ECCM. Fast Attack.
Anima features: Pointed canine ears and bushy tail
Familiar: Arf, the "fox-colored" wolf.
Basis:
Enforcer Fate T.Hallaoun
Background
Francesca Testarossa is a young Witch of the second generation of rookies taken up by the ATX team. She is also the younger sister of twin Alicia, and both girls were in the care of their mother Precia. Mrs Testarossa was one of Romagna’s top brains in high-energy research prior to the 2nd Neuroi War, with papers earning accolades from many geniuses, including Karsland’s Alberta Einstein. While Alicia demonstrated tremendous aptitude in mathematics and the sciences in her age, Fran herself was much more musically-inclined, and prior to the war was attending the
Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi while Alicia was mentored by her mother.
The Testarossas fled from Romagna during the height of the Neuroi blitz to Liberion. They made the choice as Liberion was the country of origin of the widower's husband, and had been in and out of the nation for scientific symposiums.
Unfortunately, mother and sister became separated from the older sibling in the midst of the evacuation chaos. It traumatized Precia greatly and for a period of time she and Fran were searching the streets of New York for signs of their lost daughter. As the fruitless efforts came to pass, Precia sunk deeper and deeper into depression, and Fran even more desperate to help her mother through.
A friend recommended Precia to a research fellow in hope of getting her to meet people and get some air, and the word, backed by her renown, bounced around until Project-X offered her a job on the newly-opened Super Robot Project X (SRX) Team. At first Precia was hesitant of leaving New York for the new post, but Fran convinced her to try going back to doing what she loved as Precia’s dark moods were becoming worse and worse. Fran would continue to search for Alicia in her stead.
While the family was being settled in in Washington, project chief Rakshata Chawla noticed that Fran’s voice had a special quality to it, and had the girl tested. It was then that Fran’s magical abilities were discovered, and the girl recruited into the project’s list of test witches. Rakshata promised to scour Liberion for any signs of Alicia and did her best to shore up support for Precia and Fran. While they remained worried about Alicia, the way Rakshata integrated the distraught family into the Project-X network and the friendship she gave afforded them some peace of mind.
No matter where she was, Fran would call the SRX institute often or at least send a telegram to her mother. Hence if she's not to be found in the base, she's probably at Signals.
Taking Flight
One of Fran's first magical feats was to summon her own familiar. Arf, a wolf with the fur color of a fox, was born and the strange creature puzzled Fran's caretakers when they tried to figure out what it was based on, if not a chimaera. It was a cuddly and hyperactive creature, in much contrast to it's refined and introverted mistress, and would be Fran's faithful companion. Arf was very special, the amount of magic in her allowed her to attain incredible feats like being able to speak out loud and, one day, transforming into a vivacious werewolf. The SRX research team lapped it all up, proud of their little girl becoming such a powerful mage.
To let her remain close to her mother, Francesca was first a test witch for the secret SRX division. As such, she was given equipment engineered from the ground up with technology gleaned from Neuroi studies. Underneath her Liberion Army Air Corps uniform, Fran wears a special protective armor called a Barrier Jacket, a smart garment based off Neuroidermis. Her Striker Unit was built around the Neuroi drive (as opposed to ATX’s Striker Unit modifications to include the drive), and her transforming warscythe dubbed “Bardiche” was fashioned out of artificial Neuroichondrosis. All of her gear had no human equivalent, even her Thompson SMG lookalike is actually a gauss weapon carried by some humanoid Neuroi.
All this was possible as Neuroi power does not come from the Core alone. It has a fully compliment energy system used to run the entire craft, with the Core forming only the "intelligence" and stablization system so that the energies don't tear itself apart. Liberion, Karsland, Fuso and Britainnia jointly worked on WARLOCK, but each had different takes on how the findings could be applied. Britainnia, eager to charge ahead, built a remotely-controlled Neuroi drone, using the system lock, stock and barrel, hence having vulnerabilities like loss of control. For Liberion, they were patient, and Rakshata eventually managed to reverse engineer only the advanced stabilization system and not the intelligence. Together with knowledge from WARLOCK, the SRX created "dumb" but functional Neuroi organ systems like Neuroidermis and Neuroichondrosis that could be harnessed for human use simply by making the human the "brain".
For all her advanced gear, Fran lacked experience, and when pressure from above finally pried the girl from Rakshata's grasp, the chief maneuvered her into the frontline (yet not so frontline) ATX team for training.
The ATX team found their new Strike Witch to be a very quiet but likeable girl who has a surprisingly strong singing voice. Having been used to clinging to an older sibling, she eventually came to stick to Antoinette on and off the field. Whether the older girl noticed or not, Anita is often seen doting on the small girl, possibly from her background as the eldest of the Saint-Exupery brood. Fran also lacks confidence in her own combat abilities, and it would be something the ATX is still trying to get her to overcome.
Magical Ability: Acoustica Nightingale
While she emphasizes speed and striking power, Fran is best with her voice. Boosted by her Striker, she can effortlessly project her song across an entire battlefield with an enchanted soundwave that is resistant to dying off. It has remarkable effects based on her mood; it can inspire the hopeless, rouse the despaired, calm the frightened and give the quagmired land forces below the bravado to do many feats.
Another effect of ability is to project what she hears to others on the same radio network and hence she is the signals node of the ATX team.
The most prized effect of her song is that it causes the Neuroi to become disorganized; the researchers hypothesized that the song possibly inferferes with their links to the Hive Mind and forces them to rely on their own, simpler and defeatable intelligences. Under the cover of her revolutionary music, the ATX team can sweep in and decimate a superior force.
By 1945, with the retiring of their wing leader Illya, Kirby and Antoinette were moved up to 1 and 2ICs, and Fran was permanently rostered into ATX's wing.
Random Images
Fran testing the Barrier Jacket
No explanation has been given by the SRX project for having managed to take this photograph.