Scars of Glory?

well, of all of the ladies of the Prescian 38th that I least expected to draw nude, Sereph was it. Of course, exactly WHY was also the reason I pretty much had to do so.

Sereph is somewhat unique among the ladies in that she never really had any real unresolved issues from her homeworld. she was always kind of an outsider, she knew pretty early where she was headed, but thats about it. It wouldn't be too inaccurate to say that Sereph largely didn't exist until the Regiment, she was there, but not really. She was that person you sorta vaguely remember as being in one or two of your classes in school, and oh whatever happened to her....if you were shown her picture, otherwise, she left about as much of an imprint in the world as a feather on concrete.

Sereph really came into her own in the regiment. She was disciplined, smart, hard working, and dedicated. she was aloof, and often considered cold amongst the other girls, but her squadmates were all fiercely loyal to her, because she was one of those shining gems of a squad leader that led by example. she'd never ask a squadmate to do what she wouldn't do first, and protected those under her charge with the fierceness of a mother wolverine. Still, outside of battle, no one could claim to know anything about her. There were, in fact, at least 2 pools floating around as to whether she was even gay, or if she just really really wanted to be a bad ass warrior chick and joining the Lesbian Regiment was the only way to do it. Certainly she'd never been seen in the company of another woman, or man for that matter.

Sgt. Sereph's squad had the misfortune of taking a building that the Chaos forces wanted desperately. The squad never even learned what made that building so important, only receiving the orders "hold that building no matter the cost". And costly it was. Sgt. Sereph was known to be a tough, no nonsense, get it done leader, and her squad rose to the challenge, barricading the doors with furniture, interior doors, anything they could find, and when that barricade fell, they plugged the holes with the corpses of the enemy. The Chaos forces paid dearly for every step forward they made, but in the end they were hundreds against a dozen, and when the Regiment broke their backs and relieved Sgt. Sereph's squad, Sereph was the only one alive. and that was barely.

It was only after Sereph awoke from her coma (surviving only because the Col. commandeered the planetary governor's private surgeon and an entire ward of the capital hospital) that she learned what was in that building she and her squadmates held so dearly. a couple generations prior, the then planetary governor had secretly build a doomsday weapon, a last resort against losing the planet to the Emperor's enemies, a weapon that would wipe the capital, and most of the planet from the surface. Unfortunately, the current governor had never been told about it, the IG never heard of it, but somehow the Chaos forces learned of it. had they managed to secure that weapon, the entire planet would have been lost to the Imperium.

Sereph survived, and was promoted to Lieutenant, and given command of the Col.'s pet project, a largely autonomous kill team tasked to do the most dangerous dirty jobs, usually behind enemy lines. Sereph had the skill, and obviously the toughness required for the post, and the Col hoped she still had the will. the one thing that Sereph lacked was the ability to bond with her squadmates, not in the closeness demanded by such a tight knit team as this needed. So the Col took a gamble and pulled Sereph off medical rest early (much earlier than the doctors would have wanted) in hopes that a certain devious and slightly mercenary bespeckled lady would slip through her cracked armour before she could repair them fully.

Sereph is the oldest kill team character in terms of creation. I'm a bit fuzzy on when I thought of her, but her and Specs appeared almost at the same time. originally there was no regiment, it certainly wasn't IG, and they were merely an all female squad in a base on some ice planet in the galactic boondocks. Sereph was a scrappy short but heavily scarred sgt. and specs was a shy bookish nerd with a love for knives. there's been a lot of shuffling, changing, and pure tossed in the bin character development since then, and overall I'm much happier with the path they've taken.