Core Space - Crew of the Yamato

Here I present the final of the six crews who are part of the Core Space sci-fi skirmish game by Battle Systems Ltd. This means that I have painted all of the figures supplied with the starter boxed set and supplements, which is always a great feeling.

Captain Johann Weiss, a 50-year old human, served the military of his homeworld faithfully for thirty years but was retired against his will due to cutbacks. Knowing only how to be a soldier he struggled to adapt to civilian life. Feeling both betrayed and lost he drifted on the fringes, moving from system to system attempting to find a commission as a soldier in a different military. The Galactic Corps beckoned but he'd never liked the look of it.
Weiss found work amongst the Traders mostly as a pilot, and eventually took the command of the Yamato where he has made a new life for himself. He still has a stiff military bearing but has learned  that his crew aren't soldiers and that sometimes a soft approach works better than barking orders.He is in general an avuncular man but with tendencies to brood.

Alecia Tunde is a 22-year old human who was fast heading for trouble. Loud mouthed and scornful of authority as a child she passed from one institution to another before being dumped out in the cold on her sixteenth birthday. She moved from one gang to another trying to find a family but soon realised that she wasn't cold or hard enough for that life. Brutality was common and criminality expected, but by then she had nowhere else to go.
Eventually Weiss caught her in a botched attempt to steal cargo from the Yamato. Weiss didn't see a hardened criminal, just a scared child, so instead of handing her over to the local security he offered her a job. Leaving the gang was no hardship and she settled in quickly and found she had a talent for engineering. Although she would never admit it openly, she sees Weiss as the father she never had.

Third in line is Ellen Koharu, a 36-year old human. Although looking little more than a child Ellen has had a long and hard life as a mercenary. She ran guns through the most dangerous sectors of the galaxy and considers the borders of Purge space to be just another job. She struck on the idea of selling her skills as "Beast and Master" when she found the  broken wreck of a Merg living in a freak show.
Ellen learned to control the "beast" via a neural network patched directly to her  bracelets. In reality the relationship is far more symbiotic and over the years the beast, a Merg called Brutus, has become, in many ways, an extension of herself. The responsibility of this relationship has softened her slightly but you wouldn't know it if you met her in a firefight.

Brutus  is a large and powerful being from a species known as the Merg. He has an intelligence on a par with a higher primate and is able to articulate his thoughts and feelings in a fashion, but on the whole keeps his own counsel. Mentally he is like a child who needs comfort and security but will fly into a destructive rage if handled poorly.
He was a broken wreck after several years of abuse before Ellen found him. He accepts Ellen's control and without her guidance would succumb to the destructive nature that caused his species to be hunted to near extinction. Brutus is near uncontrollable when riled and the empathic link is broken. He may take a new link from someone other than Ellen, but this is highly unlikely. The rest of the crew keep their distance from him, regarding him as a trained attack dog that could turn savage at any moment.