Southern Cross Who's Who - Anna Marie Tessier

Personality

Due to the harsh social surroundings of her childhood, Anna generally appears shy, quiet and unassuming. Growing up in Soviet-occupied territory, and viewed with suspicion by most, Anna learned to be sneaky and deceptive early on, traits that her guerrilla training in disguise and infiltration helped emphasize. Anna is slow to let others get close to her, but once she has she will show great loyalty to them. She values true friendships, and those few who she does let get close see the brave and passionate, if occasionally eccentric, young woman beneath the carefully constructed facades. The only thing stronger than her loyalty to her friends is her love of her family. Her most treasured possession is a photograph taken of the family from just before her sister left - one of the last times all four of them were all together.

Biography

Anna is the younger sister of Marie Helene Tessier, better known as Cassandra "Copycat" Cormier of the 21st ATAC. Anna was born in the refugee camps of Copenhagen and was only two when her family was forced to leave when her father was accused of hoarding relief supplies. Their parents took Helene and Anna and fled across the border into EBSIS-controlled Germany. Life was not much better for them there, crammed into a one-bedroom apartment in New Berlin, Anna's mother and father forced to work the most menial jobs because the authorities suspected them of being spies for the United Earth Government. Anna was twelve when she last saw her sister. Tired of the oppression and misery, Helene had decided to sneak back into the UEG territory, hoping to find a better life and raise enough money to bring the rest of her family back across as well. Anna never saw her sister again, and it was almost another ten years before she would learn Helene's fate.

Ostracized by her peers because of her family, Anna became withdrawn. Some of her teachers took sympathy, though, and encouraged her artistic and athletic skills. A pair of those teachers had connections with the burgeoning German resistance movement and helped recruit Anna into the underground when she was sixteen. One of the teachers, Heinrich Kleisser, would become Anna's mentor and teach her a whole new set of skills, none of which are part of the normal school curriculum. Anna's new training would take her natural charisma and gymnastic skills and turn her into an expert at disguise, infiltration and sabotage. Anna's association with the resistance meant she had little contact with her parents. She was not alone, her other teacher, Katrin Schmidt, and one of the veteran members of the underground, Josephine Reinstadt, became a pair of foster mothers for the teenager. Anna also found love, but the relationship was cut short when her lover was killed by a cave-in of one of the underground tunnels used by the resistance. The resistance moved into high gear when former Soviet mecha ace Mikhail Krueger, having been a member of the resistance before being drafted by the EBSIS, returns to Germany and rejoins the underground. Anna finds herself putting her training to use and proves herself to be a valuable asset to the resistance, enough so that Krueger treats her as one of his most trusted operatives.

When Krueger brings the 21st ATAC in to help train the resistance to use weapons supplied by the UEG, several squad members note the resemblance of Anna to Copycat. Anna finally learns what happened to her sister and the 21st learn the truth behind Copycat's reluctance to discuss her history. When the 21st are ready to leave Germany, Anna convinces them to take her and her parents with them back to Scandinavia Quadrant. In exchange, Anna offers to take her sisters place as a member of the Blackjacks. The 21st are happy to have Anna join and convince their superiors to allow it. Once her parents are safe in Stockholm, Anna joins the 21st on board the submersible SLV Ulysses as it continues its global recon mission. During the weeks that follow, Anna takes a crash course in becoming a mecha pilot and by the time the Ulysses finishes its journey she is a qualified hovertank jockey.

Call Sign: Like the other new members of the 21st A.T.A.C., Anna has yet to take on a call sign.

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