Primus Antonia Lutatia
| Name | Antonia Lutatia |
|---|---|
| Title | Primus |
| Date of Birth | 22.10.31132 |
| Planet of Origin | Ravenna |
| Affiliation | Umbrian Republic Army |
Antonia Lutatia is a young officer responsible for leading one of four cohorts of Gaius Aurelius Marcellus's vaunted Praetorians. Given the toughest of assignments by their commander, Antonia and her peers are responsible for achieving results, no matter the strength of the opposition. Antonia has earned her place amongst her fellow Primes, rising from the ranks of the enlisted and earning a battlefield commission through her aggressive tactics and willingness to do whatever it takes to complete her mission.
Antonia was born on the world of Ravenna to a single mother who struggled with drug abuse. Antonia would have a difficult upbringing, consistently falling afoul of the law. She would drop out of secondary school, caring little for the larger goings-on around her, and spent six months in a juvenile detention facility for taking a hover truck for a joyride.
The final straw would come when Antonia and a crew of fellow misfits attempted to steal a light freighter. The judge presiding over her case gave her two options, either join the Republic military or spend the next ten years in jail.
A defiant Antonia chose the former, but when she approached a URA recruiter, he coolly turned her away, stating that the Army required its recruits to have at least completed their secondary schooling.
Lutatia reached an agreement with the judge, who gave her six months to prepare for and pass the required proficiency tests. Antonia buckled down and worked harder than she ever had before. She registered to take the tests with a month and a half to spare. When her results came back, she was heartbroken to find that she'd failed.
Having hit rock bottom, Antonia begged the judge for another chance. The woman was firm but fair. If Antonia could reschedule and pass her assessments within the initial six months specified, she could still avoid prison.
Lutatia doubled down, spending all of her free time studying, essentially living at her local public library. With just a week to spare, she retook her exams and passed. The Army recruiter begrudgingly welcomed her into the service, and Lutatia headed off to basic training.
While Antonia had been generally aware of the ongoing war against the Ascomanni, she only belatedly realized that her choice would now most likely take her to some distant battlefield where she would face mortal peril. Still, like many of the young recruits she met on the journey, she was confident that she could overcome whatever challenges they would face.
Bootcamp would prove to be difficult for Antonia, where she struggled with the strict discipline expected from all recruits. Again, she found herself in hot water on numerous occasions. Slowly but surely, however, Antonia began to fall in line. She found that she had a surprisingly strong technical aptitude, and she took to the more skilled portions of her training with great alacrity. Even though her instructors had misgivings about her past instances of ill-discipline, she was selected for additional proficiency training in battlefield communications.
After a few months of additional training, she graduated as an Optio First Class, and was assigned to the Forty-Sixth Legion. She would join the unit just in time to participate in her first minor skirmish, proving herself capable in her first trial by fire.
More combat would come soon, as the Forty-Sixth headed to the embattled planet of Leciri in a desperate bid to save the civilian populace. Her commanding officer would be killed during the initial push to the planet's capital, and command of her century would fall to her.
It would be in the bloody streets of Parvo Vera that the young Optio would meet Salvius Sextus, commanding a cohort of Umbrian battle tanks. Antonia voluntarily attached her soldiers to his command, helping the older officer fend off a number of probing attacks on the city's limits. As the battle turned against the Umbrians, the two would make a desperate final stand defending the perimeter of the extraction point, before another Umbrian unit sacrificed themselves to buy them sufficient time to make their escape.
Having been recognized for her outstanding performance, and due to the extreme rate of casualties amongst the legion's junior officers, Antonia would receive a very rare battlefield commission, obtaining the rank of centurion. Her cohort would be detached from the Forty-Sixth and sent on a special assignment to destroy the Ascomanni presence on the fallen colony world of Tivoli.
The mission went sideways from the very beginning. The task force from the Fifth Fleet which was supposed to provide overhead security for their unit was immediately driven off by Ascomanni reserve units. While Antonia and her soldiers were able to destroy the Ascomanni presence, it looked like theirs would be a one way trip.
Antonia positioned her soldiers as best she could, but wave after wave of Asco infantry assaulted their redoubt. The situation was hopeless, but Antonia kept her troopers fighting. They would be saved by URN reinforcements, which arrived in the nick of time. On the verge of being overwhelmed, Antonia called in fire support on her position.
When the dust settled, a few dozen of Antonia's soldiers had survived, but their leader had been badly wounded.
Antonia would spend the next nine months recovering from her wounds and going through physical therapy. She was surprised to find that she'd been promoted to the rank of Primus, and a chance encounter with an old associate, Salvius Sextus, would lead her to her join Praetor Gaius Aurelius Marcellus's praetorian guards. Together they would soon deploy for Aetnaeus, ready to repel another alien assault.