Premise:
Caden
O’Connell, a young leader in the SAR, has been assigned the task of assembling
a new, sort of “elite” rescue team that will operate in the wilderness of
Colorado. Despite the numerous teams that already exist there, the committee
believes that there should be an all basis team: one that can cover every
aspect of nature, including ground pursuit, water pursuit, avalanche rescue,
mountain rescue, survival, fire-fighting, medical training, et cetera. Caden
could pick and choose who she wanted on the team, but she had to get enough
people to cover all the bases or they couldn’t be activated. The whole team
also has to pass basic training and be fairly adept at all angles, though the
team should have one specialist for each field. The people she chose for the
task may be rather unorthodox, even dangerous to themselves at times, but they
always get the job done. Together, they are the “Magnificent Seven.”
Specialties: Fire-Fighting, ground pursuit
Background: Caprice became involved with fire
fighting when she volunteered when she was a teen at her local department in
South Los Angeles. She loved watching the fires and had a great respect for it,
ever since she had seen it up close while trying to rescue someone’s kid from
an apartment fire. The fire had consumed most of the building and no one
thought that she would survive if she went in, but she survived and managed to
rescue the kid. At that moment, she realized that she liked saving lives, even
if she didn’t particularly like people to begin with, she liked the idea of
people being indebted to her for life. Caprice gained knowledge of ground
pursuit and tracking when she had to go through SAR training and discovered she
had a real knack for noticing small things and tracks in the woods. Also, she
had a very good sense of direction and loves hiking.
Specialties: climbing, off-road driving
Background: Lore’s family came from Dallas to
the Rockies when her father claimed that the city was causing him to die a slow
death. Her mother wasn’t too pleased with the location since she didn’t
particularly like the cold, but agreed to go because her job as a secretary was
getting too stressful. Once they settled in Alamosa, CO, Lore’s dad became
enthralled with the outdoors, wanting to buy anything having to do with it,
getting into hiking, rock climbing, and pretty much anything else having to do
with outdoor sports. So, naturally wanting to share his newfound joy, he opened
a sports store that sold everything from provisions to backpacks and equipment,
and recently added an indoor climbing gym and started giving lessons. Lore
already had a love for adventure and the outdoors, and took as much time as
possible to go exploring into it, which is how she became experienced in
off-roading.
Specialties: advanced medical knowledge
Background: Devin originally planned on pursuing
a career in medicine and was extremely close to earning her doctorate in
practical med when her brother was killed in a climbing accident. She gave up
being a doctor, deciding that she couldn’t be of much help after the accident
had already happened and that she could benefit the victims more if she were on
the scene immediately, instead of waiting until they got to the hospital. Devin
got into SAR when she was contacted by Caprice telling her that their new SAR
team, based in the Colorado Rockies, needed an experienced medic. Their leader
had already assembled the rest of the team, but they couldn’t go to work until
they found someone with medical training beyond that of basic CPR and emergency
care. Devin even had some experience with actual wilderness survival, but
prefers not to go out into danger, instead preferring to stay onboard the
chopper or truck so she can treat the victims as they come. Because of her
previous standing as a doctor, she doesn’t like taking orders, especially from
people younger than herself (which includes Caden, Quinn, Indigo, Lore, and
Caprice) when they’re trying to tell her what to do.
Specialties: tracking, wilderness survival,
navigation
Background: Has been raised in the wilderness by
her survivalist father after her mother left them. Deidra was taught by her
father how to survive in the wilderness, including how to hunt and how to
track. In fact, Deidra probably knows most of the Western mountain range better
than anyone alive. Once grown up, Deidra became sort of a wandering gypsy,
traveling alone through the mountains in Montana and Wyoming, where she was
born and raised. Often while traveling, Deidra helps out lost, stranded, or
injured hikers that she meets along the way. Usually, if Deidra had not
intervened, the hikers would have died. Despite her lack of official schooling,
Deidra managed to educate herself, with help from her father, on how to read,
write, and number crunch. Usually she reads philosophy, and it shows in her
outtake on life. Deidra is very relaxed and dreamy when it comes to dealing
with the real world, and it helps in the hard rescue times where the victims
start to panic. Caden and Deidra literally bumped into one another while Caden
was on vacation hiking in Montana, and the two became fast friends, despite the
opposite personalities. She was the first person Caden asked to join the SAR
team.
Specialties: water pursuit, technology, slight
experience with piloting
Background: Her parents owned a marina down off
the coast of Florida, so Quinn always had ready access to the water. She
learned to drive a boat before a car, and has always suffered from “land
sickness”. While on dry land, Quinn has the tendency to sway back and forth
instead of perfectly still because she is so used to the rocking of a boat.
Quinn is also an excellent swimmer, and worked as a lifeguard for most of her
teen years, where she got her first dose of SAR training, and then joined the
Coast Guard reserve. After getting out of the USCG, Quinn relocated to Saint
Maartin, working in a dive shop and as local rescue leader. Caden got her name
as a reference from the Coast Guard, and Quinn accepted the invitation to join
the rapidly growing team because she knew of Caden’s reputation as a SAR
leader.
Specialties: ground pursuit, technology
Background: Parents were rich computer
designers, who made computers for large companies and made a fortune. She grew
up sheltered and never experiencing much of anything, except the inside of her
parents company and the mansion. Her parents didn’t think it was safe enough to
entrust their youngest child to go off into the wild unknown, instead insisting
the only world that she needed to know how to survive was the corporate one.
Indigo’s only contact to nature was through the gardens at her parents’ house.
Whenever Indigo would lash out, the family lawyer would come bail her out, so
she never learned to take responsibility for her actions. Surprise, surprise,
her parents decided that she needed to learn responsibility and signed her on
to the SAR prep-team that Caden was starting since they knew of her reputation
and no-nonsense attitude. Indigo does have one special talent: she can find
anything, anywhere. Her specialty seems to be in finding lost or injured hikers
in the woods because she knows how an inexperienced hiker would think, since
she is one herself. She also has experience off-road driving and with
computers, so Caden keeps her mostly behind the wheel of a car or the computer
to keep her where she can do the least amount of damage. Unfortunately,
Caprice, and Devin took an immediate disliking to Indigo because they think she
is a spoiled brat who bought her way onto the team. Caden and the others have
taken it upon themselves to teach her the ropes. As a rookie, Indigo is
constantly trying to prove herself.
Specialties: piloting, mountain rescue (survival,
climbing, k-9 search)
Background: Caden comes from a varied
background. Her parents were practically nomadic, moving every few years
because they didn’t like to live in the same place for a long time. Her mother
and father always encouraged her to do new and interesting things, which is how
she became involved with mountain climbing and the K-9 unit. When she was
fifteen, she learned how to fly a helicopter from her uncle who served in the
USGC, and has loved it ever since. Caden is very much at home in the outdoors,
almost never returning to the city, or sometimes not even to town if she can
help it. Caden also learned how to rock climb along with mountain survival from
her dad before she was too old. Despite her rather young age in the field, Caden
is respected because of her excellent track record for bringing back almost
everyone she’s gone after, even if she does resent authority and has a penchant
for disregarding what her superiors tell her and goes in anyway. Caden has a
short patience; however, she keeps her head in emergency situation. One day,
she hopes to be the next “MacGyver.”
