Description[]
Cortex is about as confused about who he is as he is about the role he fills, but whatever he is, it works. Half brain and half machine, Cortex is also split on his function. Cortex can heal allied rigs for a percentage of the ability damage he deals, allowing him to both melt Kavash as well as heal his more meaty allies. And don't worry, despite being a mechanic, Cortex has no lack of firepower. Cortex's ultimate calls down a flurry of drone strikes that carpet bomb enemy targets in the area. By that measurement, Cortex is both the greatest doctor and murderer in the history of Europa.
Bio[]
As Professor Alfie Montjoy, Cortex was a leading member of the 'DOC' (Drauger Ops Center) psychological warfare team deployed to Europa to help counter the earliest Kavash attacks. It was his job to determine whether the Drauger representatives could reason with the hostile aliens, or if all hope of diplomacy or containment was lost; such an outcome would put the Core project, and all future Jupiter missions, in jeopardy. After crunching the numbers and running simulation after simulation, Montjoy took it upon himself to travel to the surface of Europa to get a closer view of his subjects. He was attacked immediately by Kavash and his body torn apart. Luckily, a salvage team was able to recover his brain and nervous system and sell it to the highest bidder.
A transhumanist sect known as Axon purchased Cortex’s remains and used them in Project Vital, the first crude attempts to engineer rig pilots from damaged brain matter supplemented with computer AI. It was a huge failure. (Like, really bad.) Cortex’s human and computer halves seemed incapable of coming to agreement on basic actions, and the resulting choice-paralysis rendered him useless. He also had trouble distinguishing between the past and the present, haunted by memories of his past life as Alfie Montjoy. Project Vital was scrapped, making Cortex the only one of his kind and a novelty wherever he went.
Despite his personal setbacks, Cortex has been able to leverage his knowledge of the Kavash to build a career as a second-rate Core hunter. His programming usually guides him, giving him some structure in a complicated existence, but his humanity often comes through when he least expects it.
Default Loadout[]
| Gear | |
|---|---|
| Weapon |  |
 | |
| Body |   |
  | |
| Utility |   |
  | |
| Ultimate | ||
|---|---|---|
| Drone Strikes |  |
  |
| Software | ||
|---|---|---|
| Class |   |
  |
| Offensive |   |
  |
| Sensor |   |
  |
Progress[]
| Level | Blueprint | Level | Blueprint | Level | Bluepr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - - - | 6 | Acid Cannon | 11 | Thermal Imaging |
| 2 | Napalm Canisters | 7 | Core Hammer | 12 | Intelligence Grid |
| 3 | Amplified Repair | 8 | Nanite Ray | 13 | Capacity Overload |
| 4 | Emergency Reserves | 9 | Heat Cycler | 14 | Surge Amplifier |
| 5 | Rugged Capacitors | 10 | Glob Launcher | 15 | Repair Bubble |