Isambard Steiner

"So... my superiors suggested that I keep a diary-type job in order to keep me sane in times like these, they also asked a 19-year old boy with no discernible superpowers to fight off hordes of Grimm. Perfectly viable plan...shut up."

- Cobalt

''

Cobalt (full name Cobalt Lazarus Ingénieur) is a student at Beacon Academy, and a trainee hazard specialist at S.A.S.H. He currently resides within the Vale Dead Zone, among Amélie Iodes and Eleanor Char.

Appearance
Cobalt is a medium build male with a subtly robotic posture and movement and an unhuman appearance, additionally, he has blue eyes, short, scruffy hair, and a small spiked beard at the chin.

His face is made of white plastic-like material resembling a mask, visibly segmented with black, indented lines; the area below the chin is a matte charcoal.

He is mostly seen wearing a black gas mask, fitted with two respirators and shutters on the lenses that mimic his eye movements. The gas mask features a white design imitating a set of closed jaws with long, triangular teeth, running along the muzzle and respirators, tapering off at the jaws to form a toothy smile.

His outfit draws heavily from cyberpunk and apocalyptic themes, consisting of a blue hooded long coat that hangs down to about knee-length tightened around the limbs by straps. White painted armour is adorned at various points to the coat, with orange stripes painted vertically across each piece. He also wears a chest piece underneath his coat and a silver duffel bag that he uses to store his equipment.

He also wears a dark grey slim fitting boiler suit, additional armour pieces (identical in design to those on his upper body) and boots adorned with straps.

Personality
Cobalt is outwardly creepy: quiet, often mumbling to himself and exhibiting a penchant to appear out of nowhere at times. However, Cobalt displays a pleasant, amicable demeanour to the people he trusts, and a degree of hopefulness people find admirable given his situation.

Cobalt had joined Beacon Academy simply to get out of Atlas, but without a soul, he feared that he would receive similarly harsh treatment to that of his time in S.A.S.H., and as such he keeps his head down most of the time, trying not to piqué the attention of higher-ups in Beacon Academy.

A product of unpleasant treatment being among the lowest ranking members of S.A.S.H., Cobalt is insecure about his ability as a Huntsman, and can overreact to criticism, taking it as contempt, regardless of whether it actually was. This was only reinforced in Beacon Academy, where his inability to produce an aura caused him to struggle as a Huntsman, further drawing (what he assumes as) ostracism from his peers.

He is notably talented when it comes to engineering. He enjoys breaking into (and hopefully improving upon) a complex piece of machinery, and has set up a small workshop in the industrial area of Vale to satisfy his need to tinker and build. He likes to scavenge for anything he can use to tinker with, so he can often be found in the odd scrap heap or ruined structure looking for anything valuable.

Cobalt exhibits a questionable morality, while he does act for good causes, his intentions are often less than noble, often using heroism as an excuse to scavenge where he wouldn't before, usually plundering valuable technologies. Cobalt takes a pragmatic approach to problems, often looking for the most efficient solution to a problem, much to the ire of his colleagues.

As he sees himself as an inferior robotic replica (given he has no aura/soul to speak of), Cobalt suffers from an existential crisis, unsure about whether he is still 'Cobalt', feeling that his personality or skills are not 'genuine', and are only a result of pre-programmed code. Because of this, he tends to deflect praise and make self-deriding comments about himself.

Background
Cobalt is not the original, he is instead an android serving as a bionic surrogate of the original, who is currently being held in stasis after being left in critical condition, for both research purposes and to extort Cobalt into continued loyalty to his company. Cobalt is the first person to receive this treatment, and (as such) is considered the prototype, hence the name "Model 0".

Cobalt is a trainee hazard specialist under the S.A.S.H (Support for Accidents and Specialist Hazards): Atlas' hazard and outbreak management division turned splinter group due to dissension within the Atlas Military since the end of the Great War. S.A.S.H. oppose both the Atlas Military and the idea of Huntsmen, who fear that the lack of regulation will lead to the abuse of the influence and trust they have within society. As of recent years, their means have become increasingly more ruthless.

Life before Beacon
The original Cobalt was born to a human father and faunus mother, named Rhodes and Iris Ingénieur. There is mention of an unnamed brother and sister. Cobalt was raised in the town of Gear, which has seen an increase of its mortality rate from the Schnee Company' presence, despite it's increasingly clean, gentrified appearance

Cobalt joined S.A.S.H. at the age of 17 due to his building horror at the rising damage being done to Gear and its inhabitants by the Atlas Military and Schnee Dust Company. He fears of what both entities' overuse of dust will lead to, hoping to prevent any further damage that could be caused by the Atlas Military and Schnee Dust Company. He was treated as a rookie throughout most of his career, sometimes harshly by higher-ups in the organisation. At most he would shadow other researchers or specialists, and never saw the opportunity to work on his own projects, nor advance in the ranks.

Cracked Sash Incident
Six months before the events of RWBY, assailants of unknown affiliation raided Cobalt's workplace. While S.A.S.H was able to evacuate most of the surviving staff, the building collapsed from the damage sustained during the assault. Due to the amount of destroyed data from multiple S.A.S.H projects and the significant loss of capable members, the incident was dubbed the "Cracked Sash Incident", it was the worst incident that S.A.S.H had suffered in years.

Having been fatally wounded during the attack, he was saved by an unknown group, who transferred his consciousness into a new synthetic body created using DNA from his remains, mixed with much more efficient, prosthetic components. This process came at the cost of Cobalt's soul, still contained within Cobalt's comatose original body it was unable to transfer to the synthetic body, depriving Cobalt of an aura or semblance.

Shortly after recovery, Cobalt recovered what few prototypes survived the Cracked Sash incident, including the last remaining prototype of the "One-to-One" project, and decided to take up research into his own hands, using his own education and career as one long experiment to finish the projects that were lost. The "One-to-One" Project eventually became Cobalt's signature weapon: the "Seraphim".

To avoid further persecution, Cobalt, among some of his fellow students, hid among would-be Huntsmen at academies (via forged entry papers) while S.A.S.H. recuperated from the losses from the Cracked Sash Incident; the irony was not lost on them, but seldom academies outside of S.A.S.H. offered similar training.

Post-Fall of Beacon (between Volumes III - V)
He remained in Vale after the Fall of Beacon due to orders from S.A.S.H, who wanted to capitalise on the attack (as well as the damaged reputation of the Atlas Military) to rebuild reputation and trust with the public. Cobalt, promised he would be given his soul back, agreed to research rumours that Beacon Academy had created technology capable of transferring souls between bodies as well as harbouring a Maiden. When faced with the true extent of the Grimm attack on Vale, Cobalt refocused his efforts towards helping those affected by the Grimm attacks retake their homes and rebuild Vale.

Abilities
"Cobalt's fighting style centres around unpredictability, modular weaponry and a rapidly changing arsenal. Quickly switching between different fighting techniques to confuse his enemies, a high damage output and an uncanny ability to avoid damage are his key assets to surviving encounters without a protective aura."

As an android, Cobalt has no soul, hence, he is unable to generate a semblance or aura, rendering him fragile, one hit and he risks fatal damage. Additionally, he cannot receive healing from aura based sources. Cobalt is capable of using dust, but only through the use of bullets or charges, lacking any semblance to empower with dust.

His prostheses allow him to wield most weapons with mechanical precision, improve his natural resilience and lend him an uncanny ability to dodge. His wide arsenal of gadgets allow him to sweep the field with area of effect destruction while his protective coat and gas mask allow him to enter the fray without fear of harming himself with his own attacks, immunising him from toxins, explosions and extreme conditions.

Cobalt's Arsenal
To compensate for his lack of an aura and semblance, Cobalt keeps a wide array of weapons on his person in combat, and are collectively known as "Cobalt's Arsenal".

S-121(P) "Seraphim" Support Drone Control System
(Weapon Derivation: Yo-yo, Sentry Drone, Explosive)

The "Seraphim" Support Drone Control System (abbreviated S.D.C.S.) are the result of the recovered "One-to-One" Project data. The Seraphim S.D.C.S allows Cobalt to direct a squadron of eight deploy-able drones, or take control of machines in his vicinity. The weapon also has Cobalt's scroll integrated into the hardware, with the screen projected as a hologram. While active, the drones will orbit around Cobalt until given an order.

Cobalt can deploy his drones in three configurations: Outside of battle, the drones will attach to the bag that Cobalt normally wears, and will recharge and repair in this state. The drones can either be reattached manually, or automatically hover back to the bag.
 * Spinner:- The drone's default configuration, disc-shaped drones used in the style of a yo-yo to deal damage; Cobalt can handle all eight drones simultaneously to unleash a barrage of attacks.
 * Sentry:- Remains stationary in an area, firing pulses of dust at any enemy within it's range in a similar fashion to the Elysium.
 * Pulse Drum:- Emits powerful shock waves to disorient targets, deflect large projectiles (e.g. rockets or chunks of debris) or launch the user into the air.

Elysium - "Dust Caster" Personal Defence Weapon
(Weapon Derivation: Marksman Rifle, Laser, Shotgun, Flamethrower)

For combat without his drones, Cobalt carries the Elysium, a modified version of the assault rifle models employed by Atlas Soldiers. Cobalt has modified the rifle to instead output a highly potent stream of energised dust that capable of firing pulses of dust in varying forms: For close combat, a greatly strengthened casing and a handle like railing attached to the weapon offer effective use as a club, which can capitalise on opponents disoriented by his drones.
 * Caster:- A flamethrower that outputs a short-range cone of dust similar to a flamethrower's portrayal in media, although a longer, arcing stream indicative of a true to life flamethrowers is possible.
 * Splitter:- Shotgun-like firing mode that allows the user to quickly fire two bursts of dust before cycling the next shot. Firing both barrels simultaneously can propel the user or a target (if it's light enough).
 * Spur:- A semi-automatic firing mode that releases fast pulses of dust, charging the weapon by injecting more dust creates a much more powerful laser-like shot capable of penetrating targets.

Trivia

 * Cobalt's name alludes to the colour Cobalt Blue, while his surname is French for "Engineer".
 * The element Cobalt is also used in a variety of engineering purposes, namely super-alloys, batteries and magnets.
 * Cobalt's Parents, Iris and Rhodes, are references to the elements Iridium and Rhodium respectively, which share the same group as the element Cobalt on the Periodic Table.
 * The drones deployed by the Seraphim S.D.C.S are known as "Seraphs" (singular Seraph). In literature, Seraphim are angels that circle the throne of God crying "holy, holy, holy".
 * The Elysium PDW's name derives from the Elysian Fields (shortened Elysium) in Greek mythology, said to be where the heroic and virtuous go to continue on the professions they cherished the most. It draws parallels to Cobalt's condition: where by dying, he could practice his profession at a more meaningful level.