Jessica

Jessica (ジェシカ, Jeshika) is a character in Black★★Rock Shooter DAWN FALL and Black★★Rock Shooter BEFORE DAWN. She is the Colonel's wife and the mother of Charlotte.

History
Jessica graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in organometallic chemistry and nanotechnology. She was initially recruited by Hemiteos Unit research institute as a candidate for Hemiteos Unit conversion, and was given the codename "Stella", but she failed to exhibit superhuman capabilities as the researchers discovered that Jessica was too old for her dominant HET-1 genes to activate. Nevertheless, the research institute valued her wealth in knowledge and expertise, and therefore she was recruited as a researcher at Lighthouse No. 1 instead. She also began dating a soldier from Peacebuilding Forces around that time. Rumors of their relationship spread, and Ahmed Kanu cautioned Jessica to keep her role in Project Elysion a secret, even from the Peacebuiding Force soldiers.

Jessica was eventually transferred to Lighthouse No. 8, where she continued to work as a Hemiteos Unit researcher in addition to her role as a teacher for orphans potentially suitable as candidates for the Hemiteos Unit program. By that time she was already married to the soldier she dated with and had a daughter named Charlotte. One day, she accepted a nameless orphans and named her Empress based on the tarot card that she drew from Jessica's deck. Empress, together with other orphans named Dead Master and Strength, would become Type 01 Series Hemiteos Units and underwent training under Jessica's supervision. As time passed, Jessica became closer and closer to the trio to the point that she began thinking of them as sisters to her own daughter, hoping that they would never need to head for battles.

However, much to Jessica's despair, all combat capable Hemiteos Units had to be deployed against the rampaging Unmanned Forces when the AI core of the Project Elysion, Artemis, went rogue and turned against mankind. The Peacebuilding Forces also considered having Jessica to undergo a reconfiguration, but that plan was stopped when all deployed Hemiteos Units were defeated in battle, and as a result the Hemiteos Unit program was abandoned by 2051. Jessica would then live a with her daughter and husband in camps away from Unmanned Forces' attacks while concealing her past connection with Hemiteos program from her family.

Despite Jessica's efforts, her connection to the Hemiteos Unit program was found out by the Education Institution, who then seized her and Charlotte in a raid. Their leader Smiley demanded Jessica to convert Charlotte into a Hemiteos Unit, but Jessica secretly sabotaged the process by installing a virus. The mother and daughter tried to escape, but had nowhere to go, and in a desperate measure, Jessica tried to kill her daughter in order to not let the Education Institution to make use of her, but that failed as well. Ultimately Jessica ended her life by falling off from the Education Institution's mobile base.

The database in Peacebuilding Force Memorial Library showed no records of Jessica working for the Hemiteos Unit program. . Her husband, Monica Kaburagi, Empress, and Dead Master only discovered this revelation in Lighthouse No. 8's Hemiteos Unit laboratory, where she hid a memory card explaining her connection with the Hemiteos Unit program.

Trivia

 * Jessica's Hemiteos Unit codename, "Stella", is derived from the Latin word for star, which also corresponds to the Major Arcana tarot card "The Star".

Gallery

 * Full article: Jessica/Gallery