Skuld Silent-Third

Skuld Silent-Third (スクルド＝サイレントサード) is a Faith Organization Elite, and one of the three pilots of the Object Norn.

Etymology
(the name possibly means "debt" or "future") is a Norn in Norse mythology. Along with Urd and Verdandi, Skuld makes up a trinity of Norns that are described as deciding the fates of people and gods. Of the three Norns, Skuld is in charge of the future.

A Silent Third is a cocktail comprised of scotch whisky, lemon juice and triple sec.

Appearance
Skuld is a girl with long blonde twintails and purple eyes, wearing a green skintight Elite suit that covers her entire body. A loose cloth is wrapped around her body over the suit, forming an X over her chest and her waist, and together they create a diamond shape.

Personality
Skuld initially appeared loyal to the Faith Organization, apparently willing to sacrifice her life for victory, as she went with the plan the other two Norn's Elites came up with and forced on her of sacrificing her life by acting as a decoy for the Legitimacy Kingdom to trick them into thinking the Norn was totally defenseless. However, she still harboured doubts in her mind and repeatedly try to convince herself it was the best plan possible. Once outside the Object, she was pale and fearful, totally convinced that she would be killed by the Norn to prevent its secrets from leaking out and resigned to the Faith Organization's willingness to abandon a single Elite like her to win the battle. When the Norn was forced to retreat by the actions of the 37th, she felt a mixture of neglect from being abandoned by her comrades and relief at the immediate threat to her life leaving.

However, this is revealed to be a deception. In reality, Skuld is an insane serial killer, who uses the battlefield to enjoy her hobby and hide the bodies of her victims. Skuld doesn't plan in advance, instead adlibbing and making decisions that would allow her to kill as many people as she could.

According to Skuld, her reason for killing is a desire to feel someone's life at the instant she kills them. In her journal, she wrote that she didn't understand what life was, not being something one could see or hear, but something people said to treat with care despite no one understanding what it was. She surmised that it must be something like water or air in that it was something one couldn't understand how much they needed it while breathing it or taking it for granted, but once they didn't have enough would realize how important it was. She wrote that in order to learn about it, one must approach that final limit.

Skuld describes her preferred targets are androgynous and feminine males, such as Quenser, and when she sees one she can't stop herself. She also says that macho men don't do it for her and slender women aren't enough. Skuld will act to prevent others from stealing her prey, though she won't let this focus on a target prevent her from acting to kill as many people as possible.

The additions to her cockpit suggest she is picky about about getting some quality shut-eye.

Background
Possessing a twisted nature since she was very young, Skuld was involved in many acts of violence. While in Midgard Elementary School, Skuld was a suspect in cases of animal abuse in the school's rabbit cage, assault and battery, and four instances of serial arson targeting the homes of students and teachers at the school.

She would later be selected for the 5th iteration of the Norn Program and underwent Elite training to become one of the Norn's Elites, together with her sisters, Urd and Verdandi. As a result of this selection, her nature and actions as a serial killer were covered up, with a number of interlopers and witnesses silenced and evidence erased. Even after becoming an Elite, Skuld continued her hobby using the battlefield as cover. She generally picks her victims inside her army base, but she has sometimes deviated from that. For example, she's known to have annihilated a pro-government village in the former Oceanian Dictatorship, burned a mercenary camp in the Cape of Good Hope District, she's responsible for the deaths of a foreign press group in the Alaska District and for the sinking of a cargo ship in the Malacca District.

The Three Sisters who Pull In a God of War
When Quenser Barbotage and Heivia Winchell entered the Norn, they followed the tunnel to Skuld's cockpit. Once there they found a maintenance passage to the reactor, but Skuld fired on them the second they opened the door. After the duo failed to convince her to surrender and a short firefight, Skuld tried to go ahead with her bluff of sending the Norn's reactor out of control to get the Legitimacy Kingdom's soldiers to retreat, but before she could do so she suddenly felt a surge of dizziness. Realizing that she was not sweating, she figured out that the her enemy had messed up with the steam pipes, which made her faint because of the heat and high humidity.

Quenser and Heivia took away her gun and bound her thumbs behind her back before carrying her outside of the Norn. Skuld woke up in the middle of the process of being removed from her Object, but decided to not resist or try to escape once she realized the situation she was in. Once outside she introduced herself after Quenser asked for her name, and added that she was going to be killed by the Norn, confusing Quenser, who though the battle was already over. When the Norn started moving again, her fall to the jungle was cushioned by Quenser, who had pulled her close during the fall. She answered Quenser's questions about the Norn, informing him that it was an Object with three Elite pilots and capable of using small robots called Dvergr to modify its structure and repair the damage its main cannon had received.

She was left behind in a depression in the ground while Quenser and the other soldiers put in motion a plan to fight the Norn, and she watched as the Norn eventually sent the White Flag signal and retreated from the battlefield. Skuld wondered about what the Legitimacy Kingdom would do to her now that she was their captive, and also thought that a war between the Faith Organization and the Legitimacy Kingdom was imminent.

Skuld remained in the custody of the 37th during the Draupnir incident that night and the 2nd battle between the Baby Magnum and the Norn the next day. After the Baby Magnum's loss, Skuld evaded capture due to Quenser's actions, though he was captured in the process. She participated in the rescue operation while keeping her real intentions a secret. She attempted to kill Quenser but was stunned and recaptured by Verdandi, who subsequently beat her up and delivered an ultimatum.

Put back into the cockpit for the 3rd battle between the Baby Magnum and the Norn, Skuld made use of a virus, which was introduced into the Norn through an infected Dvergr during the previous operation, and forcibly ejected her sisters from the Object, seizing control of the Norn. Before she could use it for mass slaughter, Quenser managed to temporarily halt the Norn, giving the Baby Magnum a chance to destroy it. As the Norn was destroyed, Skuld ejected and attempted to escape down river through a village. She was finally captured after Quenser confronted her in a hostage situation and caught her in a Hand Axe explosion. Once back in Faith Organization custody, she was drugged into a vegetative state, denying her the opportunity to feel her own life with her death.

Project Whiz Kid
Following the Manhattan 000's launch in October, Elder Tyrfing Boilermaker signed orders for Skuld's release.

Skills and Abilities
As an Elite, Skuld has been modified and trained to pilot an Object, in her case, the Norn. When piloting the Norn, Skuld uses the laser cannon to vaporize the container and create a powerful plasma current which fires out like a blowtorch or flamethrower, creating a giant plasma blade stretching 5km long. This plasma blade is powerful enough to melt onion armor without even grazing it, causing nearby water to boil and the Norn's armor to faintly glow orange due to residual heat. When fired, the main cannon seems to swing around using a booster, covering an entire surface instead of a single point like a regular main cannon, to keep the opponent from getting away. However the weapon is so powerful, it swings around the Norn itself and without constant slight adjustment by a genius like Skuld, the 200000 ton mass could easily flip right over.

Additionally, Skuld is skilled in the use of firearms and can accurately shoot a submachine gun, even calculating the ricochet of her bullets to indirectly target an enemy.

Her primary killing method is strangulation using her own hands, but she is extremely fickle and changes a lot from moment to moment. For example, in the Madagascar District, there was evidence she used old-fashioned torture equipment. These are the crimes of an individual, but if they are slow to be discovered or dealt with, she has the skill to destroy a mid-level guerilla base and construct a mountain of corpses on her own. She's an expert in adlibbing and improvisation. She intentionally includes shifts and swings of analog emotion in her digital mission operations, so her actions are incredibly hard to simulate and existing troop management rules do not apply.

She uses her high intelligence and various psychological tests and counseling methods to her advantage to win the trust of others, and she also possesses the unique “charisma of death” found in many serial killers. She generally prefers acting alone, but she has something that destroys the morals of those around her and can cause them to feel like they are the only ones that can understand her.