Aimless was a corporal in the Bridgeburners and a sapper. He was described as lean and stooped with a long face, a habitually dour expression, and watery eyes.[1]
In Memories of Ice
In the lead up to Dujek Onearm's war against the Pannion Domin, Aimless was a part of the Bridgeburner detachment who traveled to the Barghast Range with Captain Ganoes Paran. They sought to assist Trotts in his claim for leadership of the White Face Barghast, hoping to gain them as allies in the war. To state his claim, Trotts would be fighting a duel. As it appeared that the Bridgeburners' lives were in danger amidst the angry hordes of Barghast warriors, Aimless brought Paran a plan for the squad's defensive withdrawal on the pretense that he was just passing on something he had heard the others talk about. Paran rejected the plan and suggested that the corporal was in fact the spokesperson for the others and that in this case he probably ought to shoot the messenger only to be rid of his stupidity. Aimless told Paran that the plan might proceed without his approval and that, actually, he had broken the neck of the last captain who had threatened him. Paran though that he might be underestimating even the true idiots (i.e. Aimless in this case) in his company. He sent Aimless back to the others with a lengthy message but told the corporal he could use his own words to pass it on.[1]
When the combatants both fell to the ground, the Barghast dead and Trott's seemingly dying, pandemonium broke out. The Bridgeburners were about to throw Moranth munitions at the threatening Barghast when Paran ordered them to stop. He told Aimless to go and see what the healer, Mulch, was doing with Trotts. After referring with Mulch, he ordered Aimless to get some soldiers to initially protect, then move Trotts back to their camp.[2]
Paran's handling of Trott's trial by combat and the uncertainty that followed earned Aimless' grudging respect. He called Paran "cold as a Jaghut winter" and he and Mulch agreed that the captain 'might make it' after all. Seeing Quick Ben arrive, Aimless made a disparaging comment about mages upon which Mulch asked 'what about healers'. Embarrassed, the corporal tried to backtrack but Mulch told him to stop before he said something really stupid.[3]
During the Siege of Coral, Aimless and the other Bridgeburners were inserted into Coral by Quorl under the cover of darkness. Their mission was to attack the keep of the Pannion Seer while High Fist Dujek led the rest of the army into the city itself.[4] Quick Ben and the mages prepared to battle the Seer's demonic Condors while Hedge's sappers readied to blow an entrance into the keep's wall. Aimless was sent with Picker's squad to divert more than fifteen K'ell Hunters headed towards Dujek's position.[5]
The Bridgeburners played a successful cat and mouse game with the Hunters using Moranth munitions, but they were decimated in the process. Aimless and the others were saved when Onos T'oolan suddenly appeared among them to kill the Hunters on his own mission to assault the keep. Picker ordered her squad to follow in the safety of the T'lan Imass' wake.[6]
Aimless was among the casualties during the fighting in the keep. Like the other Bridgeburners who perished, his body was placed in a sarcophagus within the throne room of Moon's Spawn after the battle by Anomander Rake. The failing Skykeep was then sent out over the Rust Ocean where it was presumed to have crashed into the sea.[7]
In The Bonehunters
Ganoes Paran, now Master of the Deck, travelled to the newly reborn sea of Raraku. On its shores he performed a ritual to summon all of the dead Bridgeburners by name. Aimless' name was amongst the first he called out. Among the ranks, Hedge bragged this was not the first time this group of dead Bridgeburners had walked among the living, noting that they had twisted the hair of Korbolo Dom and his Dogslayers at the Battle of Raraku. Shank spoke directly to Paran, asking their former captain what he required. Paran requested that they help him find the Deragoth to destroy Dejim Nebrahl.[8]
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Memories of Ice, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.388-389/403-404
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 11, UK MMPB p.465-468
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 11, UK MMPB p.478
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.877-878
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.880-890
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.891-892
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.982/985-986
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.396-397
| Bridgeburners | |
|---|---|
| Officers | Ganoes Paran • Ash |
| 7th Squad | Antsy • Blend • Detoran • Picker • Spindle |
| 9th Squad | Whiskeyjack • Fiddler • Hedge • Kalam • Mallet • Quick Ben • Sorry • Trotts |
| Others | Mulch (11th squad) • Bucklund (12th squad) • Aimless • Bluepearl • Cage • Corinn • Dasalle • Liss • Monkrat • Runter • Shank • Toes • Tormin • Story |