Hey everyone, sorry I'm late to the party. Sold my game publishing company two weeks ago and have been busy with change over stuff plus regular life. Will attempt to keep up with things from here on.
My character:
"Jack Helstrum" / actually named Jason Nelson. He is 'under cover' on an op from his regular unit.
Call sign: "Splatter" but he is used to going by "Racker" and would probably answer to that name without thinking.
Birthdate June 17th, 3034. Makes him 29 as of '63. Male, good physical shape but has an artifical eye and scar on left cheek from battle injuries.
Profession: Mechwarrior. But knowledgable about space craft and life on the cargo lines.
Last Home: Claiming Carver V. Actually Sampsa in the Free Worlds League. Born a spacer, thus no original nationality. Naturalized citizen of Free Worlds League.
Applying Story Mode for rest of background
No one paid any attention to the short woman in the unmarked olive drab greatcoat as she sipped a beer at an outdoor cafe table. She preferred it that way. Made it easier to get the drop on people if they didn't see you as a threat. And anyone that had ever served with Captain Samantha "Sammi" Cascade knew she was one tough mother fu......
"Shut your mouth !" Snapped Colonel Woods.
Sammi glanced sharply at the dark skinned officer running this op. He waved her in apology. "Not you Sammi. I meant Colonel Linna here. Holly, no one is supposed to know that we know Jason. Stop reacting every time a young girl talks to him. That's the waitress, she supposed to talk to him."
"I was not reacting," hissed Holly. "And he can talk to whoever he wants. What I can't believe is that I let you talk me into authorizing this."
Holly was technically the CO of the Suomi Warders. Her older brother John was officially listed as dead, along a few of his closest mechwarrior companions. They weren't...but for the moment they remained in hiding. Day to day of the Suomi Warders was her problem now.
Sammi resisted voicing her agreement. This seemed like a long shot based on shaky intel. Jason Nelson had become a solid mechwarrior and good leader. He wasn't half bad as a ground pounder either. And Sammi would know as she had personnaly trained him. That Jason looked somewhat average, neither tall nor short and a bit on the thin side, disguised the hardened warrior that he had become from casual viewers. Which might be problem as the persona Woods had invented for Jason was that of a hard boiled MechWarrior named Jack Helstrum who had narrowly avoided a number of charges before the merc review board.
The biggest problem that Sammi could see was that Jason was at heart an idealist and dyed-in-the-wool "good guy". That was the kind of warrior that John Linna recruited and nurtured. But Jason lacked John's pragmatic, and sometimes even ruthless, streak. She still felt that either herself or Bronski should have tried to get hired for the infantry part of this gig. But Woods had felt that they were too well known in the small circle of special force types to risk it. Jason had always been overshadowed by his more famous peers. He had rarely made it into news coverage.
Osmo Woods sighed. "Alright Sammi, I can see the doubt in your eyes too. For the last time I'm running over this again. If either of you wants to pull the plug we'll do it here and now before that merc contact gets here for "Jack Helstrum's" interview. The command lance is in the Periphery as we work to get our WarShip fully operational. Word of Blake and ComStar both think they're dead and we need to keep it that way. Right now Word of Blake barely accpets us as being on their side. We need to keep their loyalty until we're ready to make our move for independence. ComStar won't send any Warder communications. We're on their **** list. We need to avoid an all out fight with any of their units and to do that we need to keep tabs on their ops. As we discovered at Carver V years ago, ComStar illegally stole research from the Linna's company about the advanced C-3 we run to make their C-3i system.
I still get some word from Wolfnet. Comstar is backing this deal the Irregulars are setting up. In a big way. The word is that ComStar has even allowed their C-3i units to be used by non ComStar 'Mechs. They might know we have a hidden WarShip because the Word of Blake knows. Maybe whatever the Irregulars are doing has nothing to do with us, and maybe they're planning a raid on Sampas gunning for our tech and for ComStar to use a proxy to destroy the Warders and get rid of what they see as a Word of Blake ally.
I have talked this plan over with John. He agrees that Jason's mix of Jump and DropShip knowledge, self taught engineering skills around commo and computer equipment, and MechWarrior skills wil make him a juicy recruit. We gave him a spoty background so he doesn't look too good. I know you two tend to think of him as the goofy kid he used to be. But he's not that guy anymore. He's smart, and tough, and a survivor. He gets hired into the mission. He find sout what he can about ComStar's C-3i or realted stuff. If the op is against us, he sabotagues it and bails. If it is against someone else he just does his job as a merc pilot then leaves with his pay when it's done. John thinks he can do it and so do I."
Sammi sighed. "You know me. If the General says we do it, then we do it. I may not like it, but John's word is all I need to undertake any action."
Holly frowned. Her brother was frusteratingly right most of the time. But Holly didn't have the automatic trust in following John's orders that the tough infantry officer did.
"Fine, we let it play out," Holly agreed. She would just have to hope her brother's track record was going to remain golden because she didn't have a better idea.
At a different table Jason picked up the tumbler the waitress had brought him and tossed it back. Then he almost coughed it up. He had no idea that burbon was this ...gross. It was like cough medicine. He gulped at his beer chaser of a light lager. He'd decided that tough *** Jack Helstrum drank straight booze. He'd have to give that a second thought.
Without knowing that the op had almost been cancelled right before it started, Nelson noticed the pair of mercs in uniforms with Irregular patches headed his way from the street. He thought he saw the robe of a ComStar precept slipping away from them into the crowd but he wasn't sure.
Okay, this is it, he told himself. These two guys would make a first assessment. If he passed that there would probably be a formal interview with the CO. Then it would be time to find out what these guys were up to and if their plans threatened the Holly or the rest of the Suomi Warders.
Edited by SuomiWarder, 19 September 2012 - 04:04 PM.