Background
Family legends say that the Colton clan had been a permanent fixture to the town of Jasper since well before the Great Cataclysm. With the small town being nestled in the Ozark Mountains of the Arkansas region, surrounded by country folk and hillbillies all around, the community was well-suited to survive and rebuild after the worst of the of the coming of the rifts. The Colton clan did much to help the small town with their strong family tradition of being scavengers, pack rats, and being minor miracle workers when it came to fixing things. Though there were trying times, crying times, and more than a few years of hardship, Jasper was a modest but thriving community, proud of its independence, fighting spirit, and distinctive back-woods flavor. This was the world Raleigh Ray was born into; unfortunately, is was not to last.
As early as he could remember, Raleigh Ray was helping in his parent's small Fix-It shop, located dead center of Jasper. He honestly couldn't remember a time in his life when he didn't have a tool in his hand during the day. As a Colton, he was being prepared to live up to the family legacy, embracing the time honored family tradition. With each passing year Raleigh Ray's mechanical knowledge grew by leaps and bounds, either by good old fashioned book-learning or hand-on experience; often both. By the age of 12 Raleigh Ray could just about strip down a suit of Samson power armor and put it back together again, all with minimal help. When he was 14, almost considered a man, he was poised to join his family in the shop full-time as an official part of the team. To commemorate this benchmark in his life, the whole Colton family held a party to celebrate (sort of a Hillbilly Bar Mitzva if you will), as they did when any family member reached this point. That was the day Raleigh Ray learned a hard lesson; that the ongoings of the world beyond Jasper mattered.
The party started at noon and raged on well past the setting of the sun. The entire Colton clan was having a grand ol' time, dancing to strumming fiddles, enjoying their pot-luck banquet, and drinking White Lighting to excess. But then Raleigh Ray noticed a stranger was busy stuffing his face at the banquet table; a stranger with strange metal knobs sticking out of his clean-shaved head. Raleigh Ray's father noticed too and went up to talk to the stranger, when all of a sudden a dozen more strangers emerged. His father asked them to leave, as this was a private family affair, and they didn't take to keenly to party crashers. The knobby-headded man began to laugh hysterically, and then with a flash of a blade slashed his father's throat out!
Screams shrieked out, but before anyone could act another man stood on the banquet table, kicking over a bowl of punch in the process. He shouted to the Colton crowd,
"My name is Gordon Killmaster, and this is my troupe. We are with the Jucier Liberation Army, and in the name of freedom we are commandeering this meal and everything worth our while in your homes."
One of Raleigh Ray's brothers was the one to throw the first punch in protest to this JLA raiding party. Thereafter everything was a blur of fire, blood sprays, and horrific violence. The augmented soldiers of fortune took what they wanted and slaughtered everyone in their path. Some tried to fight back, but proved to be little contest against the dizzying reflexes and overpowering strength of the Juicers and Crazies; not to mention their vastly superior firepower. Not only the Coltons, but all of Jasper burned that night. The avarice, maniacal hunger, and outright blood-lust of the invaders could not be quelled. By dawn's early light, three of the JLA raiders were slain, while the entire town of Jasper was laid to waste.
In the middle of the ongoing carnage, Raleigh Ray's sister, Searcy Sue, dragged him to the north edge of town and told him to flee and never look back. As he ran into the mountain forests, she ran back in town hoping to save more of her kin. While ashamed to be running, Raleigh Ray did as she told him. He ran until his adrenaline ran dry and he collapsed under the crushing weight of exhaustion and grief. Afraid to go back, the young man survived off the land for three days. But in time, the call of home tugged at his soul.
When Raleigh Ray returned, he saw no town of Jasper any more. All that remained were shattered and burnt planks of wood that used to be buildings and homes, mangled and partly vaporized bodies strewn about, and smoldering pocks where explosions left nothing but destruction behind. Desperate to find anything, he rummaged trough the debris and wreckage all while praying to an uncaring god who had clearly turned a deaf ear to the cries of help that still faintly whispered through the wind. Despite the unbelievable volume of it all, Raleigh Ray managed to find one survivor; his sister Searcy Sue. She was brutalized, stripped naked, and had her legs seared off by a laser, but her will to survive hanged on by the most tenuous of threads. If there was anyone else left alive, Raleigh Ray didn't know. It was all he could do to even save her.
Using a wagon hastily built out of the debris of Jasper, Raleigh Ray took his sister north to escape further collateral damage of The Juicer Uprising to the south. He traveled night and day until he reached the safety of the Coalition State of Missouri. There he was intercepted on the road by a patrol of Dog Boys who took pity on him and his sister once they told them what happened. The two of them were taken to a refugee camp outside of New Chillicothe. While they were not granted access to the advanced medical facilities in the fortress city itself, CS Army medics tended to his sister's serious wounds. Unbeknownst to Raleigh Ray at the time, the Coalition set up the refugee camp to help sway Fort El Dorrado to finally join the C.S. in the wake of the Juicer Uprising, and not humanitarian reasons. But regardless, the care and compassion the Coalition showed in that time of need was not taken for granted, nor soon forgotten.
In the years that followed, Raleigh Ray and his sister set up
The Colton Fix-It Shop in the south-side 'burbs of the New Chillicothe fortress city, in the thriving Sol Markets district. While the shop and clientele were modest in size, they built a solid reputation for doing quality work. While Raleigh Ray was good at the craft, his sister Searcy Sue was a master craftsman! Their goal was to build up the business, get their C.S. citizenship (hoping that their successful business would show their superior worth compared to the other applicants), and move the business inside the fortress city. And while the plan was a success, it was only partly so. While Searcy Sue was accepted, Raleigh Ray was not. Not wanting to have to go through the application and waiting list all over again, Raleigh opted to take the other route to citizenship; he enlisted in the Army!
While not the biggest, nor the strongest, nor the straightest shooting trainee in boot camp, Raleigh Ray excelled at everything mechanical. This was obvious to his drill instructors when was able to field strip and reassemble his training C-10 the instant it was issued to him. While they rode him hard on the areas he was weak in, they duly commended him for helping the others when needed where he could. Some figured Raleigh Ray would be heading directly to the motor pool or some other maintenance hanger after Basic. Raleigh Ray had something different in mind.
By the time of graduation from Basic Training, Raleigh Ray heard the words he vowed to as part of the Coalition Army. The words to "Serve" and "Protect" the people and common interests of the Coalition States resounded deep with in him. Every syllable of the vow he spoke ushered in a flash of that terrible night and the images of its aftermath. Every punctuation mark reminded him of the horrors his sister suffered through. At the end of the oath, while others hooter and hollered in celebration of their graduation, Raleigh Ray simply nodded in conviction, for he knew this was his calling.
After Basic Training, Raleigh Ray put in for a special assignment and training to work with Skelebots in the field. He knew that he himself would be no match for a savage Juicer or psychotic Crazy, but he had faith in machines. Having seen the android killers during his training, and sneaking a peek at their maintenance, he believed that the machine-soldiers would be better suited to the task. If he could have a number of them at his beck and call, in theory, with his mechanical skills, he could make them recover from even the most brutal of fights... fights that he could fight from a distance while they did his dirty work for him. When his request was approved, Raleigh Ray knew providence when he saw it.
Later, fresh out of Advanced Training in his chosen M.O.S., Private Raleigh Ray Colton received his first assignment; Old Chicago...
NOTE: SUBSEQUENT ADVENTURES TO COME
Personal Goals:
- Short-term: To excell in his new career and make the rank of NCO as soon as possible.
- Long-term: To earn his citizenship and return to New Chillicothe to help run the family business as a happy, content civilian (possibly with a military pension, or maybe also serving as an army reservist to help make ends meet).
Personnel Record
Name: COLTON, Raleigh Ray
Service Branch: Coalition Army
Service Number: MO10-A01-091-F72B-A223
Pay Grade: E-4
Pay Rate: xxxx
Rank: Corporal
Date of Birth: October 1, 91 P.A.
Primary Specialty: CS Technical Corp: Robot Specialist
Military Education:
- New Chilicothe, CS Army Training Facility (ATF)
- New Chilicothe, CS Army Technical Training College (ATTC)
- Military Robotics and Advanced Armor Technical Support School (Robot Mechanics)
- Military Robotics and Electronics Technical Support School (Robot Electronics)
- Military Engineering, Electrical (Electrical Engineering)
- Military Engineering, Mechanical (Mechanical Engineering)
- Fort Resilience, CS Army Satellite Training Facility
- Demolitions Course, Basic (Demolitions)
- Commando Demolitions Course, Advanced (Demolitions Course, Basic, Demolitions: Disposal)
- Demolitions and Traps Construction Course, Advanced (Demolitions Course, Basic, Trap Construction)
- Explosive Ordinance Disposal School
- Heavy and Emplaced Weapons I Training Course
- Heavy and Emplaced Weapons II Training Course
- Airframe Support and Maintenance Training Course
- Armor Support and Maintenance Training Course
[/list]
Decorations, Medals, Badges, Citations, and Campaign:
Disciplinary data and court martial record:
Random Background Rolls
POB/Origin: [dice:33l2c9nu]0[/dice:33l2c9nu]
Refugee
Hero's Journey - Education roll: [dice:33l2c9nu]2[/dice:33l2c9nu]
Well-educated; character gets five (5) additional skill points for use during creation, expressly only for Healing, Investigation, and/or Knowledge skills.
Refugee (non-citizen): [dice:33l2c9nu]1[/dice:33l2c9nu]
Worker : Whether it’s a shop keep in a small town, a factory worker in the ‘burbs, or a wandering operator on the roads, the life of a non-citizen can be rough. You joined to better your lot and life.
Originally from the small community of Jasper, Arkansas (prior to Arkansas' annexation into the CS), nestled in the Ozark Mountains. Fled north to the CS State of Missouri and was later naturalized there.
Narrative Hook roll: [rolled an 8; used a normal d20 due to the site being down at the time]
Juicer Uprising
Build Sheet
