Gunnery Sergeant Groldy "Aches" Akez

849987 Marine Commando, 3 terms, 30 years old

Enlisted in the marines, transferred to Commandos in 2nd term. Final rank, Gunnery Sergeant.

Special Assignments: Commando School, Protected Forces School, Admin School

Equipment Qualified On: Vacc Suit, Demolitions, TL 12 Type A Gun, Zero-G Weapons

Skills Combat Rifleman-2, Demolitions-2, Brawling-2, Survival-2, Cutlass-1, Admin-1, TL 12 Type A High Energy Plasm Guns-1

Growing up on Jewel, young Groldy played army with his friends. Being on the clumsy side, he was always complaining about his falls and the nickname of Aches stuck with him for the rest of his life.While he really wanted to join the Navy, having seen the men and women in their smart uniforms, he know with hi background that was not likely to happen. So he turned to the Marines on his 18th birthday: the Imperial Marines keeps a large base on Jewel, ready for assaults from their near Zhodani neighbors. Unfortunately he did muster out before the 5th Frontier War so managed to miss out on any action. His first term was a lot of training and circling the base on security patrols. His year spent in commando school lead him to think he would be going on exciting adventures, sneaking into military bases and the like. Nope: a different set of fences for the first year, then he learns to be an administrative assistant. Getting called on to attend protected forces school, he spends a year in the Navy yards, learning to fight in a vacc suit and in zero-g conditions. Then back to even more training! Deciding the next term will be his last unless something exciting happens, he takes a refresher course in Commando school, learning to brawl even better. Finally - action: Police Action! Traveling to Esalin he gets to play guard at an outpost. Little action and the fence looks the same, and he returns home to Jewel and does more training in his last year, and decides he has been trained enough, so musters out as a Gunnery Sergeant.

When Book 4 Mercenary came out, we suddenly had uber-characters and a much more detailed character generation. While the simplicity of the basic character generation was a lot of the joy of creating characters, this much-more in-depth approach had its own appeal as well. Plus - you got a character with a lot more skills! Of course, most of those were very specific and may not have a lot of role play value per se. Unless you kept rolling gun combat skill to the point you would never miss.

Anyway, it has been years since I generated a character with High Guard, Mercenary, Scouts or Merchants so I thought I'd try that. BTW, Merchants and Merchandise I think came out after book 4 or 5 but before Merchants, and was the "advanced" character generation I used for merchants or a long while (and let me develop my Antares Shipbuilders merchant group!)

Initial rolls were:

Strength 8
Dexterity 4
Endurance 9
Intelligence 9
Education 7
Social 7

With that education and social, Navy did not look too hopeful. So looking at the Marines and them wanting a few good men, I chose that. I got in with a roll of 8 to join the military. And yes, another 5 for gender so male he is!

Term 1 (18-22) Marines

Year 1: Basic and Advanced Training no survival rolls. I get Gun Combat - Combat Rifleman as a skill. Rolling on the MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) able for advanced training I roll a 3, heavy weapons. Looking at the heavy weapons, I decide for the A Gun, a high Energy Plasma gun as it fits within the tech level I am in the Marines for.

Year 2: Staff position, internal security I rolled a 4 for staff, then a 5 for internal security. A 5 means I barely survived, rolling a 7 I did not get decorated, and with a roll of 2 definitely no promotion! There are no skills available for internal security, so no skill roll.

Year 3: Commando School I rolled a 6, giving me a special roll. A 3 lands me in commando school where I could learn up to 8 (!) skills. I only picked up Brawling-1, Demolitions-1 and Cutlass-1 (cutlasses are the default blade for historical reasons). But this means that next term I can go in as a Commando!

Year 4: Staff, internal security Somehow I get the identical rolls for the general and unit assignments. Ie easily survive with a roll of 10 for survival, no decoration with a roll of 5, but a roll of 10 promotes me to a Lance Corporal. I did not gain any skills in this assignment.

Rolling a 7, I can re-enlist but this time, thanks to Commando School, as a Commando! Perhaps life will be more exciting!

Term 2 (23-26) Commandos

Year 1: Command Position, Internal Security Somehow I must be really good at internal security! Rolling a 5 I survive, there is no chance of a decoration, a 6 barely gets me a promotion to E-3 as a Corporal, and a 6 means I can gain a skill. I choose the MOS table, and the world is TL13, so I can add one to my roll of 5, giving me Survival-1.

Year 2: Specialist School Rolling a 6 for my general assignment, I roll a 6 for specialist school. A one gives me Admin-1. Guess I went to secretary school!

Year 3: Protected Forces Trained in the use of Vacc suites and zero G I pick up Vacc-1 and Zero G Combat-1 with a roll of 3 and 4.

Year 4: Command position, training I survive with a roll of 9, no chance of decoration, barely get a promotion to E4 - Lance Sergeant. A roll of 3 means no skills gained this last year.

Failed the reenlistment roll with a 4, but NCOs get a +2, meaning I just make the minimum of 6+ to go another term! So far this has not been an exciting career as I've seen no combat in 8 years and went to secretary school and played guard at various installations.

Year 3 (27-30) Commandos

Year 1: Commando School apparently they thought my training was getting rusty so I returned to Commando school with a roll of 6 on the general assignment and a 2 (+1 for my education bonus) to get back into commando school. Rolling a 6, 5, 4, 5, 3, 1, 1, 4 gives me Brawling-2, Gun Combat (Zero-G Weapons), Survival-2 (you need a 5+ on 1d6 to gain up to 8 skills). So no survival, decoration or promotion.

Year 2: Police Action A 7 means I survive, a 6 yields no decorations, a 9 promotes me to E-5 Sergeant and a 9 means I can get a skill. As survival is a +1 for any MOS skill 2+, I'd like to make it more likely I won't die in my so far milquetoast career. 1 gives me gun combat so I'll pick combat rifleman giving me combat rifleman-2.

Year 3: Command, Internal Security Okay, this is really getting tiresome. I think we'll leave unless year 4 gives us some real action! Survive quire readily with a 11, no decoration possible, a roll of 4 is no promotion either, and no chance of skills as I walk the perimeter. Again.

Year 4:Command, Training Okay, so in 12 years only once in actual combat! Survival with my +1 is automatic, no decoration, I do get promoted to E-6 Gunnery Sergeant, and a 7 allows me to roll on a table. Choosing Commando MOS I pick up Demolitions-2.

Mustering out

Not rolling a 12 for re-enlistment, I leave the not exciting military career I had, where I spent a lot of time in training and walking perimeter fences. Using Book 1 Marines:

cash 3: Cr5000
benefit 4: blade. I get the "official Imperial Marine Cutlass"
cash: 4: Cr10,000
benefit 3: +1 EDU well, he did go through a lot of schooling!