This another of the character backgrounds, in preparation for our upcoming Hero System campaign. Nightshade is the martial artist of the group, a military hero who was forced to end his career after suffering severe injury. He has adapted, and resumed his efforts to protect people, by joining with the group..
For each character, these are drafts, some of the details may change before the game actually starts as I continue to fine tune.
Jack Johnson was always a patriot. The son of a multi-generational military family, he grew up eating, drinking, and sleeping the military way. When he was a teenager, his father was deployed and killed in the Middle East, Jack signed up for the military the following day and never looked back.
In the marines, Jack found his place and excelled in combat. Each time a mission or deployment came up, he volunteered, never turning down an option to go back and do his part. Over time, his unit and companions began to call him Sgt Fury, as a call sign for his combat expertise.
During his deployments, Jack earned numerous awards and medals for valorous duty, along with a number of purple hearts for injury in combat. In each case, he returned to the conflict as soon as the medics would clear him, many times his determination making recovery beyond expected. Several times he was offered promotions or command positions away from the fighting, but each time he would stubbornly decline, preferring to share the front lines with his fellow soldiers.
After 25 years in the marines, and numerous conflicts, military actions and wars, his career came to a sudden halt. Sent into Afghanistan with a squad to track down Taliban insurgents, his convoy came under attack after striking a number of IEDs. In the ambush, he was the only survivor, though he managed to carry one other 20 miles back to the forward field base alone. When he arrived, the medics discovered his fellow soldier was near death, and Sgt Fury had suffered multiple fractures in his arm and leg. They were forced to amputate both limbs, which forever ended his military career. By the time he arrived at the Germany hospitals the next day, the private he had rescued had died from his wounds as well.
After several months of rehab and recovery, and having earned a new round of medals, Jack was ready to return to service, despite his injuries. However, the military had already processed his honorable discharge, and he found himself dumped in The City, a soldier without a war, and a man without a family. With only a minimal savings, and his military service pension, he found an apartment and waited to die without a purpose.
However, in the last 25 years, the City he had grown up in had changed. It was no longer the shining beacon it was when he had joined the military, now it had grown dark and cold with crime. Criminal groups ruled the streets, where drugs and worse were common. Except for the wealthy in their gated and protected communities, most of the civilians dealt with the hard realities of life every day. Here was another war which Sgt Fury could fight, and one in which he didn’t need the military to send him into battle.
