Name: Ezekiel "The Reaper" Grimm, Colonel
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Job: Hellion Pilot/Committee Member
Appearance:
Ezekiel's 5 feet 8 inches frame has no fat on it, and along with his slightly muscular body gives him a fit, but not bulging with muscles appearance. He has sharp facial features, short military cut dark brown( almost black hair), and piercing midnight blue eyes gives. Ezekiel's last name is fitting since he never smiles, and always appears serious and business like.
As a former member of the Special Operations Command under the 99th Skull Squadron, Ezekiel has been given the honor of wearing the special issue SOC uniforms. He is usually wearing his SOC black flight suit with his right shoulder displaying his current squadron, and the left shoulder the SOC crest. His left chest patch has his call sign "The Reaper" on it with the 99th Skull's emblem under the call sign. On his left chest is the patch for the 10th Fleet (a falcon made of metal crushing a desert planet with its metal talons) which the Respite was a part of. When wearing a standard uniform he also wears the black SOC varient. His right chest is highly decorated with metals including the Metal of Honor, the highest honor any member of the GTA military can be given.
In the two years the Respite has been fleeing the Shivans Ezekiel has never been seen in civilian attire.
Personality:
Ezekiel is always serious, and always seems to be on duty. Even during his time off he is either locked up in his room, found in the hanger, simulator, or library reading up on ships and weapon systems. He never wants to talk about his personal life and always tries to change the subject to more serious matters. Even during times of "celebration" (They try to celebrate holidays and special occasions to keep up morale) Ezekiel is working. Ezekiel is open to talk and will engage in conversation, but many avoid it with him since all he seems to talk about is work. Because of his work, sleep, and eat mentality he has no real "friends," but is comrades with much of the crew especially his fellow Space Force members and Marines.
In combat he displays an unusual high level of intuition along with a quick mind that allows him to always help keep him one step ahead of his enemies. At times it's almost as if he can read his foes mind and knows where they will be next. He strives to be an expert with any aircraft he flies, or any weapon he wields (which he does because he works all the time). Combining his natural and learned skills with a fearless demeanor, Ezekiel is a force to be reckoned with. Even before the exodus Ezekiel was rumored to be the best pilot in the GTA, but whether he was or not doesn't matter because now he IS the best pilot the GTA has.
However mentally Ezekiel is on the verge of a meltdown, but no one knows it because he can hide it so well. He suffers from almost constant nightmares of the horrors of the Shivan War, and horrible memories of friends and comrades dying under his command. He blames himself for many of the deaths and he can't help but think of everything he could have done so they would be alive today. In many cases there was nothing he could have done or he had made the right choice, but he seems to ignore that. Unable to face the pain and move past it, the only way Ezekiel has coped with it so long is by ignoring it. This is the reason he is always working is to keep his mind off the pain.
Ezekiel never allowed people to be his close friends easily, and he always had only a few close friends he really shared a true friendship with. These friends were close to him like brothers and sisters and he was fiercely loyal to them and cared about them deeply. This however makes the loss of any of these friends extremely hard on him, and to make matters worse many of these friend's deaths he blames himself for. It doesn't help that he is considered cursed in that everyone he has gotten close to has been killed in action. Because of this he hasn't let anyone get close to him in years, and anyone who hears about the curse tries to avoid getting close to him as well.
History:
Ezekiel was born in the Capella system, a system on the edge of Terran/Vasudan space at the time, on the planet Capella Prime. Growing up Ezekiel always loved watching the GTA fighters and bombers practicing and training for the conflict that was only a jump away. He had also collected a vast amount of models and toys of all the different smaller ships the GTA fielded (past and present). It was no surprise to his family when he went off to a military academy for the Space Force out of high school to follow his dream. There he graduated almost dead last in his class (he wasn't the most academically inclined young man at that age), and had there not been a pilot shortage he would have likely not been given a chance to fly.
However once he got to undergraduate flight school he went from being an underperformer to being a protégé. He just seemed like a natural in a jet and in space. There he graduated top of his class and tracked fighter/interceptors. He proved himself there as well, and was chosen for a special "advancement" program that put him in a fighter fast than most of his peers (in reality it was an effort to get more pilots active by taking trainees deemed "decent enough" for real combat and put them on the battlefield quicker). He was soon flying missions against the Vasudan enemy and he quickly began to rack up kills surpassing many of the senior pilots.
When the Shivans appeared everything changed… their ships were impossible to lock on, their weapons did incredible amounts of damage, and they had some sort of shielding system. Capella was one of the first systems they hit and being still stationed there Ezekiel was stuck in the middle of the onslaught. However despite their defenses being quickly smashed, The Capellan defenders held off the Shivans the best they could and their sacrifices allowed others a better chance to survive. Ezekiel alongside the remaining Capellans conducted several suicidal, but vital missions which included scanning a Shivan supply convoy , and destroy the first Shivan ship ever. It was these two achievements that gave the Terran and Vasudan scientistsenough information to start developing technologies to give the Terran and Vasudan forces the ability to fight back. Ezekiel's show of extreme skill during both of these "suicidal" missions caught the attention of the Special Operations Command, and he was invited to join the 99th Skull Squadron, a very selective unit that took the best pilots the GTA had for the most vital and risky missions in the GTA.
Ezekiel joined and disappeared off the records for the remainder of the Shivan conflict as he worked for the SOC (All records of his actions during this time are considered Top Secret). Here the stigmatism of his "curse" began. The missions Ezekiel and the other pilots partook in were extremely high risk and the loss of life was high. By the end of the war Ezekiel was the longest serving pilot in the SOC as all of the other pilots who had joined before him or within a year of him had been killed in action. Because of this, Ezekiel became the youngest Colonel in GTA history due to his combat record, and accomplishments in the field.
The final mission Ezekiel was a part of as a member of the SOC was actually during the 8 months between Shivan attacks. The SOC had been busy secretly and carefully repairing five Shivan fighters, and a Shivan Lilith cruiser. With this small force the SOC launched a daring but suicidal mission to discover the Shivan's origins and their strength. The small group of SOC pilots and crew were able to find the Shivans, and they discovered the first fleet was only a small portion of their military. The Shivans were not fooled by the Terrans in their ships quickly sought to destroy the imposters. The SOC team fled, and the Shivans pursued them as the SOC team tried to retreat and get the message out about the Shivan's second fleet.
It was during this operation Ezekiel earned his Metal of Honor. The Lilith's jump drive was recharging when they came under heavy attack one jump away from a recovery fleet. Despite being told to go on and leave the doomed crew behind, Ezekiel and his best friend and wingman Major Snipes held off wave after wave of Shivan fighters and bombers against all odds. Sadly Major Snipes was killed but his and Ezekiel's defense allowed the heavily battered Lilith to make the jump to safety and saved the remaining 18 man and woman crew.
It was this warning brought back by this SOC team that made GTA command quickly form exodus fleets, which much to Colonel Grimm's surprise (and somewhat dismay), he was assigned to. He was assigned as an escort to the 3rd Exodus fleet. During the two years fleeing the Shivans with the fleet, Grimm once again had to watch wingman after wingman get killed in battle, and worse watch the human race slowly get killed off. In the last battle, the interceptor squadron he was flying with was wiped out, and his Valkyrie interceptor was badly damaged. The fighter was damaged too badly to be repaired with the supplies on hand so, the Valkyrie was decommissioned and would be stripped for parts to help maintain the four Hellion transports. Colonel Grimm became a Hellion pilot after that battle and during the jump he quickly began training himself in the new airframe alongside his command duties. Currently, Colonel Grimm is in command of all Space Force personnel and is acting commander of the small group of Marines since they lack any surviving officers.
Much of his assignment of being acting commander of the Marines was decided on three factors. First it was a balancing act with the older less known Captain Hunter who had command over most of the remaining military personnel, who were Navy. Second with all the remaining Space Force personnel being focused on the Hellion troop transports, the Marines and Space Force were always going to be working together from that point on. Last Colonel Grimm had the respect of the remaining Marines not only for his record, but also for being the driving force behind preventing all the remaining Marines and Space Force being merged into the Navy. This merger was pushed by Captain Hunter to consolidate all their assets, but it quickly isolated the Marines and Space Force personnel who felt it was their duty to keep their branch's traditions going. Currently Colonel Grimm is pushing to promote a Marine to leadership to take over the Marine Corp, but is receiving some resistance from the other two committee members (since it means adding a fourth member).
Note: Ezekiel's ability to suppress his pain is almost flawless and he shows no outwardly signs of it (A session with a good psychologist might be able to break him but he will never go to one). However Pokemon able to sense emotions (with psychic abilities or naturally like the Ralts line) will be able to see through his suppressing abilities.
Weapons:
Virtek Submachine Gun
Made specially for pilots of ejection aircraft the compact Submachine gun is combined with the seat to allow it to eject with the aircrew. It is a low caliber ballistic weapon with a high range of fire and has a medium to short range.
(If he can gain access to the storage bay on his Hellion he has the below weapon as well)
Lambert Energy Rifle
The Lambert fires small energy projectiles in automatic, burst, and semi-automatic rates. Its battery clips can hold enough energy for 25 rounds, and they can be charged in many different ways allowing greater flexibility and less fear of ammunition shortages. Like all personal energy weapons the Lambert is very expensive to purchase and maintain, and the projectiles tend to do less damage than a standard ballistic weapon of the same size. No doubt Ezekiel's access to the weapon is in no small part due to his rank and SOC background.
