Truth Martyr
Author
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Doing Anzu's paperwork.
Age: 35
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Not entirely a rebuild per se, but rather a more thorough fleshing out of Franz, particularly as how he appears in Task Force 6. Some new details, now information...
Oh, and he finally has a charecter model, too.
Spoiler for 1st Lt. Franz Jaeger, Uruz 6, Task Force 6:
Name: Franz Jaeger
Date of Birth: February 17th, MC 40
Age: 35
Callsign: Uruz 6
Ace Name: N/A
Gender: Male
Origin: Farbanti, capital city of Erusia
Affiliation: Lost Property Investigation & Recovery Task Force 6 (on secondment from the Order of Freelance Mages), Time-Space Administration Bureau
Position: Uruz Team Leader, Ground Combat Advisor
Rank: O-2 (1st Lieutenant)
Mage Class: Knight
Magic Rank: A+
Magic System: Neo-Belka
Magic Color: Yellow
Magic Affinity: Lightning
Magic Style: Neo-Belkan melee & ranged combat (which unarmed combat skills mixed in)
Magic Device: Armed Device Cobra (Sword & Rifle modes); Cartridge Device Magnum (Pistol-shaped Storage Device)
Conventional Style: Special Forces, Light Infantry, Close Quaters Battle
Conventional Weapons (As an OFM veteran, Franz is highly skilled in the use of conventional weapons, and is rated Expert with most of the Order's small arms. The following weapons are his preferred weapons):
- MA5C Assault rifle, chambered for 7.62x51mm, with optional flashlight, laser designator, underslung 40mm grenade launcher, or shotgun attachment (Franz is the Order's best shot with the MA5C, and typically deploys with the flashlight attachment or laser designator).
- M6G Pistol, chambered for 12.7x40mm, loaded with Semi Armor-Piercing High Explosive rounds or hollowpoint rounds.
- UMP45 SMG, chambered for .45ACP, loaded with hollowpoint and AP rounds.
- M7 SMG, chambered for 5.23mm caseless
- Combat knives of varying sizes and types. His primary blade is the 14-inch combat blade, of the same style as those carried by Erusian ODST Marines.
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 150 lbs
Eye color: Brown
Hair color: Black with gray streaks
Hair Style: Short, combed back. Essentially a crewcut that's just a little too long.
Facial Features: Caucasian skintone, lightly tanned. Fairly ordinary-ish looking person. Always wears dark tinted sunglasses to hide the lines and dark circles around his eyes.
Clothes: For PT/training, Franz wears standard-issue dark blue combat pants, black boots and a gray t-shirt; for all other functions, TSAB Browns. Prefers light colored shirts and dark pants when off-duty. Frans will wear OFM woodland camoflage BDUs as often as he can get away with doing so, as he despises the Dress Browns.
Profile:
The commander of the OFM's Assault Platoon, doubling as Alpha Squad leader, Franz Jaeger is one of the most-experienced mages of the Order, having been a recruit since the Order's founding days in MC0062. While he isn't a master mage, and has yet to complete his training as a knight (after 11 years, this is STILL one of the biggest jokes in the Order), Franz balances out his lack of official skill and average magical power with 13 years of combat experience in the Order (in addition to his five years in the Gardai prior to joining the Order, hunting down Erusian terrorists and engaging in street fighting and Close Quarters Battle). The fact that he's the best shot in the Order with the MA5C assault rifle doesn't hurt either.
One of the pillars of the Order (whether he likes it or not), and an inspirational leader to his men - particularly Alpha Squad - Franz in many ways personifies the "genius of hard work" archetype. While he isn't really a genius by any stretch of the word, he's got hard-earned skills and experience, is a quick thinker, and more than capable of holding his own in a fight...it's just that almost everyone is much, much more powerful than him. Don't ever tell him about odds, though. He'll listen to the odds, then give them the finger and break through anyway, running on the power of hot blood.
Personality:
--Alignment: Neutral Good.
Franz is principled and mostly honest, though his morality is sufficiently elastic to allow him to abide by the letter of the law while violating the spirit. Recently he has shown a more harsher stance towards traitors and cancerous elements in the TSAB, and his long-held dislike of the TSAB Ground Forces is becoming more pronounced, especially after a paper he wrote on joint task force operations was savaged by Ground Forces officers. (Which is why his current posting to Task Force 6, as a Ground Forces officer, is particularly galling for him. Especially since he hates the TSAB Browns.)
Franz's personality could be described as "Hot Blood." To describe him as such is not incorrect, but misses a number of nuances to his persona. While he is hot blooded, he is by no means mentally challenged; he has a high IQ and gift for learning and quickly grasping the ideas behind concepts, and has hidden depths; despite his hot blood Franz is capable of understanding and compassion... even if he's not very good with expressing his feelings. Raising a girl all by one's self will probably cause most people to grow up; Franz is exasperating in how he's both grown up and remained mentally 20 in the same time. He's very quick to make hot blooded declarations, and while he doesn't shout as much as he used to he is very enthusiastic. (So enthusiastic that the Air Wing always edge away from him and Alpha Platoon, whom he has converted to his hotblooded way of thinking.)
On the battlefield, with Cobra in his right hand and Magnum in his left, Franz is a hot blooded warrior fighting the power, piercing heaven with the spirit of true men and a heart filled with blazing magma (and a giant drill). With his Devices and his magic, he will carve a hotblooded path through the enemy and the Spawn, shouting hot blooded slogans at the top of his lungs. Well, until he inevitably breaks off to dodge a full on beamspam barrage.
With his beloved MA5C in his hands, however, it's as if a change comes over Franz. He becomes quieter, calmer, and more focused; it was once remarked that it was as if he'd become a different person. It is only when using his rifle that Franz is silent on the battlefield, speaking only when nescessary, letting his rifle speak for him, using hand signals instead of verbal or telepathic communication to coordinate his Platoon.
Franz has little patience for arrogant, self-righteous jerks, and as such does not along with with many members of the Rim Advance Force, particularly Lt. Commander Arcasviel Emira and Master Sergeant Dirk Sanderson. His strong dislike of the self-titled "Lord of Dunamists" has lead to a MASSIVE barfight; to this day Franz is not welcome in any RAF base or bar (fortunately, he was under an alias at the time). This may have something to do with the fact that he lead Remington Smith, Colt Wesson and Larry "Pixy" Foulke in a 60-on-4 barfight which the rimjobbers lost... along with the temporary usage of their reproductive organs (Franz's preferred tactic was to slam RAF members to the ground and kick them in the balls).
Due to a number of traumatic events in his past, Franz's personality is split into a fusion of three elements. His hot blooded persona handles combat and living, his middle persona handles command duties and paperwork...
And his cold blooded self kills.
And he's very good at killing.
Spoiler for Part 1: Erusia:
As a boy growing up in Farbanti, the planetary capital of Erusia, Franz yearned to be a part of something bigger of himself. He was a military otaku of the highest order, eagerly devouring any and all pieces of information about military units he admired, particularly one, aspiring to gain that title of a man among men, a warrior of duty, honor, and courage: an Erusian Marine.
When the TSAB made contact with Erusia and Sotoa in MC0051, one of Franz's favorite pastimes was debating over the Internet on who would win in a war between the TSAB and the Erusian military; when the Erusians effectively declared war on the TSAB in MC0052, Franz was confident of an Erusian victory.
The War of Subjugation changed all that.
Franz was at first on the side of the Erusian Resistance, believing them to be justly resisting evil opressors... until their first suicide bomber attacks. As the War went on and he received a front seat to the tactics used by the TSAB and the Resistance, he reluctantly came to the conclusion that the TSAB forces were being more honorable, as he saw the TSAB working together with the local community and rebuilding Erusia. It was perhaps no surprise then, that in MC0057, when the TSAB formed the Gardai, the Erusian security force intended to assist the TSAB in maintaining law and order and combating the Resistance, 17-year-old Franz was one of its first recruits, with his belief in truth and justice. At the time a gas pump attendant, he met a Gardai officer by chance, and Colonel Classad saw something in the young man that he liked (the fact that Franz impetuously helped the Colonel to subdue two would-be armed robbers didn't hurt). He would spend the next five years in the Gardai, rising through the ranks, learning both the skills of a policeman, enforcing law and order, and the skills of a soldier, trading fire with Resistance terrorists. He also formed friendships with a number of TSAB mages, who patrolled with his Gardai section, a fact surprising to those who knew him later in life who only saw his dislike for the TSAB.
Franz was originally a very warm and cheerful person, with a personality ill-suited to combat. This changed towards the end of his training, when it was discovered that the training cadre had been infiltrated by sympathisers to the Resistance; Franz's training company, en route to an urban training zone, was almost completely wiped out, leaving Franz and a few outnumbered survivors to fight back against the Resistance. The events of that day scarred Franz; while he doesn't talk about it, was the start of his first personality seperation, as he subconsciously created a more cold-blooded, hardened self to allow him to operate in combat; rather than actually work out his issues, distaste for and unease with killing, Franz used his cold-blooded persona as a crutch in the field, mentally compartmentalizing it and locking it away when he changed out of his uniform. His colleagues all assumed it was just him being intensely focused on the job when on patrol, paying it little heed; by MC0060 the shifting between his main persona and cold-blooded combat persona had become so flawless that Franz himself was unaware of what he was doing. This arrangement was at first beneficial to the young Sergeant, who was able to switch personas smoothly and on the fly as needed (though it should be noted that as time went by both personas began to blend and overlap). And then one day, it backfired in his face.
Spoiler for One Day in Farbanti:
That day in MC0061 is a day that has stayed with Franz throughout his life, for the last sixteen years. On that day, his section and their TSAB partners were patrolling a neighbourhood when the Resistance struck. Couples pushing baby strollers whipped out submachine guns and opened fire, with their partners supporting them with grenades, rifle fire... and a truck carrying suicide bombers and Resistance troops in Special Assault Armors, the powered combat exoskeletons used by the Erusian Army and Marines. This was a well-planned attack. Franz's section and their partners weren't really expecting trouble; by that point the Erusian Resistance had effectively surrendered, with only isolated splinter cells still continuing their struggle. It was this brief moment of complacency that doomed them; the sudden surprise attack took the Gardai/TSAB patrol by surprise, decimating them in a violent ambush that ended almost as soon as it began.
Franz fought back and watched in horror as his friends died one by one, and then he snapped for the second time in his life and returned fire furiously killing everyone and everything he saw. Amidst the confusion and ongoing combat, Franz spotted a man and a woman attempting to flee, pushing a baby stroller before them. He chased them, aimed his rifle, sighted, and squeezed the trigger, once, twice. Two shots rang out and both figures fell to the ground; he ran to them, confirmed they were dead, heard a noise and whirled to the baby stroller, rifle coming up, finger tightening on the trigger...And his world crashed down around him as his eyes registered the face of a scared baby and the child's frightened wails assailed his ears.
That day, Franz Jaeger learned that justice is an elusive, fickle concept. And he learned that the pillar that he built his life on, that of justice, and as someone fighting for justice, was just a foundation of sand.
Franz escaped punishment for the killing of innocent civilians only because he was the only survivor from his section. All of the men he lead were dead, along with their TSAB partners. Stricken by guilt and grief and regret, he picked up the baby, tried to comfort her, and vowed to raise her as his sister as penance for killing her parents.
In the aftermath of this day, Franz became a broken man, entering a period of depression, and was placed on administrative duty for six months. Several months after he returned to duty, to work in an organisation which he felt he no longer belonged to, he was approached by a young Erusian Colonel and given an offer to leave the Gardai and Erusia behind.
He took it.
Spoiler for Part 3: The Order:
When Erick recruited him into the Order, Franz jumped at the opportunity to make a new start and find redemption. His fear of being ostracized - or worse - led him to hide the true events of how he adopted Naomi, and for the most part he managed to keep his secret of killings her parents that: a secret. There is only one person to whom he confessed this secret to, one man whom more than anything personified everything Franz aspired to be and knew he could never achieve: Erick von Long.
When he entered the Order, only recently coming out of the dark place that he had been in, Franz was desperate to avoid returning to his depression and to the state of a cold-blooded killer. Subconsciously and consciously, he thus created a third persona, his hot blooded persona, modeled on Erick, and pretty much embraced the hot blood personality wholeheartedly as a way of driving his inner demons away; deeply scarred by his experiences, he hoped to never kill again, and since his cold blooded nature killed Naomi's parents, he intended his hot blood to act as a counter to that nature, to keep him from being a cold blooded killer.
It didn't work the way he intended.
Franz ended up being a loud, rash, hotblooded person, who would fight away with his hot blood... and was unable to kill so long as the hot blood was active. (Though he had no problems with maiming.) Since many Order missiors involved assasination, Franz thus had to resort to switching between his personas in order to be able to keep his demons at bay and complete the mission - a process that, while it worked, limited his effectiveness. He was also less effective as a soldier due to deliberately holding himself in check; while his performance was good enough to keep him on operational status, he never once operated his full ability, afraid that doing so would unleash his inner demons. Regardless, he was truly happy in the Assault Platoon's Bravo Squad, serving under and being mentored by Sergeant Major Ivanovich. In MC0069, Ivanovich began placing more responsibility onto him to prepare him for Officer Candidate School, Franz being noted as a potential XO and Assault Platoon Leader; he passed OCS on his first try in MC0071 and became Assault Platoon Leader, also striking up friendships with the Aces and the core officers of the Order.
As Assault Platoon Leader, Franz received a great deal of experience in hands-on command, organisational skills, paperwork management and other command skills - he had been noted by Erick as a possible XO or even CO of the OFM. Franz, however, suceeded in being ornery, by refusing to progress beyond A+ rank and showing no desire to lead anything larger than the Assault Platoon, happy where he was. While the rest of the senior officers despair of him ever growing up or being willing to take on more responsibility, Erick has in mind a different role for him...
Present:
Franz has, against his wishes, been temporarily seconded to Lost Property Investigation & Recovery Task Force 6, along with a 4-man team of mages from the Air Wing and Assault Platoon. His role as Uruz Team leader is to assist with training the Forwards, as well as to advise Lt. Colonel Hayate Yagami in ground warfare (because he knows, Erick knows, and Glen knows, that Nanoha and Fate know jack shit about fighting on the ground) as well as to provide a backdoor channel for the OFM and SOPCC to TF6. While that's going on, Franz is also preparing Sergeant Leo "Veri" Kozlov and Corporal Naomi Jaeger to take charge of Uruz Team, as well as subtly trying to teach Hayate practical command skills.
For Lieutenant Franz Jaeger, the next few months are going to be very interesting indeed...
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