Jared Richter

"Well, what you're doing wrong there is that you're trying to jumpstart the 'Mera using hotwiring techniques that are only applicable to a civilian-model quadwheeler-- GYACK EMPEROR'S MOTHER NOT AGAIN"

- Jared's inadverted smartassery is interrupted with a fist to the stomach.

Jared Richter is the newest trooper to be saddled with the 5th Penal Legion's infamous Tango Squadron, a notorious yet reliable unit filled with steadfast and brutal military criminals, and holds the distinction of being the only member of the squad without a previous military background. Among a rabble of murderers and deserters held together by a leader crueller than any Commissar, Jared's charges are that of criminal negligence. Barely scraping his way through prejudice and bullying at the hands of his squadmates and blades and bullets at the hands of the enemy, Jared considers himself an extremely unlucky person - but it is through luck alone that he has survived this long.

Early life
Jared Richter was born on the prominent industrial hive world of Velixum II in 610 M.41 in the middle levels of the planet's vast hive cities. Although he did display surprising intellect at a young age, his social background virtually eliminated the possibility of him attaining a prestigious off-world occupation, so his parents determined that he would become a worker in one of Velixum II's many armaments factories. Having a somewhat sheltered childhood, he nonetheless excelled throughout his education, proving to be a highly competent and enthusiastic student, if one with poor organisational and social skills. Shortly after completing his education, he was put to work in a Lasweaponry Manufactorum, which provided him with a stable, secure and relatively easy job.

In the Manufactorum
He proved to be an exemplary worker, with a repeat record of punctuality and high-quality production. Due to his somewhat cocky, snide attitude towards his supervisor, who himself seemed to be a bit "spooky" as Jared put it, the two of them nurtured a steady mutual hatred which continued to grow as they continued to work alongside one another. After five years working in the factory, after his (possibly premature) promotion to batch supervisor, the first batch assembly he presided over led to the deaths of three Imperial Guardsmen fighting the Tyranids in the ass-end of nowhere after one of the weapons misfired and the other two simply exploded in their faces when they pulled the triggers. His former supervisor (and now rival after his own promotion) saw some opportunity in this after reading the reports and, out of spite, ensured that each and every one of the men working under himself and Jared could testify that it was down to Jared's personal fault that the weapons were faulty. Through some miracle of bureaucracy, he also managed to tie in some unrelated incident about a Vigilant Blades Space Marine's Power Armour malfunctioning and causing him injury being Jared's responsibility, as well. For this (moreso for the percieved affront towards the Vigilant Blades) he was prosecuted and shipped to the closest Penal World, which was Velixium III's colonised moon, Argonis.

Condemned
Argonis was rough. Not one to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh that ran rampant on the poorly-governed planet, Jared secured himself a few books and lived out his live in glum solitude. A few of these books happened to concern Imperial military tactics, which he became immensely interested in. His build and bookish habits led to him being the frequent target of beatings and humiliation by the bigger prisoners, but he put on a brave face and persevered, confident that he would be sent back to his family eventually (although this was highly unlikely and merely what he had once been told off-handedly).

Around a few months into his stay, his former supervisor was convicted of the murder of his former lover, essentially proving Jared's theories of him being "spooky" correct, although he never did find out. Roughly, simultaneously, a Chaos cultist living in the Velixum II underhive was apprehended by local Arbites. Some bizarre failure on behalf of the local Administratum clerks led to all their fates being intertwined as the latter two were shipped to Argonis. Jared had been selected among many prisoners on the planet by the Mechanicum Techpriests based on Velixum III for conversion into a Servitor, in an attempt to put his brain, limbs and nervous system to more apt use as was the fate of many Imperial criminals. His supervisor, himself a retired PDF soldier, was picked to be transferred out of the system and to be conscripted into the 5th Penal Legion. The cultist was to be handed over to the Ecclesiarchy to be purified of sin. However, some magnificent bureaucratic fuckup led to the cultist being turned into a mindless drone (one with Chaos taint, no less, that may yet affect its programming at a later date), timid little Jared being sent off to fight the Orks and his former supervisor being forcefully transformed into a horrifying Arco-flagellant. Funny how things work out.

Regardless, Jared was indeed drafted into the 5th Penal Legion and shipped out to the Eastern Fringes planet of Theron, assigned to the ruthless Tango Squadron out of some further error. Many were outraged that somebody of his background, reputation and build would be put on the field in the oh-so-esteemed Tango when he would be more suited to a meatshield platoon. He recieved a fair deal of abuse from his squadmates during the first week or so and was given a scavenged Carapace helmet "in case he tripped over a pebble and killed himself" as some sort of vague cruel joke by one of the tougher criminals who'd tormented him on Argonis and had been assigned to the same unit. Originally he was designated the unit's communications officer as they really couldn't think of a suitable role, and nobody else would volunteer to be a "pansy carrying a radio". However, he has also put his considerable tech-savvy to use time and time again during his time in the field, earning him the position of de facto combat engineer as well. Through this and his application of tactics he read up on during his time on Argonis, Jared has earned a miniscule amount of respect from his squadmates.

Personality and Traits
Jared stands at 5'10" and is of lean, lanky build, his limbs looking much longer and thinner than they should be to the point where it seems disproportionate to his torso and head. He has hazel eyes with constantly dilated pupils on account of the ocular correctional surgery he underwent as a small child sitting in a pair of sullen sockets and gaunt, angular but mostly unassuming features. With high cheekbones, a thin, weak and crooked jaw and a tiny nose, Jared has a habit of constantly looking like a frazzled, startled child, something that is not assisted to any extent by his timid demeanour and quiet, often stuttered speech. His coal-black hair is worn in a standard military crew cut and whatever facial hair the kid may have accumulated is clean-shaven, growing back slowly in the form of vestigial stubble. He has a large blade-scar on his nec from a poorly executed attempted murder at the hands of a former squadmate, and walks with a limp on his right leg after his Achilles tendon was shot through, resulting in the implantation of a vat-grown replacement muscle which has yet to properly "meld" with the rest of the body. He also has several tattoos - a service number on the back of his neck, the characters "5-T" on his right bicep, and the words "AVE IMPERATOR" on the underside of his left wrist.

Originally, Jared was a cheery, amiable person with a good sense of humour, a strong work ethic and even stronger faith in the Emperor of Mankind. However, it is the sad but obvious truth that Jared is simply incapable of living a military life, physically, emotionally, and mentally, and so being an unwilling member of perhaps the most downtrodden and savage arm of the Imperium's military is not an ideal career choice for him, to put it lightly. The effects of his limited experiences with the 5<supth have shaken him to the core, leaving him a nervous, depressed wreck of a man. Weak of both mind and body, Trooper Richter settles for detaching himself and enduring whatever hardship he may face, be it a routine beating or an enemy shelling. His prestigious natural intellect, nurtured well by a life of relative luxury and high standard of education, may have served him well as a batch supervisor in the Munitorums back home, but does him no good in the field of battle. He tends to think up meticulous fireplans in his head when he knows an engagement is going to occur, but aside from this he quickly panics and loses much of his coherency in a fight.

Among his peers, he speaks in brief, concise sentences and shies away from prolonged conversation, although it is in his nature to digress and ramble on when confronted with subjects he might enjoy or is knowledgeable in - namely mechanics, engineering and similar things. Aside from this, while griping and moaning among the ranks of Penal soldiers is considered normal, Jared is otherwise almost complete silent. He struggles to form proper emotional attachments to his squadmates beyond seeing the value of the presence of several trained, armed and (relatively) friendly soldiers, and generally regards the suffering of his comrades with cold indifference. Under periods of intense stress, however, he tends to contradict his previous sentiments and looks to them for help and guidance in an almost childlike manner. Aside from this, he's primarily dependent on various combat stims to keep him fighting in battle, particularly Reflex and Onslaught.

Being the victim of more than a few cruel jokes and attempts on his life has made Jared extremely and terribly paranoid towards his squadmates, and he is constantly fearful of beatings or worse at their hands. He has been known to flinch and yelp when merely addressed by Sergeant Major Coletrane, something which only worsens the singling out he recieves at the hands of the rest of the squad. However, this also makes him almost hypersensitive of his surroundings, and he is quickly able to identify any potential points where a trip could have been laid or an ambush could be sprung. Even if he doesn't speak very often, when Jared says he has a bad feeling about something, Tango Squad knows when to listen.

Skills
Jared's most noteworthy skill is his almost complete lack of skills applicable to his life as a Penal Legionnaire, which is the source of much direct and indirect misery for him. Having recieved no formal combat training in his life makes him a severe liability in the eyes of most - however, another noteworthy quality of Jared's is the fact he learns very, very quickly. Having extensively studied Imperial Guard tactics from his (admittedly heavily censored and saturated in propaganda) books and seen enough combat in the past few weeks mean that Jared is a semi-competent, if inefficient compared to most, soldier.

His real talent lies with machines. Having previously been a Manufactorum worker, Jared knows the workings of Velixumite lasweapons in and out and the design of such weapons overall are so consistent that he can apply his knowledge of these to virtually any variant. Further pro-active adaption and application of his skills mean that he is a decent machinist when it comes to most weapons he can get his hands on, and an alright mechanic. This makes him an ideal vox-officer and combat engineer for Tango, something which the squad's leader rapidly picked up on and made so.

Gear
Jared wears the standard-issue fatigues, flak vest and webbing of the 5th Penal Legion, often with the sleeves of his jacket rolled up to his elbows. Accompanying this are a pair of similarly standard-issue combat boots, and a pair of specialist's steel-backed gloves looted from the body of a combat engineer of one of the fully-fledged Guard regiments that happened to be fighting in the same theatre of war as the 5th. Another piece of looted equipment of his is the Carapace Helmet sans visor he wears, which originally belonged to a Blood Angels Scout but was taken from his corpse and given to Jared by a squadmate as part of some obscure practical joke. He's also fitted his regimental Chem-inhaler into the otherwise none-functional respirator mouthpiece of his helmet, the main canister of which is linked to his mouth by a tube and is clipped to his webbing at his hip. In the place of a visor, he wears a pair of welding goggles - the only souvenir from his original life as a Munitorum worker he carries.

Jared was initially issued a battered stubber pistol by one of the 5th's quartermasters before his first engagement. This quartermaster had taken one look at the kid and quickly decided he wasn't going to last very long, and accordingly gave him one of the lowest-tech, lowest-priority weapons in his armoury that could be spared. After Jared managed to kill an Ork with this stubgun and survived said engagement, he went on to acquire a Mk4 Catachan Lascarbine and a Velixum-pattern Laspistol from the bodies of various soldiers, Guard and Penal Legion alike. He makes use of the Carbine for its lightweight, compact size and reliability, and the Laspistol for its delightful familiarity. He still carries the stubgun, however, as a backup weapon.

As Tango Squad's official comms-trooper and de facto combat engineer, Jared carries a portable vox set worn as a backpack and a combat engineer's kit as a shoulder-bag. The backpack contains a multi-tool, portable blowtorch, folding spade, collapsible mine-sweeper and essentially everything a sapper could concievably need to carry out his designated position in his squad. Sitting at the bottom of this bag is a small prayer leaflet containing several litanies and chants handed to him by an Ecclesiarch as he prepared to ship out, several books concerning weapons maintenance and Imperial Guard tactics, and a holoportrait of him at eighteen accompanied by his smiling family.