A quick intro to my character. May get edited by the time I've finished developing the character, because I can never fit in all the stuff that I think a character should have based on background, and I've yet to figure out all of his negative qualities, which could also change the intro piece. But I thought I should give some idea of where my head is.
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Birch? I picked that name up when I was serving in the AMC (Algonkian-Manitou Council) military. Yah, yah, finish laughing then I'll tell you the rest of my story.
Done? Good. Look, I admit that the AMC military doesn't have the best reputation, and it is true that there are problems: tribal divisions and pork-barreling by different factions mostly, meaning that much of leadership is incompetent and purchasing decisions are based on everything but what the forces really need. Despite which, there are some good units -- the Gabriel Dumont Light Rifles and the Federated Cavalry are both pretty fragging intense. I'm not saying that they are the Wildcats, but they’re good enough that the Wildcats give them respect.
To be clear: I did not serve in one of those good units. I'm Metis -- mixed blood -- and the best units are dominated by Blackfoot and Iroquois, so it wasn't like I had a choice about joining a good unit. My family didn't give me a lot of choice about joining the military--they wanted me away from a, ah, tricky situation involving forged exams at college. So I went to the unit that would take me.
I’d gone from the hellish labor of the farm to the sublime pleasures of college---to the ridiculous situation of being in the Assiniboine Motorized Mobile Infantry. That's right, I served in the fragging AMMI not two years after Tom Goodson's "Drifting Down the River" came out, and the unit was if anything worse than he depicted it.
I fit right in, of course. That’s how I ended up being called Birch -- ‘cause I was anything but ‘white’ in my approach to things. I Sending someone to the AMMI to keep them out of trouble is like punishing a mouse by locking it up in a grain silo.
It took me about three months to get the confidence to slip off base without permission, but only another few weeks to start pilfering ammo and selling it to locals. Within the year I'd figured out how to fake orders for 'shipping out' spare parts -- and eventually even a couple of older vehicles -- so that I could sell those off too. Another year and I'd branched out to buying used civilian gear then dressing it up to look like military, and selling that back into the civilian market at a mark-up. I was working up to selling some of that dressed up gear to the military itself, but I didn't get the chance to take it that far.
I was building myself a nice little nest egg, and I figured that by the end of my four year term I'd have enough to set up a nice business when I got out. But I guess I got a little too cocky or greedy or something, because one day this group of stone-faced Blackfoot auditors showed up in our base. Maybe they weren't there specifically for me, because spirits know I wasn't the only one playing the black market, but there was little chance I wouldn't get caught eventually. I knew the game was up, and took a runner right away. They may have been watching for someone to do that, but I'd prepared my escape plan well, and I made my move as soon as they arrived. I had a new identity, a different look, and two borders between us before they'd done more than confirm that thefts had occurred.
I still worry about those buggers showing up some day, so I've avoided the biz of selling gear with faked credentials -- too much chance of word leaking back. I've tried going straight, but getting a new business going is hard when you are an outsider to the Plex. I've done some confidence work, but that takes a sort of long-term mental discipline that is way too much like work. So now I'm trying to move into shadow work. I invested the last of my nest egg in upgrading myself, and borrowed money from some hard cases to help make those connections -- I figure they want me to succeed so I can keep paying their crazy interest rates.
Only thing is that I've not found those shadow jobs yet, my nest egg is about gone, and those hard cases aren't interesting in excuses ....
