In this week’s blog, we’re showing off another mercenary character. This time, we’re looking at the ferocious Jesse Pope.

Jesse Pope

Jesse Pope was born to modest means on Iselai, a small human colony on the outskirts of Alliance space. His father was a worker in the town’s only factory. He worked a production line that spaceship hull panels. Jesse’s mother was a nurse and died when a virus spread through the town. Jesse was twelve. When he turned 18, Jesse signed up with the Alliance Military.

The Fall of Aros

Pope served in the 108th Alliance Army Group, which is most famous for being the force that was nearly wiped out by General Varakos’ forces at the battle of Aros.
Pope was present for the last stand on Aros; his squad was placed on the northern perimeter of the stadium the 108th was holding, and when their position fell, they fought their way up to the top of the stadium, where they were picked up by the last transport, moments before Commander Hollick sacrificed himself and destroyed the stadium.

The ship that picked up Pope and his squad was shot down as it fled the city. . In the crash a piece of debris lodged itself into Pope’s chest, breaking his collar bone, cracking his sternum and fracturing three ribs. He bandaged over the debris, keeping it in place to reducing the bleeding; and proceeded to fight his way from the city to be one of the last groups to reach the exfiltration area beyond.

Pope spent the next two months recovering on a roaming medical ship. Because the debris had been lodged in his chest for so long, the area had become infected, which made augmented recovery impossible.

Pope returned to active duty when the 108th was called to join the alliance task force charged with stopping the Butcher of Aros.

After the Second Nexus War

After fighting a galactic war for 3 years, and leaving the Council, the Alliance was forced to make cutbacks to make sure it had the money to fuel an independent government and economy.
Like millions of veterans the length of the galaxy, Jesse found himself on the receiving end of those cuts.
He took his severance money, what little there was to speak of, and began living each day from a bottle. For nearly two months he spent every day in a bar below the tony apartment he was renting.

After five weeks of heavy drinking and depression, he happened to be in the bar one night when a fight broke out. The fighting spilled over to the corner where he was sitting and he soon found himself on his feet, three men unconscious in front of him. By the time the Marshals arrived and arrested him, Jesse had beaten six men so badly they were hospitalised.

A local mercenary recruiter had been in the bar during the fight and paid to have Jesse, along with a few other participants of the fight, released. He told them that mercenary work would pay well for me like them. With no cause to fight for, and little money left, Jesse agreed.

A week later he found himself working for Anubis, one of the up and coming fringe mercenary groups. Over the next year, he worked his way up the chain of command in the group, eventually becoming part of Kara Mariasha’s protection detail. The two began a secret affair, stealing away from the camp in the dead of night. Mariasha made Jesse her head of security and bought him a new suit of armour.

This piece was done by Hokunin, and really captures the ferocity of Jesse’s character. His armour matches his personality; design to cause maximum damage. Jesse is a powerhouse, and his armour allows him to cause maximum damage without even firing his weapon.