Security Johannah "Mack" Shepard
Name Johannah "Mack" Mackensie Shepard
Position Security Chief
Rank Security
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Homeworld | Born on Londinium | |
| Age | 35 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 1.68m (5'5") | |
| Weight | 53kg (117lbs) | |
| Hair Color | light brown with blond highlights | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Fit and toned, wiry, but not overly bulky, with noticeable curves. She is surprisingly strong for her size, is very flexible, and very gracefully, but also very quickly when the situation calls for it. She is light on her feet, a habit she picked up as an Alliance Army scout platoon leader. She has a knack for blending into her surroundings when she wants to (another skill from her scout platoon days). Both men and women find her attractive. |
Family
| Father | Alliance Colonel John Shepard | |
| Mother | Polly Peachum | |
| Other Family | She has an extended family, but like her immediate family, most of them would rather suck dirt up off of the floor through a straw than admit to being related to her. |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Rule Number 1: Nobody calls Mack "Johannah". It's Mack or Mackensie, but NEVER Johannah. Johannah is a female form of the name "John" or "Jonathan". Mack's father, Alliance Colonel Jonathan Shepard wanted a son, a "Jonathan Junior". Instead he got Mack. He named her Johannah and raised her like he would have a son, pushing her into following his footsteps in the military. And then, when she resigned her commission to join the Browncoats, he disowned her. The only time he saw Mack after that was right after the war, when he saw to it that she was pardoned and sent as far away as he could get her to go... preferably never to return. Before the war, Mack believed in the idea of the Alliance, if not the reality of the Alliance. Then, a few years before the war, she served in the Colonies with the Alliance Army and changed her mind, leading to her resigning her commission at the beginning of the war and joining the Browncoats. Growing up, she was intellectually rebellious, but also not afraid to use the Filipino martial arts she was learning to take some pompous asshat down a peg or two when words weren't doing the trick. Since the end of the war, Mack was essentially exiled to the Colonies and has done what was necessary to survive. However, she's never completely let go of her principles. As such, she's often found herself playing the role of reluctant hero. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | STRENGTHS: -Military training and experience -Good with small arms, small unit tactics, etc. -Alliance education -Martial arts training, including Filipino martial arts. This training includes open hand and melee weapons. Melee weapons she’s familiar with include sticks ranging from those that extend just past the width of her palm to 4 and 5 foot staffs, a spear with about a 5 foot shaft, knives and daggers of varying lengths, and short “swords” (really just very long knives and daggers). This last category is how she earned her nickname and is never without a blade, usually more than one. WEAKNESSES: -A war wound resulted in Mack being incapable of conceiving and bearing children. Her sex drive is unaffected, but she can’t get pregnant. While she hadn’t been in a rush to settle down and have children when she was younger, she’d always thought she would someday. The war crushed those dreams. It took her home and family from her and it took away her ability to create a new family of her own. Even eight years later, she struggles to come to terms with this and to find meaning in life, to see a reason to go on. This sometimes leads to dangerous life choices, taking risks that she might not otherwise take if she thought there was a future worth living for. In other words, Mack is prone to getting her arse in a really big crack, with less care for her own survival than some would like. Especially those that might get their Gorram arses shot off backing her up. |
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| Ambitions | Survival. The war took away her entire life. To keep going, to continue to put one foot in front of the other on the road of life, is a struggle. Anything beyond that seems beyond reach. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Playing the harmonica, martial arts, knives, daggers, short swords, sticks, firearms. |
| Personal History | Johannah Mackensie “Mack the Knife” Shepard was born on an Alliance world and lived a fairly good life. She never wanted for food or shelter or medicine. Her family life was strained, mostly because she argued with her parents and teachers about how the Alliance treated the outer colonies. She felt the outer colonies deserved better. Her teachers disagreed and her parents just wanted her to shut up and stop embarrassing them. Despite disagreeing with the Alliance government’s policies on the outer colonies, Mack was at that time, still loyal to the Alliance. As such, when offered the opportunity to apply to the Alliance Military Academy, she jumped at it. When offered an opportunity to attend, Mack jumped at that, too. Throughout Mack’s time at the academy, tensions with the outer colonies grew. She spoke up at times against the Alliance, but held her tongue more often than she’d have liked so as not to risk being kicked out before completing her degree and earning her commission. After graduation and commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, Mack was sent to the Platoon Leaders Course, as well as the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Course and the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course. Mack’s first tour of duty was on an outer colony world. While there, she was exposed to the truth about the outer colonies first hand, and it made her ashamed to wear an Alliance uniform. At that time, she also met someone who she became close with. She never talks much about this person, except to say that the person opened her eyes about many things and that when she later resigned her Alliance commission to take a commission with the Army of the Independent Colonies, it was in part because of this person. When asked where the person is now, she’ll simply say “gone” and leave it at that. When the Unification War broke out, Mack “resigned her commission” and fought against the Alliance. As far as the Alliance sees things, of course, she deserted to join the enemy. The only reason there’s not a price on her head for desertion at the moment is that she was among a group of officers in similar trouble that were offered pardons in exchange for their surrender. For the first two years of the war, Mack did for the Browncoats what she’d done for the Alliance Army. She led a Scout Platoon, performing reconnaissance duties As Browncoat casualties mounted, Mack was given command of a scout company. As the war progressed, the company was understrength more and more of the time and Mack, who was far from a chairborne commando to begin with, was frequently in the field. After the Independents surrendered to the Alliance, Mack took her pardon and headed further out into the Black, intending to put as much distance between herself and the Alliance as possible. Even with her pardon, she’d been branded a traitor and her family had disowned her. For the last eight years, Mack has been making a living, if you could call it that, selling her blades, he guns, and her skills to the highest bidder with the most righteous cause. “Most righteous” out on the rim worlds frequently amounts to “least distasteful”. |
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| Service Record | ==EDUCATION HISTORY== (Includes Enlisted Training) Alliance Military Academy Platoon Leaders Course Reconnaissance and Surveillance Course Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course Pathfinder Course Orbital Assault Course ==SERVICE RECORD== 2500-2504 Alliance Military Academy 2504-2506 2nd Lieutenant, Scout Platoon Leader, Alliance Army 2506-2508 1st Lieutenant, Scout Platoon Leader, Army of the Independent Colonies 2508-2511 Captain, Scout Company Commander, Army of the Independent Colonies 2511-2519 Gù dāo (Hired Knife), Gùyōng bīng (Mercenary), Shǎng jīn lièrén (Bounty Hunter), Courier (Xìnshǐ) Equipment: Mack is known to be in possession of a few different Filipino blades, ranging in length from 5 inches to 13 inches. She's always in possession of one or more of these, concealed when she's able. No use scaring folks. When she gets regular quarters on the base, she'll get her hands on kali sticks of different lengths a pair each of 4 foot and 5 foot staffs. The sticks and staffs will mostly be for exercise. She won't be wandering around the base beating people. She owns a pistol that looks a lot like a Broom Handle Mauser or its Chinese copy (the Shanxi Type 17). Hers is a Shanxi Type 25. Despite being famous for her knife work, she's fully capable of shooting the stinger off of an insect. The weapon can accept 10, 20, or 30 round magazines. She has an optic for it. It can fire semi-automatic, 2 round bursts, 3 round bursts, or fully automatic. The Shanxi has a detachable shoulder stock. The stock was originally designed to double as a hard case holster. Mack sometimes uses the holster function to store a back-up Shanxi Type 25 loaded with a 10 round magazine. All in all, the Shanxi Type 25 is a very versatile weapon, perfect for someone who can't usually travel with a weapons locker. She's worked as a bounty hunter in the past. Some folks seem to want their bounties brought in alive, so Mack has an expandable baton to clout uncooperative miscreants about the regions of the head and neck and restraints to cuff them when they surrender. |