[quote=@Penny]

[hider=Douglas Hobbs - Chief Engineer]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5wc8j7p.jpeg[/img]
[b][u][color=white][h2] Douglas 'Hobby' Hobbs [/h2][/color][/u][/b][/center]

[b][u][color=white]Gender[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b] Male [/b][/color][/indent]

[b][u][color=white]Age[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b] 61 [/b][/color][/indent]

[b][u][color=white]Appearance[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b] Hobbs is built like a fireplug, short, stout and pugnacious. Heavy set and heavily muscled he sports an unkempt beard and mustache that are way outside regulation. His body is covered with thick callouses from a lifetime of rubbing raw against vac suits. Burns and scars cover his thick set body from years spent working in hostile conditions and ignoring OHSA regulations. His red hair is speckled with gray and has begun to thin. He compensates for this by keeping it closely cropped and by sporting a bristling beard and mustache that are way outside navy regulations. He has piercing blue eyes and smile lines which crinkle his face. [/b][/color][/indent]

[b][u][color=white]Personality[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b] Salt of the Earth is the most common description of Hobbs’ personality, which is kind of annoying as he has never been to Earth nor spent much time on planets of any kind. He is cheerful and jolly almost to a fault and possesses a can-do attitude which causes his crews to despair as he will cheerfully volunteer for them to work triple shifts to get the job done, the only consolation being that he will be there himself, leading the effort. Possessed of a sharp wit, a salty vocabulary, and a plethora of old spacer stories, Hobbs unrelenting optimism tends to rub off. On the flip side Hobbs has little respect for formal hierarchies and can be quite scathing when people intrude into his area of expertise, he has developed a colorful vocabulary in nearly sixty years of kicking around the galaxy and will deploy it liberally at need. [/b][/color][/indent]

[b][u][color=white]Role[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b] As Chief Engineer Hobbs is responsible for the mechanical operation of the ship, conducting maintenance, damage control, and emergency repairs. He is also expected to be called upon to fabricate new equipment to meet any need in the field.
 [/b][/color][/indent]

[b][u][color=white]Skills[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b] Maintenance and operation of ships systems
Improvisation. One of the key reasons Hobbs was assigned was for his ability to make do with improvised solutions and jury rigs.
Engineering. Hobbs has both a practical and a theoretical grasp of most technology used on USF ships and space installations.
Zero-G Miner. Hobbs grew up working in the mining fleets and is an expert at asteroid mining, stellar geology, and working in low and zero-g environments.
Strong. Grampa be jacked.
Pugalist. While the Marquis of Queensbury would object, it cannot be denied that Hobbs can handle himself in a fist fight.
 [/b][/color][/indent]

[b][u][color=white]Personal Belongings/Equipment[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b]Utility Armor - A suit of powered armor designed for damage control, mining, and other hazardous tasks. Included a built in fusion cutter.
Algae Tattoos - A legacy from his mining days, Hobbs has tattoos which change color in response to various air contaminants and low oxygen conditions.
Tool kit - Issued, looted, stolen, or fabricated, Hobbs has the tool for the job… if he can find it.
 [/b][/color][/indent]

[b][u][color=white]Background[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b]Hobbs is space born, the son of miners in the resource rich belts of Epsilon Eridani. Epsilon Eridani lacks terrestrial planets although the system's sole gas giant does have several small moons similar to those of Jupiter. Most of the system's inhabitants, including the Hobbs family, are involved in resource extraction from the vast asteroid belts and stellar dust clouds. Douglas grew up on shifts and in asteroid mining rigs, learning the trade on the job with a minimum of formal education. He showed an early aptitude for mechanical tasks and thrived in an environment where keeping a drill running another month, or retrofitting a mass driver could mean the difference between success and ruin.


The mining life was rough and violence, drugs, and hard drinking were common. During his early twenties Douglas was involved in a drunken fight that seriously injured several miners and partially depressurized a mining rig. Rather than face retribution from his fellows he signed on a merchant ship as an engine wiper and spent the next several years on a succession of freighters crisscrossing human space. A quick learner, he rapidly became an expert on propulsion systems. He was a popular crewmate, always quick with a joke, and always willing to jump in during a crisis. A succession of chief engineers encouraged him to pursue a formal education, something that long space voyages provided ample time for. Although it took some convincing to get him to move from the engine room to the classroom he eventually completed enough coursework to earn his master engineers ticket and was subsequently granted a naval reserve commission.

During the Barnard Emergency Hobbs was called up to serve as Engineer on the USF Phoencian. The Phoenican was inbound to Barnard when the mutiny occurred and suffered several railgun hits which gutted the light cruiser. Tumbling ballistic towards the star in a shroud of her own gasses the mutineers left the ship for dead. With the bridge and most of the forward sections vaporized, Hobbs found himself in command of the survivors of his engine room crew and the handful of other specialists who survived. Working from the few airtight compartments that remained, they worked around the clock, racing to restore propulsion before the ship fell too deeply into the gravity well to escape. Half cannibalizing what was left of the ship, the surviving crew were able to jury rig the engines just long enough to avert destruction, turning a terminal plunge into a long eclectic orbit. Fighting the void, failing systems, and complete exhaustion, they managed to hang on against all odds until a USF relief flotilla arrived to take them off the wreck.


In the aftermath of the disaster the Phoenican became something of a cause celeb, the tale of survival one of the few bright spots that the brass could point to in order to distract attention from the other issues at Barnard’s Star. Hobbs, lacking the polish of a career officer, was something of a PR disaster, being far too blunt and outspoken for holo-news. It was felt that a posting to the Pathfinder Initiative would be a boon to all parties, giving the Arcadian an engineer experienced in making bricks without straw, and removing the ugly irascible little man from the public eye. 
[/b][/color][/indent]

[b][u][color=white]Miscellaneous[/color][/u][/b]
[indent][color=A1A1A1][b] It is a semi public secret that Hobbs runs a still in engineering, on the theory that spacers will always find booze and at least this way he knows about it.
The accent of Epsilon Eridani bears some similarities to the Scottish Highlands of Earth.
 [/b][/color][/indent]

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[/quote]

Accepted