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"God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the firepower to make the difference."
Name: Joseph Hooker (Nickname: Joe, Jo-Jo, or Hook)
Age: 36
Physical appearance: Joe Hooker stands 6’ 1” tall and weighs 200 Lbs. He has dark African colored skin with black African hair and beard. He often wears dirty old blue coveralls or tan canvas trousers with cargo pockets, black T-shirt and work boots. He has a heavy dark brown corduroy jacket he prefers to wear on inclement planets with the necessary accoutrements, hat, gloves and goggles as needed. His appearance is not meticulous, nor slovenly; simply less than noteworthy.
Skills: Joe is a hardworking man, focused on his assignments. Having been spit out on the wrong side of the Unification War, Joe Hooker or “Hook” as his comrades called him, learned many lessons on how to fight, from hand-to-hand combat to the use of rifles and pistols. Due to his lack of trust in most everyone he comes in contact with he maintains a small cache of weapons and ammunition including a Ruger Red Hawk stainless revolver chambered in .44 caliber, an M1 Carbine, .30 caliber with walnut stock, and an H&K 770 gas operated .308 caliber rifle with telescopic sight and walnut finish. On his duty belt he carries a K-Bar knife in a scabbard along with a multi-tool. Combat in the outer planets has taught him a few things about defending himself and others. He can identify many of the vehicles, weapon systems and methods of operations used by the Alliance soldiers of the inner planets. Joe Hooker has loaded and unloaded several cargo bays since the war ended, learning the most efficient way to stack supplies. He has learned a few things about chemical compounds to, what can be stacked near what and so on; at least the hazardous compounds the ship might carry. Before attaining adulthood, Joe spent time in the kitchen learning how to cook a few simple recipes and has been perfecting his culinary skills. He often doubles as a cook on the ships he works on.
Personality: Hook is a quiet man, keeping his thoughts to himself. He enjoys traveling and the menial labor as a deckhand is well suited for him. It is not that he doesn’t mind it, he actually enjoys menial labor, a rare breed indeed. Hook is suspicious of most people, keeping to himself. One of the reasons he is the cook, is because he doesn’t trust others to prepare a meal for him. Hook enjoys gambling, cards or dice. When intoxicated, Hook goes through three phases. First, he is a happy drunk dancing, yelling and telling the world anything and everything. Second, he becomes a mean drunk wanting to fight all takers, trash talking people and making disparaging comments about folk he knows or doesn’t. Third, if he drinks too much, he passes out and falls into a comatose like slumber.
Character Back Story: Hook never knew his parents. His earliest memories are on the farm on Hera. The farm was an orphanage. The boys who lived there, toiled the land as farmhands. Working the farm taught him a strong work ethic. It is a trait that has followed him into adulthood. He values hard work in those around him.
As a young boy, he received a minimal education; he can read, write and perform simple arithmetic. He is not a learned man but knows enough to get by.
Life at the farm / orphanage was tough for young, Jo-Jo. He had to learn to fight seemingly on a daily basis. As appearances are reality, the other boys liked to play and often they turned to fighting as a means of amusement. For Joe Hooker, fighting became a game. He learned various techniques from the other boys or ship’s crews who took the time to share their knowledge with the boys. Even though life was tough, he adapted well.
When the Unification War came to the border planets, Joe Hooker was already in his 20s. He and several of the boys from the farm, joined a local militia unit. The boys had grown accustomed to using firearms as taught to them by the McGinnis family who ran the farm and fed the boys. They appreciated the McGinnis Family, but received no love from them. It was only their brotherhood. Seven boys left the farm to fight for the Browncoats.
Hook, as he was called by his mates in the unit, was haunted by a few horrifying experiences during the war. Mainly, he blamed himself for surviving when his six brothers from the farm did not. It was a feeling he would never shake. He would remember Jake, Paul, Winston, Derek, Carl and Theo for the rest of his life.
When the war ended, he had not much left to his name, hiring onto a passing merchant ship as a deckhand. He worked the job for the next decade or more carrying boxes and whatever else the captain of the ship agreed to haul for the right price. He accumulated a small sum of cash and promptly spent it about as fast as he could earn it. He cooked meals for the crew using recipes he learned on the farm. Occasionally, he lost his money in a game of chance or at some distant brothel. Joe Hooker didn’t care if he had money. He had no plan for the future; just to work and make whatever money he could to satisfying his current urges. He did save enough for his weapons, ammunition and equipment he used on the ship.
Joe found himself on Persephone out of work, doing the duffel bag shuffle. He caught wind of a man named Calvin Strand looking for crewmembers for his ship, China Doll. “Ahm shore if it pays good, it’ll do.” Joe made his way to the berthing port for the Doll to introduce himself to Cap’n Strand.
