Lieutenant Colonel Richard Byrd (Rapture)

Weight: 165

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Apparent Age: 70

Archetype: Mercenary Sniper Adept: Circle: Unknown

Preferred Weapon: DAOD Sniper Rifle

Runner Song:

Bio: The Rapture is a man with a dark and telling history, this mercenary might seem like a nice old man. Someone who you could sit down with and receive wisdom and insight from, though this is not the case with Rapture. He gave up on humanity and the people a very long time ago, this man has seen the worst the world can through at him from a very young man and has become very jaded through the years. The Rapture served as a sniper under Kirby and has been directly responsible for the deaths of countless men, do to this his mind slowly decayed and slowly his soul shattered as a persons life was meaningless to this man, he simply got his target in the cross hairs of his scope and pulled the trigger. After witch just moving on to the next target, he knew his job and he knew his responsibility was to defend his brothers and remove enemy targets. Though the first thing every sniper looses if there not careful is there humanity then their compassion and finally their mortal soul gets shattered through all the killing, for them life is cheap and eventually they compare even a human being to nothing more then a deer in there scope.

         The Rapture eventually couldn’t deal with everything he had seen and been through, the years of battle and killing finally had broken even this hardened sniper. He retired from the fight in the winter of 2045 and just walked away from the life and the war, he entered a small town in Ohio using his savings, he purchased a small home and went to work in a small bank and eventually became the president of the bank. Though his journey from hardened killer to man of the suburbs was a long and frustrating one for Rapture, he always feared being found out and never got over his paranoia. He was tormented as he slept by the nightmares and spirits of the men he killed, he was literally living in his own personal hell. Even when he started seeing and romancing the women who would become his wife, Rapture’s mind would not let him even rest and allow him a moment of happiness. He just felt like he was going through the motions, as he put it “It felt like I was living in a nightmare, just trying to wake up.” The Rapture was married in the summer of 2046 and is first child was born a year later in 2047.

        He just went through the motions with work and being a husband and father, though his distant nature was hard for his beloved to deal with. This lead to allot of arguments and caused the Rapture to spend many hours at work or in his home office, he threw himself into his job hoping to settle the demons that tormented him. Eventually the pain became to much for this old sniper to deal with and without being able to to tell a soul about his past and who he was, he started to drown his sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. Even with attending weekly service, his faith had been so damaged with everything he had done he was just going through motions to appease his wife and in-laws.

        Rapture was very good and playing make believe and hiding his drinking and his sorrow, that even his wife was unaware that he was becoming a drunk. For Rapture his children where a painful reminder of all the young men, who died under his command or from his rifle, though this didn’t stop this Catholic man from starting a very large family. By 2055  he had five children and was vice president of the local bank. Everything was looking good for the Rapture, though the decade of drinking was taking it’s toll on his body, the sleepless nights where getting hard to explain and his nightmares where beginning to worry his wife and even his children. Rapture eventually was forced to seek counselling for his nightmares from there Parish Priest, he only agreed so he could save his marriage and keep his wife in the dark about his past.

       Though even when he meet with the good priest, he was unable to fully confess his past and his sins. He would just lie, and weaving a tangled we of deceit that would only confuse and eventually concern the Priest and he was recommend to seek professional help. This Rapture knew would end in only one of two ways, he would either be arrested or he would be given heavy antidepressant medication. So when Rapture reluctantly went to seek further help for his troubled past, so he could save his marriage and as well spare his job. By this point he had become a master of lying and his tongue had become quite silver. He was able to pull the wool over the eyes of even a professional therapist and leave his first and only appointment with the script that he hoped would make him feel something again, also he hoped the pills would offset his drinking sadly that was not the case and Rapture’s alcoholism would eventually rear it’s ugly head and he would end up in the hospital.

        One night after he started taking the medication he had been drinking heavily and would end up having a blackout rage, according to the reports he started rambling about all the tyranny and how everyone is being lied to. He started trashing his home office and throwing items around the kitchen before passing out, his hands bloodied from broken glass, his wife was terrified and his children hiding. The police arrived and saw Rapture laying on the floor passed out, the trashed room and his blood flowing from his hands and arms. They called the medics and then went to place him under arrest for domestic abuse, his wife scared but still very loyal stood by her husbands side. She refused to press charges, since he never once struck her she just wanted him to receive help for his issues. Also an arrest would destroy his creditability, tear the family apart and he would loose his job.

        Rapture awoke in the hospital, his hands and arms bandaged and he was being pumped full of medication from the IV in his wrist. Thus began the Raptures rehabilitation for his alcoholism, though even being pumped full of anti-psychotics and antidepressants he managed to still weave a web of deceit. This allowed him to leave the hospital sooner then later, though it didn’t help his recovery and even going to support groups eventually Rapture would relapse. Though that wasn’t for many years, he once again focused into his work and into his growing family with the sixth child on the way. He managed to live the perfect life, though for him it was nothing more then a mask hiding the demon that lived deep inside this man and by 2060 he had become the president of the bank. He was also preparing for the marriage of his eldest daughter and his sons graduation from college, and over the next ten years the Rapture watched his children grow and leave the home. His youngest being ten years of age and his eldest becoming parents, Rapture finely felt the warmth reignite in his heart as he held and looked into the innocent eyes of his grandchildren.

       He had gone full circle and once now whole, he had his growing family around him and he could feel all the love that had been long lost from him. though by 2071 he had heard of the arrest and conviction of one of his fellow Minutemen and heard that this poor old man was going to die by hanging, he also heard that the execution would be televised for all to witness the execution of this traitor and terrorist. Now through the years, many of his fellow Patriots and Minutemen had been arrested and executed live on television. Though this was during his dark period and he just ignored the ugly truth. This execution he could no longer ignore, this execution was a dear friend of his, a young man who he had trained, he mentored and he took under his wing back in 2017. This man was no a old man, he was somebodies husband, father and grandfather this family was going to be destroyed and his reputation, name and honour forever destroyed by a tyrannical system. This now old man, was going to die alone, scarred and unjustly.

       Rapture just stared at the television lost in his thoughts and he could feel the torment returning as he gazed into the eyes of this man’s mug shot being blasted on the screen being dubbed a Domestic Terrorist and murderer of the American people. The words of the reporter where lost to Rapture as he could feel all the horror, coldness and the spirits returning to his tormented mind and entering his once healed heart. The warmth was extinguished as the frost returned and eventually his emotions where once again frozen in the icy lake. At this point, he knew the only thing that would help him feel again was within a bottle. He initially resisted the urges and tried to feel the love from his grandchildren, the love of his children and his wife but nothing he was again lost and as the days turned into nights and the weeks went by, the more the reporters on the radio and television spoke of the execution as this poor man’s date with the hangman drew nearer. He could also hear the people in the town and within the bank speaking about it, like it was going to be some grand event. There were others that would debate and defend the poor old man, but where ever Rapture went he was being reminded of this and he could feel himself being drawn deeper into the abyss of his mind. One day Rapture couldn’t resist the urges any more and he walked into a liquor store for the fist time in many years. He handed the store clerk his clean and sober token of over ten years in trade for a bottle of rum, this was a little known fact that some bars and stores to lure recovering drunks back into the bottle would accept their sober coins for a discount of free product depending on the length of time of their coin. Raptures was long enough to warrant a free bottle of his preferred drink and so began Raptures return to the liquid medication.

       Rapture started off slow, and eventually was back into his old habits of drinking and hiding it from his family and work. He managed to make it threw the execution that his family wanted to witness and through the holidays. He went back to playing make believe and being a fun grandpa, the rum made him act like nothing had changed. Though as his drinking increased the signs where on the walls for everyone to see, though they just ignored the grim truth and went on as nothing changed. Over the next two years the activity with the war increased and Rapture’s nightmares and sleepless nights were returning as the Sons of Liberty (Freedom Patriots) where becoming front page news. Then the fateful day of the Battle for Seattle Independence occurred. Rapture and his family where decorating the Christmas tree in their home as the news broke of the Battle of Fort Lewis and the pirated broadcast of Waldo’s Speech as memoriam to all the hero’s that fell on that day. He once again was lost in his thoughts as he heard the words of Snoopy and Colonial over the television.

        Rapture at this point like a man possessed made a choice that he needed to put his uniform back on and pick up his rifle once again. He just felt the call of duty and lady liberty needed him once more, for the first time in his marriage he sat his wife down and told her the truth about his past, who he was and what he needed to do. She sat there in shock and tears as her husband confessed that he was a Minutemen and a Patriot, that he was going to leave once again to fight alongside his remaining brothers and fight for the truth and the pride of America and not the false flag of the UCAS. He asked her to put her faith in him, and not to contact the authorities if she loved him as he loved her, she would respect and understand his decision. Once a marine always a marine and this was something he needed to do, and then he hugged his wife kissed her, he hugged his now teenage children that still lived at home. He went into his home office, prepared a hand written letter explaining everything and saying goodbye to his older children and grandchildren. Rapture packed a bag, grabbed his gear an loaded his personal car he used for work and blew a kiss to his wife that stood in the doorway and waived good bye as he pulled out of the driveway and began his pilgrimage to Seattle to stand in unison once more with his Brothers.

       since Rapture left his home, his wife took down the false flag of the UCAS and has hoisted Old Glory in it’s place and she tied a yellow ribbon around the tree in their front yard. His family might be upset and saddened by his leaving, but they are in full support and Rapture told them not to worry about money as he would make sure they were well cared for financially. His patriotism and confession has ignited the fires under his family as they now finally understood why he was so troubled and why he eventually fell victim to alcoholism. For Rapture was carrying a burden that no single man should ever have to carry alone, and now he knows his family supports him and his family is their for him as he made the hard choice of staying with his family or ignoring the patriotism and call of duty that all marines feel when there country and her people are under duress.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Page Written by: Snoopy